11,723 stories by "Trav S.D."
I musta been daydreamin’! My second book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickleodeons to Youtube turned five years old several days ago and I missed the anniversary…
Happy birthday, Ernest Lee Thomas (born 1949). I celebrate him today for being the star of a sitcom I loved when I was a kid, What’s Happening!! (1975-1979). Culture matters. What&#…
The Stroud Twins, Claude and Clarence with a pair of identical Texas brothers born on March 26, 1907. When they were 19, they developed an acrobatic comedy act for vaudeville and toured the …
Edith Hallor (1896-1971), born today, was the oldest of three theatrical siblings, the younger ones being Ray Hallor and Ethel Hallor,whom we wrote about here. Originally from Washington, D.…
Movie buffs all know that Ed Begley, Jr.s dad, Ed Begley (1901-1970) was an Oscar-winning character actor. The elder Begley’s years prior to his film career might be less well known, b…
Okay, as I only yesterday started a dedicated Houdini section of Travalanche in honor of Houdini’s birthday, and today is Paul Michael Glaser’s birthday it seemed especi…
For Paul Michael Glaser’s birthday, a little tribute to a favorite show of my tweenhood, Starsky and Hutch (1975-1979). S&H was an interesting transitional show, from the gritty re…
Unlike most everybody, I imagine, when I think of Norman Fell (Norman Feld, 1924-1998) my first thought is not of his most famous role, that of the dirty-minded, nosy landlord Mr. Roper on T…
Actually I have more than 15 filmmakers here I think, I just titled this post that for the alliteration. And since some of them aren’t directors per se, perhaps it evens out. The photo…
Lori Williams (b. 1946). We give her the nod today because she is the third member of the head-stompin’ yet curvaceous trio in Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) a…
March 22 is the birthday of Karl Malden (Mladen George Sekulovich, 1922-2009). Malden was a Serbian-Czech steelworker from Gary, Indiana who took classes at the Goodman in Chicago, then came…
Break out the balloons, it’s the birthday of Russ Meyer (1922-2004)! But already we do him an injustice. Meyer is best known, perhaps virtually only known for his obsession with a cert…
Mark Hellinger (1903-1947) had one of the more unusual career trajectories in show business…from newspaper writer to top movie producer. Along the way he touched many of our customary …
Three cheers for one of my favorite western character actors Edgar Buchanan (1903-1979), whose birthday it is. I just did something I have never done before: watched an episode of Petticoat …
A treat for your Sunday, the traditional day of the week when all the comic strips come out in color and stretch their legs for a bit. In my books No Applause and Chain of Fools, I wrote a l…
Legendary ragtime piano player and composer Mike Bernard (Michael Barnet Brown, 1875-1936) was born of a St. Patrick’s Day. Like Ben Harney, who introduced him to ragtime circa 1896, B…
Happy birthday to the late, lamented Jerry Lewis. I wrote an earlier appreciation of the comedy auteur here and I hope to do much more at some point. His work merits a book length exam…
What are the odds that there would be two major Hollywood screen idols by the same name, completely coincidentally, and with no relation at all between them? I’m thinking pretty remote…
Ah, the Ides of March! When several Roman Senators slew Caesar rather than see him crowned king and the Republic laid waste. The act only led to more chaos, civil war and Empire anyway, leav…
And now, part two of the thoroughly thorough Milberger’s breakdown of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Part One is here. Episode 5: "Doink" B. Altman and Company was a high-end department st…
Ed Lee Wrothe was one third of the burlesque comedy trio that also included Harry Watson, Jr. and George Bickel. If his cohorts have become hugely obscure, Wrothe has become tenfold so, for …
For anyone with a memory or a mind, the present informational landscape where there are hundreds of cable and streaming channels, and thousands of news and culture related websites and blogs…
English-American immigrant David Horsely (1873-1933) was a cinematic pioneer many times over: founder of America’s first independent film studio, founder of the first film studio in Ho…
Today is the natal day of the extraordinary Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987). It is convenient for us marketing-wise that her birthday falls within Women’s History Month, but in reality, …
March was the birthday of Muriel Angelus (Muriel Findlay, 1912-2004). But a single performance intrigued me enough to begin exploring her background for Travalanche: she plays the wife of th…
