The Genii Forum

When did the first magic program appear on the TV?
Who was featured in the program at that time?
It is said that Mark Wilson's "Time for Magic" was broadcast on Dallas's television station in February 1954, but was it the first magic program that has ever broadcast?

I understand Kuda Bux had "Kuda Bux, Hindu Mystic" on in 1950 on CBS, don't know of any before that.

In The Magician Monthly, Vol. 26, no. 2, January 1930, page 17, we can read :

Members of the Magicians' Club met at the Baird Television Studios in Long Acre and demonstrated the art of magic by means of television. HERMALIN who has the honour of being the first magician to conjure for television...

Len O. Gunn was the first magician to perform magic on TV. Len was a friend of the Houdini's and was one of two honor guards at the last Houdini seance. I have done a lot of research on Len when I found out by accident last year that he was my grand uncle (my great-grandfather's brother). Also a good friend of the Larsen family and also wrote a column in Genii magazine during its first years called "Scattered Shots".

Remember that Geri Larsen appeared on local Los Angeles TV in 1939. She would later have a regular program as well.

If you are thinking about network programming, not local or syndicated, Joseph Dunninger had a weekly program. It also depends if you mean just making an appearance or having their own regular show.

In Genii Vol I no3 "Frank Chapman was the first magician in the world to do magic over television. Station W3XK in 1931, just outside Washington D.C..

Wow. So many candidates!
After I posted the subject yesterday, I found Roy Benson and some others appeared in the "Toast of the Town", the previous name of "Ed Sullivan Show" around 1950.
It is almost unbelievable that any magic was really broadcast in 1930s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television

Well, looks like Frank came back later and said Doc Nixon beat him by six months.
http://itricks.com/news/2014/02/magicia ... elevision/ also gives it to Hermalin.

The history of what was on the earliest TV broadcasts, which were private not public, or localized in a small area, is murky. At this point I would imagine it would be impossible to come up with a definitive and provable answer about the first magician to appear on TV.