Thursday, 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 11:33AMDewey Robinson (1898-1950) specialized in rough-tough bruiser characters, appearing in well over 250 Hollywood movies in the two decades between 1931 and his death. He was frequently cast as…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:19AMFor her 130th natal anniversary, here’s something I should have implemented upon producing West Fest back in 2018: a finding aid to help you navigate the three dozen posts about Mae West o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:07AMWednesday, August 16, 2023
There are two reasons for choosing to reflect upon Madonna (Madonna Ciccone, b. 1958) on this particular birthday. 2023 puts us at the 40th anniversary of her entry onto the pop charts and h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:19AMTuesday, August 15, 2023
Romanian born Aben Kandel (1897-1993) was many things over his long career: a boxer, a fiction writer, playwright and screenwriter. The fact that the first of his half dozen novels was calle…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:13AMWhat can the title of this post refer to, you wonder? W.C. Fields wore all of his sins on his sleeve: drinking, smoking, and professed animadversions for such untouchable subjects of societa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:13AMAugust 15 was the birthday of Johnny Roventini (1910-1989) better known to the public of his time as Johnny Philip Morris. The Brooklyn native was a Person of Small Stature — 3 feet, eleve…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:13AMWe have multiple reasons for wanting to do a little tribute to Mike Connors (Krekor Ohanian, Jr., 1925-2017) over and beyond his most famous role on the tv show Mannix (1967-1975). To wit: -…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:55AMMonday, August 14, 2023
As I mentioned in my post about Jerry Lewis’s tv shows, when I first saw the comedian in Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), I was to young to know the extent of the gimmick, i.e. I di…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:43AMSunday, August 13, 2023
Marx Brothers fans know of Erin Fleming (Marilyn Suzette Fleming, 1941-2003) chiefly through books like Steve Stoliar’s Raised Eyebrows and Charlotte Chandler’s Hello, I Must Be Going. T…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AMSaturday, August 12, 2023
I just heard from the great biographer Eve Golden that Tom Jones (1928-2002) has passed away. Don’t worry, it’s not the Welsh Elvis, but the other one, the one who wrote the book and lyr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:43PMI have been intrigued by H.P. Blavatsky (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1831-1891), and the religion she founded, Theosophy, ever since I moved to New York and saw print ads for the center of th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:07AMFor World Elephant Day, we have one more to add to our post on the Elephants of Travalanche, with its links to a dozen relevant articles. For Old Bet, whom we wrote about just two weeks ago,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:49AMFriday, August 11, 2023
I am astounded to realize this morning that Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) would only be turning 90 years old today. Absent the cancer that killed him at age 65 he could still be around, an age…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:13AMBorn 100 years ago today: singer, dancer and actress Lita Baron (Isabel Castro, 1923-2015). Like Charo, Baron was from Spain, not Latin-America, though she benefitted from the Latin Craze of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:07AMAugust 11, 1973 was the date on which “Father of Hip-Hop” DJ Kool Herc (Colin Campbell) first used a mixer to prolong a drumbeat break between LP records on two turntables, a date many a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:55AMThursday, August 10, 2023
Born this day, Fakir Musafar (Roland Loomis, 1930-2018). Loomis was a lot of things over the course of his life: an advertising executive, an Arthur Murray Dance Instructor, a demolitions sp…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:07AMWednesday, August 9, 2023
Whew! I got this very good idea somewhat late in the day, but better late then never! It happens to be National Book Lovers Day, and rather than doing my usually thing of flogging my own pre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:07PMDorothy Jordan (1906-1988) was one of those lucky lookers plucked from the chorus and groomed for movie stardom. She’s only in about two dozen films, but enough of them are sufficiently no…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:25AMTuesday, August 8, 2023
August 8 was the natal day of Louise Lester (1867-1952), widely regarded as the first female star of westerns. She starred in films for the Flying A studio in pictures with names like Crazy …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:33AMMonday, August 7, 2023
Pictured above is the Point Judith Lighthouse, located six miles from the house where I grew up. My dad used to drive there to park and think every day of his retirement. In high school, the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:04PMSunday, August 6, 2023
I nod his morning to Loyal Underwood (1893-1966), a member of Charlie Chaplin’s stock company from 1916 to 1923. I have been guilty on occasion of mistaking Underwood for James T. Kelley, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:43AMSaturday, August 5, 2023
Thanks, Noah Diamond (the man who Noahs all) for tipping me the wink that there’d be an estate sale at the former Groucho Marx house in Great Neck today. As it’s my town of residence, I�…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:13PMA celebration today of stage and screen actor Philip Coolidge (1908-1967). The photo above is of course from William Castle’s The Tingler (1959), one of a handful of well known movies the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:55AMWe’ve been remiss in not treating of comedy auteur Lewis R. Foster (1898-1974) ’til now. Foster came out of the same Hal Roach cradle as better known guys like Leo McCarey, George Steven…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:49AMWe may have indulged ourselves (and oldest friends and family) at some point by doing a post on New England broadcaster Salty Brine (Walter Leslie Brine, 1918-2004), but we hop to it today b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:49AMFriday, August 4, 2023
Today is opening day of the Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. We thought it an appropriate time to recall the Toni Twins advertising campaign, and the most famous of those who were amon…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:43AMThursday, August 3, 2023
The New York Daily News photo above was taken at the moment the building that housed the Mercer Arts Center collapsed on August 3rd, 1973. I first heard of the incident from researching my o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:43AMBorn 100 years ago today, actress Jean Hagen (Jean ver Hagen, 1923-1977), not be confused with That Hagen Girl, who of course was Shirley Temple, opposite Ronald Reagan. Chicago native Hagen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:37AMWednesday, August 2, 2023
Having already knocked my brains out writing this piece about rock bands earlier today, I’ll keep this 70th birthday tribute to Butch Patrick (be. 1953) short and sweet. However, isn’t i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:49PMThe sad news about the passing of Paul Reubens (PeeWee Herman) sent me into a tailspin of of genuine grief and I don’t mind admitting it because it seems like everyone I know felt the same…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:37PM 
