My first opportunity to see a Tarzan movie came when I was in the third grade. It was during the 1961-62 TV season. I saw Tarzan Triumphs (1943) on WDBJ channel 7 Roanoke ,on the Wednesday night "Big Show" that aired at 7:30 p.m. that season. I would later get to see many more on WSOC Charlotte channel 9's "Jungle Theatre" on Sunday afternoons and beginning in October 1963, on WGHP channel 8 in High Point on "Adventure Theatre". I was very excited when WFMY made the decision to air the movies in primetime beginning on February 8,1974. During the first month the movies aired, the station started receiving complaints about how the natives were portrayed in these movies. I may be wrong,but I believe it was after the fourth week when "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" aired, that WFMY made the decision to end this movie festival.
6 comments:
I remember the 70's run on WFMY.
It seems to me that it lasted longer than four weeks, but I may be wrong. I was about 13 at the time, and I may have watched it on another channel using the good old tenna rotor to pull in out of state channels. Try explaining a tenna rotor to a kid today...LOL
You said it Sabre.Most kids today have probably never seen an antenna rotor.The last one I had gave out in 1990 about the same time we finally got cable in our rural area.You may be right about the Tarzan Movie Festival.It may have lasted longer than I remember.The funny thing is, channel 45 in Winston-Salem showed them several years later.The Tarzan movies ran on there for quite some time on Sunday mornings.I never heard of any complaints about them airing on that channel.
Living in Lexington as a child in the late '60s and early '70s,I remember we used pick up reruns from Triad and Charlotte TV stations. From 1973 to 1975,we lived in Tennessee but moved back to North Carolina,settling in High Point. It was awesome watching reruns not only on Triad stations,but also from Charlotte,Raleigh/Durham,and Roanoke,Virginia,via rotor antenna. I have so many wonderful memories. Thank you again for putting together this wonderful blog.
Patrick
You are correct about the series being pulled after four weeks.
I was sitting in my chair watching the fifth week when the station manager came on the air explaining the cancellation of the series because of certain complaints from certain people.
Don't get me started.
WFMY showed no guts in the cancellation, of course, things are much worse today.
It's called political correctness. This is why certain other shows cannot be run anymore either.
The 1974 WFMY airings were my first introduction to the Weissmuller Tarzans. I was ten and remember being shocked and thrilled at the action and violence.
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