''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 experimental television station of

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

(CBS), from August 17, 1931 to February 15, 1933.Google Books excerpt of the Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed.
/ref> Due to a lack of any preservation the entire series is widely accepted as being completely lost.

Premise

The ghosts of murder victims would tell the story of their respective murders. George Kelting was the storyteller and acted as the ghost, wearing white make-up and having a towel draped over his head. Due to the technical limitations of the time the visual effects were not impressive—the camera showed only Kelting's head.

Cast

*George Kelting as the ghost-storyteller *Bill Schudt as announcer

Crew

Harry Spears – engineer

Broadcast

The series was also broadcast on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

by W2XE New York City and AM 970 WABC (forerunner to modern AM 880 WCBS, not related to the current WABC or AM 970). ''The Television Ghost'' ran for the entirety of W2XAB's two-year run as a

mechanical television Mechanical television or mechanical scan television is a television system that relies on a mechanical scanning device, such as a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror drum, to scan the scene and generate the video signal, and a si ...

station. Each episode featured a run time of 15 minutes. No audio recordings of the program were ever made, nor were any portions of the program filmed; the only known remaining documents are a few publicity photos of Kelting in costume and some newspaper mentions, making it a lost television broadcast. It is believed to be one of the first dramatic television series in the world. For part of its run it was followed on the schedule by '' Piano Lessons''.

References

*Hawes, William, ''American Television Drama: The Experimental Years'' (

University of Alabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama. An editorial board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within ...

, 1986)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Television Ghost, The 1931 American television series debuts 1933 American television series endings 1930s American television series CBS original programming 1931 in American television Lost American television shows Television series about ghosts Ghost stories Black-and-white American television shows American crime drama television series Horror anthologies American horror fiction television series American anthology television series Television shows about murder