Monday, January 15, 2024
Back in the late 20th century, though there were more important things to worry about, I was nonetheless dismissive of Liz Taylor's designation of Michael Jackson as "King of Pop", for the m…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 14, 2024
Born 100 years ago today: actor Guy Williams (Armando Joseph Catalano, 1924-1989) Our previous excuse for a post about Guy Williams was pretty much all about Lost in Space, so I thought toda…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PM[SHARE]Just got the bulletin about the passing away yesterday of Joyce Randolph (Joyce Serola, b. 1924), best known as the actress who played Trixie on The Honeymooners, both as a series of sketche…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PM[SHARE]Saturday, January 13, 2024
January 13 is the birthday of the great Julia Louis-Dreyfus (b. 1961). JLD has been a star now over 40 years, which is particularly painful for me to say because I'm only four years younger …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PM[SHARE]Friday, January 12, 2024
A post this morning on an important but forgotten figure from vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood history Jack McGowan (John Wesley McGowan, 1894-1977) While I've long known about some of the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PM[SHARE]I'm very sorry to hear of the passing away of author David J. Skal (1952-2024). When I signed with FSG to write my first book, one of the first things my visionary editor Denise Oswald did w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 11, 2024
A gent named Mark Thompson took the color pix I share below; I borrowed them from his spread on the RI Memories website, which I feel okay doing since I also link you to the full page here.Ă…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42PM[SHARE]The title of this post is a little bit of a "gotcha" for Coney Island fans. The fact is, Coney Island's Luna Park was so culturally influential that scores of amusement parks all over the wo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM[SHARE]Today's homily (an occasional one here) concerns the truth that Hollywood is not necessarily the be-all and end-all for all performers. Case in point: singer-actor George Houston (1896-1944)…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Our salute to Sal Mineo (1939-1976) contains what may amount to revelations to some. He departed this life during a lull in his career that I feel confident would not have been permanent. Bu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:02PM[SHARE]Elaine Devry, sometimes billed as Elaine Davis or Elaine Curtis, passed away back in September, and her life and career were interesting in several respects so I made a note to schedule a po…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 9, 2024
I imagine I first knew about Fernando Lamas (Fernando ĂÂlvaro Lamas y de Santos, 1915-1982) by way of his being kidded on Saturday Night Live " no less than twice. The first occasion was t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]The Torn Page space in Chelsea is one of my favorite NYC venues. It's located in the actual west side town house of the late Rip Torn and Geraldine Page! Tony Torn has directed a terrific ne…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Monday, January 8, 2024
Having already written posts about Chico's sole progeny Maxine, and two of Groucho's children, Arthur and Miriam, it seems equitable that this January 8 we pay birthday tribute to Harpo's ol…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 7, 2024
No sooner did Funhouse Philosophers (Dick Zigun's company) and Bread and Puppet Theater close their wonderful shows at Theater for the New City than we received all manner of additional bull…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PM[SHARE]Here's an extraordinary fact: the screen career of Terry Moore (Helen Luella Koford, b. 1929) which began in 1940, remains technically open ended. Moore's professional credits stretch out ov…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 6, 2024
The above image is Olga Georges-Picot (1940-1997) as the Countess Alexandrovna in Woody Allen's Love and Death (1974), probably her best known role to readers of this blog. She was hired to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Friday, January 5, 2024
Exciting news for lovers of clown, mime, and all physical and movement-based theatre: PhysFestNYC, a new 10 day physical theatre festival produced at the Stella Adler Center for the Arts by …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]January 5 was the birthday of newspaperman Herbert Bayard Swope (1882-1958). You'd be correct in noticing that it's unusual for us to give attention to a straight news journalist on this blo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 4, 2024
Marla English (1936-2012) only racked up 18 screen credits in a film career lasting just just over two years, but she left an imprint. The model and beauty pageant winner was still a teenage…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Just learned from Jeff Lewonczyk's heartfelt memoriam that an important member of the indie theatre community, photographer Ken Stein has been taken by cancer. Jeff's tribute is definitive s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:02PM[SHARE]In anticipation of your inevitable question, yes, Josephine Hull (Josephine Sherwood, 1877-1957) WAS related to Henry Hull, she was his sister-in-law. There were three thespian Hull brothers…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Not that Roger Miller (1936-1992) did anything in particular so awful that I know of that requires redemption. His worst sin perhaps was allowing himself to be goofy for the amusement of aud…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]Monday, January 1, 2024
Even among Little People actors, Verne Troyer (1969-1918) ranked as extraordinary. Standing 2ĂąâŹÂČ 8ĂąâŹÂł (two and 2/3 feet) he made actors like Billy Barty or Michael Dunn seem unremark…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PM[SHARE]Mickey Mouse is always in the news, but in recent weeks that truth has stepped up a notch in light of a timely development: as of today, the earliest versions of Mickey have lapsed into the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 31, 2023
We had no sooner gotten wind of the death of Maurice Hines and were mulling some sort of comment on the sad event (and"Ye Gods"its 20 years since we lost Gregory) than the news arrived that …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AM[SHARE]Peggy Davis (Mary Margaret Laird, 1899-1931) left behind few fans but many questions when she drove her car off a 600 foot cliff at the age of 31. The Birmingham, Alabama native had been sin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48AM[SHARE]Today's post concerns Everett Marshall (1901-1965) the star of musicals, not Everett Marshall the professional wrestler, who was almost exactly the same age. Originally from Lawrence, Mass.,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 30, 2023
The stage and screen couple of Joe Bologna (1934-2017) and RenĂ©e Taylor (RenĂ©e AdorĂ©e Wexler, b. 1933) are top of mind at the moment, as they were in the movie Tango Shalom (2021) with my…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PM[SHARE]Friday, December 29, 2023
Ya see what I did there? 23 " it's just like the chromosomes! As we are wont to do this time of year, we take a look back on what we've accomplished during the preceding twelvemonth. Did any…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:06PM[SHARE]December 29 was the birthday of the late Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017). When Moore passed away (yipes, seven years ago) I dashed off a tribute that was grief-stricken and glowing but a little…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
