I Saw Television in 1931

“It becomes tiresome after one sees the same old films week in and week out.”

Z. Mulheim of New Rochelle, New York gave that assessment of W2XR, the TV station across the river on Long Island, in 1931. But Z. Mulheim and others would soon have a New York station with real people doing things on their TV screens.

Actually, it was a TV station already in existence. The Jenkins Television Corporation had a station called W2XCR broadcasting from Jersey City. Jenkins was in the business of selling television sets and kits to make television sets. Logic dictates there was a lot more potential business in New York City than Jersey City, so Jenkins worked out a deal with one of the independent radio stations and moved to brand-new studios at 655 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (today the building is the home of luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo).

It was there a gala grand opening was planned for Sunday, April 26, 1931. And some of the people appearing were top-of-the-line. Maurice Chevalier. Moss Hart. Boxer Primo Carnera. A fun name on the list is Sylvia Field, a stage actress who regularly appeared on TV sets more than 25 years later as Mrs. Wilson on “Dennis the Menace.”

There was a loser in all this. Jenkins was controlled by the DeForest Radio Company, which operated W2XCD in Passaic, New Jersey. It had begun daily television programmes only two months earlier. The aforementioned Z. Mulheim revealed it was his favourite station and described how he “saw distinctly the announcer walking before the camera to announce and he stood alongside a girl who was singing. He was somewhat bald around the temples and had a mustache.” That kind of thing excited TV viewers back then who constantly dealt with fading and visual interference. Poor old W2XCD was about to get downgraded.

The Herald Tribune reported thusly the day after W2XCR’s grand opening.

2 Stations Open First Television Programs Here
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Theatrical Stars Depicted in Sight-and-Sound Broadcast From 5th Ave. Studio
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Daily Schedule Planned
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WGBS and W2XCR to Collaborate in New Enterprise
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As features of the first regularly scheduled entertainment program to come from a New York City television station, Broadway celebrities co-operated last night to give the 350 owners of television sets in the metropolitan area the opportunity of hearing and seeing them in their current roles.
W2XCR, of the Jenkins Television Corporation, and WGBS, of the General Broadcasting System, presented the program from 655 Fifth Avenue, where the studios, transmitter and masts are located.
At Aeolian Hall, Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street, a small group of invited guests, newspaper men and officials saw and heard the program, which was directed by Mortimer Stewart, program director of the combined stations.
The program will continue to be sent from 3 to 4 every afternoon, when pictures alone will come from W2XCR, from 4 to 5 when WGBS will operate alone, and from 6 to 8, when the two stations will collaborate on sight and sound programs.
Among the stars who assisted at last night’s demonstration were Sir Guy Standing and Edith Barrett of “Mrs. Moonlight;” Sylvia Field, Gladys Hanson and Louis Calhern of “Give Me Yesterday;” Richard B. Harrison and Tutt Whitney of “The Green Pastures;” Jacob Ben Ami of the Civic Repertory Theater, and Ludwiz Satz of the Yiddish Art Theater.
Vocal artists present were Maurice Chevalier and Harry Richman. Others were Helen Morgan, Dorothy Dell, Queenie Smith and Harland Dixon, and Patricia Bowman, “Felix the Clown,” from the circus; Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Primo Carnera, Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes, Roark Bradford and Marc Connolly, Moss Hart and Arthur (“Bugs”) Baer were also on the program.
The officials who spoke included D. E. Replogle, vice-president of the Jenkins Television Corporation, William J. Barkley, vice-president of the DeForest Radio Company, an affiliated organization; Allen B. DuMont, chief engineer of the Jenkins and DeForest companies, and Dailey Paskman, president of the General Broadcasting System and director of WGBS.
The new station, it was explained, is one of twenty-seven television stations now operating throughout the country and is “devoted to experimentation in the presentation of programs of entertainment value.” The De Forest station, W2XCD, at Passaic, N. J., will continue to operate regularly, as it has for the last two months, but its emphasis will be on the technical and engineering phases of television. As quickly as new developments are perfected at Passaic, it was explained, they will be installed in the New York station, where the primary emphasis is on entertainment.
The programs may be intercepted in the home by means of any standard radio receiving set tuned to WGBS or 254 meters and a television receiving apparatus tuned to 147.5 meters. The television set costs about the same as a high-grade radio set. Although the pictures are small, several persons may enjoy a program at the same time.

