12,033 stories from Trav S.D.
What a treasure trove is the life and work of Daniel P. Mannix IV (1911-1997). I first latched onto him because of his involvement in sideshow, circus, and magic (viz., "The Great Zadma"), a…
October 25 through October 31 is National Magic Week, according to the Society of American Magicians! Go here to learn about their activities all over the country. In honor of the season, I …
We pen this tribute to Holly Woodlawn (Haraldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez Danhakl, 1946-2015) amongst good and bad benchmarks. It's the star's birthday of course, and 50 years from the po…
In a career that spanned over 50 years (1933-1984), and over 300 roles in all genres, given the season, we'd like to begin by pointing out all of the horror and sci fi movies that character …
Today we sing the praises of Eddie Lang (Salvatore Massaro, 1902-1933), known to some as "the Father of Jazz Guitar". Lang came from a musical family " his father made and sold string instru…
African American ventriloquist and magician Louis McBride was working nightclubs and vaudeville as early as the 1930s. His act included coin magic, a rope escape, and byplay with his dummy S…
Alexander P. Linton (1904-1972) was born in Roscommon Ireland, and had immigrated to New York by the 1920s, when he began performing as a magician in the Bowery, at Huber's Museum, and numer…
Like Sonja Henie and Vera Ralston, the creature known as Belita (Maria Belita Jepson-Turner, 1923-2005) found her way to movie stardom by being a world renowned ice skater. Like Ralston, she…
Silent Mora (Louis Jerome McCord, 1884-1972) derived his stage name from switching the letters of the name of one of his mentors, Maro, Prince of Magic " and from the fact that he performed …
Beloved character actor Peter Scolari (b. 1955) has left us too soon and as always I thought I would chime in with an appreciation that fills in some of the more obscure cracks that other eu…
You may be inclined, as I often am, to mix up Jordan Christopher (Jordan Christopher Zankoff, 1940-1996) with Christopher Jones (star of Wild in the Streets). No doubt the two did some scrap…
During the first year of Covid, we binge watched The Love Boat, and that is how we became aware of Korean American comedian Johnny Yune (Yoon Jong Seung, 1936-2020). I didn't know it at the …
I became aware of John Sheehan (1885-1952) because he co-starred in the 1934 Educational short Trimmed in Furs with Louise Keaton, Buster's sister. Born in Oakland, Sheehan acted with stock …
Saturday October 23, 12-4pm is Tin Pan Alley Day in NYC! I will now do appropriate homage by supplying you with a clattering cacophony of links. My brand new article for Chelsea Community Ne…
Dancer and actress Barrie Chase (b. 1933) has MANY notable screen credits but of COURSE we are going to foreground her memorable turn opposite Dick Shawn in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (…
The barriers to resumption of NYC cultural life seem to be rapidly melting as the Covid rate goes down and the vaccination rate (here at least) goes up. This week Chelsea Community News publ…
Just some very brief jottings on producer Hal B. Wallis (Aaron Blum Wolowicz, 1898-1986). Wallis's rapid rise in the movie business was the very definition of what it means to get in on the …
October 19 is the natal day of the much-missed Divine (Glenn Milstead, 1945-1988). As Lon Chaney was to Todd Browning, so was Divine to John Waters, both muse and star at the heart of his wo…
Well pleased we were with yesterday's Gatsby Fest, organized by Destination Great Neck, a literal stone's throw from the house where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a good chunk of The Great Gatsb…
Oh, how Hollywood loved blonde Northern European model/actresses in the '60s. I knew of many of them because they were still around in the '70s when I was a kid, woman like Elke Sommer (Germ…
Phyllis Gordon (1889-1964) was mostly a supporting player during her brief heyday " in our visiually focused age, she is primarily known for a couple of flashy publicity stunts. Gordon was f…
Roy Stewart (1883-1933) starred in over 100 silent films, most of them westerns, but I am personally most interested in the beginning of his career, for that is when he acted in some of the …
A few words of apprecation this morning for Ann Guilbert, or Ann Morgan Guilbert (1928-2016). Guilbert enjoyed a sort of charmed career. She went from being a key cast member in the popular …
Attention paid today to poet, novelist, historian and activist Helen Hunt Jackson (Helen Maria Jackson, 1830-1885), best known today for her 1884 novel Ramona, which was adopted for the Amer…
Frustrating, but amusing " if you Google "Dick Bernie", you will get pictures of 94 year old Dick Van Dyke championing Bernie Sanders for President, or clips of Bernie Mac saying "Give her d…
