11,797 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today a long overdue tribute to that leader among the New Vaudevillians, Avner the Eccentric (Avner the Eccentric, b. 1948). I'm quite certain I first learned about Avner from the 1988 book …
Almost everything about the real Van Johnson (Charles Van Dell Johnson, 1911-2008) is more interesting than his movie career. I've long wanted to give Van Johnson a nod here because he was a…
The heyday of Durward Kirby (1911-2000) was just a hair before my time. I heard the name as a point of cultural reference on TV shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Phyllis and Bewitched when…
It's a squeaker. I love Hacks, too, for example. I'm bound to throw in my two cents about that show, too, at some point. But if there is one program (do we say "television" any more? this sh…
Jack Collins (1918-2005), not to be confused with Jack Rollins, or a Tom Collins, was not a household name, but he was definitely a household face. People my age will know him as Mike's boss…
Our Parade of Roses growses: to Jack Rose, Harry Rose, Billy Rose, Ike Rose, Julian Rose, Broadway Danny Rose, and Max Rose, we now add Fred Rose (1898-1954). Fred Rose is basically the miss…
August 23 was Gene Kelly's birthday; as my previous post on him was a bit perfunctory (it deals mainly with his family vaudeville act The Five Kellys), I thought I'd expand his footprint her…
Tribute today to character actor Jay Novello (Michael Romero, 1904-1982). No relation to either Ivor Novello or Don Novello (since he was, as we say, a Romero), one could be forgiven for mix…
Born on August 21, Olive Blakeney (1894-1959), best known for playing Mrs. Aldrich in the Aldrich Family comedies (1942-44). Blakeney was a native of Newport, Kentucky; she received her thea…
A brief squint today at the life of stage and screen actress Virginia Hammond (Louise Shumate, 1893-1972). Hammond was born into an old Virginia Huguenot family; the original spelling of Shu…
Born 100 years ago today, the great actor William Marshall (1924-2003), best known for three pretty outre roles, that of Dr. Richard Daystrom in the 1968 Star Trek episode "The Ultimate Comp…
Born of August 18, Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Piantadosi (John Alberto Piantadosi, 1882-1955). Al Piantadosi's early career reminds me a lot of those of Irving Berlin and Jimmy Durante; at …
Yesterday was National Roller Coaster Day, and as luck would have it I had several Coney Island appointments planned that day, so I thought I would film a little greeting from the foot of th…
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the seminal sixties rock band The Fugs. Today happens to be the birthday of one of its two main founders Ed Sanders (b. 1939) and we just passed the 1…
Bernarr MacFadden (Bernard McFadden, 1868-1955) was at least twice as interesting as the most interesting person you can think of. Fame and accomplishment in one field (physical culture) led…
How perfect that the birthday of Hal Foster (1892-1982), creator of Prince Valiant, falls the day after that of Sir Walter Scott? (I wonder if Foster got Scott's books as birthday presents a…
For many of you, perhaps most, the topic of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) will be deemed the ultimate snooze. There's nothing for it, he was important. If he has fallen out of failure as lite…
The story of showgirl and stripper Honey Harlow (Harriett Jolliff, 1927-2005) is usually told from the perspective of her husband, comedian Lenny Bruce; today we place the focus primarily on…
Good news " even to me! It seems the audiobook version of my 2013 book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube has been out for two weeks, and nobody told…
Born of an August 14, the great Jazz Age figure known as Bricktop (Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, 1894-1984). Bricktop was a queer woman of color. Two colors, not just bl…
Born of an August 14, John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851-1887): gunfighter, gambler, dentist, and TB sufferer. Holliday was a classically educated son of Georgia, who got his dentistry degree i…
Born this day in 1946, Melinda Marx. Groucho's youngest child was briefly the most public of her generation of Marxes, by virtue of the fact that she was a performer who appeared in films an…
Something unprecedented happened this past weekend " I lucked into one of the hottest tickets in town. Also unprecedented: that I would want one the hottest tickets in town. But in this case…
I haven't tons to say about the English literary figure Robert Southey (1774-1843), but the fact that he was born a quarter of a millennium ago on this day seemed worth marking. Southey is i…
It's instructive to measure off anniversaries. Four years ago I wrote a piece noting the 60th anniversary of the "Birth of the Beatles". Brian Epstein began to manage them a year after that.…
