11,890 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of Berta Beeson (Herbert “Slats” Beeson, 1899-1969). Billed as the Julian Eltinge of the Wire, Beeson was a cross-dressing tightrope walker. It is not known…
Today is the birthday of the great Hollywood film director John Ford (John Feeney, 1894-1973). Ford is too large a topic for a single blogpost. I’ve done a few smaller ones on him to d…
Jules Bledsoe (Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe, 1897-1943), was an operatic baritone, one of the first African Americans to gain acclaim on the American stage. Much like Paul Robeson, in additio…
Today is the birthday of the great American humorist S.J. Perelman (1904-1979): see my original essay on him here. One of the perks of having written a popular book is that you develop many …
A reader sent me this picture today, and it made my day. It seems to symbolize where I am at the moment. It’s a New Year, I’m starting my second half-century, getting married soo…
Sam Hague (1828-1901), was one of the first impresarios to present African American performers onstage in the United States. A native of Sheffield, England, Hague started out as a clog dance…
Today is the birthday of Charles F. “Zit” Zittel (1877- 1943) Long forgotten today, during the vaudeville era, Zit was thought of as one of the principal competitors of Variet…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Music, PLUGS Tagged: BROOKLYN, music, The Grand Victory
Today is the birthday of baby-blue eyed, Method acting, cinematic charmer Paul Newman (1925-2008). We thought we would mark the day with a look at several of his western pictures: The Left H…
Being snowed in today and all, I took the opportunity to do a little busy work, and wound up entering all my year’s expense receipts into a spreadsheet in preparation for my tax return…
My friend the broadcast journalist, comedy buff and once and future Woody Allen impersonator Barry Mitchell is a sharing sharer. Though there are many aspirants I would imagine to the mantle…
We had a great time last night at the Actor’s Fund’s tribute in honor of Broadway Producers Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley in the upstairs event space at Sardi’s. The ev…
Today is the birthday of the great Ann Sothern (Harriet Arlene Lake, 1909-2001). Sothern didn’t appear in vaudeville, which is why we haven’t done a post on her yet. But she had …
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Vaudeville etc., Women Tagged: BROOKLYN, Bushwick, Cobra Club, Force Majeure, Lady Weirdo, Tanya Solomon, vaudeville
Today is the birthday of Sylvester Schaffer (1885-1949). Schaffer was a second generation star of the Berlin variety stage. His father was the Austrian-Bohemian juggler and painter George Sy…
Today is the birthday of the one and only Merwyn Bogue (1908-1994), better known by his professional name Ish Kabibble. What a mysterious thing is this Ish Kabibble — old time show …
Today is the birthday of Minnie Dupree (1875-1947). Dupree was a star of the old melodrama stage who’d acted with such figures as William Gillette, Nat Goodwin and Richard Mansfield. I…
Today is the birthday of the great 19th century libertarian philosopher Lysander Spooner (1808-1887). Born onto a Massachusetts farm, Spooner studied to become a lawyer and then proceeded…
Got a press release in my e-mail box a couple of days ago from Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus announcing that they have moved up the retirement of all their elephants from 2018 t…
We were in a doc-watching mood the other night, yet not in the mood for anything  or time-consuming or heavy. Thus, much in the same way as when you’re looking for something for som…
E’ vero! I came across this delightful information yesterday when writing up my eulogy of Dan Haggerty of tv’s The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.  As I wrote yesterday, t…
This post debuts today for obvious reasons: the passing yesterday of Dan Haggerty, best known for his screen role as Grizzly Adams. First thing you should know off the bat: Grizzly Adams …
I have found that there are certain cultural figures who loom so large (at least in my personal world) that I can’t just do a single definitive blog entry on them as I have tried to do…
July 22 of this year will mark the 50th anniversary of the seminal 1966 album John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. The album had been recorded in March of that year; th…
Filed under: Bowery, Classical, Contemporary Variety, Music, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: 10 year anniversary, benefit, Freddy's Bar, Opera on Tap
