Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Child star Dickie Moore (1925-2015) was born this day. I say “child star”, but actually Moore worked in show business in one capacity or another for over 80 years. Moore was not …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AM[SHARE]German-American beauty Leni Stengel (1901-1982) was born in Berlin on this day, a great niece of the opera composer Friedrich von Flotow. She appeared in two Broadway plays, Princess Tura…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Monday, September 11, 2017
Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Edgar Connor (1893-1934), started out singing and dancing for coppers on street corners ’til Cole and Johnson put him in their shows The Shoo-Fly…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 10, 2017
The Sunday after Labor Day is designated Grandparents Day; we observe it by taking a look at ten police/ detective characters played by late-career actors to the delight of their usually equ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AM[SHARE]Saturday, September 9, 2017
Adapted from my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, released by Bear Manor Media, 100 years ago today (September 9, 1917) Harold Ll…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AM[SHARE]Friday, September 8, 2017
September 8 is the birthday of Darwood Kenneth Smith (1929-2002) a.k.a. Darwood Kaye, a.k.a. Waldo from Our Gang. Waldo stood out it in the series, for he wasn’t one of the regular…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AM[SHARE]Just a few facts about Signor Barnello (Edward A. Barnwell, 1857-1910), born on September 8. Barnello was the best known fire-eater of his day. Originally from Decatur, Illinois, he was perf…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 7, 2017
During the silent era, Charlie Chaplin made his leading ladies from scratch, taking non-actors or aspirants with little experience and elevating them to the status of his co-stars for as lon…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Because, why the hell not, I and my friends on the Marxfest Committee (the folks who brought you Marxfest in 2014) and key cast members from our I’ll Say She Is revival, are back this …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]Kenny Delmar (Kenneth Frederick Fay Howard, 1910-1984) was born on this day. Â A household word in the late 1940s, today he is known only to show biz buffs, usually as a footnote in the hi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Monday, September 4, 2017
We are in the midst of a Close Encounters of the Third Kind re-release in celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary (though it wasn’t actually released until December). I …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]On September 4 was born the 19th century actor Lewis Morrison (Morris W. Morris, 1844-1906). Morrison is interesting for all sorts of reasons but three especially: He begat a theatrical and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 3, 2017
Tin Pan Alley songwriter and publisher Fred Fisher (Alfred Breitenbach, 1875-1942) was born on this day. German born Breitenbach moved to the U.S. around the turn of the century, initiall…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:33PM[SHARE]September is the birthday of comic actress Barbara Jo Allen (Marian Barbara Henshall, 1906-1974). Partially raised in the Los Angeles area by an aunt and uncle, Allen had a most unusual pedi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24PM[SHARE]Flora Parker (1883-1950) was born on September 1. I have a special interest in this old school actress — she has the same maiden name as my grandmother! The famous actress came from Pe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 31, 2017
August 31 is the birthday of Lucille Carlisle (Ida Lucile White, 1895-1958). Lucille had a short but significant silent movie career as Larry Semon’s leading lady during some of his pe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Burlesque legend Zorita (Kathryn Boyd or Ada Brockett, 1915-2001) was born on August 30. Orphaned as a baby and raised by strictly religious adoptive parents in Youngstown, Ohio, by her teen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 29, 2017
I had a splendid visit the other day with young newlyweds Josh and Lyndsay Aviner of the Hideaway Circus when they had me as their guest on their podcast program. Variety producers themselve…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the greatest American comic auteur of the post-silent era Preston Sturges (1898-1959). Hear me now and believe me later, as Hans and Franz used to say: Sturges REMAI…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Monday, August 28, 2017
August 28 is the birthday of the late Dixie Evans (Mary Lee Evans, 1926-2013). Originally from Long Beach California, Evans was already successful as a model, chorus girl, and burlesque star…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 27, 2017
Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the release of Chumps and Chances, the first comedy short starring Larry Semon. Semon had been directing and otherwise contributing to comedies for at…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 24, 2017
I was born in the 1960s. Around here, nostalgia doesn’t mean vaudeville, it means old television shows from the 1970s. Except when THAT turns out to be vaudeville. The other day we wen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Filed under: Indie Theatre, PLUGS Tagged: Dream Up Festival, Theater for the New City
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Happy Birthday, Valerie Harper, born this day in 1939. The most surprising thing one learns about Harper, given her long association with Jewish characters, is that she is not Jewish. She…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:04AM[SHARE]Monday, August 21, 2017
It’s Senior Citizens Day, a fitting time I think to briefly examine a peculiar phenomenon I have long observed: the longevity of comedians. Something about being in the laugh business …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]We are at an interesting historical moment. Baby Boomers, a generation which once pegged its identity to youth, are now Senior Citizens. But it’s become difficult to know what age mean…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 20, 2017
Because we like to swim in dangerous waters, we thought we’d ruin your Sunday by dashing off a quick listicle ranking the top ten male classic movie comedy teams of the sound era. By &…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 17, 2017
I marked this on my calendar to write about today: 30 years ago (yesterday and today) there occurred a curious alignment of stars and planets that New Age people called “the Harmonic C…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Today is National Roller Coaster Day! It’s not nearly enough well known that Coney Island was the birthplace of the roller coaster, forgotten mostly because Coney Island amusement p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 15, 2017
This post was originally intended for Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday, but since it’s not actually about the Master of Suspense himself but only some of his imitators, any old day…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:04PM[SHARE]Monday, August 14, 2017
For Bob Woolsey’s birthday, we consolidate all of our previous posts on the films of the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey into one big monster post. Looked at all at once, RKO&…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
