11,738 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Jenks “Tex” Carman, the Dixie Cowboy (1903-1968). Born into a large Kentucky farming family, he picked up guitar as a kid and started playing at church a…
Originally posted in 2009. The most famous female impersonator of the vaudeville era, Julian Eltinge was a point of cultural reference as late as the early 1960s when Lenny Bruce dropped…
Today is the birthday of Maude Fulton (1881-1950). Together with her partner William “Billy” Rock (1867-1920) she formed a popular act in big time vaudeville from around the turn…
Today is the birthday of magician Carl Hertz (Lieb Morgensten, 1859-1924). A San Francisco native , he first gained notice in London in 1884 performing tricks purloined from Buatier de Kolta…
Today is the birthday of Tin Pan Alley songwriter Grant Clarke (1891-1931). Originally from Akron, in vaudeville, he performed himself and wrote songs and special material for Bert Williams,…
Born in India in 1888, Piramel Sami possessed a parasitic twin brother growing out of his chest. For the sake of showmanship, the poor half-creature was represented as Piramel’s sister…
On March 24 of this year the Palace Theatre turned one hundred years old. In celebration of the event, me and my American Vaudeville Theatre are presenting a Special One-Time Only Tribute Sh…
Just wanted to expend a few words on a terrific play I saw yesterday at LaMama. Jill Campbell’s Chemistry of Love would make a highly compatible companion piece to Robert Honeywe…
Today is the birthday of the sadly short-lived Richie Valens (1941-1959), stolen from the world in the same plane crash that took Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Since Valens was on…
Today is the birthday of Polaire (b. Emilie Bouchard, 1879-1939). I was flabbergasted to notice I hadn’t already done a post on her; I knew about her and had mentioned her in in No App…
Since today was the most perfect day in the history of the world ever, the Duchess and I took a major stroll around Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza. On the way home, this classic, early-t…
I hope I’m not dating myself for loving Victoria Libertore’s work as much as I do and for the reasons I do. When I first came to this city, her brand of autobiographical solo wor…
Today is the birthday of Joseph Myrtle Corbin (1868-1928). Myrtle possessed an extra set of small, doll-like legs. Corbin was a dipygus; her axis had split during her development as an embry…
Today is the birthday of perhaps the greatest comic drunk of all time, Foster Brooks (1912-2001). While he got his start in radio in the 1930s, it wasn’t until he was in his 50s that h…
Today is the birthday of the great stand-up comedian Mort Sahl (b. 1927). Sahl is part of the generation that revolutionized comedy starting in the late years of Eisenhower’s presidenc…
Today is Eric Burdon’s birthday (b. 1941). I’d always been a huge fan of all the Animals (and Eric Burdon and the Animals — they were two different bands with two different…
Today is the birthday of the great Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Those of us whose lives were lucky enough to have overlapped his will have no problem digesting why this painter merits inclusio…
Vaudeville was an exhilarating, great new world for me. It had its share of deadbeats and egocentric maniacs and joke-snatchers. But we had warmth and camaraderie and time for laughs. –…
Filed under: American Folk/ Country/ Western, BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, Music, PLUGS Tagged: Bayou 'n' Brooklyn, music fest
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, Magicians & Quick-Change, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island, magic show
Today is Donovan’s birthday! Donovan pretty much represents the summit of what I’m looking for in a pop music experience. (What’s another way to say that? Oh, yeah: “…
Where were you last night? I only ask because I saw what appeared to be everybody else! First we went to Clay McCleod Chapman’s book launch at Books of Wonder for his excellent-looking…
Well, this opens nationwide today. I, for one, intend to cut it lots of slack. The story has never been adapted successfully for the screen before, so there is nowhere to go but up. Â Thou…
Today is the birthday of playwright Arthur Kopit (b. 1937) I only know the plays below, but it seems to me he is one of our most important contemporary dramatists, not far behind Sh…
Just got word that the great Taylor Mead has passed on. He was kind of what “downtown” used to be all about, the star all of those seminal early off-off Broadway plays by the lik…
