Friday, September 6, 2024
No foolin’–Leo McCarey’s younger brother Ray (1904-1948) was also a hard-working screen director, one also associated with comedies. I’m not quite sure why this is an obscure fact. L…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMThursday, September 5, 2024
Save the dates and stop the presses! For those who missed Marxfest, the Marxian fun is not yet over by a long way! I have two upcoming launch events tied to the release of my new book The Ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AMWednesday, September 4, 2024
If the Jazz Age followed hard upon World War One, no one was in more of a hurry to pivot than British stage star Billie Carleton (Florence Leonora Stewart, 1896-1918), whose sordid drug deat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AMTuesday, September 3, 2024
Thanks, Eve Golden, for the intel that James Darren (James Ercolani, 1936-2024) left us yesterday. I am going to lead with the elephant in the room, which most other obits have been either t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMMonday, September 2, 2024
September 2 is World Coconut Day! We observe it as we did with National Banana Day last year, with a little survey of key moments when the humble coconut (sometimes spelled cocoanut) has ins…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMSunday, September 1, 2024
This one goes out to my good buddy Kevin Fitzpatrick, who made me more aware than I might otherwise be of Helen Falconer Buck (1890-1968), and who enhanced her Find a Grave entry substantial…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMThis is something I only became aware of a few days ago, on a recent trip to the Museum of Modern Art. On September 1, 1966, artist Öyvind Fahlström staged and filmed a work of street thea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMBorn 100 years ago today, child star Lawrence “Sunny” McKeen (1924-1933). McKeen was only two years old when he was cast as Snookums in a series of silent comedy shorts based on George M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMSaturday, August 31, 2024
There were two generations of Tiny Littles in this miniature musical dynasty. The elder, Irvine “Tiny” Little (1902-82) was originally from Goldfield, Iowa, but eventually settled in Wor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AMFriday, August 30, 2024
Today is a banner day for lovers of early American jazz — it’s the release date for Archeophone Record’s epic new box set Centennial: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. The centenary it…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMThursday, August 29, 2024
August 29 was the birthday of exotic dancer Carol Doda (1937-2015). And learning about her has provided delights beyond the obvious. To wit: I had long wondered about when American culture t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMI think we can go ahead and call my old friends of The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus a New York institution by now. Among their many programs and activities (their Open Stage Variety Show, the F…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMDon’t get the wrong idea! I almost never take requests on this blog, maybe one time in a thousand. The fuel that this blog runs on is its author’s own whims. Has to come from me. In fact…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMBorn 100 years ago today, blues, jazz and pop vocalist Dinah Washington (Ruth Lee Jones, 1924-1963). Washington started out singing and playing piano with gospel choirs in her native Tuscalo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMWednesday, August 28, 2024
This one comes with a trigger warning, because the story gets pretty dark. In fact it approaches maximum darkness. I’ve occasionally gone there in my writing, though not so often on this b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMTuesday, August 27, 2024
Harry Hill (1827-1896) died of an August 27. The exact date of birth is not known; he was not of the class that kept careful track of such things. Hill was born in the vicinity of Epsom Down…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMMonday, August 26, 2024
August is both Women’s Equality Day and the birthday of writer Zona Gale (1874-1938). Today happens to be the 150th anniversary of her birth. As Gale was a suffragist and a feminist, the a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PMToday a long overdue tribute to that leader among the New Vaudevillians, Avner the Eccentric (Avner the Eccentric, b. 1948). I’m quite certain I first learned about Avner from the 1988 boo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMSunday, August 25, 2024
Almost everything about the real Van Johnson (Charles Van Dell Johnson, 1911-2008) is more interesting than his movie career. I’ve long wanted to give Van Johnson a nod here because he was…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36AMThe heyday of Durward Kirby (1911-2000) was just a hair before my time. I heard the name as a point of cultural reference on TV shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Phyllis and Bewitched when…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24AMSaturday, August 24, 2024
It’s a squeaker. I love Hacks, too, for example. I’m bound to throw in my two cents about that show, too, at some point. But if there is one program (do we say “television” any more?…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMJack Collins (1918-2005), not to be confused with Jack Rollins, or a Tom Collins, was not a household name, but he was definitely a household face. People my age will know him as Mike’s bo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMOur Parade of Roses growses: to Jack Rose, Harry Rose, Billy Rose, Ike Rose, Julian Rose, Broadway Danny Rose, and Max Rose, we now add Fred Rose (1898-1954). Fred Rose is basically the miss…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AMFriday, August 23, 2024
August 23 was Gene Kelly’s birthday; as my previous post on him was a bit perfunctory (it deals mainly with his family vaudeville act The Five Kellys), I thought I’d expand his footprint…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PMThursday, August 22, 2024
Tribute today to character actor Jay Novello (Michael Romero, 1904-1982). No relation to either Ivor Novello or Don Novello (since he was, as we say, a Romero), one could be forgiven for mix…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMWednesday, August 21, 2024
Born on August 21, Olive Blakeney (1894-1959), best known for playing Mrs. Aldrich in the Aldrich Family comedies (1942-44). Blakeney was a native of Newport, Kentucky; she received her thea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMTuesday, August 20, 2024
A brief squint today at the life of stage and screen actress Virginia Hammond (Louise Shumate, 1893-1972). Hammond was born into an old Virginia Huguenot family; the original spelling of Shu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PMMonday, August 19, 2024
Born 100 years ago today, the great actor William Marshall (1924-2003), best known for three pretty outre roles, that of Dr. Richard Daystrom in the 1968 Star Trek episode “The Ultimate Co…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMSunday, August 18, 2024
Born of August 18, Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Piantadosi (John Alberto Piantadosi, 1882-1955). Al Piantadosi’s early career reminds me a lot of those of Irving Berlin and Jimmy Durante; a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:08AMSaturday, August 17, 2024
Yesterday was National Roller Coaster Day, and as luck would have it I had several Coney Island appointments planned that day, so I thought I would film a little greeting from the foot of th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:50PMThis year marks the 60th anniversary of the seminal sixties rock band The Fugs. Today happens to be the birthday of one of its two main founders Ed Sanders (b. 1939) and we just passed the 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM 
