11,726 stories by "Trav S.D."
This afternoon on Turner Classic Movies, the Gildersleeve comedies. Radio comedian Harold “Hal” Peary (1908-1985) created his popular radio character Throckmorton Gildersleeve on…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934), directed by Jay Sandrich. This is rated one of the team’s best comedi…
The roots of the comedy western genre are surprisingly early.  Casual movie fans are apt to think the genesis might lay with Laurel and Hardy’s Way Out West (1937) or, God for…
 Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe Arbuckle comedy Fatty’s Plucky Pup (1915). This was one in a series of comedies in which Arbuckle co-starred…
Having done a previous post about 50 Funny Football Films, and planning a similarly epic one about baseball, as a stopgap, here is survey of Hollywood golf comedies through history. Click on…
Wow…I can’t believe I Â haven’t gotten around to plugging this book or even rating it on Goodreads (a lapse which I just addressed). I guess I first read this book in the…
With the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920s, there was a rush on for Hollywood studios to sign big New York vaudeville and musical comedy stars. For a brief while they were trying …
In celebration of Pride Weekend (now upon us) and today’s Supreme Court decision in favor of same sex marriage, a quick mini-post to connect you quickly to posts on Travalanche …
Originally posted on Once upon a screen...:You can find a wealth of movie history sites in a town near me, places where the movies and movie genres were born and the players who spearheaded …
Originally posted on Silver Embers:There is a scene in Sam Fuller's Forty Guns when Barbara Stanwyck sits at the head of a dinner table. She is the only woman; a formidable presence surround…
We were privileged last night to attend the launch event for the premiere edition of Spaz Comics, brainchild of editor/publisher Rik Sansone. The Mad Marchioness is represented in this volum…
Well…surely not the last blogpost EVER about bio-pics, but the last in my series that began here, here, here and here. This one covers films made from 1970 on, and like the rest in the…
As we blogged here over the weekend, Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of W.C. Fields’ debut with the Ziegfeld Follies, where over the course of just over a decade he would explore a…
Today is the birthday of Lee Moran (1888-1961). Moran got his start performing in vaudeville and musical comedy, breaking into films at the Nestor  company in 1912. After three years on h…
Today is the birthday of the great Hollywood auteur Billy Wilder (1906-2002). Much like Preston Sturges, some of Wilder’s best work as a screenwriter was written previous to his ascens…
Today is the first day of summer! Yesterday the Mad Marchioness and I launched the season in the best way possible: by being judges in the 33rd annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, produced b…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of W.C. Fields’ debut in the Ziegfeld Follies, one of many major stepping stones of his career. Broadway revues were the customary career rung between…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the 1915 Charlie Chaplin comedy Work. This is an interesting example of Charlie the low comedian: in his early years there were many…
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies, as part of their program of “dad’s on boats” they will be showing is the Buster Keaton feature Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), co-directed b…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Mabel’s Married Life (1914), directed by Mack Sennett and starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand. In this film Charlie pla…
We need to talk. That’s all anyone’s been saying since yesterday. Last night, my significant other and I heard at least three groups of people passing by our open window, all tal…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: BROOKLYN, Bushwick, Cobra Club, Force Majeur
As I’ve blogged about recently, I’ve been re-engaging with a lot of old music lately and hearing and appreciating elements I’d not heard in the past. The Beatles and Paul M…
Today is the birthday of 19th century performer William H. (“Billy”) West (1853-1902). We call him “another Billy West” to distinguish from two others…the silen…
Two exciting stories to report; both have probably already exploded their way through every contact I have on social media, but for those who missed them, here they are: Variety reported yes…
