Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Today (June 18, 2025) marks two years since the submersible Titan imploded at a depth of about 3,800 meters (12,500 feet), killing all five people aboard. We are prompted to mark the occasio…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:12PMMost of us know Nedra Volz (Nedra Gordonier, 1908-2003) from the last act of her life’s drama, when she was a ubiquitous tv character actress and an occasional presence in films as well. S…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:02PMA tip of the hat today to singer, dancer, actor, and all-around performer Avon Long (1910-1984). A Baltimore native, Long got his start in Harlem in the late 1920s, at such venues as the Laf…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PMHow delightful that April March (Velma Fern Worden, b. 1935) has a June birthday! Mark your calendar — I certainly did! April March is still very much with us, feted and lauded as one of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMTuesday, June 17, 2025
Today is the official publication date of my friend Ben Model’s much-awaited new book The Silent Film Universe. We have long admired the entrepreneurial Model, who has built an empire on h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:48PMJune 17, 1775 was the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is fascinating to me (in my old age) to mark these anniversaries off so that you can mark the progress of Revolutionary War events…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:36PMAs promised in our National Alligator Day post — an entirely separate one on crocodiles. Because we are crazy in just that way! This one will be very brief in comparison with the alligator…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMJune 17 was the birthday of magician Paul Valadon (Adolphe Weber, 1867-1913). Originally from Cologne, Germany, Valadon began his working life as a hairdresser, though magic was always his u…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AMMonday, June 16, 2025
Valerie Mahaffey would have been 72 today, but she passed away a couple of weeks ago. While I had certainly seen some earlier performances, the comic excellence of Mahaffey didn’t really r…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:02PMIs it by pure chance that I pen this review on Ondine’s birthday or was it decreed by demented Gods? I had occasion to mention playwright H.M. Koutoukas in this morning’s post about Ondi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:02PMFortunate for those who celebrate Pride Month, the birthday of Ondine (Robert Olivo,1937-1989) falls within it. Ondine was one of those legendary Warhol Superstar characters, oft mentioned i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AMSunday, June 15, 2025
June 15 is the birthday of some mighty big stars in my personal pantheon: silent comedian Harry Langdon, who has a whole section on Travalanche; 19th century stage star Adah Isaacs Mencken, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AMSaturday, June 14, 2025
The United States Army was created by the Continental Congress on this day in 1775. George Washington was appointed as its commander on the following day. (Note how the army was always inten…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMFriday, June 13, 2025
If you’re a fan of classic films and don’t recognize the name Ian Hunter (1900-1975), relax, it’s okay. I didn’t! But he’s right there, right there, in prominent roles in some of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AMThursday, June 12, 2025
June 12 was the birthday of Anne Frank (1929-1945). Confronted with the bewildering descent of America into a place where schoolgirls need to hide out in attics and where Jews are being viol…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PMJune 12 being the birthday of Weegee (1899-1968), we thought it might be useful to create a little post that relates him to some of this blog’s customary topics. First, some short biograph…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AMWednesday, June 11, 2025
Just got the word that Brian Wilson has passed. Never mind the cause. The man was 82. Still, who’d ever dream that all three Wilson brothers would die before Keith Richards? I had somethin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMIf I didn’t know any better and you had asked me which of the cast members of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) was named “DUDLEY MANLOVE” I almost certainly would have pointed to Bunny B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMTuesday, June 10, 2025
According to IMDB June 10 was the birthday of female impersonator Frederick Kovert (1895-1949). The name is sometimes rendered “Ko Vert”, making it seem exotic somehow. Kovert, his real …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMPaul Marco (Angelo Inzalaco, 1927-2006) dined out better than most on being part of the Ed Wood stock company. Die-hards know him as the guy who played goofy Officer Kelton, the Gilligan-esq…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMMonday, June 9, 2025
The world is horrible so as an antidote, I proffer these two Rhode Island cultural tidbits, as fluffy as a clamcake: 1) The streaming series Sirens is set in a very Block Island-esque locati…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMCole Porter, Jackie Mason, S.N. Behrman, Bob Cummings, Michael J. Fox, Fred Waring, Skip James, Harry Gribbon, George Axelrod, John Howard Payne, and Leslie Banks were all born on June 9; so…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMSunday, June 8, 2025
The title of this piece in not to imply that my previous post on Joan Rivers (Joan Molinsky, 1933-2014) was in any way improper. It was however, incomplete. I wrote it in 2013, when she was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:54PMVaudeville lovers owe much to the enterprise of Hans August (H.A.) Spanuth (1884-1976). Spanuth was a second generation cultural figure. His father, August Spanuth (1857-1920) was a German p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMTribute today to burlesque legend Kitty West (Abbie Jewel Slawson, 1930-2019), whose ingenious stage name plants the idea in your head that you’ve heard of her before, no doubt because it …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMSaturday, June 7, 2025
Broadway composer Charles Strouse (1928-2025) would have been 97 years old today; we lost him three weeks ago. Strouse left behind a staggering body of accomplishment at the time of his pass…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMFriday, June 6, 2025
Having had temperatures in the high 80s in New York the past couple of days put me in an odd frame of mind to contemplate the life (and death) of British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott (…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54PMThis may shock you, maybe it won’t, most likely you won’t care, but I was a huge fan of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (2002-2004) back in the day, and I’m still a fan of Quinn’s. If y…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32PMBefore Mitzi Green and Mitzi Gaynor, show biz had Mitzi Mayfair (Juanita Emylyn Pique, 1914-1976). This Mitzi started out as a kid act in vaudeville at age 11 in her hometown of St. Louis, e…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMTribute now to stage and screen actor Tyler Brooke (Victor Hugo de Bierre, 1886-1943), known especially for his association with classic comedy. Brooke had been a bank clerk and a lawyer pri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM 
