Here’s the schedule for NBC’s experimental station WX2BS in New York City for the week starting Sunday, June 11th, 1939, straight from television listings printed in The New York Times. Lots of demonstration films, as usual, and several days of a contest to crown the New York World’s Fair Television Girl. Listings published on June 11th had three days of the contest but daily listings suggest only two days. I think I’m going to start using both the weekly and daily listings when putting together these schedules in an attempt to be as accurate as possible.
Tuesday, June 13th, 1939
11:00AM-4:00PM – Demonstration Films.Wednesday, June 14th, 1939 [1]
4:00-8:30PM – Demonstration Films.
8:30-9:00PM – Ethel Waters and company in a scene from the Broadway production, “Mamba’s Daughters”; Joey Faye, comedian and one man wrestler; Leslie Littomy and Phil Loeb in George S. Kaufman’s “The Pink Slip,” and Dr. Georg Roemmert and his microvivarium/microscopic pictures.Thursday, June 15th, 1939
11:00AM-4:00PM – Demonstration Films.
4:00-5:15PM – Opening Session for title of New York World’s Fair Television Girl, relayed from Fair Grounds.Friday, June 16th, 1939 [2]
4:00-5:15PM – Selection of New York World’s Fair Television Girl, relayed from Fair Grounds.
5:15-8:30PM – Demonstration Films.
8:30-9:30PM – Cobina Wright Jr., mistress of ceremonies; Marie Eve and George Lloyd, mimic, of Le Ruban Bleu International Night Club Revue; Songsmiths Quartet; Helen Scully, Paul Ballantine and William Shea in “Family Honor,” with an original musical score by Fred Ayres Cotton, and Jack Cole’s East Indian Dancers.Saturday, June 17th, 1939 [3]
11:00AM-4:00PM – Demonstration Films.
4:00-5:15PM – To Be Announced.
Sources:
Works Cited:
Singer/actress Ethel Waters appeared often on NBC’s experimental TV broadcasts during this period, and later starrred as “Beulah” in the first two seasons of “THE BEULAH SHOW” (1950-’52). Joey Faye later became a frequent performer on early broadcast TV, known to later generations as half of “MACK & MYER FOR HIRE” (with Mickey Deems) in the 1963-’64 syndicated “one-reeler” series.
Philip Loeb, who frequently appeared in experimental TV broadcasts, was best known for portraying “Jake Goldberg” opposite Gertrude Berg’s “Molly” on the radio and early TV versions of “THE GOLDBERGS”- until he was “blacklisted” in 1951. That not only cost him his role in the show [Gertrude Berg was told to either drop Loeb from her series or it would NEVER be seen on TV again… and she was forced to let him go, although she kept him “on salary” for a time], it also cost him his life when he committed suicide in June 1955, because NOBODY was willing to give him a job in show business.
Cobina Wright, Jr. was a famous “socialite” in New York’s “Cafe Society” (along with friend Brenda Frazier), who probably appeared on TV that night in June 1939 “for kicks”.