Here’s the schedule for NBC’s experimental station W2XBS in New York City for the week beginning Sunday, July 7th, 1940, straight from television listings printed in The New York Times. The station was off the air on Sunday and Saturday. Filling the schedule were films, programs from the World’s Fair, a boxing match and the occasional variety special.
Monday, July 8th, 1940 [1]
9:00-11:00PM – Amateur boxing at Jamaica Arena.Tuesday, July 9th, 1940 [2]
3:30-4:30PM – Films: Cairo and on to Cape Town; Day at the Hebrew Nursery; Let’s See America; Last of the Mohicans; Dixie Days.
6:45-7:00PM – News, Lowell Thomas.
9:00-10:00PM – Variety: A Trip Through the Caucasus, with Carveth Wells.Wednesday, July 10th, 1940 [3]
3:30-4:30PM – Films.
9:00-10:00PM – World’s Fair Variety Show.Thursday, July 11th, 1940 [4]
3:30-4:30PM – Show at Winter Wonderland, World’s Fair.
9:00-10:00PM – Film: Annie Laurie.Friday, July 12th, 1940 [5]
3:30-4:30PM – Film: Edge of the World.
6:45-7:00PM – News, Lowell Thomas.
9:00-10:00PM – Juvenile Variety.
Works Cited:
Thursday’s feature film, “Edge of the World,” was a 1937 drama by Michael Powell, filmed on location in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Townspeople in a dying fishing settlement dealt with the prospect of abandoning their homes for better luck elsewhere.
The Scottish theme continued the following night with “Annie Laurie,” a 1936 comedy starring Will Fyffe, the beloved Scots character actor.