11,865 stories by "Trav S.D."
Vera Fokine (1886-1958) graduated from the Russian Imperial School of Ballet in 1904 and married influential choreographer Michel Fokine the following year. In 1919 the two fled the Revoluti…
Today the Silent Clowns film series presents Louise Fazenda in Footloose Widows (1926) a snappy comedy about two gold diggers on the prowl at a swanky resort hotel. Sharing today's spo…
That heading may sound like internecine struggles amongst curators, administrators and philanthropists, but it really refers to two excellent exhibitions we saw at the Met Museum yesterday,Ã…
Today is opening day of Burlington, Vermont’s Festival of Fools, now in its sixth year. The Festival of Fools is a curated festival of street theater devoted to community engagement th…
Originally posted in 2009. Today is the birthday of Helen Morgan (1900-1941). Ms. Morgan created the role of the drunken, melancholy torch singer, sitting on top of a piano in a night…
Today is the birthday of James “Paul” Parrott (1897-1939). Parrott broke into films in 1917 through the good graces of his older brother Charles, a.k.a Charley Chase, who was the…
Today is the birthday of Bob Burns (1890-1956). Burns was just an Arkansas teenager playing in local brass bands when he invented his own humorous looking trombone-like instrument out of plu…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, EXHIBITIONS & LECTURES, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Pirate Ball, Red Hook, Waterfront Museum
Today is the birthday of Dominick “Dom” DeLuise (1933-2009). Here’s something odd: DeLuise’s Wiki entry mentions everything about his career — all his movie app…
Originally posted in 2009 EVA TANGUAY""THE 'I DON'T CARE' GIRL" "She came on like a meteor, but there is a lasting quality. What is that quality? Radium? Electricity? Sheer nerve? Or, as Eva…
Originally posted in 2011 This gentleman (born today in 1819) is one of my literary heroes. A tribute to this is the fact that my interest in him survived an introduction to his great master…
Drawing by Carolyn Raship Wednesday, August 7 at 9pm at Coney Island USA: Trav S.D. (American Vaudeville Theatre) and a High Kicking Chorus of Cuties recreate burlesque as it was in Coney…
The last chapter of our book Chain of Fools talks about contemporary performers who are making original silent comedy films. And, lo and behold, Sammy Tramp, whom we’re presentin…
Originally posted in 2010 You’ve undoubtedly seen Clarence Kolb (born this day in 1874) more than once in your movie watching history without knowing it. He was a popular chara…
Today is the birthday of Paul “Mousie” Garner (1909-2004). He started out in vaudeville at the age of four with his family’s act. As a young adult Garner was hired by Ted H…
Originally posted in 2010 Once upon a time, a young Czech performer named Martin Beck had been touring the Americas with a German singing and juggling troupe. Stranded by his company in Chic…
Originally posted in 2010 William Powell (born this day in 1892) was no “star” of vaudeville, but he did do some time there during his years of struggle from the time of his grad…
We (and probably you) have been much enjoying Kate Mulgrew’s Russian cookie and cell-block boss lately in Orange is the New Black. I’ve come across much online chatter to t…
Today is the birthday of every classic comedy lover’s principal heart throb Thelma Todd (1906-1935). Originally trained to be a schoolteacher, Todd also participated in beauty pageants…
Originally posted in 2009. Known now primarily as a film comedian (he was one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the early 30s), Joe E. Brown began his professional career as an acrobat in …
Originally posted in 2009. Rudy Vallee is remembered today as a singer, and it is usually forgotten that he was also the leader of his own band. Ben Bernie and Ted Lewis had sung…
Today is the birthday of Richard “Skeets” Gallagher (1891-1955). Trained as a civil engineer and a lawyer, the Indiana native went into vaudeville with a one act playlet, which l…
Today is the birthday of the great character comedian Jerry Van Dyke (b. 1931). He’s always rather unfairly lived in the shadow of his older brother Dick Van Dyke, who not only had his…
Today is opening day of the annual Warren County, NJ Balloon Festival — an appropriate occasion on which to contemplate the interesting and sadly truncated life of Washington Harrison …
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island Talent Show, World Famous Bob
