11,723 stories by "Trav S.D."
A celebration today of Wallace Ford (Samuel Grundy, 1898-1966). I think of Ford as a quintessentially American movie type, so it is eye-opening to hear he is TWICE removed form being an Amer…
Prompted by a journalist’s phone call last night I’ve added a new category on Travalanche. There are many reasons why I haven’t yet created a special section on Travalanche…
Today I am going to give the mighty Tina Louise three birthday presents. One, this post! Two, I’m going to say that her birth year is XXXX. And three, I’m scarcely going to menti…
Prior to 1980 no one would ever have dreamt that Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010) might some day be a touchstone for a rumination about the nature of comedy, but then that’s the entire point…
Billy Halop (1920-1976) was one of the original Dead End Kids, and a member who had one of the strongest individual careers outside the franchise. Halop’s career began as early as 1933…
Another post in celebration of Black History Month. Actor and director D’Urville Martin (1939-1984) was born on February 11. Born and raised in Harlem, Martin began his movie caree…
Like most living humans, my pathway to the father-and-son Alan Hales went backward from the most trivial starting place. Gilligan’s Island. We met Alan Hale, Jr. (The Skipper) first…
Opera is not our usual beat here on Travalanche, but we’ve had many occasions to need to write about it, as many opera singers performed in vaudeville, many impresarios bankrolled both…
We choose Jimmy Durante’s birthday for a quick squib on a major TV variety show he was associated with, NBC’s Four Star Revue. Like The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Four Star Revue&#…
Another post in celebration of Black History Month. Today we celebrate classic blues singer Lottie Kimbrough. Lottie is one of those wonderfully elusive figures that were still possible in t…
Comedy is pain. Also, comedy alleviates pain. Anyway: something about comedy and pain. The news that February 9 is International Dentist Day gave me the inspiration for a post on this fertil…
Another post in celebration of Black History Month. A few words in celebration of Blind Blake (Arthur Blake, 1896-1934). The best sources give Newport News, Virginia as Blake’s birt…
Stage and screen comedian Dan Mason (Dan Grassman, 1857-1928) was born of a February 9. Originally a Syracuse pharmacist, Mason’s penchant for cutting up got the better of him and he b…
Edna Aug (1878-1938) is an intriguing enigma. Described in her NY Times obit as “one of the most successful character actresses and vaudeville comediennes of her day” and a ̶…
February 8 is the birthday of the late Gary Coleman (1968-2010). Let’s put this post sort of half in my series of Black History Month posts. It’s not exactly celebratory, b…
Having already done more than one post on Jackie Gleason and a post on Art Carney, we choose the birthday of Audrey Meadows (1922-1996) for this long overdue post on The Honeymooners. And Me…
February 8 is the birthday of the late and much-missed Jack Lemmon (1925-2001). One comes close — so close — to being able to encapsulate the artist with the phrase “screen…
Jack Luden (1902-1951) started out with every advantage. The nephew of the founder of Luden’s Cough Drops, he attended posh private schools like the New York Military Academy. He was i…
This week saw the passing of a minor show biz figure, but one whose career intersected with many of the classic comedians we write about, dancer/beauty/ actress Nita Bieber (1926-2019). A Lo…
Another post in celebration of Black History Month. February 7 is the birthday of stage and screen actor Leonard Jackson (1928-2013), billed in his early years as L. Errol Jaye. From Jackson…
Robert B. Mantell (Robert Bruce Mantell, 1854-1928 — he was named after his ancestor Robert the Bruce) was born this day. I’ll cut to the chase with the most interesting bit of t…
We take the occasion of Zsa Zsa’s birthday to shed some light on the mysterious phenomenon of the Gabor Sisters. When I was a kid, Zsa Zsa (1917-2016) was the most enigmatic, extremely…
This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month. Today we celebrate a TV show on the opposite end of the spectrum from Beulah, which we wrote about yesterday. It would make more se…
When former movie star Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was running for president in 1980, I had never heard of him before. I was 14, too young to have known him as star. His last movie role, in Th…
I came across the above item in an old TV Guide recently, and it blew my mind. This item advertising a network showing of Disney’s The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964) was from the ear…
