11,747 stories by "Trav S.d."
 The Mad Marchioness and I watched the great new documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck last week and, as a good movie will do, it unleashed a flood tide of thoughts and impressi…
Tonight on Turner Movie Classics, the guest programmer will be my old boss international singing sensation Mr. Tony Bennett. Tony often expresses his love of Charlie Chaplin in intervi…
With spring in full swing yesterday I finally took Kathy Biehl (our Margaret Dumont from I’ll Say She Is) up on her offer to show me around the former show biz resort of Lake Hopatc…
Today is the anniversary of the release of the Charley Chase comedy short Movie Night (1929). Do the math — this is one of the last silent movies that anyone in America saw at th…
Today at 5:30pm (EST) on Turner Classic Movies: Gypsy (1962) This is clearly TCM’s Mother’s Day tribute to the ultimate stage mom? What can I say about this poem to American show…
Filed under: African American Interest/ Blackface/ Minstrelsy, Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Brown Girls Burlesque, Dirty Honey Shake, Joe's Pub
Tomorrow at noon (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the classic Howard Hawks western Rio Bravo (1959). In essence this is Hawks’s last truly great film. The next one, th…
Filed under: American Folk/ Country/ Western, BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, Folk (Ethnic), Music, PLUGS Tagged: Bayou 'n' Brooklyn, BROOKLYN, cajun, Jalopy, zydeco
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin film A Busy Day (1914). This one is priceless — priceless! Directed by the man Mack Sennett himself, this i…
Originally posted on ღ Vintage Blog:Nina Leen (d. 1995) was a Russian-born American photographer and a constant contributor to Life. A self-taught photographer she never became…
Filed under: AMERICANA, CAMP, Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: comic opera, Hotel Casablanca, Hunter Opera Theater, Thomas Pasatieri
We wrote a bit here about some discoveries in our family tree as we started digging back into our ancestry a few weeks ago. Much more on that soon. I’ve discovered so much mind-blowing…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Dime Museum and Side Show, PLUGS Tagged: Bizarre, Bushwick Burlesque, Carnivolution, Squidling Brothers
Today is anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s debut as solo director of a film, Caught in the Rain (1914). The film is a fairly routine little Sennett style Francophile farce. It sta…
Three cheers to the Morbid Anatomy Museum, which dusted itself off after Hurricane Sandy (or rather wrung itself out) and has emerged more glorious than ever by an order of magnitude. I hadn…
Today at 4pm (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the terrific 1954 western Vera Cruz. Directed by Robert Aldrich, Vera Cruz was co-produced by Burt Lancaster, who co-sta…
Tonight starting at midnight, Turner Classic Movies will be screening several classic silent movie shorts, some of which are downright pivotal in American comedy history. Just click on links…
Originally posted on Augury Books:From Owen Jones’ Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867), courtesy of the Public Domain Review Parachute Literary Arts, an organization that celebratesÂ�…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Dixieland & Early Jazz, Music, PLUGS Tagged: NYC Hot Jazz Festival, Players Club
Well, it’s May the first, May Day, International Workers Day, so here’s a post for all you goddamn rotten, stinkin’ commies. Today we acknowledge the vaudeville shows that …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the 1915 Keystone comedy Mabel’s Wilful Way [sic]. In this ensemble comedy a young lady (Mabel Normand) is eating with he…
Filed under: Music, PLUGS, Rock and Pop, Singers, Women Tagged: concert, Irving Plaza, Night of 1000 Stevies, Steve Nicks, tribute
Filed under: BROOKLYN, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Barge, BROOKLYN, Pirate Ball, Red Hook, Waterfront Museum
Today is the birthday of Junius Brutus Booth, Sr. (1796-1852), founder of an acting dynasty. Himself named after the assassin of Julius Caesar, he was also the father of the man who assassin…
Great news, classic film fans! The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, Scott Eyman’s definitive 1997 chronicle of Hollywood’s changeover to sound, has just be…