The photos you see are from the New York Sun, which had a fine TV section (yes, in 1931) and to which the aforementioned Z. Mulheim was a correspondent. Another one was R.E. Charles, who went to view the broadcast (hence the title of this post). Here’s what he wrote for the paper the following Saturday.

MR. PUBLIC FILES HIS REPORT ON FIRST TELEVISION HOUR
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A Non-Technical Tale of the Opening of W2XCR.
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Critic Believes Artists Should Have Had More Time.
By R. E. CHARLES.
It was 4:45 on Sunday afternoon, just fifteen minutes before the starting time marked on my admission ticket, when I presented myself at the offices of the Jenkins television studio at 655 Fifth avenue to see a demonstration of the new radio talkies.
Modernity was emphasized in the fact that there was no ticket checker when I came off the elevator. I was welcomed by a charming lady in a pink evening dress. She ushered me into a large room which at the time was occupied by about a score of people. The first impression I gained was that I was in the lounge of a small but select hotel. The guests were seated in chairs facing a slightly raised platform at the end of the room. They were friendly, and the blue haze of cigarette smoke hung like a benediction over the gathering. I had no difficulty in finding myself an easy chair.
On the raised platform there stood three walnut cabinets. They were like fashionable radio cabinets, but in the second story of the front of each there dimly shone a convex lens about a foot in diameter. Below the lens I noticed two switches which, I was to learn later, were switches for the tuning-in signals and for getting the pictures in line. From time to time one or two hardy fellows among the guests went over to the platform and peered into the unresponsive surface of the convex mirror. I was reminded of the folk on Forty-second street who pay a dime to look through the giant telescope at the stars.
For the next hour other guests continued to arrive. There were many men in tuxedos and countless women in evening apparel. Primo Carnera was one of the earliest to come, dressed quietly in a dark suit and looking not so very tall after all. Billy the Midget arrived about 5:30 in evening clothes with silk topper, ebony walking cane and a black cloak with white silk lining. Broadway was represented by a huge contingent, and there were in many theatrical folk that I was reminded of the screen record of the Hollywood premier of Charlie Chaplin’s latest picture.
Sir Guy Standing and Edith Barrett were there from “Mrs. Moonlight,” Catherine Doucet, Jay Wascett and Jeffrey Wardwell came from “As Husbands Go”; Kay Strozzi and Lionel Atwill from “The Silent Witness”; Richard Harrison as the Lord from “Green Pastures”; Jacob Bon-Ami from the Yiddish Art Theater, Dorothy Dell from Ziegfeld’s, Thais Lawton, William Faversham. Constance Collier, Cynthia White, Mary Lawler, Alice Remaen, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Fay Marbe of Roxy’s, Felix the Clown from the circus, La Gambarelli from the Capitol, and a host of others crowded to the show.
Standing Room Only.
At 5:45 it was a case of house full and standing room only. They were perched on the edges of the chairs, on tables, on windowsills and they were standing in thick lines around the walls. An official, whose chief characteristics were a tuxedo and an elliptical sort of smile, announced that the pictures would begin in about ten minutes and that we were to oblige by refraining from smoking. Cigarettes were immediately discarded and chairs were drawn closer to the platform. The flashlight man began to get busy. Six young men in tuxedos artistically draped themselves around the three platform cabinets and Little Billy was hoisted over our heads to take his place in the group. At five to 6 the photographer, having done his stuff, folded his apparatus and went silently away. We were all looking steadily at the three cabinets on the platform.
The young gentleman with the elliptical smile now announced that all newspaper men, columnists, feature writers and reporters were invited to ascend to the broadcasting room upstairs. About a score of men and women detached themselves from the crowd and their seats were instantly taken. Five minutes later there was another announcement that all the artists were to go upstairs. Again the seats were seized as soon as they were vacated. One or two of the important looking young men in tuxedos visited the platform and began to finger the control switches of one of the cabinets. A green light flashed above the switch. Like a line of traffic we moved forward nearer the platform. Nothing happened. We waited another ten minutes, and then one of the bright young men announced that we were to go over to the Aeolian Hall, two blocks up the avenue. Five minutes later the same announcement was made. The crowd, heedless of the first order, at last obeyed.
Leaving the elevator at the Aeolian Hall I was ushered into a very long room which was semidarkened. There were hundreds of people there. The place had an air of mystery and foreboding like the consulting room of a clairvoyant. Moving into the darkness with the rest of the crowd I found that there were two of my old friends, the cabinets, on a platform at the end of the hall. A small mob was seething around each of the cabinets. On coming closer I saw that this time the lenses were actually giving some reaction, for the impatient crowd was pushing closer and closer to get a peek at the show. On the left of the platform a resonant voice came forth from a loud speaker. It was singing but directions to the crowd to keep moving to the left if you please.
