11,744 stories by "Trav S.D."
David Bioshop, “The Bishop of Burlesque” has been a professional stage manager in 16 states, Washington DC and Toronto since 1998. His credits include Gotham Burlesque, New York …
I think of this as the Last Bit of Unrecovered Information Excavated from My Memory. Some months ago, out of curiosity I began looking up obscure tv shows from my childhood online…and …
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Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville # 243: Peg Leg Bates (for more on this remarkable entertainer, go here). Here he is at age 60 in his final performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Yo…
Dexter Maitland (ca. 1915-1985) was a straight man in burlesque during its dying days as well as what was then unfortunately known as a “tit singer”…which just meant that h…
Just a  little sneak preview of comedy bits from last night’s rehearsal for Burlesque-A-Pades, (no previews of the specialty dances, I’m afraid — for those I’…
Pinkie Special began entertaining NY audiences with burlesque, hula-hoops and comedy in 2002. Since then Pinkie has performed across the U.S., Canada, England, Germany, France and Spa…
From 1887 through 1888 P.T. Barnum presented as an oddity in his sideshow this interesting family, which did indeed, as advertised, hail from Burma. Members of the exhibited family we…
Today is the birthday of Edward D. Wood, Jr. a.k.a. Ed Wood (1924-1978). A number of years ago I was fortunate enough to take part in the Ed Wood Festival produced by Ian Hill and Frank C…
Today is the birthday of David Lee Roth (b. 1954)….and — oh, who I am kiddin’? I’m doing this post on a dare, a sort of challenge. I really know very little of Mr. Ro…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #62: Harry Richman (for his full story go here). Here he is singing one of his biggest hits, “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin: To find ou…
Today is the birthday of John Entwhistle (1944-2002), best known as the “anchor man” for The Who, the man who stood stick still and played rock steady while his bandmates smashed…
Today is the birthday of John Lennon. Having already done posts about Paul, George and Ringo, it’s more than fair that I do one about their bandmate, although for the past few years I …
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 #242 Aimee Semple  McPherson (for more on her go here). Sister Aimee’s time in vaud was brief — audiences thought being preached at…
One on my favorite New York actors/poets/storytellers/ personalities (perhaps the poster above already covers it–”raconteurs”) Edgar Oliver opens his new show tonight, deve…
I was excited to learn that Target Margin would be doing a two-year lab of Yiddish plays, the first leg of which will be opening up at the Brick Theater October 17. This sounded like an intr…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #368, Waterbury-born (!) cowpoke Will Ahern (for a full squib on him and his wife/ partner Gladys go here). They weren’t in many films, but …
Happy Columbus Day! In honor of the day Indie Theatre Now has added my play “Columbia the Germ of the Ocean” to their stock of online plays! It’s a play in which Columbus i…
After making her way to the Big Apple to fullfill her dreams of studying at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance and performing in modern dance companies, Helen decided it was time for false eyel…
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 Star of Vaudeville #241 Nora Bayes, at one point the top singing comedienne in vaudeville (for the full article go here). In honor of the day, here she is singing on…
Todays is the birthday of Clarence Williams (1893-1965), one of the first artists to use the word “jazz” to publicize his work. The Plaquemine, Louisiana native ran away from hom…
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 Kate Bateman (1842-1917) She and her sister Ellen were child prodigies of the stage, the daughters of the performing couple Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman and Sidney Fra…
