The name Rose's Royal Midgets held an important place at theatres, circuses and fairgrounds across three continents a century ago, even if each component of the troupe's name crumbles into dust by light of day ("Rose" was a pseudonym", the company held no Royal patent, and the word "midget" has passed out of use in polite society). This large touring production of Little People was the creation of one of show biz history's great impresarios, Ike Rose, now forgotten but once in a league with names like Barnum and Ziegfeld as men who delivered full value for the price of a ticket. Peruse these pages for a glimpse into a vanished world, one as cynical as it was magical, but one that was also always fascinating.
Sd, Trav: - Trav S.D. has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager, and numerous other 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. He has directed his own plays, revues, and solo pieces in NYC since 1989 at 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 madcap hit. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, cited by Bette Midler in People magazine as one of her favorite books.
Taylor, James: - "James Taylor is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and co-founded Dolphin-Moon Press in 1973, making it one of Baltimore's oldest small press publishing houses. For nearly a decade, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taylor was literary chairman to the Baltimore Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture and was a member of the Maryland governor's panel choosing the state's poet laureate. In 1999 he co-founded with Dick Horne the American Dime Museum in Baltimore, a museum that was part of Victorian recreation and part homage to circus, carnival and dime museum culture; Taylor dissolved his partnership with Horne in 2003. Almost immediately, he began work on reestablishing his own museum attractions in Washington, DC, in the Palace of Wonders, which opened in 2006. He has given countless readings of his work both here and abroad and has been featured internationally on numerous occasions on TV, radio, and in print in connection with his own writing, his museums, and Dolphin-Moon Press. He has also served as a historical consultant to numerous television productions in his capacity as a variety arts historian. He has three books of poetry and fiction to date: Tigerwolves, Tricks of Vision, and Artifacture (featuring illustrations by half a dozen artists). His Shocked and Amazed! - On & Off the Midway, published through Dolphin-Moon since 1995, is the world's only journal devoted to novelty and variety exhibition and life in the sideshow; in 2002, Lyons/Globe Pequot Press published a "Best Of" Shocked and Amazed! In his private life, he has worked for the state government of Maryland since 1975, and for 25 years, beginning in 1984, he was an Associate Professor of English at the Dundalk Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County."
