12/23/43 from 9:15 to approximately 10 pm on WCBW. Walter Huston narrated documentary from CIA forerunner Office of Strategic Services. Showing on CBS flagship concurrent with theaters, ahead of Oscar nomination for Best Feature Documentary. 
NY TV debut 12/23/48 from 7:45 to 8:40 pm on WATV. 1936 Grey adaptation with American star was shot in Australia where Badger, once a major Hollywood director (Clara Bow's IT), had moved after semi-retiring in 1934.
12/23/53 from 7 to 8 pm on WATV. Hungarian emigre Auer's 1939 salute to America's border defenders on Channel 13 was one of many Republics pre-edited by Hollywood Television Service to fit one-hour TV time slots. Original 63-minute theatrical running time was whittled down to 53.
12/23/53 from 7:30 to 9 pm on WPIX's "First Show.'' Jiri Trnka's 1949 Czech puppet animation was imported two years later by Rembrandt Films, which dubbed it into English and added narration by Boris Karloff.
12/23/58 at 11 pm on WNHC's "World's Greatest Movies.'' ABC affiliate Channel 8 in New Haven was showing 1948 western as part of C&C's RKO package. Its coverage area overlapped with WOR, whose parent company RKO General held exclusivity on the library in the New York City market.
12/23/63 from 7:30 to 9:30 pm on "NBC Monday Night at the Movies.'' Henry Koster, who directed THE ROBE, also directed the first black-and-white film in CinemaScope, though the same anamorphic lenses were used for Fox's monochromatic westerns in Regalscope.
NY TV debut 12/23/63 from 7:30 to 9:30 pm on WOR's "Million Dollar Movie.'' 1958 Italian epic launched "gladiator movie" craze. US importer Joseph E. Levine masterminded wildly successful 1959 saturation release via Warner Bros. but wisely kept TV rights. Copyright expired 1987.
12/23/63 at 11:20 pm to 1 am on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' Channel 2 premiered Koster's 1949 Christmas-themed noir MR. SOFT TOUCH with Glenn Ford 12/15/61 on "The Late Show.'' Via a Screen Gems post-1948 package.
12/23/68 from 9 to 11 pm on "NBC Monday Night at the Movies.'' Brian Hutton's 1966 adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play THE PAD (AND HOW TO USE IT) may have gotten a prime-time network showing but appears to be long unavailable for reappraisal.
NY TV debut 12/23/68 at 11:30 pm on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' "Small but well aimed,'' blurbs @nytimesarts' Howard Thompson. "Silly, nagging plot but nice Dailey-Haver trouping and stunning Michael Kidd choreography.'' 1953 Fox, syndicated directly to local stations by Seven Arts.
12/23/73 from 1 to 3:30 pm on WTIC's "Big Three Theater.'' Hartford CBS affiliate on Channel 3, soon renamed WFSB, was letting its few remaining pre-1948 films under license expire when I arrived in Connecticut 45 years ago.
12/23/73 from 1:30 to 3:15 pm on WCBS' "Picture for a Sunday Afternoon.'' Channel 2 premiered both 1951 and 1938 versions, re-licensing them on and off for decades, at least once showing them as double feature. Sim's was repeated on "The Late Show'' at 1 am on 12/24/73.
12/23/78 at 8 pm on WNEW's "Movie Masterpieces.'' 15 years after bowing on WCBS, 1942 chestnut turns up as part of a monthly series sponsored by an auction house on Channel 5. Most likely minus Crosby's blackface number, Irving Berlin's tribute to Lincoln.
12/23/83 at 1 pm on WNET's "Cinema 13.'' After her unbilled scene-stealing in TO THE LAST MAN (1933), Henry Hathaway urged Paramount to sign up Temple. They did, but to their everlasting regret, only for two pictures. This is the better one, from 1934.
12/23/88 at 6 pm on WNET's "The Musicals.'' If Ruth and Lawrence A. Wein hadn't paid for this ad, there would be no record that Jane Powell hosted this series, which at the very least ran on PBS' New York City flagship.
12/23/88 at 1:55 am on "TNT Overnight.'' Never heard of Lloyd Corrigan's intriguing 1934 comedy of marital infidelity. NY Times listing highlighted Betty Grable, who has a bit, and Neil Hamilton, with whom Genevieve Tobin has a fling.
12/23/93 at 1:15 am on The Disney Channel. I would personally love to see a series of Randolph Scott's vast array of non-westerns, including his scorching romance with a torch singer played by the future Harriet Nelson in Sandrich's 1935 musical.
12/23/98 at 8 am on TCM. Paramount made no fewer than three more versions of shopworn wartime tearjerker, in 1919 (PETTIGREW'S GIRL with Ethel Clayton, Monte Blue), 1928 (Nancy Carroll, Gary Cooper) and 1959 (Lumet's THAT KIND OF WOMAN with Sophia Loren and Tab Hunter).
