11,865 stories by "Trav S.D."
Originally posted in 2012 “Mama” Cass Elliot (born today in 1941) is, to me, what it’s all about. There’s no doubt in my mind that if vaudeville had stayed around ano…
Originally posted in 2011 Lovey Austin (born this day in 1887) was a college-trained blues piano player and band leader who worked in black vaudeville, night clubs, movie theatres and …
Ben Turpin is most famous today as a humorous show biz footnote: he's the wall-eyed silent film comedian who once insured his peepers against uncrossing. But he was more than that. By some m…
How excellent is this? The very thought puts a spring in my step, makes me a little more optimistic about the world. R & J is opening at the Richard Rodgers Tonight. And of course it has…
Today is the birthday of multi-talented songwriter, singer and actor Paul Williams (b. 1940). Williams has had a career most people would drool over: his hit songs of the early 70s (“A…
Today is the birthday of Adam West (William West Anderson, b. 1928). West had been a hack actor in Hollywood for a dozen years before becoming a parody of a hack actor in Batman …
Today is the birthday of Roger Wolfe Kahn (1907-1962). The son of millionaire industrialist and patron of the arts Otto Kahn, he had plenty of backing to start his own orchestra in 1923 at a…
Today is the birthday of Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977). Hired by Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount) in 1923 to be their answer to the Latin Lover craze, he was actually named Jacob Krantz, …
Today is the birthday of Noah Orr (1836-1882). Standing 7′ 3″ in stocking feet (but nine feet in his military boots and hat), he went to work for P.T. Barnum’s American Mus…
Originally posted in 2010 Indelibly identified with the character "Rochester", Jack Benny's raspy-voiced, wisecracking comic butler on radio and tv from 1937 to 1965, Eddie Anderson ha…
Time once again for the NY Clown Theatre Festival, ensconced at the Brick Theater, September 18 – September 29. For all the details go to:Â http://bricktheater.com Filed under: Clown…
We have been able to discover only a little about Madame Rosina Casselli, who sang, did eccentric dances, and, above all, presented an entire troupe of trained chihuahuas. Ancestry.com gives…
Today is the birthday of songwriter Sam H. Stept (1898-1964). Born in Russia and raised in Pittsburg, Stept started out in vaudeville as a song plugger and accompanist for the likes of Mae W…
Today is the birthday of one of America’s greatest songwriters and performers, Hiram “Hank” Williams (1923-1953). Unlike his precursor Jimmie Rogers, Williams came along to…
Around our house we are big fans of A) Ghosts; B) the Victorian Era; C) Famous Murderers; and D) Jenny Lee Mitchell! So we are excited to report the news that the home video DVD of JennyR…
Originally posted in 2011 Winnie Lightner (born Winifred Reeve on this day in 1899) is best known today as a movie star of the pre-code era, 1929-34Â (not because she was particularly racy…
Originally posted in 2011 Today is the birthday of Ira Erastus Davenport (1839-1911). It was Ira who eventually confessed to Houdini (an acorn off of his own tree) that the spiritualis…
Today is the birthday of Esther Ralston (1902-1994). She began her performing career in the family vaudeville act ”The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America’s Youngest Juli…
A King and Three Jokers Originally posted in 2012 The Wiere Brothers unfortunately came along too late for American vaudeville, hence we do not include them in our Stars of Vaudeville Ser…
Today is the birthday of James Grover Tarver (1885-1958). During his 26 years with various sideshows (1914-1940) he was billed at different times as “Texas Jim”, the Texas Giant&…
Congratulations to our friend and sometime collaborator Jim R. Moore was is being honored by the  Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York with an aptly named Local Hero Award in a speci…
Today is the birthday of magician David Copperfield, who is really only David Seth Kotkin of Metuchen, New Jersey — but thanks for making it harder for children to Google the Dickens&#…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great Broadway impresario Earl Carroll (1892-1948), best known for his series of revues Earl Carroll’s Vanities , which …
 Today is the birthday of Daisy Ann Peterkin (1884-1952). Originally from St. Louis, as a youth she was interested in the modern dancing of Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan, and went to …
Today is the birthday of Renée Claire Angèle Élisabeth Napierkowski, a.k.a. Stacia Napierkowska (1891-1945). The Polish-born actress, pantomime and interpretive dancer lived and per…
