11,744 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of William Henry Pratt (1887-1969), a.k.a Boris Karloff. A native of Enfield, England, he dropped out of college in 1909 to follow his dream of becoming an actor, worki…
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 Ma…
Tomorrow is the nationwide release day for the new movie Hitchcock. Presumably in recognition of that fact, tomorrow all morning TCM is running a bunch of his films. Here’s the schedul…
Today is the birthday of Terry Gilliam (b. 1940). I think he is one of our greatest film-makers (though he stops just short of his potential), which is why of course he rarely seems a…
Today is the birthday of the great American songwriter Howard Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael (1899-1981), responsible for “Stardust”, “Skylark”, “Georg…
Today is the birthday of Jacob Cohen, a.k.a. Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004). The son of vaudeville comedian Phil Roy (Philip Cohen), he began writing jokes for other comedians as a teenager,…
Today is the birthday of jazz tenor saxophonist and bebop pioneer Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969). Given the subject matter, I thought I’d hold this post for the night owls. Have a …
Today is the birthday of Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778): champion everywhere of freedom: of speech, of religion, of trade, etc etc. Though he wrote histor…
Today is the birthday of Rene Magritte (1898-1967). If he is not already the favorite painter of clowns everywhere, I nominate him for that position, by virtue of the strain of the ab…
Today is the birthday of Goldie Hawn (b. 1945). That is actually her real name. A lot of people make the erroneous assumption (at least I did) that she was just a go-go dancer who was hired …
They grow ‘em cool in New Orleans but they also grow ‘em weird. (That “but” is for your benefit. If it ain’t weird, I ain’t interested). Dr. John (born Ma…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #81, Eleanor Powell (for my full article on her go here). Here is what purports to be a clip of her live nightclub act: To find out more about 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…
Today is the birthday of Francis Leon (b. Francis Patrick Glassey, 1844-1883), one of America’s first female impersonators. Trained as an operatic boy soprano, he went on the minstrel …
Today is the birthday of Little Dickie Smothers (born 1939). I often think of the act he did with his brother Tommy (born 1937) as the last American comedy team with a wide national exposure…
Today is the birthday of Judy Canova (1913-1983). A Florida native, she began her career in vaudeville in a family act with her bother and sister, as the Three Georgia Crackers (they were ac…
Today is the birthday of Kay Ballard (born Catherine Balotta in 1925). She got her start singing with Spike Jones in the 1940s, was in several Broadway shows, and has had sundry parts in fil…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #259: Ned Sparks (for the full skinny on him go here). Here’s a hilarious caricature of him (and Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks) from a Warners …
Today is the birthday of Dick Cavett (born 1936). Even as a child I appreciated his dry, understated wit, and marveled at his ability to talk to ANYBODY, from authors like Norman Mailer and …
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #260: Clifton Webb (for my full bio on this show biz Renaissance Man go here). Here is a little televisual tribute to him prepared by Indianapolis…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #390: Imogene Coca (for more on her life and career go here). She actually figures into my new book Chain of Fools, by virtue of the pantomime bit…
I can find but a handful of references of ballerina Swan Wood. In 1909 she performed a solo dance at the Orpheum in Los Angeles; she was featured in The Passing Show of 1913; and in 1915 she…
One of P.T. Barnum’s sideshow performers, circa 1880s. To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Fa…
A.O. Duncan was one of the first practitioners of ventriloquism on the vaudeville stage, dating perhaps to the age of “variety” in the 1870s. References to him from the newspa…
