11,741 stories by "Trav S.D."
Ventriloqust William Francis Chalet billed himself as The Great Chalet and The Star Ventriloquist of the World. He performed with P.T. Barnum circa 1876, and toured Australia with Bacheller&…
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 magician, producer and inventor John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917). Maskelyne caught the performing bug early. As a child he had taught himself plate-spinning after…
Dixon Place presents DICK WHITTINGTON: An Xmas Panto for NYC FRIDAYS, DECEMBER 21 & 28 AND SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22 AT 7PM SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 AT 3PM Written by JENNY GREEN &#…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #275: Paul Winchell (see here for his full story). I wasn’t around for his great TV ventriloquist heyday, but I did enjoy his unmistakable v…
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…
Today is the birthday of internationally renowned spoon-bender Uri Geller (b. 1946). Psychotelekenesisist of paranormalcy? Master of the mental? A “sensitive”? Take precautions: …
She said that; I didn’t say that. SHE said that! Born this day in England in 1874, Mary Ann Webster married Thomas Bevan in 1903, and began to develop the condition known as acromegaly…
Raffael Chefalo (1885-1963) was an Italian-born illusionist who moved to the U.S. in his childhood, learning the rudiments of magic as a teenager, and breaking into American vaudeville. Acco…
The most lasting legacy of the song-and-dance-flirtation act of John Hyams (1869-1940) and Leila McIntyre (1882-1953) was their daughter Leila Hyams, a nationally famous model who later went…
Carrie Akers, the dwarf fat lady was three feet tall and weighed 300 lbs — and she was mad about it. So much so that she left P.T. Barnum after working for him only a couple of years i…
Minstrel man and magician Harry Evarts performed with most of the major cork shows and circuses of his day starting with Dr. Gilbert R. Spalding in 1847, as well as the Dan Rice show, …
It is perhaps unfair both to Edith Piaf and to France how strongly we Americans identify the two. For us, she is France’s Mickey Mouse, Marlon Brando and Elvis all rolled into on…
Today is the birthday of Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd, 1918-1980). While his records were not big national hits, his rhumba and Cuban-inflected brand of New Orleans rhthym and blue…
Today is the birthday of Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-1983). Like Gielgud (but unlike, say. Olivier), I tend to picture him primarily in old age. This is because he was very present as a sc…
No, no, no! We DIDN’T already do The Lost Saucer. The one we’ve already done is Far-Out Space Nuts!  Get it right! THAT one has Bob Denver and Chuck McCann lost in…
Today it has become necessary to teach you about KRAO. The mystery of KRAO. The enigma of KRAO. All eyes are on KRAO. I said, “KRAO”. Why is this man holding the naked KRAO? Male…
British clown Christopher Michael, a.k.a. Mr. Holloway is one of the contemporary “new silent comedians” I talk about in the last chapter of my new book Chain of Fools: Sil…
Today is Keith Richards’ birthday (born 1943). I like the picture above; any dope can post according to expectations. It speaks a lot to Keith’s integrity that public and critica…
Ohio farm girl Fanny Mills (1860-1899) suffered from a condition called Milroy Disease, which caused massive fluid build-up in her dogs. Like a character in some fairy tale, she wore size 30…
“Professor” James Elliott’s act consisted of himself and children Kate, Polly, Annie, Maggie, Thomas, and Mattie performing a “Parisian Quadrille” on bicycles a…
Eugene Levy (born this day in 1946) has the funniest eyebrows in show business. He only has to move one of them to make me helpless with laughter. I think of him as a sort of comedy judo mas…
Today is the birthday of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (born Herbert Draper Beerbohm, 1852-1917). He was to add the Tree to his name when he became a professional actor because it was easier to …
Like Charles Hawtry, Wee Georgie Wood’s (1895-1975) Q factor is mainly elevated today by the fact that John Lennon uttered his name when fooling around during the Let it Be sessions. (…
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…
