11,837 stories from Trav S.D.
Here's a crazy yarn about a crazier yarn! In 2006, Broadway brilliantine David Yazbek (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, Tootsie), having read my book No Applause and learning that I …
Ken Spears and Joe Ruby had a lot in common: both born in March (Spears #otd), both died in 2020, both born in Los Angeles, both served in the Navy. Oh, and both were co-creators of Scooby D…
We begin our look at the life of character Albert Salmi (1928-1990) in the middle rather than the beginning or the shocking end, for it is the part that will orient you. Like 99.99% of you I…
What an amazing life and career was the portion of British-American comedy character actor Richard Haydn (1905-1985), a creature of live theatre, film, radio, television, and the printed pag…
March 9 was the birthday of an important figure in rock and roll history whose name and contributions have never been well-known enough to satisfy justice, Lloyd Price (1933-2021). Price cam…
I've always found Claire Trevor (Claire Wemlinger, 1910-2000) enigmatic, and Hollywood's use of her confounding, which is to say the same thing, I guess. She was normally cast as hard, bad g…
We awoke to exciting news this morning " Robert S. Bader has just announced his new book Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother, published by Applause, will be on shelves as of October 15, and is…
Great news for lovers of vintage comedy shorts in NYC " there are many live screenings coming up in your near future! It starts today (March 7, 2024, for those of you who don't look at the d…
Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) was a successful British film director, but it was his trad show biz origins that tipped the balance toward his inclusion in these annals. Gilbert's parents had a m…
A few words on the breif career of B movie actress Sheila Terry (Kathleen "Kay" Mulhern, 1910-1957). The title of this post is to clarify a confusion that could only happen to the kind of pe…
Today we throw a few crumbs to Clémentine Delait (1865-1939), the Most Celebrated Bearded Lady in France! Delait was born and raised in Lorraine, France, near the German and Swiss border…
Your correspondent is one of the few people who requires the specificity that characterizes this post's title. There was a later Channing Pollock, a magician who lived from 1926 through 2006…
The name John Scarne (Orlando Carmelo Scarnecchia, 1903-1985) was brought back to me recently when I was working on my article on NYC's magic shops for Chelsea Community News. That's three y…
I just…had to do this. It's only right. A couple of years ago I binged Seinfeld (1989-1998), because I had only caught it sporadically during the original run, though I did manage a pretty…
Today, a brief remembrance of character actor Harold J. Stone (1913-2005). I associate Stone with crook and thug characters but he also played doctors, generals, and other rough-hewn authori…
Like our recent post about Lucy and Desi bio-pics, this post arises out of the quality time I spent with this entertaining couple and their various shows during the Covid lockdown (in partic…
People just a shade younger than me have an entirely different mental association with Alan Thicke (Alan Jeffrey, 1947-2016). To them, he is the dad on the TV sitcom Growing Pains (1985-1992…
February 29, 2008 was the day Travalanche was launched, making this erstwhile offspring of mine 16 years old, but having had only four birthdays. A Leap Year Baby. I launched the blog while …
It isn't often (once every four years, in fact) that we get to add a new Leap Year Baby to Travalanche. Thus far, out of thousands of bios here, we've only got Dinah Shore, William Wellman, …
The sordid tragedy of Dorothy Stratten (1960-80) has been rehashed countless times over the past four decades. I find it less compelling for the horrific story itself than for its resonances…
There's an actor and an opera star I could be writing about this morning, but I just can't get myself worked up about them, whereas there's much more to be said on the topic of John Steinbec…
This post will lap around the edges of carnival, though nothing really connects its constituent parts beyond a name. February 26 was the birthday of the intriguing French figure Camille Flam…
A few words on Billy "Zoot" Reed (1913-1974) and Billy Reed's Little Club (1947-1965). I first learned about this long gone Manhattan institution in writing about the magician Harry Lorayne,…
Notes on stage and screen actress Lucille Ward (1880-1952). A native of Dayton, Ohio the first years of the 20th century saw Ward touring with vaudeville and stock companies, and appearing i…
February 24 was the natal day of William M. Ruthrauff (1881-1969), inventor of Pepsodent. At least, he's the inventor according to this excellent article at the Made in Chicago Museum. The a…
