11,542 stories by "Trav S.D."
A celebration today of comic character actor Paul Dooley (Paul Brown, b. 1928). It is interesting to learn of Dooley's humble West Virginia origins. Because of his Second City/ Compass Playe…
Despite the fact the he wrote one of my favorite songs, I haven't yet written about songwriter Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964, sometimes billed as Herb Nacio Brown) chiefly because, unusual for…
Screen comedian Harry Depp (1883-1957) was a little fellow in the vein of Bobby Vernon, Bud Duncan and Harry Langdon, though Langdon wouldn't make it to the screen until years later. Origina…
Plus-sized, toothsome Johnny Brown (b. 1937) was a highly visible figure on TV when I was growing up in the '70s. The Florida native started out as the singer in a jazz combo led by "Sam the…
Today is the national release date for the latest adaptation of the ultimate love poem to dogs, Jack London's 1903Â The Call of the Wild. I first read this ripping and brutal yarn in Junio…
 Today we give the lie to our own self-delusion that we dislike both superhero franchises and musical theatre in one swell foop. As to the former…this makes our sixth Superman related …
It was only a few days ago that I was walking around depressed about a lack of a legacy on the part of our generation of indie theatre makers…certain things, certain institutions I thought…
The first thing we think of when the name of Sidney Poitier (b. 1927) is mentioned is his pioneering role as Hollywood's first African American leading man, especially in integrationist dram…
British-American stage and screen actor Bramwell Fletcher (1904-1988) is of that generation of Pre-Code Hollywood stars that includes the likes of his first wife Helen Chandler, as well as p…
The news went out yesterday through multiple sources that Ja'Net DuBois has passed away. There are multiple spellings of both her first and last name in the public record, and many conflicti…
By rights this review could and should be vastly more in-depth, but the piece in question is only running until Saturday and the next performance is tonight, so we are in a hurry to publish …
Having had frequent occasion to mention Harlem-born actor Teddy Wilson (1943-1991) in the past, we thought we'd give him his own post here today. Wilson's easy going manner and pleasant, war…
First off, don't answer that. I love to ask rhetorical, open-ended questions and speculate in a Socratic fashion. I despise facile answers by know-it-alls. People who come at it me in that w…
Today is the release date for Undercrank Productions new DVD The Douglas MacLean Collection. Douglas MacLean was known as "The Man with the MIllion Dollar Smile", and in these newly restored…
We take the birthday of Orville "Hoppy" Jones (1905-1944) as an opportunity to acknowledge The Ink Spots. I think of The Ink Spots as a rare pre-rock Beatlesque scale phenomenon. They we…
For the longest time, it seems, I mixed up Fred Guiol (1898-1964) with Buster Keaton's problem solver, the man who found an ocean liner for him for The Navigator. But that was Fred Gabour…
I only just learned yesterday that Gene Reynolds (1923-2020) passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 96. I knew Reynolds exclusively as major TV producer and director (especially as …
The Dynamite cover below prompts the present memory of the tv show The Greatest American Hero (1981-83) which we post on the birthday of its star William Katt (b. 1951). Katt is the son of t…
A celebration today of Marsha Warfield (b. 1954). A comedian from Chicago's South Side, Warfield's first major credit was as a cast member and writer on The Richard Pryor Show (1977). She…
African American actor and performer Eddie Green (1896-1950) was successful in nearly every branch of entertainment he turned his hand to. A Baltimore native, Green was only eight years old …
Thanks to reader and fellow blogger Carmen Nyssen of Buzzworthy Tattoo for sending this carte de visite of actor Donald Bowles (Percy Keeler Bowles, 1874-1921). Though born in Pennsylv…
Much of promise was lost when SNL comedian Chris Farley left the world via the same method (speedball) and almost the identical age (33) as John Belushi in 1997. Unlike Belushi, Farley had n…
Rarely has a supporting player in comedy been as widely recognized, loved and respected as Harvey Korman (1927-2008). While virtually never the STAR of anything, Korman often stole the show …
Some fragments on the forgotten vaudeville, burlesque, and musical comedy team of Gus Yorke (1861-1939) and Nick Adams. Billed as "Hebrew comedians", Yorke and Adams appear to have starte…
Harlem-born Edna Mae Harris (1910-1997) was one of the top stars of so-called race films in the 1930s, as well as a Broadway performer, and supporting player in Hollywood productions. The da…
