Tuesday, October 23, 2012
The Countess and I popped around the corner over the weekend to catch The Art of the Coney Island Hysterical Society exhibition at 440 Gallery. Brooklyn natives Richard Eagan and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:53AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great Johnny Carson (for my full article on him go here). I found this cool artifact this morning…an early Tonight Show in which Johnny gets serious,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #66, the Divine Sarah, Sarah Bernhardt (for full my bio go here). I’m guessing many of our readers have seen at least short clips of s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:58AM[SHARE]This is being released today by Shout Factory, featuring the hard work of friend Ben Model! You should buy it! here’s my review of Volume 1:Â http://www.downtownexpress.com/ernie-kov…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:43AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Gertrude Ederle (1905-2203). A New Jersey native, she became a champion swimmer at her local YWCA, and went on to win a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. She be…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:27AM[SHARE]Monday, October 22, 2012
I was flattered to be asked to write the intro to this unique new book by L.A.-based playwright/ ventriloquist/ scholar Rich Mitchell. It’s really a unique tome – - sorts of hits…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:38PM[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 11:49AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #375, Mitzi Green (for a full squib on her go here). Now, here she is with Lillian Roth et al singing “Sing, You Sinners” from the 193…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #376, the great African American songwriter James A. Bland. In honor of the day, here’s Ray Charles performing one of Bland’s best kno…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:41AM[SHARE]Tonight through October 31 at the Tank! What the organizers say about the Festival: “Part of our motivation behind starting a festival openly searching for bad theater is to make a ven…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:27AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 21, 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 07:07AM[SHARE]Best known today as the founder of Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, Ted Shawn (1891-1972) toured vaudeville extensively from 1915-1929 with Denishawn, the company he founded and ran wi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:05AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great Russian-born ballerina Lydia Lopokova (1892-1981). She danced with the Tsar's troupe (she’d been the star pupil of the Imperial Ballet School), then …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:38AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), author of one of the few poems I can recite from memory (and only a portion). With its fantastical theme, it seems only fitting …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:04AM[SHARE]Saturday, October 20, 2012
Today is the birthday of Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, a.k.a. Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), widely regarded as one of the originators of jazz. He started out as a teenager playing piano in spor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:29AM[SHARE]How fortunate that Bela Lugosi (1882-1956) has a birthday 11 days before Halowe’en, no? You could have a swell Hallowe’en film festival that consisted entirely of Bela Lugosi mov…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:07AM[SHARE]For tix and info: http://www.bigapplecircus.org
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:34AM[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 09:22AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #374: Will M. Cressy (for his full bio go here). Here is a little reading by the Librovox Project of an illuminating piece Cressy wrote called …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:52AM[SHARE]A twofer! Today is the birthday of both Star of Vaudeville #373: Adelaide Hall and Star of Vaudeville #65: Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers. Coincidentally they both appear in this 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM[SHARE]Friday, October 19, 2012
I have many irrational (thus heartfelt) reasons for loving Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town. One is that I lived for two months in the studio in which Wilder wrote…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:59PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Swedish wrestler and schlock horror movie star Tor Johnson (1903-1971). While best known for his association with Ed Wood, a quick gland at his IMDB entry reveals th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:01PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead, 1945-1988), muse, moll, and movie star of John Waters. The clip below, set to Little Richard’s “The Girl Can̵…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:47AM[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 11:36AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Uncle Floyd Vivino (b. 1951) — for my full appreciation of him go here. FUN FACT! Angie Pontani, producer/ star) of Burlesque-A-Pades worked with Floyd year…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:26AM[SHARE]Bradford Scobie is a brrrrrilliant and high-larious character actor. He has graced New York City stages with his korny-kopia of kooky karacters for years. Amongst them: Mutant Super-Villain …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:01AM[SHARE]Tonight at 7pm is the long-awaited launch event for Andrew L. Erdman’s Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay (Cornell University Press) which we were first reported on here.Â…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]One of my happy discoveries in working on my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube (Bear Manor Media, February, 2013) has been French com…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:11AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of British female impersonator Herbert Clifton (1885-1947). He was unique in his field in being straight, married and somewhat plump. His strengths were in his characte…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:52AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 18, 2012
By 1975 producer Norman Lear had gone out on a limb several times, and hit the jackpot every single time, with All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, the Jeffersons and Good …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:00PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of a personal hero of mine, Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961). I can’t presume to weigh in on whether he is or he isn’t a great jazz trumpeter. What I prize him for…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:14AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
