11,878 stories by "Trav S.D."
Billy K. Wells was one of the top comedy sketch writers of burlesque, vaudeville and Broadway revues. Starting out as a comedian on one of M.B. Leavitt’s shows in the 1890s, within a f…
This is part of a series inspired by the centennial anniversary of the founding of Keystone Studios. For more on the topic, look for my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacie…
This is a big day! (For me) A century ago Mack Sennett’s Keystone Pictures released its first comedy to theatres, Cohen Collects a Debt, starring Sennett, Mable Normand, Fred Mace and …
Today is the birthday of second generation vaudevillian Joe Yule Jr, better known as Mickey Rooney (Star of Vaudeville #234 — for more info on him see my article here). Here’s a …
Premiering today at 1pm in the Coney Island Film Festival: Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival. Shot between 2001 and 2010, Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival is the story of a goat f…
My completionist mania obligates me to go see this (over and above my desire to support Metropolitan Playhouse). I have read about a dozen of Maxwell Anderson’s plays (out of the 4 doz…
“Rain likely” reads the hilariously under-stated forecast. Before you know it, we are into Buster’s most famous film sequence…the brilliantly staged hurricane, culmin…
This is one in a series of posts on the hundreds of performers I have presented at the American Vaudeville Theatre . I met Josh Hartung when we were fellow cast members in Ian W. H…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #233: John Bunny, Filmdom’s First Funny Fat Man (for my full article on him go here). Here he is in the 1911 Vitagraph Film “Her Crown…
Sure, sure, the poster’s a little small. So go here, to Coneyislandfilmfestival.com! The got a full schedule, and everything!
Sorry, gang, I was asleep at the switch about this one! It opened a week ago, but it slipped through my net…it’s definitely the sort of thing we love to plug here. Hard Times is …
I was psyched to finally nab the ubiquitous actress/ musician/ clown Jennifer Harder for my recent Travesties of 2012. All the sudden her name was all over the place: she plays t…
Today is the birthday of the great actress/comedienne Anne Meara, best known as the female/ Irish/ tall half of Stiller and Meara. Stiller and Meara were part of the first generation of Seco…
“Mama” Cass Elliot (born today in 1941) is, to me, what it’s all about. There’s no doubt in my mind that if vaudeville had stayed around another 50 years, she’d…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #360, Lovey Austin. For my full article on her go here. And now here she is with her Serenaders, singing “Don’t Shake it No More…
Today is the birthday of cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin (a.k.a Star of Vaudeville #232. For my full squib on him go here) Here’s one of his oldest extant clips from 1909′s Mr.…
Like some Cold War Russian mole, burlesque likes to play a dangerous double game. The ideal burlesque show (for most of us) is both classy and dangerous. (Seedy and dangerous is for people w…
I love nothing more than checking out revivals of once-successful but long forgotten plays. They are often as illuminating about the times in which they were first produced as the “sur…
Like all the rest of the suckers, the Countess and I tuned into the premiere of the new NBC show Revolution last night, attracted by the sexy lure of apocalypse promised in the relentless ad…
Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #231 Eddie “Rochester” Anderson (for my full squib on him go here). We all know about that voice; today we celebrate his feet: To find…
Tonight at The Morgan in Bushwick. BUSHWICK BURLESQUE’s ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW … Starring their special guests . . . GIN MINSKY LEFTY LUCY FEM APPEAL FANCY FEAST and Bushwick …
A brilliant bit of pre-Halloween season programming at the Barnum museum today, starring their mummy Pa-Ib! Step Right up, Grab Your Pith Helmet and Bullwhip! Your adventure awaits  
Put That Wallet Away!  We have two tree-mendous events coming up for you this week, and they’re free, free, free! CHAIN OF FOOLS: HOW THE SILVER SCREEN WAS INVADED BY THE GREAT …
