11,841 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy comedy Putting Pants on Philip, directed by Clyde Bruckman (1927). This is the first movie to officially bill the pair…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd comedy Luke’s Movie Muddle (1916), directed by Hal Roach. “Luke” of course refers to “Lonesome …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the all-star, multi-director Paramount film If I Had a Million (1932) The framing device (directed by Norman Taurog) is that dying milliona…
Today is the birthday of one of my favorite straight (i.e. non-comedian) screen actors of all time, Warren William (Warren Krech, 1894-1948). The son of a small-town Minnesota newspape…
Today is the birthday of Earle W. (E.W.) Hammons (1882-1962). A Mississippi native, Hammons established Educational Pictures (a.k.a Educational Films Corporation) in 1915 to produce educatio…
Happy birthday to the funny, lovable, histrionic, mellifluous, classy and highly discerning clown-chanteuse Bette Midler. In addition to writing about her in No Applause, we’ve blo…
Today is the anniversary of the great silent Laurel and Hardy spook comedy Habeas Corpus (1928), directed by James Parrott. In this short, the pair are hired by a mad scientist to …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the W.C. Fields comedy It’s a Gift (1934), which is today one of the best known and loved films from Fields’s Paramount peri…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd comedy Captain Kidd’s Kids (1919). Around this period, many of Lloyd’s films seem very much influenced by D…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy Leading Lizzie Astray. Minta Durfee plays the titular Lizzie, a farmer’s daughter. Roscoe “Fatty Arbu…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of W.C. Fields‘ second-to-last starring film from his brilliant late period at Universal: The Bank Dick (1940), directed by Eddie Cl…
Today is the anniversary of the release of the Laurel and Hardy comedy Another Fine Mess (1930), directed by James Parrott. The film is essentially a sound remake of the team’s e…
Today is the birthday of television and film actress Hope Lange (1933-2003). Already I hear you saying, “Good God, man, have you gone insane? How does television and film actress…
Three chances left to see Filler, the intriguing play by writer/director William Goulet at the 64E4 mainstage through November 30. I caught the show about a week ago and found my…
With portions of the country under six feet of snow, and many other regions just beginning to feel the bite of winter (still technically three weeks away), one can always console oneself wit…
Filed under: Comedy, Laurel and Hardy Tagged: Laurel and Hardy, Oliver Hardy, pilgrims, Stan Laurel, Thanksgiving
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the silent comedy short Fiddlesticks (1927), starring Harry Langdon, with he help of his dream team Harry Edwards (director), and Frank Capra …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd film Dr. Jack (1922). Dr. Jack is easily my least favorite (and the weakest) of Lloyd's features. He plays a c…
I don’t think it’s too much to say that Lola Rock’N’Rolla is now my favorite film-maker. The Mad Marchioness and I attended the world premiere of Lola’s new opu…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Adam RealMan, Coney Island, Stuff Yourself Silly
Today is the birthday of Eddie Lyons (1886-1926). Lyons started out in vaudeville and musical comedy. His first film The Villian Foiled, was co-directed by Mack Sennett and Henry Lehrman …
Today is the birthday of Dagmar Oakland (Edna Andersen, 1893-1989), one half of the vaudeville team the Oakland Sisters. Her sister Vivien is better known today — she’ll get h…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy short Dirty Work (1933). This little comedy rests on duel premises, either of which would be right at home in a Thr…
A great day for comedy on TCM. They’re following up today’s Joe E. Brown festival with a sampling of films from the upper echelon of silent film comedians. I’ve written abo…
Today is the birthday of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). We recently saw MOMA’s exhibition The Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters and since it was so close to his …
