11,746 stories by "Trav S.d."
Tonight (tomorrow morning really) at 12:30am (EST) on Turner Classic Movies: Â Harold Lloyd’s 1927 feature The Kid Brother. In The Kid Brother, Lloyd stretched somewhat, venturing in…
Hey New Yorkers! Tomorrow the Film Forum will be showing two very important silent features. Note: this is not a double feature; these are two entirely separate screenings, as you’ll n…
Please don’t protest that YOU haven’t forgotten the show. This world contains 7 billion people, including 320 million Americans, most of whom are younger than you are.Â…
The Destination America network premiered a new documentary special the other night. Since 2002 or 2003 I’ve been working on a piece of writing about September 11 (I haven’t deci…
Over Thanksgiving weekend last year I went with my boys to see the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. The Memorial had been open for three years by that point; the Museum for six mon…
The most loyal readers of this blog, i.e., the ones who read all the posts, will have noticed that many months ago a new content stream began to invade our already established content turf o…
Today is the birthday of Tammany Young (1886-1936). Best remembered today as one of W.C. Fields’ many stooges, the diminutive Young actually worked with most of the major comedians of …
Today is the birthday of the great Max Reinhardt (1873-1943). A towering giant of 20th century theatre, Reinhardt directed in Berlin and Vienna from 1902 through 1933, when the Nazis made…
Today is the birthday of Colonel Harland David Sanders (1890-1980). I was going to put “Colonel” in quotes, but, no, though the title is honorary it is also actual and legitimate…
Tonight on TCM, a very nicely curated menu of thoughtful, mature westerns. Warning: we always include spoilers! 8:00pm (EST): 3:10 to Yuma (1957) Elmore Leonard wrote the story this film …
This is a photo of a star who burned briefly but brightly in the nineteen-teens. Her name was Helen Rook. I have but a few interesting fragments of information on her; if I uncover more I…
Just got word via Steve Stoliar that Laugh-In  “Sock it to Me” Star Judy Carne (b . Joyce Botterill, 1939) has passed on at the age of 76. A native of Northampton, En…
I heard from my pal Barry Mitchell last night that Jean Darling has passed away. Among other things, the former child star was one of the original Our Gang. Ironically, I became aware of Ms.…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone film The Rounders (1914), the only honest-to-God co-starring vehicle of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe “Fatty” A…
Today on TCM at 6pm (EST) John Ford’s Sergeant Rutledge (1960). Warning: we always include spoilers! A tremendous movie which ought to be known as landmark and a classic, but comple…
Filed under: Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, Magicians/ Mind Readers/ Quick Change, PLUGS Tagged: Bizarro, Coney Island USA, Gary Dreifus, Lee Alan Barrett, Magic at Coney, Tanya Solomon
Today is the birthday of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, Marquis de Lafayette (1757 " 1834), hero of the American Revolution and two separate revolutions in hi…
Filed under: AMERICANA, Coney Island, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Adam RealMan, Beard and Moustache Competition, Coney Island USA, Don Jamieson
. Today at 5:00pm (EST) TCM will be showing the minor western classic McLintock! (1963). I am tempted to call this movie the best non-spoof comedy western. It’s definitely John Wayn…
Filed under: Acrobats and Daredevils, ACTS, Circus, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Coney Island USA, NYC Unicycle Festival
As we noted here, here , here and here, 2015 marks the centennial year of W.C. Fields‘ first entry into pictures (Pool Sharks) and his debut with the Ziegfeld Follies. To mark the o…
Fans of W.C. Fields know that throughout his 41 films he always played some version of his irascible self, usually with one of the following variations: 1) a middle-class small town everyman…
Filed under: African American Interest, AMERICANA, BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Burlesque at the Beach, Coney Island, The Emancipation of Kitty…
I heard last night from the grapevine that Barbara Vann, Founder and Artistic Director of Medicine Show Theatre passed away a few days ago. I didn’t know her, but I knew her work, and …
Filed under: Buster Keaton, Comedians, Comedy, Comedy Teams, Hollywood (History), Marx Brothers, Movies, PLUGS Tagged: Buster Keaton, Iola Kansas, Marx Brothers
