Thursday, April 25, 2024

Edward R. Murrow: Person to Person by Trav S.D.

As we wrote in our recent send-off to Robert McNeil, hard journalists are generally outside of our biographical wheelhouse on Travalanche. But celebrity journalism is a horse of a different …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM
Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Robert Penn Warren and “All the King’s Men” by Trav S.D.

The 20th century produced so many great Southern chroniclers of crackerdom (William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, Harper Lee and childhood friend Truman Capote, James Agee, Kat…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AM
Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Auditions Begin Today for a New Variety Show in Astoria by Trav S.D.

With late April and all of May clogged with events, your correspondent has been hard at work trying to get some events on the calendar for June. A couple of new book talks are in the works, …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM

For World Book Day: My New One on the Marx Brothers by Trav S.D.

For obvious reasons, I was going to wait and launch promotion of my newest book at Marxfest next month, but, like a thief in the night, sales have already begun online, and today being World…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM

This Day in 1896: Movies Crash Vaudeville by Trav S.D.

April 23, 1896 was a pivotal date in the histories of both live vaudeville and cinematic exhibition. On that day, Koster and Bial’s Music Hall topped off their presentation of six variety …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AM
Monday, April 22, 2024

60 Years Ago Today: The Opening of the 1964 New York World’s Fair by Trav S.D.

Like the man says — that anniversary is today! And I’d love to share a little article about it here with you…but for the fact that I’m presenting a talk on that very topic this Sunda…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PM

For Earth Day: On “The Fire Next Time” (1993) by Trav S.D.

True fact: over a period of 16 years, through 8,000 blogposts, I have only used the phrase “bad movie” on Travalanche eight times, and in most of those cases, I either put the phrase in …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM
Sunday, April 21, 2024

On the Other Loudermilks by Trav S.D.

The title of today’s post is to clarify that is not about the excellent recovery sit-com (2017-2020) starring Ron Livingston and my man Mat Fraser. Though it would be very hip to learn tha…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM
Saturday, April 20, 2024

Your Harold Lloyd Finding Aid by Trav S.D.

For Harold Lloyd’s birthday, a new finding aid to help you navigate our nearly four dozen posts on the great silent comedian: Poster Boy for the 1920s (Main Biographical Post) Selected Sho…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AM
Friday, April 19, 2024

Go Dutch, Young Man: A Post for Dutch-American Friendship Day by Trav S.D.

I head this post with Rembrandt’s 1662 painting The Syndics of the Drapers Guild naturally because since 1911 the image has been used to represent Dutch Masters cigars, famously associated…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24PM
Thursday, April 18, 2024

Conan O’Brien Must Go by Trav S.D.

Comedian Conan O’Brien (b. 1963) has been in show business for about 40 years, and he’s been known to the wider public for about 30 of those. By rights, I ought to hate him more (I’ll …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:02PM
Wednesday, April 17, 2024

George Seaton: Of Marxes and Miracles by Trav S.D.

As I pen this, it’s the 500th anniversary of Verrazzano’s historic discovery of New York harbor, But I’ve already blogged about that, on my other blog. So now we treat of the screenwri…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM
Tuesday, April 16, 2024

R.I.P. Robert MacNeil by Trav S.D.

PBS’s Robert MacNeil (1931-2024) passed away back on April 12. On the Newshour, Jim Lehrer, like most of MacNeil’s friends and colleagues, used to call him “Robin”, but I’ll refrai…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PM

A Charlie Chaplin Finding Aid by Trav S.D.

With the exception of the Marx Brothers (and there are five of them) Charlie Chaplin (1889-1975) is the stage and screen performer about whom I’ve written the greatest number of articles o…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AM
Monday, April 15, 2024

Charles Willson Peale and the Prototypical Dime Museum by Trav S.D.

We have a duel objective in giving the Travalanche treatment to Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) and his distinguished family this morning. The first is that the Peales figured in the Ameri…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM
Sunday, April 14, 2024

130 Years Ago Today: New Yorkers Get the First Movies on Demand! by Trav S.D.

On April 14, 1894, the first Kinetoscope parlor in the world opened, at 1155 Broadway in Manhattan, not far from Madison Square Park and the Garden. Originally, my headline was more specific…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:18AM
Saturday, April 13, 2024

R.I.P. Schappell Twins by Trav S.D.

