11,727 stories by "Trav S.D."
December 18, 1937 was the release date of the Mae West comedy Every Day’s a Holiday, directed by Eddie Sutherland. From a certain perspective it is the last proper Mae West starring ve…
December 18, 1915 was the release date of Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque on Carmen . Chaplin's last official film for Essanay, Â Carmen would represent the fruit of his dawning ambition…
December 19, 1927 was the release date of the lost film Two Flaming Youths starring W.C. Fields and Chester Conklin. For a period of a few months Paramount tried the pair as a team, hoping t…
Arthur Frank Wertheim, author of the excellent Vaudeville Wars, has just released part one of his new, comprehensive two volume book on the career of W.C. Fields…just in time for…
December 16, 1916 was the release date of The Matrimaniac, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Constance Talmadge. This is one of the most physical, action-packed Fairbanks comedies, the whole pi…
Thanks Tricia Vita and Jim Moore for tipping me off to this great new book about the theatres of Coney Island. I’ve long known about the work of Cezar Del Valle – he is THE go-to…
Long time readers know of my ambivalence to the shopworn vehicle A Christmas Carol, expressed here a year ago in this epic post: http://travsd.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/too-many-chri…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin short A Days’s Pleasure (1919). Critics have always panned this uncharacteristic little film; I find it intere…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Larry Semon feature length comedy The Perfect Clown (1925). The plot concerns a young clerk who is charged with the task of deliveri…
Tonight starting at 8pm Eastern, Turner Classic Movies will be showing a perfect pairing of what remain two of the best cinematic Dickens’ adaptations to date. David Lean’s 19…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy holiday classic Babes in Toyland a.k.a March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934). I’d never heard of this film until t…
Today is the anniversary of the American release date of Laurel and Hardy’s last film, the notorious Utopia a.k.a Atoll K a.k.a Robinson Crusoeland (released in the U.S.…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy short Angora Love (1929). This is the team’s last silent short, and was released after several of their talki…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy Fatty’s Magic Pants a.k.a Fatty’s Suitless Day, starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle…
Tonight (tomorrow, really) at 12:30am (EST) on Turner Classic Movies, Buster Keaton’s comedy The Cameraman (1928). The Cameraman was Keaton’s first film as an MGM con…
Today is the birthday of playwright Marc Connelly (1890-1980), member of the Algonquin Roundtable, frequent collaborator of George S. Kaufman, and 1930 Pulitzer Prize winner for the first al…
Today is the birthday of silent movie comedian Albert Austin (1882-1953). Austin’s movie career as an actor was confined almost entirely to the films of his fellow Karno alum, Charl…
Just a few words of enthusiasm for Mink Stole’s terrific holiday show, now playing at the Laurie Beechman Theatre through December 14.  OMG! It’s Christmas is a funny, freq…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Living Room, Sweet Soubrette
Today’s earlier post about A Country Hero makes me think today might be a sensible day to post this little survey I’ve been sitting on about important silent comedies that …
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Comique film A Country Hero (1917), starring and directed by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, and also featuring Buster Keato…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the classic W.C. Fields short The Dentist (1932). Along with The Fatal Glass of Beer and The Golf Specialist this film ranks…
Today is the birthday of silent film actress Carol Dempster (1901-1991). We tend to think of her as D.W. Griffith’s equivalent of Linda McCartney. Griffith fell for her hard, the rest …
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the classic 1934 Hal Roach spook comedy The Live Ghost starring Laurel and Hardy. The Live Ghost is a classic “haunted shipR…
Tonight (tomorrow morning actually) on Turner Classic Movies, at 1:15am (EST), they will be showing the Mack Sennett feature length comedy Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919). This WWI-e…
