I know " you were hoping this post would would be about THIS guy " " Martin Laurello, the man who could turn his head backwards, but there's no need to be disappointed. You can still read al…
Silent comedienne Wanda Wiley (1902-1987) starred in nearly 50 silent movies for the Stern Brothers at Universal between 1924 and 1927. As we wrote here, Universal unthinkably destroyed most…
Well, it's Greek Independence Day, at a historical moment when yahoo school districts are falling all over themselves to ban books so it seemed a propitious time to talk about those indecent…
My son who's helping fight disease in Africa (which I'll never stop bragging about) has told me that it's World TB Day, and it occurred to me that it would be a simple matter to do our bit w…
March 24, 1910 was the release date of the first ever screen version of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and we were surprised to note a gap thereupon in our Oz chronicles. Our do…
This post arises because we recently re-watched Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) for about the sixth time (in conjunction with re-reading Chandler's book) and got curious about the ex…
Born 100 years ago today, the giant of 20th century French mime Marcel Marceau (Marcel Mangel, 1923-2007). Now, it probably won't surprise you to learn that the born-again Francophilia I kee…
It's World Puppetry Day! We haven't written tons of puppetry per se to date on Travalanche; our "Ventriloquism and Puppetry" section is overwhelmingly lop-sided in favor of ventriloquism, al…
This post comes to you through the courtesy of the fact that March 21 is the birthday of Florenz Ziegfeld, and that I happen to be working on a book called Vaudeville in Your Living Room: A …
Okay, this is our second post today for French Language Day (here's the first). I'm just kind of in that place, I must tell you bluntly, it's not likely to wane at any time before I die. In …
It's been a while since I've trotted out my Trav S.D. Theme Song, as its been a while since I've performed anything, what with all manner of ills befalling our nation since, oh, I'll pluck t…
This will be a telescopic post: about my own times, but also (by way of a stimulated imagination), all of human history as well. Most probably The Book of Lists (1977) will require no introd…
March 19 was the natal day of James Otis Kaler, pen name "James Otis" (1848-1912), author of some 200 books for young people, most notably (and relevantly, to us) Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks in…
March 18 was the birthday of burlesque performer and producer Mollie Williams (Mollie Hersh, 1884-1854). Williams was the daughter of German-Jewish immigrants, and raised in New York, where …
And now a brief encounter with Russian-American dancer, actress and choreographer Tamara Geva (1906-1997). Geva was the first wife of George Balanchine and a principal member of his first ba…
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's a wee post to add to our over 270 Irish and Irish-American artists profiled on Travalanche. I first became aware of the team of Conroy and Fox during my recen…
We will divide our readership into two mutually hostile camps by announcing the inauguration of the new Jerry Lewis section of Travalanche! (Haha, yes, we make all the Jerry Lewis people sit…
Of the many important American exponents of the Stanislavki Method (Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, Elia Kazan, Sanford Meisner) one who seems never to the forefront of people's…
More crazy news: Sylvester Stewart a.k.a. Sly Stone (b.1943) turns 80 years old today. It seems a good reason to shine a spotlight on him for that reason, as does the less happy benchmark th…
Now, here is a remarkable family with a persistent gene for albinism which they put to good pecuniary use. The husband billed himself as Rob Roy, after the Scottish hero, though he later adm…
Yow! I almost found out too late that today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Diane Arbus (Diane Nemerov (1923-1971)! It's pronounced "Dee-ann", by the way. It's rare for us to wri…
I very much hope to get a chance at a second edition of No Applause at some point. In addition to correcting the spelling of Bud Abbott's name, and a small handful of other imperfections, I'…
Today (3.14) is joshingly celebrated now as Pi Day (as distinct from Pie Day) and we thought we would take the opportunity to point out the tiny number (ha, I said "number") of mathematician…
There were only a handful of books about the history of vaudeville that were written prior to mine; perhaps a dozen that were of any consequence. Naturally, they all became secondary sources…
Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller (1896-1976) was a legendary San Francisco based folk-blues act from the 1950s through the end of his life. I first learned about him as an influence on Bob Dylan; he …