''Piano Lessons'' is an American

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

television series featuring piano lessons from Giuseppe Aldo Randegger. It originally aired in

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on W2XAB (now WCBS-TV), a then- experimental television station of

Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

(CBS), from October 8, 1931, to 1932. ''Piano Lessons'' is among the earliest regularly scheduled television programs. Due to a lack of any preservation the entire series is widely accepted as being completely lost.

Production and broadcast

The series consisted of piano lessons given by Professor Giuseppe Aldo Randegger, and aired on

mechanical television Mechanical television or mechanical scan television is an obsolete television system that relies on a mechanism (engineering), mechanical scanning device, such as a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror drum, to scan the scene and ...

. The first episode aired October 8, 1931, as announced in the ''Radio News'' section of The Daily Star newspaper. Originally a 30-minute series, it later aired in a 15-minute time-slot. It aired without

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, as American television was not yet a commercial service, due to the highly experimental nature of early television broadcasting. In a television listing from 1932, the series is listed at 8:15PM on Mondays, preceded by ''

The Television Ghost ''The Television Ghost'' is an American dramatic horror anthology television series featuring ghost stories presented by George Kelting as the ghost of various murder victims. It originally aired in New York City on W2XAB (now WCBS-TV), an exp ...

'' and followed by

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

player Jack Peterson. In an earlier television listing from the same year, it is listed as airing at 9:00PM, preceded by songs by Doris Sharp and followed by songs by the Shannon Brothers.

Randegger

Giuseppe Aldo Randegger also appeared in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

and was also a composer. A picture of him appears on the

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website in their digital collections. He was born circa 1874 and died in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on November 30, 1946, at the age of 72.

Reception

The November 19, 1932, edition of ''

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'' featured a section called ''The Picture Gallery'' with letters from viewers. A letter writer named Allen Polner in Brooklyn said ''"television programs are improving, especially from W2XAB"'' and ''"last week I looked in and was more than pleased with the results''", citing both ''Piano Lessons'' as well as segments with Gladys Kahn and Kane Whitney. The same viewer was not impressed with programs by stations W2XR and WIXAV, and felt television needed longer programming hours.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 4209104 1931 American television series debuts 1932 American television series endings American live television series Lost television shows Black-and-white American television shows 1930s American music television series