11,728 stories by "Trav S.d."
October 2 is the birthday of Bud Abbott, our favorite member of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. As we have written here a few times, we are fans of the radio and television work of t…
Will F. Denny (ca. 1860-1908) started out performing on the vaudeville stages of his native Boston, firmly in B.F. Keith territory. He specialized in comic songs and parodies sung in a high …
A tip of the cap today to the great British star Stanley Holloway (1910-1982), who left us 40 years ago this year. Americans know him best from his role as Eliza Doolittle's cockney father i…
Today, a post on the legendary lesbian cabaret singer and screen actress Bertha Levine (1906-1971), variously billed as Spivy, Spivy Levoe, or Madame Spivy. (Pronounced "Spivvy", i.e., with …
Born this day the great early Hollywood star Virginia Bruce (Helen Virginia Briggs, 1910-1982). I don't usually frontload an actor's credits, but in this case I fear it might be necessary, f…
Hollywood actress Lizabeth Scott (Emma Matzo, 1922-2015) was born 100 years ago today. In the 1940s there was inexplicable vogue in pop culture for mannish women with deep voices, thick eye …
Born this day 130 years ago, silent screen actress Ruth Stonehouse (1892-1941). Now, while I do bristle whenever the word "historian" is applied to me (not being a professional in a professi…
Born 100 years ago today, stage and screen director Arthur Penn (1922-2010). Penn is widely considered the Father of New Hollywood on account of his breakthrough hit Bonnie and Clyde (1967),…
Hilary Mantel, author of the Wolf Hall trilogy passed away on September 22 at the age of 70, and perhaps you'll forgive me if I find myself much more saddened by the loss of a critic of mona…
Folksinger Jim Post died on September 14 at the age 82, but there is something highly appropriate about the fact that I learned about it yesterday, which was National One Hit Wonder Day. (Th…
This is a snapshot of near term America if YOU do not lean heavily into the upcoming midterm election to safeguard America's democratic process. The GOP has made it plain that if they win Co…
Many years ago I lucked into a treasure trove. One of my first jobs when I moved to New York was painting apartments for a real estate management company between tenants. Most of the propert…
Well, I didn't, but it sure seems that way. I mentioned her in this post only yesterday and then, boom, she dies! Cause and effect, right? That's the kind of science that elects Presidents i…
September 24 was the D.O.B. of the great actor/manager Sir Philip Barling "Ben" Greet (1857-1936). The apex of Greet's profile no doubt occurred as manager of the Old Vic during the World Wa…
One week from today, it's the final installment in Noah Diamond's Freedonia Marxonia trilogy! In Home Again: The Marx Brothers and New York City (2020), Noah looked at the Br…
September 23, 1932 was the release date of an important if currently obscure movie comedy called The Phantom President. Why is it important? Well, for one thing, it's the only opportunity we…
In a universe that's got a Louise Lasser, a Louise Dresser, a Louise Carter, a Louise Carver, a Louise Fletcher, and a Luise Rainer, you perhaps can't be expected to keep track of a Louise L…
There were at three generations of performing Pryors. The patriarch Samuel Pryor was a bandmaster in St. Joe, Missouri. His son, Arthur Pyror (1869-1942) was born above a theatre in that tow…
I first became aware of Grace Leboy Kahn (1890-1983) from Charlotte Chandler's wonderful book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends. Grace Kahn was actually Groucho's in-law: her d…
Sig Sautelle (George Satterly, 1848-1928) was a minor figure to be sure, of regional importance at best, but we offer this brief elucidation for those who chance to encounter the name on eph…
Brooklyn born Grace Bradley (1913-2010) was a child prodigy whose piano skills got her a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music when she was only 12 years old. There, she also learned to…
Hey Ho! Now that we in that yearly window when the heat is not oppressive yet we are still pre-sickness-spike season, I'd like to offer the return of my Times Square vaudeville walking tour!…
September 20, 1872 was the natal day of actor, director and producer Sidney Olcott, a major mover and shaker of the silent era, especially the earlier days of the industry. Olcott was essent…
Remembering at the 11th hour that it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, I was just about to re-share my post on the Five Greatest Pirate Actors Ever, when I suddenly realized that it's incomplete " w…
We are amused to learn that the author of the Lone Wolf series of mystery novels (oft adapted for the screen) was named Joseph Louis Vance (1879-1933) because of course there was a similar s…
