King Kong just celebrated its 75th anniversary on Sunday with a double screening and Fay Wray "scream-alike"contest at the Film Forum. Back in 1983, New Yorkers marked the 50th anniversary by turning on Channel 9, which for decades owned the rights to the film. Indeed, for New Yorkers older than 35 or so, Channel 9 is inextricably tied to King Kong, thanks to repeated showings on Million Dollar Movie, and, of course, during the Thanksgiving Day monster fests.
In his story on Friday, David Freedlander quotes Film Forum programming chief Bruce Goldstein on the power of repeated exposure through local television:
"This is not only how we got to see King Kong but how we got to become familiar with it in a modern way, where you watch it over and over and get to know it frame by frame."
Get a little taste of the old days by seeing this ad for the 50th anniversary showing on Channel 9, with longtime WOR announcer Phil Tonken at the mic. Here's a little something we wrote last year on Channel 9's holiday monster movie tradition, which continued from 1976 to 1985.
-- Rolando Pujol
