11,727 stories by "Trav S.D."
One week from today! Can you think of a better way to observe the Halloween season than watching a play about a murderous ventriloquist, staged in an eerie sideshow? Featuring not only ventr…
Today marks the anniversary of the release of the classic Charlie Chaplin short The Pawnshop (1916). This comedy was made at the peak of Chaplin’s Mutual period and is full of br…
Today is the anniversary of the Hollywood premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s 1923 melodrama masterpiece A Woman of Paris. A Woman of Paris was Chaplin’s first film for United…
In October 1922, Buster Keaton released his silent comedy short The Electric House. Hired accidentally by the dean of a college to wire his house for electricity, Buster (a botanist by tr…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harry Langdon comedy feature Heart Trouble (1928). Heart Trouble is one of the great lost silent films — no surviving copy of …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks feature Manhattan Madness (1916), directed by Allan Dwan. Doug plays a wealthy young man who returns to New York f…
The lights hadn’t even dimmed on our Fringe production of the Marx Brothers I’ll Say She Is (coming back your way in 2015) when I got the joyous assignment to direct Dick D…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Comique comedy short Oh Doctor! (1917) starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton and Al St. John. …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Stan Laurel solo comedy short Roughest Africa (1923). Laurel’s best solo comedies tend to be parodies; this one is a send-up o…
Today is the anniversary of the released date of the early Harold Lloyd “glasses” comedy By the Sad Sea Waves (1917). The title may refer to any of the By the Sad Sea Wa…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks comedy The Man from Painted Post (1917). The movie is a clever twist on the usual Fairbanks formula. Instead of playi…
Tonight and tomorrow night, Alan Safier stars as George Burns in the one man show Say Goodnight, Gracie at the Queens Theatre. For info and tickets go here. Filed under: Comedy, …
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Hollywood (History), Movies, PLUGS, VISUAL ART Tagged: BROOKLYN, Cartoon Carnival, Shoestring, Tom Stathes
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Music, PLUGS, Singers Tagged: Hunter College, Jolson, Lang Recital Hall, mark York, My Dad & Me, Walter Willison, Ziegfeld Society
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Buster Keaton talking feature Sidewalks of New York (1931), co-directed by Jules White and Zion Myers. This movie was Keaton's own leas…
Earlier this summer I was interviewed by Barry Mitchell of CUNY-TV’s  Arts in the City at the Coney Island Museum. We talked about Coney, my most recent book Chain of Fools, silent …
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: New York Burlesque Festival, NYBF
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Hal Roach silent comedy Sailors, Beware! (1927). As you can see from the post, it’s a Stan Laurel starring vehicle, with Ol…
Today is the anniversary of the release date one of Charlie Chaplin’s last comedy shorts The Idle Class (1921). Though a straight up slapstick comedy, The Idle Class is also one …
I don’t know if you’ve caught wind of this, but a certain social media website upon which many or most of have come to rely for online communication has recently announced that t…
Tonight, one of my favorite NYC companies The Irish Rep starts previews for its revival of Conor McPherson’s Port Authority. I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. McPherson a few …
Today marks the anniversary of the original German release date of The Hands of Orlac (1924), the first and probably the best of the “evil hand” movies. This kind of story …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Buster Keaton’s first feature length film The Three Ages (1923). Keaton cleverly designed it as a parody of D.W. Griffith's Intole…
Today is the birthday of Billy Bletcher (1894-1979) Because of Bletcher’s small size and basso profundo voice, his was a rare career that embraced both visual comedy and voice ov…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy The New Janitor. In this Keystone comedy, Charlie plays a janitor at a bank, a situation he would revi…
