# 1931 in television

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

## 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

| Series | Debut | Ended |
| Alice Remsen | 1931 | 1931 |
| Doris Sharp | 1931 | 1932 |
| Exhibition Boxing Bouts | 1931 | 1932 |
| Elliot Jaffee | 1931 | 1932 |
| Grace Yeager | 1931 | 1932 |
| Helen Haynes | 1931 | 1932 |
| Hints for Swimmers | 1931 | 1931 |
| Piano Lessons | 1931 | 1932 |
| The Television Ghost | 1931 | 1933 |
| Television Today | 1931 | 1931 |

## Births

* January 4 – Rosemary Prinz, U.S. actress (As the World Turns)
* 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 14 – Kenneth Cope, English actor, Coronation Street, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (died 2024)
* April 26 – Bernie Brillstein, agent and producer (died 2008)
* May 15 – Ken Venturi, golfer (died 2013)
* 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 – 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 26 – Robert Colbert, actor, The Time Tunnel
* July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, actor, Coach (died 2018)
* July 28 – Darryl Hickman, actor (died 2024)
* 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
** Jim Bunning, baseball player and politician (died 2017)
** 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)