11,832 stories by "Trav S.D."
This new series of posts came out of the stunning realization that I have family in all 50 states. My ancestors lived in 14 of them, all on the eastern seaboard or adjacent, and I have writt…
90 years ago this very night, Harry Houdini shuffled off this moral coil. I happened to find myself near the Houdini Museum today, so I popped in to remember him (it’s located in the F…
 Happy Halloween! Today we continue our series of family background posts by relating some relatives with a spooky connection. I’m not really close kin to most of these characters,…
Happy birthday to the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821). It being also Halloween, today we share a narrative poem from his quill we found to be especially Gothic, the 42 stanza Spencerian…
Filed under: Halloween, Horror (Mostly Gothic), Movies (Contemporary), PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Addams Family, costume party, Halloween, Loew's Jersey, masquerade, screening
I was too busy getting married on October 15 to notice the big news that THIS masterwork had finally come out. Rob Bader provided a privileged few of us with some memories to last a life tim…
Last year, when I read the terrific nonfiction book The Witches: Salem 1692, my over-riding takeaway was that I’d love to write a horror screenplay that worked off the mindset and beli…
Tuesday, November 1, 7:00pm: W.C. Fields for President! You may not have heard, but we’re in the middle of a Presidential election season! Well, not the middle so much as near the end …
Today is the release date of the 1926 silent feature So’s Your Old Man (1926) starring W.C. Fields and directed by Gregory La Cava. If you’ve already seen the 1934 talkieÂ…
Today is the birthday of Sam Lewis (1885-1959), today best remembered as a tin pan alley songwriter, who co-wrote such classics as “How You Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After…
 Marie Loftus (1857-1940) was known as the “Sarah Bernhardt of the Music Halls” . Born in Glasgow to Irish parents, she grew up near the Scotia Music Hall, which is where she …
As TCM is screening Jaws and its sequels tonight I thought it would be interesting to look at Steven Spielberg’s work in horror, fantasy and science fiction in isolation. As I opined i…
My best friend from the ages of about six to twelve was a ginger-haired, wide eyed chap by the name of Bruce Goodness. The surname is an Anglicized translation; his real last name is LaBonte…
Tonight on TCM, and into the wee hours of tomorrow, a continuation of their tidal wave of classic horror films for the Halloween season. 8:00pm (EST): Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) This is …
I first encountered the work of writer/ anthropologist/ folk-lorist Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) in the early 1990s when I was researching voodoo and the blues (thank you, New York Public …
Adapted from my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc When…
What madness that I didn’t think of this post sooner! (And I confess someone else inadvertently gave me the idea). We’ve done many posts about the great Hungarian-American thespi…
I have been collaborating off and on with composer David Mallamud on a not-so-secret comic opera project for nigh on a decade, so I can testify that the man is not just musical, not just fun…
Okay, “last” is probably a bit optimistic, cuz pix are still trickling in. But since we pretty much inundated social media with images all day yesterday I just wanted to assure t…
Today is the birthday of character actor Clem Bevans (1879-1963). I’d undoubtedly seen Bevans in dozens of movies and tv shows, but didn’t finally become aware of him unti…
Something fitting about Dario Fo and Pierre Etaix passing away within hours of each other. French clown, actor and comedy film-maker Etaix (1928-2016) was one of the happy discoveries I lear…
Today is the birthday of funny looking comic character actor Jimmy Conlin (1884-1962). Originally from Camden, NJ, Conlin studied piano at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music in his youth…
Continuing their month long tribute to the classic horror genre for the Halloween season, tonight Turner Classic Movies presents several horror and mystery comedies: 8:00pm (EST): The Cat an…
Yesterday, I happened to be rehearsing our new W.C. Fields show in the Chelsea area, which put me near the galleries! Having many errands to do, I managed to pop in and out of these arts spa…
In the words of Dr. Frankenstein, “IT’S ALIVE!!!” Â Yes, my first book is going stronger than ever, in fact, if anything its reach as a point of cultural reference seems …
