11,876 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Cab Calloway (1907-1994). The son of a lawyer and a church organist, he started singing and playing drums in black vaudeville and nightclubs when still a teenager. F…
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 Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of Warren Berry (1922-1996). The Berry Brothers (Ananias, James and Warren) were principal rivals to the Nicholas Brothers as acrobatic dancers in the 1920s and 3…
Today is the birthday of silent film star John Bowers (born John Bowersox 1885-1936). The Indiana native started out acting in melodrama stock companies before making it to Broadway in 1912.…
The Crountess and I (I call her the Crountess now, i.e. the Carolyn Raship Countess, to differentiate her from the other Countess), but as I say myself and the Crountess killed two …
Today is the birthday of James Budworth (1831-1875). He was prized on the variety and minstrel stages as a mimic (or impressionist), and for his blackface and “Dutch” characteriz…
Today is the birthday of jazz great Chet Baker (1929-1988). In honor of the season, here’s a tasteful rendition of “Silent Night” he recorded in 1986 on a Christmas record …
Is this show forgotten? My informal poll tells me so, although that isn’t very scientific. What interests me is that everything AROUND The Rookies seems to be remembered, including its…
“So You See: It’s Really True. Where Hands are Lacking; Toes Will Do.” — slogan embroidered on a pillow by Ann E. Leak Today is the birthday of Ann E. Leak (b. 1939).…
Prince Randian (circa 1879-1934) is best known today for his performance in the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks. An ethnic Hindu born in British Guyana, Randian was born without arms and legs,…
Ventriloqust William Francis Chalet billed himself as The Great Chalet and The Star Ventriloquist of the World. He performed with P.T. Barnum circa 1876, and toured Australia with Bacheller&…
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 Manor Media…
Today is the birthday of magician, producer and inventor John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917). Maskelyne caught the performing bug early. As a child he had taught himself plate-spinning after…
Dixon Place presents DICK WHITTINGTON: An Xmas Panto for NYC FRIDAYS, DECEMBER 21 & 28 AND SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22 AT 7PM SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 AT 3PM Written by JENNY GREEN &#…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #275: Paul Winchell (see here for his full story). I wasn’t around for his great TV ventriloquist heyday, but I did enjoy his unmistakable v…
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…
Today is the birthday of internationally renowned spoon-bender Uri Geller (b. 1946). Psychotelekenesisist of paranormalcy? Master of the mental? A “sensitive”? Take precautions: …
She said that; I didn’t say that. SHE said that! Born this day in England in 1874, Mary Ann Webster married Thomas Bevan in 1903, and began to develop the condition known as acromegaly…
Raffael Chefalo (1885-1963) was an Italian-born illusionist who moved to the U.S. in his childhood, learning the rudiments of magic as a teenager, and breaking into American vaudeville. Acco…
The most lasting legacy of the song-and-dance-flirtation act of John Hyams (1869-1940) and Leila McIntyre (1882-1953) was their daughter Leila Hyams, a nationally famous model who later went…
Carrie Akers, the dwarf fat lady was three feet tall and weighed 300 lbs — and she was mad about it. So much so that she left P.T. Barnum after working for him only a couple of years i…
Minstrel man and magician Harry Evarts performed with most of the major cork shows and circuses of his day starting with Dr. Gilbert R. Spalding in 1847, as well as the Dan Rice show, …
It is perhaps unfair both to Edith Piaf and to France how strongly we Americans identify the two. For us, she is France’s Mickey Mouse, Marlon Brando and Elvis all rolled into on…
Today is the birthday of Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd, 1918-1980). While his records were not big national hits, his rhumba and Cuban-inflected brand of New Orleans rhthym and blue…
Today is the birthday of Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-1983). Like Gielgud (but unlike, say. Olivier), I tend to picture him primarily in old age. This is because he was very present as a sc…
