Thursday, April 30, 2020
When I was a kid (it seems to me) a lot of the older women emulated Eve Arden (Eunice May Quedens, 1908-1990). Arden was beautiful and glamorous, but also imposing. She stood 5'7″, whi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Jerry Seinfeld (b. 1954) is a man who has stood on the shoulders of giants, one who has since become a giant himself, which must be very uncomfortable for the people he's standing on. My nic…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]Now that Jay Leno (b. 1950) has become Tip O'Neill, I like him again. I caught him on Bill Maher's show the other day after not having watched him in action for like a decade, and was deligh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 28, 2020
I only just became aware of actress Adele Mara (Adelaida Delgado, 1923-2010) on account of her appearance in the Joe E. Brown comedy western Shut My Big Mouth (1942). She was a Columbia cont…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PM[SHARE]Someone has decreed today to be Superhero Day and who am I to argue? While I have gotten more than my share of enjoyment out of most of the key comic book franchises, parody (of ANYTHING) is…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]Monday, April 27, 2020
This one goes out to Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (1932-2014). Lebanese-American Kasem was from Detroit, and got his start in local radio in high school and later as a student at Wayne Statue Un…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PM[SHARE]Well now. It was no small matter getting to the bottom of the multi-generational Redgrave pool, with so many twists and turns and tributaries. It's enough material for a book, but as with my…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 26, 2020
A few words on silent comedy supporting player Frank J. Coleman (1888-1948). A native of the Hudson River town of Newburgh, New York, Coleman started out acting with barnstorming outfits lik…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:48PM[SHARE]James T. Powers (James T. McGovern, 1862-1943) was a great 20th century stage clown, as well as a songwriter and playwright. Born in New York City of Irish-American parentage, Powers fell in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PM[SHARE]Today we corral vaudeville animal impersonator Fred Woodward (1882-1960). Yes animal impersonation was a whole sub-specialty in vaudeville! Other animal impersonators we have profiled on Tra…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PM[SHARE]Saturday, April 25, 2020
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show was just the most visible face of a vast economic empire based in Oklahoma. The 101 Ranch, located near Ponca City, in what was then known simply…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:03AM[SHARE]Paul Desmuke (1876-1949) was a native of Atacosca County, Texas. Born without arms, he became extremely proficient in the use of his feet. With his lower extremities, he could write, play th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AM[SHARE]Friday, April 24, 2020
Yes it's true!, April 24 is the birthday of both Barbra Streisand and Shirley MacLaine (Shirley MacLean Beaty, b. 1934). Atsa lotta show biz for one day! The daughter of two Virginia educato…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12PM[SHARE]I've had a couple of dozen occasions to refer to Barbra Streisand (b. 1942) on this blog, yet have never done a post on her (despite having done three posts on Bette Midler, and plans for mo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Stella Adams (1883-1961) appeared in over 150 films, most notably as star, co-star or featured player in comedies produced by the Nestor and Christie studios. A native of Sherman, Texas, Ada…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 23, 2020
Adele Blood (1886-1936) was a socialite and stage star whose finish was as spectacular as that in any melodrama. Three years later, a gun shot rang out again in a horrible echo of that theat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Just got the news from her daughter Kaitlin Hopkins (also a lovely actress) that the highly respected stage and screen star Shirley Knight has passed at age 83. Knight was "Heavenly" (the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PM[SHARE]The most startling thing I encountered about Hollywood bit player Rondo Hatton (1894-1946) this morning was that he never appeared in any of the Dick Tracy pictures with Ralph Byrd, whose bi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]A shout out today for a mug name of Ralph Byrd (1909-52). A native of Dayton, Ohio, Byrd first toured with the Albright Players stock company, and sang with dance bands. By the early 30s, he…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Great news, shut-ins! Bear Manor Media, publishers of my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube., are slashing 25% off the sale price of all books t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Chinese-American character actor Sammee Tong (1901-1964) was a staple of films (and later television) for three decades, normally in supporting roles as cooks, servants, houseboys, and the l…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 19, 2020
George O'Brien (1899-1985) is best remembered today as a star of western films (especially those of John Ford), and is less remembered by mainstream vintage movie buffs. But he also starred …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:03AM[SHARE]Ralph Earl Madsen (1897-1948) went by many handles during his professional life: R.E., Texas, Tex, "Big Boy", "Sky High" and Mr. Longellow among them. Madsen was sometimes rendered as "Mades…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:48AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 18, 2020
Just some brief notes today on a distant cousin of mine, Barbara Hale (1922-2017). (When I say "distant" I mean our common ancestor was in 17th century Virginia. My great-grandmother Lucilla…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Just a few words on an obscure but interesting chap who made his mark, independent film producer Edward Finney (1903-83). An NYC native and graduate of City College, Finney was clearly the s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Friday, April 17, 2020
Some jottings on the topic of Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) from my notebook on his natal day. In concession to varying attention spans, this survey of his plays will not be strictly chronolog…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PM[SHARE]Â There's an unavoidable Hollywood Babylon structure to the life and death of William Holden (William Beedle Jr, 1918-1981). Not just because of his spectacularly awful, tragic-comic deat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 16, 2020
Doris Dawson (1905-86) was born in the boomtown of Goldfield, Nevada two years after the discovery of a gold deposit there. As Dawson City, Yukon had been the center of the Klondike Gold Rus…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Lebanese-American actor Michael Ansara (1922-2013) is notable for many things. The ledes may be that he was married to Barbara Eden from 1958 to 1974, and that he possessed one of the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18PM[SHARE]One of Hollywood's top matinee idols during the silent era, Wallace Reid (1891-1923) is today primarily remembered as a spectacular Hollywood casualty, giving short shrift to the over 200 fi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Hans Conried (1917-82) specialized in playing funny martinets, pedantic schoolteachers, eccentric orchestra conductors, and cartoon villains. His Germanic name, mid-Atlantic speech, and stif…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