Recalling the Mutoscope.
Finally I reached one of the cabinets and got my face down close to the lens. A girl was dancing. Her moving image was less than three inches square, the lines were somewhat blurred and the details were just a little muddy. The small image, looking like the impression you get when you look through the wrong end of your opera glass, danced its way toward and back and then did a few steps in a transverse direction across the lens. There was a decided flicker, like the flicker in the old mutoscope of thirty years ago. But the image was more continuous than any mutoscope could ever have recorded it and the flicker was not annoying. I was just beginning to think that it must be La Gambarelli, the Capitol danseuse, when the impatience of my fellow scientists snatched me from my place before the lens. I moved to the left, please, as the voice kept saying.
By now it was nearly 7 o’clock and a stream of people continued to pour forth from the elevators. The wary ones, having already been initiated, had taken seats and sat dozing or smoking like the customers in a broker’s office. Up the aisle on one side, across the line of the platform and down the aisle on the other side the newcomers slowly moved. I sat with the rest of the initiates, till the crowd around the cabinets had thinned out a little and then I made a second pilgrimage to the platform. This visit yielded me a vision of two artists. I recognized them as Kay Strozzi and Lionel Atwill from “The Silent Witness.” They were doing a short bit from the play.
In my perception of the transmission this time the synchronization was perfect. Sight and sound moved accurately together. Each head seemed to be occupying a space of about five square inches. Except for a slight blur, the facial lines were being sent across with excellent fidelity. I confess I was disappointed that I saw only the heads. I had expected to be able to see a whole scene from the play. Instead, I saw only two faces, and I had the impression that at the transmitting end the element of space must be a difficulty at present. But just then some impatient gentleman started a line drive. Obedient to the basic laws of mechanics, I moved to the left again.
I stuck around for nearly two hours and made several other trips to the platform. The more I saw the instrument the more I enjoyed it. I overcame my early disappointment at the smallness of the images, at the blur of the details and at the general flicker of the picture. I had no difficulty in recognizing the speakers. Primo Carnera was easy to identity and Felix the Clown, putting on his make-up in the lens, came over quite clearly. In every case the dancers were easily known, despite the fact that the images in this case were so very small. Actors and actresses were something of a disappointment, principally because the lens gave us only the heads. When you are all keyed up to see a sketch from Broadway show you are apt to be a bit peeved 1f the juxtaposition of two faces is the sum total of what you can actually see.
Audience Is Limited.
As I sat back in one of the chairs and watched the crowd filing past the machines I found that you must stand directly in front of the lens in order to see anything at all. One person, and perhaps two, can see the image conveniently. Three is a crowd and four is an unruly mob. The lens itself is something less than a foot in diameter and visualization from an angle is at present impossible, so that the element of space is a factor to be considered both at the transmitting and at the receiving end. It struck me that if the images could be thrown on a large screen instead of being presented in a small lens a great future exists for the radio talkies. In a talk with one of the officials I was assured that this is actually being achieved by the engineers. Even making allowances for the difficulty created by the mass interest of Sunday evening last, only two people can look into the lens without discomfort at present.
A word may be said about the program. It was far too crowded and it lacked continuity. No performer appeared in the lens for more than five minutes and some of them were imaged for less. Announcements were like the angels’ visits, few and far between. The management was obviously anxious that the guests should have a feast of talent. The guests, in their turn, crowded the plate. Every one felt the anxiety of experimentalism. Perhaps only one or two were conscious that significance of the entertainment was that the radio talkie had left the laboratory and gone out into the market-place and that television had cast its swaddling clothes aside.
We saw enough to be able to realize that television is an accomplished fact. The difficulties that are now so obvious will soon be overcome. The flicker will disappear. The spatial difficulties in the matter of transmitting scenes from the stage will also be conquered. Those of us who remember the infancy of the movies can easily recall the flickering pictures that used to cause such fatigue to the eyes. We recall also the blurred sounds that used to come to us from the first talkies. Movies and talkies overcame those difficulties. Television will do the same.

