Here’s the schedule for NBC’s experimental station W2XBS in New York City for the week starting Sunday, December 3rd, 1939, straight from the weekly television listings printed in The New York Times. Unlike the previous week there was no Tuesday broadcast (the station regularly aired no programming on Mondays and Tuesdays). The only sporting events during the week were wrestling and boxing at Ridgewood Grove. On Sunday, December 3rd, Robert Driscoll demonstrated fencing and on Saturday, December 9th, Ernest Jones demonstrated “Swingest,” a new practice device for golf. There were also two plays, “Jane Eyre” on Wednesday, December 6th and “Another Language” on Friday, December 8th. A pair of full-length motion pictures from 1934 were shown during the week: The Quitter and Broken Melody (which was apparently released as Vagabond Violinist in the United States). There were also plenty of short films.
Sunday, December 3rd, 1939
2:30-3:30PM – Fencing demonstration by the New York Fencers Club, with Robert Driscoll, Norman Armitage, Rene Pinchart, Tracy Jaeckel and Harold Van Buskirk.
8:30-9:50PM – Film, “Broken Melody,” with Merle Oberon.Wednesday, December 6th, 1939
2:30-3:30PM – Films, “Wild Innocence”; “News in the Air”; travelogue, “Cuba.”
8:30-9:45PM – Play, “Jane Eyre.”Thursday, December 7th, 1939
2:30-3:40PM – Film, “The Quitter,” with William Bakewell and Emma Dunn.
8:30-9:30PM – Wrestling, at Ridgewood Grove.Friday, December 8th, 1939
2:30-3:30PM – Films, “War, Peace and Propaganda”; “Throne of the Gods”; High Lights of London.”
8:30-9:30PM – Play, “Another Language,” by Rose Franken, with Ben Smith, Anne Refere, Dorothy Mathews and Kendall Clark.Saturday, December 9th, 1939
2:30-3:30PM – Raymond Loewy on Interior Design; Ernest Jones golf instructor, demonstrating “Swingest,” a new practice device; films, “Horizons”; “Tele-Topics.”
9-11PM – Boxing, at Ridgewood Grove.
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