travsd

Requiem for a Strong Man

Several people alerted me to this gentleman’s passing this week. I didn’t know him but am glad to have heard about him and sorry not to have met him. Coney Island strong man Joe Rollino was felled this week at the age of 104, and apparently nothing short of an errant automobile could fell him. It’s not to late to acquant yourself with this interesting character. The Coney Island Oral History Project was fortunate in capturing him in conversation. And there are excellent obituaries at the NYTimes and NYPost. The lesson of this story is EAT YOUR WHEATIES!

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.

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