Neither of the stories above mentions something else reported by the Sun was one of the many stars who took his place in the celebrity line at the opening was the movies’ own Rin-Tin-Tin, apparently the first dog to be televised.

What was in the immediate future for W6XCR and other stations down the East Coast? Let’s go through listings for the week from various newspapers. First, though, a summary of programmes from Passaic from the Sun of April 25.

Station W2XCD of Passaic will devote the week to a varied program of films and direct pick-up subjects, featuring local talent. Residents of Passaic and neighboring communities have been seen and heard over W2XCD before. This week they monopolize the direct pick-up programs to the exclusion of all others except Alice Remsen, who maintains her weekly place on Saturday evening's television bill of fare.
On Monday evening Ralph Kirbery of Paterson will be the guest artist. Mr. Kirbery is a barytone, and although this will be his television debut, he has been heard over several radio stations. He will be heard in two groups of songs. The weekly film serial is "Alice Through the Looking Glass," from Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy. In addition, "French Girl Athletes" will be televised, depicting Suzanne Lenglen and the French field day at Pershing Stadium in Paris.
Program by Garfield
Tuesday's direct pick-up from W2XCD will consist of the Garfield program for National Boys’ Week celebration. As part of the local celebration of Garfield, adjacent to Passaic, the boys of the community will provide a varied musical program, including selections on violin, banjo, clarinet, accordion, harmonica, trumpet, guitar and ukulele. In addition, tap dancing and singing will round out the representation from Garfield. "Alice" will be continued. The one-reel comedy, "Play Ball," will also be televised.
On Wednesday evening W2XCD will welcome for the first time Mr. and Mrs. George W. Grant of Passaic. The direct pick-up feature for the evening resolves itself into a family affair, with Mrs. Grant singing to the accompaniment of her husband at the piano. Besides the serial, the film offering will consist of "Mozart's Last Requiem," filmed abroad.

H. Valdemar of New York City explained to the Sun of May 2nd what he saw on the NBC station:

The other evening from W2XBS while looking in I could see the gentleman very clearly talking on the French type telephone. Later on a stuffed dog on a revolving table was seen, clear and distinct, the dog having a jacket over its body and on its two front feet. This was also a direct pickup [live broadcast]. After this the usual announcements on placards were in order, namely, W2XBS, New York, U. S. A., and N. B. C. Also occasionally the symbol of N. B. C. is shown, a microphone with radio flashes.

Monday, April 27
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Talk on horses.
6:15 Savit Spray music.
6:30 Alexis Sandersen, tenor.
6:45 Sports talk.
7:00 Skit, “The Gossipers.”
7:15 Prof. Frederic Thrasher, “Social Problem of Narcotics.”
7:30 Almanac News.
7:45 Wilton Entertainers.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passiac, N.J.)
9:00 Ralph Kirbery, baritone, songs.
9:15 Film: “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
9:30 Ralph Kirbery, baritone.
9:45 Film: “French Girl Athletes.”

W3XK (Jenkins Laboratories, Washington, D.C.)
7:00-9:00 Films.

