11,729 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of “Captain” Herbert Roman Gustav Proske (1898-1972). Â The child of Viennese aristocrats he ran away from home at age 13 with no other aim than becoming …
Today is the birthday of Maurice Barrymore (Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe (1849-1905). Born a British colonial in India, he chose the theatre as a career against his family’s wish…
Today is the 75th birthday of one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the United States, the Great Hurricane of 1938. Because Ground Zero for the destruction was my home state of Rhod…
John Bunny was America's first comedy star, and the first in that long line of beloved comedy fat men, a lineage that would include Rosco "Fatty" Arbuckle, Oliver Hardy, Jackie Glea…
I’ve kicked myself many a time over the past decade and a half (not daily, but more than once) for having missed Assurbanipal Babilla’s monologue Something Something Uber Alle…
Today is the birthday of the great comedy writer and directer Clyde Bruckman (1894-1955). For many years, Bruckman seemed to have almost a charmed career. After having only contributed to a …
Originally published in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great actress/comedienne Anne Meara, best known as the female/ Irish/ tall half of Stiller and Meara. Stiller and Meara were p…
Today is the birthday of the great Broadway showman John Murray Anderson (1886-1954). Anderson was a kind of Renaissance man of theatre and film: dancer, director, producer, designer writer,…
Today is the national release day of Shane Salerno’s new documentary about J.D. Salinger (he also released a related book ). This is a fitting time to recall (and thanks…
Today is the birthday songwriter Roy Turk (1892-1934). He started out in vaudeville writing special material for the likes of Nora Bayes, Sophie Tucker and the team of Rock and White. Among …
Today is the birthday of Patricia Collinge (Eileen Cecilia Collinge, 1892-1974). Dublin born Collinge strated out as a child actress, debuting at London’s Garrick’s Theatre in 19…
Today is the birthday of the great British impresario Brian Epstein (1934-1967), the man who got the Beatles signed by EMI, sparking the “British invasion”, and largely influenci…
Join Horse Trade in celebration of its 15th birthday with the remounting of one of Horse Trade’s first productions – “Something Something Ãœber Alles.” David Cote, …
Today is the birthday of Marshall P. Wilder (1859-1915). A hunchbacked dwarf, he was a clerk at a commercial firm around 1879 when he began performing humorous monologue for extra money, ini…
Originally posted in 2012 “Mama” Cass Elliot (born today in 1941) is, to me, what it’s all about. There’s no doubt in my mind that if vaudeville had stayed around ano…
Originally posted in 2011 Lovey Austin (born this day in 1887) was a college-trained blues piano player and band leader who worked in black vaudeville, night clubs, movie theatres and …
Ben Turpin is most famous today as a humorous show biz footnote: he's the wall-eyed silent film comedian who once insured his peepers against uncrossing. But he was more than that. By some m…
How excellent is this? The very thought puts a spring in my step, makes me a little more optimistic about the world. R & J is opening at the Richard Rodgers Tonight. And of course it has…
Today is the birthday of multi-talented songwriter, singer and actor Paul Williams (b. 1940). Williams has had a career most people would drool over: his hit songs of the early 70s (“A…
Today is the birthday of Adam West (William West Anderson, b. 1928). West had been a hack actor in Hollywood for a dozen years before becoming a parody of a hack actor in Batman …
Today is the birthday of Roger Wolfe Kahn (1907-1962). The son of millionaire industrialist and patron of the arts Otto Kahn, he had plenty of backing to start his own orchestra in 1923 at a…
Today is the birthday of Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977). Hired by Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount) in 1923 to be their answer to the Latin Lover craze, he was actually named Jacob Krantz, …
Today is the birthday of Noah Orr (1836-1882). Standing 7′ 3″ in stocking feet (but nine feet in his military boots and hat), he went to work for P.T. Barnum’s American Mus…
Originally posted in 2010 Indelibly identified with the character "Rochester", Jack Benny's raspy-voiced, wisecracking comic butler on radio and tv from 1937 to 1965, Eddie Anderson ha…
Time once again for the NY Clown Theatre Festival, ensconced at the Brick Theater, September 18 – September 29. For all the details go to:Â http://bricktheater.com Filed under: Clown…
