The film began its legendary run on network television on November 3, 1956, as the series finale of the CBS anthology series Ford Star Jubilee (1955). The broadcast was a smash, but the film was not shown on TV again until 1959. In a programming stroke of genius, it was decided to air it at an earlier hour (6:00 pm E.S.T.) as a Christmas season special--independent of any anthology packaging. This broadcast attracted an even wider audience, because children were able to watch, and from that moment on the film began airing annually on television. It was aired first on CBS (primarily in late winter), then on NBC (usually in mid-spring, often on Easter Sunday) and then again on CBS, where it finished its network run of nearly 40 years in 1998, after which it was officially integrated into the Turner vault of motion pictures. It now airs only on Turner-owned networks: WB, TNT, and most prominently Turner Classic Movies.

Film

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