12,165 stories from Trav S.D.
Just got the news from TMZ that African American comic actor Raymond Allen (b. 1929) has passed on. From Kansas City, Missouri, Allen garnered his first film credit at the young age of 17…
In a little over a week we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. In observation of that…
It turns out that instead of being dead, as any reasonable person might have assumed, Eric Bentley was merely 103 years old! Older even than Shaw at the time of his passing. But now Bentley …
The title of this post derives from the fact that it is not about the most important and most criminal Paul Kelly (and shame on you if you never heard of him). The original "Paul Kelly" (bor…
As far as I'm concerned, the jury is out on Dustin Hoffman's 2017 sexual misconduct allegations, and if they are true, I think we can safely talk about his work as an actor as an independent…
This being International Cat Day, and a Saturday Morning to boot, I thought I'd give a brief nod to an important animated Saturday morning kids show of my nonage, Josie and the Pussycats.…
A mash note today to comic actress Nita Talbot (Anita Sokol, b. 1930). Being of a certain age, I know Talbot chiefly from what might be called her "middle period". I almost certainly first s…
Pete Hampton (1871-1916) was a ground-breaking African American singer, actor, harmonica player and banjoist from Bowling Green, Kentucky. After several years with medicine shows, all-black …
Speak of the devil! I was only just expressing the need for more attention paid to W.C. Fields' silent pictures in my review of Arthur Wertheim's most recent book on the life and art of t…
The first week in August is always National Clown Week, first inaugurated crazily enough by President Richard Nixon in 1971. Be that as it may, I'll be honoring the day tomorrow with a speci…
I became intrigued with Laura Lee (1910-1981) on account of her fetching appearance in three Joe E. Brown comedies, all made in 1930: Top Speed, Maybe It's Love, and Going Wild. IMDB to the …
If you're like me, your impression of singer and songwriter Paul Anka (b. 1941) went something like this: "Couple of hits in the fifties, couple of hits in the seventies, then nostalgi…
Some brief remembrance today for Wilbur Mack (George Frear Runyon, 1873-1964) and his two wives/ vaudeville partners Nella Walker (1886-1971) and Gertrude Purdy. Mack was from Binghamton…
The photo above indicates the kind of roles Patsy O'Byrne (1883-1968) was known for playing: biddies, scolds, gossips, neighbor ladies, and very often cooks and maids. Her beginnings are mur…
Disinfect your seats, Old School is in Session! But first a reminder that this Thurs.  July 30 at 7:30pm (Eastern) we have Trav S.D.'s History of Drag in Vaudeville in Dixon Place's…
It is with heavy heart that I report the permanent closure of Chumley's bar, an NYC institution, just months shy of its centennial anniversary. Chumleys's is just the latest in a series of b…
I have had some three dozen occasions to mention character actor Keenan Wynn (1916-1986) on this blog, and I've even delivered a talk about him, but I've not given him his own post on Tra…
Half-Irish, half-Albanian appears to be an impeccable genetic cocktail. There's only two I know about, and both are pretty impressive. One is my wife. The other is the late Regis Philbin, wh…
Today, some love for the Second City, on the anniversary of Chicago's worst disaster ever in terms of loss of life. You might think such stories out of our wheelhouse, but as with similar…
Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016) was born into show business, the daughter of vaudeville, stage and screen veterans Carter DeHaven and Flora Parker. Carter DeHaven was assistant director on…
I was half-fixin' to do a post on this delightful discovery already, but kindred spirit Farran Nehme's endorsement of the film this morning sealed the deal. I caught Blondie of the FolliesÂ…
A brief celebration today of Arthur Marx (1921-2011), best known and most accomplished of any of the Marx Brothers' offspring. Arthur was Groucho's oldest child (named after Harpo), and it s…
We got a much appreciated morale boost over the weekend, when the Silent Clowns guys Ben Model and Steve Massa gave our book Chain of Fools a wonderful endorsement on their online show Th…
Thank you, Pop Haydn, for reminding me about pathbreaking performer Richard Potter (1783-1835), whom I'd first encountered in books like Conjure Times: Black Magicians in America by Jim Hask…
I could be writing about Dion and the Belmonts this morning, but my wife has just done this wonderful portrait of me, and I just came across a great paragraph which provides a partial explan…
