11,732 stories by "Trav S.D."
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Mistress B, Super Fun variety Show, Sweet Soubrette
Today is the birthday of the great Hollywood character actor Walter Brennan (1894-1974). When still a student in his native Massachusetts Brennan got his first professional experience in loc…
Today is the birthday of silent screen comedian Johnny Hines (1895-1970). He started out in the legit theatre as a teenager, spending about five years on the boards before beginning his film…
Today is the birthday of Maxfield Parish (1870-1966). The Duchess is far better qualified to write a post on this subject than I ever could be. But I take a back seat to no one in my love…
Today is the birthday of David Belasco (1853-1931), a towering figure in the American theatre. He was playwright, director or producer (sometimes all three) of nearly a hundred plays in his …
Today is the birthday of Lila Lee (Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel, 1901-1973). Billed as “Cutie Cuddles”, she got her start performing in Gus Edwards’ kiddie act in va…
Trav S.D. (American Vaudeville Theatre) and a High Kicking Chorus of Cuties recreate burlesque as it was in Coney Island’s early 20th century glory days, and a salute to Mack Sennett&#…
The great puppeteer/ one-man theatre company Kevin Augustine (Lone Wolf Tribe) has just announced his fundraising campaign for a new season that will include shows at La Mama and Dixon Place…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island, The Loose Caboose, Throwdini
Today is the birthday of comedienne Ruth Buzzi (b. 1936). I’ve always felt a special connection to her because she was born in the same hospital as me (Westerly Hospital, Rhode Island)…
Bert Nelson (Cardbert Nelson Snyder) worked with big cats in vaudeville, circuses and films in the 20s and 30s. Nelson learned how to train large carnivores at L.A. area zoological parks lik…
Today is the birthday of Arthur Treacher (1894-1975). We don’t usually bother celebrating fast food magnates on this site, but Treacher does possess some relevance to our usual t…
Today is the birthday of one of the first female tin pan alley songwriters Blanche Merill (Blanche Howard, 1895-1966). Sometimes working with collaborators, Howard wrote special material and…
Opening tonight in the NY Musical Theatre Festival (nymf.org) is  Castle Walk, a new musical about Vernon and Irene Castle. And if you don’t know who the Castles are, shame on yo…
Today is the birthday of Bobby Sherman (b. 1943). Sherman is one of the last of a long line of old school teen heart throbs that goes back in a way to Rudy Vallee, leading through Bing Crosb…
Today is the birthday of the great American realist painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hopper painting that I haven’t loved. Â We reviewed …
Today is the birthday of Ernest R. Ball (1878-1927). One of the great songwriters of the tin pan alley era, he was also fortunate in his associations, having co-written “When Irish Eye…
Today we celebrate the birthday of the great film director James Whale (1889-1957). While chiefly known, revered and loved for his gothic horror films (infused with a layer of dark humor and…
Today is the birthday of Gus Elen (Ernest Augustus Elen, 1862-1940), one of the first of the so-called “coster comedians” of the English music hall. A cockney lad himself he had …
Today is the birthday of the great circus impresario John Robinson (1807-1888). Those dates are a matter of controversy (some give as early as 1802) as is the place of his birth a matter of …
Today is the birthday of Jesse Donald Knotts (1924-2006). Our big revelation is contained in the photo above. A West Virginia farm boy, Don Knotts began his performing career as a ventriloqu…
Today is the birthday of the legendary Harry Relph, a.k.a. “Little Tich” (1867-1928), star of English music hall and pantomime, and a much loved guest artist in American vaudevil…
JOE LAURIE, JR. "THE PINT-SIZED COMEDIAN" Remembered today as "the Homer of Vaudeville" because of two important books he wrote on the subject, Laurie is much more important to posterity for…
Today is the birthday of the prototypical American stage Irishman, Chancellor “Chauncey” Olcott (1858-1932). Starting out in minstrel shows, he had moved up to Broadway by the tu…
Elsie St. Leon (1884-1976) was one of the pre-eminent equestriennes of her day, a star of both circus and vaudeville. A third generation member of an Australian circus dynasty formed …
