11,748 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) Kerouac is one of the few things that the Mad Marchioness and I disagree on, and pretty radically. We’re kind of polar on the subject.…
Today on Turner Classic Movies: four westerns, three of them about Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn:  11:30 am (EST): Wyoming (1940) Wallace Beery and Leo Carillo are two f…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Chaplin Chaplin comedy The Champion (1915). One of his early Essanay comedies, The Champion is a nice snapshot of Chaplin i…
Tonight starting at 8pm (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing all ten of the MGM “Maisie” comedies starring Ann Sothern. In this film series, which ran from 1939 to 1…
Thanks to a tipster who let me know that both me and No Applause are cited in this book, I ran out and got a copy of Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him (2013…
Today is the birthday of the great film director Gregory La Cava (1892-1952). Formally trained as a visual artist, La Cava broke into film as an animator, making his way to directing by 1916…
Today marks the anniversary of the release of the Keystone comedy Tango Tangles, co-starring Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and Ford Sterling, directed by Mack Sennett. This is another o…
Tonight at 8pm Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1966 Henry Hathaway western Nevada Smith. Warning: we always include spoilers! In ’66 Paul Newman, Burt Reynold…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of Fatty’s Chance Acquaintance (1915), directed by and starring Roscoe Arbuckle. A fairly typical “park bench” comedy, it s…
Tonight, starting at Midnight, Turner Classic Movies will be showing several excellent silent Harold Lloyd shorts. On the menu: I Do (1921) The film begins with a little animation"Harold and…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Bettina May, Flatiron Follies, Grace Gotham, Metropolitan Room
I’m fairly obsessed with Grey Gardens, the Maysles Brothers 1976 documentary record of decline and insanity among the American aristocracy, shot at the collapsing mansion of Mrs. Ed…
Filed under: Broadway, LEGIT, EXPERIMENTAL & MUSICAL THEATRE, PLUGS Tagged: 54 Below, 54 Sings, Mack and Mabel
I made noise about shifting directions on the blog lately and here is some of the first fruits of that. Have no fear. Theatre and film history, classic comedy, and so forth will remain major…
Filed under: Indie Theatre, PLUGS, STEAMPUNK/ VICTORIANA Tagged: Craig Dudley, Diversions and Delights, John Gay, Oscar Wilde
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the W.C. Fields-Chester Conklin comedy Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1928), directed by Eddie Sutherland. As the name suggests, the film w…
A number of months ago an Internet thing made the rounds asking participants to name ten writers whom you love or who influenced you. And virtual tongues wagged in the aftermath, as they alw…
Head’s up, New Yorkers! Tonight at 5:30pm and 9:30pm the Brooklyn Academy of Music will be showing the EXTREMELY enjoyable Barbara Stanwyck western Forty Guns (1957) Written, …
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Beauty Bar, Behind the Velvet Curtain, Bettina May, burlesque
At the age of 86, Jules Feiffer still has the ability to reinvent himself and stretch in surprising new directions. Knowing how I love him, the Mad Marchioness got me his new graphic novelÂ…
It may shock you to learn that I hadn’t seen any of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies until less than ten years ago. I had previously seen clips of their dancing, but apparentl…
Today is Jackie Gleason’s birthday – – a fitting time to talk about his most unique film, which is really saying something since his career also included Skidoo. The…
This is part of a continuing series on Hollywood shows biz bio-pics. The preceding three parts (this, this, and this) focused on bio-pics from the classic studio era. An upcoming post will c…
It’s long been an observation of mine that our greatest (male) film comedians have as one of the chief quivers in their arsenals the ability to go into “female.” What I ref…
I can’t believe it’s been five years since we reviewed Jeff Nichols’ delightful memoir Trainwreck and the movie that was based on it. A former stand-up comedian, N…
