Today's new Travalanche post for September 1, 2025 is about 19th century influencer Lydia Sigourney. Some Labor Day and Labor Related Posts: On the Jerry Lewis Telethon The White Rats, the V…
Not long ago I stumbled across a major pop culture phenomenon of the 19th century that I had had never heard of. How often does that happen? To me, rarely any more. I learned about it by way…
Today's new Travalanche post for August 31, 2025 are on tightrope dancer Marietta Zanfretta, and fashion model/actress Sonyale Luna. Earlier August 31 posts include new ones on: Fredric Marc…
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of Donyale Luna (Peggy Ann Freeman, 1945-1979). Luna is widely celebrated as the first black supermodel, but she was an actress as well, which i…
August 31 was the birthday of Marietta Zanfretta (1832-1898), one of the greatest female tightrope dancers in the world, then or now. To be a tightrope dancer is an order of difficulty beyon…
Today's new Travalanche post for August 30, 2025 was a simple plug for a great looking vaudeville style performance happening tomorrow night " If you still haven't done so, I hope you will c…
Labor Day 2025 falls unconscionably early this year (September 1), but there is an excellent way that you can spend the evening if you're in New York. You can let some highly skilled enterta…
Today's new Travalanche post for August 29, 2025 highlights four shows about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans as of two decades ago today. Previous posts for August 29 includes…
20 years ago (August 29, 2005) Hurricane Katrina made its second landfall, hitting Louisiana well east of New Orleans, then moving north through Mississippi. In previous days it had cut acro…
Today's new Travalanche posts for August 28, 2025 are beauty queen, chorine and actress Lindsay Bloom, and the new Wizard of Oz spectacle at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Previous August 28 posts…
Here in New York the annual NYC Unicycle Festival gets underway today, but I confess my attention has been pulled across the shifting sands to Las Vegas, where the Sphere is doing something …
Many happy returns of the day to Lindsay Bloom (b. 1950). You know! Lindsay Bloom! The one who's not Barbi Benton! Though, like Benton, Bloom was not from the Southland, as her screen castin…
Today's new Travalanche posts for August 27, 2025 are about Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theatre Project and Theodore Dreiser and An American Tragedy, which turns 100 years old this year.…
With his greatest reaching the century mark later this year, this seemed the best time for a proper nod to Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945). Theatre (vaudeville in particular) have been the orig…
August 27 was both the founding day of the Federal Theatre Project (1935-39) and the birthday of its only director Hallie Flanagan (Hallie Ferguson, 1889-1969). Even if the FTP had never exi…
I'm overdue to do this plug, and just under the wire at that, but I do want to make you aware of this great radio show my old high school buddy Matt Mania hosts every Tuesday afternoon. No w…
Today's new Travalanche posts for August 26, 2025 are about silent screen star Robert McKim, and a cool blues radio show. Previous August 26 posts have spotlighted: Several Famous Performing…
IMDB gives August 26 as the D.O.B. of stage and screen actor Robert McKim (1886-1927). Here in New York we are accustomed to that surname being followed by "Mead" and "White", but our subjec…
Today's new Travalanche posts for August 25, 2025 are about Don DeFore, black vaudeville star Gertrude Saunders, and the new book Mr. Moser's Neighborhood: The Intersection of Cleveland and …
I think of him as more of a straight man, but Don DeFore (1913-1993) definitely had a foot in classic comedy, by appearing in such films as It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), My Friend Irma…
This book was released several days ago, and I've had a copy in hand nearly as long, but I did want to give the once over before posting my unconditional plug! The title of Christopher Roy's…
Those who saw the 2015 HBO bio-pic Bessie, may recall the scene where Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith confronts her husband and manager Jack Gee (Michael K. Williams) about the attention he is…
Today's new Travalanche posts for August 24, 2025 are about early game show pioneer Dennis James, actor Steve Guttenberg, and the recently departed Jerry Adler. Previous August 24 posts incl…
Thanks, Eve Golden, for the sad intel that Jerry Adler (1929-2025) breathes no more. 96 years old! He must have had the same doctor as Fyvush Finkel! Strange…I had cause to mention him her…
All things remaining the same, it might have been quite some time (if ever) that I would have devoted a post here to actor Steve Guttenberg (b. 1958). But a couple of recent developments hav…