The Fall season approaches, with lots of great calendar tie-ins for special online events exclusively for the Travalanche Patreon gang. Here's some of what's planned: Sunday, August 29: How …
Not sure how I only noticed it now, but I did! The Irish Rep is presenting a special online version of Chip Deffaa's show George M. Cohan Tonight. It's playing through the Sunday August 29. …
Kate Claxton (Kate Elizabeth Cone, 1848-1924) is best remembered today as the star who was onstage during the Brooklyn Theatre Fire in 1876 (much as Eddie Foy is associated with the conflagr…
None more deserving of celebration today that the late British little person actor/entertainer Kenny Baker (1934-2016). He is not to be confused with the eponymous radio crooner, though the …
The few who remember the name Eleanor Boardman (1898-1991) today know her chiefly for being King Vidor's second wife and for starring in his 1928 masterpiece The Crowd. Boardman's screen car…
We are gratified to learn of the existence of Dave Mallen, not to be confused with Dave Madden or Dave Chasen. We don't know tons, but what we know, we share. Mallen started out in burlesque…
Shampoo (1975) is a movie with so much to commend it that I'll watch it anytime it's available. It's so rich in thematic elements and details that you take away different things every time y…
An overdue salute today to Waldo Leo "Jack" Teagarden (1905-1964), a.k.a. Mr. T or The Big T. I think I might have been introduced to this jazz legend back in the day by the late Rich Conaty…
August 20 is National Radio Day and here's your handy broadcast reminder that Travalanche has over 360 articles related to old time radio stars and programs, from comedians like Fred Allen, …
Grover George (1877-1958) was one of those many magicians known to us chiefly by way of the mountains of adertising ephemera he left behind. Legend has it that he was essentially run out of …
Today we pay homage for one of the biggest stage stars of hers or any time, Julia Marlowe (Sarah Frances Frost, 1865-1950). Marlowe was born in Cumberland, England. The legend is that her fa…
Lois Nettleton (1927-2008) was something of an anomaly in show business; beautiful enough to be a leading lady, but normally cast in character parts. She did possess a quirky intelligence an…
As is invariably the case, my interest in Lori Nelson (1933-2020) stems from her appearances in classic comedies and B movies, though her brief career was more wide ranging. Broadly speaking…
A brief memoriam to movie and tv actress Brenda Benet (Brenda Benet Nelson, 1945-1982). Benet wasn't even 20 when her dance skills and dark beauty got her a tidal wave of roles, usually in y…
We don't endorse the depiction above; it was the costume of John Lester Johnson (1893-1968) in the Our Gang short The Kid from Borneo (1933). Prior to this (1912-29), Johnson had been a pro …
It is with the utmost delight that I report the new release of Uncrank Productions' DVD Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies. Edward Everett Horton has many fans among the classic film c…
As I write this, it is at once the birthday of "Hebrew" comedian Nat Carr (1886-1944), and the fourth anniversary of Trump's Nazi rally in Charlottesville. If you're one of the "why must you…
Loew's State, located in Times Square, was considered by many to be the "last vaudeville house", as it was still going into the mid-late 1940s. August 29 will mark 100 years since it opened.…
Sometimes I think a forgettable professional name is all that prevent some public figures from achieving a lasting place in the popular memory. Such might be the case with regards to Jean Pa…
Gorgeous, classy, somewhat nondescript Martha Hyer (1924-2014) was in some major films, usually as second female lead, and was even nominated for an Oscar, but naturally the thing that makes…
Robert Aldrich (1918-1983) might seem an odd director for the creator of this blog to have a close affinity with. After all, comedy and vaudeville are our abiding obsessions; whereas Aldrich…
This post is manifestly NOT for Baby Boomers, who ostensibly will not require it and will probably find it laughable. But I am of Generation X, and grew up during that bewildering age (the 1…
An outsider at the center, that is the contradiction of Nicholas Ray (Raymond Nicholas Kienzie Jr, 1911-1979), who bridged art forms, generations, and even nations (I'm looking at you, Franc…
You could well be forgiven for assuming that the appearance by John "Bunny" Breckinridge (1903-96) as the alien commander in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) was the man's only claim…
How delightful it was, upon working on my recent post about lip sync pioneer Dotty Mack, that William B. Williams (1923-86) was a real person. John Candy played a character by that name on S…