11,729 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious Harry Langdon short Saturday Afternoon (1926). I think it’s safe to say this film is the most widely seen of Lang…
Warning: I absolutely always include spoilers, so now’s the time to turn back if you must. Is The Baby the weirdest movie you will ever see? Let’s just say it’s likel…
As part of TCM’s month long salute to Joan Crawford, tonight and tomorrow morning they will be showing three camp classics starring the high strung actress, from her late, “thick…
Today is the birthday of Mary Eaton (1901-1948), best remembered today as the ingenue in the Marx Brothers film The Coconuts (1929) and as the sister of the “Last Ziegfeld Girl&#…
Today is the birthday of Mary Boland (Marie Anne Boland, 1880-1965), best known and loved for playing ditzy and/or dumb wives and mothers, usually wealthy ones in high society (or pretentiou…
February 15, 2014 at the Brooklyn Lyceum February 2014 marks the centennial anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s first movies! To celebrate this landmark, Trav S.D. will screen Chaplin's f…
I was excited to complete a piece of my education today. Like all good classic comedy fans I’d long since seen all of Mae West’s pictures through My Little Chickadee (1940)…
One of about a half dozen movie vehicles of the radio comedy team Lum and Abner (Chester Lauck and Norris Goff ), Two Weeks To Live (1943) is one of those strange animals that just wig…
Oggi è il compleanno del più eccellente attore caratterista Vito Scotti (Vito Scozzari, 1918-1996). I know I say everyone is one of my favorite character actors, but Vito Scotti truly is…
Tonight at midnight on Turner Classic Movies, a particular favorite of many New York City loving silent comedy fans, Harold Lloyd’s Speedy (1928). Counterintuitively, given that …
No assessment of 20th century screen comedy would be complete without some mention of character actor Charles Lane (Charles Levinson, 1905-2007). I call him the original one, because there i…
We found ourselves mostly disappointed by the much-hyped Lifetime movie Lizzie Borden Took an Axe staring Christina Ricci as the titular (accused but acquitted) axe murderer. We can be…
 Tonight (tomorrow morning really) at 12:15am on Turner Classic Movies Rollercoaster. One of the last of the original 1970s cycle of disaster movies, owing debts especially to Earth…
Filed under: SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Flute, Red Hook Ramblers, Wit's End
Filed under: AMERICANA, Indie Theatre, Music, PLUGS Tagged: Hard Times, Larry Kirwan, Stephen Foster
I am very excited: tonight at 6:15pm E.S.T. Turner Classic Movies will be showing this camp classic. I’ve not yet seen it, but have known about it for years through the good graces of …
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: burlesque, Champagne Riot, Cutting Room, Dandy Wellington, Gelber and Manning
Today is the birthday of Eva Shirley (Eva Schainbaum, 1891-1982). Shirley began her singing career on the Lower East Side where she was born, built her own orchestra which played everything …
Unless the news I received about a couple of hours ago is some kind of sick prank, a good friend has passed away. Dan Jagendorf was as good as they come. In a very short time he became a tru…
We are pleased to present the next installment of our ongoing series of experiments in silent and slapstick comedy film.  Too Much Nutcracker is my tribute to what I call the “ob…
 Good news! Volume 2 of Ben Model’s popular “Accidentally Preserved” series of rare silent film comedies is now out and available to purchase. As with Volume 1 this is …
Today is the anniversary of the release of Buster Keaton’s 1923 comedy short The Balloonatic, co-written and directed with Eddie Cline. This is a very episodic film…I found it …
Today is the birthday of that great star of German Expressionist cinema Conrad Veidt (1893-1943). Veidt was sort of the German equivalent of Lon Chaney, and is most highly regarded today as …
Today is the birthday of Constance Collier (Laura Constance Hardie, 1878-1955). Most of us know her strictly from her late career Hollywood roles in films like Stage Door (1937), We…
Could there ever be a more deceptive advertisement? Far from being the funniest comedy in history, it must rank with the unfunniest. It’s definitely among the worst of Keaton’s f…
