11,836 stories by "Trav S.D."
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bring those problems [to] us. They&#…
Today is the birthday of British-American actress Kitty Gordon (Constance Blades, 1878-1974). A star of musical comedy, started out touring the British provinces in 1901. Her first Bro…
Filed under: AMERICANA, Crackers, Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Kentucky, theatre
Today is the birthday of Louis Mann (1865-1931). Mann was a major figure of the Broadway stage from the turn of the last century almost until his death. Of German parentage, he started out i…
Saddened to hear of the recent passing of Doris Roberts, and heartened to hear all the appreciation. She was of course best known in recent years for having been on Everybody Loves Ray…
Today is the birthday of comedian Frank Fontaine (1920-1978). Fontaine was a favorite comedian of my brother’s, and I first developed an appreciation for this artist in the same way I …
Tomorrow is the great silent screen comedian Harold Lloyd’s birthday and Turner Classic Movies will be observing it in fine form with this excellent cross section of his career, includ…
Today is the birthday of Madge Kennedy (1891-1987). Kennedy might be a more appropriate entry in our Hall of Hams series, for she was not a rank and file, day-to-day vaudevillian. When…
Today is the birthday of Robert Chisholm (William Leslie Chisholm, 1894-1960). Australian born Chisholm was the son of a Melbourne bootmaker, whose Christian name he took as his profes…
Today is the birthday of Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916). Right now, those of you in the know are going, “The Devil you say! What’s he got to do with vaudeville?!” …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Cracked Nuts (1931), directed by Eddie Cline. The film is interesting for many reasons. One is that, much…
Just the thing for a spring morning! The bud are out, the birds are singing — a perfect day for zombies, ghosts and grave robbers from RKO and producer Val Lewton! 7:45am (EST):…
Today is the birthday of Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson (1852-1922). Anson was one of the first Major League Baseball stars, achieving greatest fame as first baseman and manager …
Tonight at the Loew’s Jersey cinema palace, a double header of classic movies that demonstrate the thesis that, as Lou Reed put it, “A life in the theatre is certainly fraught wi…
Today is the birthday of Lester “Les” Tremayne (1913-2003). Tremayne is easily one of “those guys” whose face and voice you know intimately from lots of high profile …
Today is the 104th anniversary of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic. We wrote earlier here about our obsession with this disaster. A few months ago, while researching my ancestry, I came acr…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: burlesque, Matt Knife, MGM, Wizard of Oz
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Nurse Betty Burlesque, Shelly Watson
1896 news item from the Worcester Daily Spy about my first cousin, 4x removed: “Levi Heredeen, the blacksmith of North Oxford, while driving in the road between the new creamery …
Today is the birthday of Ann Miller (Johnny Lucille Collier, 1923 — 2004). Born in Texas, her father was a lawyer who defended Bonnie and Clyde, and Baby Face Nelson. Her mother was ha…
I’ve been impatient for this day to come! Noah Diamond’s excellent new book about the Odyssey of realizing his dream of getting I’ll Say She Is on the boards is now availab…
This Sunday, April 10, 2016, at 11am the Film Forum in New York will be showing the 1953 George Pal version of War of the Worlds. When I was a kid, this was my fourth favorite movie, …
Thanks, Derek Davidson, for tipping me off to the fact that today is the 40th anniversary of the release of one of the seminal movies of my childhood, Michael Ritchie’s The Bad News…
I hope you will check out my grand, brand spankin’ new web site www.travsd.com! Designed by the multi-talented Noah Diamond, to these eyes it’s a glorious and beautiful thing.…
Today is the birthday of Rosemary Lane (Rosemary Mullican, 1913-1974), one of a brood of performing sisters  known as the Lane Sisters. Writing about them is a bit of a tangle, as they al…
