11,750 stories by "Trav S.d."
Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts. Who’s more Jewish than Fanny Brice? Nobody! But nothing will keep Baby Snooks with her appointed rendez-vous with…
Today is the birthday of Howard Hughes (1905-1975). Hughes was many things: heir to a fortune; airplane designer, manufacturer and test pilot; eccentric recluse; and conservative ideologue; …
Today is the birthday of the great Victorian poet, essayist and cultural critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). This year I read Culture and Anarchy (1867-1869) for the first time and I su…
Looka here — I have verified empirically what we have all sensed instinctively: there are way too many friggin’ versions of Charles Dickens‘ 1843 story A Christmas…
Here’s a charming Christmas film made by D.W. Griffith for Biograph in 1909. A father loses his job and is demoralized, so he takes a run-out powder on his family, get me? They’r…
Another in our long series of Christmas themed old time show biz post: I generally associate Doris Day with the 50s and 60s, and thus think of her as too young for Radio Days…but the f…
Today is the birthday of Alan Carney (David Boughal, 1909-1973).Carney worked in vaudeville for years as a dialect comedian before being signed by RKO in 1943, where his first picture wasÂ�…
Another in our series of holiday themed posts: The long running sit-com series starring big bandleader Ozzie Nelson, his wife Harriet and boys Ricky and David was so popular it encompassed b…
Another in our series of Christmas theme old time show biz posts… Nowadays we tend to remember Jack Haley primarily as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, but Haley was in a ton of o…
Today is the birthday of Carl Wilson (1946-1998), the youngest of the Beach Boys’ Wilson brothers, their influential lead guitarist, and lead singer on several of their important songs…
I unearthed this gem to my delight the other day when I was looking up Robert Urich clips, because that’s how I roll! Get it? Bulldozer? Roll? As you might expect, Killdozer (197…
A timely topic and one I warrant has been a source of confusion for many Americans  travelling abroad during the holidays. Pantomime is one of those theatrical terms, like burlesque, vaud…
Two blogposts with a common theme came my way this morning having to do with consideration for others. I found them both galvanizing and each in their own way inspirational. This, more intro…
Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts… Not that it’s much talked about, but probably the most talked-about part of my new book Chain of Fools is…
Today is the birthday of late Robert Urich (1946-2002). About Vega$, Spenser for Hire or The Lazarus Man (or about any of a dozen of his other series) I have nothing to say; I ne…
 Another in our series of crazy Christmas themed posts… We’ll be writing quite a bit more about this lacklustre but once omnipresent police procedural series in a few days &#…
Today is the birthday of the great jazz pioneer Joe “King” Oliver (1881-1938), a cornet player and trumpeter often considered a sort of link in the chain between the legen…
Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts. Orson Welles and his company The Mercury Theatre present Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge in their radio version of Dickens&…
Another in our series of Christmas themed posts. This short by the Edison Company, released in December, 1912 and directed by Harold M. Shaw, is a contemporary riff on A Christmas Carol, wit…
We are pleased to present A Change in Brunch Plans, one of several silent comedy experiments we are making in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from…
Another in our series of Christmas themed posts. This one used to be a sort of annual classic back in the heyday of Broadcast television. The Waltons was of course the long-running CBS show …
Another in our series of Christmas themed posts… Best known today as Mr. Television, Milton Berle had also had a flourishing career in radio since 1934. (And of course vaudeville. For …
All honor and reverence to the spirit of Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837). Grimaldi expanded the part of “Clown” from the harlequinade portion of British pantomimes into a starring ro…
 Today is the birthday of the great film director Steven Spielberg (1946). Having already dispensed infallible wisdom on the subject of Spielberg in my reviews of War Horse, …
Today is the birthday of film director George Stevens (1904-1975). revered to day as the creator of such classics as Alice Adams, Gunga Din, A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant, and T…
