11,728 stories by "Trav S.d."
Ventriloquists, much like clowns, feature in horror as well as comedy, for they are not just funny, but more than a little uncanny and strange. Accordingly TCM has programmed an interesting …
I'm with Burt Mustin in that Brady Bunch episode; why the movies ever romanticized a bloody scoundrel like Jesse James (1847-1882) is beyond me. Well, no, it's not beyond me, I understand wh…
Today a post in honor of an important man in Broadway/ musical comedy history, playwright and lyricist C.M.S. McLellan (Charles Morton Stewart McLellan, 1865-1916), who often wrote under the…
There's no question mark at the end of the title of this post because: asked and answered. It's no news bulletin that America's dream factory is also its cesspool. For every triumph of art a…
I have had occasion to mention various versions of The Spoilers 25 times here on Travalanche, so I thought it might be fitting today to pay homage to the author of that oft-remade tale, and …
As Travalanche subscribers know (because they just read my post about him) today is the birth date of the late Sanford Meisner (1905-1997), which I quite consciously chose as the day to post…
August 31 was the DOB of actor, director, and teacher Sanford "Sandy" Meisner (1905-1997). Today Meisner is best remembered for the latter reputation, for he was doing that at Neighborhood P…
And how will you be celebrating Mary Shelley's birthday (1797-1851)? Having already written quite an extensive post on the influential author a couple of years ago, I thought this year I wou…
I love and hate it when this happens " exploration of the life of an interesting person uncovers a warren of their fascinating relatives and associates. Love it because it's a gold mine. Hat…
August 29 was the birthday of Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) as well as the date of her death. There are times when I must seem to run the risk of falling prey to the cult of numerology here. Th…
A theme begins to emerge on Travalanche this week which I was about to call coincidental, though it surely isn't, for undoubtedly it's more a reflection on the predilections of the author of…
Like all the other opera singers on Travalanche, we treat of Alice Zeppilli (1885-1969) today strictly because she played vaudeville. After World War One, throughout the 1920s, as she was wi…
Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman (b. 1952) turns 70 years old today. I realized that just in the nick of time when I was posting about Tim Burton a couple of days back and decided that my …
I first became aware of screen dancer Joyzelle Joyner (1905-1980) from her performance in the early talkie comedy short The Night Court (1927) directed by Bryan Foy for Vitaphone and starrin…
According to at least one source I've come across, in addition to being National Dog Day, August 26 is National Mountain Lion Day. The American Mountain Lion goes by many names: cougar, puma…
Happy National Dog Day! Having already done posts on Lassie, Rin Tin Tin (here and here), Madame Strakai's Dogs, Al Mardo's Do Nothing Dog, Don the Talking Dog, Rosina Cassell's Chihuahuas, …
How perfect is that is it that animator/director Tim Burton (b. 1958) shares a birthday with animation pioneer John R. Bray, whom we just did a post about earlier this morning? I wonder if h…
Today, some brief appreciation for cartoonist, pioneering animator, and independent film producer John R. Bray (1879-1978). The name may not immediately ring any bells (his entertainment con…
After our last post, you may think it impossible for us to get any more Anglophile on Travalanche today. Challenge accepted! For August 24 is traditionally St. Bartholomew's Day, the traditi…
Born 150 years ago today, British theatre critic, humorist, essayist, caricaturist, and conspicuous Edwardian dandy Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (1872-1956). A man of such patent genius as …
Career's end for actress Dorothy Comingore (1913-1971) is easy to predict once you know the inputs. Having played the part of Susan Alexander in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), the role m…
Wendall Hall's (1896-1969) was a name I'd not encountered (or at any rate, not taken note of) until my recent research for my upcoming book on television variety. As it happens, Hall was one…
I refer in the title of this post of course not to the super-cool downtown performance art impresario who used to do the booking at P.S. 122 and who founded and runs the Under the Radar Fest…
Acknowledging that the name of actress Francine Larrimore (Francine La Remee, 1898-1975) may not be immediately recognizable to some (all?) of you, we precede the chronology with a shortlist…
Born this day 150 years ago, the great vaudeville critic and chronicler Epes W. Sargent a.k.a. "Chicot" (1872-1938). Now, some may be curious about the pen name, but I find myself much more …
