11,839 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today at 8:00 pm (EST) on Turner Classic Movies: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) A strong contender for best Hollywood show biz bio-pic all around. James Cagney tears it up as his heroÅ
This is part five of a five part series. For part one, covering the years of silent comedy, go here.  For part two, on the 30s and 1940s, go here. For part three, covering the 19…
Tomorrow at 4:30pm at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of their 3D Summer series: the classic John Wayne western Hondo (1953), directed by John Farrow. Warning: we always…
OK, this card is a little hard to read, so I’ll tell you all you need to know. Our friend Lefty Lucy is presenting this patriotic burlesque show at Coney Island USA tonight at 10pm, fe…
It’s Independence Day weekend!  I’ve recently uncovered details about several ancestors who fought in the American Revolution. Today seems like the ideal time to share the inf…
In July 1879 was born one Szmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland. Later to become Samuel Goldfish, finally to become Samuel Goldwyn. Around the turn of the century he came to upstate New York and…
This is part four of a five part series. For part one, covering the years of silent comedy, go here.  For part two, covering 1930s and 1940s, go here. For part three, covering the 1950…
Tomorrow morning at 6:00am, Turner Classic Movies will be showing perhaps the most hauntingly effective witchcraft movie ever made. A silent Danish/Swedish co-production from 1922,  Ha…
Hey, that’s THEIR title – -I didn’t make it up! The theme tonight on Turner Classic Movies is westerns with “White Men Among Native Americans” at their center. …
This is part three of a five part series. For part one, covering the years of silent comedy, go here.  For part two, covering 1930s and 1940s, go here. Punchy Cowpunchers (1950) Sur…
Occasionally I find my social media statuses growing so elaborate they become blogposts. This is one of them, from yesterday. A question from a guy in one of the (Facebook) movie groups:…
This is part two of a five part series. For part one, covering the years of silent comedy, go here. The Fighting Parson (1930) A Harry Langdon short for Hal Roach. A western town is expe…
Filed under: PLUGS, Singers, Women Tagged: Barnum Museum, Bijou Theatre, Jenny Lind, P.T. Barnum
This afternoon on Turner Classic Movies, the Gildersleeve comedies. Radio comedian Harold “Hal” Peary (1908-1985) created his popular radio character Throckmorton Gildersleeve on…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934), directed by Jay Sandrich. This is rated one of the team’s best comedi…
The roots of the comedy western genre are surprisingly early.  Casual movie fans are apt to think the genesis might lay with Laurel and Hardy’s Way Out West (1937) or, God for…
 Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe Arbuckle comedy Fatty’s Plucky Pup (1915). This was one in a series of comedies in which Arbuckle co-starred…
Having done a previous post about 50 Funny Football Films, and planning a similarly epic one about baseball, as a stopgap, here is survey of Hollywood golf comedies through history. Click on…
Wow…I can’t believe I  haven’t gotten around to plugging this book or even rating it on Goodreads (a lapse which I just addressed). I guess I first read this book in the…
With the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920s, there was a rush on for Hollywood studios to sign big New York vaudeville and musical comedy stars. For a brief while they were trying …
In celebration of Pride Weekend (now upon us) and today’s Supreme Court decision in favor of same sex marriage, a quick mini-post to connect you quickly to posts on Travalanche …
Originally posted on Once upon a screen...:You can find a wealth of movie history sites in a town near me, places where the movies and movie genres were born and the players who spearheaded …
Originally posted on Silver Embers:There is a scene in Sam Fuller's Forty Guns when Barbara Stanwyck sits at the head of a dinner table. She is the only woman; a formidable presence surround…
We were privileged last night to attend the launch event for the premiere edition of Spaz Comics, brainchild of editor/publisher Rik Sansone. The Mad Marchioness is represented in this volum…
Well…surely not the last blogpost EVER about bio-pics, but the last in my series that began here, here, here and here. This one covers films made from 1970 on, and like the rest in the…
