11,813 stories by "Trav S.D."
A long overdue tribute today to showman and charlatan Walford Bodie (Samuel Murphy Brodie, 1869-1939). Our shocking lapse in waiting so long to add him to our rosters of great vaudevillians …
Just a few jottings about minor movie musical star June Haver (1926-2005), whom we've had occasion to mention here a few times. Haver's mother was an actress, her father a musician. When Jun…
The name Hagenbeck was attached to the trade in exotic critters even before Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) came into the picture. His father Claus Gottfried Carl Hagenbeck (1810"1887), a seafood…
I remember being virtually alarmed when I saw Robert Cummings (1910-1990) in a TV screening of the 1963 Frankie and Annette musical Beach Party, realizing he was the same guy I had seen in m…
Like many in the early days of cinema, Dorothy Coburn (1905-1978) had a western background. Her grandfather founded Montana's Circle C Ranch. Her father Wallace Coburn had acted in a couple …
As I write this, it happens to be Robert Preston's (1918-1987) birthday. Preston's never been my favorite actor " he always struck me more as an announcer type than an actor. He'd have been …
Some very brief words of tribute to make you aware of a very important family in American theatre whom the sands of time have unjustly swallowed up. The founder, pictured above, is playwrigh…
The 2019 Tony Awards are happening this coming Sunday, June 9, and my good friends at BroadwayHD have wisely sent a reminder that the PERFECT way to bone up on many of the nominated shows an…
Actor Charles Ogle (1865-1940) is one of the few major stars I can think of whose career stretches the early Edison days (1908) to the time of the modern studio system (mid '20s). His body o…
 As Ward Cleaver said to Fred Rutherford, "June is busting out all over!" We have much hopping of a theatrical nature this month, and we thrill to report it below. Coming up:   C…
Today we'd like to acquaint you with vaudeville and burlesque comedian Sam Goldman (Samuel Isaac Goldman, 1883-1945). The bulk of this post is drawn from pre-eminent Marx Brothers scholar Ro…
Russell Hicks (1895-1957) appeared in over 300 films, in all sorts of genres, but he's probably best remembered by classic comedy fans in particular for his priceless turn as a flim flam man…
I've seen both Finley, Tennessee and Osceola, Arkansas as birthplaces for B movie and radio western character actor Horace Murphy (1880-1975) " but both are near the Mississippi River, and t…
Ellen Corby (Ellen Hansen, 1911-1999) has over 250 screen credits, though today she is remembered almost exclusively as no-nonsense Grandma Walton, who was always scolding Grandpa (Will Geer…
According to Mack Sennett's Fun Factory by Brent Walker, Kansas City-born Josh Binney (Harold Joshua Binney, 1889-1956) attended the University of Washington and acted in vaudeville and with…
 Having already written about Tony Curtis's comedies, and about Houdini (one of my favorite show biz movies), I am startled to discover an additional occasion to write about Bernard Schw…
Old movie buffs will get the joke in our subtitle: Johnny Weissmuller (1904-84) was a famous swimmer. But there's a certain application to his screen career, as well: yes, he amassed 38 scre…
What a joy to have an opportunity to share with you my enthusiasm for kooky, breezy, cheerful, good-hearted, folksy, slick Max Showalter (1919-2000), who was billed for a time as Casey Adams…
As we wrote here, most pirate movie aficionados acknowledge Robert Newton (1905-1956) to be the greatest pirate actor of all time. His performance as Long John Silver in Disney's 1950 ver…
I was certainly aware of actress Diana Canova (b. 1953) when I was a kid, for her's was a frequent television face throughout the 1970s and '80s. Though she was attractive, talented, and fun…
Hal Skelly (James Harold Skelley, 1891-1934) was just beginning to cement his fame when he was prematurely taken by an accident. The Broadway and Hollywood star was raised in the midwest …
The career of Ann Christy (Gladys Cronin, 1905-1987) was brief but notable for lovers of classic comedy. She managed to translate a small role in Harry Langdon's Long Pants (1927) into a …
Barbara Pepper (Marion Pepper 1915-1969) had two distinct phases as a Hollywood character actress. In the first she was a devastatingly gorgeous sex symbol in the Jean Harlow mold. In the se…
Well, I kept postponing a post about Leon Redbone and now he's passed away at the young age of 69. Redbone was definitely one of the many messengers standing by the roadside during my '70s k…
I am pleased to get you a little more info on Virginia Karns (Virginia Ida Weddle, 1907-1990) than is generally available in any single place on the internet, for what that's worth to ya. Th…
