11,730 stories by "Trav S.D."
Filed under: SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Governor's Island, Jazz Age Lawn Party
An office in the vicinity of Carnegie Hall, circa 1989.  The telephone rings. RECEPTIONIST (ME. early twenties. Answers, cheerful, singsong): Good morning, Tony Bennett’s offic…
Originally posted in 2010 Mae Clarke (born Violet Mark Klotz on this day in 1910 in Philadelphia) took dancing lessons as a kid. Discovered by a producer while dancing in Atlantic City’…
Today is the birthday of magician Channing Pollock (1926-2006). Inspired by Mexican magician A.J. Cantu he became interested in magic as a young adult, and like Cantu he would be famous for …
Caught the first of the handful of shows I’ll be seeing in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival. WREX is an attempt to reimagine Sophocles’ Oedipus …
Today is the birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). One of the most important cinematic and theatrical experiences of my youth was the time my dad took me to see the roadshow of Abel Ga…
THE GLANDSCAPE ARTIST: RUSS MEYER August 15 " August 25 Today is opening day of this killer series at Anthology Film Archives. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Faster, Pusscat! Ki…
Originally posted in 2009 A lot of kid acts fade away long about puberty and are never heard from again. Some, like the great Jackie Coogan, benefit from the obscurity wrought by inter…
Originally posted in 2009 Today is the birthday of Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), the Barrymore with the largest footprint in vaudeville. Barrymores aren't just Barrymores, but come with a who…
Today is the birthday of Henry Richard “Huntz” Hall (1920-1979). My father used to say Huntz Hall was one of his favorite comedians, and I believe you’d hear a surprising n…
Today is the birthday of of the great American songwriter Charles Tobias (1898-1970). Raised in Worcester Massachusetts along with his brothers Harry and Henry (who also became Tin Pan Alley…
I’m going through a bit of a course correction on how I market Chain of Fools going forward. Left to my own devices to promote it, I’ve had to conceive and execute a campai…
Originally posted in 2009. (Today is Robert Woolsey’s birthday) Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey weren't actually a vaudeville team but a vaudevillian and a musical comedy star who were…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday (1945) of a man who may be the supreme neo-vaudevillian of the late 20th century, Steve Martin. Would this man have headlined at the Palace? O…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Broadway Brassy, Mo Better Burlesque, Mo's Fort Greene
Today is the birthday of Jeni LeGon (1916-2012), one of the first African American women to make a solo career in tap dance. She was already a professional by her teenage years, dancing in a…
Today is the birthday of the great Hollywood director Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). I am unavoidably dating myself by stating the wild fact that for the first 15 years of my life Hitchco…
In my book No Applause I referred to Pink Lady and Jeff as “the ignominious end of the line” for tv variety shows. From the heights of Ed Sullivan came a downward sli…
Today is the birthday of comedy director Sam Taylor (1895-1958). Unfortunately he is best known today for a notorious anecdote — that he was once credited on the 1929 Fairbanks-Pickfor…
To the casual show biz buff, Buddy Rogers has always been a big WTF. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, after a long affair, cause a huge scandal by divorcing their spouses and getting mar…
Originally posted in 2009 Anyone who has ever been a child knows and adores Bert Lahr for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. For sheer bizarreness, it would be h…
Today is the birthday of Annie Oakley (Phoebe Ann Moses, 1860-1926). Raised dirt poor in rural Western Ohio, she was trapping and using firearms for hunting from age eight to help support he…
Easily one of the most bizarre comedians to infiltrate the annals of comedy, Joe (“Ooooooo, cut it out!) Besser (born this day in 1907) is also (though many people don’t know …
Originally posted in 2010. Alfred Lunt (born this day in 1892) is best known as one half of the famous acting team with his wife Lynn Fontanne. During the almost four decades of their jo…
Originally posted in  2009 Today is the birthday of Gus Van.  Van and Schenck were BIG, man — they were right on top in the nineteen teens and twenties (their best pal was …
