11,741 stories by "Trav S.d."
"Would you say that vaudeville is all about comedy?" a podcast interviewer asked me recently, expecting an automatic "yes" but I had to demur, for vaudeville was just as much about the senti…
Adapted from my notebooks, written between 2006-2011 I can't crow enough about how much I love playwright Clifford Odets (1906-1963). He is one of the few American writers of realism of whom…
I have big respect for the talent of singer and actor Chill Wills (Theodore Childress Wills, 1902-1978). Wills gave great performances in some of the best serious westerns of the classic era…
My introduction to Gene Lockhart (Edwin Eugene Lockhart, 1891-1957) came as a kid, when I saw him and his family in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol on TV. I knew his daughter June (b. …
This post courtesy reader Rick Rauschenbach, who wrote to tell us about his interesting vaudeville family. Rick's Granduncle, John Wilmer Rauschenbach, b.18 July 1879, was known as John "…
It's high time that you learned a thing or two about Robert Emmett O'Connor (1885-1962). I'll cut to the chase for some of you and reveal that he's the guy who played Henderson ("Now I know …
Some brief words of appreciation for rural character actor Percy Kilbride (1888-1964). Kilbride was an old trouper from San Francisco who'd been playing with stock companies since the age of…
As a composer Mabel Wayne (Mabel Wimpfheimer, 1890-1978) made good in a field dominated almost entirely by men. Brooklyn born and educated at the New York School of Music, she sang, danced a…
John E. Brennan (1865-1940) was one of the most popular screen comedians of the pre-Chaplin era. Hailing from Springfield, Massachusetts, Brennan was successful on the vaudeville stage start…
What a good day for Coney Island, for not only is National Tattoo Day, but it is also National Hot Dog Day. As we all know, the frank was invented at Coney " it's no coincidence that I would…
Today Sonny Tufts (1911-1970) may best be known as a punchline. In the 1960s, many years after he had ceased to be a marquee name, joking references to Tufts were made on Rocky and Bullwinkl…
I was going to share this carte de visite of Mlle. Octavia, Queen of the Reptile World, a star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West and let it go at that for this World Snake Day, but then came acros…
August 3, 8pm, Trav S.D. and the American Vaudeville Theatre Present WEIRDSTOCK. 50 years after 500,000 hippies came together to "make something happen" at Max Yasgur's farm, Trav S.D. 'n' f…
July 14 is the birthday of author Owen Wister (1860-1938). Some credit Wister with giving birth to the western fiction literary genre with his 1902 novel The Virginian. I find the distinctio…
There were ten Dillon siblings, six of whom went into show business, three of whom became quite famous. The family were raised in Cortland, New York, the children of Irish immigrants who in …
John Francis Dillon (1884-1934), sometimes billed as Jack Dillon, or J. Francis Dillon, was both an actor and a director, and successful in both fields. An Irish Catholic stage actor from Ne…
A mildly interesting enigma this morning concerning actress Lora Baxter (1902-1955). It's said that in her early years Baxter appeared in vaudeville and wrote silent scenarios for MGM. In 19…
West Virginia born Chester Bachman (Chester Arthur Bachman, 1882-1966), sometimes billed as Charles Bachman, or C.A. Bachman, is a distinctly minor figure in the show business annals, and ye…
Fannie Bourke (1886-1959), sometimes billed as "Fan", was a stage and screen actress whose career began around the turn of the last century and extended into the early 1930s. Born and bred i…
Today we pay frustrated tribute to actress Sue Lyon (b. 1946). Frustrated, of course, because she has successfully maintained a veil of secrecy and anonymity for almost 40 years. She made he…
Histrionic giant Rip Torn has passed at age 88 and we can't let the event pass without setting the record straight a bit. As they are wont to do, the mainstream press is making a lot of his …
Sam Wood (1883-1949) was one of a long line of Marx Brothers' directors that Groucho liked to dis, but the reality doesn't support that scorn. Not only did Wood direct two of the team's bigg…
I floated this as a trial balloon a few months ago, and there seemed to be quite a lot of interest, so now I'm really doing it. New York area Travalanche fans! I'm offering two private vaude…
A tribute to today international comedy sensation Marty Feldman (1934-1948). A Cockney Jew with a broken nose and bulging, staring eyes, one of which was wildly out of alignment, it's no mys…
Winston-Salem native Milt Britton (19894-1948) started playing his horn in vaudeville circa 1914. Three years later he formed a musical duo (trombone and cornet) with Frank Wetzel (1892-1…
