11,734 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of silent screen comedienne Dorothy Devore (Alma Inez Williams, 1899-1976). Originally from Texas, she moved with her family to the LA area when still in school. Her fi…
Charlie Murray hailed from Indiana but became known in Hollywood for playing a direct-from-Ireland Irishman. Born on this day in 1872, he started off in circuses and then performed as …
Tonight at 9:30 pm: the long awaited first lighting of the lights on the Coney Island Parachute Jump, Borough President Marty Markowitz’s long-awaited pet project. Will it look as good…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Marches, Music, PLUGS, Rock and Pop Tagged: Brass Ascension, marching bands, Tompkins Square
As part of the Manhattan Film Festival, “If These Knishes Could Talk: The Story of the New York Accent,” will be showing at Quad Cinema June 21st! Â ”Knishes” is a …
Originally posted 2011. “God Save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety” – Ray Davies, Village Green Preservation Society Ray Davies, Commander British Empire (born th…
Today is the birthday of Mack Gordon (Morris Gittler, 1904-1959). Born in Warsaw, he moved to New York as a child and broke into vaudeville as a singing comic in the late 20s and 30s. By 192…
Today is the birthday of Henry Creamer (1879-1930), who together with his partner John Turner Layton  (1894-1978) formed one of the great songwriting partnerships of the vaudeville era, a…
Today is the birthday of Signor Antonio Blitz (1810-1877), magician, juggler, ventriloquist and bird handler. Born in England, he began his professional career at age 13 in Germany. Then he …
Updated from a 2010 post. This two man comedy dance act, big in nightclubs, radio, television and films in the 40s and 50s, was a tremendous influence on many other performers, in…
The Wallendas are one of the most legendary circus families of all time, with roots as performers stretching back to Austria in the 1780s. Earlier generations had included acrobats, clowns, …
Late risers, set thy DVRs. Tomorrow morning at 6am, TCM will be showing the 1930 Marilyn Miller vehicle Sunny, based on her 1925 Broadway hit of the same name. Miller only made a couple o…
Today is the birthday of Moe Howard (Moses Horwitz, 1897-1975). For the full skinny on Moe’s life as a performer and a stooge, see my full article here. And to commemorate Moe’s …
Filed under: American Folk/ Country/ Western, AMERICANA, EXHIBITIONS & LECTURES, Music, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Folk City, Museum of the City of New York
This is a story that contains much to make the amusement loving New Yorker blue on so many levels. On this day in 1960, an amazing amusement park — larger than Disneyland –Â op…
Filed under: BOOKS & AUTHORS, Comedy, Hollywood (History), Movies, Silent Film Tagged: Ben Turpin, cross-eyed comedian, For Art's Sake, Steve Rydzewski
Today is the birthday of the great Broadway playwright Philip Barry (1896-1949). Everyone knows his most famous creation The Philadelphia Story (1939), so I thought I’d share a f…
Today is the birthday of Jeanette MacDonald (1903-1965). The Philadelphia native took singing and dancing lessons as a child, sang in church and performed with a juvenile vaudeville act prod…
Today is the birthday of the great Mae Busch (1891-1946). It’s ironic that today she is best known for playing shrewish and unattractive wives in Laurel and Hardy movies; at the height…
Originally posted in 2011. There was a long time there when the name “Paul McCartney” (born today in 1942) was to me like fingernails on a chalkboard. In my youth (and largel…
Originally posted in 2011. Born on this day in 1896, Blanche Sweet was raised in a vaudeville and theatrical family, making her onstage debut at age 4. In 1909, she began working for …
Today is the birthday of Sandy Allen (1955-2008). From 1976 until her death she was the tallest woman in the world, at 7′ 7″, due to a pituitary condition. Never with sideshows p…
What a great day for songwriters! Not only Louis Alter and Con Conrad, but also Sammy Cahn (Samuel Cohen, 1913-1993). Cahn came along a little too late for vaudeville, but he did attend cons…
Today is the birthday of Con Conrad (Conrad Dober, 1891-1938). A New York native, he started out playing piano in a Harlem movie house as a teenager, and gradually worked his way up to playi…
Today is the birthday of songwriter Louis Alter (1902-1980). Alter started out as a silent film accompanist at the age of 13. In time he worked his way up from nickelodeons to accompanying h…
