12,228 stories from Trav S.D.
Today is the birthday of silent screen comedian and stunt man Billy Gilbert (William Victor Campbell, 1891-1961), sometimes known as “Little Billy Gilbert” (he was 5’3̸…
Don’t look so appalled! Yes, while most of my horror blogging has been about classic horror (see here) , I do watch lots of contemporary horror for pleasure, and tend to choose that ge…
Tonight is the crowning of Miss America 2015, a fitting time to look into a fascinating detail I came across in Brent Walker’s indispensable reference work Mack Sennett’s Fun …
 Today is the birthday of the French-American film director Robert Florey (1900-1979), best known today for having co-directed the Marx Brothers first film The Cocoanuts (192…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harry Langdon comedy short The Luck o’ the Foolish (1924), directed by Harry Edwards and produced by Mack Sennett. This is one…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Folk (Ethnic), Music, PLUGS Tagged: 61 Local, Brooklyn Accordion Club
Tomorrow starting in the wee hours, three entertaining horror classics scattered throughout the TCM’s schedule. 2:ooam (EST) Madhouse (1974) A wonderfully late entry in the Gothic h…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Dixieland & Early Jazz, Music, PLUGS, Singers Tagged: Bria Skonberg, Hot Jazz, Sidney Bechet Society, Symphony Space
Today is Mae Questel’s birthday (for my full article on that squeaky voiced pixie go here). While it’s well known she provided the voices of Olive Oyl and Betty Boop in animated …
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, Hollywood (History), Horror (Mostly Gothic), PLUGS, Silent Film Tagged: Coney Island Museum, Lon Chaney, Phantom Creep Theatre, The Penalty
Tomorrow morning before the cock crows Turner Classic Movies screens two envelope-busting classic chillers from 1932: 12:45 am (EST) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) I think this may be the…
Today is the birthday of comedian Ben Blue (go here for my full article on him) . He’s not my favorite in the world, but fortunately someone shared this clip this morning and it seemed…
Today is the birthday of the great character comedian Billy Gilbert ( William Gilbert Barron, 1894-1971). We call him “Billy Gilbert #1″ to distinguish from the the silent movie …
Filed under: Burlesk, Coney Island, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Miss Coney Island, Sideshows by the Seashore
Today marks the anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy A King in New York (1957). I was rather kind to this uneven film in Chain of Fools, not having seen it …
Today marks the anniversary of the date of the NYC premiere of the Harold Lloyd comedy Get Out and Get Under (1920). I think of this short as an archetypal Lloyd comedy, one that gets …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Keystone film Mabel’s Blunder, starring Mabel Normand. Mabel plays an office girl engaged to the boss’s son (Harr…
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies, the goddamnest grab-bag of Jerry Lewis movies the mind can conceive, if you go in for that sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong – -I’m all fo…
Earlier this summer I was interviewed by Barry Mitchell of CUNY-TV’s  Arts in the City at the Coney Island Museum. We talked about Coney, my most recent book Chain of Fools, silent …
Marie Roberts is well known as artist-in-residence and official banner painter at Coney Island USA, but she is an accomplished artist outside that context. In the days after September 11, sh…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd short I Do (1921). The film begins with a little animation"Harold and his girl (Mildred Davis) get married. One year later…
Today is the birthday of Beatrice “Bee” Palmer (1894-1967). Originally from Chicago, Palmer began performing in local venues before moving to New York in the late teens. With her…
Tomorrow morning at 3:15 am (eastern) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1933 horror classic The Vampire Bat. The tale: villagers in a rural European hamlet are mysteriously dying…
because we’ve written about a few of them here and have never stopped to explain what one is, today we offer a brief squib on the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Despite a somewhat ugly name, for a…
Today is the birthday of Bessie Love (Juanita Horton, 1898-1986). I had known her primarily for the early leg of her career, but was astounded to discover that unlike many, she managed to re…
