11,700 stories by "Trav S.D."
I have no idea how so major a stage star as Truly Shattuck (Clarice Ferguson, 1875-1954) evaded my notice for so long, nor how she did eventually come to my attention, but I am delighted to …
This one goes out to my friend Seth Shelden, Harpo interpreter and peace-monger extraordinaire. Today is Stanley Kubrick's birthday. Having already done a general post on the great director,…
The above was taken back in April, and it depicts my joyous opportunity to reunite and catch up with actress/author/presenter Illeana Douglas (Illeana Hesselberg, b. 1961) I knew Illeana sho…
I first heard the name Frank Silvera (1914-1970) when I was working in the back office of Theater for the New City; I think the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop had presented work there, or ma…
Today we celebrate Ruth Duccini (Ruth Robinson, 1918-2014) whose place in history is assured by being the last female surviving cast member of the 1939 classic picture The Wizard of Oz. Ducc…
A few days ago I took advantage of my membership in The Lambs to start diving into their remarkable archives, starting with the papers of the Homer of Vaudeville, Joe Laurie Jr, whom I first…
Comedy writer and producer Bob Booker (1931-2024) no longer resides in the Land of the Living. Booker has been top of mind for me lately, as I had ample chance to talk about one of his more …
This is my beautiful wife during our recent trip to the Laurie Beechman which I wrote about yesterday. She hates having her picture taken so I always have to sneak candids like this one, but…
This piece started out as a review, and then it grew to two related reviews, in the midst of which circumstances then dictated that it also include some hard news reporting, which then sugge…
An interesting if belated new edition to our Stars of Slapstick series, screen comedian Addie McPhail (Addie Dukes, 1905-2003). McPhail was born in Kentucky, but moved to Chicago with her fa…
Most of the photos one finds online of character actor Dallas (sometimes Dal) McKennon (1919-2009) look like this one: a grizzled, bearded western sidekick type. One might be apt to mix him …
All hail Dion (Dion Francis DiMucci, b. 1939)! I'd inevitably have written an appreciation of this great idol of the interregnum between Elvis and the Beatles anyway, but certain news came t…
This week I was honored to be the first guest (but somehow also, seemingly, the host) on Dick Zigun's new youtube show. Best known as the Founder of Coney Island USA, the Mermaid Parade, and…
No, I'm not a month late in eulogizing Donald Sutherland (1935-2024). Today was the late actor's birthday, the day on which I had already been scheduled to write about him. And it's preferab…
When I first moved to NYC the big local scandal of the day was the Bess Mess, a bribery beef centered around the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Bess Myerson (1924-20…
Born 100 years ago today: Armenian-American character actor Val Avery (Sebouh Der Abrahamian, 1924-2009). Avery's family was among the persecuted Armenian minority in Ottoman Turkey. He grew…
Well, my friend the author Eve Golden had scarcely announced the launch of her new website Eve's Obits when two prominent celebrities obligingly demonstrated its usefulness by dying within 2…
Juy 10 was the birthday of filmmaker Dudley Murphy (1897-1968); 2024 marks the centennial of one of his best known works Ballet mécanique (1924), an avant-garde film co-directed with Fernan…
Having already written about such Fatty Arbuckle-adjacent figures as nephew Al St. John, wife Minta Durfee, ill-fated associate Virginia Rappe, and countless of his professional colleagues (…
July 8, 1924 was the day that WNYC radio in New York first went on the air. It's been years since I was a regular listener, but I am a big fan of public media, and certainly went through pha…
…And Adelbert Knott (1858-1933), as well, for he came onto the scene first. Hailing from Tyner, Indiana (about a half hour from South Bend), Knott was both a writer and an actor. He was on…
Brewster McCloud (1970) is one of the least well-remembered films by its director Robert Altman, and doesn't even top the list of movies people know which feature its star Bud Cort (surely t…
July is International 'Zine Month! The occasion has inspired a little navel gazing, for in those dim dark days before blogging was available, 'zines were the only way many of us could self-p…
Three P.T. Barnum posts in one day? This is unprecedented! I'm pretty sure I've never done that for anybody, two is the max. But I just so happened to have gotten three ideas for new Barnum …
The walking tour I referred to in the previous post was, as intended, a revivifying return to basics for this correspondent. As I mentioned in that post, locations connected to P.T. Barnum w…
