Thursday, February 19, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for February 19, 2026 are about silent screen actress Rosalind Byrne and black vaudeville star Irvin C. Miller. Earlier Travalanche post for February 19 (in n…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:31AMFebruary 19 was the birthday of Irvin C. Miller (1884-1975), older brother of Flournoy Miller of the team of Miller and Lyles. Tennessee born Miller got his show biz start in Chicago in the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMThis Olive Thomas/ Colleen Moore lookalike is movie actress Rosalind Byrne (Rosalind Loretta Mooney, 1904-1989). Byrne was born and raised in St Marys, Ohio, near the Indiana border. She was…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AMWednesday, February 18, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for February 18, 2026 are about the late Jesse Jackson, the late Tom Noonan, and Father of Surrealism André Breton. Earlier Travalanche post for February 18 …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PMThe Encyclopedia Britannica gives February 18 as the birthday of André Breton (1896-1966), though other sources seem less sure. We’ve already done a post on his role in the birth of surre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PMI swear we have no intention of turning this into an obituary blog, but people keep dying and bumping my planned posts from the day’s docket! We just learned that actor Tom Noonan (1951-20…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AMJesse Jackson (1941-2026) was the first Presidential candidate I ever cared about as a voter. My political coming of age was in 1984. In the months prior to the Democratic party’s nominati…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AMTuesday, February 17, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for February 17, 2026 is a tribute to the late Robert Duvall. Also it’s Mardi Gras! My earlier post on the holiday (and related stuff) is here. And my multi-…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:36PMI had to take a day to cogitate on what I wanted to say in praise of the late Robert Duvall (1931-2026). He was one of those quietly great Method actors, usually cast in second leads or char…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:01PMMonday, February 16, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for February 16, 2026 is about John Schlesinger and three of his films (Midnight Cowboy, Day of the Locust, and Honky Tonk Freeway). And it’s President’s D…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PMFilm director John Schlesinger (1926-2003) would be 100 years ago today. I’ve seen about half of his movies, and could certainly whip up enthusiasm for a few more of them than I treat of h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:24PMSunday, February 15, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for February 15, 2026 are about a new Tura Satana documentary, and theatre columnist and sketch writer S. Jay Kaufman. Earlier Travalanche posts for February …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMWe’d long known a documentary about film goddess Tura Satana was in the works, but hadn’t heard much about it since the crowdfunding campaign many years ago. So we were beyond excited to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PMI became aware of S. Jay Kaufman (1886-1957) because there is a portrait of him by James Montgomery Flagg hanging at the Lambs. And I was immediately amused by the fact that his name is what…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMSaturday, February 14, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for February 14, 2026 are about The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the sit-com Valentine’s Day, and the show biz professionals Fanne Foxe, Al Brodax, Jessi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:42PM A post now on Lena Horne’s Valentine, born of a Valentine’s Day, Leonard “Lennie” Hayton (1908-1971). Hayton was was Jewish kid, raised in New York in a family of classical music l…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:36PMWell, this is TECHNICALLY a Valentine’s Day post, but as the title should tip you off, it’s more about violence than about sex. But it DOES have a Jazz Age/ Prohibition Era theme that ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PMHappy Valentine’s Day! Seemed a good time for a post on a long-forgotten one-season sitcom created by Hal Kanter, best known for his long-time association with Bob Hope. Valentine’s Day …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMBorn too of a Valentine’s Day was actress Frances Dade (1907-1968), notable for playing the screen’s first Lucy in Dracula (1931) and for being named a WAMPAS Baby Star — and for havin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMHow wonderful that Fanne Foxe (Annabel Edith Villagra, 1936-2021) was born not just on Valentine’s Day, but on the very same day that the subject of our last post, Joan O’Brien. It was j…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:01AMToday we sing the praises of radio singer Jessica Dragonette (Jessica Valentina Dragonetti, 1900-1980). As her given name indicates, Dragonette was born on Valentine’s Day to Italian-Ameri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AMSinger and actress Joan O’Brien (1936-2025) passed away back in May, but we decided to save a tribute for her natal day, Valentine’s Day. O’Brien was still in high school when she bega…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AMBorn 100 years ago today: television producer Albert “Al” Brodax (1926-2016). Brodax grew up in Washington Heights and Brooklyn, the son of a coat manufacturer. He served bravely in comb…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:02AMFriday, February 13, 2026
When Jerry Springer (1944-2023) passed away three years ago, I posted some nasty online comments, which I can’t seem to find now. I may have deleted them . delete half the things I post on…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for February 13, 2026 are about Jerry Springer and Sidney Smith, creator of The Gumps. Earlier Travalanche posts for February 13 (in no particular order) incl…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMKnowest Thou of The Gumps? I’m pretty sure I’m unaware of any other pop culture franchise that was as major as this that has vanished so completely. Its last gasp was in 1959 and it was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMThursday, February 12, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for February 12, 2026 are about Joseph Kearns (Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace); French ventriloquist Robert Lamouret; little person actor Nabil Shaban; the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMWell, the day has finally arrived! I’ve been waiting for friend and frequent collaborator Noah Diamond’s podcast series Pintele for months, literally, now and here it is, episode one. I …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMToday would have been the 73rd birthday of Nabil Shaban (1953-2025); the actor passed away back in October. Shaban was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. The Jordani…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36AMFebruary 12, 1844 marked the premiere of the temperance melodrama The Drunkard, or The Fallen Saved. We’ve previously written about this play in our review of The Metropolitan Playhouse’…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32AMTribute today to radio, tv, film, and cartoon voice-over actor Joseph Kearns (1907-1962). Kearns was of Salt Lake City Mormon stock. He first went into show business in a vaudeville kiddie a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:32AM 
