11,723 stories by "Trav S.D."
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Betimes we have had occasion to back into a subject rather than proceed in the customary direction. Thus we have written about Ruby…
A little attention today for a family of actors whose heyday was the early 20th century. It all starts with Bob McKenzie (1880-1949) an Ulster-Scot from County Altrim who moved to his family…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. The bulk of our content here has to do with classic show biz, but ya know? In Living Color is now nearly 30 years old — I hea…
Actor Edward Arnold (Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, 1890-1956) was simultaneously owlish, shifty-looking and possessed of an excellent baritone voice, a perfect combination to play shady l…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. I was young when when George Kirby (1923-1995) hit the peak of his fame (1972), and his plunge to obscurity thereafter was so rapid…
George Givot (Yuri Givistinsky, 1903-1984) was a performer who qualified as a star, or close to it, in his own time, but whose name has gotten swallowed up by time. Born in Ekaterinos…
Sol Lesser (1890-1980) was one of the most successful of the independent producers during the classic studio era and there are many reasons to celebrate him. Originally from Spokane, Lesser …
February 17 is the birthday of miracle man Kuda Bux (Khuda Bukhsh, 1905-1981). As a teenager, Bux learned the secrets of professional magic from a certain “Professor Moor”, but w…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. A brief-shout for African American jazz/ pop composer Harvey Oliver Brooks (1899-1968). Philly-born piano man Brooks started his ca…
Texas-born Louise Byrdie Dantzler (1906-2002) was discovered at age 16 by Esther Ralston in a local beauty pageant whilst residing in Long Beach California. Ralston brought her to the attent…
My Sonny and Cher coverage has been crazily piecemeal ’til now; I’ve done a post on Sonny, one on Cher, and one on their 1967 feature film Good Times. Betwixt ’em …
Strange to have written about Buddy Lester, before his older and more consequential brother Jerry Lester (1910-1995) but sometimes that’s just how the gookie grumbles. Like his kid bro…
Today in 1907 was born the late sideshow eminence Melvin Burkhart. I was about to call him a “sideshow giant”, but of course there are literal sideshow giants, so calling Burkhar…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. For good or for ill, today the name James Baskett (1904-1948) has been overshadowed by his most famous role, that of Uncle Remus, w…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Here’s an interesting artifact of the ’70s. Roll Out (1973) was a sitcom about a mostly African American army supply un…
A brief plug for People in a Magazine, Joseph Goodrich’s new volume of the collected correspondence of S.N. Behrman (1893-1973) with his editors at The New Yorker. If you’re like…
It’s bewildering that we haven’t yet done a post on Harold Arlen (Hyman Arluck, 1905-1986) this late in the game, given that he wrote some of my (and America’s) favorite so…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. This TV Guide ad from the early 1970s promoting the TV premiere of Nothing But a Man is significant because it marked the fi…
I am just the right age to be starstruck by three child stars of a family named Shea who enjoyed high recognition in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Today is the birthday of the mid…
Abergavenny, Wales was the site of a curious and weighty coupling. There it was in 1890 that local teenager Miriam Kate Williams (1874" 1946) met women’s gymnasium owner William Hedley…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Julia, which ran on NBC from 1968 through 1971 was the first network television series to star an African American woman in a setti…
Comedienne and actress Kate Price (Katherine Duffy, 1872-1943) was a happy discovery this morning. Though I’d seen her in many things, but I hadn’t realized that she was the olde…
Another post for Black History Month; it also happens to be Blue’s birthday. Edgar “Blue” Washington (1898-1970) had an unusual path into the movie business. Prior to s…
A peculiar phenomenon of the latter days of the 19th century and early days of the 20th, was the existence of performers who ONLY worked in the recording industry. I’ve come across num…
William Collier, Jr. aka Buster Collier (1902-1878) was a major star of the silent and Pre-Code eras. The most interesting fact about him coming out of the gate is that he was actually Charl…
