11,893 stories by "Trav S.d."
Edward Hastings Ford (1887-1970) was a vaudeville comedian who later went on to even greater fame in radio. References to the Brooklyn-born Ford’s stage career can be found as early as…
I’ve been attending the Big Apple Circus nearly every season for 20 years now…and lately every time I go I feel like the show I’ve just seen was the best ever. I’ve w…
a two day celebration of movies, madness, special guests and live performance Source: The Marx Brothers Weekend Festival of BritainFiled under: Uncategorized
Today is the birthday of the great Edward G. Robinson (Emanuel Goldenberg, 1893-1973). Unlike his fellow Hollywood tough guys James Cagney and George Raft, Robinson did not start out in vaud…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, PLUGS, Uncategorized Tagged: Cobra Club, Flatbush, Force Majeur, Tanya Solomon
Filed under: Burlesk, Christmas, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Angie Pontani, burklesque, Burlesque-a-Pades, Le Poisson Rouge, Sleigh Ride
This past weekend saw the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles album Rubber Soul; yesterday was the 35th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Today finds me…catching up.…
Tomorrow at 10:15am (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Raoul Walsh’s Along the Great Divide (1951). In this black and white western Marshall Kirk Douglas and his men…
Today is the birthday of Heywood Broun (1888-1939). Like so many unfortunates, he is today chiefly remembered today for who he sat and ate lunch with, rather than the things he actually did.…
Today marks the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The ripples of that event, large and small, touched millions. In the years of World War Two, millions lost their lives, th…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy Getting Acquainted, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Though Charlie is at the helm and the titular star of t…
I miss David Rakoff, and his posthumously released The Uncollected David Rakoff just makes me miss him more. I purchased it on the pub. date (late October) — it’s a measure…
Today is the birthday of Grace Moore, “The Tennessee Nightingale” (Mary Willie Grace Moore, 1898-1947). Originally from Knoxville, Moore briefly attended Ward-Belmont College in …
Just a few words of appreciation for the late Robert Loggia, who passed away yesterday at the age of 85.  The first word that popped into my head when I heard he had passed was irrepla…
Sunday, December 6 at 11am at New York’s Film Forum: Harold Lloyd’s classic feature length silent comedy The Freshman (1925). The Freshman is up there with Safety …
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Christmas, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Uncategorized Tagged: burlesque, Christmas Carnivale, The Commons
Today is the birthday of film director Lloyd Bacon (1889-1955). Bacon was second generation show biz; his father was the actor Frank Bacon, today best known for co-authoring and starring in …
Tonight and tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies is turning out some heavy Frank Sinatra rotation. There’s lots I could write about here (Dirty Dingus McGee, anyone?) but I would be re…
We’d say we are excited for our friend Molly Crabapple, but she doesn’t need our excitement. She is now officially an international global force of nature. Some people just tap i…
This may shock you, but so be it. By inclination, I’m not a preservationist, at least not a radical one, really about anything. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that I have a t…
Yes — I am perhaps TOO excited to report that tonight Turner Classic Movies will be showing four “Ma and Pa Kettle” comedies. These rural comedies starring Percy Kilbride a…
Here’s irony for ya — the motive force behind Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008, the major exhibition of Coney Island inspired art now ensconced at the Br…
Today is the birthday of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (1835-1910). He’s an important writer for me in many ways, as he is for everybody, though I couldn’t call him my very f…
I’m wishing all YOU Scotsmen a happy St. Andrew’s Day because, well, after a lifetime of thinking myself pretty darn Scottish, I have learned otherwise. The “S” in &#…
Some charming Thanksgiving cartoons by my first cousin thrice removed: Filed under: AMERICANA, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, Thanksgiving, VISUAL ART Tagged: cartoons…
