11,754 stories by "Trav S.d."
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
Rose’s Royal Midgets were a troupe of 25 little people gathered together from across Europe (mostly Germany) by American impresario I.S. Rose. Company members danced, did acrobat…
Opening tonight at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg, a line up of killer clowns! I mean, a killer line up of clowns! CIRQUE OFF January 17 – 20 @ 8pm Tickets: $15 A smorgasbord of rare …
Today is the birthday of that great genius of comedy, performance art, theatre and the Great American Hoax, Andy Kaufman (1949-1984). About ten years ago, a prominent journalist was intervie…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Mano…
Today is the birthday of Nils Asther (1897-1981). A Danish-Swede by birth, he first found fame on the silent screen in Scandinavia and Germany before coming to Hollywood in 1927Â to make h…
Julian Rose 1879-1935 was a Hebrew dialect comedian, whose most famous monologue was a speech called “Levinsky’s Wedding”. Originally an accountant in Philadelphia, his act…
Today is the birthday of George Kelly (1887-1974). The younger brother of famous vaudevillian Walter C. Kelly, “The Virginia Judge” (both men were uncles of Grace Kelly), he foll…
Continuing on with today’s Cole Porter theme, today also happens to be Star of Vaudeville #424: Ethel Merman’s birthday (for more on Merman and her early career go here). Here…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #284: Irene Bordoni (for more on her, go here). The French coquette had a long association with Cole Porter on stage and screen; here she is singi…
“I’d like to read,” goes a new tv commercial I like to boo and hiss at, “but who has the time?” Well, never mind books on tape, the best friend the universal…
“What’s the biggest act in vaudeville?” In terms of fame, the answer to that is a poser; you could argue about that ’til the cows come home. But in terms of actual ph…
This is part two of the series on the show biz ancestry of Cynthia Fujikawa, which we launched here last week. Lottie Burke (1883-1939) was on all fours when she made her stage debut. Sh…
Today on TCM at 2:30pm (Eastern), I’ll Cry Tomorrow, the 1955 bio-pic based on Lillian Roth’s eponymous memoir. The focal point is Roth’s descent into alcoholism and accomp…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #423: Loïe Fuller (for full article on her go here). This incredible short film from 1902 opens with her transforming from a bat! To find ou…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of Dick Hilburn (1918-1971). billed in the sideshow world as “the Quarter Man”. The name sprang from the fact that he had but one fully developed limb (his …
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Manor Media…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
Today is the birthday of blues singer, comedian, male impersonator and all around vaudeville performer Princess White (1881-1976). She started out at age 5 as a toe-dancing R…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #105: Sophie Tucker (for more on The Last of the Red Hot Mamas go here). Here she is, still doing her thing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1960: To fi…
You heard it here first, folks! Rip Taylor (b. 1934) and Charles Nelson Reilly have the same birthday! Good lord, what crazy, kookin’, campy stars were alligned in the heavens on that …
Today is the birthday of the late, great Charles Nelson Reilly (1931-2007). A ubiquitous presence on game shows and talk shows in the 1970s and beyond, he first broke into the public’s…
