Monday, January 1, 2024
Even among Little People actors, Verne Troyer (1969-1918) ranked as extraordinary. Standing 2′ 8″ (two and 2/3 feet) he made actors like Billy Barty or Michael Dunn seem unremarkable. He…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PMMickey Mouse is always in the news, but in recent weeks that truth has stepped up a notch in light of a timely development: as of today, the earliest versions of Mickey have lapsed into the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AMSunday, December 31, 2023
We had no sooner gotten wind of the death of Maurice Hines and were mulling some sort of comment on the sad event (and–Ye Gods–its 20 years since we lost Gregory) than the news arrived t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AMPeggy Davis (Mary Margaret Laird, 1899-1931) left behind few fans but many questions when she drove her car off a 600 foot cliff at the age of 31. The Birmingham, Alabama native had been sin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48AMToday’s post concerns Everett Marshall (1901-1965) the star of musicals, not Everett Marshall the professional wrestler, who was almost exactly the same age. Originally from Lawrence, Mass…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32AMSaturday, December 30, 2023
The stage and screen couple of Joe Bologna (1934-2017) and Renée Taylor (Renée Adorée Wexler, b. 1933) are top of mind at the moment, as they were in the movie Tango Shalom (2021) with my…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMFriday, December 29, 2023
Ya see what I did there? 23 — it’s just like the chromosomes! As we are wont to do this time of year, we take a look back on what we’ve accomplished during the preceding twelvemonth. D…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:06PMDecember 29 was the birthday of the late Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017). When Moore passed away (yipes, seven years ago) I dashed off a tribute that was grief-stricken and glowing but a little…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMThursday, December 28, 2023
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s last birthday (he passed away in February, 1924). We’ve previously done posts on Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosev…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMWednesday, December 27, 2023
Very sad to be the bearer of the news that Tommy Smothers has left us at the age of 86. He embodied so much that I love. Springing out of the culture of the folk music revival of the ’50s …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMA salute today to German-Jewish comedic actor Sig Arno (Siegfried Aron, 1895-1975). Originally from Hamburg, Arno started out as a stage comedian and began appearing in silent films as early…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMTuesday, December 26, 2023
Released this day in 1973: William Peter Blatty‘s The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin. An unholy spectacle for Boxing Day! I was 8 when this groundbreaking movie came out; it’s di…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMMonday, December 25, 2023
The Sting was released this day in 1973 — 50 years ago. I had just turned 8 when the film came out. It was definitely one of the key films in that heavy period of Hollywood nostalgia of th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMEarle Foxe (1891-1873) made his mark in two completely different callings. Originally from Oxford, Ohio, he followed his older cousin Robert T. Haines into the acting trade, gaining his firs…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AMSunday, December 24, 2023
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Martin Lane (1823-1897), a Harvard Latin Scholar who wound up playing an unlikely and small role in pop culture. A Boston native, Lan…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMSaturday, December 23, 2023
As we reported back on St. Nicholas Day, today marks the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the Clement Clarke Moore poem A Visit from St, Nicholas, or ‘Twas the Night Before …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AMThe above photo depicts Harry Shearer (b. 1943) as I first became aware of him, as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, as a replacement for the void left by John Belushi when he left to be…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:42AMWe are delighted to be in receipt of the 11th hour news that New York’s Film Forum will be presenting Charlie Chaplin features all week, beginning today with a newly restored print of A Wo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:36AMFriday, December 22, 2023
December 22, 1949 is a cherished date, or ought to be, for fans of classic comedy, vaudeville, and Buster Keaton. It was on that date that Buster made his television debut on The Ed Wynn Sho…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMDecember 21 is the birthday of talk tv pioneer Phil Donahue (b.1935). How perfect that this guy with the wintery hair was born of a winter solstice. This won’t be a celebration, per se, be…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMThursday, December 21, 2023
We are delighted to discover this morning that, in addition to being the Winter Solstice, December 21 was the birthday of British author Anthony Powell (1905-2000). I first learned of this a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMWednesday, December 20, 2023
What follows was adapted from a talk I cooked up in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the epic comedy movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (November 7) as well as the centennial anni…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PMAnd how will YOU be celebrating the centennial of the birth of writer/director/ producer Rod Amateau (1923-2003)? If you’re like most people, finding out who he was! I am quite certain I b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMTuesday, December 19, 2023
Yes, it’s true: Jean Genet (1910-1986) shared a birthday with Edith Piaf and Barbette! Now, that’s a three-way I’d watch through any peephole! Genet was a 20th century literary giant, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMMonday, December 18, 2023
That’s right! Thomas Abthorpe Cooper (1775-1849). Wanna make something of it? Most people (or many people) would guess Edwin Forrest, but he was just America’s first native-born stage st…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PMIf you’re like me, you are apt to mix up Gladys Cooper (1888-1971) with Alice Cooper, and, folks, don’t do that. They had very different acts. Most Americans know Cooper for her Hollywoo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PMSunday, December 17, 2023
As it happens today (December 17) is International Day to End Violence to Sex Workers. I mention this more to marvel at the synchronicity than to imply that Filthy Lucre, Jonny Porkpie’s b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMJust a brief squib to mark the 130th anniversary of the birth of the great German stage director Erwin Piscator (1893-1966). Along with his sometime colleague Bertolt Brecht, Piscator was on…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMA look today at the much-neglected progressive Southern author Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987), born 120 years ago today. Caldwell was decidedly not neglected in his own time; that’s the whol…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMSaturday, December 16, 2023
A proper post today on Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973), our previous one being of the perfunctory sort from the early days of the blog when I was much less ambitious about the sort of things I …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMFriday, December 15, 2023
I’ve been sitting on this news impatiently for months and am so glad to have the greenlight to leak it (with the aid of Noah Diamond’s premium artwork): May 2024 will see a bright, shiny…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM 
