11,741 stories by "Trav S.D."
 Today is Neil Diamond’s birthday. It’s difficult for someone my age to even give him lip service, and even so, I must qualify it: “Uh, only up to around ‘Longfell…
Today is the birthday of Howard “Sandman” Sims (1917-2003). His nickname comes from his long association with sand dancing, that is dancing on scattered sand so that sustained mu…
Tonight at 8pm Eastern, TCM is showing one of the best of the Hope-Crosby-Lamour “Road Pictures”, Road to Morocco (1942). We meet the boys adrift on a raft after Hope has des…
Today is the birthday of Madeline Cameron (born Madeline Seitz, 1897). She had a balletic dance act with her sister Dorothy that played vaudeville and Broadway revues from the teens into the…
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 Manor Media…
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 Manor Media…
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 Manor Media…
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 Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of Jean “Django” Reinhardt (1910-1953), one of the greatest jaxx guitarists of all time and considered the first important jazz musician to come our of Euro…
Today is the birthday of William Desmond (William Manion, 1878-1949). Born in Dublin and raised in New York City, he got his start acting in vaudeville and on the melodrama stage before maki…
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 Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of Geraldine Valliere (1896-1986). A daughter of a musical family, she studied piano since childhood, and began playing at local churches, movie houses, and with dance …
Happy birthday, Lord Byron (1788-1824)! I just re-read Don Juan, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is not only much more accessible than Byron’s only finished book length poe…
This is part three of the series on the show biz ancestry of Cynthia Fujikawa, which we launched here two weeks ago. It’s in her own words. My grandmother Marion Finlay…
Today is the 45th anniversary of the premiere of the groundbreaking television show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-1973). I often think of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin as the Las…
Today is the birthday of Sam Cooke (1931-1964). His short, sweet life (and his 30 top 40 hits) are well known. But here’s something I thought would be of interest to our readers. His f…
Today is the birthday of the great American director D.W. Griffith (for my full article on him go here). In honor of the day we share his 1910 film An Arcadian Maid starring Mary Pi…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #428: Eva Taylor (for more on this early blues and jazz performer go here). I found this cool video this morning of her performing with a Danish D…
Today is the birthday of  Tom Patricola (1891-1950), the younger brother of popular vaudeville musician Miss (Isabella) Patricola. He was an eccentric dancer who clogged and tapped while …
Today is the birthday of Maurice P. Kitchen (1896-1962), better known to audiences as Rajah Raboid. A New Orleans native he first performed magic under the far more quotidian name of Ray Boy…
Okay! We all have to celebrate Martin Luther King Day in our OWN way…this is mine. As I wrote in No Applause, show biz is possibly the single most powerful force for social transfo…
Well, I hope that headline caught your eye. On both sides of the pond, Hill has long been considered famously low-brow, but only by people who never took the time to look at his work, beyond…
Horvath’s Midgets (owned and operated by S. Horvath) were a troupe from Hungary who billed themselves as “The Smallest People in the World”. While based in Europe they t…
