11,714 stories by "Trav S.D."
A few words today on actress Peggy Stewart (Peggy O'Rourke, 1923-2019). I always take special note when I see her in anything, for the completely random reason (which you'd have no reason to…
For someone with such a large legend, Rosalind Russell (1907-1976) left a suprisingly small footprint: 55 screen credits (ten or a dozen of them in supporting parts) over four decades, avera…
I'm sure I'm not unique in having been introduced to Carol Ohmart (1927-2002) through her memorable performances in two key horror/exploitation films, William Castle's House on Haunted Hill …
Chester Dolphin (Charles H. Dolphin, 1907-1986) was a minor show biz figure to be sure, but knowing about him adds color and depth to our overall portrait of American variety entertainment. …
A few words today on the topic of Count Alessandro do Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo, 1743-1795), familiarly known as Cagliostro. I had occasion to mention Cagliostro in my book No Applause, a…
I found myself stalled this morning, wondering "What can I write that's worth writing about on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre?" It's an event most of my friends and colleag…
I have been a fan of Chris Elliott (b. 1960) since the beginning, the early to mid '80s, when he began making frequent appearances on sketches on Late Night with David Letterman. On the show…
I am a huge fan of the antic Welsh character actor Hugh Griffith (1912-1980). My favorite performance of his, and the one that first made me take notice, was his kinetic loose-cannon turn as…
Australian-American ventriloquist Clifford Guest (1911-2002) sometimes billed himself as a "ventro impressionist" or "polyphonist", meaning, in addition to the expected routines with dummy p…
Broad and yet ambiguous is the legacy of stage and screen figure John Emerson (Clifton Paden, 1874-1956). This is because for many key years of his career, he was part of a creative partners…
Tribute today to Jazz Age star Zelma O'Neal (Zelma Schrader, 1903-1989.) Chicago native O'Neal started out in a vaudeville act with her sister. She could sing, dance, play the piano, and do …
May 29, 1743 was the date of birth of Johann David Wyss (d. 1818), known solely today, if at all, for a single literary effort, The Swiss Family Robinson, published in German in 1812, transl…
Look what I found awaiting my butt this past weekend! Fully vaxxed as of a couple of weeks ago, I hazarded my first physical trip into a theatre since early 2020, in order to review a play, …
A shout-out today for comic Al Bernie (Alfred Bernard Price, 1920-2003). Bernie hit the ground running in show business when he was still a teenager. A gifted impressionist, he started out a…
Isabelle Keith's (1898-1979) chief claim to fame is in being one of only two actresses to have played both Mrs. Laurel and Hrs. Hardy in Laurel and Hardy comedies. She's the former in Perfec…
Could there be a better name for a fictional classic comedy star than Dorothy Christy (1906-1977), seeing as how it combines the surname of Al Chistie with the given name of all those comedy…
Today we celebrate the universally beloved puppetmaster Frank Oz (Frank Oznowicz, b. 1944). What a magical and sly surname forshortening, eh? To imply a connection to that magical place with…
It is with with an unprecedented amount of hometown pride that I share this post about classic era sword swallower Marie De Vere (Marie Ellmore, 1874-1941). I've written about countless perf…
Bob Dylan turns 80 today. Â I've somehow managed to write a couple of pieces about him here without talking much (not at all, really) about his records. One was about the Rolling Thunder R…
Patricia "Tricia" and Priscilla "Cyb" Barnstable are a pair of identical twin actress/models from Louisville, Kentucky, born May 23, 1951. They are the daughters of college basketball star D…
May 22 is World Goth Day " the perfect time to extol the virtues of Becoming Bettie Page, for it seems to be me you can draw a line from those dark beatnik bangs of Bettie Page's to those of…
John LaZar (b.1946) has always blamed his freaky, over-the-top role as Ronnie "Z Man" Barzell in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) for his inability to secure a proper, legi…
Magician Tom Selwyn (1878-1950), often billed simply as Selwyn, was a man of both America and the British Empire. Though his parents were British, he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and s…
If you're like I was, you've seen Richard Libertini (1933-2016) on screens dozens of times, even recognized him, and even laughed at his performances, without really knowing who he was. My s…
Many's the time I've looked on a silent comedian's get-up and thought of Tin Tin's Thomson and Thompson, but never more so than with respect to Charles Dorety (1898-1957). It turns out that …
