12,034 stories from Trav S.D.
Queenie Smith (1898-1978) was a familiar character actress well into the 1970s, with a career that had begun over a half-century earlier. Sounds like a blues singer, right? A mix of Mamie Sm…
"Believe me, if a Turk could get out of Turkey and come here, even now, he would kiss the ground. To oppressed people, America is still a dream." This quote from Elia Kazan (Elias Kazantzogl…
One might be forgiven for assuming that character actor Irving Bacon (1893-1965) was a brother or some other relative to director Lloyd Bacon, since the former acted in some of the latter's …
Labor Day, 1921 saw the launch of the first Miss America pageant (it fell on September 8 that year). It seemed fitting for us to mark the occasion in some way, as there is some overlap with …
We have all sorts of reasons to be interested in stage and screen star Doris Kenyon (Doris Margaret Kenyon, 1897-1979). One is that singer/actress Doris Day was named after her (her mother w…
Comedienne Luella Gear (1897-1980) wasn't in vaudeville but she worked with so many who were that she seems a veteran by proxy. She was almost entirely a creature of the Broadway stage, havi…
Today is September 5, 2021 and you know what that means. That's right! It's 100 years to the day since Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle held his wild party at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel. Four …
Tonight! For Hispanic Heritage Month, learn about Latin Burlesque Heritage in Bella Sin's talk on same! Class is Donation based $5 and upVenmo @clevelandburlesque or paypal.me/bellasin Re…
It seems an injustice to make this Pat O'Malley (1890-1966) an also-ran, for he had once starred in films and has over 400 credits, but by the mid '30s he was busted down to bit player, henc…
In an industry which has given us an Al Lewis and an Al Kelly, to say nothing of an Al Flosso and an Al Mardo, it seems an Al Baker (1874-1951) would be inevitable. In spite of the quotidian…
Child star Wally Albright (Walron Algernon Albright Jr, 1925-1999) had range " his face could look cheerful and confident or haunted and melancholy, and this kept him working steadily in bot…
I'm fairly certain that I have never enjoyed a movie LESS than Val (2021) the new vanity doc about movie star Val Kilmer (b. 1959). My wife suggested it, so I figured we'd hate-watch it, the…
The career of chorine/model/bit player Jean Spangler (b.1923) was modest; her life presumably short. But we don't really know. Spangler's credits and vital stats can be summed up briefly. Sh…
Notes on and nods to Richard Arlen (Sylvanus Richard Mattimore, 1899-1976). Sylvanus? Sylvanus. That could have been his screen name right there, full stop, just the one name like Elvis, Che…
An overdue thing on Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel, 1897-1975), a topic so Brobdingnagian and daunting I've deferred it for years, choosing to write around it in various pos…
Actors are shape-shifters by definition. In the case of Jacqueline Brown (1914-2001) there were two levels to it: she changed her professional identity several times, from "Jacqueline Wells"…
A toot on the bugle this morning for character actor Joe Sawyer (Joseph Sauers, 1906-1982). Frequently cast as Irishmen, Sawyer was actually German-Canadian. His tough-looking mug was equall…
A brief nod to magician and ventriloquist Jay Marshall (1919-2005). Marshall was a true "linking ring" between the old era and this. The Massachusetts native had attended vaudeville shows in…
On August 29, 1921, Marcus Loew opened Loew's State the flagship of his vaudeville-and-flicker circuit, thought of as the top of the line small time, at 1540 Broadway in the heart of Times S…
I contemplated deferring this post on Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832) because I am still discovering this amazing person, but then I realized that was silly " one will always …
George Montgomery (George Montgomery Letz, 1916-2000) has sort of fallen through the cracks, perhaps partially because of the similarity of his name to, oh, Robert Montgomery on the one hand…
As I mentioned in my recent post on Booth Tarkington, a century ago the midwest had a strong, distinctive regional literary voice. Within it, you can even identify sub-groups, to wit, Indian…
A toss of the sombrero today for the great western star, stunt woman, rodeo rider, and vaudeville performer Helen Gibson (Rose August Wegner, 1892-1977). Her screen name is the result of two…
The screen career of Ruby Blaine (1903-1976) was minimal, to put it baldly: just 16 silent films over a four year period. Our main point of interest is that her last four were Hal Roach come…
This is a really local story, but an important one nonetheless. We are sad to report that one of Brooklyn's favorite sons, Bob Diamond has passed away at the age of 62. Diamond was known for…
