11,514 stories by "Trav S.D."
You see? Just like Milton Berle and Bob Hope, Brooke Shields (b. 1965) started out as a Charlie Chaplin impersonator. In this photo she's about five, but then she went and dressed like The L…
BOTD clarinetist and big band leader Benny Goodman (Benjamin Goodman, 1909-1986). The son of Jewish immigrants, Goodman grew up in Chicago, soaking up the jazz music that was only then begin…
The great Bohemian whatsit known as Harry Smith was born 100 years ago today (1923-1991). When Smith passed away, over 30 years ago now, I recall reading an in depth portrait of him in perha…
Today we treat of two separate but very much related topics of roughly equal obscurity. I can't recall which one I learned about first, but we start with comedienne Donna Jean Young (1936-20…
Today is the birthday of Tony Pastor, Father of Vaudeville, which I am henceforth and unilaterally declaring to be National Vaudeville Day. I hope you will join me in observing it going forw…
Zelda Rubinstein (1933-2010) would have been 90 today, and the reason she's not around to celebrate it is the same reason we know about her at all, she suffered from a pituitary condition th…
This wants to be a much longer think-piece, but it'll be weeks until I can work such a thing into my schedule. But rather than let this time sensitive bulletin fester, we simplify this into …
Henry Kissinger turned 100 today, and I was one of the millions bemoaning the fact that death has taken Tina Turner and not that repulsive old baby murderer. I was going to do a post today o…
Coming June 1: the midway history I didn't know I needed, Nathan Wakefield, The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek, Snake eaters, Human Ostriches and Other Extreme Entertainers. Wakefield ma…
Today is Leslie Uggams' 80th birthday and I hope you will forgive the joke I invariably think of when I see her name, which is "Would Wes-wee wike a wittoo 'uggams?" If you're done throwing …
As we pen these words it is the 80th birthday of actor Gary Burghoff (b.1943), known almost exclusively for playing the character of "Radar" O'Reilley in both the film and television show M*…
This is a tawdry tidbit well known to Laurel and Hardy fans, but not to the general reader: prior to his four legal marriages and prior to his screen teaming with Oliver Hardy, a woman named…
We've many an occasion to mention Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers (1910-1986) on this blog, but unconscionably our only post dedicated to him to date has been been very narrowly focused …
Here's a forgotten star closer to our own time. When I was a kid in the '70s Michael Sarazin (1940-2011) was everywhere, in all kinds of major screen projects with top actors, and for all th…
Very much ahead of his time was Arthur Cravan (Fabian Avenarius Lloyd; 1887-1918) a hoaxer, boxer, Dada artist, critic performer, poet, adventurer and nephew of Oscar Wilde. One reads …
Not being a baby boomer, I was unaware of Rick Jason's most famous role and learned about him in the most unlikely was possible " I got interested in investigating who he was after seeing hi…
Classic comedy fans have reason to take note of the name Patricia Ellis (Patricia O'Brien, 1916-1970). She appears opposite Joe E. Brown in Elmer the Great (1933), The Circus Clown (1934) an…
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the Marx Brothers' first Broadway show I'll Say She Is, which we revived nine years ago in the context of an entire Marx Brothers festival produced by moi…
All honor and deference to British stage and screen anomaly Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes, 1936-2016). We first became aware of her when she sashayed into the middle of Satan in High Heels (1962)…
May 18 is International Museum Day, which I'm certain is not intended to celebrate the kind of dime museums I normally write about here, but allow me to expand the day's purpose. I've also w…
Last year, Dwayne Hickman (1934-2022) made the symbolic gesture of dying on Bob Denver's birthday. This will mean nothing to all but the elderly. I'm only aware of The Many Loves of Dobie Gi…
BOTD 50 years ago, Matthew McGrory (1973-2005), certified by the Guinness Book of World Records to have been the tallest professional actor in its annals (7′ 6″). Sadly, as you s…
It's been over a year since Bob Saget's (1956-2022) sudden and bewildering passing, so I hope it's not "too soon" (to use a phrase that bedeviled his professional compadres Gilbert Gottfried…
In keeping with today's theme of Tin Pan Alley tunes, a wanna make a little plug for the new CD, Chip Deffaa's Broadway and Vaudeville Legends. Back when I first started producing vaudeville…
Today we invite you to join our friends of the British Music Hall Society in celebrating British Music Hall & Variety Day. How can you do this? Why, you could share your favorite relevan…
