11,732 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). I find I like the idea of him more than I like most of his paintings, but there are a handful that I love. I happen to love Christ…
Today is the birthday of Jean Hersholt (1886-1956). A graduate of the Copenhagen Art School, his first acting experience was with the Danish Folk Theatre. After a couple of early movies in G…
I chanced to see a charming and magical show yesterday that’s opening tomorrow in the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The Awakening of Angel Deluna goes the average excellent musica…
Graphic artist Marlene Weisman was a tremendous help to us in photo research for Chain of Fools. We went to a showing of her beautiful collages last night at Powerhouse on 8th in Park …
Originally posted in 2010 and adapted from my liner notes to Nat M. Wills: The Famous Tramp Comedian, available to purchase at Archeophone Records here Nat M. Wills was one of the most…
Today is the birthday of ventriloquist Jay Johnson , best known for his role on the ABC sitcom Soap. I had the honor of meeting him a couple of times in 2006, interviewing him…
Originally posted in 2009. Harry Kellar is still remembered fondly as the Dean of American Magicians, and he is also the first in a long line of Harrys. Born Heinrich Kellar on this day …
Today is the birthday of the conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy (1851-1912). Born into slavery in North Carolina, they changed hands several times in their early childhood, finally w…
The genius of Fred Gwynne, like the genius of Shakespeare is best appreciated in relief. If you only him know by his masterpiece, the supremely silly creation Herman Munster you cannot…
As we customarily write about old school pop culture here, and my theoretical next book (a couple of years away) is about westerns, we felt obligated to see the new Lone Ranger reboot, as di…
Today is the birthday of the great visionary inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the mind behind AC electrical distribution, radio (including remote control), radar, x-rays, and futuristic sc…
Today is the birthday of the awesome Arlo Guthrie (b. 1947). The son of Woody, friend of Bob Dylan, he had a few memorable hits of his own, the most epic of which is the unspeakably awesome …
Today is the birthday of Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen, 1907-1941), pre-eminent exponent of the Piedmont style of country blues. His blindness began in his teenage years and was complete by…
Originally posted in 2009. (Today is the birthday of Noble Sissle). Apparently composing ragtime causes you to live to be a hundred. Like Irving Berlin, Eubie Blake also managed to hi…
 Today is the birthday of screen comedian and actor George “Slim” Summerville (1892-1946). A tall, lanky scarecrow of a character, Summerville was originally from New Me…
Today is the birthday of Adele Rowland (1883-1971). Born and raised in Washington DC, she was already appearing in musical comedies on Broadway by 1904 and was a near-annual fixture on the G…
Today is the birthday of Chester Augustus Wright (1890-1980). From the late 1910s through decades afterward he traveled with his own self-contained tent show that toured the rural east coast…
A few days ago, I did a birthday post about Dan Aykroyd and how his film career has been but a shadow compared to the brilliance of his performances on Saturday Night Live in the mid to l…
Opening tonight: RuPaul’s Drag Race Winner Jinkx Monsoon in The Vaudevillians. From the description: “Throughout the 1920′s Kitty Witless and Dr. Dan Von Dandy toure…
Clarence E. Willard (1882-1962) was billed as “The Man Who Grows Before Your Eyes”. By manipulating his spine (elongating and contracting the space between his vertebrae) he coul…
Today is the birthday of silent screen actor Cullen Landis (1896-1975). The Nashville native began his career in 1916 at the age 0f 18 and was a popular leading man through the end of the si…
Today is the birthday of Cecile Arnold (Cecile Arnoux, 1893-1931). Having grown up in St. Louis and Fort Worth she reportedly became a Ziegfeld girl, before being hired by Mack Sennett in 19…
Born in Germany in 187, Olympia DesVall was an equestrienne who performed not only with horses but also a troupe of trained dogs, and later birds. In written accounts, the animals were sa…
Originally posted 2010 Harry Von Tilzer was one of the most successful of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters, not just because he wrote songs that defined the era (e.g., “A Bird in a Gil…
Yea, verily the Redness of the Bastard is like unto the Whiteness of the White, White Whale. Red Bastard (learn all about him here) used to breathe the soot of New York City along with the r…
