Sunday, January 12, 2025
January 12 is the birthday of British singer and actress Shirley Eaton (b. 1937). Eaton was a student at the Aida Foster Theater School who was already performing professionally on stage and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMSaturday, January 11, 2025
January 11 was the birthday of Native American actor Monte Blue (Gerard Montgomery Blue or Bluefeather, 1887-1963). Blue was part Osage, Cherokee and French on his father’s side, Irish on …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMFriday, January 10, 2025
This started out to be a simple post about Florence Reed (1883-1967) the woman who played Miss Havisham so memorably in the 1934 screen version of Dickens‘ Great Expectations, but it turns…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PMThursday, January 9, 2025
We’ve had a gazillion occasions to mention the phenomenon known as the Apache Dance on this blog. For International Choreographer’s Day, we thought we’d do a little more comprehensive.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:54PMJoan Baez (b. 1941) is top of mind at the moment for all sorts of reasons: we saw her played by Monica Barbaro as a major character in the Bob Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown. At the most r…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:36PMWednesday, January 8, 2025
January 8 was the birthday of the late gonzo British comedian Graham Chapman (1941-1989). For many, Chapman was their favorite member of the Monty Python troupe, though sadly he was the firs…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:12PMBorn 100 years ago today, actor and male model Steve Holland (1925-1997). Holland wasn’t a body builder to the extent Steve Reeves was, but, like that other Steve, he was associated with h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:18AMThis one goes out to my brother and my son, who are both Mainers, and (since I lived there briefly too), also to myself! As reported by Eve Golden, Maine humorist Robert Skoglund (1936-2024)…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:12AMTuesday, January 7, 2025
Like everyone else who remembers him, I loved character Vincent Gardenia (Vincenzo Scognamiglio, 1920-1992) — but it wasn’t until I learned about his early years that I got super jazzed …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:18AMMonday, January 6, 2025
Before there was cinema, there was illustration. That’s really my only justification for posting on 19th century French artist Gustave Doré (Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré, 1832-1883…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMThere are all sorts of reasons for wanting to capture Capucine (Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre, 1928-1990), principal among them being that she was both beguiling and elusive. There were …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:36PMJanuary 6 was the birthday of swimming promoter and aquatic showman Newt Perry (1908-1987). I wouldn’t claim that I would never write about better known Perrys such as Luke or Kate, but th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMSunday, January 5, 2025
Before we plunge into the impressive life and career of actress/singer/dancer Lorraine Miller (1922-1978) we’d like to pause and remind you of some of the numerous and estimable personages…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMSaturday, January 4, 2025
The post I started working on for today turned out to be a real bear, so I decided to kick the can down the road on that tone ’til next year. As a stop-gap, today I share a post I had inte…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMFriday, January 3, 2025
Before we plunge into the impressive life and career of actress, model and presenter Betty Furness (1916-1994) we’d like to pause and remind you of some of the numerous and estimable perso…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMThursday, January 2, 2025
I’ve had a dozen occasions to mention one of my favorite modern playwrights Joe Orton (1933-1967) on this blog. In one post I talked one of his projects, the screenplay he was developing f…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AMJanuary 2 is the day on which Isaac Asimov celebrated his birthday, and as a consequence it has now been embraced by many as Science Fiction Day. It seems like the perfect time for a brief g…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36AMWednesday, January 1, 2025
Just as the pathway nowadays to Alexander Hamilton by the masses has got to be Lin-Manuel Miranda, the way to Elmer McCurdy (1880-1911) will forever be David Yazbek, thanks to his musical De…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:32PMAlso born of a New Year’s Day, one of my favorite cartoonists, B. Kliban (1935-1990). Fun fact: Kliban despised his given name Bernard so much that he had it changed legally to B. To frien…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMCambridge scholar Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) was born of a New Year’s Day: how perfect for him to have been born at this season of ritual renewal and rebirth, and (as it happens, here in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AMTuesday, December 31, 2024
The small but hearty subculture of silent film lovers has lost a dear friend; the news just reached me by way of Thomas Gladysz of The Louise Brooks Society that Donna Hill has passed on (ye…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMThe December 31 birthday of Jule Styne (1905-1994) comes with its own holiday soundtrack — Styne wrote the tunes for “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (1945), “The Christmas Walt…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48AMMonday, December 30, 2024
I debated holding this tribute for a year, when it will be producer Lloyd Kaufman’s 80th birthday, but then we saw that his baby Troma Entertainment turned 50 years old this year, and ther…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:54PMIt was funny hearing Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan singing “Maggie’s Farm” when I went to see A Complete Unknown yesterday. It was a favorite selection of Jimmy Carter’s, and the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMWe are sad to report the inevitable: Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) has bought the peanut farm. I wrote about the late President at some length three months ago when he turned 100, and immediately…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMSunday, December 29, 2024
More than usual, 2024 was a year of joys and sorrows for us here at Trav S.D. Laboratories. The sorrows you can guess at — they began around November 5. But most of the Travisian twenty-fo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMSaturday, December 28, 2024
Thanks, Eve Golden, for the intel that Catskills comedian Dick Capri (1931-2024) has packed his bags for the Great Mountain Hotel in the Sky. As they are wont to do, obituarians are unfailin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42AMFriday, December 27, 2024
I know the title of this post sounds like an American movie comedy from the 1940s, set in a small town, probably involving baseball. I’m sorry to disappoint you. Although I hope the portra…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:39AMI never knew that Time magazine was in the business of naming “Top Ten Alaskans”, but in 2009 the Iñupiaq actor Ray Mala (Ray Agnaqsiaq Wise, 1906-1952) made the list. The son of a I�…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:29AMBorn 200 years ago, 19th century demi-mondaine Céleste Mogador (Élisabeth-Céleste Vénard, countess of Chabrillan, 1824-1909). A native Parisian, as a girl Mogador had suffered at the ha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:29AMThursday, December 26, 2024
December 26, 2004 (20 years ago today) was one of the worst days in human history in terms of loss of life. Nearly a quarter of a million people were killed when a massive offshore earthquak…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:34AM 
