11,723 stories by "Trav S.D."
Sam A. Scribner (1859-1941) was born on this day. Scribner is best known for founding the Columbia Amusement Company, a.k.a. the Columbia Wheel or Eastern Wheel, the cleaner and more profita…
A tribute today to stage and screen actor Barney Bernard (1878-1924). Originally from Rochester, Bernard was a “Hebrew” comic in vaudeville, burlesque, Broadway musicals and sile…
Tomorrow marks the 125th birthday of the late stage and screen writer and comedienne Mae West. Appropriately we are launching West Fest, our Mae West festival on that day, with a ceremon…
It’s Indian Independence Day! This one goes out to my son, who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime by spending several months in that storied, ancient nation. I thought I…
A little tribute today to a distant cousin of mine, Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863-1940), best known for his comic 1888 poem “Casey at the Bat”. Thayer was the son of a wealthy woo…
Character actress Alice Ghostley (1923-2007) was born on August 14. No doubt you already know where you know her from, and we’ll hit that, but honestly Ghostley was a woman of so many …
A tribute today to Marion Lorne (Marion Lorne MacDougal, 1883-1968), best known to American audiences as the adorable, doddering character “Aunt Clara” on the sitcom Bewitched fo…
West Fest, our multivarious celebratory festival for Mae West opens this week! And it was our good fortune to have Jim Moore of Vaudevisuals point his trusty camera at festival co-organizer …
This post came out of a conviction that the name “Dan Curtis” ought to be a household word, at the very least as a horror auteur, beyond the small circle of aficionados who rever…
A tribute today to that great New York character Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917). I feel like I’ve known about this legendary personage my whole life; the only way I can imagine I’…
Okay it’s undoubtedly odd that I’m doing a post about the later British actress Anna Massey (1937-2011) prior to one on her father Raymond Massey, but there’s one coming…
August 11 was the natal day of tv talk show host and big band singer Mike Douglas (Michael Delaney Dodd, Jr., 1920-2006). A post on this minor show business figure has most assuredly not bee…
It’s Coney Island History Day today, prompting me to ask: WTF happened to Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel? As a Coney Island aficionado I was hugely excited about the advent of this f…
It happens to be World Lion Day! While our favorite King of Beasts is naturally Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz, we thought of another way to pay tribute to the day: several moments in classic…
“Come in, — Come In! And know me better…” — The Ghost of Christmas Present As my good fortune would have it, I found myself spending six hours on buses and trai…
Foxy V (Alicia Buxton) was once Foxy Vermouth; that was the only name I knew her by when she had a show-stopping bit in our earliest workshop versions of I’ll Say She Is in 2014, inclu…
A post in conjunction with our upcoming West Fest, the Mae West Festival in NYC, Aug. 17-29, 2018. It’s National Book Lovers Day! May we suggest these excellent tomes about ever…
I’ve been sitting on this gem for months; we share it today in conjunction with our upcoming West Fest, the Mae West Festival in NYC, Aug. 17-29, 2018. In August 1970, Mae West …
Ben Model and Undercrank Productions have rocked my world yet again! Last night I watched their jaw-dropping new release, The Kinetophone! A Fact! A Reality! (available to the public t…
August 7 is the birthday of that great Jazz Age figure Gene Buck (Edward Eugene Buck, 1885-1957). Detroit-born Buck originally gained fame as a cover illustrator for Tin Pan Alley sheet musi…
Yesterday’s talk on Coney Island and Burlesque at Coney Island USA was a smasheroo thanks to a full house and a great performance by performing partner Vexy Minx a.k.a Enshara, whom th…
Charlie Chaplin’s mom (1865-1928) was born on August 6. The daughter of a London shoemaker, her birth name was Hannah Hill. At age 16 she went into music hall and changed her name to L…
Just got the news that Charlotte Rae has died at age 92. The jolly, effervescent, stout little ball of talent is best remembered for her character Edna the housekeeper on Diff’rent Str…
Having had occasion to refer to her a few times, today just a very few brief words on the great Latin beauty Dolores Del Rio (MarÃa de los Dolores Asúnsolo López-Negrete, 1904-1983)…
A brief shout out today to the great comedy writer Mel Tolkin (Shmuel Tolchinsky, 1913-2007). Born in a Jewish shtetl in the Ukraine, Tolkin moved to Montreal with his family when he was 13.…
