Before I bid adieu to the subject of the Great Groundhog Eve’s Blizzard (a bullet I dodged, I suppose, but whose trajectory I got to enjoy from afar), a couple final keepsakes. First, a segment from Chicago’s Fox affiliate, Channel 32, which takes a look at its coverage of the 1967 blizzard. Entertaining stuff that focuses less on the weather and its effects than on the way the TV and newspapers covered the events. I had my first newsroom job at Chicago Today five years after these clips were shot–our offices were in Tribune Tower, across Michigan Avenue from the Daily News and Sun-Times Building–and the scenes are familiar.
Friday Flashback: The Chicago Blizzard of 1967: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
And next is a short film of New York City’s Boxing Day Blizzard–did anyone call it that?–that I came across while poking around Roger Ebert’s site today. Ebert went gaga over the film (check out that link for a detailed discussion on how the filmmaker shot and edited the movie), and it’s been viewed half a million times so far, so I’m not sure how I missed it. It’s extraordinary.
Great stuff. Smoking in the newsroom. The front page headline about the three astronauts was an interesting touch. Ham radio operator Dick Cox (okay)….As Homer Simpson would say “aaaahhhhmmmm Haaaammm”…And the fully taxed news resources of WFLD TV? Channel 32? As I recall that was a UHF channel that we could barely tune in. Jerry G.Bishop…”Svenghooly” that is the station that played Night of the Living Dead. Thanks for that Dan-o. I also like the before/after shots behind Ann’s house.
Great videos, both. I don’t remember getting news from Channel 32 when I lived in Chicago. I do remember Saturday morning reruns of Blondie (the series, which they must have had the franchise on, since I never saw it before or since), Sunday afternoon movies, and commercials for Empire Carpet, which I would like to once and for all have removed from my brain.
Yeah…I remember the CET tom-tom “Mohawk-4-4100…CET for Television” and repeat…
Sure, the WFLD newsroom, what did that look like? 150 square feet with a telephone down the hallway I reckon. And a ham operator.
I don’t remember WFLD news from those days, either (though WFLD stood for Field, which also owned the Daily News and Sun-Times, and explains why they had cameras set up in those newsrooms). I’m sure those original newscasts had an audience of dozens. The TV phenomenon of that 1967 storm was WBKB’s (later WLS — Channel 7 in any case) weather guy, John Coleman. I think he was given credit for calling that storm correctly (during a very weird week of weather). I also remember that all the stations had all-day coverage during the two days of the storm; it seemed like the only think anyone there was thinking about.
The phone number that has always stuck in my head is … “Hudson Three Two Seven Hundred.” Boushelle.