,
9 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
2/27/44 at 8:45 on W2XVW. With a few exceptions, major studios would hold fast to their features for another 12 years, but were willing to let stations like NYC's DuMont flagship show their wartime propaganda shorts like Robert D. Webb's 1943 effort. 
NY TV debut 2/27/49 from 7:15 to 8:30 pm on WCBS' "Film Theatre of the Air.'' Unity TV was distributing British documentaries like Jack Lee's CHILDREN ON TRIAL (1946) which dealt with juvenile delinquency.
NY TV debut 12/27/54 at midnight on WNBT's "11th Hour Theatre.'' NBC flagship had been broadcasting quite a few programs in color but apparently not Bernhard's 1948 Cinecolor special effects epic, which had been in local theaters as late as January 1953.
NY TV debut 2/27/59 from 5:30 to 7 pm on WCBS' "The Early Show.'' Screen Gems spread around pre-'48 Universal Abbott and Costellos in packages that went to various stations for their original runs before they all more or less ended up at WPIX. Channel 2 got their first big hit.
NY TV debut 2/27/59 at 11:15 pm on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' 26 days after Tuttle's THIS GUN FOR HIRE kicked off what it billed as "Fabulous February,'' Channel 2 finally got around to premiering its 14th pre-'48 Paramount, with the same star and director.
2/27/64 at 11:20 pm on WCBS' "The Late Show.'' Channel 2's policy of cycling its movies through various day parts could produce some odd results. Seiter's 1936 "Oriental'' Temple vehicle (with a musical number featured in MYRA BRECKINRIDGE) debuted 9/17/62 on "The Early Show.''
2/27/69 at 11:30 am on WPIX. I can't find a NY TV debut for ubiquitous Tuttle's bit of romantic fluff, released in August 1934, shortly after the Production Code was enforced. Most likely it bowed on WCBS' "The Late Late Show'' sometime after February 1959.
2/27/74 at 4:15 pm on WNJU's "Cine de la Tarde.'' Listed as LA REBELION DE LOS HIJOS and shown dubbed in Spanish, Charles Vidor's 1935 RKO obscurity made NY TV debut 11/29/61 on WOR, which apparently never broadcast it again. MIA since several appearances on AMC in early 1990s.
2/27/79 from 3:03 to 5:09 am on WNEW's "Hollywood's Finest.'' Distributed by NTA, Robson's pioneering 1949 racial drama from Arthur Laurents' play (for Kramer and Foreman's Screen Plays Inc. via UA theatrical release) made NY TV debut 11/11/57 on WOR's "Million Dollar Movie."
