11,754 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the 85th birthday of Mrs. Shirley Temple Black, the most popular child star in history, and one of the few who didn’t disintegrate or self-distruct. Her life is both well-know…
This pair of German giants met whilst performing in a London revue. He was actually from Austria and had been billed as Prince Yose; she was from Bernstadt, Germany. They got married in 1…
Today is the birthday of the great be bop bass player and composer Charles Mingus (1922-1979). Who did more good for the soul of America during the Cold War? Some army general? Wrong! Billy …
Today is the birthday of comedian Byron Allen (b. 1961). At age 14 he was already working as a joke writer for Jimmy “J.J.” Walker; at 18, he was the youngest stand-up …
Today is the birthday of John Waters (b. 1946) foremost heir to the cinematic showman mantle worn by the earlier likes of Roger Corman, William Castle and Herschel Gordon Lewis. A gifted …
Today is the birthday of the great tin pan alley songwriter Paul Dresser (for my full article on him go here). But if you don’t feel like reading, you can always play Lux Radio T…
Today is the birthday of Bull Moose Jackson (1919-1989), a saxophonist and bandleader, whose band specialized in jump blues and R & B. Nowadays his most famous tune is the 1952 “Bi…
Rasmus Nielsen (1874-1957) was one of America’s first extreme tattooed and pierced individuals. Billed as “the Danish Strong Man” he was tattooed from head to toe, and had …
Today is the birthday of Buddy Pepper (Jack R. Starkey, 1922-1993). At age 13, the Kentucky native won Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which led to a tour of what was left of vaudeville by the mid…
Today (according to historian Brent Walker) is the birthday of silent movie comedy actor and director Henry “Pathe” Lehrman (1884-1946). Some other sources give March 30. I reall…
Eko and Iko were actually George Muse (1893-1971) and Willie Muse (1892-2001), two Albino African American twin brothers from Roanoke, Virginia. The lore is that they were kidnapped from the…
Today is the birthday of Harold Lloyd (1893-1971).  Lloyd did not start out to become a comedian, but an actor. After a few years doing theatre with amateur and stock companies, he …
Today is the birthday of the great jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton (1908-2002). Here he is with his band in a variety film called “The Rhythm and Blues Revue” taken at the Apoll…
Peppino “Baron Paucci” Magro was billed as the “World’s Smallest Perfect Man”. Born in Sicily in 1894, he garnered some publicity at age 15 when he survived bei…
Today is the one year anniversary of the passing of Levon Helm (1940-2012), drummer/ singer for The Band.  Tonight, Cinema Village is  marking the occasion by opening the documentary…
I’m a little slow on the uptake. I’ve had the screener for Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Rickey Jay sitting at my house for days, not realizing it had already …
Today is the birthday of the late Dudley Moore. Just found this hilarious clip of him and comedy partner Peter Cook on the British music program “Ready, Steady, Go”. I can’…
Today is the birthday of the High Priestess of camp, Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967). I’d like to take a moment and express my concern about the circumstances of the photo above. Does that…
Tonight, the Pearl Theatre is opening a bill of one acts by J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan) called This Side of Neverland. One of the plays on the bill, The Twelve Pound Look” …
Filed under: American Folk/ Country/ Western, Contemporary Variety, Music, PLUGS Tagged: 2013, Brooklyn Folk Festival, Jalopy
Today is the birthday of Constance Talmadge (1898-1973), the youngest of a silent movie acting clan that also included sisters Norma (1894-1957) and Natalie (1896-1969). Raised in poverty by…
Today is the birthday of Virginia Fox (1902-1982). A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, she was a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty by 1919. Within a year, she had become Buster Keaton’s …
Today is the birthday of Leonard Harper (1897-1943). A second generation performer, he got his start as a child with medicine shows in the rural south. For a time he traveled with a small st…
Today is the birthday of Vivienne Segal (1897-1992). Originally from Philadelphia she was classically trained in voice and made her debut in Carmen in 1915. The following year she went strai…
“Happy” Jack Eckart (1874-1937), the son of a Fort Wayne cigar maker, weighed 19 lbs. at birth. At the time of his passing at age 63 he weighed 739 lbs and had to be buried in a …
