travsd

Tiny Lavonda

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Today is the birthday of LaVonda Stapp, (1920-1963), variously billed as Tiny LaVonda, Little LaVonda, Princess Lavonda, and Lady LaVonda, and always “The Smallest Woman in the World.” At about 24 inches tall she had a fair claim to the title, although her condition made it impossible for her to stand so she could never be properly measured (she had no legs; her feet sprang directly out of her torso). She performed with the sideshow at the Clyde Beatty circus, and had to be pushed around in a tiny wheelchair.

In 1945, she married a dwarf circus clown named Alva Evans and was proud to bear him a son although the child only lived a few days.

To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t miss Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.

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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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