11,726 stories by "Trav S.D."
Okay, today is Louise Fazenda’s birthday; yesterday was Tom Howard’s.  I recently visited Joe Cook’s house and an exhibition about his life and career, and TCM playedÂ�…
Here’s a fortuitous find! I learned about Tom Howard only a few days ago when I saw him in Joe Cook’s Rain or Shine (1930). And got curious. He was one of the key people in…
A funny thing happens once you have seen Tammy Faye Starlite perform many different shows in many different characters: you spot the thread of her real identity flowing through all her work.…
Today is the 800th anniversary of the initial version of the document known as the Magna Carta. My son Charlie and I saw an early copy of it a couple of months ago at the Morgan Library and …
A mild setback in my genealogy journey this week. I seem to have spit wrong! They didn’t like my spit sample at the DNA testing lab so they’re asking for a do-over. I had planned…
The Mad Marchioness was amused to inform me the other day that some of the obits of the late Sir Christopher Lee breathlessly reported the interesting tidbit that “Christopher Lee was …
Today is the anniversary of the release of the all-star Keystone comedy Mabel’s Busy Day. This is one of those shorts that, rather annoyingly, nowadays gets marketed and written abo…
A quick, incestuous post about Noah Diamond’s performance as Groucho last night at the Jewish Museum. Well, it is and it isn’t (incestuous, that is). All things remaining the sam…
Filed under: African American Interest/ Blackface/ Minstrelsy, Blues, Jazz (miscellaneous), Music, PLUGS, Singers, Women Tagged: Cafe du Soleil, Renee and the Derelicts, Renee Flemings
Filed under: Acrobats and Daredevils, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Ambrose Martos, Amy G, Astoria, Bacchanal, Big Sky Works, Corn Mo, Melrose Ballroom, Miss Saturn
Poor chap! Ron Moody’s death today at age 91 will inevitably be overshadowed by Christopher Lee’s death at 93, so I want to do my bit at memorializing him. Moody specialized in p…
In case you missed our big social media push yesterday, our revival of the Marx Brother’s 1924 show I’ll Say She Is will be returning in spring of 2016, to the Connelly Theatre, …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the all-star Keystone comedy The Knockout (1914), directed by Mack Sennett. The Knockout is one of the premiere boxing comedies. …
Today is the anniversary of thee release date of the 1927 silent comedy feature Running Wild, starring W.C. Fields, directed and co-written by Gregory LaCava. In the film, Fields plays an…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks comedy Reggie Mixes In (1916). "Fresh from college". When we first met Doug he is sleeping in bed, doesn't want to…
Originally posted on hitchcockmaster:Distributor: Universal Studios Release Date: November 05, 2013 Region: Region Free Length: 143 min Video: 1080P (VC-1) Main Audio: English Mono DTS-HD Ma…
I don’t know how it’s possible that I managed not to know about Leela Corman’s 2012 graphic novel Unterzakhn until a few days ago…but I’ve always known he…
Beats hell why I’m so sad to hear about the passing of Vincent T. Bugliosi (1934-2015). I just kind of adored him. His kind of straight-arrow competence without apparent prejudice is s…
Unlike probably nearly other critic, I did not attend San Andreas predisposed to hate it, or scoff at it, or rag on it. The disaster movie is one of my favorite film genres, although p…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island USA, Julie Atlas Muz, Matt Fraser, Mermaid Parade
The other night we watched the charming 1956 movie Friendly Persuasion, with Gary Cooper, Dorothy Maguire, and Anthony Perkins, about a Quaker family whose beliefs are tested when the Civ…
Bear with me, Readers! All this reporting on my ancestry feels self-indulgent, but it’s bearing much fruit — it’s inspiring all sorts of creative writing on the side, some …
You may be seeing more of these “from left field” Beatle posts from time to time. They are bubbling up for the simple reason that, after a break of many decades, I am re-experien…
Filed under: Burlesk, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Brooklyn Babydoll, Coney Island USA, Showcase of Class, Sideshows by the Seashore
We’re a dozen years too late to this party, but a copy of Jessica Glasscock’s 2003 book Striptease fell into our hands recently and we thought it was worth a brief shout-ou…
