11,500 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 13, 2025 include ones on Dick Van Dyke (for his 100th birthday), husband-wife silent screen comedians Harry Todd and Margaret Joslin, nightclub com…
The screen career of Florine McKinney (1909-1975) started on a very promising note. When still a high school student, the Texas beauty went to Hollywood and made the rounds of casting direct…
December 13th was the birthday of screen comedian Harry Todd (John Nelson Todd, 1863-1935). Let the buyer beware! I just came across an online article about the comedian which I found both t…
Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke (b. 1925)! I've already long since done a post on Van Dyke and his classic sit-com and on the films Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and The Comic (1969).…
I first heard about Frankie Hyers (1905-1973) because he was teamed for a time with Fatso Marco Marcella, later of The Milton Berle Show. This is, I believe, the only complete article you wi…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 12, 2025 on playwright John Osborne and a couple of supporting players named George Cooper. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 12 (in no partic…
A few words on the mixed legacy of English playwright John Osborne (1929-1994). To begin on a positive note, and completely out of order, Osborne wrote the screenplay to one of my favorite f…
There is little to tell of a biographical nature about supporting player George Cooper (1892-1943), but he did appear in well over 200 films, including decent parts in several silent comedie…
In my ongoing series of celebrations of U.S. States, to date we've done Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Florida, Hawaii, and the midwestern states of Kansas, Iowa, O…
New Yorkers who love vintage children's literature and illustration: My good friends Hope Cartelli, Jeff Lewonczyk, and Maryanne Olson have just launched the Secret Storybook Club for those …
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 11, 2025 includes ones on Marjorie Henderson Buell a.k.a. "Marge" (creator of Little Lulu), a little Holiday event I'm participating in this weeken…
December 11 was the birthday of pioneering female cartoonist and illustrator Marjorie Henderson Buell (1904-1993), who went by the pen name "Marge". Marge was only a teenager when the Philad…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 10, 2025 concern a couple of supporting players from completely different eras: Tisha Sterling and Arthur Vinton. Earlier Travalanche posts for Dec…
Not sure how actor Arthur Vinton (Albert Hozel, 1896-1963) made it onto the Travalanche radar " probably by way of The Lambs, of which he was a member. He was also a founding member of the S…
As we wrote previously, Robert Sterling, best known from the TV version of Topper, and film and TV actress Ann Sothern were briefly a Hollywood power couple. The product of their joint attra…
Today's new Travalanche post for December 9, 2025 profiles a new book about the Pearson Brothers vaudeville team. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 9 (in no particular order) include on…
Another plug in time for yer Christmas shopping spree. Rhythm and Pep: The Vaudeville Career of the Pearson Brothers by Dan Henderson is a wonderful window into the rise and f…
There may be quite a few movie acting careers more distinguished than that of Mary Woronov (b. 1943), but none are cooler. Woronov's entrée into screen acting occurred in Andy Warhol films,…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 8, 2025 are about James Thurber, Mary Woronov, Georges Feydeau, and various news items about the Marx Brothers. Earlier Travalanche posts for Decem…
There's something appropriate about Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (1862"1921)Â having been born at this festive time of year. What is more merry than a French farce? Furthermore he sha…
Today, December 8, 2025 marks 100 years since the Marx Brothers' The Cocoanuts opened on Broadway. (We talked a little about the theatrical version here). It seems the ideal time to remind y…
It has now been a century since James Thurber (1894-1961) moved to Greenwich Village and began working as a reporter for the New York Evening Post. His long association with the New Yorker b…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 7, 2025 are about Broadway composer Rudolf Friml and Comedian Bob Melvin. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 7 (in no particular order) include…
The name Rudolf Friml (Rudolf AntonÃn Frymel, 1879-1972) ought to be known to more Broadway buffs " he wrote a couple of dozen hit operettas in the teens and twenties of the last century.…
Born 100 years ago today, nightclub comedian Bob Melvin (Robert Minkoff, 1925-2015) " not to confused with the Man with Two Faces from the sideshow. (Although at 6'4″ tall, this Robert…
