11,712 stories by "Trav S.D."
A short nod to the multi-skilled Richard "Dick" Bruno (1901-1986), best known as the faux French ventriloquist Monsieur Brunard, with his dummy Joe Flip. Bruno's original orientation was mus…
Fun fact, and it's too exciting to make you wait for: the British movie director Carol Reed (1906-1976) was the illegitimate son of the great English actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, as well…
We just learned that Monday evening's shooting spree in Denver has touched the lives of some of our sideshow and musician friends, a couple of whom knew the most prominent victim, Alicia Car…
Much hoopla about Lucy of late, what with Aaron Sorkin's recent bio-bic, but that red-headed lady clown wasn't the only Ball in show business. There was also the great sword swallower John G…
Born 100 years ago today, the one and only Johnny Otis (Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes, 1921-2012). We'll get to his ethnic identity and other interesting trivia betimes, but first, his accompl…
Robert "Bobby" Scheerer (1929-2018) had many fine credits as a movie and TV director, but nonetheless I confess I was briefly muddled about why I'd put him on my calendar to write about this…
Long have I been a fan of Charles Dingle's turn in William Wyler's 1941 screen adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes opposite Bette Davis, one of his first, biggest, and flashiest…
Not for the first time. I find myself in the middle of a painful artistic and institutional divorce. It happens a lot in the arts; I've witnessed dozens of these break-ups from nearly every …
Herewith, a literal 11th hour post on stage and screen actress Dorothy Peterson (Bergetta Peterson, 1897-1979), who played the mother in the Five Little Peppers movies (1939-1940) and was in…
When former Saturday Night Live cast member Tony Rosato (b. 1954) died in early January 2017, I recall observing it on social media, but not here. A split second of reflection jogged my memo…
Jerry Austin (Jerry Albro, 1892-1976), was often billed as "Little Jerry" on stage and screen, for he stood 3'6″ in adulthood. Born in Odessa, he is known to have appeared in Michael S…
Good news for those who will have eons of time to kill over the holiday weekend " I'm the guest on this week's episode of the Jobsolete podcast. Now here's something wild " I was interviewed…
Scarcely more than a dozen years and 40 film performances comprised the screen career of Jean Brooks (Ruby Kelly, 1915-1963), but today she is regarded as something of a Goth icon and pionee…
Wow! Lucie Arnaz was right, after all " Nicole Kidman turned out to be an excellent casting choice for the part of Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos. It shouldn't have shocke…
I just learned of the passing of Steve Trimboli (Stephen Paul Trimboli), reportedly of a massive stroke on the night before Thanksgiving. We weren't friends IRL (just social media), and I me…
December 21 was the birthday of theatre impresario Arthur Hammerstein (1872-1955). What with our vaudeville goggles on, we have given Arthur short shrift, having written mostly about the fat…
Good news (for me) ! Starting January 1, the content on Travalanche (over 6000 posts, including over 2000 profiles of historical variety performers, greater than any similar resource) is goi…
We watched Shoot Me, the 2013 documentary about Elaine Stritch (1925-2014) recently, and my main takeaway from the film was "How could anyone abide that wretched woman? WHY would anyone? For…
Some words of appreciation today for the great French singer and national symbol Edith Piaf (Édith Giovanna Gassion, 1915-1963). "Piaf" was a stage name " it is French for "Sparrow". The…
Two generations of Burrows conquered a huge swath of American show biz between them: radio, Broadway and television, with some dabbling in the recording industry and films. The founder and f…
Happy National Twins Day! Travalanche has long had a special section devoted to conjoined twins " we now have amassed enough posts on the more common sort of twins to justify their own categ…
No, shame on YOU, Spade Cooley! "Spade" was western swing fiddle player and band leader Donnell Clyde Cooley (1910-1969). The native Oklahoman was part Cherokee; his folks were sharecroppers…
The Montague Brothers were a strong man act of the British music hall in the early 20th century. Their real last name was Woollaston; their father owned a shoe factory, was a Methodist preac…
My wife and I have been binging Seinfeld re-runs for the sheer pleasure of it in recent weeks and I caught a "Farfel" reference in one not long ago. Of course, the origin of that name is a J…
Great was our enjoyment, occasionally swelling to awe, of Showtime's The Real Charlie Chaplin, which we mentioned here a few days ago. Directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney pulled off …
