Friday, January 9, 2026
60 years ago today was opening night of the hit off-Broadway revue The Mad Show, which ran for about a year (1966-67), and then toured nationally through 1968. This charmed project featured …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32AMJimmy Boyd (1939-2009) was first widely known as a child performer, but he had a good run. He managed to keep it going for about three decades. Boyd was from a musical family originating in …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18AMThursday, January 8, 2026
Here in the U.S. Dame Shirley Bassey (b. 1937) is known strictly for singing three James Bond themes, especially Goldfinger (1964), her only bona fide hit song on this side of the Atlantic. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for January 8, 2026 are about Shirley Bassey, and the new show about Feltman’s Hot Dogs. I also spruced up an older post in honor of the Soupy Sales Centenn…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMWith the horrors of yesterday’s main news event (the murder of a widowed suburban mother by rogue ICE agents in Minneapolis) darkening my soul like a sulfuric cloud, I was grateful to catc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMThanks, Lauren Milberger, for the 11th hour intel about an important centennial anniversary! January 7, 1926 was the day on which George Burns and Gracie Allen officially tied the knot. They…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMWednesday, January 7, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 7, 2026 is about the dance team of Harold and Lola. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 7 (in no particular order) include ones on: Adolph …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMI was made aware of the dance team of Harold and Lola due to their inclusion in the 1948 film Variety Time, which I wrote about here. “Harold” was Harold Liebmann (1895-1960), born of a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMTuesday, January 6, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 6, 2026 is about E.L. Doctorow and Ragtime. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 6 (in no particular order) include ones on: Chaplin’s The…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMI’ve wanted to do a dedicated post on E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime for a while now, mostly on account of his treatment of several real life characters I have researched and written about, and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PMMonday, January 5, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 5, 2026 is about the death of Beatles’ friend and confidant Mal Evans. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 5 (in no particular order) inc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMYou can always gauge the extent of someone’s Beatles’ fandom by how deeply they’ve gone into their biographies, with the side effect of their eventually knowing about as much about the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMSunday, January 4, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 4, 2026 are about Hypnotism in Show Business; and The Story of the Brothers Grimm. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 4 (in no particular…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMEver since the advent of the World Wide Web I have sought to track down the edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales I owned as a small child, all in vain. My own copy eventually fell apart and had …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AMJanuary 4 is observed by those in the field as World Hypnotism Day. By “the field”, I mean of course practitioners, mostly therapists and those working within the psychology and psychiat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AMWe first heard of Canadian born hypnotist Herbert L. (Longley) Flint (b. 1862) as a mentor to the later Pauline, but have since gathered some additional fragments. Dr. Flint worked the vaude…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48AMSaturday, January 3, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 3, 2026 are about British silent screen star Alma Taylor, jazz sax star Rudy Wiedoeft, low budget horror actor Conrad Brooks, and Mexican actress …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32PMTwo facts of life inspired me to subtitle this post on Conrad Brooks (Conrad Biedrzycki, 1931-2017) “never say die”. The first is because, as happened in one of Brooks’ better known fi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AMRudy Wiedoeft (1893-1940) is widely revered as the man who pioneered and popularized the jazz saxophone. Wiedoeft was Rudy Vallee’s musical hero (Vallee’s first name is an homage to Wied…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMThe world lost Yolanda Montes a.k.a. Tongolele (1932-2025) just last February. Having heard about her strictly from the obits, I figured I’d save a post for her natal day, as she was a per…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMAlma Taylor (1895-1974) was one of Great Britain’s earliest and biggest film stars during the silent era. In 1915 she was voted Britain’s most popular screen actor, beating out even Char…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMFriday, January 2, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for January 2, 2026 are about crooner Julius La Rosa, and a new show about Feltman’s Hot Dogs! Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 2 (in no particul…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PMI don’t often plug shows sight unseen (here or anywhere), but there are times when the pull is so great, I’ll take the risk. I first became aware of Michael Quinn as a Coney Island boost…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMWhen I was a kid in the ’70s, Julius La Rosa (1930-2016) was still remembered for being at the center of one of the most notorious incidents in show biz history. All the grownups seemed to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMThursday, January 1, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for January 1, 2026 is about character actor Rick Hurst from The Dukes of Hazzard. Way to start the New Year with a bang, Trav! Other earlier Travalanche posts…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:36PMCountry character actor Rick Hurst (1946-2025) would be 80 years old today, had he not passed away back in June. Standing 6′ 5″ and gifted (or if you prefer, afflicted) with a a wide and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMWednesday, December 31, 2025
My annual report, down to the wire, and a little truncated. But I want to celebrate this year’s triumphs, and to thank you for being a part of it. There were fewer public events this year,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for December 31, 2025 are about the early days of MTV, and my annual end of year Travalanche wrap-up. Other earlier Travalanche posts for December 31 (in no p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PMFor those of us who there at the beginning, MTV has long been dead, i.e., the part that mattered, the showing of round-the-clock music videos. But apparently there’s some scrap or remnant …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AMTuesday, December 30, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 30, 2025 are about Patti Smith, and a wrap-up of those we lost in 2025. There are a large number of rock and rock adjacent births on December 30.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PMI won’t mince words. The top things we lost in 2025 weren’t mere individuals, they were institutions that once served American society: democracy, rule of law, the U.S. Congress and Supr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PM 
