Thursday, June 14, 2012
Today is is the birthday of singer Jack Pepper (for more on this fellow go here). A nice youtube contributor has put together this nice slide show, cut to his 1927 recording of “Girl o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great circus trick rider Poodles Hanneford (for more on his amazing life go here). Above is a fragment of his 1923 comedy short No Loafing, directed by none othe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:13AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 13, 2012
As part of the lead-in to my book “Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube” (September 2012), in 2006 I founded the Mack Sennett Centennial Pr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:59AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Karyl Norman (1896-1947). Billed as the “Creole Fashion Plate”, the female impersonator is sadly best known from the twist Groucho Marx gave his stage…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:55AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Where was I yesterday? W-w-whattaya mean? I was down at Kelsey’s Bar with the guys. (snaps) Okay, readers, I admit it! I was with ANOTHER BLOG! There. I said it. You want proof? No nee…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:22AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 9, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Rory Raven, the Rhode Island Mentalist, whom we’ve had the honor to present and wrote about here, has just proven that he’s more than just a Southeastern New England mind reader.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:35PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great equestrienne matriarch May Wirth (1894-1978). The product of several generations of circus folk, the Australian born Wirth began performing as a child, fir…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Monday, June 4, 2012
Ed Wynn, like so many of his fellow luminaries of the teens and twenties (Groucho Marx, George M. Cohan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc etc etc) made his home in Great Neck, Long Island. This Thur…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:31PM[SHARE]Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sunday June 3, 2012 1:00pm The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and the Lower East Side History Project Present a Walking tour of the Yiddish Rialto with the theatre historian Cezar D…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:47AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 2, 2012
Silent comedy aficionados are very much like baseball fans….all about the standings. They’re forever sizing up the players and ranking them. Thus….Walter Kerr, author of th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:15AM[SHARE]Friday, June 1, 2012
When I read in the paper yesterday that the shooting in Seattle had been “in a coffee shop in the university part of town” my thoughts went to my one and only trip there and my t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:34AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 31, 2012
Today is the birthday of the Poet of Democracy. In my youth I was not crazy about him. I found him prosaic – -I was deceived by the apparent simplicity of the writing. It seemed to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE] Choreographer Cori Olinghouse wants you to know about her terrific-looking new project Ghost Line: a 16mm experimental film that invokes the spaces of Vaudeville through a Dada/Surrea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:34AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great sleight-of-hand master Nate Leipzig (Nathan Leipziger, 1873-1939), His illusions are still studied and taught all over the world; just Google him and see. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:14AM[SHARE]Friday, May 25, 2012
Today is the birthday of the incomparable Bill Robinson, a.k.a “Bojangles”. (For my full article on him, go here. It happens to be the first vaudeville article I ever wrote; the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:33PM[SHARE]Three days only — opening tonight at at Pier 25 South Street Seaport… Dead upon a Wind, a Pirate Burlesque, continues the exploits of Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:31AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tonight thru June 10: Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis starring the incredible Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola, and Steel Burkhardt, in a show conceived and directe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:14PM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 23, 2012
As we told you a few days ago, The Maestrosities, a.k.a. the Coolest Band in the World are starting a new web series and they need your help! Just one more day to go, and they are just shy o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:50PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939). For some on his early career, including his vaudeville background go here. And for a sample of what he did best, a snippet f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:00AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Artie Shaw, the Thinking Man’s Big Band Leader (1910-2004). The famously difficult Shaw went through 8 wives, including Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Some insig…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Today is also Harry Ritz’s birthday (full bio here). What’s that you say? Aren’t they triplets? How is Harry any different from the other two that he gets a different b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:40AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great Russian actress and Hollywood heartbreaker Alla Nazimova (full bio here). Here she is in her version of Camille, with Valentino as Armand Duval: To find ou…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:34AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 20, 2012
Today is Cher’s birthday! Her first #1 solo hit majorly captured my imagination when I was a kid, although I was naturally oblivious to the sexual aspects, which I learned to appreciat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 19, 2012
The stars were alligned on this day to produce to of rock and roll’s greatest showmen. Pete Townsend (b. 1945) and Joey Ramone (1951-2001). In celebration, two of my favorite songs by …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:58AM[SHARE]Friday, May 18, 2012
Today is the birthday of Frank Capra. I know it’s not fashionable among the intelligentsia, but he’s one of my favorite directors — and precisely for the reasons that make …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:52PM[SHARE]Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Maestrosities, a.k.a. the Coolest Band in the World are starting a new web series and they need your help! With one week to go, they are just shy of halfway to their Kickstarter goal. Go…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Today is the birthday of the great Julius Tannen. For more on his vaudeville career go here. That’s him as O’Brien the Tailor in this clip from Preston Sturges’s Unfaithful…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
