Tuesday, December 30, 2014
2014 was a sad and violent year both at home and abroad, but we’ve already done more than our share of hollering about it from the seat of my rocking chair on my virtual front porch. I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:00AM[SHARE]Monday, December 29, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Eddie Cantor comedy Roman Scandals (1933), devised for him by George S. Kaufman and Robert E. Sherwood. The film is a very fu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:05AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the 1933 Laurel and Hardy feature Sons of the Desert, directed by William Seiter. This remains one of the all-time favorite Laurel and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:16AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Laurel and Hardy comedy short We Faw Down (1928), directed by Leo McCarey. This wonderful little symphony of comic incident starts w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:27AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 28, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd short From Hand to Mouth (1919). This is an interesting one. Much as Chaplin is sort of “doing Lloyd” inÂ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:39AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks comedy When the Clouds Roll By (1919 ) , directed by Victor Fleming. Fairbanks plays a young Wall Street worker who i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:20AM[SHARE]Friday, December 26, 2014
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 8pm (EST): Billy Rose’s Jumbo Sizewise, the stage original of Billy Rose’s Jumbo was the most colossal show in Broadway history. The…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:35AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Hook, Line and Sinker (1930), directed by Eddie Cline. Though the comedians are in fine form, the plot of this …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:43AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd short Number, Please? (1920) While the climax to this short is one of the film’s best, the set-up is one of his m…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:31AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the Syd Chaplin  comedy A Submarine Pirate (1915). A major hit in its day and still the best known comedy of its star Syd Chaplin (Charlie’s brother) …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the Mack Sennett-produced comedy Flirty Four Flushers (1922), directed by Eddie Cline. The film is a remake of the 1910 Biograph comedy A Summer Tragedy,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:52AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 25, 2014
Tomorrow morning at 4:30 am (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Marx Brothers‘ At the Circus (1939). I think many of us have an unfortunate tendency to lump At the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:17PM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the Harold Lloyd comedy A Sailor Made Man (1921). You see? They had Christmas releases even back then. At four reels, it was Lloyd’s longest comedy to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:50AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Douglas Fairbanks film The Americano (1916), written by Anita Loos and John Emerson, directed by the latter and shot by Victor Fl…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 23, 2014
My worship of Bob Hope grows apace. He has always been a divisive figure, even among families. He was my maternal grandfather’s favorite comedian; my father hated him (he always detest…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:08PM[SHARE]Â Here’s a bit of undigested news hot off the presses…more to follow, but here’s the official announcement: Contact: Ron Lasko @Â 212-505-1700 x. 11 La MaMa ETC in ass…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:31AM[SHARE]Monday, December 22, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the release of Paramount’s all-star 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland, directed by Norman McLeod. A.I.W. is one of those works of literature that ha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Buster Keaton silent comedy short The Sacrecrow (1920, released the very same day as Neighbors). The Scarecrow is one of Ke…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:58AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Buster Keaton silent comedy short Neighbors (1920, released on the very same day as The Scarecrow). Buster and his girl (Virginia…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:39AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of George LeMaire (Meyer Goldstick, 1884-1930). I grow highly intrigued by the show biz LeMaire family (George, Rufus, William and Sam), as I find scattered references …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:19AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (1821-1883). One might be tempted to describe him as the ne’er-do-well of the three Booth brothers, until you recall that one of those…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 21, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the early Harold Lloyd comedy Peculiar Patients’ Pranks (1915), directed by Hal Roach. The second oldest surviving Lonesome Luke s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:28PM[SHARE]Today marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the Keystone comedy Fatty and Minnie He-Haw. The title virtually says it all if you really use your noggin. The formula is essentia…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:05AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 20, 2014
 Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Charley Chase short His Wooden Wedding (1925), directed by Leo McCarey. In this hilarious silent short, Chase plays a young man wh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12PM[SHARE]Tonight (tomorrow morning really) at 2 am (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing that new-old strange-oid classic Santa Claus (1959) This has to have been one of the first movies I e…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:05PM[SHARE]Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Coney Island USA, Twilight Zone Burlesque
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:39AM[SHARE]Friday, December 19, 2014
Filed under: HOLIDAYS, FESTIVALS, MEMORIALS & PARADES, Music Tagged: Christmas, Gotham Holiday Swing, Town Hall, Vince Giordano
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:59AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 18, 2014
December 18, 1937 was the release date of the Mae West comedy Every Day’s a Holiday, directed by Eddie Sutherland. From a certain perspective it is the last proper Mae West starring ve…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32PM[SHARE]December 18, 1915 was the release date of Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque on Carmen . Chaplin's last official film for Essanay, Â Carmen would represent the fruit of his dawning ambition…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:28PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 17, 2014
December 19, 1927 was the release date of the lost film Two Flaming Youths starring W.C. Fields and Chester Conklin. For a period of a few months Paramount tried the pair as a team, hoping t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:11PM[SHARE]Arthur Frank Wertheim, author of the excellent Vaudeville Wars, has just released part one of his new, comprehensive two volume book on the career of W.C. Fields…just in time for…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:16AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
