Thursday, November 16, 2023
Irish-American comedian Paddy McGuire (born ca. 1884) died this day in 1923 — a century ago today. McGuire’s career was short but prolific: nearly 80 films in a little over five years. B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMWednesday, November 15, 2023
November 15 was the birthday of humorist, columnist, radio personality and Algonquin wit Franklin P. Adams (Franklin Pierce Adams, 1881-1960). In his day, Adams was best known as a regular o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMTuesday, November 14, 2023
While I have long known the most famous work of regionalist painter John Steuart Curry (1897-1946), I’m quite sure I never knew the name of the artist, because if I had I would have taken …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMMonday, November 13, 2023
I know not whether Gertrude Olmstead (1897-1975) was related to the famous designer of city parks, but I do know that, astoundingly, she is far from the only bygone star named Gertrude, what…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AMSunday, November 12, 2023
Everything goes in threes, so they say, so this is our third big post in honor of the late Mari Lyn Henry. The first was in the aftermath of our very fortunate meeting last year, wherein she…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMSaturday, November 11, 2023
A tribute today to the memory of of Brother Theodore (Theodore Gottlieb, 1906-2001). For years and years, long after he passed away in fact, there was a sign advertising Brother Theodore’s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMFriday, November 10, 2023
It is characteristic of this specialized age that appreciation for Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) seems to have declined over the past century. And yet it is the very eclecticism of his undert…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PMGordon Lightfoot (1938-2023) died on May Day of this year. Sometimes I’m ready and able to do a rapid response tribute to somebody when they suddenly pass away (much as Lightfoot did for a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMThursday, November 9, 2023
For the great Ed Wynn’s birthday this year, I have spruced up my previous post on The Perfect Fool, and add this spotlight on his ground breaking TV variety show. That he was brave enough …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMWednesday, November 8, 2023
I swear I haven’t gone car crazy (today’s earlier post was about TV shows sponsored by Chevrolet). It’s just that this seemed the best angle for me to take on my post about singer Patt…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMI don’t give two hoots in hell about cars or car companies, but it just so happens that Chevrolet did sponsor some great radio and television variety shows and that IS our bailiwick, so we…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMTuesday, November 7, 2023
Please join me Saturday, November 18, 6:00pm (EST) for a special live-stream event celebrating the 60th anniversary of one of my favorite movies, Stanley Kramer’s beloved all-star comedy …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06AMWhen Dan W. Quinn passed away on November 7, 1938 he’d been out of the limelight for 20 years. With the Big Band Era in full swing (!) he was little remembered by the record buying public …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:03AMMonday, November 6, 2023
The tale of stage star May De Sousa (1884-1948) is one of great unexpected success, followed by tragedy great enough to sap whatever savor there was of her triumphs. This is a common enough …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMSunday, November 5, 2023
When people want to kid around about the British Invasion of the 1960s, it’s usually Herman’s Hermits or The Dave Clark Five they’ll mention, presumably on the grounds that they were a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:48AMSaturday, November 4, 2023
We’ve paid plenty of attention to Will Rogers (1879-1935) on Travalanche in tribute to his mighty cultural reach and today, even though we could well be writing about 2 or 3 people we’ve…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PMFriday, November 3, 2023
Dennis Miller (b. 1953) turns 70 today, but let’s get real — hasn’t he been 70 for the past 30 years? So let’s just say that he’s about a hundred. Hearing that he supported our pre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AMThis comes under the header of neither fish nor foul…neither quite historical yet, nor any longer contemporary. But I do take note of the fact that the Canadian television show Slings and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMThat lame attempt at a witticism in the title of this post is spawned by the knowledge that November 3 is the birthday of Charles Louis Fleischmann (1835-1897), who, along with his brother M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMLulu (Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, b. 1948) turns 75 today, which means that she has been a pop star for 60 years. She was only 15 years old when she broke into the biz! It can be awful…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMThursday, November 2, 2023
Born November 2, jazz genius Bunny Berrigan (1908-1942), very much not to be confused with Bunny Breckinridge. Here on Travalanche, we have many bunnies. Singer and horn player Berrigan head…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AMWednesday, November 1, 2023
We pause now from our unceasing torrent of self-promotion to engage in a little…indirect self-promotion! I’ve been working with Gary Hardcastle for months on the audio-book version of my…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AMJohn Adams (1735-1826) was born on October30. Around 1990, I began a three year stint working in New York’s greatest bookstore, Brentano’s Fifth Avenue. Assigned to the history section, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:33AMTuesday, October 31, 2023
As promised a couple of days ago, a thing on Fay, the very short lived 1975 sit-com starring Lee Grant (Lyova Haskell Rosenthal). Grant is top-of-mind at the moment because my wife recently …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:43PMHow flipping cool is it that Michael J. Anderson (b. 1953) was born on HALLOWEEN? The “J” is very important so as not to confuse him with the movie director or his son. The guy I mean is…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:13PMOctober 31 being Ethel Waters’ birthday, I thought I’d give you an early head’s up about an exciting upcoming musical show that celebrates her life and work. Bread and Gravy: The Songs…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:13PMOver the past several months we have essayed what amounts to a series of light pieces exploring the many mutt holidays America inherited from Western Europe. There are more of them than migh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:07AMMonday, October 30, 2023
That which you see here, with its conveniently timely Halloween color scheme, is my much-thumbed, frequently highlighted copy of Robert Brustein’s seminal 1964 book Theatre of Revolt. Hele…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:19PMI re-read the Dover edition above recently in preparation for the Halloween season, but it emerges that the post in question will treat not only of its author but his esteemed ancestor. I ha…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:03AMSunday, October 29, 2023
This one goes to the two Turks in my life (that I know of) one is a nice puppeteer friend whom I was honored to marry to her husband at the marionette cottage in Central Park a few years bac…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:13PMOctober 29 is National Cat Day. Ironically though it is two days before Halloween, it is somehow not National BLACK Cat Day, that’s August 17, so a black cat related post will follow at th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:55AM 
