11,877 stories by "Trav S.D."
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 Jonathan R. Bass (1830-1892). Bass was one of a sub-branch of exhibited peoples known as “ossified men”. Afllicted with rheumatism since childhood, he…
Today is the birthday of Eva Puck (1892-1979). Through most of her childhood and some of her young adulthood she was in a vaudeville two-act with her brother, known variously as “Puck …
Today is the birthday of Sealo, the Seal Boy (1899-1980). It is unknown technically what condition he suffered from to produce his flipper-like appendages; he was born a half century …
Today is the birthday of Richiardi, Jr. (Aldo Izquierdo, 19243-1985), the son of magician Richiardi the Great. Of Peruvian descent, his claim to fame was horrific special effects (e.g…
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…
P.T. Selbit (1881-1938) was the first magician to saw a woman in half. His actual name was Perry Thomas Tibbles (he arrived at his stage name by spelling that backwards and taking out a &…
Benny Ryan is best known today as a George Burns anecdote; he was his rival for Gracie’s hand, and by all accounts she didn’t make it easy for either one of them. Ironically B…
Today is the birthday of William Henry Pratt (1887-1969), a.k.a Boris Karloff. A native of Enfield, England, he dropped out of college in 1909 to follow his dream of becoming an actor, worki…
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…
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…
Tomorrow is the nationwide release day for the new movie Hitchcock. Presumably in recognition of that fact, tomorrow all morning TCM is running a bunch of his films. Here’s the schedul…
Today is the birthday of Terry Gilliam (b. 1940). I think he is one of our greatest film-makers (though he stops just short of his potential), which is why of course he rarely seems a…
Today is the birthday of the great American songwriter Howard Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael (1899-1981), responsible for “Stardust”, “Skylark”, “Georg…
Today is the birthday of Jacob Cohen, a.k.a. Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004). The son of vaudeville comedian Phil Roy (Philip Cohen), he began writing jokes for other comedians as a teenager,…
Today is the birthday of jazz tenor saxophonist and bebop pioneer Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969). Given the subject matter, I thought I’d hold this post for the night owls. Have a …
Today is the birthday of Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778): champion everywhere of freedom: of speech, of religion, of trade, etc etc. Though he wrote histor…
Today is the birthday of Rene Magritte (1898-1967). If he is not already the favorite painter of clowns everywhere, I nominate him for that position, by virtue of the strain of the ab…
Today is the birthday of Goldie Hawn (b. 1945). That is actually her real name. A lot of people make the erroneous assumption (at least I did) that she was just a go-go dancer who was hired …
They grow ‘em cool in New Orleans but they also grow ‘em weird. (That “but” is for your benefit. If it ain’t weird, I ain’t interested). Dr. John (born Ma…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #81, Eleanor Powell (for my full article on her go here). Here is what purports to be a clip of her live nightclub act: To find out more about the…
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 Francis Leon (b. Francis Patrick Glassey, 1844-1883), one of America’s first female impersonators. Trained as an operatic boy soprano, he went on the minstrel …
Today is the birthday of Little Dickie Smothers (born 1939). I often think of the act he did with his brother Tommy (born 1937) as the last American comedy team with a wide national exposure…
Today is the birthday of Judy Canova (1913-1983). A Florida native, she began her career in vaudeville in a family act with her bother and sister, as the Three Georgia Crackers (they were ac…
