11,534 stories by "Trav S.D."
Our main interest in actor Jack La Rue (Gaspare Biondolillo, 1902-1984) is in his association with Mae West. He was in Mae's historic Broadway production Diamond LIl (1928) which later becam…
I am that rare person who's not a big fan of Pete Seeger as a performer (1919-2014). I prefer my folksingers more rough-hewn and genuinely working class. And the gentle, soft-spoken, educate…
We'll stipulate that Brian Aherne (William Brian de Lacy Aherne, 1902-1986) was one of the more non-descript members of Hollywood's British colony during the classic studio years. We have st…
There is everything to love about Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903) and she has something for everybody. Frontier figure and drag king; teller of tall tales and participant in m…
May 1 is traditionally International Workers' Day in much of the world. What better way to observe it than with the release of Edward Einhorn's three part radio adaptation of Jack London's 1…
Loking to expand your ventriloquial library beyond Rick MItchell's Ventriloquism book (for which we wrote the introduction) and the great how-to classics by the likes of the Great Lester, Ed…
Prince Kar-mi, or simply Kar-mi, or Karmi, is one to add to our list of faux South Asians in the variety arts, for he was really Joseph Bryant Hallworth (1872-1956) of Chelsea, Massachusetts…
Some friends were asking about this just the other day, so I'm very excited to be able to share the news that Slate critic Dana Steven's upcoming book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of …
For International Dance Day, today we fondly share remembrances of the Dance Liberation Front. 20+ years ago (circa 1999), all of the performers and producers from Surf Reality and Collectiv…
Oh yeah, you know I'm all over this! So excited to announce that today is the release date for Johan Von Sydow's new documentary Tiny Tim: King for a Day. As I wrote here, I am a major leagu…
We have had occasion to mention Bryant Washburn (Franklin Bryant Washburn III, 1889-1963) several times in the past, for he starred in such silent fare as Twenty One (1918) with Gertrude Sel…
A brief introduction, should one be needed, to the life and work of Kitty Kelly (Sue O'Neill, 1902-1968). Standing a mere 4'11" in adulthood, the pint-sized Kelly first enters the documentar…
Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (1899-1962) was a protege of Will Rogers, who bestowed upon him his first movie roles as well as his nickname, which was often employed as his sole billing, and some…
Today we direct your attention to a beautiful eccentric of early television days, Dotty Mack (Dorothy Macaluso, 1929-2019). Mack was a a Cincinnati shop girl and mannequin (live in-store mod…
Well, here's one unexpected positive outcome of the Covid-19 epidemic: for the first time in decades I've seen nearly all of the films nominated in major Oscar categories. This is naturally …
I assumed that I would not like Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round, and at first I didn't. It seemed like it inevitably had to veer into one of two directions: 1) a high-concept, rather unsav…
While it's true that Sara Gilbert of Roseanne and The Connors, and Melissa Gilbert and Jonathan Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie, are important in television history, their grandfather…
The story of Libby Taylor (1902-1961) is often simplified to "she was Mae West's maid; she then played Mae's maid in movies, and used that as a springboard to her own career". But it wasn't …
An eye-opening benchmark, that Ryan O'Neal (b. 1941) is now an octogenarian, for those of us who remember him as the guy in that photo. While many people may know about his performing offspr…
Some brief tribute today to silent movie star Lillian Walker (Lillian Wolke, 1887-1975). Brooklyn native Walker was an artists' model and chorus girl in the Follies of 1910 when Stuart Black…
News this morning of the passing of 93 year old Walter Mondale, former VP and first of many disappointing democratic Presidential candidates during my voting career, put me in mind for the s…
I stumbled across the crazy story of William Morgan (1928-61) because he was once a carnival sword swallower and married a snake charmer named Terese Bethel. And as a teenager he had run awa…
Some brief notes on professional little person Caspar Weis (1872-1965). A native of Luxembourg, Weis was the son of a gamekeeper, one of eight children, only one of whom, a younger sister, w…
Classic comedy fans know Leonid KInskey (1903-1998) best as the apologetic Agitator in the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933) in that early scene with Trentino (Louis Calhern), and from such th…
Rick Moranis (b. 1953) has re-emerged in the news lately following a long absence, and not in a way any of us would have wished for him. He was attacked by someone who apparently doesn't lik…
