11,873 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of the great American satirist Sinclair Lewis (1885-1851).  I went through my Sinclair Lewis phase in my early twenties, when I read his best known novels Main St…
Today is the birthday of Eddie Bracken (1915-2002), best known today for his tour de force turns in two Preston Sturges films The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek and Hail the Conque…
Today is the great star of the serials Larry “Buster” Crabbe (1908-1983). A medal-winning Olympic swimmer, he first got into films (like fellow Olympic swimmer Johnny Weismuller)…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Today is the birthday of the great ragtime songwriter and piano man Eubie Blake (for more on him and his vaudeville partner Nobl…
Today is the birthday of Anita Stewart (1895-1961). A native of Brooklyn, she started out in 1911 playing bit roles at Vitagraph Studios, which was based locally. (She was in the all-star…
Today is the birthday of Spanish magician Frakson (Jose Seville, 1891-1981), billed as “The Man witha 1,000 Cigarettes”. Seville came from a family in which everybody (father, un…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. The short play below was written by me for the Metropolitan Playhouse’s annual Lower East Side one-act play festival in…
 Today is the birthday of Henry Irving (1838-1905), the first actor ever knighted by the British monarchy (nowadays they seem to give away knighthoods with green stamps). From where we s…
Today is the birthday of Babe Ruth (for more on him and his surprising connection to vaudeville go here). And see below for his funny turn in the 1928 Harold Lloyd comedy Speedy: To find …
Today is the birthday of teen idol “Fabian” (b. 1943.) A sort of craven record company attempt to cash in on the Elvis craze (and a fairly successful one), I still can’t he…
Today is the birthday of Dot Farley (1881-1971). A second generation thespian from the Chicago area, she made her stage debut at the age of three. After several years as a professional actre…
Today is the birthday of Roy Smeck (1900-1994). Billed as the “Wizard of the Strings” he was proficient and entertaining on the uke, banjo, guitar and steel (Hawaiian) guitar. A …
Today is the birthday of Katherine Lee (1909-1968). She and her sister Jane (1912-1957) were a kiddie sister act who starred in silent movies and vaudeville from the mid teens through th…
Today is the birthday of poet, heroin addict and murderer (in that order) William S. Burroughs (1914-1997). I like his writing a lot, as I like most of the Beats, although his writings (unli…
Today is the birthday of the great comic actor, Christopher Guest (b. 1948). I talk about him (and his unofficial troupe) a little bit in my new book Chain of Fools. The context is tha…
The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era. Today is the birthday of one of the greatest character actors…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. 103 years ago today the following review appeared in the NY Clipper: “A colored ventriloquist is rather a novelty, and at …
Today is the birthday of Frank Van Hoven (1886-1929), who billed himself as the “Mad Magician”. He was less noted for his magic tricks, however, than his practical jokes. His mos…
Today is the birthday of David Brenner (b. 1936), not to be confused with David Steinberg! While both were Jewish stand-up comedians whose heyday was the 1970s, the two had very different st…
Today is the birthday of Ida Lupino (1918-1995). Most people know her strictly as a beautiful English-American noir dame, and as one of America’s first female film directors.  What …
Today is the birthday of Alice Cooper (b. 1948). My ten year old self would have been appalled to learn that I would one day come to appreciate him. In point of fact, being several decades t…
What a surprise it was to learn about this book! One tends to think of former British Prime Minister John Major as a colorless fellow (in fact, I’d already sort of forgotten about him)…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. John W. Cooper (1873-1966) was the first African American ventriloquist to play the predominantly white vaudeville circuits. A broo…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Patterson and Jackson were a plus sized African American comedy duo who billed themselves as “Two Tons of Song and Mirth̶…
Today is the birthday of the very funny comedian Shelley Berman (b. 1925. If he sticks it out two more years, he’ll make it 90!) A Chicago native got his start at that same Compass Pla…
