11,534 stories by "Trav S.D."
You don't have to be a full-fledged silent film buff to have seen Anna Q. Nilsson (1888-1974) on screen. Today her most widely seen performance is as one of the "waxworks" in Sunset Boulevar…
A tribute today to actor and nightclub comic Phil Foster (Fivel Feldman, 1913-1985). Foster was all about Brooklyn. Born and bred there, he took his professional name from Foster Avenue, whi…
Today a tip of the Stetson to Charles Starrett (1903-1986), one of the screen's unlikeliest cowboy stars. Starrett was an upper crust Yankee who attended Worcester Academy and Dartmouth. As …
My first exposure to Martin Short (b. 1950) came not on his breakthrough sketch shows of the mid '80s but even earlier, when he was the star of the short-lived CBS sit-com The Associates …
Spencer Charters (1875-1943) was a terrific character actor whom you've certainly seen in small supporting parts in a zillion classic films. He was usually cast as fussy clerks, local bureau…
In 1975, if any of my friends had said to me "Did you watch Saturday Night Live last night?" it is a dead certainty that I would have said, "You mean the show with Howard Cosell?" I was nine…
I just spent two hours trying to find the perfect image to head this post about Steve McQueen (b.1930). In my mind's eye I'm picturing something from the classic year of 1968, perhaps a stil…
The poetical prankster in me was half tempted to head this post "Milchwood", a tribute to Joyce, Dylan Thomas and Deadwood's creator David Milch all at the same time (Milch" is German for "M…
Delighted to announce that this Thursday, March 25, I'll be the guest on The Host with the Most Toddcast with Todd Newton. Newton's an amazing show biz veteran: he was the host of various sh…
Brooklyn-bred chorus cutie Suzanne Kaaren (1912-2004) had quite a journey. As a young woman she acted with stock companies, posed as a model, and kicked in the choruses of Ziegfeld and Radio…
I have a confession to make. My fandom, even with respect to my favorite obessions, is flighty. I binge, I max out, I'm filled to the brim, and then I have to stay away for a while. It may b…
March 20 is French Language Day as declared by the United Nations, and that's no small thing around my house. Both my wife and I have been brushing up on the literal Lingua Franca as one of …
As a former Reason contributor I was delighted to see its editor Nick Gillespie on last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, although as I wrote here, Maher himself has long since worn out his…
I had already contemplated doing a thing on Hillbilly Elegy but dismissed the notion, but now that Glenn Close has been nominated for an Oscar, I thought I'd go ahead and weigh in, as I'm in…
Well, the other shoe has done gone and dropped in our little Kathryn Fuller Seeley"Jack Benny book plunder period. A month ago we took Jack's birthday as occasion to plug her scholarly tome …
Five: that's roughly the number of minutes I was able to stand Will Ferrell's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). "No man this age should ever waste his life doing this" …
Ted Adams (Richard Theodore Adams, 1890-1973) had an unusual background for a guy who played villains in B movie westerns for decades. He was "born in a trunk" to a pair of traveling vaudevi…
A few fragments today on actress/ playwright/producer Louise Carter (1875-1975), not to be confused with Mrs. Leslie Carter. I became aware of Louise Carter through her entertaining playing …
Learning that big band leader and trumpet player Harry James (1916-1983) started out in circuses is like meat and drink (or rather, popcorn and lemonade) to me. James' parents were with the …
Another post in honor of the National Day of Hungary. This post concerns the three Matina Brothers, a trio of siblings born in Hungary, who moved to the U.S. in 1915 and were later naturaliz…
St. Patrick's Day draw near, an appropriate birthday week for the actor George Brent (George Nolan, 1904-1979). Brent wasn't the most memorable fellow, being just one of a slew of Hollywood'…
A brief salute to impresario Morris Gest (Moishe Gershnowitz, 1875-1942). Born in Lithuania, Gest came to the U.S. at the age of 12, initially living in Boston, where he worked at local carn…
March 15 is the National Day of Hungary. This post comes about as result of my recent viewing of Peter Medak's The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Medak's 2018 exercise in self-flagellation about th…
On March 14, 1891, 11 Italian Americans were lynched by a mob of thousands of (presumably Anglo- and Franco-American) men in the streets of New Orleans. The mob had forced their way into a j…
March 13 was the natal dal of big bandleader Sammy Kaye (Samuel Zarnocay, 1910-1987). Kaye played clarinet and sax, and started his first band Sammy's Hot Peppers in his small town Ohio high…
