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From Frank Clynes, Jul 7, 2017
October 1, 1979 was a memorable date in WTEV's history. Pope John Paul II was landing at Logan airport for his historic visit to Boston, and would be greeted by our own Cardinal Humberto Medeiros. Channel 6 had a photographer there, but with traffic jams and tight schedules, getting the video on the 6 PM newscast would be very close. Maryann Cane was anchoring the newscast that night. Not seriously expecting the Pope's video to arrive in time, they had already planned a funny pet story to end the show. It seems a Swansea breeder of Labrador Retrievers had organized a mock wedding ceremony for his prized set of Retrievers, and he invited the whole neighborhood as their guests. The wedding reception went off well, and it was edited in advance of the newscast. At some time during the news, the tv photographer from Boston burst into the newsroom and proclaimed, ''I've got it!'' The Pope's tape was quickly edited and rushed to master control, and a new script describing the Pope's visit was typed up and slipped to Maryann. Then the little devils came out. The Pope's tape was inserted into the wrong playback machine, and when Maryann began reading the new script, the designated playback machine with the dog video, rolled by mistake. Once the tape began rolling, Maryann's eyes were on her new script and she never looked up again, at the on-air monitor. Maryann: "Here we see his holiness Pope John Paul II stepping out of the airplane and beginning his walk along the red carpet. Actual Image: We see the female Labrador in her wedding veil and white gown, walking into the kennel. Maryann: ''And now Cardinal Medeiros meets and welcomes Pope John Paul II to Boston..'' Actual Image: The male Labrador wearing a white tuxedo, runs up to his canine bride, wagging his tail furiously. Maryann: ""And the Catholic faithful, waving from the terminal area, are cheering the arrival of their Pontif.'' Actual image: The Swansea wedding guests are seen holding up their champagne glasses and wearing party hats. I was watching this debacle on a monitor in the WPRI-12 newsroom. It was like a flashback of the last scene from the HMS Titanic. Was this somebody's idea of a funny kicker? Why doesn't someone have the good sense to go to a commercial? The Director didn't stop it. Master control didn't stop it. Maryann didn't stop it. Nobody could stop it. Never haven't actually seen the on-air composite, Maryann finished reading and looked up into the lens, with her perky little smile. ''Well, I'm glad we were able to share this historic event with our viewers. Have a good night and we'll see you all again tomorrow.'' That was not to be. The station manager was holding on one telephone line, and the news director was on the other. Not to put too fine a point on it, they were not happy campers. Maryann was picked as the designated villain, from a list of worthy candidates. She went on to get another job at Channel 7 in Boston. |
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