11,873 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #428: Eva Taylor (for more on this early blues and jazz performer go here). I found this cool video this morning of her performing with a Danish D…
Today is the birthday of  Tom Patricola (1891-1950), the younger brother of popular vaudeville musician Miss (Isabella) Patricola. He was an eccentric dancer who clogged and tapped while …
Today is the birthday of Maurice P. Kitchen (1896-1962), better known to audiences as Rajah Raboid. A New Orleans native he first performed magic under the far more quotidian name of Ray Boy…
Okay! We all have to celebrate Martin Luther King Day in our OWN way…this is mine. As I wrote in No Applause, show biz is possibly the single most powerful force for social transfo…
Well, I hope that headline caught your eye. On both sides of the pond, Hill has long been considered famously low-brow, but only by people who never took the time to look at his work, beyond…
Horvath’s Midgets (owned and operated by S. Horvath) were a troupe from Hungary who billed themselves as “The Smallest People in the World”. While based in Europe they t…
Today is the birthday of Rosa and Josefa Blazek (1878-1922). They were a pair of conjoined twin sisters from Bohemia (now Czech Republic). Exhibition of the girls at local fairs began from t…
Today is the birthday of Arthur “Arte” Johnson (b. 1929). He broke into television in the mid-50s, often playing nebbishy types (vertically challenged and bespectacled as Johnson…
Today is the 117th birthday of Nathan Birnbaum, a.k.a George Burns. For more on him and the legendary act he had with his wife Gracie Allen go here. I usually re-post it on Gracie’s bi…
Today is the birthday of French chanteuse Yvette Guilbert (for my full original post on her go here). Here she is singing “Quand on vous aime comme ça”: To find out more about…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville # 285 Ruth St. Denis (for my original post on her go here). Here she is performing an “East Indian Nautch Dance” in 1932: To find out …
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #286: Rosco Ates (for my original post on him, go here). Now here he is as the sidekick to Tex Ritter in the 1940 Mongram feature The Cowboy from …
Today is Phil Everly’s birthday! The influence of the Everly Brothers is incaluable: Lennon and McCartney patterned their early sound after them; Simon and Garfunkle modeled their whol…
Today is the birthday of one my favorite writers Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849). To mark the date I thought I’d double your pleasure by looking at Vincent Price’s long relationship …
Today is the birthday of Janis Joplin (1943-1970). No need to trudge over well-trod territory and gab about what you already know about her here. I’m more interested in another element…
Today is the birthday of John Wyman, Jr. (1816-1881), one of the first American-born magician/ventriloquists, billed as “Wyman the Wizard”. A favorite entertainer of Abraha…
January 19, 2013 at 3pm: Free! I am very excited (and honored) to be joining Theatre Askew artistic director Tim Cusack in conversation in the Coffeehouse Chronicles series at La MaMa. Coffe…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
Rose’s Royal Midgets were a troupe of 25 little people gathered together from across Europe (mostly Germany) by American impresario I.S. Rose. Company members danced, did acrobat…
Opening tonight at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg, a line up of killer clowns! I mean, a killer line up of clowns! CIRQUE OFF January 17 – 20 @ 8pm Tickets: $15 A smorgasbord of rare …
Today is the birthday of that great genius of comedy, performance art, theatre and the Great American Hoax, Andy Kaufman (1949-1984). About ten years ago, a prominent journalist was intervie…
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Mano…
