11,862 stories by "Trav S.D."
Here’s another little post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. There were many live theatrical precursors to 20th century depictions of Native Americans in film and broadcas…
Here’s another little post in honor of Native American Heritage Month. How many movies are there in which Native Americans are misrepresented, inaccurately represented, cruelly represe…
Today is the birthday of Lorne Michaels (b. 1944). It would be impossible to overstate the revolution brought about in pop culture by his principal brain child Saturday Night Live during …
Today is the birthday of the great character actor Burgess Meredith (1907-1997). Meredith holds a special place in our Hall of Hams by being one of the very last of the English-sounding Amer…
Today is the birthday of James O’Neill (1847-1920). Best known today as the father of the great playwright Eugene O’Neill, in his heyday he was regarded as one of the era’s…
Filed under: PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Art Deco Society, Deco Decadence, Flatiron Lounge
Filed under: Comedy, Contemporary Variety, Illusionists, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Big Sky Works, Corn Mo, Perpelexer, Tanya Solomon
Well, a blog being what it is, that is a web log, an online diary of sorts, from time to time I am apt to trot out stories a little closer to home. In the past I’ve have had to unfrien…
Another addendum to our earlier post on Dick Powell. There’s no two ways about it: Dick Powell was a very savvy individual. When he sensed he was aging out of the boy ingenue parts tha…
An addendum post to our earlier tribute to Dick Powell. In addition to his extensive stage and cinema careers, Powell was a major presence on radio in the 30s and 40s. He made countless appe…
Today is the birthday of Brian Keith (1921-1997). Keith’s was an interesting and memorable presence on screens big and small, somewhere between a leading man and a character actor, mos…
Today is the birthday of misunderstood television genius Sherwood Schwartz (1916-2011). Someday we hope to do a lengthy post on the whole of this man’s singular oeuvre, bu…
Today is the birthday of Morton Downey, Sr. (1901-1905). Those of us of a certain age remember his hellish spawn, who almost single-handedly destroyed television by bringing right-wing talk …
Today is the birthday of silent comedy star Cliff Bowes (1894-1929). Like many film performers, Bowes got his start not on the stage but in the world of athletics. A champion swimmer and div…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the Max Linder comedy Max Takes a Picture. Ever the roué, in this short film Max won’t stop harassing a pretty girl at the…
And it consists of corned beef and cabbage! The Duchess and I are embarking today for Ireland, where we’ll be visiting family for a week, hopefully with a nice side benefit of taking i…
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the initial release of one of my favorite movies, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  As a child, it held many mysteries for me. First, that …
Today is the birthday of corn-fed country comedian Archie Campbell (1914-1987), as good a time as any to talk about that peculiar, never-to-be-repeated television phenomenon Hee Haw. I…
Today is the birthday of Leatrice Joy (1893-1985), one of the biggest film stars of the twenties. Joy broke into silent film in her native New Orleans in 1915 and briefly worked in stock the…
Today is the birthday of Phil Spitalny (1890-1970). Born in the Ukraine, he founded his 22 piece All-Girl Orchestra in the early 30s, called the Hour of Charm Orchestra when it was featur…
If you would have told anyone 35 years ago that by 2013 Lance Kerwin (born today in 1960) would have pretty much vanished off the face of the earth, they might have believed you but they wou…
Today (or November 16, I’ve seen both given) is the birthday of Thomas Ince (1882-1924). Ince is best known today for his sad and mysterious end, dramatized in Peter Bogdonavich’…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Singers Tagged: burlesque, Nurse Betty, Shelly Watson
Today is the birthday of songwriter Nathaniel Hawthorne “Nat” Vincent (1889-1979). In the early days, Vincent was a song plugger and department store music demonstrator. In vaude…
I was delighted to see three different people, all of whom I met separately and through three entirely different connections, all collaborating in Lauren Milberger’s reading for her ne…
