11,727 stories by "Trav S.d."
Born this day the Wild West showman, music hall performer, actor, aeronaut, and hoaxer Samuel Franklin Cody (Samuel Franklin Cowdery, 1867-1913). What an American moniker, eh? The first name…
Actor Dean Stockwell (1936-2021) passed away about a year and a half ago, and I contemplated a post on him at that time, as I considered doing a piece on him long before that, but my good fr…
Paula Prentiss (b. 1938) is often Paired with Popular People (the latter of the day is P, apparently). Chief among them, of course actor Richard Benjamin, to whom she has been married for ov…
I launched Travalanche on a leap year day, February 29, 2008, with an introductory post about myself. But my first "real" post was a few days later, on March 3. Thus today is the 15 annivers…
I came across this photo of Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinovich, 1859-1916) months ago and held on to it 'til now because I was kind of awestruck by how contemporary he looks. It's not just …
March 1 was the DOB of stand-up comedian and comic actor Jackie Gayle (Jack Potovsky, 1926-2002). Originally from Flatbush, Brooklyn, Gayle started out as a drummer in burlesque bands when s…
Well, you were going to be hearing more from me at some point this year on the topic of Buster Keaton anyway, as 2023 is the centennial anniversary of his first two features Three Ages and O…
In 1950, Merv Griffin had a hit with a novelty song called "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts". Then he went on to accomplish a lot of different other things, and on the whole he is rememb…
Okay, this isn't a blog about "what's going on" in Brooklyn or anywhere else (and please don't use this post to assume that it is one going forward) but a handful of announcements by friends…
Today appears to be an old time Broadway double-header (we just posted about actress Christie MacDonald). Rida Johnson Young (Rida Louise Johnson, 1876-1926) was a major playwright, libretti…
Musical comedy star Christie MacDonald (1875-1962) may be most interesting to modern readers with respect to her private life. Her first husband was stage and screen actor William Jefferson …
Just the briefest of acknowledgements of the 20th century broadcasting giant David Sarnoff (1891-1971). He's top of mind at the moment as I'm in the middle of working on my book Vaudevill…
Thanks a thousand times to the the Facebook friend who called my attention to Jennifer Coolidge's acceptance speech for her well deserved SAG award for her work on White Lotus. It had me baw…
Far be it from us to endorse and advocate the deadly habit of tobacco smoking, but also far be it from me to whitewash history. When I was a kid, "old Jewish comedians with cigars" was a thi…
This is my eighth post about comedian Jackie Gleason (1916-87), including an overview of his entire career, a piece on The Honeymooners, a look at his movies of the '60s, ones dedicated to t…
This tribute to lovely Hollywood actress Diane Baker (b. 1938) will be little more than a mash note, but can you blame me? Though she had studied serious acting, I think of Baker as one of t…
Today would have been George Harrison's 80th birthday, and I've realized that out of my 50 or so Beatle related posts, Harrison is the one who has gotten the least attention here. At some lo…
Mothers-in-law are famous fodder for Borscht Belt jokes, but I had exceedingly good luck with both of mine. Ironically I lost my second one first, just when I was getting to know her, but af…
I'm pretty sure I learned about impressionist Arthur Blake (1914-1985) by virtue of the fact that he was performing at the Cocoanut Grove on the night of the famous 1942 fire. He is not to b…
Many folks I admire attended my talk at the Lambs last week; but I feel privileged to have gotten to know one of them a good deal better in the days since then. And I wish I'd done so sooner…
The above is far from a representative photo of Musidora (Jeanne Roques, 1889-1957), but I knew it would appeal to lovers of music hall and drag. History remembers Musidora best as the origi…
Presidents Day notwithstanding, February 22 is the actual birthday of George Washington. Washington (like Lincoln) was once once worshipped in this country with a fervor 21st century people …
A wink and a nod today on behalf of magician and mentalist Theodore "Ted" Annemann (Theodore Squires, 1907-1942). Like many of his era, Annemann continues to exert an influence upon the worl…
It takes being a biographical blogger to know how common some surnames are in certain fields, and there are a LOT of actors named Daly, Daily or Daley: Augustin Daly, Arnold Daly, Dan Daly (…
A few words of acknowledgment today on screen actor actor Wheeler Oakman (Vivian Eichelberger, 1890-1949), who appeared in nearly 300 films over a veritable half-century. Based upon his give…
