11,735 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of the irreplaceable Paul Lynde (1926-1982). Technically he was a comic actor — one of our very best, although it seems to me he had too few opportunities to achi…
Originally posted in 2010. Such is the ephemeral nature of live theatre. Singer-comedienne-impressionist-songwriter Irene Franklin was a top headliner from the turn of the twentieth cent…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of Karyl Norman (1896-1947). Billed as the “Creole Fashion Plate”, the female impersonator is sadly best known from the twist G…
Today is the birthday of one of the broadcasting medium’s greatest comedy writers, Nat Hiken (1914-1968). In a career you might call charmed, he first wrote for Fred Allen for radio, t…
The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era. Today is the birthday of Basil Rathbone (1892-1967). His long…
Today is the birthday of Siegfried Fischbacher (b. 1939). Together with his partner Roy Horn (b. 1944) he was half of the prototypical large scale Las Vegas stage act Siegfried and Roy start…
Today is the birthday of Anna Sosenko (1909-2000). From 1933 through 1956, she was the manager and companion of Hildegarde, and a popular songwriter for Hildegarde and others, penning “…
The goodly clowns of Parallel Exit want you to know that they offering the following classes this summer. If the students turn out anything like the teachers, it’ll be money well spent…
Today is the 83rd birthday of Jim Nabors. Many people are surprised to learn that he’s still alive. Not only is he alive but he just got married this year, to his longtime (38 year) co…
Here’s an extremely interesting project opening tomorrow night, written by Clay McCleod Chapman; based on the Lon Chaney film and the novel on which that was based, and starring a cast…
One glaring omission you may notice on this blog (which concentrates so heavily on the variety arts) is an absence of coverage of contemporary television talent shows, though they are the cl…
One of the happy discoveries of Steve Massa’s new book Lame Brains and Lunatics is Marcel Perez (Manuel Fernandez Perez, 1884-1927). Well enough known in the silent era, Massa po…
On a whim the Duchess and I took our first trip of the season out to Coney Island on Sunday. For several years now this has been an especially exciting thing to do annually, as for severa…
Ben Model has accomplished rather a neat magic trick by managing to become a Renaissance man without ever leaving the very narrow field of silent film: primarily known as a silent film accom…
A few months ago we posted this rave review of Leslie Zemeckis’s documentary Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America. Now Skyhorse Publishing has released a compani…
Today is the birthday of Gene Wilder (Jerome Silberman, b. 1933). Wilder is unique in being one of the great modern comedy stars who is primarily a comic actor (as opposed to a comedian). Tr…
Today is the birthday of Dai Vernon (David Verner, 1894-1992), a.k.a. ‘The Professor” and “The Man Who Fooled Houdini”). Vernon’s father, an amateur magician fi…
These ladies are meeting up for a Suffragette style march in the theatre district tonight. Meet up is at 5:30 pm in the 50th-51st Street passageway adjacent to the Gershwin Theatre (222 W…
Today is the birthday of movie director Wesley Ruggles (1889-1972). The younger brother of actor Charlie Ruggles, Wesley too started out on the stage, acting in musical comedies, stoc…
We just received news that Harold Cromer (1921-2013), best known as the second “Stumpy” in the team of Stump and Stumpy (see earlier post here) has passed away. Comedian and nove…
Today is the birthday of Rich Hall (b. 1954). Hall was one of the ubiquitous American comedians of the 1980s, having been a regular on David Letterman’s Daytime Show (1980), Fridays…
Today is the birthday of Chester Arthur Burdett, a.k.a, Howlin’ Wolf (1910-1976). Influenced by Charley Patton, Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others, Burdett had been playi…
Today is the birthday of the great lion tamer and circus impresario Clyde Beatty (1903-1965). Beatty wasn’t the first in his line to use a whip and chair, but he was to become the perf…
Today is the birthday of Anita Berber (1899-1928), the epitome of decadent Berlin cabaret during the Weimar years. Berger began dancing in cabarets in 1916, and appearing in films two years …
Today is the birthday of William Leonard Hunt (1838-1929), a.k.a The Great Farini. Raised in rural Ontariom this seminal (and self-taught) funambulist made his professional debut in 1859 whe…
