WLS Channel 7 - Fahey Flynn Presents Seven's Greetings (Part 3, 1972)

Here's Part 3 of Fahey Flynn Presents: Seven's Greetings, a Christmas Eve special hosted by the legendary news anchor on WLS Channel 7. This was transferred from the original 2" quad master tape (long since trashed) onto 3/4" Umatic, from which this transfer was made. The show was recorded on Tuesday, December 19th 1972.

Featured in this part are Ione (Rolnick) from Prize Movie, anchor John Drury, and weatherman John Coleman - oh yes, and also Suzy Streetnoise, and the puppets Mike Raphone and Meisterburger.

As this segment starts, Meisterburger (with aid from Mike) is seeking other means to give season's greetings, as Fahey looks on.

Next is Ione (What a Doll!), decked out in red, in what is so far the only known surviving video representation of her in the Prize Movie motif, unlike the many editions she hosted on Channel 7 from 1968 to 1975. Here, she's on the phone with a certain Santa Claus (voiced by ?) from the North Pole; he correctly guesses the song as "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," but she explains that she isn't giving away any prizes at the moment (in consideration of his preparing to leave for his long trip), to which he was hoping to win a Radarange. After she gets off the phone, she gives her Christmas and New Year's wishes.

Back to Fahey, who himself gets off the phone upon the end of Ione's segment. He transitions to a segment from John Coleman, who's in front of a map of the U.S. as part of an "International Santa Search"; as he reports, the radar of his trip shows no movement at present.

Fahey then transitions to a segment from John Drury, who reads the famed "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus" letter as originally printed in the New York Sun on September 21st 1897, from the paper's editor as a response to a letter from an eight-year-old girl named Virginia O'Hanlon about whether Santa exists.

For the end of this sequence, Meisterburger has come up with his latest variant greetings - in Polish: "Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia."

Seven's Greetings bumper (with a street-level view of the Marina City Towers at night)

This aired on local Chicago TV late Sunday, December 24th 1972 during the 11:00pm to 12:00am timeframe.

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