11,726 stories by "Trav S.D."
Tonight and tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies is turning out some heavy Frank Sinatra rotation. There’s lots I could write about here (Dirty Dingus McGee, anyone?) but I would be re…
We’d say we are excited for our friend Molly Crabapple, but she doesn’t need our excitement. She is now officially an international global force of nature. Some people just tap i…
This may shock you, but so be it. By inclination, I’m not a preservationist, at least not a radical one, really about anything. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that I have a t…
Yes — I am perhaps TOO excited to report that tonight Turner Classic Movies will be showing four “Ma and Pa Kettle” comedies. These rural comedies starring Percy Kilbride a…
Here’s irony for ya — the motive force behind Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008, the major exhibition of Coney Island inspired art now ensconced at the Br…
Today is the birthday of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (1835-1910). He’s an important writer for me in many ways, as he is for everybody, though I couldn’t call him my very f…
I’m wishing all YOU Scotsmen a happy St. Andrew’s Day because, well, after a lifetime of thinking myself pretty darn Scottish, I have learned otherwise. The “S” in &#…
Some charming Thanksgiving cartoons by my first cousin thrice removed: Filed under: AMERICANA, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, Thanksgiving, VISUAL ART Tagged: cartoons…
Filed under: Art Models/ Bathing Beauties/ Beauty Queens/ Burlesque Dancers/ Chorines/ Pin-Ups/ Sexpots/ Vamps, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, Hollywood (History), Thanksgiving, Wo…
Fear not, Pilgrims. I have a stake in this venerated holiday. By “carve” I don’t mean “hatchet job”. More like a dissection, a picking apart for the purposes of…
As we blogged here yesterday, a new feature length film of the popular web series The Sisters Plotz premieres tonight at Anthology Film Archives, presented by New York Women in Film an…
Nu, I should kvell about Plotz? Well, I predict that I will. A new feature length film of the popular web series The Sisters Plotz premieres tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives, presen…
Just following up on yesterday’s enthusiastic plug for Saints and Strangers to pull back a little. I’ll probably watch part two tonight, but I’m indifferent as to whether I…
Tomorrow is the birthday of the great Boris Karloff. Appropriately, Turner Classic Movies will celebrate the day with a number of his classic gloomy features. 6:00am (EST): The Mask of Fu Ma…
Tonight and tomorrow, the National Geographic Channel will be broadcasting the premier their two part telefilm Saints and Strangers: Surviving Plymouth. This is the first Thanksgiving…
Today is the birthday of Charles Mack (1887-1934), the senior and more comical member of the blackface vaudeville comedy team “Moran and Mack”, a.k.a. “Two Black Crows̶…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Mack Sennett produced short Her Painted Hero (1915). In this early Polly Moran comedy, Polly moons around a stage door hoping …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy A Night in the Show (1915). This short from Chaplin’s Essanay period is extremely interesting for…
I never regret a single minute spent in the company of the Mad Marchioness. In fact, when we are apart I am so inconsolable that I must fill the moments as best I can with healing laughter. …
Very saddened just now to Google somebody I admired only to learn that he died eight months ago. Character actor Dan Von Bargen passed away back in March. He was one of several top flight ac…
Today is the birthday of Lester Allen (1891-1949). Allen originally hailed from Utica, New York which leads me to suspect that he got his start on the upstate New York-based Proctor Circuit …
November 16, 2005 was the official pub date for my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous. How did it come about? Trying to chase the true genesis of…
Today is the 200th birthday of the trailblazing Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). I feel compelled to celebrate my family connection to this salutary specimen of humanity if only to off…
Continuing the post from yesterday’s thread… Tuesday, November 10 Today was our last day in New Orleans, but we managed to squeeze in some last minute sightseeing. 711 Royal Stre…
Continuing our thread from yesterday… Monday, November 9 After breakfast at the Deja Vu Bar and Grill  we took a ride on the paddlewheel steamboat the Creole Queen to the near…
