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When CKCO switched affiliation from
the CBC to the CTV network, one of the bigger
programming decisions was what to put up against the
all-powerful Saturday Night Hockey. The answer was first
run movies, the most recent packages available for
television, thus First Niter.
Program Director Bruce Lawson
tapped me as host, sent me off to Ross Klopp in Waterloo
to be fitted for a tux, and said he wanted a glamour
opening and closing to the show. Doug Lehman and I came
up with the idea of shooting the marquees of the
Hollywood and International Cinemas on Yonge Street in
Toronto, ending up with an arrival at the O’Keefe
Centre, the entrance shot dissolving under the title to
the studio opening. Lawson commandeered a Thunderbird
from Kaye Motors, and Doug, Barbara – not yet my wife-
and I got the shots we wanted of a couple out for the
evening, the black exterior of the car reflecting the
street and storefront lighting along Yonge, ending with
the obliging O’Keefe doorman opening the car door for
Barbara to alight, unphased that we had to do a couple
of retakes. It worked – a viewer confided to me that for
her this was her Saturday night out, the marquees, the
street-lit drive, the doorman, the entrance to the
theatre and then the movie.
The Thunderbird went back to Kaye
Motors, First Niter ran through the mid-60s eventually
replaced in the schedule, the tux I have, along with, in
my personal CKCO memorabilia, the original 16mm BW SOF
(Sound On Film) opening and closing.
thanks to Larry McIntyre
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