11,546 stories by "Trav S.D."
What a great screen name for an African American star of the early 20th century is Ethel Moses (1904-1982), a sort of mash-up of Ethel Waters and the spiritual "Go Down, Moses". In show busi…
April 28 is the birthday of the great German-American clown Otto Griebling (1896-1972). Griebling worked his passage to the U.S. on an ocean liner as a teenager. He entered the circus busine…
Today, Sidney Toler (Hooper G. Toler Jr., 1874-1947) is almost exclusively known for replacing Warner Oland as the title character in the sensitivity-challenged Charlie Chan mysteries, cover…
The fact that we are in the throes of Fosse/Verdon at the moment inclines us to acknowledge dancer and choreographer Jack Cole (John Richter, 1911-1974). Cole was a bridge from the old vaude…
Toronto born Miles McCarthy (1874-1928) divided his time between the legit theatre, vaudeville and silent film. Educated at McGill University, McCarthy's one Broadway credit is The Goddess o…
 Here's a head-scratcher: I found this ad for an Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) variety special from a TV Guide from the early '70s, but can find no reference to the show online, including …
Opening tonight at Torn Page: Paul Swan is Dead and Gone, a new play by the Civilians, starring Tony Torn and written by Claire Kiechel, the great-great grandniece of the eponymous Paul Swan…
Some words in remembrance of forgotten man of the theatre Paul Armstrong (1869-1915). Missouri born Armstrong started out as a boat captain on the Great Lakes (his father's trade), then beca…
Props today for TV star Lee Majors (Harvey Lee Yeary, b. 1939). Orphaned as a baby in Detroit, raised by relatives in Kentucky, college football star Majors suffered injuries that forced him…
English-born Phil Dunham (1885-1972), received some education at Cambridge, and performed in vaudeville and with stock companies prior to breaking into films in 1913. While Dunham's first fi…
April is the birthday of the Cow Cow Davenport (Charles Edward Davenport, 1894-1955). The Anniston, Alabama native was sent to a theological seminary in his youth but preferred to play low-d…
In observation of Earth Day, a look at some eco-horror films made during environmentalism's first flush, the 1970s. I have left out seemingly related ones (such as Jaws or Grizzly or kill…
I will never doubt my self-worth ever again. I had some dim memories in my head of a certain television program of my youth, and I cannot TELL you the amount of digging I had to do this morn…
Born in Burlington, Iowa, raised in Kansas City, Fred Kohler (1887-1938) started out in vaudeville and toured with traveling stock companies before breaking into silent films in 1911 in Seli…
Milt Bronson (1896-1993) was a member of Abbott and Costello's stock company and inner circle during their peak years. Born in New York, Bronson started out in vaudeville, where I find refer…
April 2019 marks the 80th Anniversary of the groundbreaking 1939 New York World's Fair. To mark the occasion I've booked two talks at two related locations, one in Brooklyn, one in Queens. A…
Since 1973, the arrival of Passover/ Good Friday/ Easter has meant an annual television screening of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments. That initial showing on ABC w…
April 18 is Superman's birthday; it's the day on which the character made his first appearance in Action Comics in 1938. We are also coming up on the 80th anniversary of the comic book which…
A little record of last night's performance of the American Vaudeville Theatre at the Slipper Room celebrating 10 years of my Stars of Vaudeville blog series. It had been my first vaudeville…
"Cohen on the Telephone" is one of those classic vaudeville routines, performed by so many it can seem almost like a work of folk art. It was the first comedy record to sell over a million c…
Well, Terri Garr's dad was in vaudeville, but judging by your response to "Russ Tamblyn's Dad Was in Vaudeville" you don't care. But that's never stopped me before! Eddie Garr (Edward Leo Go…
Like the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy that unspooled over two calendar days (the same two, in fact, April 14 and 15). The ship struck the berg l…
Happy National Dolphin Day! It seems these days that practically every animal species on earth has a human fanbase and a national day or international day of celebration, but few actually pr…
Francine Everett (1915-1999), was briefly one of the biggest stars of race films in the U.S. Â While her time in the spotlight was short, she rose about as high as anyone could given the p…
Magician Jack Gwynne (Joseph McClode Gwynne, 1895-1969), began his professional career as a builder and designer of props and illusions. As a kid in Pittsburgh Gwynne had been inspired by ef…
