Monday, May 8, 2023
In the world of stage magic we are accustomed to a lamentable but long tradition of male domination: male illusionists and their female assistants. In the world of mediumship, however, it wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMSunday, May 7, 2023
Anne Baxter (1923-1985) would be 100 years old at this writing. Only with restraint have we stayed our impulse to do a dedicated post on her prior to this benchmark: for as we wrote here, he…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMSaturday, May 6, 2023
Born today, Loretta Clemens (1906-1990), who, with and without her brother Jack (1909-1970) enjoyed success in just about every entertainment medium. The siblings were from the Lake Erie tow…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMFriday, May 5, 2023
Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) was born this day. And you can be forgiven for asking “Quis est?” in addition to “Quo vadis?” A century ago, this Polish author’s name was more widel…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMThursday, May 4, 2023
With apologies to Irish poet Thomas Moore, a celebration today of Hollywood bit player Edgar Dearing (1893-1974). Dearing was best known as a silent and slapstick comedy heavy, especially fo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMI write this on what would have been the birthday of Harry Lorayne (Harry Ratzer, 1926-2023) but since he passed away less than month ago, it will also serve as an obit. Lorayne was a much b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AMWednesday, May 3, 2023
Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 5:30pm EDT Once again, friend, Ralph Lewis, Bowery Booster and vital third of the conscientious triumvirate known as Peculiar Works Project is offering his grippin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMWe’re not sure, but we think Earl Wilson (1907-1987) may be the last of the great classic gossip columnists we’ve gotten to covering here: we’ve already had Walter Winchell, Ed Sulliva…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMTuesday, May 2, 2023
I’m just about a year younger than Crispin Glover, and we’ll get to him, because his own birthday just passed, and I am an enormous fan of his. But prior to that we must contend with the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:06PMMonday, May 1, 2023
The First of May is a witching time and so we may be forgiven for attributing (probably nonexistent) significance to the fact that Wendy the Good Little Witch first saw light of day in the M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PMIt’s likely that even hardcore classic movie buffs will draw a blank when the name Harry Leon Wilson (1867-1939) is mentioned, but they certainly the many screen adaptions of his works, an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AMSunday, April 30, 2023
Vintage bandleader Vince Giordano is having a moment — one of several such moments over a long and enviable career — and so we thought it made sense to bundle them together and report th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMApril 30 is International Jazz Day! Travalanche has hundreds of posts celebrating jazz singers, composers, and musicians, but they are not grouped into a single section. Rather, the various …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMSaturday, April 29, 2023
I don’t know if you’ve been following the Theatre 80 saga over the last few months. I should have weighed in much sooner, but I kept thinking the cause was lost…then I would see that t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMThere are three major milestone Williversaries to celebrate this year: Willie Nelson (b. 1933) turns 90 years old today; and 2023 also marks 50 years since his first annual 4th of July Picni…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMFriday, April 28, 2023
It’s National Superhero Day, an appropriate time seemingly for an overdue explication upon the worthwhile topic of the Saturday morning cartoon show Underdog (1964-67). I watched the show …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:02PMThursday, April 27, 2023
I was saddened to hear from my friends at Peculiar Works Project about the death on April 12 of Megan Terry (Marguerite Duffy, 1932-2023). Terry wasn’t just one of the top female playwrigh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMAnimation isn’t our main “space jam” here on Travalanche, but we have inevitably encroached on that territory, as many of the vocal performers and artists in that field had connections…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMWednesday, April 26, 2023
April 26 is World Burlesque Day! Travalanche has hundreds of burlesque-related posts, but I’ll have to cop to the fact that it is handily the most cockamamie subject category on this blog …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AMThe title of today’s post comes by virtue of the fact that our only previous post dedicated to this major entertainer focused on but a single accomplishment, my favorite creation of hers (…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AMTuesday, April 25, 2023
Born 150 years ago this day: Howard Roger Garis (1873-1962), most notable for creating the children’s book character Uncle Wiggily. The title of this post is derived from that of his son�…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMMonday, April 24, 2023
Check it out! I’m today’s guest on Avi Woolf’s terrific Gilded Age podcast series “Stumbling Colossus”. The topic is vaudeville of course — you wanna talk about income disparity …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMHow delightful that Albert Zugsmith (1910-1993) shares a birthday with William Castle (1914-1977), for they have so much in common. Both became famous as independent, low-budget schlockmeist…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AMSunday, April 23, 2023
There is a poetic resonance in the fact that Ronald Neame, CBE (1911-2010) was born on St. George’s Day, the Feast Day for England’s Patron Saint, for there is something quintessentially…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMSaturday, April 22, 2023
Very sad news to report, and I’m glad I learned it from my old editor Jason Zinoman, who nowadays has the comedy beat at the NYTimes (I wouldn’t have liked to have learned it from someon…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PMThere is no shortage of significant April 22 birthdays. As I write this, it is the centennial of the births of Bettie Page and Aaron Spelling; last year it was Charles Mingus. Also born this…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMFriday, April 21, 2023
April 21 is the natal day of Jim Osterberg (b.1947), universally known by the handle Iggy Pop. He is top of mind at the moment, since we recently watched Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s 2016 …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMThursday, April 20, 2023
This is a show biz blog and Burt Pugach (1927-2020) had a modest footprint in show business. He was invested in New York nightclubs, and he produced the crime drama Death Over My Shoulder (1…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMI learned about silent comedienne Wanda Wiley (1902-1987) through the good offices of the Silent Comedy Watch Party and That Slapstick Show, both of whom have presented her shorts. How wonde…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMWednesday, April 19, 2023
I don’t know that Dickie Goodman (1934-89) WAS the “King of Novelty” precisely (it’s a crowded field), but that is the title of his son Jon’s 2000 biography about his dad. The book…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AMI have no idea who decreed it to be National Banana Day, but the instant I learned of its existence I thought of this post, for the banana is one of your top comedy fruits, as well as one th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM 
