Monday, December 7, 2015
Today is the birthday of Heywood Broun (1888-1939). Like so many unfortunates, he is today chiefly remembered today for who he sat and ate lunch with, rather than the things he actually did.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]Today marks the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The ripples of that event, large and small, touched millions. In the years of World War Two, millions lost their lives, th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PM[SHARE]Saturday, December 5, 2015
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Keystone comedy Getting Acquainted, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Though Charlie is at the helm and the titular star of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:44PM[SHARE]I miss David Rakoff, and his posthumously released The Uncollected David Rakoff just makes me miss him more. I purchased it on the pub. date (late October) — it’s a measure…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:44PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Grace Moore, “The Tennessee Nightingale” (Mary Willie Grace Moore, 1898-1947). Originally from Knoxville, Moore briefly attended Ward-Belmont College in …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:39PM[SHARE]Just a few words of appreciation for the late Robert Loggia, who passed away yesterday at the age of 85.  The first word that popped into my head when I heard he had passed was irrepla…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:19AM[SHARE]Friday, December 4, 2015
Sunday, December 6 at 11am at New York’s Film Forum: Harold Lloyd’s classic feature length silent comedy The Freshman (1925). The Freshman is up there with Safety …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:09PM[SHARE]Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Christmas, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Uncategorized Tagged: burlesque, Christmas Carnivale, The Commons
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:04PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of film director Lloyd Bacon (1889-1955). Bacon was second generation show biz; his father was the actor Frank Bacon, today best known for co-authoring and starring in …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:45AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Tonight and tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies is turning out some heavy Frank Sinatra rotation. There’s lots I could write about here (Dirty Dingus McGee, anyone?) but I would be re…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:21PM[SHARE]We’d say we are excited for our friend Molly Crabapple, but she doesn’t need our excitement. She is now officially an international global force of nature. Some people just tap i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:49PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 1, 2015
This may shock you, but so be it. By inclination, I’m not a preservationist, at least not a radical one, really about anything. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that I have a t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:28PM[SHARE]Yes — I am perhaps TOO excited to report that tonight Turner Classic Movies will be showing four “Ma and Pa Kettle” comedies. These rural comedies starring Percy Kilbride a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:28PM[SHARE]Here’s irony for ya — the motive force behind Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008, the major exhibition of Coney Island inspired art now ensconced at the Br…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:31PM[SHARE]Monday, November 30, 2015
Today is the birthday of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (1835-1910). He’s an important writer for me in many ways, as he is for everybody, though I couldn’t call him my very f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:31PM[SHARE]I’m wishing all YOU Scotsmen a happy St. Andrew’s Day because, well, after a lifetime of thinking myself pretty darn Scottish, I have learned otherwise. The “S” in &#…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:56AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 26, 2015
Some charming Thanksgiving cartoons by my first cousin thrice removed: Filed under: AMERICANA, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, Thanksgiving, VISUAL ART Tagged: cartoons…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:33AM[SHARE]Filed under: Art Models/ Bathing Beauties/ Beauty Queens/ Burlesque Dancers/ Chorines/ Pin-Ups/ Sexpots/ Vamps, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORIALS/ PARADES, Hollywood (History), Thanksgiving, Wo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:50AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Fear not, Pilgrims. I have a stake in this venerated holiday. By “carve” I don’t mean “hatchet job”. More like a dissection, a picking apart for the purposes of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 24, 2015
As we blogged here yesterday, a new feature length film of the popular web series The Sisters Plotz premieres tonight at Anthology Film Archives, presented by New York Women in Film an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:38AM[SHARE]Monday, November 23, 2015
Nu, I should kvell about Plotz? Well, I predict that I will. A new feature length film of the popular web series The Sisters Plotz premieres tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives, presen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32PM[SHARE]Just following up on yesterday’s enthusiastic plug for Saints and Strangers to pull back a little. I’ll probably watch part two tonight, but I’m indifferent as to whether I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 22, 2015
Tomorrow is the birthday of the great Boris Karloff. Appropriately, Turner Classic Movies will celebrate the day with a number of his classic gloomy features. 6:00am (EST): The Mask of Fu Ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM[SHARE]Tonight and tomorrow, the National Geographic Channel will be broadcasting the premier their two part telefilm Saints and Strangers: Surviving Plymouth. This is the first Thanksgiving…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:25AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Charles Mack (1887-1934), the senior and more comical member of the blackface vaudeville comedy team “Moran and Mack”, a.k.a. “Two Black Crows̶…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:25AM[SHARE]Saturday, November 21, 2015
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Mack Sennett produced short Her Painted Hero (1915). In this early Polly Moran comedy, Polly moons around a stage door hoping …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:46PM[SHARE]Friday, November 20, 2015
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy A Night in the Show (1915). This short from Chaplin’s Essanay period is extremely interesting for…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:15PM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 18, 2015
I never regret a single minute spent in the company of the Mad Marchioness. In fact, when we are apart I am so inconsolable that I must fill the moments as best I can with healing laughter. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:04PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Very saddened just now to Google somebody I admired only to learn that he died eight months ago. Character actor Dan Von Bargen passed away back in March. He was one of several top flight ac…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:10PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Lester Allen (1891-1949). Allen originally hailed from Utica, New York which leads me to suspect that he got his start on the upstate New York-based Proctor Circuit …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:45PM[SHARE]Monday, November 16, 2015
November 16, 2005 was the official pub date for my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous. How did it come about? Trying to chase the true genesis of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:52PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
