Monday, December 9, 2024
I don’t know who needs this information (it certainly slipped by me) but this morning I accidentally stumbled across the intel that so-called “midget wrestling”, which had been declini…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AMWhat a delightful coincidence! Liam Le Guillou’s new documentary A Cursed Man opened yesterday at the Regal Union Square and the film begins with a quote from Milton (whom we just blogged …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMWe have just passed the 350th anniversary of the passing John Milton (1608-1674). Milton died on my birthday (November 8), a nugget I intend to dine out on going forward, as is the fact that…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:32AMSunday, December 8, 2024
Irene Lentz (1901-1962), often known professionally simply as “Irene”, or later sometimes “Irene Gibbons” after her second marriage, has over 200 screen credits as a Hollywood costum…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PMWe’ve just learned from the Herald of Quietus Eve Golden that film producer Paul Maslansky has passed (1933-2024). The Maslankian oeuvre is a motley one; but in light of the fact that his …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:31AMSaturday, December 7, 2024
By my headline, I don’t mean television programming during World War Two, though believe it or not there was such a thing. The major combatants all had some version of TV up and running du…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:31AMFriday, December 6, 2024
There were at least a half dozen other people I might have written about today. I keep a daily tickler, and today’s entry contained several folks I haven’t written about, nearly all of w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AMThursday, December 5, 2024
Having just done a post on his battlefield opponent Sitting Bull, and this year marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book My Life on the Plains (1874), we thought this mig…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AMVirginia Lee Corbin (1910-1942) became a movie star twice, and was getting her toe wet in movies yet a third time when she died tragically young of TB at age 32. Corbin was the daughter of a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMWednesday, December 4, 2024
The title of this post has given me no end of agida. After all, it wasn’t precisely VON STROHEIM’S Greed which premiered on December 4, 1924. HIS version was over 8 hours long. The versi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AMOMG, in the UK they give plaques for “Comic Heritage”? What a civilized nation! December 4 was the birthday of British comedian and actor Jimmy Jewel (1909-1995). The name is virtually u…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AMTuesday, December 3, 2024
Giving Tuesday — what a dumb idea! To have every charity in the country beg for money all at the same time! I’d be interested to know if it actually works. I should think you’d have LE…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PMDecember 3 was the birthday of Barbara Fritchie (1766-1862). I don’t expect that you will know the name off the bat but I hope you at least possess a vague sense that you have encountered …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AMMonday, December 2, 2024
When working on the piece about my recently deceased colleague Kathleen Hulser I did some googling to refresh my memory about our New-York Historical Society days when I stumbled on a few ra…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:03PMWell, today is an ideal time to pick up one of my works for that show biz loving loved one in your life as a holiday gift. Major online bookdealers are offering 40-50% off today for CyberMon…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMThis story begins with a New York cabaret act based in Greenwich Village in the late ’30s and early ’40s called The Revuers. We’ve written about two alum of this unusual act: Judy Holi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMSunday, December 1, 2024
How odd to learn one day after Woody Allen’s birthday (from Eve Golden, natch) that one of Allen’s prime collaborators has passed on. Marshall Brickman (1939-2024) was a behind-the-scene…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AMThe Kabarett der Komiker (the Cabaret of Comedians, often shortened to “Kadeko”) was a Berlin variety venue which throve especially during the Weimar Era. It was founded on December 1, 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMSaturday, November 30, 2024
November 30 (it turns out) is the birthday of Woody Allen (b. 1935). We used to think it was December 1, but Allen’s recent memoir set the record straight. I originally planned a highly am…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:54PMYes, I know this photo makes him seem more like “Sinister Felton” but it was the best photo I could find of Francis “Happy” Felton (1907-1964), prior to the guise he was best known f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMNovember is Native American History Month; next year (2025) will mark the 350th anniversary of King Phillip’s War, the beginning of the end for the native people as the dominant polity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:31AMFriday, November 29, 2024
The day after Thanksgiving is always Native American Heritage Day, a day, I guess, when things are even more Native American Heritagey than they are during Native American Heritage Month, wh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AMNovember is Native American History Month; next year (2025) will mark the 350th anniversary of King Phillip’s War, the beginning of the end for the native people as the dominant polity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:31AMThursday, November 28, 2024
November is Native American History Month; next year (2025) will mark the 350th anniversary of King Phillip’s War, the beginning of the end for the native people as the dominant polity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMWednesday, November 27, 2024
All claims (by others) to the contrary, I am at most a partial historian, though I have been at it since childhood, when I was a 13 year old Junior Member of the Pettaquamscutt Historical …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMTuesday, November 26, 2024
November is Native American History Month; next year (2025) will mark the 350th anniversary of King Phillip’s War, the beginning of the end for the native people as the dominant polity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:31PMWell, our projected three part celebration of Geraldine Page (see my 100th birthday post here) got an unexpected 2.5 installment when we had the honor and privilege of attending a performanc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMMonday, November 25, 2024
Every so often (pretty rarely, in fact) it happens that a number of news items accrue that I’d love to tell the readers of this blog about, and so I bundle them together into their own suc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:36PMNovember is Native American History Month; next year (2025) will mark the 350th anniversary of King Phillip’s War, the beginning of the end for the native people as the dominant polity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMCelebration today of silent star Vera Reynolds (1899-1962) — not to be confused with Vera Ralston! Reports conflict about where Reynolds was originally from Nebraska or Richmond Virginia. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:02AMSunday, November 24, 2024
Until quite recently, Candy Darling (1944-1974) was the most beautiful male-to-female trans person most people had ever seen. She wasn’t just gorgeous, but she possessed a studied, gracefu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AM 
