Million Dollar Movie

Greetings from NYC, where tonight WPIX, Channel 11, will be celebrating their 60th anniversary on the air with a retrospective. But, my thoughts today are drifting more to another channel.

You've already heard countless mention of the old WOR-TV Channel 9 Million Dollar Movie. More than a several of my earliest movie memories come from watching this great television gimmick. They played one movie every night and then all day Saturday and Sunday. If you played your cards right, you could see one film about 9 or 10 times over a seven day period. Excessive? Not if you really, really loved it.

I can remember some of them. Hold That Ghost. Never Wave at a WAC. King Kong. Buck Privates. The Big Circus. What I didn't know is why Channel 9 started this essentially lazy programming approach. From what I have researched, Million Dollar Movie was began in 1954. WOR-TV didn't have a huge film library, but they needed something cheap to bridge together all the nights when their schedule was going to be pre-empted by Brooklyn Dodger games. Once the Dodgers headed west, Channel 9 started airing the Mets, so it was a given that Million Dollar Movie continue.

I remember how grand the theme song was. I was always so impressed that some small TV channel could employ such a great orchestra with such a lush musical composition. Little did this even littler kid know at the time that the Million Dollar Movie theme was indeed the score from Gone With the Wind.

But, nevertheless, here is a version of that very special opening for all the nostalgic buffs in blog world. Enjoy.

Dinner last night: Grilled Chicken and salad.