11,729 stories by "Trav S.D."
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great dancer Charles “Cholly” Atkins (1913-2003). Buffalo native Atkins started out playing floor shows and revues with …
Originally posted in 2011 Adolph Behrend (a.k.a. “Salerno”, b. this day in 1869) is known for several things: * He was one of the originators of the style known as “gentlem…
Today is the birthday of Lily Morris (Lilles Mary Crosby, 1884-1952) a great singing comedienne in the English music hall who also scored big in American vaudeville. She started out in panto…
Today is the birthday of the original Singing Cowboy Gene Autry (Orvon Grover Autry, 1907-1998). Autry was a one man empire, star of radio, movies, television and the recording industry, and…
Today is the birthday of Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935). He is rightfully known as the wildest, most objectionable, most downright diabolical of all the first generation of rock and roll performe…
Bevan is the One on the Right Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of silent comedy star Billy Bevan (1887-1957). The Australian native began performing as a child and spent…
Today is the birthday of Fred Russell (Thomas Fredick Parnell, 1862-1957) often known as the Father of modern ventriloquism (he is often said to have been the first to use a dummy on the kne…
Come in your finest vintage or vintage-inspired attire to Wit's Endâ„¢ and dance and drink Prohibition era cocktails and end the summer in style with live hot jazz from The Red Hook Ramb…
Today is the birthday of the great American playwright Elmer Rice (Elmer Reizenstein, 1892-1967). While he wrote dozens of successful plays, Rice’s reputation today rests principally o…
Every Sunday in September TCM has shown dozens of works by Alfred Hitchcock from morning until…well into the next morning. It’s not the entire canon, but it’s enough …
Just got word that one of our few living vaudevilians, Star of Vaudeville #773 John Calvert has passed on at the age of 102. The Indiana native was inspired to take up magic by a boyhood tri…
Today is the birthday of Al Capp (1909-1979), genius behind the long-running comic strip Li’l Abner. I wanted to share two Capp-related clips today. The first you may have …
Today is the birthday of character comedian Arnold Stang (1918-2009). He started out when still a teenager in radio (with that voice, who’d have guessed?) In the 50s he was a reg…
Originally posted in 2010 Ed Sullivan (born this day in 1901) is the primary preservationist of vaudeville and its aesthetics into the post-vaudeville era, keeping old school variety shows b…
Sunday, September 29 (following 2pm matinee performance) Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor The Kellys of Vaudeville Following the matinee performance of George Kelly's Phil…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Illusionists, PLUGS Tagged: Cardone, Joe the Shark, R Bar, Sharkbite Sideshow
Originally posted in 2010. When I was about four or five years old, my dad brought us to a company picnic that featured a funny magician and puppeteer to entertain the children. For some…
Originally posted in 2009 Aside from being a great magician, Blackstone is noteworthy for bridging the gap between the classical age of magic at the beginning of this century, and the televi…
Today is the birthday of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriter Vincent Youmans (1898-1946). The privileged son of a prosperous hat manufacturer, he attended Yale briefly then worked on Wall Str…
Originally posted in 2011 Ella Shields (born this day in 1879) was a male impersonator and a rare American export to the British music halls. A Baltimore native she started out in a sister a…
Originally posted in 2010 Born this day (according to some, including himself) circa 1867-1871, cartoonist Winsor McCay is much revered today for his highly whimsical, dreamlike comic strips…
Not-So-Tough Guy Raft Dancing with Carol Lombard Originally posted in 2010. Like fellow Hollywood tough guy James Cagney, George Raft started out as a hoofer. And before that? Let…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great George Gershwin (1898-1937). Surprisingly, Gershwin’s own career bypassed vaudeville (our usual subject on this blog) almos…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: New York Burlesque Festival
Today is the birthday of the great radio singer Vaughn DeLeath (Leonore Vonderleith, 1896-1943). Plus-sized DeLeath dropped out of Mills College in the 1910s to sing professionally in vaudev…
