12,202 stories from Trav S.D.
Well naturally, it’s not Elvira’s birthday, but Cassandra Peterson’s and I won’t tell ya what year that is because a gentleman never divulges. Go look it up! Â As f…
Jerry Colonna (Gerardo Luigi Colonna, 1904-1986) is a product of what I think of as “comedy’s most obnoxious era”, the 1940s, when the public seemed to have an endless appe…
Richard “Dick” Smith (Hiram Richard Smith, 1886-1937) was born on this day. Originally from Cleveland, Smith was a vaudeville comedian and an actor and director in silent comedie…
Even if Tommy Bond (1926-2005) had never played the memorable bully “Butch” in Our Gang, he would have had numerous other claims to fame over his several decades in show business…
The great character actress Almira Sessions (Almyra De Camp Sessions, 1888-1974) was born on this day. For over three decades, Sessions was an indispensable, constant presence as a bit playe…
Jackie Cooper (John Cooper, Jr., 1922-2011) is probably the most shining example of a former kid star who managed to stay on top in show business throughout his entire life. Some pretty good…
In 1990 or so I did one of my strange monologues in something called the “No Shame” festival at the Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art, on a bill with John Leguizamo and Aaron…
We promise we’re not obsessed with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, nor even going through a phase, it’s just that its star Dolly Read’s (1944) birthday is literally the day…
Opening tonight at HERE Arts Center, cakeface’s Stairway to Stardom. The official show description: “With crackling wit and startling honesty, the women of cakeface serve up a…
A brief birthday appreciation for actress/model Cynthia Myers (1950-2011). My introduction to the Toledo-born beauty came via one of my favorite movies, Russ Meyers’ Beyond the Valley …
Child star Dickie Moore (1925-2015) was born this day. I say “child star”, but actually Moore worked in show business in one capacity or another for over 80 years. Moore was not …
German-American beauty Leni Stengel (1901-1982) was born in Berlin on this day, a great niece of the opera composer Friedrich von Flotow. She appeared in two Broadway plays, Princess Tura…
Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Edgar Connor (1893-1934), started out singing and dancing for coppers on street corners ’til Cole and Johnson put him in their shows The Shoo-Fly…
The Sunday after Labor Day is designated Grandparents Day; we observe it by taking a look at ten police/ detective characters played by late-career actors to the delight of their usually equ…
Adapted from my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, released by Bear Manor Media, 100 years ago today (September 9, 1917) Harold Ll…
September 8 is the birthday of Darwood Kenneth Smith (1929-2002) a.k.a. Darwood Kaye, a.k.a. Waldo from Our Gang. Waldo stood out it in the series, for he wasn’t one of the regular…
Just a few facts about Signor Barnello (Edward A. Barnwell, 1857-1910), born on September 8. Barnello was the best known fire-eater of his day. Originally from Decatur, Illinois, he was perf…
During the silent era, Charlie Chaplin made his leading ladies from scratch, taking non-actors or aspirants with little experience and elevating them to the status of his co-stars for as lon…
Because, why the hell not, I and my friends on the Marxfest Committee (the folks who brought you Marxfest in 2014) and key cast members from our I’ll Say She Is revival, are back this …
Kenny Delmar (Kenneth Frederick Fay Howard, 1910-1984) was born on this day. Â A household word in the late 1940s, today he is known only to show biz buffs, usually as a footnote in the hi…
We are in the midst of a Close Encounters of the Third Kind re-release in celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary (though it wasn’t actually released until December). I …
On September 4 was born the 19th century actor Lewis Morrison (Morris W. Morris, 1844-1906). Morrison is interesting for all sorts of reasons but three especially: He begat a theatrical and …
Tin Pan Alley songwriter and publisher Fred Fisher (Alfred Breitenbach, 1875-1942) was born on this day. German born Breitenbach moved to the U.S. around the turn of the century, initiall…
September is the birthday of comic actress Barbara Jo Allen (Marian Barbara Henshall, 1906-1974). Partially raised in the Los Angeles area by an aunt and uncle, Allen had a most unusual pedi…
Flora Parker (1883-1950) was born on September 1. I have a special interest in this old school actress — she has the same maiden name as my grandmother! The famous actress came from Pe…
