Thursday, September 7, 2023
Few voice-over actors had the range of Don Messick (1926-1997), who could go from straight parts to character roles to non-humans (a specialty) often in the same cartoon, without the audienc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:49AMMost sources are telling the life and death of Gary Wright (1943-2023) wrong, so I feel compelled to step in and attempt a better job of it. The headlines are reading like Wright was a one h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:33AMWednesday, September 6, 2023
Born this day Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III, 1949-1982), founder of The Cockettes, The Angels of Light, et al. The Cockettes were a kind of anarchist, avant-garde, hippie, gay, San Fr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AMTuesday, September 5, 2023
Only our ignorance has prevented us from doing a dedicated post on Daryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) hitherto — but it’s not the ignorance you think. I mean, I know all the classic Hollywood p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:07AM“Sardoodledom” is that coinage of George Bernard Shaw’s to describe what he took to be one of the diseases of his age, an undue reverence on the part of the public and theatre professi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:43AMMonday, September 4, 2023
Even the most arcane esoteric abstract aesthetic theorist of the 20th century turns out to have a pop culture angle. A few in fact. The first is that long before his theatrical scribblings r…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:55AMHappy Labor Day, for those who celebrate. Does anyone? Labor Day is one of our most peculiar non-holiday holidays. Ostensibly it’s the official day to celebrate the workers, but everyone k…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:55AMSaturday, September 2, 2023
Today is World Beard Day! Many, I suppose, will be celebrating beards in general, which is all well and good. I think right away of ancient Greeks, men of the 19th century, men of the 1960s …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:19AMSeptember 2, 1953 is a day of special significance to some of us. It’s the day Little Fugitive premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The title of this wonderful movie could apply to itsel…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:07AMFriday, September 1, 2023
Above you see presented my small collection of some of the works of journalist, historian and pioneer of the True Crime genre Herbert Asbury (1891-1963). I’m quite sure I discovered Asbury…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:33AMThursday, August 31, 2023
August 31 was the birthday of stage actress Florence Walton (1883-1981), whom I previously profiled here. As I mentioned in that earlier post, friend Mari Lyn Henry had the rare opportunity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:04AMAugust 31 was the natal day of Robert Emmet Odlum (1851-1885), the first man to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. You thought it was Steve Brodie, didn’t you? Well, Brodie was the first man to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:55AMA few words today in celebration of Dick Vosburgh (1929-2007). New Jersey born and RADA educated, Vosburgh began writing for BBC radio in the 1950s. He then moved up to British television, w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:43AMWednesday, August 30, 2023
The briefest of squibs today on one of my favorite visual artists since boyhood, Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). David’s period of activity stretched from the end of the Ancien Régime, t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:37PMTuesday, August 29, 2023
William Friedkin (1935-2023) was born August 29; we choose this year to add him to our annals as he passed away a couple of weeks ago; his final film is being released next month; and this y…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:25AMThe title of this post is to indicate that we do NOT refer to the learned jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes JUNIOR (1841-1935) who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932, and was the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:07AMMonday, August 28, 2023
For whatever reason, I don’t find Hal Thompson (1899-1966) half as objectionable as most of the ciphers and cigar store Indians who played the male love interests in Marx Brothers’ comed…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:33AMSunday, August 27, 2023
I remember the exact moment I learned of the existence of Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973). I was about 7 years old and thumbing through one of those “books of Presidents” we had (we had sever…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AMAugust 27 was both the birth date and death date of Romanian-American singer and actress Lisette Verea (1914-2003). Verea is chiefly known for but one thing: her hot, hot, hot performance as…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:25AMSaturday, August 26, 2023
This September 20, at 7:30pm we remind you to “Fall Back” and go “back to school” (old school) by attending the next edition of The Variety Store, at QED ,27-16 23rd Avenue, Astori…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:43PMI have absolutely zero recollection of why I assigned myself to celebrate the centennial of the birth of fairly obscure character Tom Mahoney (1923-1982), but what the, hell I’m going to g…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:13AMFriday, August 25, 2023
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) is top of mind at the moment for a variety of reasons: I was privileged recently to meet the daughter one of his principal proteges; Steven Spielberg recently r…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:07AMThursday, August 24, 2023
Dave Chappelle turns 50 today. Chappelle’s Show premiered 20 years ago. Even mentioning his name here will likely inspire paroxysms of fury from many. I hope most people will be rational e…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:07AMWednesday, August 23, 2023
Well, I don’t know how I’ve managed to live this long without ever seeing this, as a life long classic comedy and vaudeville fan, as someone who grew up on Rankin-Bass specials, and also…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:19AMTuesday, August 22, 2023
Now that certain GOP politicians are rabid to relax the child labor laws, this might be a suitable time to recount the tale of Lucille Ricksen (Ingeborg Myrtle Elisabeth Ericksen, 1910-1925)…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:33AMMonday, August 21, 2023
August 21 was the birthday (and August 29 the death day) of Frank Perry (1930-1995); and August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, a suitable season for a little reflection on the filmmaker and h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AMSunday, August 20, 2023
Happy National Radio Day! The Old Time Radio section of Travalanche now has close to 500 posts for your perusal every day of the year, but this year finds us at a significant juncture. 2023 …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:43AMAugust 20, 1923 saw the debut of the Shuberts’ Artists and Models revues on Broadway. The concept for this show was adapted from theatricals put on by the Illustrators Society of New York …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:43AMSaturday, August 19, 2023
August 19 was the baptismal date of author Samuel Richardson (1689-1761). Richardson’s biographical profile is unique among early British literary figures in that he was an autodidact. He …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:43AMFriday, August 18, 2023
To blink would be to miss the career of Andrea Leeds (Antoinette Lees, 1913-1984). Leeds career blazed most brightly not long before she ended it, when she was nominated for an Oscar for her…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:37AMThursday, August 17, 2023
I only learned about this couple of performers a few days ago from the intrepid explorer Eve Golden. But as it happens, August 17 was the birthday of one of them, Ruth Tester (1903-1993). Te…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:33AM 
