11,701 stories by "Trav S.D."
There's something highly appropriate about Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), having been born of an April Fool's Day, given the holiday's history in his native country and Rostand's revival of the…
March 31 was the birthday of blues piano player Big Maceo Merriweather (1905-1953), and 2024 (as I write this) marks the centennial year of when he moved from his native Georgia up to Detroi…
A decade has passed since my initial stab at a post on Warren Beatty (b. 1937). It is focused on one of his more obscure movies, Mickey One (1965) mostly because this blog was narrowly focus…
Greta Thyssen (1927-2018) lived at the center of a Venn Diagram that included the overlapping categories of a) Hollywood blonde bombshells of the Marilyn Monroe / Jayne Mansfield/ Mamie Van …
Good Friday seems the ideal time for this post, and though there's still a good deal of uncertainty around the topic, I'm going to forge ahead anyway. It concerns a different long-haired and…
Born this day, King of the Hillbilly Piano Players Aubrey Wilson "Moon" Mullican (1909-1967). Fittingly, in some years, his birthday falls on World Piano Day. Mullican is one of those musica…
Yes, it's true " it's MLB opening day…and shaping up to be a rain day here in NYC. But it seemed like a good time to let you know about an upcoming new biography of pro baseballer and some…
March 28 was the birthday of Jimmie Dodd (1910-1964), a.k.a. Jimmie from The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959). Don't get any funny ideas! I'm about a decade too young to have watched this class…
Singer Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) was born 100 years ago today. Vaughan is often characterized on the short list of great 20th century jazz and blues singers, along with Billie Holiday, Ella …
I had no fewer than FIVE show biz people I might have written about today, and got perhaps a third of the way though a post on one of them, but it has been like pulling teeth. When that happ…
This exceedingly rust-colored creature is Belgian-born actress, singer, model, and dancer Monique Van Vooren (1927-2020). Van Vooren first came to my notice in her over-the-top performance a…
For the birthday of slapstick screen comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a little aid to navigating his posts on Travalanche: People Main Biographical Post on Arbuckle Minta Durfee (wife) Al S…
Born 150 years ago today: the great Harry Houdini! Houdini's the only magician to whom I've devoted an entire section on Travalanche. We thought we would observe this benchmark birthday by p…
Thanks, Matthew Coniam, of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast and The Annotated Marx Brothers, who made me aware of Charlotte Mineau (1886-1979). I'd noticed her in Monkey Business (1931) and…
We celebrate World Bear Day by bestowing upon the ursines similar attention to that which we have directed toward dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, mules, birds, ducks, lions, tigers, elephants, …
Paul Valentine (William Daixel, 1919-2006) comes to our attention (just barely) because he plays one of the principals in the late Marx Brothers movie Love Happy (1950). Unfortunately, after…
What with today being Chico Marx's birthday, and Marxfest looming (less than two months away), we thought we would get all our chicks in a row to assist your investigation of this intriguing…
March 22, by some mysterious decree, has been designated International Taxi Drivers Day, the ideal time, it would appear, to introduce Hal Roach's "Taxi Boys" comedies. The Taxi Boys were a …
The word "more" appears in our title on account of the previous post, which promoted an April 13 burlesque tribute to Flo Ziegfeld. Here are four other related events happening prior to that…
Today is the birthday of the great showman Flo Ziegfeld " seemed like the proper time to let you know about The Ziegfeld Girls Revue, playing at the The Green Room 42 (and livestreaming) on …
#botd Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), who, as depicted above, could easily have been cast as a member of The Three Keatons. Ibsen's name is often paired with Chekhov's but apa…
Only recently did I conclude that I was a fan of director Edmund Goulding (1891-1959), having passed that crucial moment when I was realized that several movies I like had a key artist in co…
March 19, 1974 marked the endpoint of the lifespan of character actor Edward Platt (b. 1916). Readers of a certain age know Platt primarily from one particular role, so much so that they are…
Who are the stars of Marxfest, the Marx Brothers festival taking place in NYC just two months from now? Well, I'll tell yer! And in my patented, condensed, prioritized way, for the convenien…
Concert Lecture: A Salute to the Remarkable Molly Piconat the Museum at Eldridge StreetTuesday, March 19 | 6PM ET In conjunction with the exhibition On the Lower East Side: Twenty-Eight Rema…
