11,500 stories by "Trav S.D."
Although it's somewhat outside my wheelhouse, I've had a vague intention of doing something on Led Zeppelin for a while now. I've long been working on a long think-piece (possibly even a boo…
We lost David Johansen (b. 1950) nearly a year ago; today would have been his 76th birthday. 76 (or 75, the age at which he died) is young these days, yet Johansen was the last of the origin…
60 years ago today was opening night of the hit off-Broadway revue The Mad Show, which ran for about a year (1966-67), and then toured nationally through 1968. This charmed project featured …
Jimmy Boyd (1939-2009) was first widely known as a child performer, but he had a good run. He managed to keep it going for about three decades. Boyd was from a musical family originating in …
Here in the U.S. Dame Shirley Bassey (b. 1937) is known strictly for singing three James Bond themes, especially Goldfinger (1964), her only bona fide hit song on this side of the Atlantic. …
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 8, 2026 are about Shirley Bassey, and the new show about Feltman's Hot Dogs. I also spruced up an older post in honor of the Soupy Sales Centennial.…
With the horrors of yesterday's main news event (the murder of a widowed suburban mother by rogue ICE agents in Minneapolis) darkening my soul like a sulfuric cloud, I was grateful to catch …
Thanks, Lauren Milberger, for the 11th hour intel about an important centennial anniversary! January 7, 1926 was the day on which George Burns and Gracie Allen officially tied the knot. They…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 7, 2026 is about the dance team of Harold and Lola. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 7 (in no particular order) include ones on: Adolph Zu…
I was made aware of the dance team of Harold and Lola due to their inclusion in the 1948 film Variety Time, which I wrote about here. "Harold" was Harold Liebmann (1895-1960), born of a Janu…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 6, 2026 is about E.L. Doctorow and Ragtime. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 6 (in no particular order) include ones on: Chaplin's The Cir…
I've wanted to do a dedicated post on E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime for a while now, mostly on account of his treatment of several real life characters I have researched and written about, and som…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 5, 2026 is about the death of Beatles' friend and confidant Mal Evans. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 5 (in no particular order) include…
You can always gauge the extent of someone's Beatles' fandom by how deeply they've gone into their biographies, with the side effect of their eventually knowing about as much about the peopl…
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 4, 2026 are about Hypnotism in Show Business; and The Story of the Brothers Grimm. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 4 (in no particular o…
Ever since the advent of the World Wide Web I have sought to track down the edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales I owned as a small child, all in vain. My own copy eventually fell apart and had to…
January 4 is observed by those in the field as World Hypnotism Day. By "the field", I mean of course practitioners, mostly therapists and those working within the psychology and psychiatry d…
We first heard of Canadian born hypnotist Herbert L. (Longley) Flint (b. 1862) as a mentor to the later Pauline, but have since gathered some additional fragments. Dr. Flint worked the vaude…
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 3, 2026 are about British silent screen star Alma Taylor, jazz sax star Rudy Wiedoeft, low budget horror actor Conrad Brooks, and Mexican actress an…
Two facts of life inspired me to subtitle this post on Conrad Brooks (Conrad Biedrzycki, 1931-2017) "never say die". The first is because, as happened in one of Brooks' better known films, s…
Rudy Wiedoeft (1893-1940) is widely revered as the man who pioneered and popularized the jazz saxophone. Wiedoeft was Rudy Vallee's musical hero (Vallee's first name is an homage to Wiedoeft…
The world lost Yolanda Montes a.k.a. Tongolele (1932-2025) just last February. Having heard about her strictly from the obits, I figured I'd save a post for her natal day, as she was a perso…
Alma Taylor (1895-1974) was one of Great Britain's earliest and biggest film stars during the silent era. In 1915 she was voted Britain's most popular screen actor, beating out even Charlie …
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 2, 2026 are about crooner Julius La Rosa, and a new show about Feltman's Hot Dogs! Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 2 (in no particular o…
I don't often plug shows sight unseen (here or anywhere), but there are times when the pull is so great, I'll take the risk. I first became aware of Michael Quinn as a Coney Island booster a…
