As we noted here, here , here and here, 2015 marks the centennial year of W.C. Fields‘ first entry into pictures (Pool Sharks) and his debut with the Ziegfeld Follies. To mark the o…
Fans of W.C. Fields know that throughout his 41 films he always played some version of his irascible self, usually with one of the following variations: 1) a middle-class small town everyman…
Filed under: African American Interest, AMERICANA, BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Burlesque at the Beach, Coney Island, The Emancipation of Kitty…
I heard last night from the grapevine that Barbara Vann, Founder and Artistic Director of Medicine Show Theatre passed away a few days ago. I didn’t know her, but I knew her work, and …
Filed under: Buster Keaton, Comedians, Comedy, Comedy Teams, Hollywood (History), Marx Brothers, Movies, PLUGS Tagged: Buster Keaton, Iola Kansas, Marx Brothers
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy short His New Profession (1914). This film is quite distinct from His New Job, Chaplin’s first film …
Friend Noah Diamond just returned from a Marx Brothers fact finding mission at the Smithsonian, and brought back this 1925 quote from Groucho neither of us knows what to do with, but is to g…
This is a little mental fantasy project I’ve been working on since I was a teenager, which no self respecting Beatles nerd should be a stranger to: a speculation about what a NEXT Beat…
As we’ve blogged about previously, many of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution and one of the major battles was fought right in my neighborhood.  Making it virtually m…
Today is the birthday of Tin Pan Alley songwriter L. Wolfe Gilbert (1886-1970). Born in Odessa, he moved to the U.S. in his youth and broke into vaudeville in the first decade of the twentie…
Today is the birthday of Edwin J. Burke (1889-1944). We cast a wide net betimes for our Stars of Vaudeville series. Only rarely do playwrights make it here, but some do, and some have. Burke…
The theme of this Sunday’s sermon is Temperance. If you’re one of the two people who’ve been closely following this earth-shattering series of posts on my lineage, so far w…
A quick-shout for two exhibitions I caught over the weekend at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both seemingly calculated to appeal to this correspondent. Having just finished reading Mark Tw…
The Internet is an amazing thing. When memories fail, it can sometimes help us recover the facts with a clarity that startles. For example, I now know that July 21, 1979 was the first time I…
August 25, 1873 was the natal day of actress Blanche Bates, best known for her long years with David Belasco’s stock company where she created the female leads in the original producti…
Today is the birthday of Viola Richard (1904-1973). Â The entirety of her short career in films consisted of roles in silent Hal Roach comedy shorts between the years 1927 and 1928, normal…
Today is the birthday of dancer and stage and screen actor Mary Hay (Mary Hay Caldwell, 1901-1957) . An army brat, she was born at Fort Bliss, Texas. Her start in show business came about fr…
Today is the birthday of Daniel Frohman (1851-1940) oldest of the three Frohman brothers, who helped revolutionize theatrical production in the U.S. With his brothers Charles and Gustave, he…
Happy Friday! Because people love nothing more than comedy that depresses them, I thought I would do a little post today about the sad exits of several classic comedy stars. By sad, I meanÂ…
I don’t really know how to describe this so I’m just going to show some pictures and connect you to some links! Um…they have these artists’ residencies on Governor…
5:00pm (EST):Â Little Murders Today is Alan Arkin day on TCM, and as everyone I’ve ever met agrees, Alan Arkin is one of our great comic actors, and has quietly, diligently maintaine…
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve let my “Forgotten Shows” series languish for nine months! Just plum forgot about it. But I’ve wanted to do a post on The Great Grap…
Opera soprano Emma Trentini (1878-1959) was brought to the United States from her native Italy in 1906 by Oscar Hamnerstein to appear at his Manhattan Opera House. She soon began appearing a…
For someone so legendary in his own time, tantalizingly little information is readily available about Joe “Banjo” Roberts. (If anyone out there has more information than we have …
Orville Harrold (1878-1933) was a rare singer in that he had extensive credits in opera, operetta, musical theatre and vauideville (i.e. moving freely up and down between “high” …