11,843 stories by "Trav S.D."
Earlier this summer I was interviewed by Barry Mitchell of CUNY-TV’s  Arts in the City at the Coney Island Museum. We talked about Coney, my most recent book Chain of Fools, silent …
Marie Roberts is well known as artist-in-residence and official banner painter at Coney Island USA, but she is an accomplished artist outside that context. In the days after September 11, sh…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd short I Do (1921). The film begins with a little animation"Harold and his girl (Mildred Davis) get married. One year later…
Today is the birthday of Beatrice “Bee” Palmer (1894-1967). Originally from Chicago, Palmer began performing in local venues before moving to New York in the late teens. With her…
Tomorrow morning at 3:15 am (eastern) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1933 horror classic The Vampire Bat. The tale: villagers in a rural European hamlet are mysteriously dying…
because we’ve written about a few of them here and have never stopped to explain what one is, today we offer a brief squib on the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Despite a somewhat ugly name, for a…
Today is the birthday of Bessie Love (Juanita Horton, 1898-1986). I had known her primarily for the early leg of her career, but was astounded to discover that unlike many, she managed to re…
Today is the anniversary of the NYC release date of the Buster Keaton comedy College (1927). This is one of my least favorite Keaton features (it seems less characteristic of Keaton, l…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy comedy short Scram! (1932), directed by Ray McCarey. In this classic, a mean judge (Richard Cramer) has Laurel …
Tonight at 6pm (Eastern), Turner Classic Movies will be showing that distinct non-classic The Eddie Cantor Story. Over the past ten years I’ve watched about 40 of these musical …
Look at the head of hair on this hep cat Originally posted in 2012. Isaac Sidney Caesar (1922-2014) came along too late to be in vaudeville proper (hence his exclusion from the “St…
Yesterday we had a perfect late summer afternoon on our hands – -staying indoors was not an option. Luckily as we read on the indispensable blog Travalanche, nearby Green-wood Cemetery…
Very excited — tonight on TCM, several films starring the great stage star Beatrice Lillie (for my full article on her go here). Lillie was a star of revues, straight plays, musicals, …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Mack Sennett silent comedy classic Lizzies of the Field (1924), directed by Del Lord. The title is of course a play on the Bibli…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Keystone film The Rounders, the only honest-to-God co-starring vehicle of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe “Fatty” Ar…
I’m not sure I’d trust any amusement park ride designed by somebody named “Mangels”, but apparently millions did, and got their money’s worth.Today Green-wood C…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Comique comedy Back Stage (1919) starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, with Buster Keaton and Al St. John. By now, the backs…
Tomorrow morning at 8:45am (Eastern) Turner Classic Movies will be showing a great forgotten classic, 1935’s Ruggles of Red Gap. (I really don’t care if old movie buf…
Tonight at 5:45pm on Turner Classic Movies:  Rollercoaster. One of the last of the original 1970s cycle of disaster movies, owing debts especially to Earthquake and Two Minute Wa…
Today is the birthday of the great comic actor Jane Curtin (b. 1947). Believe it or not, despite the fact that she has continued to work steadily and prominently down to the present day, my …
Today is the anniversary of the release of The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930), directed by James Parrott.  This is not the team’s best work, and I don't think it's just …
Today is the anniversary of the New York City premiere of the Universal horror classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925). This handily one of the first silent movies I was ever exposed to and …
Today is anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy silent comedy short Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), co-directed by James Parrott and Leo McCarey. Like so many …
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the D.W. Griffith film, Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916). Perhaps the most spectacular motion picture ev…
Today is the birthday of the once ubiquitous comedy professional Howard Morris (1919-2005). I find it a little crazy (and surely incorrect) that his Wikipedia entry and his official page bot…
