11,851 stories by "Trav S.d."
A brief memoriam to movie and tv actress Brenda Benet (Brenda Benet Nelson, 1945-1982). Benet wasn't even 20 when her dance skills and dark beauty got her a tidal wave of roles, usually in y…
We don't endorse the depiction above; it was the costume of John Lester Johnson (1893-1968) in the Our Gang short The Kid from Borneo (1933). Prior to this (1912-29), Johnson had been a pro …
It is with the utmost delight that I report the new release of Uncrank Productions' DVD Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies. Edward Everett Horton has many fans among the classic film c…
As I write this, it is at once the birthday of "Hebrew" comedian Nat Carr (1886-1944), and the fourth anniversary of Trump's Nazi rally in Charlottesville. If you're one of the "why must you…
Loew's State, located in Times Square, was considered by many to be the "last vaudeville house", as it was still going into the mid-late 1940s. August 29 will mark 100 years since it opened.…
Sometimes I think a forgettable professional name is all that prevent some public figures from achieving a lasting place in the popular memory. Such might be the case with regards to Jean Pa…
Gorgeous, classy, somewhat nondescript Martha Hyer (1924-2014) was in some major films, usually as second female lead, and was even nominated for an Oscar, but naturally the thing that makes…
Robert Aldrich (1918-1983) might seem an odd director for the creator of this blog to have a close affinity with. After all, comedy and vaudeville are our abiding obsessions; whereas Aldrich…
This post is manifestly NOT for Baby Boomers, who ostensibly will not require it and will probably find it laughable. But I am of Generation X, and grew up during that bewildering age (the 1…
An outsider at the center, that is the contradiction of Nicholas Ray (Raymond Nicholas Kienzie Jr, 1911-1979), who bridged art forms, generations, and even nations (I'm looking at you, Franc…
You could well be forgiven for assuming that the appearance by John "Bunny" Breckinridge (1903-96) as the alien commander in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) was the man's only claim…
How delightful it was, upon working on my recent post about lip sync pioneer Dotty Mack, that William B. Williams (1923-86) was a real person. John Candy played a character by that name on S…
Having had numerous occasions to mention British-American actor Reginald Owen (1887-1972) on this site, we thought that more than ample time had elapsed to make it requisite for us to sketch…
I have long been intrigued by, and resistent to, the exclusion of John Huston (1906-1987) by the auteur theorists (Bazin, Truffaut, Sarris, etc) from their sacrosanct canon of cinematic sain…
Here's a gent you surely know without knowing: Joseph Calleia (Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, 1897-1975). Calleia was never a top star, but he played some key roles in …
I am certain that it was her performance as "the Countess" in WC Fields' You're Telling Me (1934) that made me first sit up and take notice of the gorgeous Adrienne Ames (Ruth Adrienne McClu…
True comedy film auteurs have been so rare since the 1930s (NOT hyperbole) that the loss of any one of them, be it through their own misdeeds or some other cause, can only be regarded as a m…
Beyond the fact that he existed, and what his act consisted of, little is known of Major Zamora. He was a Little Person, who claimed to be "Triple Jointed". His height was 32 inches and his …
For half a tic I thought I'd already done something on The Amazing Blondini (Michael Costello, 1922-1996), but that's just because his stage is an ingenious mash-up of Blondin and Houdini. B…
Yes, it's true! Actor, writer and comedian Taylor Negron (Brad Stephen Negron, 1957-2015) came to one my shows. It was Dick Zigun's Dead End Dummy at Coney Island, USA, in October, 2014. He …
A few fleeting fragments on the equally fleeting career of Bonnie (sometimes Bonny) Bonnell (Marion Wright Bonnell, 1905-1964). Bonnell is best (I think we can get away with saying exclusive…
Today we sprinkle a little Holy Water on comedian Pat Cooper (Pasquale Caputo, b. 1929). I've seen it expressed that Cooper "often" uses his Italian American identity in his act. That's pret…
A rare but deserved plug for a book besides ones of my own this morning and that's Steve Massa's Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy, the most authoritive and wide-ranging resource o…
I am a huge fan of midwestern authors and poets from a century and more ago, guys like Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Sherwood Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters, Vachel Lindsay, George Ade, and o…
Of all the priceless lives lost to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, on my personal short list of those whose deaths were a blow to American film culture was writer-director Colin Higgins (194…
