11,862 stories by "Trav S.D."
Just when you thought Neil LaBute couldn’t get any more horrible, he goes and tops himself in horribleness. The playwright/ screenwriter/ director has created a niche for himself cooki…
Today is the birthday of Mabel Stark (Mary Haynie, 1889-1968). She was billed as the first lady tamer of big cats, and was certainly the first well known one. Originally a hospital nurse, sh…
Today is the birthday of Morton Gould (1913-1996). Gould was not so much a star of vaudeville as a star of the classical world who got his start in vaudeville. A child prodigy, he was seriou…
Today is the birthday of the amazing Buck Henry (Henry Zuckerman, b. 1930). He first came into my consciousness — and I’ll wager the consciousness of most Americans — in th…
Another in our series of Christmas themed show biz posts. This Christmas edition of Bob Hope’s radio program originally aired December 19, 1945 — the first Christmas without war …
Another in our series of Christmas themed show biz posts… And now some funny clips from The Father Knows Best Christmas episode, which originally ran during the show’s firs…
Today is the birthday of Margaret Hamilton (1902-1985). I might not have otherwise written about her here but for the fact that I have now written about every principal cast member of The…
Today is the birthday of Dick Van Patten (b. 1928). A likable character actor, usually in comedies, he became best known for playing real life Sacramento newspaper editor and columnist Tom B…
Today is the birthday of John Cassavetes (1929-1989). NOW, some of us know him as one of the most important and influential American film-makers of all time. And some of us know him as an ef…
 Alright now, this morning we’ve had posts on Redd Foxx, Tim Moore and Uncle Remus…Now to shift all the way to the other end of the color spectrum. For today is Donny Osmond&…
Today is the birthday of Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), best known today as the writer (more like the collector, really) of the Uncle Remus stories, a collection of African American folk-…
Today is the birthday of John Elroy Sanford a.k.a Redd Foxx (1922-1991). He was born in St. Louis and raised in Chicago, where he became known as Chicago Red on account of his reddish hair. …
Today is the birthday of Emmett Kelly (1898-1979), whose Weary Willie character was probably the best known (or best recognized) circus clown of the 20th century. Kelly started out as a trap…
Today is the birthday of beloved American humorist James Thurber (1894-1961), among many other things, author of the 1939 short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Thi…
Today is the birthday of David Carradine (1936-2009). Given the fact that I was between the ages of seven and ten when his his show Kung Fu aired (1972-1975), I could not let this day …
Continuing our series of Christmas themed posts. This 1947 Christmas episode of Jack Benny’s radio program returns us to the recurring Benny theme of last minute holiday shopping. Noth…
Continuing on with our Christmas themed series of posts… Here is a true television classic, from the first season of The Odd Couple (1970), when the poker players were still r…
In further observation of Sammy Davis Jr, ‘s birthday, a fairly unobjectionable holiday clip, featuring a jazzing up of “Jingle Bells” To find out more about the variety…
Adapted from a post originally published in 2011. The name Georges Méliès (born this day in 1861) is no doubt on everyone’s lips very much these days thanks to the recent r…
Another in our series of Christmas themed show posts… Here’s Bing Crosby’s 1947 Christmas special on Philco Radio Time. Skitch Henderson is musical guest! Selections includ…
Another in our series of Christmas themed show posts… This is one of several Christmas episodes of Maude, this one from the show’s second season in 1973. Bea Arthur is a…
Today is the birthday of that amazing mutt-like creature Tom Waites (b. 1949). True American romantics also tend to be cynics. I don’t know of any other country in the world about whic…
Today is the birthday of cool jazz pianist David Brubeck (1920-1912). If you recall, he passed away at around this time last year (one day shy of his birthday) and there were many tribute an…
Another in our series of Holiday themed posts… This moment on the Christmas episode of Gilligan’s Island always flipped me out when I was a kid. The implied v…
Continuing on with our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts… Here are Jim and Marian Jordan, a.k.a Fibber McGhee and Molly in the 1943 Christmas edition of their eponymou…
