11,801 stories by "Trav S.D."
A celebration of stage star Abrica “Abbie” Mitchell (1884-1960). Mitchell was but 14 years old when Will Marion Cook discovered her singing on her aunt’s fire escape, and 15 when he ma…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 25, 2026 include ones on Broadway stars Teddy Hart and Abbie Mitchell Cook, and hypnotist/ patent medicine magnate Xenophon LaMotte Sage. Also c…
A shout out today to Theodore “Teddy” Hart (1897-1971) — by whom we mean not the Canadian professional wrestler, but the younger brother of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, and the husba…
September 25 was the birthday of E. Virgil Neal (1868-1949), known to the public as stage hypnotist Xenophon LaMotte Sage, later a millionaire manufacturer of patent medicines and cosmetics.…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 24, 2026 include ones on a great new show biz podcast called Hollywood Around the Edges, and a vaudeville artifact that was spotted on The Dick …
I don’t do this a lot (so don’t get any funny ideas) but I want to take the opportunity to plug a podcast I was recently made aware of. Hollywood Around the Edges was launched about thre…
During a recent hang-out with my son the information emerged that he had never seen The Dick Van Dyke Show. Easily remedied in this day and age! So we watched the premiere episode together, …
The image above of Hilly Kristal (1931-2007) is from Spin magazine: the second occasion we have had to mention Spin today (the previous being here), and the second occasion we have had to ta…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 23, 2026 includes ones on Hilly Kristal of CBGB, and Victoria Woodhull, America’s First Female Presidential Candidate etc. In no particular or…
Congratulations to Liza Lentini, whom, it was announced two days ago, has just been named editor-in-chief of Spin magazine. Back in 2008, I reviewed Lentini’s play Woodhull for some rag or…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 22, 2026 includes ones on the Foy Sisters and some upcoming Bowery events. In no particular order, other Travalanche posts for September 22 incl…
Here’s an unprecedented development that delights me to end. David Mulkins of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors wrote me yesterday with a missive that all at once stitched together two them…
In this particular case we refer not to Mary and Madeline Foy of vaudeville’s famous Foy Family, but the two women who inspired their dad Eddie Foy to take that surname in the first place …
“September 21 is World Peace Day aka International Day of Peace,” he said with a hollow laugh. I contemplated sharing this post during my recent spate of 25th anniversary 9/11 pieces, bu…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 21, 2026 are about The Great New York Fire of 1776, a new biography of lady magician Adelaide Herrmann, and — oh yeah — a plea for world pea…
Today is the publication date of a terrific sounding new biographical resource, Queen of Magic: The Wondrous, Unstoppable Adelaide Herrmann. I wrote a bit about the illustrious Hermann Famil…
This has been a year of solemn anniversaries: 250 years of American Independence and 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks. Today we mark yet another that thematically links bo…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 20, 2026 are about Elliott Nugent and the late Rudy Cheeks. In no particular order, other Travalanche posts for September 20 include ones on: Ha…
Over the past couple of days or so we have lost Duncan Sheik and Gerrit Graham, and I was tempted to eulogize both of them — but there are plenty of others to pick up that gauntlet. Instea…
Elliott Nugent (1896–1980) was one of the rare individuals who did everything: wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the theatre; and wrote, directed, and starred in movies. Unusually,…
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 19, 2026 is about actor Mel Stewart. In no particular order, other Travalanche posts for September 19 include ones on: (For Talk Like a Pirate Da…
Mel Stewart (1929–2002) was a regular, sometimes a co-star, of numerous TV shows, including Turn On (1969), Roll Out (1973-74), On the Rocks (1975-76), The Bewitched spin off Tabitha (1977…
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 18, 2026 is about voice-over actor June Foray. In no particular order, other Travalanche posts for September 18 include ones on: Eddie ”Rochest…
What a looker, eh? Surely this gorgeous glamour-puss provided eye candy in many a noir barn burner! A femme fatale in gritty b&w B movie masterpieces? A torch singer in minor musicals? N…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 17, 2026 are about Ken Kesey, vaudeville author Douglas Gilbert, and the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. In no particular order, other Travalanche …
