11,741 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Pearl White (1889-1938), most famous as the star of silent movie adventure serials such as The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine (1914). A Missouri nat…
Today is the birthday of Carl Norwood (1939-1976). He was born with a dwarfish condition, with tiny, twisted limbs. Billed as “the Frog Boy” or “the Frog Man” he work…
Today is the birthday of Julius Steger (1866-1959), best known in vaudeville for his one act melodrama playlet “The Fifth Commandment”, a popular hit for the first 20 years of…
A profile in honor of Women’s History Month. Stella Mayhew (1874-1932) was a headlining vaudeville and musical comedy performer whose career spanned 50 years. She began acting as a chi…
Today is the birthday of the amazing folk and country music genius Arthel “Doc” Watson (1923-1912). Blind since the age of one, the North Carolina native played just about …
Among the most influential figures in circus and variety history were the Hanlon Brothers, an English troupe whose nucleus originally consisted of six acrobatic siblings. Three of them had s…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release of A Deaf Burglar, Henry “Pathe” Lehrman’s first film as a director for Mack Sennett’s Keystone. In this split reel come…
Today is the birthday of William Macready (1793-1873). Macready is best known in this country for being the unwitting trigger of the Astor Place Riots of 1849, an international embarrassment…
I meant to do this two weeks ago on her birthday but it was raining that day so we made the pilgramage today and are posting it for Women’s History Month. If you want to find out wh…
Today is the birthday of the great Cuban bandleader, singer, musician (not just congas, he played guitar with Xavier Cugat’s band), actor, comedian, producer and studio executive Desid…
Today is the birthday of Lucio and Simplicio Godina (1908-1936). This pair of Filipino conjoined twin brothers were first exhibited in Coney Island as boys until thwarted by the New York Soc…
Filed under: Clown, Comedy, Contemporary Variety, Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Avner the Eccentric, Canal Park Playhouse, Exceptions to Gravity
Mae West teams up with Cary Grant again* in this hilarious comedy in which she speaks the immortal line, “Beulah, peel me a grape”. It’s all part of the Film Forum’s�…
CONEY ISLAND USA SPRING GALA 2013: THE BURLESQUE MANIFESTO SATURDAY, MARCH 9TH 7PM – 11pm WEBSTER HALL 125 EAST 11 ST (BETWEEN 3RD AND 4TH AVE.) New York, NY 10003 212-353-1600 A grand…
Gary Flannery, who contributed so much to NYPL’s recent exhibition The Great American Revue (which we reviewed here) would like to make it known that he has put together a new ex…
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 Lionel Atwill (1885-1946), one of th…
Tonight at 8pm (Eastern), TCM is showing one of my favorite movies, Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Suggested by Orson Welles, Verdoux is Chaplin's comical take on the Bluebeard s…
This is one of a series of posts observing Women's History Month. Madame Eliza Dockrill was hailed as the greatest equestrienne of her age, popularly known as “The Empress of the Arena…
This just came in over the transom…. Bindlestiff Family Cirkus opens submissions for the First of May Award – $500 development grant for full-length variety arts production For n…
Today is the birthday of the great circus impresario (and Barnum competitor) Adam Forepaugh. (1831-1890). Forepaugh made his initial fortune selling horses to the U.S. government during the …
Set your video recording devices! Tomorrow morning at 6am (Eastern)  TCM is showing the Chaplin feature that tends to fall through the cracks, his 1928 The Circus. It is a beauti…
One of the things I think is distinct about my new book Chain of Fools is that it brings the history of silent comedy all the way up to the present day. And you may be asking yourself,…
Today is Gilbert Gottfried’s birthday. In honor of the day, a little post about…not a forgotten show, but a forgotten season of a well known show, season six of Saturday Ni…
New Yorkers, the Film Forum is in the midst of its 1933 series. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be pointing out certain noteworthy bills that tickle my fancy. Today they're s…
We are in the midst of almost daily Civil War 150th anniversaries these days and savvy producers from Steven Spielberg to Bill O’Reilly are marking the occasion with commemorative p…
