11,754 stories by "Trav S.d."
George Bunnell was a protege of P.T. Barnum’s and a crucial figure in the development of the American dime museum. After numerous iterations of Barnum’s American Museum bur…
August Carney (1870-1920) was one of silent comedy’s first stars, whose heyday was essentially of the pre-Chaplin era. Originating in British music halls and American vaudeville, he fo…
A stunt so dangerous Houdini refused to attempt it, the Bullet Catch has claimed the lives of at least 12 people since its conception in 1613. Acclaimed performer, director, playwright (and …
Today is the birthday of J.C. Nugent (1868-1946). A Texas farm kid, he ran off with a travelling repertory company at age 16, barnstorming the country in melodramas, comedies and occasion cl…
Today is the birthday of Nellie Keeler (1875-1903). Born onto a Kokomo, Indiana farm, she weighed only eleven ounces at the time of her birth. At age three, when she was hired by P.T. Barnum…
We lucked into some tickets to previews for Pinchbottom’s new burlesque production Pretencion last night and I can’t say enough good things about it. I thought it was a bri…
Today is the birthday of famed producer and director Roger Corman (b. 1926). The subject of Corman and his career is so large and unwieldy that to talk about all of it in one post would be l…
Decatur, Alabama native William Ingram (b.circa  1930) learned at the age of four that he had a unique gift: the ability to thrust his eyeballs up to an inch outside of their sockets. …
Hello and welcome again to Vaudephone, your one stop shopping for all the best contemporary variety acts! Today we feature the terrific Noah Diamond, a show biz Renaissance man: vaudevill…
Today is the birthday of Robert E. Sherwood (1896-1955). A colleague of Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker at Vanity Fair, he was one of the founding members of the informal club of wits …
Today is the birthday of McKinley Morganfield (1913-1983). Performing and recording as Muddy Waters, Morganfield was perhaps the most influential Chicago bluesman of all time, largely throug…
Today is the birthday of Agnes Ayres (1898-1940). The Illinois native got her start as an extra at Essanay Studios in 1914. She then moved to New York, where she began to get real parts at V…
Today is the birthday of Washington Irving (1783-1859). By most reasonable measures he is America’s premier literary man and it is only natural that New York City produced him. W…
The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era. Today is the birthday of Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000). I wou…
Today is the birthday of George Washington Morrison Nutt (1844-1881). At age 17 New Hampshire native Nutt was hired by P.T. Barnum as a replacement for General Tom Thumb in his American …
Today is the birthday of Wallace Beery (1885-1949). While best known to film buffs from roles in early talkies like The Champ (1931, for which he won an Oscar), and Dinner at Eight (1933), W…
 This is anecdotal, but I think it holds true. The pecking order of genre popularity (and Q recognition) in old silent films today runs something like this: 1. Slapstick comedy 2. Horror…
Today is the birthday of Eddie Quillan (1907-1990). Quillan was a man with many show biz lives. 1) He started out with his parents and siblings in the family vaudeville act “The Rising…
Today is the birthday of James “Buster” West (1901-1966.) West was an eccentric dancer who started out in a vaudeville act with his parents. He worked with a variety of partners …
Today is the birthday of John Lee Curtis “Sonny Boy” Williamson (1914-1948), not to be confused with another performer who also became famous using that name whom we’ll wri…
I remember this show so well — how is it possible it only aired for five episodes? At any rate, we are prompted to post it today because one of the regulars was Jerry Fujikawa (here bi…
This is the sixth and final of the series on the show biz ancestry of writer-actress Cynthia Fujikawa, which we launched here several weeks ago. We met a couple of weeks ago and she took me …
Today is the birthday of tin pan alley songwriter Albert Von Tilzer (1878-1958). He started out as a musical director in vaudeville, then he went to work for his brother, tin pan alley songw…
He’s reading the funnies Quick! Call a cab! Today, tomorrow and Sunday at 11am, the IFC Center in NYC is showing  Will Rogers‘ 1934 feature Judge Priest. Time has…
Today is the birthday of Billy Quirk (1873-1926). Quirk was one of the first comedy stars, but his time at the top was short and in the final analysis he is considered a minor figure. He sta…
