11,555 stories by "Trav S.D."
Nothing could ever make me feel so old as reading the words, “Barbara Harris, Dead at 82″. She is precisely one generation ahead of me, and I grew up watching her as a goofy, ado…
For Senior Citizen’s Day, a brief tribute to The Golden Girls (1985-1992), a show whose pleasures I didn’t discover until decades after the fact. I was a young man when it ori…
August 25 (Saturday) Screening: My Little Chickadee (1940), introduced by Dr. Harriet Fields, the granddaughter of W.C. Fields. Time: 1:30 pm Location: Metrograph, 7 Ludlow St Cost: $1…
Bert Roach (Egbert Roach, 1891-1971) is the sort of name you might invent for a fictional silent screen comedian, mixing as it does the surname of Hal Roach, and the first name of Bert Willi…
Well, we like to think Mae West is smilin’, wherever she is. All three days of West Fest opening weekend were a big success, and many thanks to all who helped it happen! Here’s a…
August 20 is the natal day of pioneering female actor/manager “Jolly” Della Pringle (Cora Della Van Winkle, 1870-1952). Born in Trenton, Missouri, Pringle began her career as a c…
Happy birthday to the one and only Criswell! I previously paid tribute to the famed Second Sight Man and erstwhile media star here. But as we are now in the midst of West Fest, our big festi…
Sam A. Scribner (1859-1941) was born on this day. Scribner is best known for founding the Columbia Amusement Company, a.k.a. the Columbia Wheel or Eastern Wheel, the cleaner and more profita…
A tribute today to stage and screen actor Barney Bernard (1878-1924). Originally from Rochester, Bernard was a “Hebrew” comic in vaudeville, burlesque, Broadway musicals and sile…
Tomorrow marks the 125th birthday of the late stage and screen writer and comedienne Mae West. Appropriately we are launching West Fest, our Mae West festival on that day, with a ceremon…
It’s Indian Independence Day! This one goes out to my son, who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime by spending several months in that storied, ancient nation. I thought I…
A little tribute today to a distant cousin of mine, Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863-1940), best known for his comic 1888 poem “Casey at the Bat”. Thayer was the son of a wealthy woo…
Character actress Alice Ghostley (1923-2007) was born on August 14. No doubt you already know where you know her from, and we’ll hit that, but honestly Ghostley was a woman of so many …
A tribute today to Marion Lorne (Marion Lorne MacDougal, 1883-1968), best known to American audiences as the adorable, doddering character “Aunt Clara” on the sitcom Bewitched fo…
West Fest, our multivarious celebratory festival for Mae West opens this week! And it was our good fortune to have Jim Moore of Vaudevisuals point his trusty camera at festival co-organizer …
This post came out of a conviction that the name “Dan Curtis” ought to be a household word, at the very least as a horror auteur, beyond the small circle of aficionados who rever…
A tribute today to that great New York character Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917). I feel like I’ve known about this legendary personage my whole life; the only way I can imagine I’…
Okay it’s undoubtedly odd that I’m doing a post about the later British actress Anna Massey (1937-2011) prior to one on her father Raymond Massey, but there’s one coming…
August 11 was the natal day of tv talk show host and big band singer Mike Douglas (Michael Delaney Dodd, Jr., 1920-2006). A post on this minor show business figure has most assuredly not bee…
It’s Coney Island History Day today, prompting me to ask: WTF happened to Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel? As a Coney Island aficionado I was hugely excited about the advent of this f…
It happens to be World Lion Day! While our favorite King of Beasts is naturally Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz, we thought of another way to pay tribute to the day: several moments in classic…
“Come in, — Come In! And know me better…” — The Ghost of Christmas Present As my good fortune would have it, I found myself spending six hours on buses and trai…
Foxy V (Alicia Buxton) was once Foxy Vermouth; that was the only name I knew her by when she had a show-stopping bit in our earliest workshop versions of I’ll Say She Is in 2014, inclu…
A post in conjunction with our upcoming West Fest, the Mae West Festival in NYC, Aug. 17-29, 2018. It’s National Book Lovers Day! May we suggest these excellent tomes about ever…
I’ve been sitting on this gem for months; we share it today in conjunction with our upcoming West Fest, the Mae West Festival in NYC, Aug. 17-29, 2018. In August 1970, Mae West …
