Holiday Film Festival

Holiday Film Festival was a Thanksgiving Day science fiction film series, aired annually from 1976 to 1985 on WOR-TV Channel 9 in the Tri-State Region. For most of these broadcasts the two sponsors were a local electronics chain, "Crazy Eddies", and a toy store "Play World".

History

These WOR-TV Thanksgiving programs started on Thanksgiving Day 1976. On this occasion, Channel 9 broadcast...Mighty Joe Young (at 1:00 pm), King Kong vs. Godzilla (at 3:00 pm), and Son of Kong (at 5:00 pm). The ratings of the 1976 Thanksgiving marathon were good enough for WOR-TV to include the day after Thanksgiving into the monster movie line up.

Over the next few years the same movies were aired on Thanksgiving Day, but the movies that were broadcast the day after were changed. Several times the movies Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Godzilla vs. Megalon were aired on the day after Thanksgiving.

Shortly after the 1985 program, WOR-TV lost the broadcast rights to the RKO library and Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, and Son of Kong could no longer be broadcast.

Later years

These films then appeared on cable television's American Movie Classics while the broadcast rights to the Godzilla films were also lost by WOR-TV but began appearing on other local New York stations. All these movies turned up a couple of more times in the local New York City area until 1989. Since then they have become staples on cable television's SCI.-Fl. Channel since the mid 1990s.

Typical schedule

Thanksgiving Day November 18, 1977
*Mighty Joe Young (1:00 p.m.)
*King Kong (3:00 p.m.)
*Son of Kong (5:00 p.m.)

The Day After Thanksgiving November 19, 1977
*King Kong Escapes (1:00 p.m.)
*King Kong vs. Godzilla( 3:00 p.m.)
*Godzilla vs The Smog Monster ( 5:00 p.m.)

External links

* [http://www.dvddrive-in.com/holidayfilmfest.htm Holiday Film Fest at DVD Drive-In.com]
* [http://www.doomsdaydvd.com/9retro.html NY Holiday Monster Movies]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE53haIOWU Commercial for WOR Holiday Movie Festival (1979)]