11,839 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of the great Max Reinhardt (1873-1943). A towering giant of 20th century theatre, Reinhardt directed in Berlin and Vienna from 1902 through 1933, when the Nazis made…
Today is the birthday of Colonel Harland David Sanders (1890-1980). I was going to put “Colonel” in quotes, but, no, though the title is honorary it is also actual and legitimate…
Tonight on TCM, a very nicely curated menu of thoughtful, mature westerns. Warning: we always include spoilers! 8:00pm (EST): 3:10 to Yuma (1957) Elmore Leonard wrote the story this film …
This is a photo of a star who burned briefly but brightly in the nineteen-teens. Her name was Helen Rook. I have but a few interesting fragments of information on her; if I uncover more I…
Just got word via Steve Stoliar that Laugh-In  “Sock it to Me” Star Judy Carne (b . Joyce Botterill, 1939) has passed on at the age of 76. A native of Northampton, En…
I heard from my pal Barry Mitchell last night that Jean Darling has passed away. Among other things, the former child star was one of the original Our Gang. Ironically, I became aware of Ms.…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone film The Rounders (1914), the only honest-to-God co-starring vehicle of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe “Fatty” A…
Today on TCM at 6pm (EST) John Ford’s Sergeant Rutledge (1960). Warning: we always include spoilers! A tremendous movie which ought to be known as landmark and a classic, but comple…
Filed under: Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, Magicians/ Mind Readers/ Quick Change, PLUGS Tagged: Bizarro, Coney Island USA, Gary Dreifus, Lee Alan Barrett, Magic at Coney, Tanya Solomon
Today is the birthday of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, Marquis de Lafayette (1757 " 1834), hero of the American Revolution and two separate revolutions in hi…
Filed under: AMERICANA, Coney Island, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Adam RealMan, Beard and Moustache Competition, Coney Island USA, Don Jamieson
. Today at 5:00pm (EST) TCM will be showing the minor western classic McLintock! (1963). I am tempted to call this movie the best non-spoof comedy western. It’s definitely John Wayn…
Filed under: Acrobats and Daredevils, ACTS, Circus, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Coney Island USA, NYC Unicycle Festival
As we noted here, here , here and here, 2015 marks the centennial year of W.C. Fields‘ first entry into pictures (Pool Sharks) and his debut with the Ziegfeld Follies. To mark the o…
Fans of W.C. Fields know that throughout his 41 films he always played some version of his irascible self, usually with one of the following variations: 1) a middle-class small town everyman…
Filed under: African American Interest, AMERICANA, BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Burlesque at the Beach, Coney Island, The Emancipation of Kitty…
I heard last night from the grapevine that Barbara Vann, Founder and Artistic Director of Medicine Show Theatre passed away a few days ago. I didn’t know her, but I knew her work, and …
Filed under: Buster Keaton, Comedians, Comedy, Comedy Teams, Hollywood (History), Marx Brothers, Movies, PLUGS Tagged: Buster Keaton, Iola Kansas, Marx Brothers
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy short His New Profession (1914). This film is quite distinct from His New Job, Chaplin’s first film …
Friend Noah Diamond just returned from a Marx Brothers fact finding mission at the Smithsonian, and brought back this 1925 quote from Groucho neither of us knows what to do with, but is to g…
This is a little mental fantasy project I’ve been working on since I was a teenager, which no self respecting Beatles nerd should be a stranger to: a speculation about what a NEXT Beat…
As we’ve blogged about previously, many of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution and one of the major battles was fought right in my neighborhood.  Making it virtually m…
Today is the birthday of Tin Pan Alley songwriter L. Wolfe Gilbert (1886-1970). Born in Odessa, he moved to the U.S. in his youth and broke into vaudeville in the first decade of the twentie…
Today is the birthday of Edwin J. Burke (1889-1944). We cast a wide net betimes for our Stars of Vaudeville series. Only rarely do playwrights make it here, but some do, and some have. Burke…
The theme of this Sunday’s sermon is Temperance. If you’re one of the two people who’ve been closely following this earth-shattering series of posts on my lineage, so far w…
