12,225 stories from Trav S.D.
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle silent comedy short Out West (1918), also featuring Buster Keaton and Al St. John (and written by Nata…
The Mad Marchioness and I had an unseemly amount of jollity at Medicine Show’s revival of the 1923 musical Helen of Troy, New York. This show has long been a missing puzzle piece in…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the rollicking Keystone silent comedy short Love, Speed and Thrills. I love such such movie titles, don’t you?  It…
Tonight at 10:15pm (EST), as part of its evening of Gregory Peck films, Turner Classic Movies will be screening that over-the-top masterpiece Duel in the Sun (1946). Duel in the Sun…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Keystone silent comedy short Fatty and Mabel’s Simple Life, starring Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuck…
Tonight (tomorrow really) at 12:45am Eastern, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Buster Keaton classic Our Hospitality (1923). Our Hospitality may be called Keaton's fi…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of David O. Selznick’s all-star 1935 Hollywood adaptation of Dickens’ David Copperfield. Today this film is best remembe…
Today is the birthday of Shari Lewis (Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz, 1933-1998). This influential puppeteer and ventriloquist was such a ubiquitous and comforting presence on tv when I was growing u…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of Harold Lloyd’s 1927 feature The Kid Brother. In The Kid Brother, Lloyd stretched somewhat, venturing into what one thinks of as Keato…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Movies, PLUGS Tagged: Bouncing Ball, Coney Island, Museum of Interesting Things
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, Drag and/or LGBT, PLUGS Tagged: Busby Berkley Dreams, Matt Knife, Stephin Merritt, Stonewall Inn
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Hal Roach silent comedy film short Should Tall Men Marry? (1928). The film is interesting for a couple of reasons. One is that it…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the silent W.C. Fields comedy feature The Potters (1927), directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. The Potters is one of several lost Fields fe…
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies: A welter of westerns centered on train robberies! Except for this first one, which is an “Eastern”: 8:00pm (EST): The Great Train Robbery (1979)…
When we think of “B movies”, most of us are conditioned to go straight to genre pictures: Â science fiction, horror, murder mysteries, noir, and westerns. (Thanks, French New W…
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release date of the silent comedy short Mabel and Fatty’s Wash Day. In this one Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand pl…
On Sunday Anita Ekberg had the bad fortune to pass away as 1.5 million people were filling the streets of Paris. This is my apology (and my excuse) for not getting to this little tribute unt…
Today is the birthday of Kay Francis (Katharine Edwina Gibbs, 1905-1968). Most folks in my set discover her from her role as the vamp in the Marx Brothers first film The Cocoanuts (192…
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the hilarious Laurel and Hardy short Oliver the Eighth (1934. In this classic, Laurel and Hardy are barbers. Laurel sees an ad i…
Today is the birthday of William “Shorty” Blanche (1875-1931). Described a little unfairly as a “toothless dwarf” by W.C. Fields biographer James Curtis (see photo…
Among the reassuring pleasures of the age has been Dick Cavett’s blog for the New York Times. Reassuring because Cavett is excellent. He’s always deserved a prominent forum from …
I was tickled pink to get the opportunity recently to (almost) complete my Harry Langdon education by seeing the lion’s share of his extant talkies. (I had already seen some of the fea…
Today is the birthday of the great American portraitist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). His 1889 portrait of Dame Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth seemed an appropriate painting of his to celebr…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Rock Bar, White Elephant Burlesque
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Roscoe Arbuckle-Buster Keaton comedy short The Garage (1920). This is the last in their historic series of pairings. After this, Arb…
