11,553 stories by "Trav S.D."
While one of the bigger dramatic stars of the silent film era, Corinne Griffith (1894-1979) is today better remember for things she did decades afterward. No relation to film director D.W. G…
Chester Gould (1900-1985), creator of Dick Tracy, was born on this day. Dick Tracy has always been on my shortlist of favorite comic strips, and is easily my favorite manifestation of no…
Some brief words of acknowledgment today for actor/ comedian/ gameshow host Richard Dawson (Colin Lionel Emm (1932-2012). Actually probably best to reverse the order of those credits, eh? Ga…
November 19 is the birthday of Barbara Popejoy, a.k.a Lorna Maitland (b. 1943) a star of the Russ Meyer constellation from 1964 through 1965, with some residual presence in the business the …
Tonight, 10pm at Beauty Bar, 231 East 14th Street, see Betsy Propane, Gin Minsky, Tanya Solomon, Lee Valone Drag in the Smoke Show, with DJ Twig the Wonderkid. The show is free with the purc…
“Everything goes in threes” is the rule. And so it was on the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, despite having four rotating shows at any given time. Somehow whatever the fourth show was…
It’s the birthday of Burgess Meredith (1907-1997); having already written a biographical post about the late star, I thought today I’d honor him by paying some attention to the e…
The sad, wasted life of starlet Barbara Payton (Barbara Lee Redfield,1927-67) is usually told as a footnote in the lives of bigger stars. Despite having seen her in a couple of films, I̵…
Saddened to hear just now of the death of Roy Clark today at age 85. As I wrote here, I was a huge Hee Haw fan while growing up, and as co-host of the show he was always at the forefront of …
Today being the birthday of C.W. McCall (William Dale Fries, Jr. b. 1928) it seemed an appropriate time to cut loose with my long-gestating post on the seemingly inexplicable trucker and CB …
A few scribbles on the topic of Yitzhak Edward Asner (b. 1929), whose natal day it is. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Asner grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, s…
Well, it’s Sherwood Schwartz’s birthday again, and having already written a post on the man himself, as well as The Brady Bunch and several of his other shows, it is high time…
A tribute today to the Quixotic career of comedic actor McLean Stevenson (Edgar Mclean Stevenson, Jr, 1927-1996). Stevenson’s name has become sort of legendary in show business, a rare…
Very excited! Tonight rehearsals begin for the next show I’m in, Me and the Lee: The Musical by Jason Trachtenburg, of Pendulum Swings and the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. Me…
Yes, even I mourn the passing of Marvel Comics founder and master Stan Lee, who passed away today at the of 95. And this wasn’t like our usual 95 year olds, who last did a lick of work…
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t feel like they’re being chewed up by the Cuisinart of history at the moment, on all fronts. It feels bad (rotten) most of the time: unsettl…
A salute today to the late Ernie Anderson (1923-1997), who is notable enough to write about for all manner of reasons, notably four: He was the father of genius filmmaker Paul Thomas (“…
I first became aware of Kathryn Stanley (1897-1978), whose birthday it is today, when I wrote my piece on famous stage and screen Salomes. There is a wide online dissemination of her in the …
As we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War One, some are also celebrating a particular outcome of the Armistice: Polish Independence. It’s, mm, a bit of a stretch…
November 11 is the birthday of the late, great Jonathan Winters (1925-2013). I remember once when I was about 12 or 13 (circa 1977 or 1978) and a school friend asked me who my f…
A look today at problematic and pathbreaking poet/performer Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931). Folks of a century ago would be astounded to learn how obscure a figure he has become today. He was a …
I have always counted myself lucky that my birthday comes as a sort of tent pole between Halloween and Thanksgiving, helping maintain a holiday momentum that encompasses the entire butt end …
Dick Zigun’s The Education of Al Capone As If Told by Jimmy Durante opens at Coney Island USA tonight. I caught it in previews last weekend and can’t say enough good things about…
Silent screen cutie Marvel Rea (1901-1937) had a little good luck, and much terrible fortune to offset it. Today she is sadly best known for the latter, but there is some good stuff to tell …
For someone whose name is a household word, Bram Stoker (1847-1912) remains pretty much incorrectly known, or incompletely known to the millions who associate the name with his best remember…
