11,754 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville # 91: Lillian Roth (1910-1980) (for more on her and her vaudeville beginnings go here). I’ve seen more of her films since my earlier posts &…
There is something to be said for the excellence wrought (indeed, necessitated) by the fierce competition in vaudeville. Case in point: these ponies. Horses are notoriously dumb beasts, in t…
Swiss-born Josephine Clofullia (1827-1875) was one of the hairiest of all historical bearded ladies, having been (at least reportedly) covered in hair at birth, and in possession of a two-in…
Today is the birthday of Frank (1915-1998). Today we treat NOT of what you might call “the classical Sinatra”, he of the Rat Pack, Nelson Riddle, Ava Gardner, From Here to Ete…
Today is the birthday of Charles Frederick Gebhart, a.k.a Buck Jones (1889-1942). Born in Indiana, he was raised in Montana, where he learned to ride and rope. Folliwng military service, he …
While the annals of vaudeville magic are chock full of Chinese and pseudo-Chinese practitioners, with Indian (and pseudo-Indian) being the second most numerous specialty, one encounters very…
Naro and Zita Lockford were a French brother-sister adagio act who came over to the U.S. in the early 20s from the Folies Bergere. In 1922 the two appeared in the Broadway show The Rose o…
Never mind your friends’ and relatives’ wish lists! I know what they want! I Know what they want! Trust me! This page of my  blog is the only catalog you’ll ever need fo…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #270 Stubby Kaye (for my full article on him go here). I just found this hilarious record of him singing a song written by Rags Ragsland “My…
Some (those my age and a little bit older, as well as lovers of nostalgic reruns) may protest that this show isn’t forgotten at all, but I assure you, I’ve talked to several peop…
Vantile Mack was one of P.T. Barnum’s exhibits in the late 1850s, also billed as the Ohio Fat Boy, the Giant Baby, and the infant Lambert (after Daniel Lambert, 1770-1908, up til th…
Songwriter Robert Wilcox Bigelow (1890-1965) got his start in vaudeville as one half of the team Bigelow and Campell, which toured the circuits from 1909 through 1923. Then, for three years …
Germany-based performer Charles Prelle had a ventriloquial dog act, i.e. he placed masks over the dog’s mouths, they would move their jaws and Prelle would supply the voices. His…
Han Ping Chien (1891"1930) was a magician, born, raised and trained in China, who came to the U.S. to tour American vaudeville in the wake of the success of Ching Ling Foo and his many imita…
Jack Mason was a major Broadway choreographer and director, with credits stretching from 1905′s The Duke of Duluth through 1937’2 Swing It. For several years he performed i…
Today is the birthday of Dorothy Lamour (1914-1996). She got her start in show business as a teenager when her exotic French-Spanish-Irish good looks won her the title of Miss New Orleans. S…
Today is the birthday of the adorable Una Merkel (1903-1986). Ironically she did not start out in vaudeville but only wound up there after she was a star, to promote her films in the early 1…
Today is the birthday of the great Tin Pan Alley lyricist Lew Brown (1893-1958), most famous as one third of the team of Henderson/ Brown/ DeSylva. Now here’s a 1926 recording of one o…
Today is the birthday of Harry McCoy (1889-1937). After nearly a decade performing in stock companies and vaudeville, the Philadelphia native went to Hollywood in 1912 and performed in…
The Albino Lucasie family were European (the name is French), but P.T. Barnum, who discovered them at the 1857 Amsterdam fair, gave out that they were “Negroes from Madagascar”…
Young Amar Nath Dutt (1884-1937) was sent by his Punjabi parents to Edinburgh to study medicine. Somehow he wound up chucking all that and touring with Ruth St. Denis as part of one of he…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #401 Hal Leroy (see here for more background on him). Here he is in a great little routine with Mitzi Mayfair from 1932: To find out more about th…
The Stirks were the leaders in trick riding and bicycle stunts in the variety world in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. The patriarch was Thomas (1859-1924), married to Flora, who was for…
Pictured above are The Great Coram (1883-1937) and his partner Jerry Fisher. Born Thomas Whitaker, he debuted in music hall with his ventriloquism act in 1905, (he also appeared in Am…
Madame Petty was P.T. Barnum’s long-haired lady, photographed here circa 1870. A Brooklyn native, she was married to sea captain Henry Petty, who lost at sea off Cape Hateras in 188…
