Wednesday, January 23, 2019
I got a wonderful surprise when looking into the background of B movie western star Bob Steele (Robert Adrian Bradbury, 1907-1988); he too was in vaudeville. He grew up in a performing vaude…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Just a quick shout-out for the great cartoonist George McManus (1884-1954). Best remembered today as the creator of Bringing Up Father a.k.a. Jiggs and Maggie (or Maggie and Jigg…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Imagine my delight the other day when, after a brief confusion, I learned that there were not one but two 20th century performers named Sally Starr, both of whom worked with great comedians.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 22, 2019
A tribute today to the late Bill Bixby (Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III, 1934-1993). I would describe Bixby as a “likable, light” actor — he was more than up to a wide ran…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:04PM[SHARE]January 22 is the birthday of writer and former police officer Joseph Wambaugh (b. 1937). Wambaugh is a critical figure in the evolution of police drama, taking it into a direction of greate…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]January 22 is the birthday of the legendary restaurateur Peter Luger (1922-41). Originally from Bavaria, Luger opened a dining and amusement establishment in then-predominantly German Wil…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM[SHARE]Monday, January 21, 2019
Today we celebrate character actor J. Carrol Naish (1896-1973). Two surprising things about Naish’s Irish heritage (his parents were Irish immigrants to the U.S.): 1) That it exists at…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:12AM[SHARE]In addition to being Martin Luther King Day (see previous post), it also happens to be the first day of Broadway Week here in New York. We observe it with a little post about some musical…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:12AM[SHARE]Martin Luther King Day couldn’t be a better timed or more appropriate time to announce our upcoming blitz of African-American related content on Travalanche for Black History Month (Fe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 20, 2019
Returning this week: Me and Lee: The Musical, written by, songs by, and starring Jason Trachtenburg, of Pendulum Swings and the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. Me and Lee is…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PM[SHARE]Sometime in the middle of the 1970s, to everyone’s delight, a direct marketing TV advertising campaign appeared out of nowhere hawking the records of a yodeling country singer namedÂ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AM[SHARE]Paula Stone (1912-1997) was the daughter of Broadway and vaudeville legend Fred Stone and sister of Dorothy Stone, but she made her own “ripples” as well. Naturally, she started …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 19, 2019
For our post on Cheers (1982-1993) we choose the birthday of the late Nicholas Colasanto (1924-1985), and we’ll make him a peg to hang the piece on as well. Cheers is one of my favo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was one of the first literary authors I ever read on my own for enjoyment, and from quite a young age. The initial entry points were undoubtedly the poems “…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AM[SHARE]Here’s an intriguing figure who will be well known to fans of Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy and other Hal Roach comedies. Lyle (pronounced “Lily”) Shipman (1889-1982) was born…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:42AM[SHARE]Christina Elizabeth “Dixie” Dunbar (1919-1991) took dance classes in her native Montgomery, Alabama, and demonstrated a talent that encouraged her mother to take her to New York.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:42AM[SHARE]Friday, January 18, 2019
A nod today to Hollywood star Constance Moore (1920-2005). Despite the fact that she had very little experience in live theatre, there is sort of a vaudeville flavor to many of Moore’s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Fehmer Christy “Chick” Chandler (1905-1988) was a blueblood who chafed at family discipline, chucked it, and jumped into show business with both feet, to the benefit of audiences…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Lillian Bond (1908-1991) was a London chorine who made good in memorable parts on stage and screen in the States, usually as sexpots and “other women”. Educated at Brompton Orato…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 17, 2019
Marjorie Gateson (1891-1977) is known to comedy fans whether they know it or not) from such films as Mae West’s Goin’ to Town (1935), Harold Lloyd’s The Milky Way (1936), A…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]A little murk today in our biography of these two performing sisters and their family, though we’ll fine-tune it as better facts emerge. It owes much to the gang at Nitrateville —…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PM[SHARE]January 17 is the birthday of British music hall entertainer Ida Barr (Maud Barlow, 1882-1967). Barlow was an army brat, born in Regent’s Park Barracks, London. She was 16 when she mad…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]Faylen and Hughes was a mid-west vaudeville act from the late 1920s through 1935. The team were a married couple: Carol Hughes (Catherine Hukill, 1910-1995) and Frank Faylen (Charles Ruf, 19…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]There’s far too much celebration of hoodlums and gangsters in this culture so that’s not we’ll be doing with reference to Al Capone (1899-1947) today, but his name does pop…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Because he wrote two of the Marx Brothers’ weaker, more clueless vehicles (At the Circus and Go West), I’d love to respect Irving Brecher (1914-2008) less than I’m oblig…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AM[SHARE]Violet La Plante (1908-1984) was Laura La Plante’s kid sister, and benefited from her stardom, though she never achieved anything like the success of her famous sibling. Violet made ju…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 16, 2019
My quandary yesterday: be a day late with a tribute to Carol Channing (1921-2019), or be very late and wait until her birthday, which is just two weeks from today, when I was already plan…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24AM[SHARE]William “Buddy” Lester (1915-2002) was the younger brother of comedian Jerry Lester, though he would come to overshadow him. The brothers performed in vaudeville and nightclubs i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18AM[SHARE]Brooklyn-born Sid Silvers (1901-1976) got his show business start in the early 1920s as the vaudeville stooge to comedian and accordion player Phil Baker, interrupting the act with comic bus…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:36AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 15, 2019
I emerged just now from an uncharacteristic separation from my computer to find my feed exploding with the sudden, sad news that friend the Neo-Burlesque pioneer Miss Bonnie Dunn has passed …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PM[SHARE]Charley Rogers (1886-1956) was an old cohort of Stan Laurel’s from his music hall days. Originally from Birmingham, UK, Rogers had moved to the U.S. by 1912, where he toured vaudeville…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
