Wednesday, October 30, 2024
There are performing artists of older vintage I could treat of today, but none of them get me as jazzed as Grace Slick (b. 1939), nor are any of them as witchy. I love that she was born on H…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:02PMTuesday, October 29, 2024
October 29 was the birthday of a now obscure sports promoter named Jess McMahon (Roderick James McMahon Sr, 1882-1954). In the final analysis I revile the influence his family has had on thi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMIn celebration of Fanny Brice’s birthday, we inaugurate this new finding aid to help you navigate posts related to the great star of stage, screen, and radio. We hope you find it useful! M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:48AMHere’s an even more obscure pocket of an already forgotten cul-de-sac of show business history! While there was nearly a decade between Harold Lloyd’s last starring comedy Professor Bewa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:42AMMonday, October 28, 2024
Thank you, Donald Trump, for reminding everyone who you really are last night, by returning to the symbolically freighted site of the 1939 Nazi Rally (Madison Square Garden) in order to reli…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMSunday, October 27, 2024
In 2019 and 2020 it looked very much like New York’s White Horse Tavern was going to close, and as so many joints shuttered for good during the Covid pandemic, it seemed destined to be ano…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMSaturday, October 26, 2024
You’ll have noticed that in recent months we have drifted into doing more posts about American corporations and brands. I just want to assure you that our mission hasn’t shifted. This th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:36PMWe have multiple reasons for today’s addendum to our previous 2018 post on The Love Boat. One is that, once again, it is Lauren Tewes’ birthday. She gets the honors because she alone amo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMFriday, October 25, 2024
During its 1933-34 season, CBS Radio listeners were treated to one of the most remarkable broadcast programs of all time: The Adventures of Admiral Byrd, a weekly 15 minute dispatch by Rear …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMThursday, October 24, 2024
Quaker Founder George Fox (1624-1691) was born 400 years ago this year; William Penn (1644-1718) was born 20 years later, on this day. I am descended from Quakers on both sides of my family.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PMWednesday, October 23, 2024
Believe it or not, this is my first post dedicated to single Walt Disney feature. I’ve given many of them attention on Travalanche, but usually in the context of broader topics. I’m goin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AMTuesday, October 22, 2024
Far be it from me to besmirch the fine name of Boyardee, but we know what we know. I’m not here to endorse this unpalatable family of products. I’m a culinary barbarian and even I am too…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMMonday, October 21, 2024
October 21, 1858 marked the world premiere of Offenbach’s opera Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). Its culminating piece of music, the “galop infernal” was to become the c…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:54AMSunday, October 20, 2024
William Vann Rogers (1911-1993) was one of those rare juniors who outgrew the shadow of a great father and became his own man, becoming mighty valuable himself. In Rogers case he managed to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:06PMSaturday, October 19, 2024
October 19, 1964 was the date on which Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., the first record album by the duo Simon and Garfunkel was officially released. The pair had released music earlier under the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMFriday, October 18, 2024
Multiple lures attracted us to Feejee Mermaid, the inaugural production of Drops in the Vase, now in previews at the Flea: the title, obviously, but also the past work of the principal artis…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PMThursday, October 17, 2024
My original intention was to create this new finding aid for Saturday Night Live related posts for the REAL 50th anniversary next year (2025 — the show launched in ’75), but they’re al…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32PMMargot Kidder (1948-2018) gave up the ghost just a few years ago, but if I saw more than just a headline, I don’t recall it. The country was neck deep in the shit storm of the 45th Preside…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48AMWednesday, October 16, 2024
October 16 was the birthday of a future B movie star whose birth name was Gordon Nance (1904-1965). Nance grew up on a cattle Missouri ranch. He grew up riding, roping, and participating in …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMTuesday, October 15, 2024
Little birds that tweet have told me of two new books that are coincidentally both being released today, which readers of this blog in particular should be interested in. As we told you back…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AMMonday, October 14, 2024
That’s Jimmy Durante — of course, I’m going to give him pride of place among Italian Americans in show business. He’s kind of the “Adam” of it all, a musician, a singer, a comedi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:48PMOriginally posted on my other blog the Trav-a-log, the contents of which I am in the process of transplanting here, so that it will all live in one place! In 1492 most well educated people i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMSunday, October 13, 2024
Jack MacGowran (1918-1973) was what it’s all about: a muse for many of the best creative minds of the 20th century, an indispensible character actor, and a career most of us would die for,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AMSaturday, October 12, 2024
It’s National Farmers Day. For the occasion, I am restoring a post I published here in 2017, then moved over to Medium when I did a big purge of all the non-show biz related posts on Trava…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AMBorn 100 years ago today, actress Randy Stuart (Elizabeth “Betty Jane” Shaubell, 1924-1996). Stuart started out with her parents in a small time vaudeville act that toured the South and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AMFriday, October 11, 2024
How perfect is it that the International Day of the Girl Child falls on the birthday Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)? She’s one of my top female heroes; we’ve needed her or someone like he…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMThursday, October 10, 2024
When I say I mourn Steve Gordon (1938-1982) I don’t mean to imply that I knew him or that he only recently died. The writer/director passed away over 40 years ago, worlds away from my litt…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PMMy word but there were a lot of Alices running around a century and more ago! I’ve always been interested in the phenomenon because it was my mother’s middle name, after her aunt, who he…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMAn experiment in media in honor of the birthday of the great actress Helen Hayes in further exploration of the legacy of her friend and “Boswell”, Mari Lyn Henry. The audio is not optima…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AMBorn 100 years ago today, the one and only writer/actor/producer/director Edward D. Wood, Jr! We are a huge fan of his oeuvre, and have been for well over 30 years. (As it happens, it is als…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:48AMWednesday, October 9, 2024
Above please note my first edition copy of a Pultitzer Prize winning autobiography from around a century ago The Americanization of Edward Bok. I acquired and read this now highly obscure bo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PM 
