Friday, November 13, 6pm New Yorkers, please join me at the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of my book No Applause, the 30th anniversary of my American V…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for November 1, 2026 are about Betsy Palmer (the Original Pamela Voorhees), and my upcoming vaudeville talk. November is Native American History Month: Read n…
The fictional character of Pamela Voorhees, mother of Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, is having a cultural moment — as if real life weren’t already surreal and nightmarish enough.…
100 years ago today, Harry Houdini made his final passage into other realms. He had courted and teased Death countless times prior to that over the course of many decades, and surely there w…
Happy Halloween! Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 31, 2025 are about The Death of Houdini Earlier Travalanche posts for October 31 (in no particular order) include ones on: Hallow…
Today’s new Travalanche post for October 30, 2025 is about an exciting Houdini event tonight in New Jersey. An don’t miss tomorrow night’s Houdini seance! Earlier Travalanche posts for…
After taking you to Houdini related locations in Budapest and New York City, a trip to New Jersey may seem something of an anticlimax, but nix to that! New Jersey happens to be the home of t…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 29, 2026 are include tributes to Houdini in New York, Arthur Borella, and Leigh Whipper. (Subscribers please note: there was a glitch in our Houdi…
On October 29th, 1914 Harry Houdini committed an uncanny magical feat for which we should all be grateful, because we can still experience it. He recorded his voice onto an Edison cylinder. …
Born 150 years ago today, African American stage and screen actor Leigh Whipper (1876-1975). He lived nearly a century! Whipper certainly made plenty of history on his own account, but he ha…
October 29th was the birthday of the great Italian-American circus clown Arthur Borella (1868-1946). Originally from Galveston Texas, Borella was educated at Saint Edward’s University in A…
A little treat for National Immigrants Day, which was instituted in 1987 by Ronald Reagan to coincide with the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. This is a post I can’…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 28, 2026 are about the Statue of Liberty, and Houdini’s Budapest. Earlier Travalanche posts for October 28 (in no particular order) include ones…
October 28, 1886 saw the public unveiling of Liberty Enlightening the World a.k.a. the Statue of Liberty. 140 years isn’t the roundest of benchmarks, but several factors combined to inspir…
Today: a confluence of two content streams linked to major anniversaries that we’ve been leaning into this month, Harry Houdini and The Bowery. As posts go, this one is a “short beer�…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 27, 2026 are about The Name of the Game (RIP Susan St. James) and Houdini on The Bowery. Earlier Travalanche posts for October 27 (in no particula…
Well, yesterday was the birthday of Tony Franciosa (1928-2006) and we’ve just learned about the passing today of Susan St. James (1946-2026), practically mandating a little post on the NBC…
This Halloween marks 100 years since the passing of the great magician, scholar, and escape artist Harry Houdini. As promised a few days ago, here is the lowdown on this Saturday’s onlin…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 26, 2026 are about Pat Sajak, and the upcoming Houdini seance! Earlier Travalanche posts for October 26 (in no particular order) include ones on: …
Happy 80th birthday, Pat Sajak (B 1946). Sajak has only been retired for about a year, but I find regarding him as someone from another era to be unavoidable. 1981 was when he took the reins…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for October 25, 2026 are about a visit to Houdini’s Grave, the opera houses of New York City, and little person Gustav Shaffrath. Today is also Internationa…
October 25th is celebrated as International Dwarfism Awareness Day, in honor of Billy Barty, whose birthday it is. We use the occasion to add another entry to our store of over 100 posts on …
October 25th is World Opera Day. Have you visited the Opera section of Travalanche? It consists mostly of profiles of operatically trained singers who crossed over into vaudeville or other a…
October 25 through October 31 is National Magic Week, as designated by the Society of American Magicians! The natural time for me to encourage you to read 250 articles about great stage illu…
Today’s new Travalanche post for October 24, 2026 is about May Pang. Earlier Travalanche posts for October 24 (in no particular order) include ones on: The Marx Brothers (almost) in A Day …