11,738 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Big Joe Turner (1911-1985). His existence makes it hard to see what all the fuss about rock and roll was in the mid 50s. His brand of boogie-woogie and jump blues go…
Today is the birthday of Frank Crumit (1888-1943). University trained as an engineer he didn’t enter vaudeville until he was 25 years old, with a small time act that mixed songs and pa…
Today is the birthday of Franceso Lentini (1881-1966). He was born in Rosolini, Sicily, and technically he had MORE than three legs — his total inventory was three legs, PLUS a fourth …
Really loved the documentary shorts I saw last night in the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival. Into Noise was a lovely, elegaic and thought provoking short by Janna Kyllastinen who contra…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, Dime Museum and Side Show, PLUGS, Variety Arts (Defined) Tagged: Adam RealMan, Coney Island Strong Man Spectacular
Today is the birthday of the great blues guitar player/ singer/ performer Taj Mahal (Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr). What an interesting guy — he’s actually a college educated…
Filed under: Ballroom/ Big Band/ Swing, Contemporary Variety, Music, PLUGS, Singers, Vaudeville etc. Tagged: Rudy Vallee, Triad, Vagabond Lover, Ziegfeld Society
Today is the birthday of silent comedy actor and director Malcolm St. Clair (1898-1952). St. Clair was raised in a Laguna Beach artist colony founded by his father, a successful architect an…
Today is the birthday of James “Buster” Brown (1913-2002), to be confused with neither the soul singer nor the comic strip character. Brown was a tap dancer, and quite active up …
Jennie Quigley (1851-1936) was billed as ‘The Scottish Queen” by her boss P.T. Barnum when she began working for him at age 13. Standing less than two feet tall at the beginning …
Filed under: Dime Museum and Side Show, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: NYC Tattoo Convention
Just passed this on my lunch break. Evidence of vaudeville? What? Where? It just so happens that this little pocket of Brooklyn used to be known as Albee Square, because it was built up arou…
Today is the birthday of Louis “Studs” Terkel (1912-2008). Though born in NYC, he moved to Chicago when he was 8 – - and it’s hard to think of anyone more closely ass…
How do we explain Liberace to our children? Do we try? Or should they be left to grapple with life’s enigmas on their own? Won’t that make them stronger? Born on this day in 1919…
Reposted from 2010. Julius Tannen was the premier vaudeville monologist — what we today call a stand up comedian. He started out in 1901, and by the 20s was one of the top headliner…
Today is the birthday of actor Taylor Holmes (1878-1959). He started out by acting in one-act playlets in vaudeville. He started out in 1899 at Keith’s Theatre in Boston, and then spen…
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 James Mason (1909-1984). With hisÂ�…
I risked the fate of Myrtle Wilson this morning as I walked down the street re-reading The Great Gatsby on the way to work. At 182 pages the paperback edition is an easy thing to re-re…
100 years ago today Keystone released the memorable early comedy Their First Execution. Special thanks to Ben Model and Steve Massa who introduced me to this film through their Crue…
Originally posted in 2011. For a time during my childhood, at an age far too old to have been healthy, I believed that Oz was a real place. This may be credited both to an unhappy childh…
Today is the birthday of Marion Sunshine (Mary James, 1894-1963). She got her start at age five acting in the melodrama Two Little Waifs and later went into vaudeville. For a time she was in…
Oh, this isn’t really a competition (42 vs. The Jackie Robinson Story). It’s like trying to suss out the outcome of an exhibition game between the 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers and…
Today is the birthday of show biz wunderkind Bobby Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto, 1936-1973). The subject of Darin (and some others like him) is a fascinating one for someone of my age to pr…
Today is the birthday of jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). Bechet is considered one of the first important jazz soloists, and possibly the first im…
Today is the birthday of Yvonne and Yvette McCarther (1949-1992). Born joined at the top of the head, it was predicted that they would be unable to walk and that they would both be me…
