A month of early television OTDs: February
John Wyver writes: With 88 original OTD posts now on this blog, I thought it might be appropriate to compile this index of the February ones, to complement those for January and for December (and a bit of November). I was heartened that towards the end of this month a couple of friends began to post responses, and I do hope that this trend continues.
1932
• OTD in early British television: 25 February 1932: the first documented Shakespeare performance on British television: the wooing scene from act 5 of Henry V.
1933
• OTD in early British television: 22 February 1933: the melancholy tale of dancer and acrobat Laurie Devine (above, and header image) who appeared multiple times in 30-line broadcasts.
1935
• OTD in early British television: 6 February 1935: speculations about ‘the verbal coinage likely to be minted by Television’, and about ‘televista-phones’.
• OTD in early British television: 8 February 1935: a Daily Telegraph correspondent watches the BBC’s 30-line service and an experimental Baird 180-line transmission from Crystal Palace.
1937
• OTD in early British television: 16 February 1937: explorer and ethnographer Philip Thornton presents one of the programmes in the series The Orchestra and its Instruments.
• OTD in early British television: 20 February 1937: Flora Robson and producer Erich Pommer visit AP to speak about their film Fire Over England, which was in production at Denham.
1938
• OTD in early British television: 2 February 1938: new models from the Marconiphone line of receivers, with the large-screen 708 on sale for 200 guineas.
• OTD in early British television: 4 February 1938: an early experiment in how to present paintings on screen, prefiguring the operations of the rostrum camera.
• OTD in early British television: 7 February 1938: an original short ballet for the screen, The Three Bears, choreographed by Joy Newton.
• OTD in early British television: 11 February 1938: science fiction starts on television with a staging of Karel Čapek’s dystopian fantasy R.U.R.
• OTD in early British television: 14 February 1938: a demonstration of Bridge (above) for AP’s suburban audience, hosted by Hubert Phillips.
• OTD in early British television: 17 February 1938: a production of Noel Coward’s one-act comedy Hands Across the Sea.
1939
• OTD in early British television: 1 February 1939: the first visit to Bulls Cross Farm, marking an early foray for OBs beyond the metropole.
• OTD in early British television: 3 February 1939: the innovations of Denis Johnston’s trial drama Death at Newtownstewart.
• OTD in early British television: 5 February 1939: producer Dallas Bower’s ambitious but problem-plagued production of The Tempest, with Peggy Ashcroft as Miranda.
• OTD in early British television: 19 February 1938: a fire-fighting demonstration by Enfield Fire Brigade which involved rescuing presenter Jasmine Bligh by carrying her down a turntable ladder.
• OTD in early British television: 21 February 1938: artist Dora Clarke presents Making a Poster, with an artwork for a Listener cover designed by Pat Keely.
• OTD in early British television: 9 February 1939: an especially eclectic line-up for an edition of Contrasts curated by artist Pearl Binder.
• OTD in early British television: 10 February 1939: two unscheduled topical items, announcing the Pope’s death and interviewing pilot Alex Henshaw about his record-breaking flights to the Cape.
• OTD in early British television: 12 February 1939: announcement of plans for the first large-scale ‘census’ of viewers.
• OTD in early British television: 13 February 1939: critic Grace Wyndham Goldie responds to the ambitious studio production of the comic drama The Royal Family of Broadway.
• OTD in early British television: 15 February 1939: architect Berthold Lubetkin outlines his plans, commissioned by the Borough of Finsbury, for a deep-shelter against bombing raids.
• OTD in early British television: 18 February 1939: in response to a suggestion submitted in a letter, ‘The Scanner’ floats the idea of a television viewers’ club.
• OTD in early British television: 23 February 1939: the Boon-Danahar boxing match which was screened in 3 London cinemas as well as being shown by tthe BBC.
• OTD in early British television: 24 February 1939: the innovative Telecrime series that asked the viewer to solve (fictional) murders.
• OTD in early British television: 26 February 1939: Kenneth Clark’s ‘bee’ (above) which pitched artists identifying lines from literature against poets spotting details from pictures.
• OTD in early British television: 27 February 1939: thoughts from The Times about the differences between variety seen on stage as an OB and that broadcast from the studio.
Thanks very much John for the index, very helpful. It is fascinating stuff and it is interesting that so much had to be bought in and was so culturally inflected.