There's a Cougar on TV Tonight

It’s time to watch a show that aired on TV in 1931.

Okay, we’re cheating a bit. The show happened to be a film that aired on W3XK. Actually, we’ve got two films but we’ll qualify one below.

The broadcast was on March 9, 1931. W3XK was the Jenkins television station based in Wheaton, Maryland. It was on the air weekdays (except holidays) from 7 to 9 p.m., operating at 2,065 kilocycles. Pictures were transmitted from a scanning disc using 48 lines or 15 frames a second, with the disc motor running at 900 r.p.m.

We’ve hunted around for a programming schedule for the day. We’ve published one from the New York Sun but it only gets into specifics about W2XCD in Passaic, New Jersey, owned by the De Forest Radio Company. We’ll get to it in just a moment.

This story in the New York Herald Tribune talks about the arrangement that provided W3XK with some programming.

Department of Agriculture Sponsors Television Film
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Present Programs Over W3XK at Silver Spring, Md.
WASHINGTON, April 18.—Weekly broadcasts of television programs by the Department of Agriculture, inaugurated March 9, through Jenkins Television station W3XK near Silver Spring, Md., have been well received, letters to the department from all sections of the country, indicate. The broadcasts are direct from motion picture films, and are sent out on a wave length of 145 meters.
The first program consisted of a biological survey picture, “The Cougar Hunt,” which was followed the week of March 16 by “She’s Wild,” a film sponsored by the Forest Service, showing cowboys of Western cattle ranges in a rodeo. It proved especially popular judging from letters received at the Jenkins Laboratory, going through particularly well because it had large images, photographic contrast, and plenty of movement, three essential requirements of motion pictures that are “sliced” for radiovision broadcasts, according to engineers.
“Carry On,” sponsored by the extension service, was shown the week of March 23 and “The Horse and Man” the week beginning March 30. “The Cow Business” was broadcast the week of April 6.
The pictures are broadcast in half tone, and have been seen as far west as Minnesota, Kansas and Missouri. Letters reporting good reception also have come from as far south as Athens, Ga., and from as far north as Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

Considering the fate of most silent films, it’s remarkable “The Cougar Hunt” still exists. It’s a silent picture from 1928. You can watch it below. If you’re not much on wild animals eating animals, you will perhaps want to skip it. We’ve got something more pleasant coming up.



We mentioned the New York Sun. It had an excellent radio/television section on Saturdays in 1931. Many times, it printed a summary of what was on television that week, generally from W2XCD, the De Forest station in Passaic, New Jersey. The station had begun sending out programmes on a regular basis in the latter part of February, some of them from a studio—and they even talked!

At this point, the station was operating Monday through Saturday from 9 to 10:30 p.m. at 2,035 kcs. with the same scanning motor rate as W2XK. All the tele-fan had to do after W2XK signed off was roll the dial to a different frequency, change the radio to pick up W2XCD’s audio (they couldn’t broadcast on the same wave length) and voila! Up to 90 more minutes of television entertainment to ward off Old Man Depression.

The Sun’s programming summary for March 9, 1931 has been posted on this blog before but the paper didn’t include a roundup of what was to air on W2XCD that week. However, the Passaic Daily Herald of March 9th did, and included the highlights of the rest of the week.

Station W2XCD to Broadcast Police Band Friday Night
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Varied Program for Week Is Scheduled
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Harry Irvine to Speak
This week’s television programs from W2XCD, the De Forest Company’s station at Passaic, will be featured by the quality and variety of its direct pickup presentations, two fifteen-minute periods, of which are interspersed with an hour of film each evening from 9 until 10:30.
The legitimate stage, vaudeville, journalism, science, band music and radio are represented in the pickup features, while the films will include dramas, scenic, biographical, comic and educational. The highlight of Monday’s program will be the presence before the microphone and camera of Harry Irvine, distinguished actor and director for more than a quarter century on both the British and American stages.
A former member of such famous companies as those of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Beerbohn Tree and Walter Hampden, whose company he used to direct, Mr. Irvine now devotes himself to what he terms “lecture recitals,” in which form he has made both classic and modern drama and poetry of all ages and countries vibrant and alive to huge audiences through out this country and Canada.
His appearance Monday in a “lecture recital” particularly adapted to television marks the first occasion on which so distinguished an actor from the legitimate stage has taken the stand before the television camera.

