11,914 stories by "Trav S.d."
 Today is the birthday of Eugene Patton (b. 1932) better known to the world at large as “Gene, Gene, the Dancing machine”. Gene was a brief phenomenon of the late 1970s on…
Filed under: Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Wonderful Wizard of Oz Re-Imagined
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Mae West’s 1935 comedy Goin’ to Town. Goin’ to Town was Mae's first post-code feature, and it’s kind of a…
Sorry for that tiny photo — writers leave behind much smaller graphic footprints than do performers. Today is the birthday of Edgar Allan Woolf (1888-1943). Woolf was one of the best k…
Readers of this blog (indeed, any source on 19th century entertainment) will often come upon the name of the famous venue Niblo’s Garden. Some of the folks I’ve written abo…
Today marks the centennial birthday of the colossal, the stupendous, the unspeakably great low-budget cinematic impresario William Castle (1914-1977). This is a man to be celebrated. I be…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the still-popular Keystone comedy short Love, Loot and Crash (1915). People like to check this one out for two reasons. (A) It i…
 The only cooking show I ever cared a fig about was something I knew as The Cookin’ Cajun, a local New Orleans show (I think) that was broadcast nationally during the cable tv e…
 Hervé Birthday? Happy Hervday? At any rate, as if to either reaffirm or retract our last post (I can’t decide which) we write now to celebrate the late Hervé  Villechaize …
I and progeny had a great time over Easter weekend, with a day trip down to Philadelphia and a pilgrimage to a place I’d long wanted to visit, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle short The Butcher Boy (1917). This unremarkable little short is nowadays somewhat unduly enshrin…
 Today is the birthday of Lee Tung Foo (1875-1966). Born in California, Lee was a Chinese American singer in vaudeville from the mid 1890s through around 1890. Lee was formally trained, …
Huzzah! Today is the release date of the landmark new DVD release The Mishaps of Musty Suffer. “Musty Suffer” was a screen character developed by vaudeville comedian Harry…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the great Wheeler and Woolsey comedy So This is Africa (1933), directed by Eddie Cline, written by Norman Krasna. Esther Muir plays…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious Laurel and Hardy comedy Me and My Pal (1933). Hardy is a rich young executive who has worked his way all the way t…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious W.C. Fields short The Pharmacist (1933), directed by Arthur Ripley. This short, one of a handful Fields made for Mack …
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the silent Laurel and Hardy short You’re Darn Tootin’ (1928), directed by Edgar Kennedy. The “tootin’&#…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Buster Keaton feature Sherlock Jr. (1924). While it didn’t do so well at the box office in its own time, Sherlock Jr. is today…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Hal Roach feature Zenobia (1939). This is an interesting movie for all sorts of reasons. One is that it is a very late Oliver H…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Baleful Burlesque, Edward Gorey, Parkside Lounge
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of one of the funniest comedies of all time, the silent Laurel and Hardy short Big Business (1929). In Big Business  the pair are a…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Harold Lloyd’s hilarious 1924 classic Girl Shy. In my opinion, Girl Shy has one of the best climaxes ofÃ…
Today is the birthday of motion picture pioneer Sigmund Lubin (Siegmund Lubszynski, 1851-1923). originally an optometrist, he invented his own version of the movie camera/ projector apparatu…
 Today is the birthday of Sidney Lanfield (1898-1972). Lanfield was a jazz musician and comedian in vaudeville before being hired as a gag writer for silent comedies by the Fox Film Corp…
 Today marks the 100 anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy Twenty Minutes of Love. This one is notable for being the first movie Charlie had a hand in directin…
