Saturday, September 13, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 13, 2025 is about producer and agent Leland Hayward. Other Travalanche posts for September 13 include ones on: Claudette Colbert Jesse Lasky Mae …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMBorn of a September 13, talent agent and producer Leland Hayward (1902-71). Hayward wasn’t the flashy impresario type like so many I’m drawn to and have written about. He’s one of thos…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMFriday, September 12, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 12, 2025 are about the 15 Best Movie Comedy Stars of All Time; an upcoming seminar series on Charlie Chaplin; and tomorrow’s 400th birthday ce…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PMAs generally happens to me on September 11, yesterday I found myself thinking the phrase “I love New York so MUCH”. In In the Shadow of the Towers, Art Spiegelman said that the closest e…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMThis exercise is due to the fact that Looper recently published a listicle they called the 15 Best Comedy Movie Stars of All Time, Ranked — and it was so dreadful it was downright risible.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMThis is an unpaid endorsement for an online class produced by the 92nd Street Y starting in a couple of weeks. I don’t usually shill for such things (and the class is a little pricey) but …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AMThursday, September 11, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 11, 2025, includes several new posts connecting the events of 2001 to the world of show business, including ones on Ultra Violet and her 9/11 art…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PMWhile I have participated in oral history projects about both September 11 and Coney Island, both of which topics factor into this post, Travalanche is not an oral history blog, by a long wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM20 years on, it is interesting in new ways to engage with In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman’s lesser known second comic masterwork. There are ways, technically, in which it surpas…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AMAbout a week ago I did a post on Superstar Ultra Violet and learned about an art project she created in 2011 for the 10th anniversary of September 11. It made sense to me to save talk of tha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AMWednesday, September 10, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 10, 2025 is about my kid! And I Iied! I promised some new show biz posts for today, but the truth is I had a dental implant installed yesterday a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PMMy son Cashel Byron Stewart hits the benchmark of 30 years old today so I hope you’ll forgive a sentimental old father the indulgence of doing something here in his honor. And after all, t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:54PMTuesday, September 9, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 9, 2025 is on Richard Webb, star of Captain Midnight. Other Travalanche posts for September 9 include ones on: Adam Sandler Colonel Sanders The D…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AMActor Richard Webb (1915-1993) was born on September 9. Webb was best known for starring in the serial The Invisible Monster (1950), and for playing the title character in the television ver…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMMonday, September 8, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 8, 2025 is a brand new finding aid for my posts related to Sid Caesar. Also today happens to be the centennial of the birth of Peter Sellers! My …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PMSeptember 8 being the birthday of comedian Sid Caesar, I thought it would be useful to do this post linking you to the many Travalanche posts relevant to the comedian. Consume responsibly! M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PMSunday, September 7, 2025
They’re dropping like flies lately over on Eve’s Obits so that one can hardly keep up. The saddest news of the last few days has been the passing of Mark Volman of The Turtles, The Mothe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for September 7, 2025 are on Sir Anthony Quayle and the late Stephen Mendillo. Today is the first day of Suicide Prevention Week — my post on that somber to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMI acknowledge off the bat that the title of this post is unfortunate. The intention is to suggest the drawing out of an elusive bird, not for the purposes of shooting him but for getting a b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMSaturday, September 6, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for September 6, 2025 are about Max Schreck (Nosferatu), Warhol superstar Ultra Violet, big band singer and actress Julie Gibson (who lived to be 106), and tw…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PMSeptember 6 was the birthday of Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne, 1935-2014). Dufresne was a French debutante who fell into Salvador Dali’s orbit immediately after graduating college…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:42PMI don’t know if it’s true to a certainty, but it sure sounds correct — of the thousands of public figures I have profiled on Travalanche, the longest-lived was likely Julie Gibson (Gla…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM100 years ago today in New York City, the Universal horror film The Phantom of the Opera was receiving its world premier. In related news, on that same day, 4,000 miles east of New York, Fri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AMThis post concerns two gentlemen named Daniel Sully, both with theatrical connections, both born in Providence, Rhode Island within a few years of each other. I am going to make a rash specu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMFriday, September 5, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for September 5, 2025 is about an almost famous vaudeville by the name of Eddie Vogt. Previous Travalanche posts for September 5 include ones on: Bob Newhart L…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06PMSome fragments this morning on vaudeville performer and early screen actor Eddie Vogt (1889-1960), a minor figure to be sure, and our telling is not as complete as it might be, but we post h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMThursday, September 4, 2025
September 4 was the birthday of actor Leonard Frey (1938-88). Frey once worried aloud that all anyone would remember him for (if they remembered him for anything) was for creating the role o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMToday’s new Travalanche post for September 4, 2025 are about Pete Smith Specialties, radio comedian Charlie Cantor, Waldo and Jennifer Salt, and actor Leonard Frey. Previous Travalanche po…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMWe love multigenerational show biz stories here on Travalanche, and this one is especially rewarding. It begins with screenwriter Waldo Salt (1914-1987). Having just written about Waldo Pepp…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMSeptember 4 was the birthday of radio and television comedian Charlie Cantor (1898-1966). As it happens, Charlie was no relation to Eddie Cantor, whose real name was Itzkowitz. But he did st…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMA century ago (1925), a show biz press agent named Pete Smith (Peter Schmidt, 1892-1979) got the plum job of publicity manager for MGM films. Prior to this, this son of a German-American bre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM 
