Being a web log for the observations of actor, author, cartoonist, comedian, critic, director, humorist, journalist, master of ceremonies, performance artist, playwright, producer, publicist, public speaker, songwriter, and variety booker Trav S.D.
“There’s someone for everybody” goes the old matchmaker’s expression, and perhaps no words rang truer on February 9, 1863, the day that professional little person Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) married Lavinia Warren at Grace Church, New York. (I believe that’s Lavinia’s sister Minnie Warren as Maid of Honor; and Commodore Nutt as Best Man). This little stunt, the “Fairy Wedding” by the press, lightened people’s hearts during the depths of the Civil War. We present it to you in the same spirit today.
It wasn’t just a publicity stunt, however; the two were a real couple. But even so, their boss P.T. Barnum was probably not too unhappy when the big event resulted in coverage like this:
“I love you completely, my own, my all. But above all, I love this front page coverage in Harpers!”
Okay, “last” is probably a bit optimistic, cuz pix are still trickling in. But since we pretty much inundated social media with images all day yesterday I just wanted to assure those friends who are probably already tired of it that the deluge is just about over! However, there are folks who only follow us here on Travalanche, and this seemed the best place to lay out the whole story.
I slipped a little bit about our first date (in early 2010) into this post on Henry VIII a few months ago. Henry VIII — now THERE was a guy who got married.
Back in August Carolyn and I tied the knot in a civil ceremony at City Hall, with two close friends Hope Cartelli and Jeff Lewonczyk along as witnesses. You can read more about Hope and Jeff in this profile on our friend Nina Mansfield’s swell web site Not Even Joking. Most of these photos are by Hope and Jeff:
Look! We drew the clerk at Window 13! How Addams Family!
The “ring” (we drew them on with Sharpies)
First kiss as ‘usband and wife
Post-wedding brunch with Lewonczyk and Cartelli
So that was phase one — the legal marriage under our belt. We’d been together six years and it seemed about time.
Phase two was the public wedding ceremony. We wanted to share this bond with our friends and family and celebrate with them as well, so on October 15 we held a succession of events on New York’s Lower East Side, a combined wedding ceremony and vaudeville show at the magical Slipper Room, and then a continuation of the celebration at Paulaner Brauhaus, on the Bowery. The event mixed thematic elements of Halloween, surrealism, fairy tale, and Oktoberfest…just because we like all that stuff and it’s mid-October. Apologies in advance for not identifying some of the photographers — all were taken by friends at the event (I amassed them all in a file and lost track of who took what).
Our wedding officiant was the intoxicating comedic performance artist Kelly “Killy” Dwyer. L-R, we have my female “best man” Hope Cartelli, me, Killy, my bride, and Maid of Honor Nora Lockshin
After this, we took vows. Carolyn said “yes” to vows I wrote for her (perhaps the first wedding vows in history to contain the word “cockroaches”).
Carolyn went with an even broader definition of the concept of “vows”, painting them on cardboard signs for me to “agree” to:
Here they are in close up:
Bride whispers to me her secret vow
The deal is sealed with the ceremonial drink of wine
We are declared man and wife by a Mock$star
Then Killy sang her new up-to-the-minute song “Vagenda of Manocide”.
I don’t have video of her at the show, but here’s the official Youtube video:
Then I launched the vaudeville show. Photo by the unfailing eye of Downtown Duse Moira Stone
Director/ choreographer Patrice Miller and Jeremy Barker perform “Two Bound, or How I Learned to Love the Coat Rack: A Surreal Vaudeville Dance” to the tune of the Velvet Underground’s “She’s My Best Friend”
At this point in the proceedings I believe I gave an expurgated rendition of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat”
Lewoncyck and Cartelli sing Gershwin’s “Blah, Blah, Blah” song (1931)
Cake gets distributed. The man taking a seat in the lower right is the great Hovey Burgess, one of American’s top circus historians, who camps out at that table at the Slipper Room almost every night
Lastly we went to the roof of our Lower East Side honeymoon hotel with some friends and looked at the rare Hunters supermoon and the beautiful NYC skyline. The perfect end to a perfect evening. There won’t be a similar moon in the sky until 2034!
Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is perhaps best known for his 2005 book "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous", recently cited by Bette Midler in People magazine as one of her favorite reads. Other books include his 2013 "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube. Trav has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other major publications. He has been in the vanguard of New York's vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, which has presented hundreds of top variety acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Lady Rizo to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces in NYC since 1989 at such venues as Joe's Pub, La Mama, Dixon Place, Theatre for the New City, the Ohio Theatre and the Brick. 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. More about All Things Trav S.D. are at: http://travsd.com/
