1967: JOHNNY MORRIS tours NEW YORK CITY | Don't Walk - Walk | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

On American Independence Day 1967, BBC Two broadcast Johnny Morris's jaunt to NYC, filmed the previous October.
From Coney Island to Central Park, from the tops of skyscrapers to the sidewalk, Johnny takes in plenty of sights while providing his own sounds in a narration complete with terrible 'Noo Yawk' accent and imaginary conversations with squirrels.
Clip taken from Johnny Morris: Don't Walk - Walk, originally broadcast on Tuesday, 4 July 1967.
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[@SBAYLISS]

All aboard the KZbin Time Machine

[@brianartillery]

Ah, Johnny Morris. A great TV presenter. His mischievious manner, and way of vocalising animals, was an utter joy when I was a kid. Sitting down to watch 'Animal Magic', with a glass of orange squash and some biscuits, after school. Such happy days. Never seen this lovely little film before. Thank you for sharing. 👍👍👍

[@phillipecook3227]

" Animal Magic". I even remember the theme music.

[@TestGearJunkie.]

Yep, they were good days, I like it how he walks round in a suit and tie with his hat..!

[@andydixon2980]

I've not heard Johnny Morris since school days in the early 80s. Such a comforting voice in a mad world.

[@yorkyswe]

Johnny Morris! Now that brings back childhood memories. Great little film!

[@Seminal_Ideas]

I really enjoyed watching this. There's an impishness and an innocence in Johnny's commentaries. I do miss his voice. New York was broke and declining when he filmed this and it comes across in the slightly faded grandeur.

[@GeorgeSmith1066]

Had the pleasure and privilege to meet Johnny in person - when he paid a special visit to Bristol Zoo. We just happened to be passing around Easter 1995 when I suggested we stop to visit the zoo. As we walked up to the gate, I said “This is where Johnny Morris used to film for ‘Animal Magic’”. We wen in, turned the corner and there he was - and he told it was the first time he had been back in many years! He was an absolute joy and pleasure to have a conversation with and a true gentleman. What a pwonderful person and what a magical day it was! 😊

[@ChrisPollitt]

5:03 Skyscrapers are cenotaphs "erected to the memory of those who gave their lives, from 9 to 5." OUCH!

[@CyclingSteve]

That was my favourite bit. How true it is. That being NYC I should point out not in a 9/11 way, but in a I spent 20 years of my life in them way.

[@kevinmurphygames]

I was -1 year old when this aired. I do remember growing up watching Johnny Morris On Animal Magic. Fond memories.

[@garryleeks4848]

I was just born or about too

[@crimsonpirate1710]

Same

[@fidelcatsro6948]

happy 57th burfdae! 🐱👍🏿

[@animatewithdermot]

99.9% sure that's the Queen Mary at the end. Still can be visited at Long Beach in LA, and finally being repaired after years of neglect. You can book rooms on her (and I did back in the 90s, was a great place to visit).

[@bonnetdedouche437]

Michael Palin stayed overnight on the Queen Mary at Long Beach during Around The World In 80 Days.

[@user-ej6pp8on8k]

I loved the sound of his voice, so comforting and reassuring, and his different voices always made me laugh.

[@glyph2011]

You can hear the Newport accent in Johnny more in this clip than ever! :-) wonderful little film. 👍👍

[@OlafProt]

That voice. you can just hear those elephants and monkeys chatting away in Animal Magic.

[@sammeredith5983]

this voice-over is brilliant hahaha!

[@eduardo0796]

Imagine if this was filmed a couple of years later. We'd have great footage of the original WTC complex.

[@phillipecook3227]

Didn't the WTC open in 1976?

[@hilaryepstein6013]

Oh dear, maybe not the best advert for New York. I was there 21 years later and it was amazing. Happy Independence Day!

[@theworldaccordingto4555]

Great! Next can we have Johnny Morris' Animal Magic, please.

[@theendofeverything6356]

What a lovely chap he was!

[@mancavehobbies6213]

I was 1 year old when this aired

[@MichaelBennett1]

I was -1

[@LPBineli]

Who's care?

[@mancavehobbies6213]

@@LPBineli Try using English grammar .

[@JiminyCricket8899]

​@@LPBineliNo need to be beastly you pilchard, people come here to share memories and yeah i care.

[@robinvanags912]

@@JiminyCricket8899 Though indeed partial to a pilchard, I certainly agree with you.

[@mikebutler3263]

Yes , Animal Magic, very good. But I can remember Johnny Morris when he was the hot chestnut seller telling short stories, part of a children's tv programme.

[@nicolepowell5470]

Ah love this man and his voice it was like watching animal magic again. 🇬🇧

[@skeletalwreck]

Those "windmills" did eventually come off - it killed 4 passengers waiting to board, and another on the ground, all on top of the PAN-AM building... and that spelled the end of that idea lol. It wasn't even New York Airlines first nor last fatal accident. I was also lucky enough to have been in the crown of the Statue Of Liberty, back in the early 90's.

