11,508 stories by "Trav S.D."
Born 100 years ago today, Oona O'Neill, Lady Chaplin (1925-1991). Those well-versed in Chaplinia will note the starting fact that this timeline means that Oona was still an infant on swaddli…
We are much too tardy in including so important a figure as J. Searle Dawley (1877-1949) into our annals. While perhaps not really the "First Motion Picture Director", as he liked to style h…
May 12 was the birthday of such diverse personages as Katharine Hepburn; Al Shean of Gallagher and Shean; Baby Leroy; Edward Lear; George Carlin; Burt Bacharach; Tom Snyder; Millie Perkins; …
We're now less than two weeks out from our 2025 Marx Brothers Weekend, which will take place at Coney Island USA. By "our" I refer to members of the indomitable Marxfest Committee. For those…
Larry Williams (1935-1980) would have been 90 years old today if things had played out differently. A cousin and former employee of Lloyd Price, Williams is best remembered as both a rival a…
250 years ago today there occurred another in a series of miracles that led to America's independence from Great Britain. In one of the first offensive actions of the war, jointly led by loc…
We have been exploring puppetry lately (as a researcher, not as a performer) and there are certainly worse things! As it happens May 10 was the birthday of influential marionette impresario …
James L. Brooks was born on May 9, 1940. Brooks' career in comedy entertainment was born around the same time I was, thus I most certainly grew up watching his television shows and movies. B…
A new edition to the Travalanche Hall of Presidents " today we tip our hat to Harry S. Truman (1884-1972). Controversial in his own time, Truman has ranked high among both the public and Pre…
In my book Chain of Fools, I wrote about how animated cartoon shorts took over where live action silent comedy films left off " they were the natural successor, in a way. I left it as vague …
80 years ago today: VE Day. Victory in Europe: what a great birthday present for Harry Truman! It seems like it was only a week ago when we observed that it was the 80th anniversary of Adolp…
Note to new readers: I have been producing this blog for over 17 years and only noticed yesterday that I could import my whole contact list into the subscriber base. As I used to blast out a…
We learned of the passing of country comedienne Lulu Roman (Bertha Louise Hable, 1946-2025) a couple of weeks ago and decided to hold our tribute for her natal day. To my mind, there are at …
These are just some little scraps I collected over the weekend and wanted to impart…to whom it may concern. Dutiful readers will recall that I reviewed a show called The Whole of Time at T…
It's a heresy, I reckon, that we wrote first here about John R. Neill, the second illustrator of Oz books before treating of the founder W.W. Denslow (1856-1915). The W.W. stands for "Willia…
I don't even know if children are introduced to the traditional American legendary folk heroes any more, so perhaps I can't assume that some readers know the stories of Paul Bunyan, Mike Fin…
This one goes out to my Texas friend Jennifer B. Hargis! Harold B. Franklin (1889-1941) was a New York kid who started out as a vaudeville booking agent, then worked his way up to managing t…
This is not to slight black author Ralph Ellison, it's just that I wouldn't know JAMES Ellison (1910-1993) if I tripped over him " in spite of having seen him in at least a couple of dozen m…
Born 150 years ago today, the remarkable Czech-American musician, bandmaster, composer, circus performer, sculptor, art collector, and banker Bohumir Kryl (1875-1961). With his leonine mane …
The Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs were founded in 1875, 150 years ago. We thought we'd mark the day with some historic background on horse racing in the U.S. First, though I want to ref…
If some reputable sources (The New York Times, the Associated Press, Variety, the U.S. Congress, et al.) are to be credited today would be the 100th birthday of Roscoe Lee Browne. However…
Three cheers for the Bronx " and I don't mean Bronx cheers! I am amused to see that this year "Bronx Week" lasts from May 5 to May 18, which is two weeks, and consists of events that pretty …
Your correspondent left off bundling biographical posts a long time ago, but in this case it just made so much sense because both of our subjects, both born of the same day, were both member…
My friend David Mulkins of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (who gave us the Windows on the Bowery project) has come out with a new pictorial history of the Bowery, just in time for May Day …
Well, my talk at the Great Neck Historical Society about the Marx Brothers in Great Neck was many months ago but I only just noticed that the show we made out of it for our local public acce…
