11,751 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of Reginald Denny (1891-1967). Many know him as a third and fourth billed English character actor of the classic studio era. But he was a much, much bigger star during …
Today is the history of yokel comedienne and singer Judy Canova (for more on her, see our full essay here). In addition to her stage and screen performances Canova was a constant presence on…
Today (according to IMDB) marks the 100th anniversary of the release of one of the most well known of the pre-Chaplin Keystone comedies, A Muddy Romance. This is the famous one whe…
Today is the birthday of Steven Quincy Reeder, a.k.a S.Q. Reeder a.k.a Eskew Reeder, a.k.a. Esquerita (1935-1986). WHO?, you ask. Well that is why we are doing a post on him! I have been …
Very excited to report that our old pal Red Bastard (Eric Davis) is back in town, taking a few days off from his world travels with Cirque du Soleil to tickle and terrify us once again. (Rea…
Hats off (top hats and derbies mostly) to our old pal Ben Model who has just released yet another hot-lookin’ DVD collection. And when I say hot-lookin’, I mean  — well,…
 Here’s another post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. It’s not surprising Native American Indians would be a recurring theme in Buster Keaton’s comedy…
Continuing our tribute to Alan Young’s birthday…I tend to think most people today know his later show best, the immortal Mr. Ed which ran from 1961 to 1966, and thereafter …
Today is the birthday of Angus “Alan” Young (b. 1919) who, true to his name, always had a youngish face and voice…and is still with us at age 93! English born, and with a r…
Originally posted in 2010 Webb Parmalee Hollenbeck was a mama's boy, and mama was a stage mother. A frustrated actress, Mrs. Hollenbeck pushed young Webb into dancing school at the age of se…
Originally posted in 2010 Ned Sparks is on my very short list of favorite character actors — in fact, I have gone so far as to channel him in certain past performances, and I plan to d…
Here’s another post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. This post is a refinement on some earlier related posts, on the history of the mountebank and the medicine show.�…
Here’s another post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. In an early post today we mentioned some of the theatrical precursors to the cinema’s treatment of Native A…
Here’s another little post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. Because of the nature of this blog, a lot of these posts looking at negative stereotypes will be drawn fro…
Here’s another little post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. There were many live theatrical precursors to 20th century depictions of Native Americans in film and broadcas…
Here’s another little post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. How many movies are there in which Native Americans are misrepresented, inaccurately represented, cruelly represe…
Today is the birthday of Lorne Michaels (b. 1944). It would be impossible to overstate the revolution brought about in pop culture by his principal brain child Saturday Night Live during …
Today is the birthday of the great character actor Burgess Meredith (1907-1997). Meredith holds a special place in our Hall of Hams by being one of the very last of the English-sounding Amer…
Today is the birthday of James O’Neill (1847-1920). Best known today as the father of the great playwright Eugene O’Neill, in his heyday he was regarded as one of the era’s…
Filed under: PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Art Deco Society, Deco Decadence, Flatiron Lounge
Filed under: Comedy, Contemporary Variety, Illusionists, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Big Sky Works, Corn Mo, Perpelexer, Tanya Solomon
Well, a blog being what it is, that is a web log, an online diary of sorts, from time to time I am apt to trot out stories a little closer to home. In the past I’ve have had to unfrien…
Another addendum to our earlier post on Dick Powell. There’s no two ways about it: Dick Powell was a very savvy individual. When he sensed he was aging out of the boy ingenue parts tha…
An addendum post to our earlier tribute to Dick Powell. In addition to his extensive stage and cinema careers, Powell was a major presence on radio in the 30s and 40s. He made countless appe…
Today is the birthday of Brian Keith (1921-1997). Keith’s was an interesting and memorable presence on screens big and small, somewhere between a leading man and a character actor, mos…
