11,744 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Samuel Clemens, ak.k.a Mark Twain (1835-1910). Huckleberry Finn was one of my favorite books as a child; I quote the passages about the Duke and the Dauphin extensiv…
Today is the birthday of Jonathan Swift (1667-1754). Not to trivialize one of the great literary satirists of all time, but I’m going to honor him today by posting a cartoon. (I’…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #393: Lee Morse (for the full skinny on this quirky singer go here). In honor of the day we present her recording of the irresistible tune &…
Today is the birthday of the legendary burlesque performer Ann Corio (1909-1999). In the 30s she was one of the top paid Minsky stars, earning $1000 a week plus a percentage of the house. Af…
Writing this morning (since it’s already in print) to announce that my column in the current edition of Chelsea Now/ the Villager/ Downtown Express is my last one. Thus ends not ju…
Today is the birthday of Mildred Harris (1901-1944). Those few who remember her nowadays know her primarily as “Charlie Chaplin’s first wife”, although unlike some of his l…
Mel Brooks’ name is always gold, but he was never hotter than in the mid 1970s. In 1975 in the wake of his two smash box office hits Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, he an…
Today is the birthday of William Blake (1757-1827). To mark the occasion, a selection that applies to so many of the souls I’ve written about in these pages. It is from his Songs of…
Opening Tonight at Film Forum Tonight Film Forum launches the US premiere of Jay Bulger's BEWARE OF MR. BAKER, which recieves receiving a national release January 25. The film is a sa…
Today is the birthday of Harry Carroll (1892-1962), one of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriters, author of several well-known hits including “By the Beautiful Sea”, “By the …
Today is the birthday of Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970). About five years ago when I gave a talk in Seattle about  their local vaudeville history, I dropped the bombshell that Jimi Hendrix̵…
Today is the birthday of James Agee (1909-1955). Over the past twenty years I have managed to go from dismissing him in my ignorance to totally revering him. Well, it’s all in how some…
Today is the birthday of Buffalo Bob Smith (1917-1998). Buffalo native Robert Emil Schmidt started out in local radio in the early 1940s. His upstate success was so great, that he was brough…
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 Wayland Flowers (1939-1988). I got an earful from the makers of a ventriloquism documentary a few months back when I opened that Flowers was unjustly excluded from t…
Today is the birthday of Roumanian-French absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994). In 1960 he claimed that the three greatest influences on his writing had been Groucho, Chico and Ha…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #264: Vesta Victoria (for more on her, go here). Now for your delectation, from 1912, here is “Look What Percy’s Picked Up in the Park…
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 Jonathan R. Bass (1830-1892). Bass was one of a sub-branch of exhibited peoples known as “ossified men”. Afllicted with rheumatism since childhood, he…
Today is the birthday of Eva Puck (1892-1979). Through most of her childhood and some of her young adulthood she was in a vaudeville two-act with her brother, known variously as “Puck …
Today is the birthday of Sealo, the Seal Boy (1899-1980). It is unknown technically what condition he suffered from to produce his flipper-like appendages; he was born a half century …
Today is the birthday of Richiardi, Jr. (Aldo Izquierdo, 19243-1985), the son of magician Richiardi the Great. Of Peruvian descent, his claim to fame was horrific special effects (e.g…
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…
P.T. Selbit (1881-1938) was the first magician to saw a woman in half. His actual name was Perry Thomas Tibbles (he arrived at his stage name by spelling that backwards and taking out a &…
Benny Ryan is best known today as a George Burns anecdote; he was his rival for Gracie’s hand, and by all accounts she didn’t make it easy for either one of them. Ironically B…
