Friday, September 12, 2025
This exercise is due to the fact that Looper recently published a listicle they called the 15 Best Comedy Movie Stars of All Time, Ranked " and it was so dreadful it was downright risible. S…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AM[SHARE]This is an unpaid endorsement for an online class produced by the 92nd Street Y starting in a couple of weeks. I don't usually shill for such things (and the class is a little pricey) but I …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 11, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 11, 2025, includes several new posts connecting the events of 2001 to the world of show business, including ones on Ultra Violet and her 9/11 artwo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PM[SHARE]While I have participated in oral history projects about both September 11 and Coney Island, both of which topics factor into this post, Travalanche is not an oral history blog, by a long wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]20 years on, it is interesting in new ways to engage with In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman's lesser known second comic masterwork. There are ways, technically, in which it surpasse…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AM[SHARE]About a week ago I did a post on Superstar Ultra Violet and learned about an art project she created in 2011 for the 10th anniversary of September 11. It made sense to me to save talk of tha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 10, 2025 is about my kid! And I Iied! I promised some new show biz posts for today, but the truth is I had a dental implant installed yesterday and…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PM[SHARE]My son Cashel Byron Stewart hits the benchmark of 30 years old today so I hope you'll forgive a sentimental old father the indulgence of doing something here in his honor. And after all, the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:54PM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 9, 2025 is on Richard Webb, star of Captain Midnight. Other Travalanche posts for September 9 include ones on: Adam Sandler Colonel Sanders The Dea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Actor Richard Webb (1915-1993) was born on September 9. Webb was best known for starring in the serial The Invisible Monster (1950), and for playing the title character in the television ver…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AM[SHARE]Monday, September 8, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 8, 2025 is a brand new finding aid for my posts related to Sid Caesar. Also today happens to be the centennial of the birth of Peter Sellers! My po…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]September 8 being the birthday of comedian Sid Caesar, I thought it would be useful to do this post linking you to the many Travalanche posts relevant to the comedian. Consume responsibly! M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]Sunday, September 7, 2025
They're dropping like flies lately over on Eve's Obits so that one can hardly keep up. The saddest news of the last few days has been the passing of Mark Volman of The Turtles, The Mothers o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]Today's new Travalanche posts for September 7, 2025 are on Sir Anthony Quayle and the late Stephen Mendillo. Today is the first day of Suicide Prevention Week " my post on that somber topic …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]I acknowledge off the bat that the title of this post is unfortunate. The intention is to suggest the drawing out of an elusive bird, not for the purposes of shooting him but for getting a b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, September 6, 2025
Today's new Travalanche posts for September 6, 2025 are about Max Schreck (Nosferatu), Warhol superstar Ultra Violet, big band singer and actress Julie Gibson (who lived to be 106), and two …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PM[SHARE]September 6 was the birthday of Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne, 1935-2014). Dufresne was a French debutante who fell into Salvador Dali's orbit immediately after graduating college. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:42PM[SHARE]I don't know if it's true to a certainty, but it sure sounds correct " of the thousands of public figures I have profiled on Travalanche, the longest-lived was likely Julie Gibson (Gladys Ca…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]100 years ago today in New York City, the Universal horror film The Phantom of the Opera was receiving its world premier. In related news, on that same day, 4,000 miles east of New York, Fri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AM[SHARE]This post concerns two gentlemen named Daniel Sully, both with theatrical connections, both born in Providence, Rhode Island within a few years of each other. I am going to make a rash specu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Friday, September 5, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 5, 2025 is about an almost famous vaudeville by the name of Eddie Vogt. Previous Travalanche posts for September 5 include ones on: Bob Newhart Lou…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06PM[SHARE]Some fragments this morning on vaudeville performer and early screen actor Eddie Vogt (1889-1960), a minor figure to be sure, and our telling is not as complete as it might be, but we post h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 4, 2025
September 4 was the birthday of actor Leonard Frey (1938-88). Frey once worried aloud that all anyone would remember him for (if they remembered him for anything) was for creating the role o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]Today's new Travalanche post for September 4, 2025 are about Pete Smith Specialties, radio comedian Charlie Cantor, Waldo and Jennifer Salt, and actor Leonard Frey. Previous Travalanche post…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]We love multigenerational show biz stories here on Travalanche, and this one is especially rewarding. It begins with screenwriter Waldo Salt (1914-1987). Having just written about Waldo Pepp…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]September 4 was the birthday of radio and television comedian Charlie Cantor (1898-1966). As it happens, Charlie was no relation to Eddie Cantor, whose real name was Itzkowitz. But he did st…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]A century ago (1925), a show biz press agent named Pete Smith (Peter Schmidt, 1892-1979) got the plum job of publicity manager for MGM films. Prior to this, this son of a German-American bre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Today's new Travalanche post for September 3, 2025 are about country singer Hank Thompson (inspiration for Crazy Heart) and Merritt Butrick (Square Pegs, Star Trek movies). Previous Travalan…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]The life and career of Merritt Butrick (1959-1989) were both short, but I'm just the right age to have witnessed his time of peak fame, which occurred (most unusually) at the start of his ca…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Born 100 years ago today, country artist Hank Thompson (1925-2007). Not nearly as big a name as Hank Williams or Hank Snow, awareness of Thompson broke through to the mainstream in a big way…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 2, 2025
How many can name the director of the first, best, and as far as I'm concerned only version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)? Well, now you can, but how many could do it witho…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PM[SHARE] 
