11,758 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of the Fairbanks Twins, Marion and Madeline (b. 1900, no relation to Douglas). Second generation actresses from New York, they began acting in melodramatic hits of the …
Well, here’s a shocker. Beloved character actor Whitman Mayo, most identified with his role as Grady on Sanford and Son…was neither an old timer nor a graduate of the black va…
Magic Brian and his wacky friends are back with a brand new show! Â Magic, music, circus, comedy and danger, featuring: Magic Brian Albert Cadabra Cloris Flap Nigel Blackstorm and all the …
Maximo and Bartolo, the so-called Aztec Children were two microcephalic unfortunates from St. Salvator, Â hired by P.T. Barnum starting in 1848-49 as representatives of an ancient, vanishe…
In age when shows with premises as preposterous as those at the center of Charlie’s Angels and Fantasy Island became monster hits, perhaps you could forgive NBC for gambling, and…
Today is the birthday of the great American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), creator of Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, etc etc. I like his Fanfare for the Common Man s…
Today is the birthday of Louise Brooks (1906-1985). There are cases to be made for putting her in both our “Stars of Vaudeville” and “Stars of Slapstick” series, but …
Today is the birthday of Dick Powell (1904-1963). An Arkansas native (you can hear it in his accent), he started out as a singer with the Charlie Davis Orchestra before moving to Pittsburg, …
Tim Burton seems to be back on his game. His heavy duty fans have always prized him for his grotesquerie, his highly visual black comedy akin in spirit to Charles Addams and Edward Gorey…
The decapitation trick was just one of many illusions pioneered by John Simmons, a.k.a. Washington Blythe, a.k.a. Washington Simmons, a.k.a. Hugh Washington Lynn, a.k.a Hugh Simmons Lynn, a.…
One of the most alienating experiences I have ever had was in a cinema studies class at NYU, during a screening of John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln. I revere Ford. I revere Lincoln.…
Fedor Jeftichew, better known as Jo-Jo the Dog-face Boy, is undoubtedly one of the most famous of all sideshow performers. Born in 1868 in St, Petersburg, Russia, he was the second generatio…
The Rath Brothers, Dick and George, were a classy, well-regarded acro-balancing act, invariably on short lists of critics, bookers and audiences of greatest vaudeville acts of all time &#…
In his book Stage to Screen, A. Nicholas Vardac puts forth the impossible and yet so right and true thesis that theatre-makers on the eve of cinema’s birth in the late 19th century WAN…
Today is the birthday of Delta blues guitarist and singer Booker T. Washington White, a.k.a Bukka White (1909-1977). A native of Aberdeen, Mississippi, he was the first cousin of B.B. King&#…
Today is the birthday of Grace Kelly (1929-1982). Unknown to most people, hers is one of the great acts of self-creation of modern show business history, ranking perhaps with Cary Grant̵…
Today is the birthday of Jack Oakie (Lewis Delaney Offield, 1903-1978). A Missouri native who spent part of his childhood in Oklahoma, he moved to New York to break into show business around…
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 Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of Lorayne Brox (for the full story on Stars of Vaudeville #387, the Brox Sisters, go here. Here they are singing “Falling in Love Again” in tribute to Marl…
William Henry Johnson (ca. 1842-1926) was so revered in the show business community that in his latter years he was known as “the Dean of Freaks”. Born the son of former slaves, …
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #78: Joe Penner (for more on him go here). In vaudeville and on radio his usual partner was a duck…that’s why he is singing this love …
Today is the birthday of Jonathan Winters (b. 1925). No one ever calls it this because he came along too late, but Winters had what they called in variety and vaudeville a Protean act,…
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 Richard Burton (1925-1984). In h…
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 Claude Raines (1889-1967). The story…
