12/7/41 from 3:30 to 4:30 pm on WNBT. 1938 British musical (listed as MILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY, same title as 1940 RKO comedy) broadcast on NBC's NYC flagship is interrupted by Ray Forrest with a bulletin announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor. 
12/7/48 from 8 to 9 pm on WCBS' "Film Theatre of the Air.'' 1941 western -- directed by Sam Newfield under his Sherman Scott alias and part of a PRC series -- made NY TV debut 2/14/46 on WNBT.
NY TV debut 12/7/53 at 11:30 pm on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' "Everything about it sadly tokens artificiality and bad taste,'' wrote Bosley Crowther when this arrived at the Criterion on 6/4/42. "Guess we'll just have to accept it as the first of the Far Easterns. There'll be more."
NY TV debut 12/7/58 at 10:30 pm on WRCA's "Movie 4.'' Walter Lang's (no kin to Fritz) 1937 marital comedy was on this showcase's Sunday night edition, which meant interruptions for 10 minutes of news at 11, as well as the usual barrage of commercials.
NY TV debut 12/7/58 at 11:15 pm on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' I've never seen Reed's 1955 drama, which a colleague at the Bergen Record told me was his favorite film. Shot in color but not broadcast that way, at least according to the listings.
US TV debut 12/7/63 from 9 to 11:15 pm on "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.'' Bogie, nearing the end of his career, plays a priest in what was then known as Red China opposite Tierney in her final film lead in Dymytrk's gloomy 1955 romantic drama.
NY TV debut 12/7/63 at 11:20 pm on WABC's "Best of Broadway.'' 1960 Toho production with Toshiro Mifune playing an admiral, 19 years before his comic turn in Spielberg's 1941. Dubbed; also known as STORM OVER THE PACIFIC in the US.
NY TV debut 12/7/63 from 11:20 to 1:37 am on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' Directed by Ronan Farrow's maternal grandfather, fact-inspired 1957 oddity set in 1939 stars Wayne as an anti-Hitler German sea captain and Turner as a Nazi spy.
NY TV debut 12/7/63 at 1:42 am on WCBS' "Late Late Show I.'' Oscar-winner Baxter demoted to Pichel's oddball 1940 B for his final film at Fox. SUBMARINE D-I (1937) SECRET ENEMIES (1942) and THE CHEROKEE STRIP (1937) followed on "Late Late Show II-IV" until around 7:15 am Sunday.
12/7/68 from 1:55 to 3:40 am on WCBS' "The Late Late Show.'' "Hollywood hopefuls,'' @nytimesarts' Howard Thompson blurbs of 1957 U-I programmer that followed repeat of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY on Saturday night. "Rather pleasantly uncynical little yarn, with fine Alex North music.''
12/7/73 at 11 pm on WNET's "Garbo Festival.'' Every night this week, Channel 13 was repeating her MGM silents (like Niblo's 1926 drama) that had debuted that summer on the "Movies, Great Movies'' series.
12/7/78 from 1:52 to 3:37 am on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' 1941 immigrant romance was second MGM to debut on Channel 2, 12/2/56 at 11:15 pm. Now sandwiched between a made-for on "The CBS Late Movie'' and Stanley Siegel's talk show, in turn followed by a "Name of the Game'' rerun.
12/7/83 at 9:35 pm on WNET. NY TV debut 4/7/56 on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' Stewart said in a 1957 he felt Capra's classic worked better on TV than it did on a big screen. lumenick.com/james-stewart-… Copyright expired 1974, rescued from public domain in 1993. lumenick.com/25-years-ago-t…
12/7/88 at 4 am on TNT. Arliss co-wrote one of his most slyly charming comedies (1933), playing a monarch who abdicates so he can have a similar life with his ex-wife.
12/7/93 at 8:30 am on TNT. RKO inherited Bennett's services when it merged with Pathe. In Paul Stein's 1931 weepie she plays pregnant Red Cross nurse who (wrong) believes the father, Joel McCrea, has been killed in action and marries the unfortunate Paul Cavanaugh.
12/7/98 at 4 am on TCM. RKO's lumbering 1930 successor to smash hit RIO RITA. Allegedly originally shown on TV minus its spectacular 21-minute finale in two-strip Technicolor, finally restored in the 1990s. This was the evening TCM debuted documentary "Glorious Technicolor.''
DIXIANA was among batch of early RKOs falling into public domain because the studio laid off its New York staff, including secretary responsible for filing copyright renewals. RIO RITA escaped this fate only because it was purchased by MGM for the remake with Abbott and Costello.