W2XBS (NBC, New York City)
2:00-5:00 Silhouttes, announcements.
7:00-10:00 Silhouettes, announcements.

W1XAV (Boston)
1:00-2:00 Halftone films.
7:00 to 10:30 Halftone Films.

W2XR (J.V.L. Hogan/Radio Pictures, Inc., Long Island, 48 lines)
4:00 Experimental hour.
5:00 Experimental program.
7:00 Films accompanied by coordinated sound through W2XAR.
9:00 Cartoons.

Tuesday, April 28
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Y.W.C.A. String Quartet.
6:45 Sports talk.
7:00 Skit, “The Gossipers.”
7:15 “What’s New,” A. David Schenker.
7:30 Night in Italy.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passiac, N.J.)
9:00 Garfield program: “National Boys Week Celebration,” featuring student musical acts and tap dancing.
9:30 Film: “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
9:45 Film: “Play Ball.”

Other stations as above.

Wednesday, April 29
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Pastures Quartet.
6:15 Thoroughbreds.
6:45 Sports talk.
7:00 Skit, “The Gossipers.”
7:15 Doug Brinkley.
7:30 Louis Madonna’s Orchestra.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passiac, N.J.)
9:00 Mrs. George W. Grant, songs.
9:30 Film: “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
9:45 Film: “Mozart’s Last Requiem.”

Other stations as above.

Thursday, April 30
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Helene Vincent, songs.
6:15 Savit Spray music.
6:30 Ruth Brewer, music.
6:45 Sports Review.
7:00 Skit, “The Gossipers.”
7:15 “How to Make a Will,” George Gordon Battle.
7:30 Golden’s Orchestra.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passiac, N.J.)
9:00 Lions Club of Passaic.
9:45 Film: “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
10:00 Film: “Just A Little Late Club” (Better Day, 1923).

Other stations as above.

Friday, May 1
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Bill Rietz, songs.
6:15 Neil Golden’s Orchestra.
6:30 Fred Superior, tenor.
6:45 Sports Review.
7:00 “Theatre’s Attitude Toward Television,” M. Marco.
7:15 Jack Curley, sports.
7:30 Brown’s Broadway Stars.
8:00-8:15 Television Wedding. Grayce Jones and Frank Duvall of the Jenkins staff, clergyman Dr. A. Edwin Keigwin of the West End Presbyterian Church.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passaic, N.J.)
9:00 Benorick Instrumental Trio.
9:30 Film: “The Balloonist.”

Other stations as above.

Saturday, May 2
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
3:00-4:00 Silent film pictures.
6:00-8:00 Same as WGBS
6:00 Enchanters Trio.
6:15 Neil Golden’s Orchestra.
6:30 Tales of Irving Hoffman.
6:45 Sports Review.
7:00 Sketch: “The Gossipers.”
7:15 Gilbert’s Program: Dorothy Morrison, songs; Alexis Sanderson; Ruth Wimp.
7:45 Meysa Tempest, songs.

W2XCD (DeForest Radio Company, Passiac, N.J.)
9:00 Alice Remsen, songs.
9:30 Film: “Reuben’s Excursion.”
9:45 Film: “Felix Rests in Peace” (Educational, 1925).

Other stations as above, except W2XR is off the air.

Friday’s wedding was either the highlight or the gimmick of the week. Two Jenkins employees were wed by the president of the Greater New York Federation of Churches. The vice-president of Jenkins Television, engineer Delbert E. Replogle, was the best man, actress Hope Hampton was the maid of honour, and Mortimer Stewart was the announcer. Associated Press Radio editor Charles E. Butterfield watched the ceremony on his set 14 miles away from the studio and admitted the signal faded at times. Mr. and Mrs. Du Vall remained married until Grace died at age 49 in December 1960.

W2XCR was long forgotten by then. On another column to the left of Mr. Charles’ Day-One review was an article on something that would kill W6XCR and every other TV station on the air at the time. It was about the development of the cathode ray tube. Its electronic beam made radio stations with spinning-disc cameras obsolete and set the industry in a new direction.