11,719 stories by "Trav S.D."
There were a couple of levels to Norm Crosby's (b. 1927) act. His routines were littered with malapropisms of a wide variety of kinds: he either used incorrect words, or correct words mispro…
Once again I find myself at a crossroads: but that's what the name "Travis" means, I'm literally always "at the crossroads" Not that it's all that objectively significant but I'm unavoidably…
Here are places where you may have seen Ruth McDevitt (Ruth Thane Shoecraft, 1895-1976): she was a regular on Kolchak: The Night Stalker (as Emily, the columnist); had a recurring role on Al…
I first encountered the name Walter B. Gibson (1897-1985) as one of the co-authors of Houdini on Magic. Gibson is a hard man to nail down, for he often wrote under pseudonyms, such as Maxwel…
We consider one of the missions of this blog to establish as best we can connections to past figures who can seem quite distant. Thus today we give you some relatively minor figures from …
Pearl Williams (Pearl Wolfe, 1914-1991) was one of a generation of raunchy entertainers who emerged in the 1950s and '60s and specialized mainly in comedy records. Some, like Lenny Bruce, ma…
Yeah, I said it! I'd been half-planning this post anyway, but the other day I was running down (critically disparaging) the movies of another SNL alum (okay, I'll name him, Will Ferrell) and…
One of the largest stars in my personal cosmology is French writer Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). There are many ways in which Jarry can be said to be a Father of All We Hold Dear. A figure of th…
While this is ostensibly a show biz blog, I have always been gratified by the fact that the 4th most popular Travalanche post of all time is simply a transcription of Tom Joad's speech from …
The career of Milton Watson (1902-82) intersected with so many of the top names in show business, classic comedians, vaudeville, stage, radio and screen stars. His period of greatest promine…
Roscoe Karns (1891-1971) is generally remembered for several beloved supporting turns he did in the 1930s and '40s, though his screen career stretched nearly a half century, from 1915 throug…
Today at 3pm (Eastern) on the Silent Comedy Watch Party hosts Ben Model and Steve Massa have Suzanne Lloyd as their special guest to chat about her grandfather Harold Lloyd and his short Fro…
Little Person Jean Bregant (1869-1944) was originally from Cilli, Austria. In Europe he performed under the name Prince Colibri. While touring the American circuits he met his wife, Inez Lew…
Let me quickly stipulate that I have plenty of professional respect for actor and director Dennis Dugan (b. 1946). I literally grew up watching his work. It's just that, well, the characters…
Some brief approving words for Glora Holden (1903-1991). With a little more than three dozen screen parts over nearly a quarter century, she wasn't the most prolific actress in the world, an…
Today we celebrate the 80th birthday of sex symbol and actress Raquel Welch (Jo Raquel Tejada, b. 1940). Welch was a major pop culture figure in my younger childhood (the early '70s). I knew…
Around 1976 I had two formative circus experiences, each of which couldn't have been more different from the other. The first I've written about a few times, the Ringling Brothers Barnum and…
Some bite size factoids today on bandleader, piano player and songwriter Gus Arnheim (1897-1955). Arnheim was born in Philadelphia and raised in Chicago, two great vaudeville towns. Early in…
This day in 1972 marked the final closure of San Francisco's Playland at the Beach, a great historic amusement park, and really the last of a great collection of attractions that had been in…
I try to build double meanings into the titles of ,my posts " shame on you if you didn't already get the one that heads this one. Alan Ladd (1913-1964) was famously on the diminutive sid…
I'm sorry I missed Marge Champion's more significant birthday last year but we'll attempt to redress the wrong by bestowing maximum attention upon her today. What a remarkable life and caree…
Guido Deiro (1886-1950) was Italian aristocracy, a count from the countryside from an area near Turin which literally bore his surname. The family grew cattle, grapes, and a variety of fruit…
I thought I would finish out August with a post on the Beatles' Help! album, five years and three weeks after its Golden Anniversary. Well…I've done posts about all of their later records …
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)Â has been more in our consciousness of late, thanks to the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein's publication (and the superlative exhibition about same at the Morga…
Let us begin by clarifying that Lurene Tuttle (1907-86) was also a prolific actress of the screen; it's merely that she achieved a dominance in radio unmatched by her work in other media, th…
