12,223 stories from Trav S.D.
Today is the 101st birthday of Professor Irwin Corey! He’s still alive! I guess he’s still waiting for Socialism. Corey’s is essentially a vaudeville act, although he in…
Today is the birthday of Joe E. Brown — for more on this comedian’s early career see my full bio here. He’s not to everybody’s tastes. Many people I know and respect …
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the classic W.C. Fields comedy short The Barber Shop (1933). Based on a sketch Fields had performed in Earl Carroll’s Vanities,…
On the whimiest of whims the Mad Marchioness and I recently spent a couple of days in Salem Massachusetts, a jaunt we’d long discussed but through inertia kept deferring. The city is o…
Today is the birthday of Fleming W. Ackerman (1863-1946), known professionally and informally as Colonel Speck. Amazing, but true, he shares the same birthday with General Grant, Jr! Someone…
Today is the birthday of Donald Crisp (1882-1974). For ages I’ve had difficulty reconciling two divergent facts. One is the one most classic film fans know — Donald Crisp way a p…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe Arbuckle comedy Fatty’s Tintype Tangle (1915). Fatty’s photograph (tin type) is accidentally taken with a w…
Today is the birthday of the great Hollywood character actor Walter Brennan (read more about his early career beginnings here). For better or worse, Brennan is chiefly remembered today almos…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Drag and/or LGBT, Horror (Mostly Gothic), Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Dandy Darkly, Dixon Place, HOT! Festival, Trigger Happy
Hey, New Yorkers! Tomorrow at 4:oopm, as part of their John Ford series, the American Museum of the Moving Image will be showing the classic Fort Apache (1948). (Warning: we always inc…
Susan and Lloyd Ecker’s terrific new film The Outrageous Sophie Tucker opens in New York tomorrow. Read my review here in Chelsea Now: http://chelseanow.com/2015/07/outrageous…
Today is the birthday (according to IMDB) of Rufus LeMaire (Rufus Ralph Goldstick, 1895-1950). LeMaire was from a family of brothers who all made a mark in show business; we have previously …
Today is the birthday of Red Skelton (for my full bio on the 20th century comedian go here). I thought I would take the occasion to enhance the Skelton presence on Travalanche by talking abo…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Contemporary Variety, Magicians/ Mind Readers/ Quick Change, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island, Magic at Coney
Thanks, talented actress friend Alyssa Simon, for alerting me to the fact that through August 26, August Wilson’s entire ten play Pittsburgh cycle will be available in free radio versi…
Yes, James Cagney was in westerns. Okay, go ahead and laugh — I can’t hear you! And Cagney definitely can’t hear you.  Yes, Cagney was primarily associated with ga…
This weekend, as part of their month long Essential John Ford series, the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens will be showing three Ford western classics. In the line-up (…
Today is the birthday of Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990). Over her 60 year career, Stanwyck played in every conceivable kind of picture, including some very funny comedies (The Lady Eve, Ball o…
All credit to the Mad Marchioness for being the one to unearth this a couple of years ago. It being Barbara Stanwyck’s birthday, I thought it would be a good time to share it. In 1980,…
Tonight on TCM: a selection of films from John Wayne’s mature period. Late phase Duke is an interesting phenomenon. He stuck out like a dodo in the Hollywood of the liberal 1970s. He w…
Well, your correspondent just seems to have his finger on the pulse, doesn’t he? I was already planning this post about indie cinema from the 80s, when the Mad Marchioness tipped…
Today is the birthday of ill-fated actress Martha Mansfield (Martha Ehrlich, 1899-1923) Thanks to BronxDawn of Woodlawn Cemetery for making me acquainted with her story during my recent fiel…
The following is an excerpt from my 2013 book  Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, published by Bear Manor Media, available from Amazo…
Today is the birthday of Toby Wing (Martha Virginia Wing, 1915-2001). The child of an assistant director at Paramount, she and her sister Pat began getting roles in silent films in 1924. The…
Tonight (tomorrow morning, actually) at 12:45 a.m. (EST) on Turner Classic Movies: William Wellman’s Westward, the Women (1951). This fairly amazing movie depicts the journey…
