11,919 stories by "Trav S.d."
Just got word that one of our few living vaudevilians, Star of Vaudeville #773 John Calvert has passed on at the age of 102. The Indiana native was inspired to take up magic by a boyhood tri…
Today is the birthday of Al Capp (1909-1979), genius behind the long-running comic strip Li’l Abner. I wanted to share two Capp-related clips today. The first you may have …
Today is the birthday of character comedian Arnold Stang (1918-2009). He started out when still a teenager in radio (with that voice, who’d have guessed?) In the 50s he was a reg…
Originally posted in 2010 Ed Sullivan (born this day in 1901) is the primary preservationist of vaudeville and its aesthetics into the post-vaudeville era, keeping old school variety shows b…
Sunday, September 29 (following 2pm matinee performance) Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor The Kellys of Vaudeville Following the matinee performance of George Kelly's Phil…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Illusionists, PLUGS Tagged: Cardone, Joe the Shark, R Bar, Sharkbite Sideshow
Originally posted in 2010. When I was about four or five years old, my dad brought us to a company picnic that featured a funny magician and puppeteer to entertain the children. For some…
Originally posted in 2009 Aside from being a great magician, Blackstone is noteworthy for bridging the gap between the classical age of magic at the beginning of this century, and the televi…
Today is the birthday of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriter Vincent Youmans (1898-1946). The privileged son of a prosperous hat manufacturer, he attended Yale briefly then worked on Wall Str…
Originally posted in 2011 Ella Shields (born this day in 1879) was a male impersonator and a rare American export to the British music halls. A Baltimore native she started out in a sister a…
Originally posted in 2010 Born this day (according to some, including himself) circa 1867-1871, cartoonist Winsor McCay is much revered today for his highly whimsical, dreamlike comic strips…
Not-So-Tough Guy Raft Dancing with Carol Lombard Originally posted in 2010. Like fellow Hollywood tough guy James Cagney, George Raft started out as a hoofer. And before that? Let…
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great George Gershwin (1898-1937). Surprisingly, Gershwin’s own career bypassed vaudeville (our usual subject on this blog) almos…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: New York Burlesque Festival
Today is the birthday of the great radio singer Vaughn DeLeath (Leonore Vonderleith, 1896-1943). Plus-sized DeLeath dropped out of Mills College in the 1910s to sing professionally in vaudev…
Wednesday, September 25, 7pm Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch (Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn) Vitagraph: Brooklyn’s Own Movie Studio In the early years of cinema, Brooklyn (Midwood…
Leaping Dog acts were all the rage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the best of the lot was said to be Meehan’s Leaping Dogs. I find many references to them an…
Today is the birthday of the great dancer Harriet Hoctor (1905-1977). A native of rural Hoosick Falls, New York, at age 12 she was sent to New York City to live and study with a Russian ball…
Today is the birthday of pathbreaking black comedian Spencer Bell (1887-1935). Originally from Lexington, Kentucky, Bell started out in minstrel shows and vaudeville before breaking into pic…
Today is the birthday of the late Anthony Newley (1931-1999). I have no idea why I’m writing about him today apart from the fact that he had an interesting career, and helped perpetuat…
Today is the birthday of blues legend Lemon Henry “Blind Lemon” Jefferson (1893-1929). Born blind to a sharecropping family in East Texas, Jefferson learned to play in his teens,…
Re-posted from earlier this year in honor of Fitzgerald’s birthday today. I risked the fate of Myrtle Wilson this morning as I walked down the street re-reading The Great Gatsby…
Today is the birthday of the great puppeteer and impresario Jim Henson (1936-1990). As I’ve often said, he is someone who ought to be included amongst the New Vaudevillians; he is of t…
Today is the birthday of the great juggler Lester “Larry” Weeks (b. 1919). Weeks is one of the very few bridges between the original vaudeville business and the phenomenon of …
Though I ended my monthly column for the Community Media papers a few months back, I have been keeping a hand in with the occasional feature, and, as of today, the futuristic medium known as…
