THE TELEVISION GHOST (1931-1933) – As astonishing at it may seem, there were actually some regularly televised programs on pioneering channels like W2XAB beginning in 1931. Comparatively few people actually had the mechanical television sets of that period when the whole enterprise was highly experimental. Newspaper listings offer most of what little information survives about the broadcasts.
All of the programs from the 1930s aired live and commercial-free. They ran just 15 to 30 minutes, used a one-camera setup and are lost forever. The Television Ghost was one of the longest running shows, lasting from August 17th, 1931 to February 15th, 1933. Horror anthology programs had appeal from the very beginning, it seems.
The Television Ghost ran 15 minutes and starred George Kelting as the Ghost with Bill Schudt as an announcer and narrator. The show’s Halloween Episode of 1931 was nicely hyped with a reference to some primitive television special effects magic.
At some point in 1933 Kelting was replaced as the Ghost for at least one episode by Artells Dickson.
The format was always the same – the Ghost hosted as the tale of an unfortunate dead person and how they met their horrific end were presented one-man show style. The Television Ghost was simulcast on the radio stations AM 970 and W2XE, so obviously the Ghost’s performances were mostly vocal since listeners would not be able to see him.
Still, W2XAB churned out some clever promotional material as seen in the visuals accompanying this blog post.
In addition to The Television Ghost, there were other programs from that year, most from station W2XAB. Among them was Exhibition Boxing, a show that presented amateur boxers fighting in a small, non-regulation ring; the self-explanatory Hints for Swimmers hosted by Charles Speer; and Television Today, which featured academic lectures, pantomimes, short plays and magician Richard Kenny.
Musical programs were popular, hosted by entertainers like Doris Sharp, Elliott Jaffee, Alice Remsen, Harriet Lee and Grace Yeager.
There was even Piano Lessons hosted by Giuseppe Aldo Randegger and a selection enigmatically titled Negro Quartet.
FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/forgotten-television/
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Logged, thanks!
Excellent post, good luckEdward
Thank you! Good luck to you, too!
Cool post! Sort of reminds me of that bit in Poltergeist (although better, as Poltergeist was way to scary for me!). Shame they are lost forever.
I know what you mean! Yeah, nobody was able or willing to record a lot of these experimental programs so they just got lost in the ether.
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Logged, thank you!