Monday, May 10, 2021
There is unavoidable injustice in how character actor George Coe (George Cohen, 1929-2015) is normally described. He was a footnote in a major phenomenon, and that brief hiccup tends to over…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 9, 2021
We have two excellent reasons for celebrating Candice Bergen on her 75th birthday. One is that she is the daughter of the great vaudeville, screen and radio star, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PM[SHARE]For J.M. Barrie's birthday, we have previously written about his connection to vaudeville, and a couple of versions of his most lastingly famous creation. Today, an overdue post on most of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]I know, I know, this post is SO 2019, but it wasn't until I watched the most recent film I mention here that I realized that there had been enough versions of this one story to constitute an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 8, 2021
Once again, we are inspired to acknowledge World Collage Day (two years ago we observed it with a post on the Beatles' Revolver). We begin with what is more properly described as decoupage. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42AM[SHARE]Friday, May 7, 2021
Billed as "The Boy Magician" long after his boyhood had fled, Frank Ducrot (Theodore Francis Fritz, 1872-1939) performed in vaudeville, Chautauquas, circuses, and tent shows. At various time…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 6, 2021
My friend Kathy Biehl is a highly eclectic Renaissance woman: I first met her when she was cast in the Margaret Dumont role in I'll Say She Is, and was a fellow member of the planning commit…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PM[SHARE]On May 6, 1910, King Edward VII of Britain shuffled off this moral coil. We thought it an appropriate time to briefly explore an historic theatrical form that continues to bear his name, one…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Truth is never simple, so here are some truths: 1) Marxism is a discredited pseudo-science; 2) Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a philosophical genius; 3) Communist Totalitarianism inspired by Marx…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]Okay, stay with me, now: as Karl Dane is to George Arthur, so is Kit Guard to Al Cooke. Right now you're probably making a face like Guard (above) but I assure you there is a sense to this c…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]A few words this morning on the colorful and worthy topic of Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran, 1864-1922). Bly was an investigative journalist who became a pop culture phenonemon on accoun…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Today is International Firefighters Day as well as the anniversary of Paris's terrible fire at Le Bazar de la Charité. It is fitting that we show firefighters appreciation and respect. H…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:33AM[SHARE]Ventriloquists frequently change their dummies, but here's a rare case of a dummy getting a new ventriloquist. Terri Rogers (born Ivan Southgate, 1937-1999) started out with a music hall ven…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18AM[SHARE]Monday, May 3, 2021
We've already touched on various aspects of the career of Bing Crosby (1903-77) here, including posts on his early years with Paul Whiteman and the Rhythm Boys. his cinematic team-up with Bo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PM[SHARE]Quite recently I watched an old 1980 Love Boat episode that shocked me by containing a performance by Walter Slezak (1902-1983). Those who remember him from Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PM[SHARE]Our main interest in actor Jack La Rue (Gaspare Biondolillo, 1902-1984) is in his association with Mae West. He was in Mae's historic Broadway production Diamond LIl (1928) which later becam…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]I am that rare person who's not a big fan of Pete Seeger as a performer (1919-2014). I prefer my folksingers more rough-hewn and genuinely working class. And the gentle, soft-spoken, educate…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 2, 2021
We'll stipulate that Brian Aherne (William Brian de Lacy Aherne, 1902-1986) was one of the more non-descript members of Hollywood's British colony during the classic studio years. We have st…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 1, 2021
There is everything to love about Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903) and she has something for everybody. Frontier figure and drag king; teller of tall tales and participant in m…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]May 1 is traditionally International Workers' Day in much of the world. What better way to observe it than with the release of Edward Einhorn's three part radio adaptation of Jack London's 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AM[SHARE]Friday, April 30, 2021
Loking to expand your ventriloquial library beyond Rick MItchell's Ventriloquism book (for which we wrote the introduction) and the great how-to classics by the likes of the Great Lester, Ed…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Prince Kar-mi, or simply Kar-mi, or Karmi, is one to add to our list of faux South Asians in the variety arts, for he was really Joseph Bryant Hallworth (1872-1956) of Chelsea, Massachusetts…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 29, 2021
Some friends were asking about this just the other day, so I'm very excited to be able to share the news that Slate critic Dana Steven's upcoming book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06PM[SHARE]For International Dance Day, today we fondly share remembrances of the Dance Liberation Front. 20+ years ago (circa 1999), all of the performers and producers from Surf Reality and Collectiv…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Oh yeah, you know I'm all over this! So excited to announce that today is the release date for Johan Von Sydow's new documentary Tiny Tim: King for a Day. As I wrote here, I am a major leagu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]We have had occasion to mention Bryant Washburn (Franklin Bryant Washburn III, 1889-1963) several times in the past, for he starred in such silent fare as Twenty One (1918) with Gertrude Sel…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 27, 2021
A brief introduction, should one be needed, to the life and work of Kitty Kelly (Sue O'Neill, 1902-1968). Standing a mere 4'11" in adulthood, the pint-sized Kelly first enters the documentar…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Monday, April 26, 2021
Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (1899-1962) was a protege of Will Rogers, who bestowed upon him his first movie roles as well as his nickname, which was often employed as his sole billing, and some…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 25, 2021
Today we direct your attention to a beautiful eccentric of early television days, Dotty Mack (Dorothy Macaluso, 1929-2019). Mack was a a Cincinnati shop girl and mannequin (live in-store mod…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 24, 2021
Well, here's one unexpected positive outcome of the Covid-19 epidemic: for the first time in decades I've seen nearly all of the films nominated in major Oscar categories. This is naturally …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Friday, April 23, 2021
I assumed that I would not like Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round, and at first I didn't. It seemed like it inevitably had to veer into one of two directions: 1) a high-concept, rather unsav…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
