Far be it from us to endorse and advocate the deadly habit of tobacco smoking, but also far be it from me to whitewash history. When I was a kid, "old Jewish comedians with cigars" was a thi…
This is my eighth post about comedian Jackie Gleason (1916-87), including an overview of his entire career, a piece on The Honeymooners, a look at his movies of the '60s, ones dedicated to t…
This tribute to lovely Hollywood actress Diane Baker (b. 1938) will be little more than a mash note, but can you blame me? Though she had studied serious acting, I think of Baker as one of t…
Today would have been George Harrison's 80th birthday, and I've realized that out of my 50 or so Beatle related posts, Harrison is the one who has gotten the least attention here. At some lo…
Mothers-in-law are famous fodder for Borscht Belt jokes, but I had exceedingly good luck with both of mine. Ironically I lost my second one first, just when I was getting to know her, but af…
I'm pretty sure I learned about impressionist Arthur Blake (1914-1985) by virtue of the fact that he was performing at the Cocoanut Grove on the night of the famous 1942 fire. He is not to b…
Many folks I admire attended my talk at the Lambs last week; but I feel privileged to have gotten to know one of them a good deal better in the days since then. And I wish I'd done so sooner…
The above is far from a representative photo of Musidora (Jeanne Roques, 1889-1957), but I knew it would appeal to lovers of music hall and drag. History remembers Musidora best as the origi…
Presidents Day notwithstanding, February 22 is the actual birthday of George Washington. Washington (like Lincoln) was once once worshipped in this country with a fervor 21st century people …
A wink and a nod today on behalf of magician and mentalist Theodore "Ted" Annemann (Theodore Squires, 1907-1942). Like many of his era, Annemann continues to exert an influence upon the worl…
It takes being a biographical blogger to know how common some surnames are in certain fields, and there are a LOT of actors named Daly, Daily or Daley: Augustin Daly, Arnold Daly, Dan Daly (…
A few words of acknowledgment today on screen actor actor Wheeler Oakman (Vivian Eichelberger, 1890-1949), who appeared in nearly 300 films over a veritable half-century. Based upon his give…
20 years ago today (February 20, 2003) there occurred one of the worst nightclub fires in American history. It's relatively recent history for me to be covering on this blog, but it's always…
February 20 was the natal day of writer Marian Spitzer Thomas (1899-1983). Spitzer was someone I really wish I'd gotten to meet, and I was thrilled to learn that my friend Mari Lyn Henry act…
We already talked a bit about Paul Terry (1887-1971) with respect to his studio's creations Mighty Mouse and The Mighty Heroes; this brief post will fill out the rest of the portrait. Terry …
When I was a kid and just learning about the Beatles, I thought Yoko Ono (b. 1933) was strictly cool, for I was just discovering art at the same time. I didn't understand why she was hated. …
If Ted can have Ted Talks, Trav can have Trav talks. The title of this post and the atmospheric lighting in the photo above may cause you to believe something creepy is afoot, but I'm deligh…
There were four show business folks I had ID'd for potentially writing about today. I decided to kick three of them down the road 'til next year, and to give all of today's attention to Dan …
Just a brief roll on the snare for Sanford Augustus "Gus" Moeller (1878-1960). When I was a kid I was in a regional drum and bugle corps with my brother (a trumpet player) and learned what i…
Having investigated many pulp and mystery authors here before, it's likely that I would have written about Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward, 1883-1959) anyway, but we had adde…
As we promised here back on George Burns' birthday, the multi-talented Burns and Allen maven Lauren Milberger and myself have recorded a special podcast conversation in celebration of the fu…
We begin this Valentine's Day with a salute to BlackJewLove! Back in October, I reported on the sad passing of Naimah Hassan, one half of the truth telling comedy duo of Epstein and Hassan. …
By my house is a wooded area where I do my walking when the weather is good. It's a nice little amenity my community offers but it does have this one little quirk. It seems like every time I…
I only just got the memo that Richard J. Anobile (1947-1923) passed away a few days ago. Classic comedy fans all know Anobile's name for a couple of reasons. The broader reason is that he au…
We became curious about Hazel Howell (1898-1965) after enjoying her prominent turn in Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box (1932), her last proper screen role. Surprisingly, she was apparently n…