Tuesday, November 18, 2025
At this point in this ongoing series I take the unusual step of giving a shout-out to an area of Tennessee my sons and I blew past in a rush to get somewhere else. This will thus be an odd p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMFellow show buffs surely know the brightest moment in the career of Wilbur Hall (1894-1983), sometimes billed as Willy Hall. He’s in Paul Whiteman’s movie King of Jazz (1930). Hall is th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMMonday, November 17, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 17, 2025 are about Rock Hudson, who would be 100 years old today, and a Trav-a-log look at the culture of Knoxville, Tennessee. Thus, a little Ro…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36PMThanks be to son Cashel for building Knoxville (which I hadn’t thought of) into our trip, for I loved what I saw of the town as we blasted through it, and I hope to go back sometime. And a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:18PMHappy I am for this occasion to do a dedicated post on Rock Hudson (Roy Scherer, 1925-1985). The closest I have come previously were ones on McMillan & Wife and a couple of his movies. I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMSunday, November 16, 2025
Proceeding on from yesterday’s post… The next leg of our journey was focused on the background of my paternal grandmother, Flora Parker (1912-1991). I remember Flora as a scary and primi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for November 16, 2025 are about radio star Mary Margaret McBride, Ken Burns’ American Revolution, and Part Six of the Southern Sojourn Series. Earlier Trava…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMWell, I am appropriately excited, and you should be too. The American Revolution, Ken Burns’ six part documentary series, co-directed with Sarah Botstein and co-produced by David Schmidt s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMHere’s a major figure from broadcast history whose memory has fallen by the wayside. Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976) was a major star of radio, but unlike many entertainers or the kinds …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AMSaturday, November 15, 2025
I’ve been honored to know prolific author, jazz historian, and music critic Will Friedwald for years. The point of connection is obvious; we’re deeply interested in the same era of Ameri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:48AMToday’s new Travalanche post for November 15, 2025 concerns my appearance today on Will Friedwald’s radio show Sing! Sing! Sing! Earlier Travalanche posts for November 15 (in no particul…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:48AMQuite some time ago I took note of the fact that my father’s hometown (yesterday’s post) was just a stone’s throw from Lynchburg, Tennessee, location of the Jack Daniels’ Distillery,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:36AMFriday, November 14, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 14, 2025 are about inventor and painter Robert Fulton, and a look at my dad’s hometown in middle Tennessee. Earlier Travalanche posts for Novem…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36PMProceeding ahead from yesterday’s post… As intended, this particular stop was to be the Jewel in the Crown of the experience, and will likely also be the longest post in the series. Near…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMThis post is an outgrowth of my recent one on Benjamin West. In putting that one together I learned the surprising fact that Robert Fulton (1765-1865), whom many of us have known about since…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMThursday, November 13, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 13, 2025 are about Robert Sterling (the tv version of Topper), and a look at Tallulah Bankhead’s hometown (and my great-grandfather’s), Hunts…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMTo pick up where we left off — the next stop in our Odyssey was Hunstville, Alabama, just a couple of hours south of Nashville. “The Rocket City”? you may well ask, based on the sign a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PMWe have taken a trip to the silver mines this morning, discovering a lode of unsuspected ore in the life and career of Robert Sterling (William S. Hart, 1917-2006). I say “unsuspected” b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMWednesday, November 12, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 12, 2025 are about character actor Liam Dunn and and the culture of the Southern frontier as transmitted through the museums of Nashville. Earlie…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMHere’s a mind-blower and no mistake: character actor Liam Dunn (1916-1976) was only 59 years old at the time of his death! During his heyday, the last ten years of his life, audiences sure…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMPart Two of our extended series on our recent heritage trip, as well as Part Two of our visit to Nashville. The hijinx we reported in yesterday’s post about Nashville music and nightlife w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AMTuesday, November 11, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 11, 2025 are about Rob Riggle (and his connection to both Veteran’s Day and September 11), Millicent Patrick (Creature from the Black Lagoon), …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:36PMAs promised yesterday, we embark on a chronicle of our Southern Sojourn, which commenced in the beating heart of Tennessee, its capital Nashville. (Do I sound like James Fitzpatrick’s Trav…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMI was led to this story by an unusual route. I really liked a song that was used on the wonderful Hulu series Dying for Sex, which came out earlier this year. The song was “The Earth Won�…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMNovember 11 is Veteran’s Day; it also happens to be the book release date for a memoir by a vet, Rob Riggle’s Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine’s Guide to Comedy and Life. Riggle is…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMAn extraordinary Hollywood movie professional has been enjoying a belated if posthumous day in the sun, and her life is so remarkable it fills me with delight simply to report it. Milicent P…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AMMonday, November 10, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for November 10, 2025 is the start of a new series on my recent travels throughout the South. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 9 (in no particular order)…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54PMForgive an old soldier, won’t ye? I just passed a milestone birthday two days ago, one so significant and potentially traumatic that I’m on day ten of self-coddling. This impending serie…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMSunday, November 9, 2025
Today (November 9) is the closing day of Asheville’s centennial celebration of a seminal series of recording sessions that took place in that city during August 1925, which featured such p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for November 9, 2025 are about Earlier Travalanche posts for November 9 (in no particular order) include ones on the Gentry Brothers Circus and some seminal 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PMNovember 9 was the natal day of circus impresario Henry B. Gentry (1864-1940). Gentry was a farm boy who lived with his large family on a spread outside Bloomington, Indiana. When the Van Am…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PM 
