11,706 stories by "Trav S.D."
Coming June 1: the midway history I didn't know I needed, Nathan Wakefield, The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek, Snake eaters, Human Ostriches and Other Extreme Entertainers. Wakefield ma…
Today is Leslie Uggams' 80th birthday and I hope you will forgive the joke I invariably think of when I see her name, which is "Would Wes-wee wike a wittoo 'uggams?" If you're done throwing …
As we pen these words it is the 80th birthday of actor Gary Burghoff (b.1943), known almost exclusively for playing the character of "Radar" O'Reilley in both the film and television show M*…
This is a tawdry tidbit well known to Laurel and Hardy fans, but not to the general reader: prior to his four legal marriages and prior to his screen teaming with Oliver Hardy, a woman named…
We've many an occasion to mention Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers (1910-1986) on this blog, but unconscionably our only post dedicated to him to date has been been very narrowly focused …
Here's a forgotten star closer to our own time. When I was a kid in the '70s Michael Sarazin (1940-2011) was everywhere, in all kinds of major screen projects with top actors, and for all th…
Very much ahead of his time was Arthur Cravan (Fabian Avenarius Lloyd; 1887-1918) a hoaxer, boxer, Dada artist, critic performer, poet, adventurer and nephew of Oscar Wilde. One reads …
Not being a baby boomer, I was unaware of Rick Jason's most famous role and learned about him in the most unlikely was possible " I got interested in investigating who he was after seeing hi…
Classic comedy fans have reason to take note of the name Patricia Ellis (Patricia O'Brien, 1916-1970). She appears opposite Joe E. Brown in Elmer the Great (1933), The Circus Clown (1934) an…
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the Marx Brothers' first Broadway show I'll Say She Is, which we revived nine years ago in the context of an entire Marx Brothers festival produced by moi…
All honor and deference to British stage and screen anomaly Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes, 1936-2016). We first became aware of her when she sashayed into the middle of Satan in High Heels (1962)…
May 18 is International Museum Day, which I'm certain is not intended to celebrate the kind of dime museums I normally write about here, but allow me to expand the day's purpose. I've also w…
Last year, Dwayne Hickman (1934-2022) made the symbolic gesture of dying on Bob Denver's birthday. This will mean nothing to all but the elderly. I'm only aware of The Many Loves of Dobie Gi…
BOTD 50 years ago, Matthew McGrory (1973-2005), certified by the Guinness Book of World Records to have been the tallest professional actor in its annals (7′ 6″). Sadly, as you s…
It's been over a year since Bob Saget's (1956-2022) sudden and bewildering passing, so I hope it's not "too soon" (to use a phrase that bedeviled his professional compadres Gilbert Gottfried…
In keeping with today's theme of Tin Pan Alley tunes, a wanna make a little plug for the new CD, Chip Deffaa's Broadway and Vaudeville Legends. Back when I first started producing vaudeville…
Today we invite you to join our friends of the British Music Hall Society in celebrating British Music Hall & Variety Day. How can you do this? Why, you could share your favorite relevan…
It's interesting to me that Frederick "Feg" Murray (1894-1973) shares a birthday with Clifton Fadiman, whom we only just wrote about. Both men had hosted radio shows, and Murray turned out a…
My mind has been fairly blown by learning about Clifton Fadiman (1904-1999), a radio and television personality whose name would have been pretty universally known in America from the late '…
Having already written about the visionary author L. Frank Baum and many of the stage and screen adaptations of his works, in our L. Frank Baum section, here's one which fell through the cra…
Happy Mother's Day " for those who celebrate. We've done a couple of posts here in the past in observance of the holiday, one on some famous vaudeville stage mothers, and another even more s…
One of my favorite books turns 50 years old this year. But there! I've gone and painted it in too pale a color already. Gerald Mast's The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies would be included …
Today we tip our hat to only our third set designer represented on Travalanche, the two-time Tony winning David Mitchell (1932-2011). Set design is far from our bailiwick. We've only done tw…
A sad passing occurred the other day without much hullabaloo or fanfare: April 27, 2023 was the end of The Late Late Show after a run of 28 years. Today happens to be the birthday of the man…
I'm delighted to report that André Gregory (b. 1934) is still with us as I write this, a hale and hearty 89. The Mad Marchioness and I had a delightful time re-watching My Dinner with Andr�…
