11,863 stories by "Trav S.D."
Originally posted in 2010 Today is the birthday of Arabella Estelle “Minta” Durfee (1889-1975). The diminutive Durfee had become a chorus girl by age 17. While acting in mu…
Thanks, Susan DeCarava, for alerting me to the existence of this amazing person. October, 1865 was the birth month of Ella Grigsby (later Williams), later billed as Mme. Abomah, the Tall…
Today is the birthday of Cliff Friend (1893-1974). A second generation musician Friend studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before being sidelined for several years with TB. He we…
Today is the birthday of Willie Camper (Guicel Willie Camper, 1924-1943). Hailing from the Memphis area, Camper was advertised as being eight and a half feet tall, probably “showmen…
Today is the birthday of the late Marc Bolan (Mark Feld, 1947-1977), the Father of Glam, and thus also partially the little rivulets that spring from this Edenic source (minor trends such as…
Today is the birthday of Angie Dickinson (b. Angeline Brown, 1931), a fitting time to remember her groundbreaking tv series Police Woman (1974-1978). Police Woman was ground-breakin…
“Free” and “I’m already in the same neighborhood or at least the same borough” are a couple of important preconditions for my attendance at an event…but a…
Today is the birthday of Wilton Lackaye (William Andrew Lacky, 1861-1932). Lackaye was a major star of the legitimate stage starting with Francesca da Rimini in 1883. The biggest role …
Today is the birthday of Renée Adorée (Jeanne de La Fonte, 1898-1933). She started out performing in French circuses with her parents at the age of five, migrated to theatre in young ad…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great dancer Charles “Cholly” Atkins (1913-2003). Buffalo native Atkins started out playing floor shows and revues with …
Originally posted in 2011 Adolph Behrend (a.k.a. “Salerno”, b. this day in 1869) is known for several things: * He was one of the originators of the style known as “gentlem…
Today is the birthday of Lily Morris (Lilles Mary Crosby, 1884-1952) a great singing comedienne in the English music hall who also scored big in American vaudeville. She started out in panto…
Today is the birthday of the original Singing Cowboy Gene Autry (Orvon Grover Autry, 1907-1998). Autry was a one man empire, star of radio, movies, television and the recording industry, and…
Today is the birthday of Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935). He is rightfully known as the wildest, most objectionable, most downright diabolical of all the first generation of rock and roll performe…
Bevan is the One on the Right Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of silent comedy star Billy Bevan (1887-1957). The Australian native began performing as a child and spent…
Today is the birthday of Fred Russell (Thomas Fredick Parnell, 1862-1957) often known as the Father of modern ventriloquism (he is often said to have been the first to use a dummy on the kne…
Come in your finest vintage or vintage-inspired attire to Wit's Endâ„¢ and dance and drink Prohibition era cocktails and end the summer in style with live hot jazz from The Red Hook Ramb…
Today is the birthday of the great American playwright Elmer Rice (Elmer Reizenstein, 1892-1967). While he wrote dozens of successful plays, Rice’s reputation today rests principally o…
Every Sunday in September TCM has shown dozens of works by Alfred Hitchcock from morning until…well into the next morning. It’s not the entire canon, but it’s enough …
Just got word that one of our few living vaudevilians, Star of Vaudeville #773 John Calvert has passed on at the age of 102. The Indiana native was inspired to take up magic by a boyhood tri…
Today is the birthday of Al Capp (1909-1979), genius behind the long-running comic strip Li’l Abner. I wanted to share two Capp-related clips today. The first you may have …
Today is the birthday of character comedian Arnold Stang (1918-2009). He started out when still a teenager in radio (with that voice, who’d have guessed?) In the 50s he was a reg…
Originally posted in 2010 Ed Sullivan (born this day in 1901) is the primary preservationist of vaudeville and its aesthetics into the post-vaudeville era, keeping old school variety shows b…
Sunday, September 29 (following 2pm matinee performance) Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor The Kellys of Vaudeville Following the matinee performance of George Kelly's Phil…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Illusionists, PLUGS Tagged: Cardone, Joe the Shark, R Bar, Sharkbite Sideshow
