Friday, December 27, 2013
Today is the birthday of Cliff Arquette (1905-1974). Arquette’s popular character Charley Weaver was very much a presence on tv when I was a kid, most prominently on Hollywood Squar…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:36AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Al Mardo (1894-?). Mardo got his show business start around 1910 dancing on the street for coins and amateur boxing in Providence, Rhode Island .He began to compe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:29AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 26, 2013
Today is December 26, known variously abroad as Boxing Day, St. Stephens Day, and Second Christmas Day. Apparently the U.S. is the only western country that hasn’t figured out what to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:59AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Eat your heart out Megyn Kelly! Here’s proof that you’re wrong. Amos and Andy did “Andy Plays Santa” episodes twice, one for radio in 1946: And one for tv in 19…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:15AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2009 This gal's fame was similar to that enjoyed by such wonderful recent “entertainers” as Lorena Bobbit, Monica Lewinsky, and O.J. Simpson. Nesbit was an o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:05AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2009 Her rendition of "Rosie, You Are My Posie" supposedly inspired Al Jolson to go into show business. Eddie Cantor once stole tickets to see her perform.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:50AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2009 A transplant from the Yiddish theatre of New York's Lower East Side, Belle Baker combined an extraordinary talent with an honest ethnic sensibility that helped brea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:45AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Joseph M. Schenck (1878-1961). We refer to him as the “Other” Joe Schenck, because we have already written about another one, who was one half of the vau…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Tony Martin (Alvin Morris, 1919-2013), big band singer and minor movie star of the 1930s through the 1950s. I’m not sure if I’d give him attention here o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts. Who’s more Jewish than Fanny Brice? Nobody! But nothing will keep Baby Snooks with her appointed rendez-vous with…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:05PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Howard Hughes (1905-1975). Hughes was many things: heir to a fortune; airplane designer, manufacturer and test pilot; eccentric recluse; and conservative ideologue; …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:38AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great Victorian poet, essayist and cultural critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). This year I read Culture and Anarchy (1867-1869) for the first time and I su…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:09AM[SHARE]Monday, December 23, 2013
Looka here — I have verified empirically what we have all sensed instinctively: there are way too many friggin’ versions of Charles Dickens‘ 1843 story A Christmas…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:37AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 22, 2013
Here’s a charming Christmas film made by D.W. Griffith for Biograph in 1909. A father loses his job and is demoralized, so he takes a run-out powder on his family, get me? They’r…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:02PM[SHARE]Another in our long series of Christmas themed old time show biz post: I generally associate Doris Day with the 50s and 60s, and thus think of her as too young for Radio Days…but the f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:15PM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Alan Carney (David Boughal, 1909-1973).Carney worked in vaudeville for years as a dialect comedian before being signed by RKO in 1943, where his first picture wasÂ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:17AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 21, 2013
Another in our series of holiday themed posts: The long running sit-com series starring big bandleader Ozzie Nelson, his wife Harriet and boys Ricky and David was so popular it encompassed b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:28AM[SHARE]Another in our series of Christmas theme old time show biz posts… Nowadays we tend to remember Jack Haley primarily as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, but Haley was in a ton of o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:49AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Carl Wilson (1946-1998), the youngest of the Beach Boys’ Wilson brothers, their influential lead guitarist, and lead singer on several of their important songs…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:26AM[SHARE]I unearthed this gem to my delight the other day when I was looking up Robert Urich clips, because that’s how I roll! Get it? Bulldozer? Roll? As you might expect, Killdozer (197…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:58AM[SHARE]A timely topic and one I warrant has been a source of confusion for many Americans  travelling abroad during the holidays. Pantomime is one of those theatrical terms, like burlesque, vaud…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:49AM[SHARE]Friday, December 20, 2013
Two blogposts with a common theme came my way this morning having to do with consideration for others. I found them both galvanizing and each in their own way inspirational. This, more intro…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:20PM[SHARE]Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts… Not that it’s much talked about, but probably the most talked-about part of my new book Chain of Fools is…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:37AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 19, 2013
Today is the birthday of late Robert Urich (1946-2002). About Vega$, Spenser for Hire or The Lazarus Man (or about any of a dozen of his other series) I have nothing to say; I ne…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:12PM[SHARE]Â Another in our series of crazy Christmas themed posts… We’ll be writing quite a bit more about this lacklustre but once omnipresent police procedural series in a few days &#…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:13PM[SHARE] Today is the birthday of the great jazz pioneer Joe “King” Oliver (1881-1938), a cornet player and trumpeter often considered a sort of link in the chain between the legen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:22PM[SHARE]Another in our series of Christmas themed old time show biz posts. Orson Welles and his company The Mercury Theatre present Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge in their radio version of Dickens&…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:59AM[SHARE]Another in our series of Christmas themed posts. This short by the Edison Company, released in December, 1912 and directed by Harold M. Shaw, is a contemporary riff on A Christmas Carol, wit…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:01AM[SHARE]We are pleased to present A Change in Brunch Plans, one of several silent comedy experiments we are making in connection with our new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Another in our series of Christmas themed posts. This one used to be a sort of annual classic back in the heyday of Broadcast television. The Waltons was of course the long-running CBS show …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:07PM[SHARE]Another in our series of Christmas themed posts… Best known today as Mr. Television, Milton Berle had also had a flourishing career in radio since 1934. (And of course vaudeville. For …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:22PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
