1931 in television
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The year 1931 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1931.
Events
- May 1 â The first wedding is broadcast by television, on New York City's W2XCR.
- June 3 â First television outside broadcast of a sporting event: Baird televises the Epsom Derby horse race in England.[1]
- July 21 â CBS's station W2XAB begins broadcasting 28 hours a week in New York City.
- August â At the Berlin Radio Show, Manfred von Ardenne gives the world's first public demonstration of a television system using a cathode-ray tube for both transmission and reception. Ardenne never develops a camera tube, using the CRT instead as a flying-spot scanner to scan slides and film.[2]
- October 9 â Canada's first television station, VE9EC, begins broadcasting in Montreal, Quebec. VE9EC is owned jointly by radio station CKAC and the newspaper company La Presse.[3]
- October 30 â NBC installs a television transmitter on top of the Empire State Building.
- November 1 â Television images are transmitted from JOAK radio station in Tokyo, Japan by Professors Kenjiro Takayagani and Tomomasa Nakashima. The still images comprise 80 lines at 20 frames per second.
- December 22 â NBC begins broadcasting experimental test transmissions from the Empire State Building transmitter.
- December 23 â Don Lee Broadcasting begins broadcasting low-definition electromechanical television from the station W6XAO (later KTSL) in Los Angeles, broadcasting one hour of film footage, six days per week.
Debuts
- Exhibition Boxing Bouts premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931â1932)
- Hints for Swimmers premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931)
- Piano Lessons premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931â1932).
- The Television Ghost premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931â1933).
- Television Today premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931).
- W2XAB debuts music segments with Connie Boswell, Doris Sharp, Elliot Jaffee, Grace Yeager, Harriet Lee, and Helen Haynes, among others.
- W2XCD debuts a semi-regular segment with singer Alice Remsen.
Television shows
| Series | Debut | Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Alice Remsen | 1931 | 1931 |
| Doris Sharp | 1931 | 1932 |
| Exhibition Boxing Bouts | 1931 | 1932 |
| Elliot Jaffee | 1931 | 1932 |
| Grace Yeager | 1931 | 1932 |
| Helen Haynes | 1931 | 1932 |
| Hints for Swimmers | 1931 | 1931 |
| Piano Lessons | 1931 | 1932 |
| The Television Ghost | 1931 | 1933 |
| Television Today | 1931 | 1931 |
Births
- January 4 â Rosemary Prinz, U.S. actress (As the World Turns)
- January 10 â Marlene Sanders, television news correspondent (died 2015)
- January 11 â Peter Baldwin, actor (died 2017)
- January 13
- Charles Nelson Reilly, actor, game show panelist (died 2007)
- Rip Taylor, comedian (died 2019)
- January 15 â Thomas Hoving, American museum executive (died 2009)
- January 17 â James Earl Jones, actor (died 2024)
- January 19 â Robert MacNeil, news reporter
- February 6 â Rip Torn, actor (died 2019)
- February 8 â James Dean, actor, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant (died 1955)
- February 13 â Geoff Edwards, game show host (died 2014)
- February 24 â Dominic Chianese, actor
- February 28 â Gavin MacLeod, actor, The Love Boat (died 2021)
- March 11 â Rupert Murdoch, media mogul
- March 20 â Hal Linden, actor, Barney Miller
- March 22 â William Shatner, actor, Star Trek
- March 26 â Leonard Nimoy, actor, Star Trek (died 2015)
- March 27 â David Janssen, actor, The Fugitive (died 1980)
- April 6 â Ivan Dixon, actor, Hogan's Heroes (died 2008)
- April 12 â Betty Clooney, singer (died 1976)
- April 14 â Kenneth Cope, English actor, Coronation Street, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (died 2024)
- April 26 â Bernie Brillstein, agent and producer (died 2008)
- May 15 â Ken Venturi, golfer (died 2013)
- May 16 â Jack Dodson, actor, The Andy Griffith Show (died 1994)
- May 18
- Robert Morse, actor (died 2022)
- George Shapiro, producer (died 2022)
- Don Martin, cartoonist (died 2000)
- May 23 â Barbara Barrie, actress, Barney Miller
- June 8 â Dana Wynter, actress (died 2011)
- June 14 â Marla Gibbs, actress, The Jeffersons, 227
- June 20 â Olympia Dukakis, actress, Tales of the City (died 2021)
- June 26 â Marvin Minoff, American film and television producer (died 2009)
- July 1 â Leslie Caron, actress
- July 6 â Della Reese, actress, singer, Touched by an Angel (died 2017)
- July 8 â Roone Arledge, producer (died 2002)
- July 10 â Nick Adams, actor (died 1968)
- July 26 â Robert Colbert, actor, The Time Tunnel
- July 27 â Jerry Van Dyke, actor, Coach (died 2018)
- July 28 â Darryl Hickman, actor (died 2024)
- August 15 â Janice Rule, actress (died 2003)
- August 23 â Barbara Eden, actress, I Dream of Jeannie
- August 25 â Regis Philbin, talk show host (died 2020)
- September 1 â Beano Cook, American television personality (died 2012)
- September 4 â Mitzi Gaynor, singer, actress
- September 9 â Barbara Lyon, singer, actress (died 1995)
- September 10 â Philip Baker Hall, actor (died 2022)
- September 11 â Bill Simpson, actor (died 1986)
- September 12
- Bill McKinney, actor (died 2011)
- Ian Holm, actor (died 2020)
- September 13 â Barbara Bain, actress, Mission: Impossible
- September 17 â Anne Bancroft, actress (died 2005)
- September 19 â Ray Danton, actor (died 1992)
- September 21 â Larry Hagman, actor, I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas (died 2012)
- September 24 â Howard West, TV producer (died 2015)
- September 30 â Angie Dickinson, actress, Police Woman
- October 23
- Jim Bunning, baseball player and politician (died 2017)[4]
- Diana Dors, actress (died 1984)
- October 31 â Dan Rather, news reporter
- November 5 â Reese Schonfeld, news reporter (died 2020)
- November 8 â Morley Safer, news reporter (died 2016)
- November 12 â Dick Clair, writer (died 1988)
- November 30 â Jack Ging, actor (died 2022)
- December 3 â Jaye P. Morgan, game show panelist
- December 9 â Paddi Edwards, actress (died 1999)
- December 11 â Rita Moreno, actress
- December 23 â Ronnie Schell, comedian
- December 28 â Martin Milner, actor, Adam-12 (died 2015)