Wednesday, August 7, 2019
It's taken me a good little while to get a proper bead on Stan Freberg (1926-2015) and I wanted to be pretty familiar with his work before presuming to write about it. I knew of his legend f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36PM[SHARE]A post today about funny character actress Renie Riano (1899-1971), whose first name was sometimes rendered as Rene, Renee, or Reine. (It's short for Irene and was pronounced "Reenie"). Rian…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]A celebration of African American musician and composer Luckey Roberts (Charles Luckeyth Roberts, 1887-1968). Roberts was legendary for his epic reach on the piano; one hand could encompass …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]The film career of June Travis (June Grabiner, 1914-2008) was surpassingly brief and so shall this post be. Travis was only in movies for three years (1935-38), but a few of those films touc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 6, 2019
I definitely want to let you know about Blood Brains in a Jukebox, Dick Zigun's new comedy-horror-rock opera (with music by Nikos Brisco) which is coming in November. I hope you can attend, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:36PM[SHARE]What a drag it must have been to be a Tin Pan Alley songwriter named Arthur Fields yet to bear no relation to Lew, Herbert or Dorothy. When Abraham Finkelstein (1884-1953) too the name early…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:48PM[SHARE]Dorothy Dare (Dorothy Herskind, 1911-1981) was reputed to have begun her onstage career as a child of seven in her native Philadelphia. I see possible references to her singing in vaudeville…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:48PM[SHARE]Well, maybe the origins of Will Lee (1908-1982) won't strike you as all that surprising. I'm not sure what I thought they should be, but probably something a bit more show bizzy, since Sesam…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]While most western fans today know Edmund "Hoot" Gibson (1892-1962) chiefly from his B movies of the '30s and '40s, his days of biggest stardom were in the silent era, when he was second onl…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 4, 2019
A few days after the passing of Paul Krassner seems an appropriate time for a little birthday appreciation of comedian, actor and journalist/author Richard Belzer (b. 1944). belzer is undoub…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:06PM[SHARE]What's more impressive than five performing Locust Sisters? How about the fact there were actually seven? Hilda was an opera singer, who performed at least once on radio in 1929. Rose was a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]We seem to have gone backwards in acknowledging Jennifer Ann Redmond's useful books. Recently we profiled her biography of Corliss Palmer, but it turns out that's her most recent offering. B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AM[SHARE]Saturday, August 3, 2019
I became aware of Dr. James Munyon (1848-1918) through recent research into the quacks J.R. Brinkley (whom I played on stage) and Dr. Hawley Crippen (who was a sales agent for Munyon for a t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 1, 2019
Here's where an affection for the psychotronic can be a little dangerous; I'd long registered the names of guys like William Beaudine and Jean Yarbrough, who'd started out in silents and mad…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 30, 2019
All roads lead to vaudeville, including Charmin's Mr. Whipple. Only folks of a certain age will understand the reference, for the character was a ubiquitous TV commercial staple from 1965 th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Monday, July 29, 2019
I've been dancing around the vicinity of Allen Lewis Rickman now for over 15 years. I reviewed his 2003 production of Yiddish playwright Leon Kobrin's The Woman Next Door at the Folksbienne.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Rodney Allen Rippy (b. 1968) had excellent representation. Much like the slightly older Mason Reese, Rippy was not so much a child actor as a "personality". Like Reese, he came to fame as…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 28, 2019
What an incident-filled, short life was that of silent screen writer and actress Barbara La Marr (Reatha Watson, 1896-1926). Best known today for inspiring the screen name of Hedy LaMarr, th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 27, 2019
Comedy fans know and love Kathleen Howard (1884-1956) from her role as W.C. Fields' shrewish wife in three of his best comedy features: It's a Gift (1934), You're Telling Me (1934), and Man …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:03AM[SHARE]Friday, July 26, 2019
I was made aware of 19th century actor William J. Florence (William J. Conlin, 1831-1891) by…Sis Newman! Wha-? Yes, though she's just a tot, she spied his marker at Green-wood Cemetery and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54PM[SHARE]I don't ask you to remember the name Kenneth Harlan (1895-1967) for the rest of your life, or even an hour from now, but he did possess a certain significance in his own day, and his biograp…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PM[SHARE]If you're like me, when you were a kid, you looked at the credits of the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz, and saw listed among all the principles "Pat Walshe as Niko", and then went "Niko?! W…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 25, 2019
I learned the story of silent screen actress Corliss Palmer (1899-1952) through Jennifer Ann Redmond's book Southern Belle to Hollywood Hell. It's a tale of folly, vanity, and futility, in w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:03PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Here's where to see Trav S.D. Over the Next Few Months! I'll add links and descriptive blurbs subsequently, and I'll be adding to this calendar, but wanted to get this info up ASAP for those…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:42PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Today we are delighted to celebrate character actress Sandra Gould (1916-1999). Brooklyn-born Gould went from small roles on Broadway in Thumbs Up! (1934-35) and Having Wonderful Time (19…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Monday, July 22, 2019
We are saddened to wake up to the news that activist, satirist, journalist, author, provocateur and mighty hoax artist Paul Krassner (b. 1932) passed away last night at the age of 87. I'm no…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 21, 2019
If not for a couple of important factors, western film star Ken Maynard (1895-1973) might be as well remembered today as peers like Tom MIx, Hoot Gibson, Gene Autry, or Bob Steele. The prima…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 20, 2019
50 Years ago today America landed on the moon. In celebration, some TV Guide clippings from the years 1969-81 chronicling the American space program. Â Â Â Â Advertisements
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM[SHARE]Friday, July 19, 2019
"Would you say that vaudeville is all about comedy?" a podcast interviewer asked me recently, expecting an automatic "yes" but I had to demur, for vaudeville was just as much about the senti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 18, 2019
Adapted from my notebooks, written between 2006-2011 I can't crow enough about how much I love playwright Clifford Odets (1906-1963). He is one of the few American writers of realism of whom…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:12PM[SHARE]I have big respect for the talent of singer and actor Chill Wills (Theodore Childress Wills, 1902-1978). Wills gave great performances in some of the best serious westerns of the classic era…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
