11,542 stories by "Trav S.D."
 Through hard experience on this blog, I've learned that headline writing is crucial. A catchy headline means the difference between thousands reading and nobody reading. There have been…
Dick Pelham (Richard Ward Pell, 1815-1876) was one of the founding members of the influential quartet known as the Virginia Minstrels. Born in New York City, Pelham was one of the many who e…
Sometimes you just have to throw out the playbook and do what moves you. I had planned a variety of other posts for today but could not get off the starting block. Among possible ones I was …
How convenient for us that the birthday of African American singer and actor Todd Duncan (1903-1998) falls in the middle of Black History Month (and on Lincoln's birthday, no less). Duncan h…
February 12 as the birthday of stage and screen actress Margarita Fischer (1886-1975), sometimes billed as Margarieta Fisher, Margarite Fisher, or Margurita Fisher. She was of Swiss descent;…
The Beale Street Sheiks were Frank Stokes (circa 1880s-1955) and Dan Sane (1896-1956). Much of their respective careers was spent playing apart, but it seemed sensible to put them in the sam…
We were just enjoying Uptown Saturday Night (1974), a comedy from our youth, only the other day, so we take particular note of the untimely death of Paula Kelly yesterday at age 76. In that …
When I was a kid the phrase "Peyton Place" was still used by grown-ups to indicate any kind of mishigas or unneeded drama in one's life: "What is this, Peyton Place?" The phrase was meant ge…
Harlem-born Adolph Caesar 1933-1985 served five years in the U.S. Navy (as a Chief Petty Officer in the medical corps) before studying drama at NYU. Caesar's greatest asset as an actor was h…
This post was originally scheduled for March 1, but we rush it to post today because we just got word that Robert Conrad (Conrad Robert Falk, b. 1935) has passed away at the age of 84. I'd s…
Orson Bean is dead at 91, not of old age but by being hit by a car. That he was still alive and crossing streets is the second revelation that will be inevitable around breakfast tables this…
Pioneering African American stage impresario Anita Bush (1883-1974) was the daughter of a Brooklyn-based theatrical costumier, who grew up seeing the best theatre of her day as a consequence…
Happy birthday to 20th century tattoo artist Bert Grimm (1900-1985), whose field of operations embraced St. Louis, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles/Long Beach. Isn't Bert Grimm th…
Just a few jottings about African American dance giant Katherine Dunham (1909-2006), since we've had a couple of occasions to mention this pathmaker in the past. Dunham was a Chicago teenage…
Fragments on a forgotten vaudeville, burlesque, and movie comedian named Bob Carney this morning. Carney was comedy partner to his wife Jean Carroll (this is apparently a different Jean Carr…
Kid and Coot was just one of the professional names this African American vaudeville duo went by; they were also known as Grant and Wilson, and Hunter and Jenkins. The team's members were We…
The fate of Zoltán Hirsch (1885-1944) ranks with that of Franceska Mann, whom we wrote about just two days ago, as a chilling reminder of the cold-blooded implacability of the Nazis in th…
If I knew nothing about the man besides his credits, I'd be so glad to learn that his name was Thurl Ravenscroft (1914-2005), for when you learn what he's famous for, you'll agree that the m…
Elmo Lincoln (Otto Elmo Linkenheit, 1889-1952), had been an Arkansas lawman and a stevedore before D.W. Griffith spotted him and drafted him to be an extra in his films on the strength of hi…
A day I thought would never come to pass has arrived: Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovitch, b. 1916) has passed away at age 103. A post about this actor is a can I have kept kicking down the …
I first discovered the myriad pleasures of African American comedian Rudy Ray Moore (1927-2008) in the mid '80s when his magnum opus Dolemite was only ten years old, but seeing as that re…
227Â originally aired from 1985 to 1990, a TV blackout period for me, so I have only recently come to appreciate what is now considered a sitcom classic. It was designed as a vehicle for M…
My thanks to Montreal burlesque performer Velma Cabriole for tipping me off about this incredible, inspiring, if ultimately grim story. It concerns Franceska Mann (Franciszka Manheimer, 1…
All Brits of a certain age will be well familiar with comedienne Hylda Baker (1905-86) from her many TV sitcoms, though Yanks know her not at all. I discovered her in the best way possible. …
In 1956, The Nat King Cole Show became one of the first television shows with an African American star at its center. This landmark variety program, initially 15 minutes long, was increased …