Word has just come down that the conjoined Schappell twins, Lori and George (b. 1961) passed away on April 7. Wait! You’re already a little confused, I bet. How can identical twins be diff…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24PM

What Became of the Dumont Network by Trav S.D.

When I was a kid, grown-ups spoke of a fabled time long before I was born when there were as many as FOUR American tv networks operating simultaneously, keeping me spellbound in much the sam…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AM
Friday, April 12, 2024

Shining Sunlight on Chief Thundercloud by Trav S.D.

April 12 was the birthday of the film actor known as Chief Thundercloud (1899-1955). As it happens, there is a “thundercloud” surrounding the actor’s true identity. His real name has b…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06AM
Thursday, April 11, 2024

Last Weekend in April: Two Chances to Catch Me — If You Can Run Fast Enough! by Trav S.D.

If I look crazy in the photos above it’s because I must be! I booked two very involved and very different events back to back in two geographical locations that are both far from my house …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PM
Wednesday, April 10, 2024

30 Years Ago: Memories of MacDowell by Trav S.D.

I went to my local woods to witness the eclipse a couple of days ago vaguely hoping something magical would happen. Something most assuredly did, though nothing so crassly obvious as, say, a…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AM
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Valerie Solanas Was Right by Trav S.D.

With the exception of Charles Manson, surely no public figure has ever looked so unhinged in so many photographs as Valerie Solanas (1936-1988). You can actually feel the simmering intensity…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:02PM
Monday, April 8, 2024

John Gavin: The Statesman from “Psycho” by Trav S.D.

I try, very consciously, never to glamorize guns, but this is the only picture of our subject I could find that made me pay attention to what I was looking at. John Gavin (1931-2018) was a v…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:02PM
Sunday, April 7, 2024

STEVE! (martin): a documentary in 2 pieces by Trav S.D.

I’m fairly ecstatic at the advent at Morgan Neville’s new two-part documentary about Steve Martin, not just because it filled me with such mirth and pleasure to reconnect with memories o…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AM
Saturday, April 6, 2024

Speaking of Earthquakes… by Trav S.D.

The title of this post of course because yesterday in the Northeast we experienced an extremely rare earthquake that measured 4.8 on the Richter scale, which is roughly a once in a century e…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM

Killers of the Flower Moon by Trav S.D.

Warning: I include spoilers. Chronic back pain combined with the flu (ugh!) sidelined me yesterday so I took the opportunity to finally catch up with Killers of the Flower Moon. To my mind i…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AM

V for Victory Bateman by Trav S.D.

April 6 was the birthday of stage and screen actress Victory Bateman (1865-1926). She was named after the triumph of the Grand Army of the Republic over the Confederacy; Lee’s surrender wa…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:54AM
Friday, April 5, 2024

Love For Lord Buckley by Trav S.D.

A reference on Robin Williams’ 1979 album Reality…What a Concept was my first introduction to Lord Buckley (Richard Buckley, 1906-1960). Buckley was gone long before I came into the worl…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM

This Friday in Hollywood: Michu Gets Memorialized by Trav S.D.

L.A. Friends, this jumped out at me as something worth attending, and, as Wilford Brimley used to put it, “the right thing to do”. Today at 1pm Pacific time the remains of Hungarian-Amer…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:24AM
Thursday, April 4, 2024

Happy 80th Birthday, Craig T. Nelson by Trav S.D.

We’ve had call to mention Craig T. Nelson (b. 1944) a half dozen times or more here — I’m an unabashed Craig T. Nelson super-fan and I don’t care who knows it! And, happily, I can op…

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AM
Wednesday, April 3, 2024

The Sideshow Hootenanny Comes to Brooklyn! by Trav S.D.

Exciting news for lovers of sideshow and the variety arts! The Sideshow Hootenanny (previously known as the Southern Sideshow Hootenanny), now celebrating its tenth year, and making its NYC …

SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards