11,729 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of the great playwright Edward Albee (b. 1928) Albee is the grandson by adoption of the top vaudeville magnate Edward F. Albee whom I wrote about extensively in my book…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Jazz (miscellaneous), Music, PLUGS Tagged: Charming Disaster, Gin Party, Pete's Candy Store
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks comedy The Habit of Happiness (1916). Directed and co-written by Allan Dwan, the film once again casts Doug as the mi…
Today is the birthday of that unfathomable 20th century phenomenon known as Lawrence Welk (1903-1992). When I was a kid, Welk was the gold standard for “Old People Music We Just Didn&#…
Today is the anniversary of the release of the great Buster Keaton feature Seven Chances (1925). Seven Chances (1925) was based on a 1916 stage play by Roi Cooper Megrue which had been…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Chaplin Chaplin comedy The Champion (1915). One of his early Essanay comedies, The Champion is a nice snapshot of Chaplin in…
Filed under: African American Interest, Blackface & Minstrelsy, BROOKLYN, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS, VISUAL ART Tagged: exhibition, Freedom Fighters, Marie Roberts, Tuohy Hall
Hello and welcome again to Vaudephone, your one stop shopping for all the best contemporary variety acts, viewed through our patented retroscope. Today we feature the Bindlestiff Family C…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Circus, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Vaudeville etc. Tagged: Bindlestiff, Brooklyn Lyceum 20th Anniversary, Circus, vaudeville
Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Eastern, Turner Classic Movies is showing a most interesting artifact, Milton Berle’s 1949 film Always Leave Them Laughing. This was neither BerleR…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the Keystone comedy Tango Tangles, co-starring Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and Ford Sterling, directed by Mack Sennett. This is ano…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Drag and/or LGBT Tagged: burlesque, Gramercy Theatre, Murray Hill
Today is the anniversary of the release of Fatty’s Chance Acquaintance (1915), directed by and starring Roscoe Arbuckle. A fairly typical “park bench” comedy, it stars Arbu…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of one of my favorite films, Charlie Chaplin’s first talkie The Great Dictator (1940). By the 1930s there was no avoiding the fac…
Today is the anniversary of the release of Charlie Chaplin’s great masterpiece City Lights (1931). Despite being released well into the sound era, City Lights may be thought of a…
Today is the anniversary of the release of Douglas Fairbanks‘ last out-and-out comedy, appropriately named The Nut (1921). As I wrote in Chain of Fools, the pure distilled swa…
TFiled under: PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS, Sport & Recreation Tagged: boxing, Downtown Donnybrook, Dublin, FDNY
This just in! Â You’re crazy if you’re in the variety arts and don’t apply! Â First of May Award 2014 Bindlestiff Family Cirkus welcomes variety and circus artist to su…
Filed under: Comedy, EXHIBITIONS & LECTURES, Jews/ Show Biz, PLUGS, VISUAL ART Tagged: Drew Friedman, Old Jewish Comedians, Society of Illustrators
Today is the anniversary of the release of the Ben Turpin comedy The Shriek of Araby (1923). Turpin was one of Mack Sennett’s biggest stars during the period between his retentio…
Today is the birthday of one of Hollywood’s greatest screen villains, the ice-cold, lizard-like Henry Daniell (1894-1963). Daniell was an English stage actor who’d been on the bo…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious Laurel and Hardy comedy Any Port in a Storm (1932). In this, the boys are a couple of salts just off a whaling vessel. They c…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Mack Sennett Tri-Stone comedy Wife and Auto Trouble (1916). This was one of just a handful of silent pictures made by Broadway star …
I realize not everyone shares my perverse propensity for rubbernecking at car wrecks, so forgive me if this is the wrong advice. Tomorrow in the wee hours, Turner Classic Movies is showing a…
We stopped by Dixon Place last night to tape a couple of Vaudephones with company members of Bindlestiff Family Cirkus during the exciting preparatory moments before their monthly open mike …
