Thursday, November 29, 2012
Today is the birthday of Mildred Harris (1901-1944). Those few who remember her nowadays know her primarily as “Charlie Chaplin’s first wife”, although unlike some of his l…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:26AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Mel Brooks’ name is always gold, but he was never hotter than in the mid 1970s. In 1975 in the wake of his two smash box office hits Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, he an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:25PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of William Blake (1757-1827). To mark the occasion, a selection that applies to so many of the souls I’ve written about in these pages. It is from his Songs of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:19AM[SHARE] Opening Tonight at Film Forum Tonight Film Forum launches the US premiere of Jay Bulger's BEWARE OF MR. BAKER, which recieves receiving a national release January 25. The film is a sa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:44AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Harry Carroll (1892-1962), one of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriters, author of several well-known hits including “By the Beautiful Sea”, “By the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Today is the birthday of Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970). About five years ago when I gave a talk in Seattle about  their local vaudeville history, I dropped the bombshell that Jimi Hendrix̵…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:10AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of James Agee (1909-1955). Over the past twenty years I have managed to go from dismissing him in my ignorance to totally revering him. Well, it’s all in how some…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:22AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Buffalo Bob Smith (1917-1998). Buffalo native Robert Emil Schmidt started out in local radio in the early 1940s. His upstate success was so great, that he was brough…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:21AM[SHARE]Monday, November 26, 2012
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Manor Media…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:11AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Wayland Flowers (1939-1988). I got an earful from the makers of a ventriloquism documentary a few months back when I opened that Flowers was unjustly excluded from t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:39AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Roumanian-French absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994). In 1960 he claimed that the three greatest influences on his writing had been Groucho, Chico and Ha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:30AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #264: Vesta Victoria (for more on her, go here). Now for your delectation, from 1912, here is “Look What Percy’s Picked Up in the Park…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:28AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 25, 2012
This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Manor Media…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:11AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Jonathan R. Bass (1830-1892). Bass was one of a sub-branch of exhibited peoples known as “ossified men”. Afllicted with rheumatism since childhood, he…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:15AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Eva Puck (1892-1979). Through most of her childhood and some of her young adulthood she was in a vaudeville two-act with her brother, known variously as “Puck …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:34AM[SHARE]Saturday, November 24, 2012
Today is the birthday of Sealo, the Seal Boy (1899-1980). It is unknown technically what condition he suffered from to produce his flipper-like appendages; he was born a half century …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:45AM[SHARE] Today is the birthday of Richiardi, Jr. (Aldo Izquierdo, 19243-1985), the son of magician Richiardi the Great. Of Peruvian descent, his claim to fame was horrific special effects (e.g…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:52AM[SHARE]This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:23AM[SHARE]Friday, November 23, 2012
P.T. Selbit (1881-1938) was the first magician to saw a woman in half. His actual name was Perry Thomas Tibbles (he arrived at his stage name by spelling that backwards and taking out a &…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:45AM[SHARE]Benny Ryan is best known today as a George Burns anecdote; he was his rival for Gracie’s hand, and by all accounts she didn’t make it easy for either one of them. Ironically B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of William Henry Pratt (1887-1969), a.k.a Boris Karloff. A native of Enfield, England, he dropped out of college in 1909 to follow his dream of becoming an actor, worki…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Manor Media…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]This is one in a series of posts we are producing in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, available from Bear Ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:19AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 22, 2012
Tomorrow is the nationwide release day for the new movie Hitchcock. Presumably in recognition of that fact, tomorrow all morning TCM is running a bunch of his films. Here’s the schedul…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:59PM[SHARE] Today is the birthday of Terry Gilliam (b. 1940). I think he is one of our greatest film-makers (though he stops just short of his potential), which is why of course he rarely seems a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:39AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great American songwriter Howard Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael (1899-1981), responsible for “Stardust”, “Skylark”, “Georg…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:57AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Jacob Cohen, a.k.a. Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004). The son of vaudeville comedian Phil Roy (Philip Cohen), he began writing jokes for other comedians as a teenager,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:50AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Today is the birthday of jazz tenor saxophonist and bebop pioneer Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969). Given the subject matter, I thought I’d hold this post for the night owls. Have a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:29PM[SHARE] Today is the birthday of Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778): champion everywhere of freedom: of speech, of religion, of trade, etc etc. Though he wrote histor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:38PM[SHARE] Today is the birthday of Rene Magritte (1898-1967). If he is not already the favorite painter of clowns everywhere, I nominate him for that position, by virtue of the strain of the ab…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Goldie Hawn (b. 1945). That is actually her real name. A lot of people make the erroneous assumption (at least I did) that she was just a go-go dancer who was hired …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:10AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
