Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Rosina Lawrence (1912-1997) was on track for a screen career as a musical comedy star that would last many decades, but she retired when she was still on the rise, when she was only 27 years…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 29, 2020
The screen career of Ruth Hall (1910-2003) was brief but significant and of particular interest to classic comedy fans. Born Ruth Gloria Blasco Ibáñez in Jacksonville, Floria, she was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Monday, December 28, 2020
Today we write of Frank R. Butler (1890-1967), not to be be confused with Frank E. Butler, sharpshooter and husband of Annie Oakley. Our Butler was a a silent screen actor and screenwriter, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 27, 2020
Wow! Wow. Just wow. I generally peg my posts to birthdays and other significant dates. I had nothing new in the hopper planned for today (having already done posts on Marlene Dietrich, Oscar…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 26, 2020
"General" Willis Carver (1868-1898) was a professional Little Person who was generally exhibited alongside his mother, Madame Carver, a professional "Fat Lady". Hailing from the town of Belo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Friday, December 25, 2020
December 25 is the birthday of a suspiciously large number of people: among them is the beloved character actor Mike Mazurki (Markijan Mazurkiewicz, 1907-1990). A former professional wrestle…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]Most classic movie buffs " but no one else " know the name of Helen Twelvetrees (1908-1958). The briefness of her prominence reminds me a bit of Harry Langdon's " from out of nowhere, sudden…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]"The Fakir of Ava" (1813-1891) is today chiefly remembered as the mentor and teacher of The Dean of American Magicians, Harry Kellar, and thus progenitor of a long chain of magicians who cam…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]A quick nod today to the career of stage and screen actress Eugenie Besserer (1868-1934). Born in upstate Watertown, New York, Besserer was largely raised in Canada, and orphaned at a young …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 24, 2020
Because some have requested it, an excerpt from my presentation in the Coney Island Museum benefit a few weeks back. The words to my poem are below (I've put helpful hotlinks on some of the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM[SHARE]The career of Ava Gardner (1922-1990) can neatly be divided into thirds: 1) anonymity; 2) reign as world class siren; 3) schlock. I was there for the last third of it in my nonage, first exp…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Fame will not be controlled. And thus it is that Ronnie Schell (b. 1931) ought to be best remembered for his own sitcom Good Morning World (1967), which after all was a starring vehicle for …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AM[SHARE]I became intrigued by Barbara Ruick (1930-74) from an eye-catching bit turn she performs in Robert Altman's California Split. She plays a lady bartender in a cowgirl outfit in the climactic …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 22, 2020
I became curious about actor Minor Watson (1889-1965) when I noticed him playing vaudeville mogul Edward Albee in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). This was not his only dalliance with such-like b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]I'm very proud of the series of holiday related historical articles I was able to write for Chelsea Community News thanks to Covid-19 grant money. The previous two were on the Ghosts of the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]My pathway in to the fascinating career of Frankie Darro (Frank Johnson Jr, 1917-1976) came from learning that he had provided the voice of the bad influence/juvenile delinquent/ incipient a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM[SHARE]Monday, December 21, 2020
The subject of this post is not to claim that Jane Fonda (b. 1937) has ever been ha-ha-hilarious. I would never make the assertion that comedy is Fonda's strong suit, but it is an interestin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 20, 2020
We are amused to to observe that tenor Dennis Morgan (1908-1994) was typecast as an Irishman in such movies as The Fighting 69th (1940), Three Cheers for the Irish (1940), and My Wild Irish …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]We pause now to appreciate the lovely, luminous silver screen star Irene Dunne (1898-1990). When we remember Dunne as Magnolia in the 1936 version of Show Boat, it feels significant to learn…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]Beware when people in show biz (or writers about show biz) describe anyone as the first anything. Shirley Chambers (1913-2011) is often described as the first "Dumb Blonde", but, come now, t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]Saturday, December 19, 2020
It is pretty much universally agreed upon that Charlotte Shelby (Lily Pearl Miles, 1877-1957) was a grasping, ambitious and domineering stage mother. What's more controversial is the belief …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PM[SHARE]Re-watching Bob Fosse's Lenny Bruce bio-pic Lenny (1974) the other day reminded us of the existence of Gary Morton (Morton Goldaper, 1924-1999). Morton had a supporting role in the movie and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PM[SHARE]Friday, December 18, 2020
It happens more often than not " I go to work on a post about someone in show business, and the tunnel leads to a rabbit warren of similary accomplished relatives and/or collaborators. Thus …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 17, 2020
My feelings about the Farrelly Brothers are…complicated. My principal reason for caring about them at all is that they are from my home state of Rhode Island, and represent it in their mov…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Like the heroes and heroines in our beloved silent melodramas and comedies, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum has been valiantly holding the fort these last few months, surviving a pandem…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 15, 2020
It's entirely possible that we will someday to do a post on contemporary Scottish actress Rose Leslie of Game of Thrones and The Good Fight, but first things first, and today is not the day.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Monday, December 14, 2020
People just a little bit older than me have a much different picture in their heads of Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (1946-2016) than I do. When I first knew her, she was billed as Patty Duke Asti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Most show biz buffs know one important thing about June Taylor (1917-2004): that she was the choreographer and dance captain of Jackie Gleason's various variety shows from 1950 through 1973.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AM[SHARE]The Great Nicola (William Mozart MacNicol, 1880-1946) was a third generation Scottish magician, born in Burlington, Iowa, the son of immigrant John MacNicol, who billed himself as Nicoli, an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AM[SHARE]Attention paid today to stage and screen star Dan Dailey (1915-1978). No relation apparently to earlier star Dan Daly, but like his differently spelled namesake, Dailey performed in minstrel…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AM[SHARE]Given that my ordinary beat is old time performers, I learned about Elyse Knox (Elsie Kornbrath, 1917-2012) the wrong way 'round. One of her daughters married Ricky Nelson and gave birth to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
