Saturday, May 22, 2021
John LaZar (b.1946) has always blamed his freaky, over-the-top role as Ronnie "Z Man" Barzell in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) for his inability to secure a proper, legi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Magician Tom Selwyn (1878-1950), often billed simply as Selwyn, was a man of both America and the British Empire. Though his parents were British, he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Friday, May 21, 2021
If you're like I was, you've seen Richard Libertini (1933-2016) on screens dozens of times, even recognized him, and even laughed at his performances, without really knowing who he was. My s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 20, 2021
Many's the time I've looked on a silent comedian's get-up and thought of Tin Tin's Thomson and Thompson, but never more so than with respect to Charles Dorety (1898-1957). It turns out that …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Okay, forgive the irreverence of the headline " we thought we'd honor the late Paul Mooney (1941-2021) by emulating the spirit of his comedy. And, besides, he really WAS in the circus. We we…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54PM[SHARE]Slowly, slowly we come out of hibernation! Here are my next two public appearances, one of which is actually live, thanks to the fact that I fully vaxxed! Lower East Side Festival of the Art…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Hats off today to Vonda Kay Van Dyke (b. 1943), the first Miss America to attain that distinction showcasing ventriloquism in the talent portion of the competition. It's funny " it's a commo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]Felix Wehrle (1858-1933) was born in Mount Ida, Wisconsin and discovered in his youth that he possessed the unsettling ability to stretch his skin in great bunches and tug it like taffy. Eve…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 18, 2021
The title of this post of course comes from Charles Grodin's best-selling 1990 autobiography It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here. (31 years ago, ugh!) Just got the news that he has left …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06PM[SHARE]Today we expend a few syllables to extol the accomplishments of George E. Stone (Gerschon Lichtenstein, 1903-1967). Stone was a supporting player whose roles embraced a wide range of sizes, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Monday, May 17, 2021
Conway Tearle (Frederick Conway Levy, 1878-1838 was show biz royalty, a star of stage and screen. The "Conway" handle comes from his mother's side of the family, on which he was descended fr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 16, 2021
George H. Adams (1853-1935) was widely regarded as America's 2nd greatest pantomime clown after George Fox. (A little known fact " the panto tradition we associate with the U.S. was a thing …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PM[SHARE]Saturday, May 15, 2021
Herewith, a long-planned post on boxing comedies, having previously done ones on football, baseball, and golf. BTW,FWIW, the football one is among my top ten posts of all time (out of over 6…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:33PM[SHARE]Friday, May 14, 2021
B.S. Pully (Murray Lerman, 1910-72) was a legendary burlesque, nightclub and Borscht Belt comedian and stage and screen actor of the mid 20th century, known for his gruff gangster persona an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:03AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 13, 2021
It's an interesting question, what makes an "auteur". It has to do with a personal voice, a readily identifiable stamp. Despite blockbuster hits and countless awards, Herbert Ross (1927-2001…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 12, 2021
A brief breakdown of the interesting career of Millie Perkins (b.1938). Today Perkins is almost exclusively known for one major role, but I became a much more enthusiastic fan once I discove…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Today we write to honor two unrelated guys named Kent Taylor; one in the form of an obit; one for his birth anniversary. They both wore different kinda hats, The first Kent Taylor (1955-2021…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]With the summer season fast approaching, and the increasing near-certitude that we will soon be able to return to Coney Island, it's occured to me that, though I've done 125 posts about the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Monday, May 10, 2021
There is no single word to describe the strange niche career of Gary Owens (Gary Bernard Altman, 1934-2015). He is best known for his prominent gig on TV's hottest show of the late 1960s and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM[SHARE]There is unavoidable injustice in how character actor George Coe (George Cohen, 1929-2015) is normally described. He was a footnote in a major phenomenon, and that brief hiccup tends to over…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 9, 2021
We have two excellent reasons for celebrating Candice Bergen on her 75th birthday. One is that she is the daughter of the great vaudeville, screen and radio star, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PM[SHARE]For J.M. Barrie's birthday, we have previously written about his connection to vaudeville, and a couple of versions of his most lastingly famous creation. Today, an overdue post on most of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]I know, I know, this post is SO 2019, but it wasn't until I watched the most recent film I mention here that I realized that there had been enough versions of this one story to constitute an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 8, 2021
Once again, we are inspired to acknowledge World Collage Day (two years ago we observed it with a post on the Beatles' Revolver). We begin with what is more properly described as decoupage. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42AM[SHARE]Friday, May 7, 2021
Billed as "The Boy Magician" long after his boyhood had fled, Frank Ducrot (Theodore Francis Fritz, 1872-1939) performed in vaudeville, Chautauquas, circuses, and tent shows. At various time…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 6, 2021
My friend Kathy Biehl is a highly eclectic Renaissance woman: I first met her when she was cast in the Margaret Dumont role in I'll Say She Is, and was a fellow member of the planning commit…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PM[SHARE]On May 6, 1910, King Edward VII of Britain shuffled off this moral coil. We thought it an appropriate time to briefly explore an historic theatrical form that continues to bear his name, one…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Truth is never simple, so here are some truths: 1) Marxism is a discredited pseudo-science; 2) Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a philosophical genius; 3) Communist Totalitarianism inspired by Marx…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]Okay, stay with me, now: as Karl Dane is to George Arthur, so is Kit Guard to Al Cooke. Right now you're probably making a face like Guard (above) but I assure you there is a sense to this c…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]A few words this morning on the colorful and worthy topic of Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran, 1864-1922). Bly was an investigative journalist who became a pop culture phenonemon on accoun…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Today is International Firefighters Day as well as the anniversary of Paris's terrible fire at Le Bazar de la Charité. It is fitting that we show firefighters appreciation and respect. H…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:33AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
