Monday, February 26, 2018
Born February 26, Irene Lydia Siewert Jewell a.k.a. Ricki Covette (1925-2016). Originally from British Columbia, Ricki eventually grew to a height of 6’8″, making her easily the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24AM[SHARE]Godfrey Cambridge (1933-1976) is badly missed. There’s no way in hell Cambridge didn’t help to drastically rewire the white American public’s impressions of black America, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:14AM[SHARE]Born today: Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg (1920-1984) known better to the world by his stage name Tony Randall. We’ve already paid tribute to Randall’s co-starring turn on the origi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:26AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 25, 2018
Happy birthday, Larry Gelbart (1928-2009)! Among Sid Caesar’s list of legendary writers, Gelbart’s is normally noted somewhere after Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and cast …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:44PM[SHARE]Broadway producer and director Jed Harris (1900-1979), was born on this day. It’s hard to reconcile the opinions of people who knew Harris with his amazing theatrical output. Everybody…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:11PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of minor movie star Wini Shaw, often billed as Winfred Shaw (Winifred Lei Momi , 1907-1982). Shaw was of Hawaiian descent, the youngest of 13 children. She grew up i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:51AM[SHARE]Friday, February 23, 2018
Just got the word that Nanette Fabray (b. 1920) passed away today. She’d been retired for a decade; it was a surprise to know that she was still with us. When I was a kid growing up in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:43PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 22, 2018
Film and television actor Robert Young (1907-1998) was born on this day. Young’s career can neatly be divided into four phases: Movie Actor (1931-1954) I grew up during Young’s l…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:47AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Frank Orth and Ann Codee were an unusual male-female comedy team in that Codee (Anna Marie Vannuefflin, 1890-1961) was from Belgium, and spoke with what Americans took for a French accent. H…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:26AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Robert Altman (1925-2006) was born on this day. Do you believe he’s been dead a dozen years? He doesn’t seem dead. He’s so present in his films, and his films are so alive …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:35PM[SHARE]Monday, February 19, 2018
It’s President’s Day AND Black History Month. Time for YOU to get better acquainted with the 1933 Vitaphone musical short Rufus Jones for President! Directed by Roy Mack, Rufus J…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:47AM[SHARE]On this day in 1918 were born Naomi and Ruth Stevenson, known to posterity as Barbara and Glora Brewster, a.k.a. the Brewster Twins. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, the singing, dancing…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:47AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 18, 2018
George Kleine (1864-1931) was an early film producer, best known for founding the Kalem Company, whose stable included comedians and actors like Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew,  Ham and Bud,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:17AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 17, 2018
February 17 is the birthday of Priscilla Bonner (1899-1996). Bonner’s career as a silent film actress co-existed almost precisely with the decade of the 1920s: 1920-1929. Our main poin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]George Bickel (1863-1941) was born on this day. Originally from Saginaw, Michigan, Bickel was a circus, burlesque and vaudeville comedian who gained greatest popularity in a trio called R…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:26AM[SHARE]Friday, February 16, 2018
A little birthday love for musical star Vera-Ellen (Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe, 1921-1981). I’m not sure I would have flagged her for attention in this space if not for the fact that sh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]Born today: The First Lady of the American Theatre, Katharine Cornell (1893-1974). Helen Hayes is also sometimes called by that honorary title, but Cornell I think can lay the greater claim,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:07AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 15, 2018
February 15 is the natal day of Gale Sondergaard (1889-1985). There are several reasons in particular we wanted to mention her today. One is that, because she was often cast as a dark woman …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:10PM[SHARE]Ezra Kendall (1861-1910) was a popular comic actor, playwright, impresario, humor author, and vaudeville monologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kendall was the son of a Centre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:22AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 14, 2018
I have been sitting on this post for years. It was certainly percolating prior to Harold Ramis’s death, and then his death (four years ago this February 24) kicked the sentiments that …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:29AM[SHARE]Val Harris (Valle Edward Harris, 1882-1961) became known for one particular specialty in vaudeville, playing a crusty old western coot who was full of stories. He worked with a variety of pa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:35AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Just a brief squib for Fat Tuesday. Being as we are huge fans of New Orleans, we would never for a moment slight the mother of all Mardi Gras parades today but we did want to briefly mention…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PM[SHARE]Monday, February 12, 2018
Today is the birthday of our Greatest President. In honor of the day, a look at some notable Lincolns of screens big and small. The Birth of a Nation (1915) We’ve previous blogged abou…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:37AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 11, 2018
For the record, I generally scorn blooper reels; as something to laugh at they rank for me somewhere below farts and dick humor and that is very low on the Travy Scale indeed. But one of our…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:44AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 10, 2018
February 10 marks the natal day of English essayist, poet, critic, novelist, and playwright Charles Lamb (1775-1834). Even if no theatrical clubs had been named after him, I’d ultimate…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:43AM[SHARE]February 10 was the birthday of British impresario and performer Phyllis Dixey (1914-1964). Dixey is best remembered as a “striptease artiste” but her career was much more varied…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:21AM[SHARE]Friday, February 9, 2018
February 9 is the birthday of the great Peruvian-American pin-up artist Alberto Vargas (Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez, 1896-1982). Vargas learned airbrushing techniques at the studi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:21AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 8, 2018
Broadway and vaudeville stage performer Lotta Faust (1880-1910) was born on this day. I am surprised to learn that Lotta Faust appears to have been her real name — it’s a perfect…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:29AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Thanks to the tv show Showtime at the Apollo (1987-2008) and subsequent shows like Apollo Live, Harlem’s Apollo Theater may well be the most famous variety venue in the United States, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:16AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Voiceover actor (and actor actor)Â Walker Edmiston (1926-2007) was born on this day. I’m not sure if I would have done a post on him, but for one cool fact: his voice for Dr. Blinky …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:58AM[SHARE]Monday, February 5, 2018
Black History Month is the perfect time to acknowledge an iconic venue that provided prestige, high salaries and a prominent outlet for so many of the African American entertainers we’…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:00AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
