11,839 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of that key member of the Algonquin Round Table Edna Ferber (1885-1968). Like many popular American writers, Ferber wasn’t so much any kind of literary geni…
Today is the birthday of Mary Nash (Mary Ryan, 1884-1976). Her stage name comes from her stepfather Philip F. Nash, an important vaudeville booker for F.F. Proctor, B.F. Keith and the Uni…
Today is the birthday of Emma Calve (Emma Rosa Calvet, 1858-1942). Calve, a soprano, was the most famous French opera singer of the Belle Epoque. Originally from Aveyro, she studied in Franc…
So much for labor saving! One of the happy benefits of having written a popular book (and now a popular blog) is that I have accrued pen pals all over this great land of ours. Hudson Valley …
Today is the birthday of Bill Wolfe (1894-1975) that cadaverous looking scarecrow whom W.C. Fields used to stick in a lot of his movies. In the accepted vaudevillian fashion, Fields loved us…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy Recreation (1914). Though amusing in spots, it’s one of Chaplin’s less distinctive efforts, b…
All day tomorrow, as part of their Summer Under the Stars series, Turner Classic Movies will be screening films starring Groucho Marx, with and without his equally famous brothers. It’…
I came across the names of African American comedy team Moss and Fry (i.e., Arthur G. Moss and Edward Frye), a.k.a. “A Couple of Blackbirds” in the terrific book The Palace…
Today is J. Rosamond Johnson’s birthday (1873-1954): read more about the composer at my earlier post here. A few weeks back, the Edward B. Marks Music Company published a new volume of…
Today is the birthday of the mighty thespian Hobart Bosworth (1867-1943). Bosworth ran away from his Ohio home when he was about age ten and became a cabin boy on a clipper ship. After…
As part of TCM’s Summer Under the Stars salute to Joan Crawford, early tomorrow morning they will be showing two camp classics starring the high strung actress, from her late, &#…
As part of my periodic stock taking, I did a little assessment this morning of the popularity of the various comedians I write about on Travalanche. I am particularly interested (floored, re…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin Keystone comedy The Face on the Bar-Room Floor (1914). Inspired by the 1872 John Henry Titus film, Chaplin’s paro…
Today is the birthday of Sam Elliott (b. 1944). I won’t apologize for the adolescent tone for the header of this blogpost. Youthful enthusiasm and hero worship are the seed kernels of …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy The Bank (1915). Essentially, a much improved revisitation of his earlier The New Janitor, in The Bank …
Most of you have probably heard the news, but I do have some subscribers here who don’t follow social media and it’s quite relevant to our usual beat, so we share the news here o…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the 1942 comedy A-Haunting We Will Go, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. This is one of my favorite films from the team’s worst …
Today is the birthday of Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer (1927-1959). Switzer’s Alfalfa was one of the most instantly recognizable (and popular) members of the Hal Roach kiddie star…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Cobra Club, Force Majeur, vaudeville
Filed under: Amusement Parks, BROOKLYN, Coney Island, PLUGS
A little-known fact that comes back to me every time this spacey-spazzy writer gets cast in a play or movie (or produces one of his own): acting requires the same kind of focus and physical …
Today is the birthday of the the late Hollywood tough guy Robert Mitchum (1917-1997). Film noir or crime dramas are the first things that spring to mind when we think of Mitchum. His was a p…
It’s the late John Huston’s birthday, and so, a little tribute to his 1972 western The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. This is a very interesting artifact, very mu…
Tomorrow is Michael Caine day on TCM, and they’re kicking it off in high style with two pictures he made in the late ’70s with Master of Disaster Irwin Allen. As I’ve writt…
Tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies, several musical films starring the beloved team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, followed by a few teaming Astaire with other partners. 6:00am (EST) F…
