12,036 stories from Trav S.D.
London-born Syd Crossley (1885-1960) was billed in music hall and vaudeville as "The Long Comic" on account of his height. In films he was especially known for playing butlers. He broke into…
Self-trained Canadian singer George MacFarlane (1878-1932) started out as a soap salesman, took to the stage as a soloist, then got cast in musicals in Montreal. Success there took him to Br…
I find it existentially wonderful that I discovered the work of one of my biggest influences, Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) in a manner illustrative of …
I grew up on the performances of Yaphet Kotto (b. 1939) and at the moment, I can't think of anyone I ever thought was cooler. Kotto mixed machismo with intelligence (always catnip to me), an…
Mary Maurice (1844-1918) had originally been a schoolteacher, before beginning an actress with a Pittsburgh stock company in 1868 at the age of 24. She barnstormed throughout the country for…
John Hanson Craig (1855-1894) was two years old when, at a reputed 206 lbs, he took home the cash prize in P.T. Barnum's Bonny Baby Contest. Born in Iowa City, he moved to Franklin County, K…
When people ask the inevitable question "When were the times when you have laughed hardest in the cinema?", the two examples that spring to mind, it may surprise you to learn, are NOT comedi…
Thank you, Caftan Woman, for making me aware of the natal day of Mary Beth Hughes (1919-1995). Never heard of her? Don't blame ya " she had to have had one of the least memorable professiona…
For Neil Young's birthday, Native American History Month, and the 400th anniversary of Plymouth Rock, because of where we are as a country, because my kid just got back from frolicking with …
Gwen Lee (1904-1961) appeared in nearly 70 pictures over a dozen years. She was a supporting player, usually about sixth in the billing for the vast majority of them, as high as third in a s…
Back in the day, Pat O'Brien (1899-1983) was considered an equal and a peer of Spencer Tracy and James Cagney; indeed he had been pals with both men since the early days of their careers. Bu…
Edmond Ansley (William Edmond Ansley, 1891-1972), 42 inches tall was billed as "The Smallest Man in the World", though many made that claim. His professional career had scarely begun when at…
Today we celebrate the hilarious Holy terror Maude Eburne (Maud Eburne Riggs, 1875-1960). As a comical Canadian character actress who started out in stock companies, and got a lot of mileage…
Tribute today to a man who usually rode shotgun, broadcast announcer and sometime actor George Fenneman (1919-1997). Fenneman is remembered almost exclusively as Groucho Marx's foil on the r…
One of the more inspirational stories from the annals of show business belongs to singer Jane Froman (1907-1980). Froman was raised in Missouri by a single mom who also instructed her in cla…
I am one wholeheartedly concurs with Louis B. Mayer that Heddy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler, (1914-2000) was the world's most beautiful woman, edging out even my favorite (Vivien Leigh, …
Ironically, one of the most important of all modern magicians has a very small internet footprint because he rarely performed in theatres, hence there are few posters, photographs or other m…
The title of this post is my customary hyperbole. I don't mean to imply that there are no other Greek actors besides Titos Vandis (1917-2003), or that he only played Greeks, or that he playe…
Dean Jagger (1903-1991) was a rather non-descript supporting actor with close to 150 screen credits. An Ohio farm boy with a love of oratory, Jagger worked in vaudeville, Chautauqua, and wit…
We're not quite sure why, but we suddenly find ourselves writing about all these people from Minnesota: Ignatius Donnelly (November 3), Gig Young (November 4), and today our topic is screen …
Tonight, starting at 8pm EST, TCM will be showing three more films with circus settings (following upon their recent screening of Jumbo, which we wrote about here.) Two of the films are whop…
November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. John Lennon makes a joke about it at the end of his song "Remember". As we approach the 40th anniversary of Lennon's death (and have just passed his 80th birthd…
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. I was recently asked the impossible question of who my favorite (non-comedian) male and female studio era actors were. Acknowledging that any ans…
November 3 was the natal day of demagogic populist politician and pseudo-scientific author Ignatius L. Donnelly (1831-1901). It seems well to take note of him on this day when millions of Am…
On October 19, 1978, Hollywood actor Gig Young (Byron Ellsworth Barr, 1913-1978) was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Manhattan apartment, the body of his newlywed wife Ki…
