11,878 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today is the birthday of Margarita Carmen Cansino, a.k.a Rita Hayworth (1918-1987). A third generation member of a family of professional Spanish dancers, Rita began taking lessons at age th…
Today is the birthday of Irene Ryan (nee Jessie Irene Noblitt, 1902-1973), best known as “Granny” on The Beverly Hillbillies. Most people today don’t know she sta…
Target Margin launches their two-year lab of Yiddish plays at the Brick Theater tonight. To learn more about this fascinating project, listen to a podcast conversation with me and T…
Today is the birthday of Cozy Cole (1909-1981), rhythm man for everyone from Jelly Roll Morton to Willie Bryant to Louis Armstrong. He was a big influence on many rock drummers, and hereR…
As I’ve observed here many times over the past couple of years, we are in an interesting period of Tennessee Williams revival as indie theatre companies are rediscovering his lesser kn…
Re-posted from last year. Today is Oscar Wilde’s birthday (1854-1900). I fell under Wilde’s spell in the 1990s, so much so that I named my second son (Charles Wilde Stewart, …
To paraphrase the rap artist, at this point in time I’d like to share a few words about my libido. Working on Burlesque-A-Pades the last few weeks has caused me to do some thinking abo…
Tonight! Starring the incomparable Cherry Pitz!
Today is the birthday of Ford Lee Washington, a.k.a. “Buck” of Stars of Vaudeville #246: Buck and Bubbles. For more info on that team go here. John Bubbles is ordinarily thoug…
Today is the birthday of the great American playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) In my view he towers over (nearly) every other American playwright..because of his ambition, his restl…
Today is the birthday of the great early blues queen Victoria Spivey (1906-1976). The native Texan got her professional start as a child, singing and playing piano in movie theatres, saloons…
Today is the birthday of the great (and almost universally misunderstood)Â German philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche (1844-1900). Properly appreciated he is not the enemy of goodness, as is c…
Today is the birthday of stage and screen actress Ina Claire (nee Fagan, 1893-1988). The Washington D.C. native got her start in vaudeville as an impressionist at age 17 before breaking i…
Two weeks before Hallowe’en, you can hopefully forgive the Countess and myself for thinking an “interactive event” called “the Warehouse of Horrors” with tou…
Today is the birthday of the great American poet e.e. cummings (sic) (1894-1962). Here’s a little number he wrote when Buffalo Bill passed away: Buffalo Bill’s: defunct who used …
Today is the birthday of Eli Bowen, the Legless Acrobat (1844-1924). Bowen had feet — just no legs. Like many people born with such a condition, he developed his arms into extremely…
Today is the birthday of Harry Anderson (b. 1952). While more famous for his acting roles in the sit-coms Night Court (1984-1992)and Dave's World (1993-1997), and the tv movie version of Ste…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #244: Pert Kelton; among many other credits, she was the original Alice in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason. For the full bio on her go he…
Today is the birthday of Lenny Bruce (1925-1966). When I was 19 and 20 years old I was DEEP under the Brucean spell, enthralled by way of a handful of existing records borrowed from a friend…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #63: Lillie Langtry (for more on her and her connection to vaudeville go here). And, because you weren’t doing anything better anyway, here …
Today is Paul Simon’s birthday. While (like everybody else) I prefer him in a duo with Garfunkle, I do also like his earlier solo records, in particular this 1973 collaboration with th…
William H. Fox (ca. 1840-1915) had several phases to his career. He ran away from home as a youth in his native Kentucky to appear in circuses and early vaudeville touring units where he …
Today is the birthday of film and radio actress Irene Rich (1891-1988). The house wife and real estate broker began working as a film extra in 1918 and quickly worked her way up to substanti…
This weekend! For more details go here:Â http://parachuteconeyislandfestival.blogspot.com/
Atlas Shrugged, Part Two is being released into theatres today. I just watched Part One in preparation for this post, and I must say that it seems to me that all the reviewers who trashed it…
