Wednesday, April 15, 2020
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]A brief sketch on dancer Anise Boyer (1914-2008) and some of her cohorts. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida this petite, baby-faced dancer was already performing in Harlem night spots li…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:04AM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 14, 2020
This just in off the transom: Jimmy Webb, former manager and buyer at the punk clothing punk Trash and Vaudeville has died at age 62. NB: this is NOT the same Jimmy Webb who wrote "Up, Up an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24PM[SHARE]Now…I could do a worshipful, respectful post about the genius of Rod Steiger (1925-2002) as a Method Actor, but, children, that has been done. By the bushelful. There's not exactly a short…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PM[SHARE]Monday, April 13, 2020
Happy birthday to our third President (1743-1826), principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and purchaser of Louisiana, among a thousand other accomplishments. Jefferson's mother…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 12, 2020
Happy Easter! It's well timed this year, isn't it? Thanks to Spring Hay Fever I go to bed at least once a week convinced I'm going to die, and then wake up the next morning, lo and behold, I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AM[SHARE]The name Harold Lockwood (1887-1918) might well be better remembered if the silent movie star's life hadn't been cruelly cut down at age 31. Originally from Newark, Lockwood started out acti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 11, 2020
Paul Douglas (Paul Douglas Fleischer, 1907-1959) was memorably cast as a cuckolded husband in Fritz Lang's adaptation of Clifford Odets' Clash by Night (1952), in which Robert Ryan beat his …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Friday, April 10, 2020
For someone who performed under three professional names, Harry Morgan (1915-2011) achieved the near impossible by becoming a household word. On stage he went by his given name Harry Brat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:03PM[SHARE]Today we chiefly remember George Arliss (August George Andrews, 1868-1946) as the answer to trivia questions. He was the first Brit to receive an Oscar, as well as the earliest born to recei…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:54PM[SHARE]Today we give three blasts of the shotgun in salute to the late Kevin "Chuck" Connors (1921-92) and the western TV series he starred in The Rifleman (1958-63). It's no longer widely known, i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PM[SHARE]50 years ago today, Paul McCartney issued a public statement that resulted in the break-up of the Beatles. But it needn't have. His press release, structured in the form of a self-conducted …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 9, 2020
Carl Perkins (1932-98) may be the last of the major '50s rockers I haven't yet written about, but it's his birthday today, and tomorrow is a very important Beatles anniversary, so I figure I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PM[SHARE]A hearty "Yah!" and a crack of the bullwhip today in salute to the great Hollywood actor Ward Bond (1903-1960). Raised in Nebraska and Colorado, Bond was a star of the USC football team, whi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PM[SHARE]Thomas Meighan (1879-1936), though totally forgotten today, was a major star in his time, earning as much as $10,000 a week at his peak. Originally from Pittsburgh, he was a Broadway stage s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 8, 2020
There's a book review below, but first a necessary diatribe. I know there will be more than a few who object to the publishing or reading of a book by this author, much less the posting of a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Some brief words of tribute to the influential singer Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan, 1915-59). "Influential" is kind of an understatement " I can't even count the number of female singers (…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]I hope you won't be too disappointed to learn that the title of this post doesn't refer to a family of Little People. The Shorts were a family of actors of the early 20th century who started…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:54PM[SHARE]Monday, April 6, 2020
Apropos of nothing but badly needed escapism: we herewith rank the top game show phonies of my youth (the 1970s), from most to least nauseating. Categories include: Most Oleaginous, Most Lec…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 5, 2020
In honor of the natal day of the great Gregory Peck (1916-2003), a little survey of some of his western films from across the decades. Duel in the Sun (1946) An astounding, glorious mess …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48PM[SHARE]Today we recall that long-ago era when a man, even a movie star, could be called "Melvyn" with impunity. The one we have in mind is of course movie star Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Edouard Hes…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM[SHARE]Thank you, Kevin Fitzpatrick, for reminding us of actor/playwright/producer/director Winchell Smith (1871-1933), an important man of the theatre, and, indirectly, of early 20th century Ameri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 4, 2020
Esther Howard (1892-1965) is best remembered for playing dowagers and dames in comedies and crime dramas, but she had range " she also did Irish characters, homeless women, lady criminals an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AM[SHARE]A brief sketch on the husband-wife eccentric dance team of Lorraine and Rognan, best known for their appearances in two Hollywood musicals, and the spectacular, tragic end of their act durin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Friday, April 3, 2020
I used great deliberation in titling this memoriam to actor Leslie Howard (Leslie Howard Steiner, 1893-1943). We tend to remember him for one thing, his most famous role, but it's a practica…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 2, 2020
My modus operandi in creating this blog is to constantly work a list of names on a calendar. Occasionally, a date arrives and I find myself stumped as to why I had placed a name there. Case …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Today being the birthday of magician William Ellsworth Robinson a.a. Chung Ling Soo (1861-1918) whom we first wrote about here. Seems a fitting time for a little plug for Jim Steinmeyer's 20…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Bobby Jordan (Robert G. Jordan, 1923-1965) was one the key members of the Dead End Kids/ East Side Kids/ Bowery Boys movie franchises. Though the youngest of the bunch, he worked in films ea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:08PM[SHARE]It would be too much I think to call Melville "Mel" Shavelson (1917-2007) a comedy auteur, but he was undoubtedly a key player in American comedy film from the '40s through the '70s and was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:08PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Fame requires a critical mass of the right sort of material to self-perpetuate, and this is my explanation for why Henry Morgan (Henry Lerner Van Ost Jr, 1915-94), a familiar figure in Am…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]An unabashed mash note today to stage and screen actor William Daniels (b. 1927). Daniels is one of a handful of actors who gives me a delight that is almost uncontainable, every second he i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:03AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
