11,815 stories by "Trav S.D."
We were delighted over the weekend to have the opportunity to watch the new two-disk set The Alice Howell Collection. While I've read lots about the pathbreaking comedienne (whom we wrote ab…
As one would when writing about show business, I have had many occasions to mention Raoul Walsh (1887-1980) here. I have even done a post on his brother George! But I have not yet undertaken…
Much like Leo Carillo, with whom he appeared in some movies, Al Ernest Garcia (1887-1938), was a native Californian with deep Mexican roots (i.e. dated to the time before California became p…
Lillian Herlein (1895-1971) was only a teenager when she lucked into the flashy part of Zoradie in the Lew Fields"Victor Herbert show The Rose of Algeria (1909). Her turn was show-stopping e…
A shout out to chorine, actress, and screen beauty Esther Muir (1903-1995) today. Muir started out as a model in her native Andes, New York, which is located sort of midway between Binghamto…
Like many of the supporting players on Sanford and Son (1972-77), Don Bexley (1910-97), who played Fred Sanford's best friend Bubba, was an old cohort of Redd Foxx's from the Chitlin' Circui…
It gives me no end of delight to celebrate character actor David Landau (David H. Magee, 1878-1935) today. Classic comedy fans know Landau as characters like Jennings in The Marx Brothers Ho…
What a feast of riches it is acquainting oneself with the life and career of Will Geer (William Aughe Ghere, 1902-1978): actor, folksinger, political activist, and " wait for it " horticultu…
Gene Fowler (1890-1960) is one of those figures known to show business aficionados, a friend of the famous, even if not a household word himself. Much like Ben Hecht, with whom Fowler collab…
Bessie Allison Buchanan (1902-1980) had two remarkable careers. Since one of them was in show business we celebrate her here. Her born name was Bessie Allison, though her circumstances in li…
Alexander Carr (Alexander Krechevsky, 1878-1946) clambered into the arena of popular attention by playing Morris Perlmutter in the stage and screen hit Potash and Perlmutter and all its sequ…
Today is not only the birthday of Ed McMahon (1923-2009) but we are also drawing close to the tenth anniversary of his death. I've been thinking recently that it would be interesting to do a…
I first knew (or noticed) character actor Victor Kilian (1891-1979) from his hilarious role as Grandpa Larkin, the Fernwood Flasher, on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-77). He'd had over 65…
Happy birthday, Paul Sand (Paul Sanchez, b. 1932). I became intrigued by this massive 1974 TV Guide spread. I recognized the face, but not the name, and certainly not the show they were hypi…
Classic comedy fans know Walter Long (1879-1952) has a hilariously terrifying villain in four Laurel and Hardy comedies: Pardon Us (1931), Any Old Port (1932), Going Bye-Bye (1934), and T…
Minerva Pious (1903-1979), insomuch as she is remembered at all, is known almost exclusively for playing Mrs. Nussbaum in the "Allen's Alley" segments on Fred Allen's radio show. Her charact…
Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner (1885-1933) may be the only sportswriter I'll ever discuss here, and you know why he rates inclusion: he became even better known as a writer of Jazz Age humor…
Symona Boniface (1894-1950) was a bit player in films who enjoyed larger supporting parts in comedy shorts, in particular those of Three Stooges. She has been called the equivalent of the St…
New York born Robert Emmett Keane (1883-1981) started out in vaudeville. This review of a 1913 performance at Keith's Union Square describes him doing songs and patter as "The American Engli…
Violet MacMIllan (1887-1955) was a teenager in Grand Rapids who entered show business by way of a "Cinderella Girl" contest to discover the girl with the tiniest foot. By 1904 (age 17), she …
I first learned about Canada Lee (1907-52) from Denise Oswald, my editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. One of the books ahead of mine in the FSG pipeline was Mona Z. Smith's Becoming Somet…
If Charlotte Henry (1914-1980) seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere, she nearly did. A child model from Brooklyn, at age 14 she was cast in a Broadway production called Courage in 192…
Edwin Carewe (Jay Fox, 1883-1940) is arguably the most significant and important Native American film director to come out of Hollywood: 58 films to his credit over a 20 year span (1914-1934…
Billy Williams (Richard Isaac Banks, 1878-1915) was an Australian star of music hall, starting from around the turn of the last century. Originally from Melbourne, Williams arrived in the UK…
Juanita Hansen (1895-1961) was a local Los Angeles kid (originally from Iowa), who lucked out one day when she was cast in a supporting part in L. Frank Baum's movie version of The Patchwork…
