11,914 stories by "Trav S.d."
 Today is the anniversary of the release date Charlie Chaplin’s last two-reel short, Pay Day (1922) Pay Day resembles another late Chaplin short A Day’s Pleasure (19…
 Hello and welcome again to Vaudephone, your one stop shopping for all the best contemporary variety acts, viewed through our patented retroscope. Today we feature the Bindlestiff …
 Today is the birthday of Jules Vernon (1867 " 1937). Vernon was an Oxford educated music hall and vaudeville performer who specialized in ventriloquism. His act consisted of him inte…
 Originally posted in 2013 The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era. This is anecdotal, but I think…
Just got the exciting news from the folks at Marxfest that a 23 second fragment of the lost silent Marx Brothers film HUMOR RISK, self-financed by the team in 1921, was discovered earlier th…
 Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of the day we share Charley Chase’s hilarious 1924 comedy for Hal Roach, April Fool. Joke shop pranks aplenty at the expense of cub re…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of Safety Last. starring Harold Lloyd (1923). Safety Last is the best known of Lloyd's features, by virtue of it containing the ico…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin Esssanay Comedy A Jitney Elopement (1915). This is one of Chaplin’s first movies with a reasonable plot; it …
In case you missed my very loud tweets this weekend, the big news at the moment is that the Divine Miss M plugged my book No Applause in this week’s edition of People Magazine. T…
Today is the birthday of Warren Beatty (b. 1937). In a career full of interesting movies, Beatty’s most outre may be 1965′s Mickey Free. Directed by Arthur Penn, this li…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Stan Laurel solo comedy Pie Eyed (1925). In the decade or so prior to his teaming with Hardy, Laurel had a great deal of diffic…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charley Chase short The Fraidy Cat (1924). Directed by Chase’s brother James Parrott, this short has a lot of similarities wit…
 Today at 5pm Eastern, Turner Classic Movies will be showing Blake Edwards’ epic-length time waster The Great Race (1965). This movie has always put a bee in my bonnet, large…
Filed under: PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Flute, Springtime Swing, Wit's End
 Today is the birthday of Marlin Perkins (1905-1986). Now that there are entire television networks devoted to nature shows, it seems quaint and humorous that our access to such programm…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Contemporary Variety, Dime Museum and Side Show, Freaks, PLUGS Tagged: Bizarre Bar, BROOKLYN, Cut Throat Freak Show
 Today is the birthday of Joseph “Joe” Coyne (1867-1941), a rare American transplant back to the Mother Country. A New York native, Coyne got his start at Niblo’s Garde…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd short Now or Never (1927), directed by Fred Newmeyer and Hal Roach. Mildred Davis plays a nanny who cares for a girl with …
 Today marks the centennial anniversary of the Charlie Chaplin Keystone comedy Cruel, Cruel Love (1914), directed by George Nichols. This movie is a little different from what we e…
 Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Harry Langdon feature Long Pants (1927), directed by Frank Capra. Long Pants is a strange film. Blooming adole…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious musical comedy Girl Crazy (1932) starring the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey. The film was adapted from the hi…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy, Ambrose’s Fury (1915), directed by Dell Henderson. The scenario: Apron-wearing, henpecked Ambrose (Mack Sw…
Today is the birthday of Harry Houdini (for my full article on this seminal variety performer go here). One lesser known fact about the Great escape Artists is that between the years 1919 an…
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of Laurel and Hardy’s classic silent short From Soup to Nuts (1928). The film was directed by Edgar Kennedy, a terrific comedian i…
Tonight at midnight on Turner Classic Movies, Harold Lloyd’s hilarious 1924 classic Girl Shy. In my opinion, Girl Shy has one of the best climaxes of any Hollywoo…
