11,717 stories by "Trav S.D."
In the majestic hierarchy of blonde pin-up actresses of the 1950s, Joi Lansing (Joy Rae Brown, 1929-1972) runs fourth behind Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren, but only in…
Oklahoma native Ray Cooke (1905-1963) was 22 when he began working as a bit player in Hollywood pictures. He frequently played bellhops, sailors, messenger boys, cab drivers, chauffeurs, and…
For Eastertide: several films about the life of Jesus. There are fewer movies on this subject than you might think given the dominance of the Christian religion in America, but I think a com…
You may know Arthur Byron (also billed as A.S. Byron, 1872-1943) from some of the talkies he made towards the end of his career. He played sypporting roles in a couple of dozen pictures betw…
Disco era character actress Debralee Scott (1953-2005) enjoyed a brief time in the sun, although it must be said that during that time (roughly 1975-80) she was practically ubiquitous. Hers …
Now that we have a complete set I can share my series of stories I wrote for the Chelsea Community News for Black History Month and Women's History Month. I decided to concentrate on New Yor…
Naturally, any Marx Brothers fan worthy of the name already owns all of the Marx Brothers' starring films in one form or another, but it's going to be real handy for us lazy slugs not to hav…
For some of us, the words "Frances McDormand, Senior Citizen" sound like the clanging of a tomb door above our heads, but there it is. It was McDormand who saw a role for herself in a film a…
You don't have to be a full-fledged silent film buff to have seen Anna Q. Nilsson (1888-1974) on screen. Today her most widely seen performance is as one of the "waxworks" in Sunset Boulevar…
A tribute today to actor and nightclub comic Phil Foster (Fivel Feldman, 1913-1985). Foster was all about Brooklyn. Born and bred there, he took his professional name from Foster Avenue, whi…
Today a tip of the Stetson to Charles Starrett (1903-1986), one of the screen's unlikeliest cowboy stars. Starrett was an upper crust Yankee who attended Worcester Academy and Dartmouth. As …
My first exposure to Martin Short (b. 1950) came not on his breakthrough sketch shows of the mid '80s but even earlier, when he was the star of the short-lived CBS sit-com The Associates …
Spencer Charters (1875-1943) was a terrific character actor whom you've certainly seen in small supporting parts in a zillion classic films. He was usually cast as fussy clerks, local bureau…
In 1975, if any of my friends had said to me "Did you watch Saturday Night Live last night?" it is a dead certainty that I would have said, "You mean the show with Howard Cosell?" I was nine…
I just spent two hours trying to find the perfect image to head this post about Steve McQueen (b.1930). In my mind's eye I'm picturing something from the classic year of 1968, perhaps a stil…
The poetical prankster in me was half tempted to head this post "Milchwood", a tribute to Joyce, Dylan Thomas and Deadwood's creator David Milch all at the same time (Milch" is German for "M…
Delighted to announce that this Thursday, March 25, I'll be the guest on The Host with the Most Toddcast with Todd Newton. Newton's an amazing show biz veteran: he was the host of various sh…
Brooklyn-bred chorus cutie Suzanne Kaaren (1912-2004) had quite a journey. As a young woman she acted with stock companies, posed as a model, and kicked in the choruses of Ziegfeld and Radio…
I have a confession to make. My fandom, even with respect to my favorite obessions, is flighty. I binge, I max out, I'm filled to the brim, and then I have to stay away for a while. It may b…
March 20 is French Language Day as declared by the United Nations, and that's no small thing around my house. Both my wife and I have been brushing up on the literal Lingua Franca as one of …
As a former Reason contributor I was delighted to see its editor Nick Gillespie on last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, although as I wrote here, Maher himself has long since worn out his…
I had already contemplated doing a thing on Hillbilly Elegy but dismissed the notion, but now that Glenn Close has been nominated for an Oscar, I thought I'd go ahead and weigh in, as I'm in…
Well, the other shoe has done gone and dropped in our little Kathryn Fuller Seeley"Jack Benny book plunder period. A month ago we took Jack's birthday as occasion to plug her scholarly tome …
Five: that's roughly the number of minutes I was able to stand Will Ferrell's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). "No man this age should ever waste his life doing this" …
Ted Adams (Richard Theodore Adams, 1890-1973) had an unusual background for a guy who played villains in B movie westerns for decades. He was "born in a trunk" to a pair of traveling vaudevi…
