11,727 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the anniversary of the release date of W.C. Fields’ last and craziest starring vehicle Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). The film is virtually plotless stream-of…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s first feature film The Round Up (1920). Arbuckle was one of the first of the slapstick comed…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of one of Charlie Chaplin’s best Keystone comedies, Those Love Pangs. In this comedy, it’s rutting season. In the opening section Charlie…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of The Lucky Dog (1921). This is the first film which features the talents of both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, although it is six years befo…
Today is the anniversary of the Laurel and Hardy comedy Great Guns (1941). This is the team’s first comedy for 20th Century Fox (following 13 years working for the man who put th…
In side shows, the “blow off” is the promised added attraction that lures you to the egress. It usually turns out to be lame, but it’s too late — you can’t go b…
Tomorrow morning at 7:30 Turner Classic Movies will be showing Sally (1929), Marilyn Miller’s first film, one of only three she made before her untimely death in 1936 (for more o…
Tonight I will have the rare privilege of being one of the few people on earth to come home from his job at the FREAK SHOW to go watch the premiere episode AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SH…
Today is the anniversary of the silent comedy short The Second Hundred Years (1927), starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. This is an interesting one, because the two men were not yet…
I recently realized that June of 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of my first trip out to Coney Island. When I made that venturesome daytrip in 1989, Â I’d only been living in NYC fo…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Betty paige, Gemini and Scorpio, Kita St. Cyr, The Art of Paigie
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy short Busy Bodies (1933). Busy Bodies is one of my favorite Laurel and Hardy movies, it is so chock full of gags, a…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the landmark Warner Brothers motion picture The Jazz Singer (1927) starring Al Jolson. The fame of this film is perhaps greater than…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy comedy Early to Bed (1928). The film is semi-silent. Very early in the sound era, it has a musical score, and some …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the great Buster Keaton short The Play House (1921). The Play House is most famous for its existential first half, in which Kea…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Mae West’s I’m No Angel (1933).  I’m No Angel was the follow up to West’s smash hit She Done Him Wrong,…
Today is the birthday of Louis Jean Lumière (1864-1948). Along with his brother Auguste (1862-1954), he was one of the principal inventors of the art of cinema. If a practical joke or pr…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Eddie Cantor movie Whoopee! (1930). Cantor’s first talking feature, it was an adaptation of his hit 1928 Broadway stage show; …
 Today is the birthday of silent film comedian Jimmie Adams (1888-1933). Originally from Paterson, New Jersey, Adams had started out in minstrelsy, musical comedy and melodrama before be…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Eddie Cantor’s first film Kid Boots (1926). We previously had a good chuckle upon learning that the Marx Brothers had originally c…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Half Shot at Sunrise (1930). In this one, the boys are a couple of dough boys AWOL in Paris during Wor…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy Shanghaied (1915). In this funny Esssanay comedy, Charlie plays a poor shlub who loves the daughter (Edna Pur…
Today is the birthday of Frederick Chase Taylor (1897-1950), a.k.a Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle. His partner on radio from 1930 through 1937 was Wilbur Budd Hulick (1905-1961). Together t…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of W.C. Fields’ second film, the 1915 silent short His Lordship’s Dilemma. Long thought lost (and still thought lost by many), a p…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the great musical comedy film Palmy Days (1931) starring Eddie Cantor, Charlotte Greenwood and the Goldwyn Girls (Toby Wing, Betty Grable, Pau…
