1931 in television

The year 1931 in television involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events during 1931.

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Events

*May 1 – The first wedding is broadcast by television, on New York City's W2XCR.
*June 3 – First television outside broadcast of a sporting event: Baird televises the Epsom Derby horse race in England.
*July 21 – CBS's station W2XAB begins broadcasting 28 hours a week in New York City

* August – 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.
*October 9 – 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''.

*October 30 – NBC installs a television transmitter on top of the Empire State Building.
*November 1 – 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 – NBC begins broadcasting experimental test transmissions from the Empire State Building transmitter.
*December 23 – 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 (1931–1932)
* '' Hints for Swimmers'' premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931)
* ''Piano Lessons'' premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931–1932).
* '' The Television Ghost'' premieres on the experimental W2XAB (1931–1933).
* '' 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

Births

*January 10 – Marlene Sanders, television news correspondent (died 2015)
*January 11 – Peter Baldwin, actor (died 2017)
*January 13
**Charles Nelson Reilly, actor, game show panelist (died 2007)
**Rip Taylor, comedian (died 2019)
*January 15 – Thomas Hoving, American museum executive (died 2009)
*January 17 – James Earl Jones, actor
*January 19 – Robert MacNeil, news reporter
*February 6 – Rip Torn, actor (died 2019)
*February 8 – James Dean, actor, '' East of Eden'', ''Rebel Without a Cause'', ''Giant'' (died 1955)
*February 13 – Geoff Edwards, game show host (died 2014)
*February 24 – Dominic Chianese, actor
*February 28 – Gavin MacLeod, actor, ''The Love Boat'' (died 2021)
*March 11 – Rupert Murdoch, media mogul
*March 20 – Hal Linden, actor, ''Barney Miller''
*March 22 – William Shatner, actor, ''Star Trek''
*March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, actor, ''Star Trek'' (died 2015)
*March 27 – David Janssen, actor, '' The Fugitive'' (died 1980)
*April 6 – Ivan Dixon, actor, ''Hogan's Heroes'' (died 2008)
*April 12 – Betty Clooney, singer (died 1976)
*April 26 – Bernie Brillstein, agent and producer (died 2008)
*May 15 – Ken Venturi, golfer
*May 16 – 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 – Barbara Barrie, actress, ''Barney Miller''
*June 8 – Dana Wynter, actress (died 2011)
*June 14 – Marla Gibbs, actress, ''The Jeffersons'', ''227''
*June 20 – Olympia Dukakis, actress, ''Tales of the City'' (died 2021)
*June 26
**Robert Colbert, actor, ''The Time Tunnel''
** Marvin Minoff, American film and television producer (died 2009)
*July 1 – Leslie Caron, actress
*July 6 – Della Reese, actress, singer, ''Touched by an Angel'' (died 2017)
*July 8 – Roone Arledge, producer (died 2002)
*July 10 – Nick Adams, actor (died 1968)
*July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, actor, ''Coach'' (died 2018)
*July 28 – Darryl Hickman, actor
*August 15 – Janice Rule, actress (died 2003)
*August 23 – Barbara Eden, actress, ''I Dream of Jeannie''
*August 25 – Regis Philbin, talk show host (died 2020)
*September 1 – Beano Cook, American television personality (died 2012)
*September 4 – Mitzi Gaynor, singer, actress
*September 9 – Barbara Lyon, singer, actress (died 1995)
*September 10 – Philip Baker Hall, actor (died 2022)
*September 11 – Bill Simpson, actor (died 1986)
*September 12
** Bill McKinney, actor (died 2011)
**Ian Holm, actor (died 2020)
*September 13 – Barbara Bain, actress, '' Mission: Impossible''
*September 17 – Anne Bancroft, actress (died 2005)
*September 19 – Ray Danton, actor (died 1992)
*September 21 – Larry Hagman, actor, ''I Dream of Jeannie'', ''Dallas'' (died 2012)
*September 24 – Howard West, TV producer (died 2015)
*September 30 – Angie Dickinson, actress, '' Police Woman''
*October 23 – Diana Dors, actress (died 1984)
*October 31 – Dan Rather, news reporter
*November 5 – Reese Schonfeld, news reporter (died 2020)
*November 8 – Morley Safer, news reporter (died 2016)
*November 12 – Dick Clair, writer (died 1988)
*November 30 – Jack Ging, actor (died 2022)
*December 3 – Jaye P. Morgan, game show panelist
*December 9 – Paddi Edwards, actress (died 1999)
*December 11 – Rita Moreno, actress
*December 23 – Ronnie Schell, comedian
*December 28 – Martin Milner, actor, ''Adam-12'' (died 2015)

References

{{Years in television