On March 10, 1933, this became the first feature film ever shown on TV when the experimental Los Angeles station W6XAO-TV broadcast it from the corner of 7th and Bixel Streets. There were perhaps five or six television sets in the greater Los Angeles area which were able to receive the broadcast. It was still playing in local theaters at the time.
The second television showing of this film was on Tuesday evening, June 18, 1940 in New York City over NBC's pioneer television station W2XBS. It is one of over 200 titles in the list of independent feature films made available for television presentation by Advance Television Pictures announced in Motion Picture Herald 4 April 1942. At this time, television broadcasting was in its infancy, almost totally curtailed by the outbreak of World War II, and would not continue to develop until 1945-1946. Its earliest documented Post WWII telecasts took place in New York City Friday 10 December 1948 on WATV (Channel 13), in Detroit Thursday 4 August 1949 on WJBK (Channel 2), in Cincinnati Friday 23 September 1949 on WKRC (Channel 11), and in Albuquerque Saturday 1 October 1949 on KOB (Channel 4).
When James Gleason's character (Arthur Crimmer) is persuaded to descend spooky stairs, he comments "And they said Steve Brodie took a chance." Steve Brodie was a daredevil who claimed to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived.
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