I am often asked about the origin of my pseudonym Trav S.D. " it has multiple meanings, but the whole point in choosing a symbolic moniker is NOT to overexplain and NOT to literalize. When i…
On November 8, 1965 two seemingly unrelated things occurred: 1) popular newspaper columnist and tv game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen (b. 1913) was found dead in her Manhattan townhouse, f…
Digby Bell (1849-1917) was a Milwaukee born vocalist, popular in comic opera, musical comedy and vaudeville at the tune of the last century. He is credited with being the performer who intro…
Today is the birthday of early silent film star King Baggot (read my full post on Baggot here). That makes today the perfect time to announce that I'll be in Philadelphia this Sunday at the …
I know you are lured by the headline but there are other things to tell about Grace Stafford (Grace Boyle (1903-1992) first. Stafford was only 16 years old when she married actor Tom Keene i…
Okay, now here me out: Petrocelli (1974-76) was kind of like Perry Mason meets Baretta, mixed with a backwards version of McCloud, with some Rashomon thrown in. Barry Newman played the titul…
I was first introduced to the charms of Jackie Joseph (b. 1933) in her role as Audrey in one of my favorite films, the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). Gradually, I began to no…
I am rarely if ever find myself able to get excited or even interested in stage directors (sorry, stage directors!) but in the case of Julian Mitchell (1851-1926) will make an unambiguously …
The name Lucille La Verne (Lucille La Verne MItchum, 1872-1945) may sound well suited to burlesque, but she was the very essence of "legit". La Verne's best remembered role today is the Wick…
Today we celebrate African American singer, dancer, choreographer and actress Marie Bryant (1919-1978). Raised in New Orleans, Bryant took dance classes a child, and eventually made her way …
This is Part Four of Carolyn Raship's Agatha Christie series launched here. When people picture Agatha Christie in their heads, the most probable image is that of Angela Lansbury as she appe…
The rise of Dixie Lee (Wilma Winifred Wyatt, 1909-1952) was so rapid, it is scarcely to be believed. So was the speed of her eclipse, although she continued to make headlines long after her …
Today we celebrate Frances Williams (1901-1959) (not to be confused with African American actress, activist and produced Frances E. Williams, whom we plan to write about in future.) This Fra…
Unfortunately for a confused posterity, there were two dancing Jack Donohues in vaudeville back in the day, both of them quite accomplished. We've already written about one, the one who spel…
' A few silent movie news items have come our way over the past several days. They seemed worth bundling and reporting here: We are sad to report of the passing of Marilyn Slater, long a pri…
James Dunn (1901-1967) is a beloved figure in the annals of show business. The son of a Wall Street stockbroker, Dunn only briefly followed in his father's footsteps before going into work t…
Walter Woolf King (1899-1984) will probably best known to readers of this blog as the singing villain of two Marx Brothers movies, A Night at the Opera (1935) and Go West (1936), and as a sh…
Indiana native Tim Whelan (1893-1957) started his career as an actor and director with touring stock companies. In the 1920s he broke into movies as a scenarist and gag man on comedies and t…
Here's another post in celebration of a distant relative of mine, opera singer Felix Knight (1908-1998), best remembered for playing Tom-Tom in the Laurel and Hardy holiday movie Babes in To…
Happy Halloween! Here's my appearance earlier today on the BBC Program "The Ticket" where I discuss the differences between The Munsters and The Addams Family with host Kathy Clugston (inspi…
Sacre BOO! Apropos of nothing but the season, a Halloween post on a little niche we located in the classic horror genre: spooky films with a French setting. For horror settings we normally t…
Here's a delightful revelation for your day: Laurie Metcalf's great aunt was an important American writer of the early 20th century. Her name was Zoe Akins (1886-1958), and she made her grea…
One of the reasons (I imagine) that I am fairly obsessed with the Beatles is that I am just a little too young to have experienced them as a going concern. When Abbey Road was released for e…
The vagaries of memory are never to be understood. Thus it is that The Howdy Doody Show, Andy's Gang, and Pinky Lee all appear to have left some imprint in the culture, but somehow I never l…
Born of an October 29, songwriter and blackface minstrel** Dan Emmett (1815-1904). Emmett has been traditionally credited with being the author of the songs "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1843) an…