September 21, 1954-April 20, 1968
WOR TV Channel 9 in New York premiered the concept of the "MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE" with the Debut of MAGIC TOWN (1947), on September 21, 1954 to fill time slots when the telecasting of the Brooklyn Dodger baseball season ended.
THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE was a new concept in television viewing...a highlight attraction seen each day locally in New York City on WOR-TV Channel 9. Each week starting on Monday, a TV Debut movie would be shown, Monday thru Friday, twice each evening, 7:30pm & 10:00pm (TEN weekday SHOWINGS). The same film would then be broadcast multiple times on Saturday, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 7:30pm, and 10:30pm and continuous showings on Sunday, at 12:00pm, 5:00pm, 7:30pm, and 10:00pm.
That totaled EIGHTEEN TELECASTS OF THE SAME FILM, BROADCAST EACH WEEK.
The final across the board multiple showings of a single film for this series was DANGEROUS GROUND (1952), final telecast Friday, August 20, 1965. From that time on the moniker of THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE continued to be used but for the next three years films were sporadically shown more than once in different time slots, or were shown only one time, mainly on weekends.
The title THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE was dropped completely after the showing of the documentary, KON-TIKI (1951) which aired on WOR TV Saturday April 20, 1968. Thereafter when WOR TV aired movies they were introduced with a generic opening.
During the almost 14 year rein of THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE the opening musical number "Tara's Theme" by Max Steiner would be played as the opening introduction to the movie followed by a voice over announcing the name of the movie and actors.
In booth announcer for THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE form its premiere in 1954 thru 1959 was Frank McCarthy. Subsequently, following the end of WOR's affiliation with Mutual in 1959, Ted Mallie became the announcer.
For the week of Monday thru Sunday, November 26-December 2, The NY TV Debut of the film EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944), starring Hedy Lamarr, was broadcast on THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE a total of EIGHTEEN TIMES.
The entire opening of THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE broadcast November 27, 1956 is heard. It is the oldest air check known to exist related to the opening of THE MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE.
