Thursday, September 19, 2013
Today is the birthday of Adam West (William West Anderson, b. 1928). West had been a hack actor in Hollywood for a dozen years before becoming a parody of a hack actor in Batman …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:04AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Roger Wolfe Kahn (1907-1962). The son of millionaire industrialist and patron of the arts Otto Kahn, he had plenty of backing to start his own orchestra in 1923 at a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:20AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977). Hired by Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount) in 1923 to be their answer to the Latin Lover craze, he was actually named Jacob Krantz, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:01AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Noah Orr (1836-1882). Standing 7′ 3″ in stocking feet (but nine feet in his military boots and hat), he went to work for P.T. Barnum’s American Mus…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:22AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Originally posted in 2010 Indelibly identified with the character "Rochester", Jack Benny's raspy-voiced, wisecracking comic butler on radio and tv from 1937 to 1965, Eddie Anderson ha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:52PM[SHARE]Time once again for the NY Clown Theatre Festival, ensconced at the Brick Theater, September 18 – September 29. For all the details go to:Â http://bricktheater.com Filed under: Clown…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:20AM[SHARE]We have been able to discover only a little about Madame Rosina Casselli, who sang, did eccentric dances, and, above all, presented an entire troupe of trained chihuahuas. Ancestry.com gives…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:33AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of songwriter Sam H. Stept (1898-1964). Born in Russia and raised in Pittsburg, Stept started out in vaudeville as a song plugger and accompanist for the likes of Mae W…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Today is the birthday of one of America’s greatest songwriters and performers, Hiram “Hank” Williams (1923-1953). Unlike his precursor Jimmie Rogers, Williams came along to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:41PM[SHARE]Around our house we are big fans of A) Ghosts; B) the Victorian Era; C) Famous Murderers; and D) Jenny Lee Mitchell! So we are excited to report the news that the home video DVD of JennyR…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:19PM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2011 Winnie Lightner (born Winifred Reeve on this day in 1899) is best known today as a movie star of the pre-code era, 1929-34Â (not because she was particularly racy…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:23AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2011 Today is the birthday of Ira Erastus Davenport (1839-1911). It was Ira who eventually confessed to Houdini (an acorn off of his own tree) that the spiritualis…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:17AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Esther Ralston (1902-1994). She began her performing career in the family vaudeville act ”The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America’s Youngest Juli…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AM[SHARE]A King and Three Jokers Originally posted in 2012 The Wiere Brothers unfortunately came along too late for American vaudeville, hence we do not include them in our Stars of Vaudeville Ser…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:00AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of James Grover Tarver (1885-1958). During his 26 years with various sideshows (1914-1940) he was billed at different times as “Texas Jim”, the Texas Giant&…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AM[SHARE]Monday, September 16, 2013
Congratulations to our friend and sometime collaborator Jim R. Moore was is being honored by the  Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York with an aptly named Local Hero Award in a speci…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:07AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of magician David Copperfield, who is really only David Seth Kotkin of Metuchen, New Jersey — but thanks for making it harder for children to Google the Dickens&#…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great Broadway impresario Earl Carroll (1892-1948), best known for his series of revues Earl Carroll’s Vanities , which …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:01AM[SHARE]Â Today is the birthday of Daisy Ann Peterkin (1884-1952). Originally from St. Louis, as a youth she was interested in the modern dancing of Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan, and went to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:22AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Renée Claire Angèle Élisabeth Napierkowski, a.k.a. Stacia Napierkowska (1891-1945). The Polish-born actress, pantomime and interpretive dancer lived and per…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:40AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 15, 2013
Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of Julius “Nipsy” Russell (1918-2005). Those of us a certain age remember him as the guy who used to go on all the game show…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:25AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2010. Penny Singleton (born this day in 1908) is best known today for playing the title role in the film and radio adaptations of Chic Young’s comic strip B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Originally posted in 2012 Today is the birthday of the great American humorist Robert Benchley (1889-1945). A native of Worcester, Massachusetts (you can hear it in his accent), he later wen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:00AM[SHARE]Today marks a sad anniversary, for on this day in 1885, the most famous elephant star of them all, Jumbo met his untimely end on the railroad tracks. Born in the Sudan in 1861, Jumbo had pre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:39AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of the great American author James Fenimore Cooper (1759-1851). I am one of the few Americans whose pilgrimage to Cooperstown was completely unconcerned with baseball, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:50AM[SHARE]Today (according to IMDB is the birthday of African American show business Renaissance man William “Billy” McClain (1870-1950): musician, acrobat, minstrel performer, producer, a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:20AM[SHARE]Saturday, September 14, 2013
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Cutting Room, Dark Carnival Burlesque, Hell on Heels
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:51AM[SHARE]Every Sunday in September TCM is showing dozens of works by Alfred Hitchcock from morning until…well into the next morning. It’s not the entire canon, but it’s enough…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:44AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Jon “Bowzer” Bauman (b. 1947), a fitting occasion I warrant to recall the syndicated variety show he starred in along with another dozen or so guys in th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of stage and screen comedian Billie Ritchie (1878-1921). A native of Glasgow Scotland, Ritchie got his start in music hall with Karno’s Speechless Comedians, spri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:10AM[SHARE]Friday, September 13, 2013
Here’s a little tidbit that would have been a perfect column item if your correspondent had such an old-fashioned thing as a show biz column. But I do have a blog, so here is where we …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:50PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
