11,851 stories by "Trav S.d."
Delighted to announce that this Thursday, March 25, I'll be the guest on The Host with the Most Toddcast with Todd Newton. Newton's an amazing show biz veteran: he was the host of various sh…
Brooklyn-bred chorus cutie Suzanne Kaaren (1912-2004) had quite a journey. As a young woman she acted with stock companies, posed as a model, and kicked in the choruses of Ziegfeld and Radio…
I have a confession to make. My fandom, even with respect to my favorite obessions, is flighty. I binge, I max out, I'm filled to the brim, and then I have to stay away for a while. It may b…
March 20 is French Language Day as declared by the United Nations, and that's no small thing around my house. Both my wife and I have been brushing up on the literal Lingua Franca as one of …
As a former Reason contributor I was delighted to see its editor Nick Gillespie on last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, although as I wrote here, Maher himself has long since worn out his…
I had already contemplated doing a thing on Hillbilly Elegy but dismissed the notion, but now that Glenn Close has been nominated for an Oscar, I thought I'd go ahead and weigh in, as I'm in…
Well, the other shoe has done gone and dropped in our little Kathryn Fuller Seeley"Jack Benny book plunder period. A month ago we took Jack's birthday as occasion to plug her scholarly tome …
Five: that's roughly the number of minutes I was able to stand Will Ferrell's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). "No man this age should ever waste his life doing this" …
Ted Adams (Richard Theodore Adams, 1890-1973) had an unusual background for a guy who played villains in B movie westerns for decades. He was "born in a trunk" to a pair of traveling vaudevi…
A few fragments today on actress/ playwright/producer Louise Carter (1875-1975), not to be confused with Mrs. Leslie Carter. I became aware of Louise Carter through her entertaining playing …
Learning that big band leader and trumpet player Harry James (1916-1983) started out in circuses is like meat and drink (or rather, popcorn and lemonade) to me. James' parents were with the …
Another post in honor of the National Day of Hungary. This post concerns the three Matina Brothers, a trio of siblings born in Hungary, who moved to the U.S. in 1915 and were later naturaliz…
St. Patrick's Day draw near, an appropriate birthday week for the actor George Brent (George Nolan, 1904-1979). Brent wasn't the most memorable fellow, being just one of a slew of Hollywood'…
A brief salute to impresario Morris Gest (Moishe Gershnowitz, 1875-1942). Born in Lithuania, Gest came to the U.S. at the age of 12, initially living in Boston, where he worked at local carn…
March 15 is the National Day of Hungary. This post comes about as result of my recent viewing of Peter Medak's The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Medak's 2018 exercise in self-flagellation about th…
On March 14, 1891, 11 Italian Americans were lynched by a mob of thousands of (presumably Anglo- and Franco-American) men in the streets of New Orleans. The mob had forced their way into a j…
March 13 was the natal dal of big bandleader Sammy Kaye (Samuel Zarnocay, 1910-1987). Kaye played clarinet and sax, and started his first band Sammy's Hot Peppers in his small town Ohio high…
Born 100 years ago on this day: Abraham "Al" Jaffee (b. 1921), creator of the Mad Magazine "fold-in", as well as other regular features in Mad, such as as "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions…
Hey Queens fans, boosters, and inhabitants! This weeks' Queens Gazette features an interview with yours truly. Queens is the closest NYC borough to me these days geographically, so naturally…
Back in the day, there were at least four or five actresses running around calling themselves "Florence Lee". Their credits are all run together on the major databases. Someone ought to take…
Jessie Matthews (1907-1981) was a major British stage and screen star of the 20th century, who also worked in the States. Raised in poor circumstances, Matthews made her professional debut a…
Tomorrow, March 11, at 7:30pm, The Smith Center for the Arts is presenting a virtual discussion of the silent film  WITHIN OUR GATES (1920), produced and directed by the pathbreakin…
Eddie Foy's birthday seems the fitting time to let you know that next Wednesday, March 17 at 7pm, I'll be after giving a free illustrated talk on the Irish in vaudeville and film comedy. As …
This frivolous little post came about because I recently re-watched the original Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) and was reminded of how crazy I was about the theme song to that movie when it …
Little is known about female magician Mademoiselle Margo (1889-1936) but that she was from Irish and her period of greatest professional activity was primarily 1911-1917. Having begun as an …
