11,726 stories by "Trav S.D."
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, Jazz (miscellaneous), PLUGS Tagged: Aldo Perez, Glen Heroy, Jazz Bastards, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Pete's Candy Store, Williamsburg
Continuing with our Halloween month series of classic horror posts, today a survey of the horror films of RKO producer Val Lewton. Lewton is an interesting transitional figure, generally pra…
As always, TCM is bringing much classic horror to the table all throughout October this month in celebration of Halloween. This is what’s on the menu tonight and into tomorrow: 8:00pm …
Today is the birthday of Laura Augusta “Janet” Gaynor (1906-1984) — no relation to Mitzi or Gloria. Gaynor’s career straddled the late silent and early talking cinema…
Continuing our month long series of Halloween Horror posts, today we take a look at the subgenre now informally known as “psycho-biddy”, or sometimes, less succinctly as “G…
Filed under: FOOD & DRINK CULTURE, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Absinthe, Green Fairy, KGB, Red Room, tasting
Continuing on with this month’s contributions to our horror exloration, a look at the films of William Castle. Castle had been a director at Columbia since 1943, but though he’d …
In preparation for the lead up to the Halloween season  (and spurred on by the fact that I have learned I am related to him, and also by recent walking tours I’ve taken with Rory Ra…
Filed under: Halloween, Horror (Mostly Gothic), Indie Theatre, Saloons Tagged: festival, Frigid NY, H.P. Lovecraft, Horse Trade, Kraine, radio, radiotheatre
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Dime Museum and Side Show, Halloween, Horror (Mostly Gothic), PLUGS Tagged: BROOKLYN, Coney Island USA, Creepshow, Dick Zigun, Dirty Work at the Waxworks…
I can’t plug this exciting new venture enough. More evidence of the revolutionary times we live in, and an example of one of its most positive manifestations: the democratization of ac…
Tomorrow, in celebration of Buster Keaton’s birthday, starting in the early morning TCM will be showing a selection of films by the comedy master. It is an interesting selection, compr…
I came across the photo below on ebay about eight months ago, and I’ve been saving it up ever since then for Halloween month. It cleared up a riddle I’d stored in the back of my …
Originally posted on Fairweather Lewis: Stukeley Tillinghast, so the story goes, was a prosperous Rhode Island farmer around the time of the Revolutionary War. He and his beloved wife were t…
Today is the birthday of my (16th) great grandfather, Richard III of England. Â (Lest this raise a skeptical eyebrow, an important factor is that, so many generations back, one has thousan…
TCM is wasting no time getting into the Halloween spirit this season — only the second of the month and here they are with a program of three classic Universal Frankenstein films plus …
Today is the birthday of Groucho Marx. I’ve done over a hundred blogposts on the Marx Brothers as a team; but very rarely focusing solely on my favorite comedian (okay, he vies for the…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the classic Charlie Chaplin short The Pawnshop (1916). This comedy was made at the peak of Chaplin’s Mutual period and is full…
Today is the birthday of the late George Peppard (1928-1994). Peppard’s checkered acting career came in a series of well-known peaks and valleys, with the peaks occurring at rough ten …
Happy Halloween! I know it is only October 1, but I can’t wait. I’ve come to think of the entire month of October as Halloween MONTH, and I know the chain drugs stores will back …
We are very excited to report that our friend Todd Robbins’ show True Nightmares on the Investigation Discovery network, has been renewed for a second season and that the season premie…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: 2016, New York Burlesque Festival
Today is the birthday of William Conrad (John William Cann, 1920-1994). Conrad was one of those figures I frequently write about who were cheated of respect by their times. Conrad was a show…
Tomorrow night, Turner Classic Movies wraps up its monthly slapstick series with a look at the 1980s and beyond. It’s a notably strong line-up, and heartening to those who care about t…
Just got wind that the “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis has passed away. Â An interesting dilemma for his afterlife: shouldn’t his “heaven” be some …