[@phillipecook3227]

Christ. That's hellish.

[@skeletalwreck]

@@phillipecook3227 yea. All sorts of gruesome reports on what the aftermath looked like. One of those killed was a successful film director.

[@temparalflux914]

Apparently it rather common for people to die from falling air cons wedged in windows, I also hear its not uncommon for people to be impaled by construction girders and debris occasionally from high rise construction.

[@TestGearJunkie.]

When I went there in 95 the queue was so long we gave up in the end.

[@garryleeks4848]

Loved Johnny morris growing up 👍

[@AtheistOrphan]

Did you stop loving him AFTER he grew up? (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

[@garryleeks4848]

@@AtheistOrphan haha , let you have that one 👍

[@emsmac80]

Lovely!!! He does a fab squirrel ❤️

[@bonnetdedouche437]

Interesting to see 1967 Coney Island the way author Sol Yurick would have seen it in 1965 when he wrote The Warriors. It would be 1979 when we saw the majesty of the Wonder Wheel in the opening of the Walter Hill classic.

[@CyclingSteve]

I immediately thought of The Warriors when I saw the Wonder Wheel in this clip. Such a classic, I love that film.

[@MrMann0123]

There is something both incredibly modern but also hugely old fashioned about these clips in this style. It's easy to forget that irreverence and sarcasm are baked into British character and have been for years and years.

[@Charlotte66666]

Loved Johnny in Animal Magic ❤

[@CHEESYhairyGASH]

Now I love this track, but when it came out I was minus one years old.

[@NoosaHeads]

Brilliant.

[@AtheistOrphan]

A shame he didn’t bring Dottie the ring-tailed lemur along for the ride.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

I think Mad Magaine's "I'm at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk" was about this time, 1967 or so. Sic transit gloria mundi.

[@markiliff]

Delightfully unhinged

[@McSeahorse]

Warriors. Come out to PLAAAAYYY!!!

[@Progressive_Canadian]

I live in a major city and I have yet to see a Chinook land on the roof of a building! 😁

[@brianartillery]

It's actually a Boeing-Vertol BV- 107 II. A civilian version of the CH-46. The Chinook is the later CH-47.

[@zamiadams4343]

Sad that 20 years later an American filmmaker called Michael Findlay was decapitated by helicopter blades on top of the Pan-Am building shown at the start.

[@johnarnehansen9574]

Well, isn't it "The American Blackpool"?.. ;)

[@GlennJ1881]

Where are the Warriors of Coney Island?

[@fidelcatsro6948]

Wow didnt know it was crime laden at night back then too

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Theres plenty of animals in NYC to mimic ....

[@andypalin3287]

I was 50 when this was aired! 😂

[@garryleeks4848]

Happy 106 birthday, hope you’re health is good 👍

[@andypalin3287]

@@garryleeks4848 Cheers!

[@AuntieFan]

I was primary school age; had left NYC for Europe 3 years prior to this airing, and was summering in the USA as this went out on BBC2. It would be two years and two months before my family would move to a verdant isle where I would eventually be introduced to the BBC and the great “edutainer” that was Johnny Morris.

[@fidelcatsro6948]

waaah you must be over a 100yrs old! must be those healthy sardines egg and cabbage meals

[@phillipecook3227]

​@@fidelcatsro6948Whiskey and education ....

[@lewis7515]

Guy visits New York at 5.30 in the morning, in winter, probably on a Sunday - and he's surprised it looks empty.

[@brianartillery]

Er... Isn't New York supposed to be 'The City That Never Sleeps'?

[@lewis7515]

@@brianartillery It isn't asleep - it's just wrong to expect it to be busy at 5.30 am on Sunday morning in October... It may not sleep, but even New York gets quiet.

[@TheBerzerker666]

I have it on good authority that in the era of ‘animal magic’ he wasn’t the nice person he portrayed,he was in fact a miserable grumpy old git allegedly 😂

[@JiminyCricket8899]

Sorry but that actually makes me like him more😂😂

[@garryleeks4848]

Can’t believe that , seems a nice bloke

[@sylviekins]

That’s proabably why I like him, I was 8 when this was aired, and I am a miserable grumpy old git😂😂😂

[@davidtexmex1616]

Bit bleak tbh cmon it’s not that bad!

[@swaneknoctic9555]

These old clips always make me laugh. The fact this presenter is 51 here! He looks about 75! And don't say he had a hard life etc etc......He was a TV presenter, probably never did a real days work in his life.

[@Seminal_Ideas]

Dear God. 51 !. People just seemed to look older back then.

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

He was a miner from 14 until 17 years old ...

[@JiminyCricket8899]

Seems a bit odd not seeing him with a chimp or parrot or something.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Dottie the ring-tailed lemur!

[@davidlittle7182]

wasn't he Welsh?

[@Simpaulme]

Incomplete?

[@vapeymcvape5000]

This is more of a PSA for schizofrenia awareness. Johnny Morris was terrible at his job.