Variety shows were a big thing on television in 1931. And if you happened to live in (or near) New York City on Friday, November 27th, you could be watching one.
Unfortunately, newspapers of the era conflict, but we can pretty much figure out what was likely on the mechanical viewing apparatus that day.
Both the Associated Press and United Press wire services disseminated rather detailed radio listings (at least when it came to which network affiliate picked up a specific programme), and it mentions two New York television stations as well. Very brief.
W2XAB—2500kc (W2XE—6120kc)
8:00 to 11:00—Variety With Sound
W2XCR—2000kc (WGBS—1180kc)
6:00 to 7:00—Audiovision Variety
7:00 to 9:00—Silent Pictures
W2XAB was the CBS station. W2XCR was the New York station operated by C. Francis Jenkins, whose company was soon swallowed by the Depression. Neither could broadcast the audio and video on the same frequency at the same time. WGBS was owned at the time by the Hearst Corporation, which changed the call letters in early 1932 to WINS.
The New York Herald Tribune not only had a more extensive schedule, but gave the line-up for the variety show.
W2XAB—New York—2150k
2:00-6:00 p. m.—Experimental programs.
8:00—Singing Vagabond.
8:15—Indian Life and Customs.
8:30—Ruth Kerner, soprano.
8:45—Avelyn Frey, cellist.
9:15—Artells Dickson, songs.
9:15—Helen Board, soprano.
9:30—Captain Jack, “Old Skipper.”
9:45—Kassanova, violiniste.
10:00—Helen Nugent, contralto.
10:15—Harriet Lee, Miss Radio of 1931.
10:30—Sports interview.
10:45—Gay Sisters: Harmony Duo.
W2XCR—New York—2035k
(Sound on WGBS)
3:00 p.m.—Film programs.
4:00-5:00—Same as WGBS.
6:00-7:00—Same as WGBS.
What was WGBS airing? The New York Times ran down its radio listings for the TV broadcast period.
4:00—News Flashes.
4:05—Jacques Belser, songs.
4:15—A Spanish Lesson—Dr. Thatcher Clark.
4:30—Talk—Harrison Zeller.
4:45—Krausemeyer’s Broadcasting Station—Sketch.
6:00—News Flashes.
6:05—Triangle Hour.
6:30—American Music Ensemble.
Not exactly world-famous entertainers of the Bing Crosby/Boswell Sisters/A&P Gypsies variety are they? The best known may have been Harriet Lee, who cut a number of records and was an odd choice as the voice of Betty Boop in one cartoon, “The Bum Bandit.” If you’re wondering, the “Singing Vagabond” was a baritone named Artells Dickson, who later played Tom Mix on radio and wrote a few songs. He appeared under his own name later in the broadcast; this seems to have been pretty common on radio in the ‘20s.
What was the Krausemeyer sketch all about? The Brooklyn Eagle explained in a squib in its radio-television page of November 8, 1931:
One-Man SketchI can hear the dialect jokes now. Mr. Trent’s final programme was on December 18th.
“The Krausemeyer Broadcasting Station,” a humorous sketch, will make its initial appearance on the air and by television over WGBS and W2XCR, on Friday, Nov. 13, at 4:45 p.m. Joe Trent, impersonator, will be the entire cast. This program will be broadcast each Tuesday and Friday at 4:45 p.m.
The New York Sun listed other stations. Generally, they weren’t very specific.
W3XK (Jenkins, Washington)—M147—2035K
7:00 to 9:00—Film.
10:30 to 11:30—Film.
W2XBS (NBC)—M143—2100K
2:00 to 5:00—Experimental program.
7:00 to 10:30—Experimental program.
W1XAV (Boston)—M104—2870K
7:00 to 10:30—Films.
W2XR (J.V.L. Hogan)—M103—2950K
5:00—Films (2150k. and 2920k.)
7:00—Films (accompanied by coordinated sound through W2XAR, 1604k.).
9:00—Cartoons.
The NBC station broadcast silhouttes, accompanied by announcements or talks.
The only other television news for this date 90 years ago, other than the Federal Radio Commission denied a television license to the Congress Square Hotel company of Portland, Marine, which wanted to operate four hours a day. No reason was given.
Mechanical television, involving spinning wheels picking up signals, was soon obsolete as Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworkin (and others) were perfecting a cathode ray tube, bringing TV into the electronic age at the end of the ‘30s.
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