Helen Haynes

Helen Haynes was an American soprano and former Follies girl who performed on Broadway and appeared among the earliest regularly scheduled television programming in the United States. Her career spanned both the stage and the experimental medium of television in the early 1930s.

On Broadway, Haynes appeared in East Wind, a 1931 musical with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The production ran for 23 performances during that year.

Haynes also served as the subject of an early American television series bearing her name, which aired on experimental New York City station W2XAB in 1931 and again in 1932. The program ran for 15 minutes and was viewed on mechanical television sets. In its 1932 iteration, the October 8 edition of the New York Sun described the series in its section "Dramas, Plays and Soloists on Television" as a "miniature musical comedy song revue," a format that would later be recognized as the variety show genre.

The November 21, 1931, edition of the New York Sun, in its section "Week's Vision Offerings," identified Haynes as a former Follies girl and a soprano, and noted that an upcoming episode airing the following day would feature songs drawn from East Wind. This broadcast may represent the first time songs by Oscar Hammerstein II were performed on television. A photograph of Haynes appeared in the October 29, 1932, edition of the New York Sun in the section "Television Programs for the Week."

No recordings of the series survive, as practical methods for capturing live television did not exist until late 1947.