11,726 stories by "Trav S.D."
I think we can all agree that Italians and Italian-Americans rule. I come from Rhode Island, which is the closest thing America has to an Italiocracy. I grew up thinking beauty looked like P…
Continuing our month-long series of classic horror posts launched here, today we survey several films from the 1930s and 40s that are centered around sinister monsters and villains who schem…
Today is the anniversary of the release of the Marx Brothers’ comedy A Night in Casablnca (1946). A Night in Casablanca is the Marx Brothers’ come-back movie, made five yea…
Continuing our month-long series of classic horror posts launched here, today we survey Universal Pictures’ Mummy franchise. The fact that today also happens to be the birthday of t…
I’ve only lived in New York for over 25 years — without ever getting around to visiting the home of Edgar Allen Poe, one of my favorite writers. New Yorkers, you know the reason …
This is Part Two of our post from six months ago, a report of our first excursion out to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx to pay our respects to the vaudeville stars, et al. Read that ac…
Tonight (tomorrow) at 12:45am (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing perhaps my favorite of the many cinematic versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jeky…
Today is the birthday of legendary cinematic auteur Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Read our full article on this amazing individual here). Â We therefore devote today’s installment in our Hall…
Continuing our series of horror posts for the Halloween season, and seeing as how it is Wally Brown’s birthday, if you’ll excuse my using this expression in a zombie context, pos…
Sunday at 2pm at Pace University’s Schimmel Center: Harold Lloyd’s classic feature length silent comedy The Freshman (1925) with music by the one and only Ben Model. …
Tonight on TCM: several cool horror flicks about body parts run amok, gone AWOL, or gone awry! 8:00pm (EST): Mad Love (1935) An exquisite remake of the silent classic The Hands of Orlac.�…
Today is the birthday of Rube Marquard (1886-1980). Marquard was a legendary pitcher for the New York Giants, Boston Braves, Brooklyn Robins, and one non-defunct team, the Cincinnati Reds. H…
Tomorrow Morning at 8:30am (EST), Turner Classic Movies will be screening the Marx Brothers classic Horse Feathers. As you may have seen in my earlier post, several Marx Brothers movie…
Today is the birthday of the great character actor Edward Andrews (1914-1985). You probably don’t know the name, but I’ll lay dollars to donuts you know that FACE! God, how I lov…
Tomorrow, at Washington County Fairgrounds in Rhode Island, Swamp Yankee Days will once again see the light of day. I cannot tell you how happy I am that this relatively new annual festival,…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Vaudeville etc. Tagged: Brevities, Carol Bradshaw, Proctors, Schenectady, vaudeville
“It’s just like comedy!” Todd Robbins always quips in his act, and hearing about his new show True Nightmares , which premiers on Investigation Discovery next Wednesd…
Filed under: Uncategorized
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. In honor of Nance O’Neil’s birthday and the Halloween season upon us, I thought I would do a little post about great screen a…
Filed under: Burlesk, PLUGS, VISUAL ART Tagged: Drink and Draw, The Parlor
Today is the birthday of Nance O’Neil (Gertrude Lamson, 1874-1965). O’Neil was a major stage and screen star of her day, called “the American Bernhardt“, managed by M…
Tomorrow at 6:00am (EST) on Turner Classic Movies, to kick off their day-long program of train movies, they will be showing Buster Keaton‘s The General (1927). Unthinkable as …
Today is the birthday of Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875). Â I learned about this astounding person through genealogical research. I am distantly related to him through our mutual ance…
Continuing our month-long series of classic horror posts launched here, today we survey Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein franchise. As we know there have been countless reboots o…
Today is the birthday of Richard George “R.G.” Knowles (1858-1919). Technically, Knowles was Canadian by birth, though his parents were American and he was raised in America (his…
