11,723 stories by "Trav S.D."
The ascent of Clarine Seymour (1898-1920) in the film business was nothing short of meteoric, like a ladder with several, clear rungs leading only upward. It must have seemed to good to be t…
Los Angeles native Mark Jones (1889-1965) had been an acrobat prior to joining the Hal Roach comedy factory in 1919, appearing in over 70 films in 7 years. He was mostly a supporting player …
Los Angeles local Elmer Booth (1882-1915) was 28 when he was cast in his first Biograph role, in The Oath and the Man (1910) starring Henry B. Walthall. Whether he was related to the famous …
Sammy Cohen (1902-1981) had quite a substantial career in movies, and yet I only find the odd reference to him here and there " this may be the only honest-to-God article on him to be found …
That Lloyd "Slim" Andrews (1906-1992), sometimes billed as Arkansas Slim, was born and died in Gravette, Arkansas is not an incidental detail in his biography. He built an entire career on h…
Just a very few words of tribute for Scottish music hall clown Tommy Lorne (Hugh Gallagher Corcoran, 1890-1935), who has been called "the funniest stage Scotsman of all time" and, more tempe…
Bronx native John Tyrrell (1900-1949) was only 16 when he went into vaudeville as part of the team Tyrrell and Mack, which performed dance routines and crosstalk, with Tyrrell taking the str…
You will be evincing true variety connoisseurship if you demonstrate a familiarity with British comedian Will Hay (1888-1949). The son of an engineer, Hay saw W.C. Fields juggle in a Manches…
Eleanor Holm (1913-2004) is one of that small "school" of swimming entertainers that includes Annette Kellerman, Esther Williams, Johnny Weissmuller, and Buster Crabbe. Her career was limite…
Vermont native E. Mason Hopper (1885-1967) performed in vaudeville and with stock companies, played pro baseball, and studied at the University of Maryland before becoming a successful…
Joyce Mathews (Jane Isabelle Mathews, 1919-1999) is normally presented as a footnote in the lives of others. Today we give her her own spotlight. According to studio publicity, Mathews was t…
On this day in 1876 occurred the second worst theatre fire in U.S. history (and New York's worst): the Brooklyn Theatre Fire. I first became aware of this disaster in the most moving away po…
Well, now! I didn't plan it this way but the year 2019 has been perfectly framed for me by Necromancers of the Public Domain. I started the year by performing at Theater of the Apes wonderfu…
I first came across the name Hassan Ben Ali in Joe Laurie's Vaudeville book, where the author calls Ali and his troupe "the best of the alley oop acts" " meaning the best of the acrobatic ri…
The demise of Paul Bern (Paul Levy, 1889-1932) has long ranked with those of William Desmond Taylor and Virginia Rappe as one of the great Hollywood crime riddles, with many explanations as …
A toot of the train whistle today to country cornpone comedian Rufe Davis (Rufus Davidson, 1908-1974). The Oklahoma farmboy started out as a member of the Weaver Brothers and Elviry's large …
This month TCM will be devoting several days to screening multiple versions of films that have been remade once or more. As luck would have it, I was already working on this related post abo…
I never had the pleasure (and by universal account it was one) of seeing the late Julie Harris (1925-2013), on stage, her true domain. I am a huge fan of hers now, but it took me awhile to g…
The long career of Ethel Shutta (1896-1976) has several distinct phases: 1) childhood in vaudeville; 2) young womanhood on Broadway; 3) middle aged woman on radio and singing with big bands;…
Some brief words of tribute for African American character actress Etta McDaniel (1890-1946), younger sister of Sam McDaniel, and older sister of Oscar winning Hattie McDaniel. Etta started …
Mary Martin (1913-90) is certainly one of the first performers I knew primarily as a stage star. This is because she's only in a handful of movies, none of them blockbusters or enduring clas…
The identical Connor Twins, Velma (1906-1987) and Thelma (1906-1981) hailed from Hornbeck, Vernon Parish, Louisiana. The harmonizing sisters toured big time vaudeville with a Gus Edwards rev…
Note this morning on character actress Josephine Whittell (1882-1961). Born Josephine Cunningham, either in Tucson or San Francisco, Whittell started out as drummer in an all-girl band in Sa…
Other than that he was born on November 29, and that he was an eccentric dancer, I've been able to learn almost nothing of Al Norman (Samuel Newman, 1906-99). He was from New York and was ni…
When television began to dominate American lives in the 1950s, it made possible an unprecedented phenomenon: fame untethered to accomplishment. Well-known people would be booked for the endl…