Tuesday night, Collier Elliott, versatile musician, will be featured from W2XCD, playing selections on the piano for his first appearance, and later in the evening obliging again with Alei-blades, his nickname for his pet accordion, from which music will issue forth comparable to those chords which made Phil Baker famous. Wednesday night, “Ten Years Hence in Science” will be the subject treated by Austin C. Lescarboura, formerly managing editor of Scientific American, and for years known to readers of technical, industrial and class publications as one of the straightest thinkers and most fluent writers on technical and industrial subjects, including radio and television, particularly their applications and influences.
Thursday night the Clamildys Trio heard every Wednesday from WOR, will permit their large radio audience to see as well hear them in a fifteen-minute program which opens the evening schedule from W2XCD. At 9:30 Charlie Huffman of the De Forest Radio Company engineering staff will give the fourth of his weekly illustrated lectures on “Fundamentals of Television.”
Friday the Passaic, N.J., Police Band will do honor to W2XCD by playing a group of stirring selections, the while appearing before the television camera.
Later in the evening. Chief Engineer Allan B. Du Mont of the De Forest Radio Company will speak on “Interesting Experiments With Vacuum Tubes.”
The week’s television activities from W2XCD will close Saturday night with an interesting program feature Miss Alice Remsen, for years a vaudeville headliner and now the soubrette of “Footlight Echoes,” the popular weekly program of songs, from bygone theatrical successes, heard each Tuesday evening from WOR.

TELEVISION PROGRAMS
Station W2XCD, Passaic Picture—2035KC—Voice—1604K
9:00—The Drama, Harry Irvine.
9:15—Canada’s Queen City, Vancouver.
9:35—“Lecture Recital” Harry Irvine.
9:45—Good Will to Mexico.
10:00—To the South Pole with Commander Byrd.
10:15—Poisoned Daggers.

No, there is no footage of Harry Irvine (at least that we know of) but one of the programmes that apparently aired on W2XCD exists and is quite viewable. Let’s clarify something first.

The Educational Screen of March 1931 wrote “Arrangements have been completed where the Y. M. C. A. Motion Picture Bureau of New York City is supplying motion picture service daily to the DeForest Radio Company television transmitter, W2XCD, for television broadcast. The arrangement started with the week of February 23rd, 1931.” The film about Commander Byrd was a silent from YMCA involving preparation for his South Pole journey.

The 1930 edition of “The Blue Book of Non-Theatrical Films” lists, from YMCA, “Canada’s Queen City (1) Views of Vancouver.” What’s odd is Vancouver has never been known as Canada’s Queen City. So we checked though the YMCA’s own catalogue “Selected Motion Pictures, 16 and 35 Silent and Sound” for 1936-37. The listing reads “Canada’s Queen City—1 reel. (Toronto, Ontario). There’s another silent called “Canada’s Pacific Gateway—1 Reel, (Vancouver, British Columbia).”

My suspicion is in 1930, the two films got mixed up, and the station was told the Toronto film was set in Vancouver. Hey, they’re both in Canada, right?

Charles Frederick Backhouse’s book “Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, 1917-1941” states “Canada’s Queen City” was made in 1929 and contained split screen effects, which were unusual for a federal government film.

Anyway, you can watch “Canada’s Queen City” below.



W2XCD seems to have loved government films, too. The May 1931 edition of The American Journal of Public Health reveals the station was likely the first-ever to televise health films. It acquired three animated cartoons about health from the U.S. government and aired one apiece on March 30, April 6 and April 13 at 10 p.m.

The station had an unusual history. It was granted a license on July 4, 1929 but for radio only. By the start of 1930, it was the sound station for Jenkins’ Television Corporation station W2XCR in Jersey City, but began broadcasting pictures of its own around the beginning of November. A story in the Herald Tribune of Nov. 2, 1930 implies the change was made to test improvements in picture quality.

Daily broadcasts began February 23, 1931. Engineers were quoted in the New York Times as saying it was “the beginning of a new era.” The era didn’t last long. An early morning fire at the W2XCD studio at 2 Brighton Avenue on January 22, 1932 destroyed part of the building, and DeForest said broadcasting would be transferred to W2XCR in New York temporarily. The Federal Radio Commission granted approval on May 22 for the Passaic station to rebuild. But the following month, DeForest Radio went into receivership. “Temporarily” proved to be the end.