11,744 stories by "Trav S.D."
The word came down the other day that the Great Coney Island Spectacularium will be closing “right after Labor Day”….both good news and bad news for me, who still hadn̵…
Today is the birthday of “The Big Mouth”, Martha Raye (for more on the life and career of this second generation vaudevillian, go here). Here she is cutting up with Red Skelton i…
New Yorkers! Tonight through November 5, the Film Forum will be running all of Harold Lloyd’s silent features and one talkie on Monday and Sunday nights. See below for some of my…
Today is the birthday of the great rural comedian Chic Sale (for more on him go here). Despite having been a nationally known stage and screen star in the early part of the twentieth century…
Today is the birthday of the great burlesque comic Rags Ragland (full article here) — the perfect time to announce that I’ll be directing Angie Pontani’s big new show Bu…
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Gene Kelly (for my full bio on him go here). In celebration of that incredible entertainer we post this charming clip of The Muppets trying to coa…
I don’t know this company’s work so I neither condemn nor endorse…but I like the sound of it! And here’s their trailer:
Odd how this feels almost like a nostalgia item. David Brenner, whom I assure you was OMNIPRESENT in American living rooms in the 1970s is opening a split week run at the Metropolitan Room t…
Today is the birthday of the amazing, once-in-a-century Dorothy Parker. One of these years I’ll write a proper blogpost about her on August 22. Today I’ll just let you know that …
Today is the birthday of jazz guitar pioneer Nick Lucas (for my bull article on him go here). Now here he is in action! To find out more about these variety artists and the history of vaudev…
Ever since Mr. Pinnock and I discovered a copy in the 99 cent bin about five years ago The Fat Spy has been my favorite movie. It possesses all the avant-garde technique of Jean-Luc…
To say that I am skeptical about the new Chaplin musical is to give it too much credit. Musicals are almost never good; and biographical dramatizations are good even more rarely than that.
I first expressed my admiration for director/ producer/ emcee Kate Valentine in this little squib here. And now it’s increased, due to all sorts of reasons, onstage and off! She’…
The incomparable Angie Pontani gave me a copy of this swell new periodical put out by Pueblo, Colorado academic Harley Westerholt. The old joke about Playboy used to be “I onl…
ALTER EGO featuring the incomparable Killy Dwyer Tonight, Sun. August 19th (3rd Sunday every month) Fontanas Bar 105 Eldridge Street @ 8pm show $7 admission (2 for $10)
Tonight through October 14, the Min Theatre presents the first ever revival of the 101 year old Allan Monkhouse play Mary Broome. The plot? “Mary, the housemaid, is pregnant by L…
Tonight at 8:30pm! Only $10! An evening celebrating the work and life of inventor, animator, artist, and dreamer, WILLIS O’BRIEN. The night culminates with one of the most perfect film…
Here’s an awesome nugget! Dick Cavett interviewing Mae West in 1976. (It’s her birthday today — see my full essay on her here). I love this artifact…Cavett seems wary…
Here’s an oldie but a moldie. Here I am performing the grunge-tastic Nirvana unplugged goof “Trav S.D. Theme Song”, backed by Mr. Pinnock on drums, Ron Moore (later Chairma…
One of our American Vaudeville Theatre alumnae, Vangeline has been cooking with gas lately, and so we thought we’d pass on to you all the cool recent developments in her career. First,…
For the past little while, Mae Clarke has been a personal favorite of the Countess’s and mine. She is, sadly, an almost-great, with plum roles in several films in the very early 30s be…
Today is the birthday of Rose Marie — one of the few true vaudevillians who’s actually still alive! For her full bio, go here. I actually got to interview her for No Applause,…
Today is the birthday of Ethel Barrymore, who happens to be the Barrymore with the most vaudeville street cred. (For my post on all three of the thespian siblings go here). Here she is, in s…
A few words about an interesting artifact the Countess and I watched last night, a 1961 episode of The Shirley Temple Show a.k.a Shirley Temple’s Storybook, devoted to an a…
