11,738 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Sonja Henie (1912-1969), who for ten years enjoyed an unlikely second career for a world champion ice skater — movie star. (although there were others who atte…
Today is the birthday of Gladys Marie Smith, a.k.a. Mary Pickford (1892-1979). She was of course most famous as a film actress and one of the most powerful people (male or female) in Hollywo…
Friends Michele Carlo and Heather Quinlan have teamed with Bridget Bartolini to produce this series of New York themed story nights, with awesome storytellers like Alexis Sottile, Kam…
Horace Ridler (1892-1969) was a self-made British freak billed as The Great Omi and the Zebra Man (although to me he looks more like a poison dart frog). His early years are shrouded in myst…
Today is the birthday of Jack Osterman (1902-1939). His mother had been an operetta star; his father a publicist and company manager. His first major show was Jerome Kern’s Oh, Boy (19…
One of many leopard boys employed by P.T. Barnum, A.E. Bishell (1869-1909), like most who bore the name, was an African American who had the condition called leucoderma, which produces a spo…
George Lippert (1842-1906) was born in Bavaria, Germany with two functioning hearts and three functioning legs (sort of). His right leg split off into two, one of which was normal-sized, clu…
Born in 1919, Illinous native Clyde “Tiny” Hicks got with it in 1945 when he joined the Standard Shows in Wyoming as a fat man”. Claims about his eigh ranged from over 500 …
Today is the birthday of Bert Swor (1878-1943) (or, rather it may be; another source says January 9, 1871 is the actual birthdate). A native of rural Texas, he got his start as a minstrel pe…
George Bunnell was a protege of P.T. Barnum’s and a crucial figure in the development of the American dime museum. After numerous iterations of Barnum’s American Museum bur…
August Carney (1870-1920) was one of silent comedy’s first stars, whose heyday was essentially of the pre-Chaplin era. Originating in British music halls and American vaudeville, he fo…
A stunt so dangerous Houdini refused to attempt it, the Bullet Catch has claimed the lives of at least 12 people since its conception in 1613. Acclaimed performer, director, playwright (and …
Today is the birthday of J.C. Nugent (1868-1946). A Texas farm kid, he ran off with a travelling repertory company at age 16, barnstorming the country in melodramas, comedies and occasion cl…
Today is the birthday of Nellie Keeler (1875-1903). Born onto a Kokomo, Indiana farm, she weighed only eleven ounces at the time of her birth. At age three, when she was hired by P.T. Barnum…
We lucked into some tickets to previews for Pinchbottom’s new burlesque production Pretencion last night and I can’t say enough good things about it. I thought it was a bri…
Today is the birthday of famed producer and director Roger Corman (b. 1926). The subject of Corman and his career is so large and unwieldy that to talk about all of it in one post would be l…
Decatur, Alabama native William Ingram (b.circa  1930) learned at the age of four that he had a unique gift: the ability to thrust his eyeballs up to an inch outside of their sockets. …
Hello and welcome again to Vaudephone, your one stop shopping for all the best contemporary variety acts! Today we feature the terrific Noah Diamond, a show biz Renaissance man: vaudevill…
Today is the birthday of Robert E. Sherwood (1896-1955). A colleague of Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker at Vanity Fair, he was one of the founding members of the informal club of wits …
Today is the birthday of McKinley Morganfield (1913-1983). Performing and recording as Muddy Waters, Morganfield was perhaps the most influential Chicago bluesman of all time, largely throug…
Today is the birthday of Agnes Ayres (1898-1940). The Illinois native got her start as an extra at Essanay Studios in 1914. She then moved to New York, where she began to get real parts at V…
Today is the birthday of Washington Irving (1783-1859). By most reasonable measures he is America’s premier literary man and it is only natural that New York City produced him. W…
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 Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000). I wou…
Today is the birthday of George Washington Morrison Nutt (1844-1881). At age 17 New Hampshire native Nutt was hired by P.T. Barnum as a replacement for General Tom Thumb in his American …
Today is the birthday of Wallace Beery (1885-1949). While best known to film buffs from roles in early talkies like The Champ (1931, for which he won an Oscar), and Dinner at Eight (1933), W…
