11,741 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #298 Bobby May (for the full bio on this world class juggler, go here). Here’s a teaser from Stuart Lippe’s excellent documentary on t…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #447: Roland West (for his full bio go here). He made his biggest mark in show biz as a film director (see my lengthy squib on his versions of The…
Today is the birthday of George Spencer Melvin (1886-1946). A music hall comedian and pantomime dame from Aberdeen, Scotland, he toured American vaudeville in 1908, 1912, and 1924. Melvin…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. As were the Rogers Brothers and Kolb and Dill to Weber and Fields, so were Dan Avery and Charles Hart to Walker and Williams. In th…
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 indispensable character actor Sir Ce…
Today is the birthday of David Bamberg (1904-1974), known professionally (if politically incorrectly) as Fu Manchu. Bamberg was the sixth in a long line of Dutch magicians going back to the …
Today is the birthday of pop music titan Smokey Robinson (b. 1940). A talent so prolific and prodigious that it’s almost literally the case that he MADE an entire record label. Certain…
Today is the birthday of  Star of Vaudeville #446 Eddie Peabody (for more on the King of the Banjo go here). In this early British Pathe clip the versatile Peabody makes love to a fiddle …
Jean Libbera (1884-1936), was the 4th of 13 children in his family – -14 if you count the small parasitic twin sprouting from his ribcage. The little brother (they named it Jacques) ha…
Today is the birthday of the great screen star Adolphe Menjou (1890-1963). The son of a French-American restauranteur, he defied his father by switching his major from engineering at Cornell…
Tennessee native Ella Harper (circa 1873-1921) was born with an extremely rare condition that essentially consisted of a pair of knees that bend backward. Most articles about her bizarrely r…
Today is the birthday of Charlie Ross 1859-1918, whom with his wife Ada Towne (a.k.a Mabel Fenton, 1865-1931) formed the team of Ross and Fenton. Canadian native Ross had started out as a jo…
Today is the birthday of magician Norm Nielsen (b. 1934). In the clip below, after some typical close magic with cards and coins, he builds to his best known trick, the Levitating Violin, wh…
Today is the birthday of the great singer/ songwriter/ producer Gene Pitney (1940-2006). I’d never heard his 1961 signature tune “Town Without Pity” until a friend sang it …
Today is the birthday of Ruth Clifford (1900-1998). A native of my home state of Rhode Island, she was orphaned as a teenager and moved to Los Angeles to live with an aunt who was an actress…
Today is the birthday of Bessie Bonehill (1855-1902). Bonehill was a British music hall singing comedienne and drag king, who started out in provincial West Bromwich before conquering, Londo…
Today is the birthday of the late Sonny Bono (1935-1998). A protege of Phil Spector, he brought his girlfriend Cher into the fold as a backup singer in 1962. They sang on some girl group hit…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville Edgar Bergen (see here for his full bio). In honor of the day we share with you one of last appearances, The Vent Event for HBO in …
Today is the birthday of J. Harold Murray (b. Harold Roulon, 1891-1940). A native of Maine, he started out a song plugger, becoming a singer in vaudeville circa 1918. He was such a hit that …
Today is the birthday of Kathleen Clifford (1887-1963). She began her career when still a teenager, in music comedies such as the 1907 show The Top o’ the World. By 1910 she was supple…
Today is the birthday of Patty Andrews (1918-2013). She passed away six weeks ago, and it was tempting to do a post then, but of course that day everyone was posting about the Andrews …
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
American vaudeville’s second favorite Scotsman (after Sir Harry Lauder) was Will Fyffe (1885-1947). Fyffe was a second generation actor in stock companies who began acting with h…
Today is the birthday of Cesar Romero (1907-1994). The “Latin from Manhattan” (half Italian, half Cuban) got his start in a vaudeville and nightclub dance act with Janette Hacket…
Today is the birthday of British music hall star George Mozart (b. David John Gillings, 1864-1947). Mozart was gifted not only as a singer (mandatory in the halls) but also as an actor, clow…
