11,744 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #379 Gilda Gray, whom I was first alerted to by the Countess. For my full article go here. Now here she is in later years talking about her cha…
There are plenty of things about Yael Kohen’s new book We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy that seem almost calculated to bug me. One is the prejudice against old school va…
Adapted from a talk I gave at Clay McLeod Chapman’s “Fear Mongers” in March 2012, in which the participants are asked to talk about the one horror movie or show that…
The Countess and I popped around the corner over the weekend to catch The Art of the Coney Island Hysterical Society exhibition at 440 Gallery. Brooklyn natives Richard Eagan and…
Today is the birthday of the great Johnny Carson (for my full article on him go here). I found this cool artifact this morning…an early Tonight Show in which Johnny gets serious,…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #66, the Divine Sarah, Sarah Bernhardt (for full my bio go here). I’m guessing many of our readers have seen at least short clips of s…
This is being released today by Shout Factory, featuring the hard work of friend Ben Model! You should buy it! here’s my review of Volume 1:Â http://www.downtownexpress.com/ernie-kov…
Today is the birthday of Gertrude Ederle (1905-2203). A New Jersey native, she became a champion swimmer at her local YWCA, and went on to win a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. She be…
I was flattered to be asked to write the intro to this unique new book by L.A.-based playwright/ ventriloquist/ scholar Rich Mitchell. It’s really a unique tome – - sorts of hits…
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 Star of Vaudeville #375, Mitzi Green (for a full squib on her go here). Now, here she is with Lillian Roth et al singing “Sing, You Sinners” from the 193…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #376, the great African American songwriter James A. Bland. In honor of the day, here’s Ray Charles performing one of Bland’s best kno…
Tonight through October 31 at the Tank! What the organizers say about the Festival: “Part of our motivation behind starting a festival openly searching for bad theater is to make a ven…
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…
Best known today as the founder of Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, Ted Shawn (1891-1972) toured vaudeville extensively from 1915-1929 with Denishawn, the company he founded and ran wi…
Today is the birthday of the great Russian-born ballerina Lydia Lopokova (1892-1981). She danced with the Tsar's troupe (she’d been the star pupil of the Imperial Ballet School), then …
Today is the birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), author of one of the few poems I can recite from memory (and only a portion). With its fantastical theme, it seems only fitting …
Today is the birthday of Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, a.k.a. Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), widely regarded as one of the originators of jazz. He started out as a teenager playing piano in spor…
How fortunate that Bela Lugosi (1882-1956) has a birthday 11 days before Halowe’en, no? You could have a swell Hallowe’en film festival that consisted entirely of Bela Lugosi mov…
For tix and info: http://www.bigapplecircus.org
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 Star of Vaudeville #374: Will M. Cressy (for his full bio go here). Here is a little reading by the Librovox Project of an illuminating piece Cressy wrote called …
A twofer! Today is the birthday of both Star of Vaudeville #373: Adelaide Hall and Star of Vaudeville #65: Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers. Coincidentally they both appear in this 1…
I have many irrational (thus heartfelt) reasons for loving Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town. One is that I lived for two months in the studio in which Wilder wrote…
