11,840 stories by "Trav S.D."
Just a few words of Saturday morning praise for Stewart F. Lane’s authoritative new book Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way. It’s rare to come across a b…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy Mabel at the Wheel, starring Mabel Normand. There are all sorts of reasons this film is noteworthy. * This is one …
Today at 2pm (EST) on Turner Movie Classics, a camp classic if ever there was one, 1958’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The film is a riff on the previous’s year’s eq…
Today is the birthday of singer and character comedienne Virginia O’Brien (1919-2001). Though I am about 70 years too late, I will always be her advocate and champion — I see the…
Originally posted on ellaharper:Ella Harper, taken about 1885-1886. There are a couple of other photos of her if interested, easily found by Googling. Back in November of 2014 I was going th…
Filed under: Burlesk, PLUGS, VISUAL ART, Women Tagged: dr. sketchy's, Fashion Institute of Technology
Tonight at 8pm (EST) on Turner Classic Movies, the 1938 version of Philip Barry’s 1928 play Holiday. I only know a few of Barry’s plays, but those I’m familiar with m…
Slapstick Alert! Slapstick Alert! Tomorrow morning Turner Classic Movies will be showing two terrific silent comedy shorts set in amusement parks. 7:30am (EST): Coney Island (1917) In this c…
Today is the birthday of stage and screen actor Lee Tracy (1898-1968), best-known for a niche he carved out all for himself in Hollywood’s pre-code years, which was fast-talking and ur…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Connelly Theater
Tonight on TCM at 8pm (EST), one of the most perfect Hollywood movies of all time, the original 1933 version of King Kong. One of the most dream-like of all Hollywood films, an art de…
Tomorrow on Turner Classic Musicals, a Multiplicity of MGM Musicals from the 1950s in honor of birthday boy Howard Keel: 6:00am (EST): Pagan Love Song (1950) Crossed wires in Ta…
 Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of Charlie Chaplin’s landmark comedy short The Tramp (1915). Though this was Chaplin’s 38th comedy, this was the …
The word’s just come down to me that that twentieth century Titan, Judith Malina has joined her husbands Julian Beck and Hanon Reznikov…whereever they are. Unavoidably, …
Tomorrow at 12:15pm (EST) on Turner Movie Classics: Footlight Parade (1933). Yet another great Warner Brothers musical from 1933! Incredible Busby Berkley numbers and a cast that inclu…
Amusingly, after a year and a half of hearing me freak out about having too much to do, I am now starting to freak out about having nothing to do. It feels like I am about to fall off …
Today marks the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox. We tend to use that date to mark the end of the Civil War, but in reality that wasn’t the end of the …
Listened to the Beatles’ “Hey, Bulldog” four times in a row this morning. I’ve always thought it would make an excellent theme for a spy movie, by virtue of Lennon…
Trav S.D. and Mountebanks present Fragments of  a House Divided Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30pm at Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street, NYC April, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the en…
Filed under: Burlesk, PLUGS Tagged: Bedford Hall, Broadway Brassy, burlesque
 Today at 1:45pm (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 h…
“I’d walk miles for the hubble, bubble and toil of a good horror movie, or to watch Vincent Price stirring cauldrons of horror, or to observe a well-fanged Christopher Lee on the…
Tonight I’m hosting the entertainment portion of a Gala fundraiser for one of my favorite theatre companies in New York City, the Metropolitan Playhouse. (Just do for a search for …
Tonight is Jane Russell night on Turner Classic Movies. Following an 8pm screening of the 1953 remake of Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes there will be these: 9:45 pm (EST):…
Looking for something vaguely Spring-like or Easterly this morning (without paying much attention), I watched the 1948 movie April Showers. Assuming, I guess, it was something like …
