11,832 stories by "Trav S.D."
Continuing on with our series of posts for Halloween horror month. This one has been germinating for a while. I have a great deal of admiration for the work of director-producer John Landis,…
Continuing our month-long series of Halloween Horror posts, this one a look at the career of the great William Henry Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff. The survey below is at best a parti…
Tonight on TCM: more Frankenstein sequels, with value added: 8:00pm (EST): The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) Oh yes, the ghost of Dr Frankenstein does appear in this film, although it is a…
A few nights back we went to the book launch event for friend Sarah Porter‘s new YA novel Vassa in the Night at Books of Wonder.  We found her previous Lost Voices trilogy to …
In celebration of the Halloween season, a couple of vintage children’s book illustrations by my first cousin twice removed Harrison Cady: Filed under: Halloween, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ M…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Singers, Singing Comediennes, Vaudeville etc., Women Tagged: Duplex, Granny's Blue-Mers, Reverend Mary, Vintage Bawdy Blues
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, Jazz (miscellaneous), PLUGS Tagged: Aldo Perez, Glen Heroy, Jazz Bastards, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Pete's Candy Store, Williamsburg
Continuing with our Halloween month series of classic horror posts, today a survey of the horror films of RKO producer Val Lewton. Lewton is an interesting transitional figure, generally pra…
As always, TCM is bringing much classic horror to the table all throughout October this month in celebration of Halloween. This is what’s on the menu tonight and into tomorrow: 8:00pm …
Today is the birthday of Laura Augusta “Janet” Gaynor (1906-1984) — no relation to Mitzi or Gloria. Gaynor’s career straddled the late silent and early talking cinema…
Continuing our month long series of Halloween Horror posts, today we take a look at the subgenre now informally known as “psycho-biddy”, or sometimes, less succinctly as “G…
Filed under: FOOD & DRINK CULTURE, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Absinthe, Green Fairy, KGB, Red Room, tasting
Continuing on with this month’s contributions to our horror exloration, a look at the films of William Castle. Castle had been a director at Columbia since 1943, but though he’d …
In preparation for the lead up to the Halloween season  (and spurred on by the fact that I have learned I am related to him, and also by recent walking tours I’ve taken with Rory Ra…
Filed under: Halloween, Horror (Mostly Gothic), Indie Theatre, Saloons Tagged: festival, Frigid NY, H.P. Lovecraft, Horse Trade, Kraine, radio, radiotheatre
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Dime Museum and Side Show, Halloween, Horror (Mostly Gothic), PLUGS Tagged: BROOKLYN, Coney Island USA, Creepshow, Dick Zigun, Dirty Work at the Waxworks…
I can’t plug this exciting new venture enough. More evidence of the revolutionary times we live in, and an example of one of its most positive manifestations: the democratization of ac…
Tomorrow, in celebration of Buster Keaton’s birthday, starting in the early morning TCM will be showing a selection of films by the comedy master. It is an interesting selection, compr…
I came across the photo below on ebay about eight months ago, and I’ve been saving it up ever since then for Halloween month. It cleared up a riddle I’d stored in the back of my …
Originally posted on Fairweather Lewis: Stukeley Tillinghast, so the story goes, was a prosperous Rhode Island farmer around the time of the Revolutionary War. He and his beloved wife were t…
Today is the birthday of my (16th) great grandfather, Richard III of England. Â (Lest this raise a skeptical eyebrow, an important factor is that, so many generations back, one has thousan…
TCM is wasting no time getting into the Halloween spirit this season — only the second of the month and here they are with a program of three classic Universal Frankenstein films plus …
Today is the birthday of Groucho Marx. I’ve done over a hundred blogposts on the Marx Brothers as a team; but very rarely focusing solely on my favorite comedian (okay, he vies for the…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the classic Charlie Chaplin short The Pawnshop (1916). This comedy was made at the peak of Chaplin’s Mutual period and is full…
Today is the birthday of the late George Peppard (1928-1994). Peppard’s checkered acting career came in a series of well-known peaks and valleys, with the peaks occurring at rough ten …
