Monday, August 18, 2025
August 18 is Robert Redford’s birthday; August 19 is National Aviation Day; and it just so happens that this year marks the 50th anniversary of a motion picture that combines those two ele…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:03AMSunday, August 17, 2025
Today we inaugurate a new pocket of Travalanche dedicated to U.S. States. When I began the series I doubted I would do one on every State in the Union. Now that I have done nearly 20% of the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for August 17, 2025 are on: National Massachusetts Day National Black Cat Day The Writing of Julian Fellowes Barbara Stanwyck’s Uncle Buck Previous August 1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06PMAugust 17 is the birthday of Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL (b. 1949), commonly known as Julian Fellowes by people who don’t have time to say all …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:03PMWe’re getting very niche these days! One would think that there was celebration enough of black cats on Halloween, or on National Cat Day (October 29) or International Cat Day (August 8). …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PMAugust 17 was the birthday of Buck Mack (1888-1959), best known to vintage film fans as “Uncle Buck”, the somewhat shadowy friend, fixer, butler, bodyguard, and all around caretaker for …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMSaturday, August 16, 2025
In addition to today’s new Travalanche post on The Unholy Three, previous August 16 articles include ones on: Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone Early screen star Mae C…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AMAugust 16, 1925 was the release date of the Tod Browning’s The Unholy Three. Browning had been directing in Hollywood for over a decade when he got a greenlight to direct his second pictur…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:18AMAugust 14 was the birthday of Tin Pan Alley lyricist Ned Washington (Edward Michael Washington, 1901-1976). A Scranton native, Washington broke into vaudeville around 1922 both as an emcee a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:18AMFriday, August 15, 2025
The new Travalanche posts for today (August 15, 2025) are ones on: The 80th Anniversary of V-J Day The 60th Anniversary the Beatles at Shea Stadium Hawaiian Statehood Day The 100th Birthday …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMI usually strive mightily not to be so basic in my choice of images, both because that’s how I roll, and because ya get fewer clicks if the pic you use is everywhere else. But this famous …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PM60 years ago today, the historic Beatles’ first concert at Shea Stadium (August 15, 1965). Did they intend for it to be scheduled on the 20th anniversary of V-J Day? I can’t imagine that…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PMThe third Friday in August is celebrated annually as Hawaiian Statehood Day. This year it just so happens to fall on the 80th anniversary of V-J Day, reminding us that the war with Japan beg…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMFor a long time throughout my youth, the entertainer Don Ho (1930-2007) was the unelected, unofficial mascot for Hawaii in American pop culture. The Don Ho phenomenon was not unlike that of …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMWell, I obviously learned about this interesting man when researching his near-namesake Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was so named not as the result of a coinc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMBorn 100 years ago today, the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (1925-2007), a.k.a. “O.P.” There was much to set Peterson apart from his contemporaries in the jazz field of his day. Firs…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36AMThursday, August 14, 2025
Today we announce a new Travalanche feature that will hopefully help you maximize the value of this increasingly unwieldy site. Travalanche is about 17 years old now if my math is correct, w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PMAugust 14 was the birthday of the popular Jazz Age cartoonist, illustrator and caricaturist Ralph Barton (Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton, 1891-1931). Though I’m sure I’d encountered his work…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AMI am tardy in appreciating playwright/screenwriter/director Tom Eyen (1940-1991), but am gratified to redress the lapse today. For some reason, Eyen is seldom included in capsule narratives …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AMWednesday, August 13, 2025
Not to be confused with Gene Rayburn, Gene Sheldon, Gene Austin, or Gene Pitney, though I see how that could happen. Gene Raymond (Raymond Guion,1908-1998) was a sort of middling movie star …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42PMThere are many red herrings to put young people off the scent of the real significance of singer, actor, and tv personality Jimmy Dean (1928-2010). The smell of sausage may be the initial di…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PMAugust 13 was the birthday British puppeteer and comedian Rod Hull (1935-1999). Hull and his obnoxious Emu puppet tried their luck in the States from time to time, so I have vague childhood …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMJust a few word in acknowledgment of the existence of writer and director Melvin Frank (1913-1988). We’ve had half a dozen occasions on which to mention the man, usually in relation to his…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMToday would have been the 87th birthday of Dave “Baby” Cortez (David Cortez Clowney, 1938-2022). Cortez passed away back in 2022, but was reclusive, so the news wasn’t reported or publ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AMTuesday, August 12, 2025
I don’t know why, but it always seems that little items of clown and circus news seem to float my way and accrue, so I tend to bundle the items into little bulletins. We’ve done it a few…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PMAugust 12 was the birthday of Al Goodman (1890-1972), a musical director for Broadway, radio, and television, especially associated with the shows of Al Jolson and Bert Lahr. Goodman was the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PMThis is the promised part two of a pair of posts on my return to the city of my birth, Westerly, Rhode Island (part one being the review of Frank Ferrante’s Groucho show at Wilcox Park). I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMMonday, August 11, 2025
“I seen my opportunities, and I took ’em.” — Tammany Hall politician George Washington Plunkitt. This past weekend was sock-o for a zillion reasons, but the catalyst for it all was t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:54PMSunday, August 10, 2025
If you’re my age, and even a little older, you grew up knowing only a couple of things about Eddie Fisher (1928-2010): 1) he had caused a stir by leaving Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Tayl…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:36AMSaturday, August 9, 2025
Today’s post is a bit of a bunt, as I am on the road today for reasons I will report back on later. As I frequently do, I will likely backdate some more content to make the day’s output …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:42AMFriday, August 8, 2025
My old friend and sometime editor Scott Stiffler made an announcement this week that ought to be of interest to many of our readers. In just about two months (October 7) he is launching an a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PM 
