282 stories by "Trav S. D."
Cliquot was one of America’s premier sword swallowers, popular on vaudeville and variety stages during the last quarter of the 19th century. So little is known about him that even the …
Sippie Wallace (born Beulah Thomas this day in 1898) was one of the premier “classic blues” singers, who started out in black vaudeville and tent shows in her native Texas and in…
James Barton (born this day in 1890), was, like George M. Cohan, a song and dance man, and the son of vaudevillians, who rounded out his career as a well-respected old thespian. He was Jeete…
I think you’ll have to agree with me that publicist Ron Lasko has the best client roster in town: Joan Rivers, Nellie Olsen from “Little House on the Prairie” and now Geri …
Today is the birthday of Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, previously profiled here. In honor of the day, we attached the Columbia Comedy Short below, co-starring Max Baer, also previously profiled …
Today is the birthday of Ethel Waters (full bio here) Here she is singing “Am I Blue” from the 1929 film On With the Show: To find out more about the history of vaudeville,Â…
A clip from one of my favorite movies as a kid, 1953′s Houdini starring Tony Curtis. This is the climactic scene. For those who don’t know, Harry Houdini passed way 85 years ago …
This post is one in a series that defines for the layman the various types of variety arts. For the full panoply go here. 70 years ago today, the United Services Organization (U.S.O.) establ…
Today is the birthday of the great Fanny Brice (for the full bio on her go here). And now here’s Fanny singing “When a Man Loves a Woman” (not the Percy Sledge one) from th…
Tonight (October 29th) at 11pm At The Living Room, 154 Ludlow Street, between Rivington and Stanton No cover, no jacket required, no bull allowed, just Halloween candy!
My last post about Jack Pearl (here) was perfunctory to say the least, so I thought I would try to do him a little more justice today. Born Jacob Perlman this day in 1895, he is best known f…
There really is no better place to see a Gothic horror film than Loews Jersey City, with its run down cathedral decor and its atmospheric elevator pipe organ. The Countess and I will be ther…
Tonight! At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine! Procession of the Ghouls, Following a screening of Phantom of the Opera (1925) The Great Organ will be played by Timothy Brumfield to accomp…
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I became aware of Fitz James O’Brien rather recently, while doing research for my new play about Adah Isaacs Menken. He and she both were part of the literary scene around Walt Whitman…
H. Russell Wakefield (1890-1964) was an English fiction writer known mostly as a master of the ghost story. His published works include They Return at Evening (1928), Old Man’s Beard: …
If you watch the documentary extras on the DVD of Todd Browning’s Freaks you will find that one of the talking heads is our old buddy Todd Robbins. Todd is there of course because he i…
One game I love to play is what I call “vertical analysis” — essentially tracing some narrative property through its various media iterations, e.g., book, stage-play, silen…
I first encountered the name Dr. John Polidori in the 1973 television movie Frankenstein: The True Story. I was eight years old at the time and this film was one of the few times I have been…
Today is Ned Harrigan’s birthday. Since my original post on Harrigan and Hart concentrates mainly on the team’s vaudeville days (then ends before their true fame even truly begin…
Born this day in 1914, Jackie Coogan was, like Charlie Chaplin, a child performer, and also like Chaplin, was discovered for the movies while performing on the vaudeville stage. Unlike Chapl…
“Let’s All drink to the death of a clown” — Dave Davies Brace yourself for a sad ending. Oh what the hell, we’ll put it at the beginning. Just as his clown part…
Scared Silly is a blog after my own heart. Penned by Paul Castiglia, a comic book writer with copious credits (most notably a long association with Archie) it is a blog-to-book project that …
Well, it looks like Saint Reverend Jen has finally made the Big Time. Simon & Schuster, a major house, has brought out her latest book Elf Girl and it goes on sale today. To them, as to …
Dig my man Mac (Michael Cumella) beaming his WFMU radio show “The Antique Phonograph Music Program” live tonight from City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg. The li…
