Monday, March 11, 2024
We begin our look at the life of character Albert Salmi (1928-1990) in the middle rather than the beginning or the shocking end, for it is the part that will orient you. Like 99.99% of you I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMSunday, March 10, 2024
What an amazing life and career was the portion of British-American comedy character actor Richard Haydn (1905-1985), a creature of live theatre, film, radio, television, and the printed pag…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMSaturday, March 9, 2024
March 9 was the birthday of an important figure in rock and roll history whose name and contributions have never been well-known enough to satisfy justice, Lloyd Price (1933-2021). Price cam…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AMFriday, March 8, 2024
I’ve always found Claire Trevor (Claire Wemlinger, 1910-2000) enigmatic, and Hollywood’s use of her confounding, which is to say the same thing, I guess. She was normally cast as hard, b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMThursday, March 7, 2024
We awoke to exciting news this morning — Robert S. Bader has just announced his new book Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother, published by Applause, will be on shelves as of October 15, and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMGreat news for lovers of vintage comedy shorts in NYC — there are many live screenings coming up in your near future! It starts today (March 7, 2024, for those of you who don’t look at t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:06AMWednesday, March 6, 2024
Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) was a successful British film director, but it was his trad show biz origins that tipped the balance toward his inclusion in these annals. Gilbert’s parents had a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMTuesday, March 5, 2024
A few words on the breif career of B movie actress Sheila Terry (Kathleen “Kay” Mulhern, 1910-1957). The title of this post is to clarify a confusion that could only happen to the kind o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AMToday we throw a few crumbs to Clémentine Delait (1865-1939), the Most Celebrated Bearded Lady in France! Delait was born and raised in Lorraine, France, near the German and Swiss borders.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:18AMMonday, March 4, 2024
Your correspondent is one of the few people who requires the specificity that characterizes this post’s title. There was a later Channing Pollock, a magician who lived from 1926 through 20…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMThe name John Scarne (Orlando Carmelo Scarnecchia, 1903-1985) was brought back to me recently when I was working on my article on NYC’s magic shops for Chelsea Community News. That’s thr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMSunday, March 3, 2024
I just…had to do this. It’s only right. A couple of years ago I binged Seinfeld (1989-1998), because I had only caught it sporadically during the original run, though I did manage a pret…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PMToday, a brief remembrance of character actor Harold J. Stone (1913-2005). I associate Stone with crook and thug characters but he also played doctors, generals, and other rough-hewn authori…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMSaturday, March 2, 2024
Like our recent post about Lucy and Desi bio-pics, this post arises out of the quality time I spent with this entertaining couple and their various shows during the Covid lockdown (in partic…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMFriday, March 1, 2024
People just a shade younger than me have an entirely different mental association with Alan Thicke (Alan Jeffrey, 1947-2016). To them, he is the dad on the TV sitcom Growing Pains (1985-1992…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMThursday, February 29, 2024
February 29, 2008 was the day Travalanche was launched, making this erstwhile offspring of mine 16 years old, but having had only four birthdays. A Leap Year Baby. I launched the blog while …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:24PMIt isn’t often (once every four years, in fact) that we get to add a new Leap Year Baby to Travalanche. Thus far, out of thousands of bios here, we’ve only got Dinah Shore, William Wellm…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMWednesday, February 28, 2024
The sordid tragedy of Dorothy Stratten (1960-80) has been rehashed countless times over the past four decades. I find it less compelling for the horrific story itself than for its resonances…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMTuesday, February 27, 2024
There’s an actor and an opera star I could be writing about this morning, but I just can’t get myself worked up about them, whereas there’s much more to be said on the topic of John St…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PMMonday, February 26, 2024
This post will lap around the edges of carnival, though nothing really connects its constituent parts beyond a name. February 26 was the birthday of the intriguing French figure Camille Flam…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMA few words on Billy “Zoot” Reed (1913-1974) and Billy Reed’s Little Club (1947-1965). I first learned about this long gone Manhattan institution in writing about the magician Harry Lo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMSunday, February 25, 2024
Notes on stage and screen actress Lucille Ward (1880-1952). A native of Dayton, Ohio the first years of the 20th century saw Ward touring with vaudeville and stock companies, and appearing i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMSaturday, February 24, 2024
February 24 was the natal day of William M. Ruthrauff (1881-1969), inventor of Pepsodent. At least, he’s the inventor according to this excellent article at the Made in Chicago Museum. The…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMFebruary 24 was the birthday of “Chrome Dome Frome” a.k.a. Texaco Star Theatre’s Second Best Milton, Milton Frome (1908-1989). (No one ever called him those things, I just thought them…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:36AMFriday, February 23, 2024
Born 150 years ago today May Davis Wait (1874-1956). Just over a century ago, Wait’s husband, a sometime cough syrup manufacturer name Pearle, invented Jell-O; May’s the one who named it…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMThursday, February 22, 2024
February 22 is the birthday of respected veteran character actor James Hong (b. 1929). He’s 95 as I pen this, and still toiling at what he loves, which is pretty incredible. Hong’s fathe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AMWednesday, February 21, 2024
Hello, you must be going! The long-awaited return of Marxfest will take place over two glorious weekends in NYC, packed with once-in-a-lifetime events calculated to thrill the obsessive Marx…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMIt amuses me especially to title this post “the OTHER Charles King” since it’s likely that precious few readers have ever heard of the first one we wrote about here. As it happens, tod…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AMTuesday, February 20, 2024
Gloria Vanderbilt (1924-2019) was born 100 years ago today. Hers is a name that has meant something different to every American generation. Contemporary people may or may not recognize her a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMMonday, February 19, 2024
Happy Presidents Day! Young people may not know this, but ostensibly this is not a day for ALL the Presidents, just Washington and Lincoln. We used to celebrate them each as separate holiday…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32AMIt is our pleasure this morning to tell you about Early American Renaissance Man William Dunlap (1766-1839). Dunlap’s most significant contributions were in the theatre, but he was also a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:32AM 
