11,727 stories by "Trav S.d."
Weird Al's birthday was on October 23; Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was released on November 4. This post only arrives this late because I chose to watch this movie on my birthday, which was…
Great News! Big Apple Circus opens its 2022 8-week holiday season at Lincoln Center tonight! With star Nick Wallenda.Get your tickets here.
Born of a November 9, Little Person/ tattoo artist Leonard "Stoney" St. Clair (1912-1980). Tattoos are celebrated, and sometimes regretted, for their "permanence", but even those are tempora…
Today, November 8, 2022, is a day of multiple significances. It is a day on which millions of American voters decide whether they want their democracy to continue. It also happens to be my b…
A little thing today in honor of the natal day of playwright/screenwriter/producer/director Norman Krasna (1909-1984). We know of this man chiefly as a F.O.G. (Friend of Groucho), for the pa…
November 6 was the natal day of Colley Cibber (1671-1757), Poet Laureate of England, playwright, and one of the first of the long chain of actor-managers that would subsequently include Davi…
Thanks Drew Mackie for mentioning my blogpost about The Addams Family vs The Munsters on this recent edition of "The Gayest Episode Ever" on Tablecakes. The episode in question relates to th…
Some love today for the lovely "Lovey", Natalie Schafer (1900-1991). For many years the true birth date was unknown; it was long misrepresented to have been 1912. Her real age was hidden fro…
We only just got the memo that mentalist, magician, and author Max Maven (Philip Goldstein, 1950-2022) has passed into the great beyond. Appropriately we heard it through the IG feed of Jami…
See what I did there? We don't often pay tribute to just any screenwriter/producers on Travalanche but we happen to be impressed with the career of Jack Rose (1911-1995) body of work, and we…
Broadway and Vaudeville star Mabel Withee passed away 70 years ago today, November 3, 1952. We choose this date for our post because little is known about her birth. Detroit seems to be the …
Having already given attention to another King Family of showfolk, we now undertake our third singing Dennis, after Dennis Day and Dennis Morgan: Dennis King (1897-1971), who, like Boris Kar…
Look who I ran into trick or treating last night! These kids reminded me that I have a deadline coming up, the first of my Socko Centennial Saturday Series, this one celebrating a full centu…
Born 100 years ago today: George S. Irving (Irving Shelaskey, 1922-2016). You merely think you don't know who that is. Irving's best known credit is the role of Heat Miser in the 'Rankin-Bas…
Here's a Halloween monster for yer. I obviously don't celebrate Jimmy Savile (1926-2011) but it resonates that his birthday was October 31, when horrors traditionally walk abroad in full vie…
We were so sorry to hear this morning that Naimah Hassan passed away on October 25, which just so happens to have been the anniversary of her first date with her husband and artistic partner…
Kevin Pollak (b. 1957) has been a valued Hollywood character actor for so long that I managed to forget something I knew well 30 years ago " that he's a hilarious stand-up comedian and old s…
If you're my age or older you know this comic/advertisement well. It was published in comic books and similar publications for decades, as late as my childhood (the 1970s), advertising the e…
I have no idea how or why Dink Stewart wound up on my to do list, but the facts are these: African American performer Benjamin "Dink" Stewart (1877-1951), was born in Greenup County, Kentuck…
The best remembered work of Georgia Caine (1876-1964) came at the end of her career. Her turn as Barbara Stanwyck's scheming mother in Remember the Night (1940) resulted in her becoming part…
The name Akim Tamiroff (Hovakim Tamiryants, 1899-1972) ought to be much better known. Though there is some consolation in his indirect memory: many believe him to have been the inspiration f…
I'm going to go ahead and assume that October 29 is National Cat Day because it's close to Halloween, when coal black familiars arch their backs and hiss against the backdrop of a full moon.…
I'm not sure, but Winona Ryder (b. 1971) may be the first star younger than me that I've profiled here. (As always, if I'm wrong feel free not to correct me!) The idea for this post occurred…
This post serves double duty " a salute to National Immigrants Day, and a send-off to TV sitcom creator/producer Dale McRaven, who passed away on September 5 at age 83. Perfect Strangers ran…
Not only could fill an entire blog with entries strictly about President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919) a.k.a. T.R. but *I* could, having read several books about him, not to mention…
