12,167 stories from Trav S.D.
A shout out today for a mug name of Ralph Byrd (1909-52). A native of Dayton, Ohio, Byrd first toured with the Albright Players stock company, and sang with dance bands. By the early 30s, he…
Great news, shut-ins! Bear Manor Media, publishers of my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube., are slashing 25% off the sale price of all books t…
Chinese-American character actor Sammee Tong (1901-1964) was a staple of films (and later television) for three decades, normally in supporting roles as cooks, servants, houseboys, and the l…
George O'Brien (1899-1985) is best remembered today as a star of western films (especially those of John Ford), and is less remembered by mainstream vintage movie buffs. But he also starred …
Ralph Earl Madsen (1897-1948) went by many handles during his professional life: R.E., Texas, Tex, "Big Boy", "Sky High" and Mr. Longellow among them. Madsen was sometimes rendered as "Mades…
Just a few words on an obscure but interesting chap who made his mark, independent film producer Edward Finney (1903-83). An NYC native and graduate of City College, Finney was clearly the s…
Just some brief notes today on a distant cousin of mine, Barbara Hale (1922-2017). (When I say "distant" I mean our common ancestor was in 17th century Virginia. My great-grandmother Lucilla…
Some jottings on the topic of Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) from my notebook on his natal day. In concession to varying attention spans, this survey of his plays will not be strictly chronolog…
 There's an unavoidable Hollywood Babylon structure to the life and death of William Holden (William Beedle Jr, 1918-1981). Not just because of his spectacularly awful, tragic-comic deat…
Doris Dawson (1905-86) was born in the boomtown of Goldfield, Nevada two years after the discovery of a gold deposit there. As Dawson City, Yukon had been the center of the Klondike Gold Rus…
Lebanese-American actor Michael Ansara (1922-2013) is notable for many things. The ledes may be that he was married to Barbara Eden from 1958 to 1974, and that he possessed one of the …
One of Hollywood's top matinee idols during the silent era, Wallace Reid (1891-1923) is today primarily remembered as a spectacular Hollywood casualty, giving short shrift to the over 200 fi…
Hans Conried (1917-82) specialized in playing funny martinets, pedantic schoolteachers, eccentric orchestra conductors, and cartoon villains. His Germanic name, mid-Atlantic speech, and stif…
A brief sketch on dancer Anise Boyer (1914-2008) and some of her cohorts. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida this petite, baby-faced dancer was already performing in Harlem night spots li…
This just in off the transom: Jimmy Webb, former manager and buyer at the punk clothing punk Trash and Vaudeville has died at age 62. NB: this is NOT the same Jimmy Webb who wrote "Up, Up an…
Now…I could do a worshipful, respectful post about the genius of Rod Steiger (1925-2002) as a Method Actor, but, children, that has been done. By the bushelful. There's not exactly a short…
Happy birthday to our third President (1743-1826), principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and purchaser of Louisiana, among a thousand other accomplishments. Jefferson's mother…
Happy Easter! It's well timed this year, isn't it? Thanks to Spring Hay Fever I go to bed at least once a week convinced I'm going to die, and then wake up the next morning, lo and behold, I…
The name Harold Lockwood (1887-1918) might well be better remembered if the silent movie star's life hadn't been cruelly cut down at age 31. Originally from Newark, Lockwood started out acti…
Paul Douglas (Paul Douglas Fleischer, 1907-1959) was memorably cast as a cuckolded husband in Fritz Lang's adaptation of Clifford Odets' Clash by Night (1952), in which Robert Ryan beat his …
For someone who performed under three professional names, Harry Morgan (1915-2011) achieved the near impossible by becoming a household word. On stage he went by his given name Harry Brat…
Today we chiefly remember George Arliss (August George Andrews, 1868-1946) as the answer to trivia questions. He was the first Brit to receive an Oscar, as well as the earliest born to recei…
Today we give three blasts of the shotgun in salute to the late Kevin "Chuck" Connors (1921-92) and the western TV series he starred in The Rifleman (1958-63). It's no longer widely known, i…
50 years ago today, Paul McCartney issued a public statement that resulted in the break-up of the Beatles. But it needn't have. His press release, structured in the form of a self-conducted …
A hearty "Yah!" and a crack of the bullwhip today in salute to the great Hollywood actor Ward Bond (1903-1960). Raised in Nebraska and Colorado, Bond was a star of the USC football team, whi…
