11,923 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today is the birthday of Laddie Cliff (Clifford Perry, 1891-1937). A native of Bristol, England, he began performing at the age of six. dancing in a minstrel show, and subsequently became kn…
Today is the birthday of concert violinist David Rubinoff (1897-1986). Born in what is now Belarus, he studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Warsaw, and was brought to the U.S,. by V…
Today is the birthday of the great libertarian pundit, original thinker, humorist, author, critic and journalist H.L. Mencken, a.k.a. “The Sage of Baltimore” (1880-1956). Mencken…
Originally posted in 2010. My opinion of him has somewhat softened since then, having seen some more of his work… During my recent sojourn at Slapsticon, I saw an obscure Hal Roa…
Originally published in 2011 M. Chevalier was never in American vaudeville but he deserves an honorary nod here due to his origins in French music hall and his success as an American recordi…
Today is the birthday of Alice Lake (1895-1967). Originally from Brooklyn, Lake started out as a dancer and toured the Keith circuit with a one act play called “The Bobbed-hair Bandit&…
On 9-11, I remember watching live local news coverage with a television reporter parked out in front of St. Vincent’s Hospital, where a small army of volunteer doctors, nurses. EMTs, e…
How little do we dream on these sere days when clarity above all seems within our grasp that the shadows have crept past the noon mark and that we have entered the twilight month the dusk of…
Adapted from a post published earlier this year. Sometime in 2001, I was working at the New-York Historical Society in the fundraising department (I had not yet switched to public relations)…
     3LD Arts & Technology Center, the closest theatre to Ground Zero Adapted from a 2011 post. On September 11, 2001 I was an Affiliated Writing Fellow at Amer…
As I always try to do, I mark this day with a number of tributes:  here’s another. My boss Philip K. Howard is a well-known political advocate, book author, pundit, tv talking…
Originally posted in 2011 “When I see three balls, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk” — Philippe Petit In the midst of our solemn reflection of the thousands of acts …
Originally published in 2011 There actually is one (a 9-11 story with a vaudeville angle, that is). When I came across the story (stories, actually) of William Rodriguez while research…
Happy birthday to Cashel Byron Stewart, an infant who is now big enough to vote, serve in the military,and carry out every other adult function except drink alcohol, which ironically is one …
Today is the most commonly accepted birthday for the muumuu-wearing microcephalic sideshow performer Schlitzie (1901-1971). best known for his performance in Tod Browning’s 1932 movieÃ…
 Today is the birthday of early movie great Al St. John (1892-1963). The nephew of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, St. John started out in circuses as an acrobat and trick bicyc…
Originally posted in 2011. Most sources erroneously give the birth year for Billy Glason as 1904 or 1898, but take it from me, who actually had to do some research because no one knew th…
Tonight through tomorrow morning on Turner Classic Movies: Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd, the “Big Three” of silent comedy. Starting at 8pm Eastern, the menu will be: 8pm: KeatonR…
Where do you go when you want to re-discover your lost joy in attending live theatre, recapture your innocence, reconnect, and get back to basics? At least since 2004, I have been attending …
Today is the birthday of Arthur Freed (Arthur Grossman, 1894-1973). Born in Charleston, raised in Seattle, he launched his professional career in Chicago as a song plugger and piano player. …
Today is the birthday of Peter Seller (1926-1980), one of the great comic geniuses of the late 20th century. Sellers was a second generation performer; his parents were both music hall perfo…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release of the Keystone film Mabel’s Dramatic Career, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Sennett, Mabel Normand, and Alice Davenport. ItR…
Today is the birthday of Willie Tyler (b. 1940). While not America’s first African American ventriloquist (there have been several stretching back to the early 19th century), he has be…
Look at the head of hair on this hep cat Originally posted in 2012. Isaac Sidney Caesar (born this day in 1922) came along too late to be in vaudeville proper (hence his exclusion from t…
Today is the birthday of the Father of Country Music, James “Jimmie” Rodgers (1897-1933). A second generation railroad worker, he also performed in tent shows and vaudeville, pio…
