11,879 stories by "Trav S.D."
As part of the lead-in to my book “Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube” (September 2012), in 2006 I founded the Mack Sennett Centennial Pr…
Today is the birthday of Karyl Norman (1896-1947). Billed as the “Creole Fashion Plate”, the female impersonator is sadly best known from the twist Groucho Marx gave his stage…
Where was I yesterday? W-w-whattaya mean? I was down at Kelsey’s Bar with the guys. (snaps) Okay, readers, I admit it! I was with ANOTHER BLOG! There. I said it. You want proof? No nee…
Rory Raven, the Rhode Island Mentalist, whom we’ve had the honor to present and wrote about here, has just proven that he’s more than just a Southeastern New England mind reader.…
Today is the birthday of the great equestrienne matriarch May Wirth (1894-1978). The product of several generations of circus folk, the Australian born Wirth began performing as a child, fir…
Ed Wynn, like so many of his fellow luminaries of the teens and twenties (Groucho Marx, George M. Cohan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc etc etc) made his home in Great Neck, Long Island. This Thur…
Sunday June 3, 2012 1:00pm The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and the Lower East Side History Project Present a Walking tour of the Yiddish Rialto with the theatre historian Cezar D…
Silent comedy aficionados are very much like baseball fans….all about the standings. They’re forever sizing up the players and ranking them. Thus….Walter Kerr, author of th…
When I read in the paper yesterday that the shooting in Seattle had been “in a coffee shop in the university part of town” my thoughts went to my one and only trip there and my t…
Today is the birthday of the Poet of Democracy. In my youth I was not crazy about him. I found him prosaic – -I was deceived by the apparent simplicity of the writing. It seemed to…
Choreographer Cori Olinghouse wants you to know about her terrific-looking new project Ghost Line: a 16mm experimental film that invokes the spaces of Vaudeville through a Dada/Surrea…
Today is the birthday of the great sleight-of-hand master Nate Leipzig (Nathan Leipziger, 1873-1939), His illusions are still studied and taught all over the world; just Google him and see. …
Today is the birthday of the incomparable Bill Robinson, a.k.a “Bojangles”. (For my full article on him, go here. It happens to be the first vaudeville article I ever wrote; the …
Three days only — opening tonight at at Pier 25 South Street Seaport… Dead upon a Wind, a Pirate Burlesque, continues the exploits of Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read…
Tonight thru June 10: Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis starring the incredible Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola, and Steel Burkhardt, in a show conceived and directe…
As we told you a few days ago, The Maestrosities, a.k.a. the Coolest Band in the World are starting a new web series and they need your help! Just one more day to go, and they are just shy o…
Today is the birthday of the great Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939). For some on his early career, including his vaudeville background go here. And for a sample of what he did best, a snippet f…
Today is the birthday of Artie Shaw, the Thinking Man’s Big Band Leader (1910-2004). The famously difficult Shaw went through 8 wives, including Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Some insig…
Today is also Harry Ritz’s birthday (full bio here). What’s that you say? Aren’t they triplets? How is Harry any different from the other two that he gets a different b…
Today is the birthday of the great Russian actress and Hollywood heartbreaker Alla Nazimova (full bio here). Here she is in her version of Camille, with Valentino as Armand Duval: To find ou…
Today is Cher’s birthday! Her first #1 solo hit majorly captured my imagination when I was a kid, although I was naturally oblivious to the sexual aspects, which I learned to appreciat…
The stars were alligned on this day to produce to of rock and roll’s greatest showmen. Pete Townsend (b. 1945) and Joey Ramone (1951-2001). In celebration, two of my favorite songs by …
