11,517 stories by "Trav S.D."
I first came across the memorable name of Florian ZaBach (1918-2006) while researching my upcoming book on television variety shows. Though not as extraordinary a professional handle as "Eng…
I had some difficulty finding a photo of modern dancer Margaret Severn (1901-1997) that I could actually use, for the perfectly comprehensible reason that she was the kind of performer who i…
I had a heck of a time getting a bead initially on today's subject, for two not insignificant reasons, over and above his relative obscurity. One is his multiplicity of professional names. W…
Singer and comedienne Mabel Todd (1907-1977) was born in the Los Angeles area shortly before it became America's film capitol. She sang and danced in vaudeville as a kid, sometimes in a two …
I'm pretty sure this is my sixth Partridge Family related post: I did one on David Cassidy and the show itself; one on Shirley Jones; one on Dave Madden (Reuben Kincaid); one on The Cowsills…
Today, Pauline Lord (1890-1950) is remembered almost exclusively (by the few who remember her) for one of her two film roles, the title character in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934), w…
"Celestia" now resides permanently in the Fourth Dimension. I thought Anne Heche (1969-2022) was straight up lovely, an actress whose performances impressed me completely, a star seemingly d…
Having grown up in the '70s, I have often had occasion on this blog to refer to the mysteries of that decade's then-new phenomenon of what might be called "celebrity unmoored". I am amused t…
Lamont Dozier (1941-2022) had the bad luck to pass away on the same day as another music business legend, Olivia Newton-John, and as a result the news of his death was eclipsed (not unlike w…
For this World Lion Day, we thought we'd present our Lion Loving readers with a little guide to our many posts germane to an appreciation for the King of Beasts here on Travalanche. They str…
Yes, Louis Sobol (1896-1986) was a "Famous Broadway Columnist" as this book jacket trumpets, if not quite as famous in a lasting way as Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan, Damon Runyon, Louella Pa…
The foregoing is probably my favorite kind of post, what I call an "almost post". It's an article concerning a subject about which we have incomplete information, adorned with some hopefully…
We are shocked to notice that we have mentioned actor Tom Tyler (Vincent Markowski or Markauskas, 1903-1954) no fewer than eight times on Travalanche. His is a quotidian, eminently forgettab…
This post actually dates to over 3.5 years ago, when some over-hasty vulture jumped the gun and announced that Olivia Newton-John (1948-1922) was dying of cancer…in response to which she (…
I'm sure I was prompted to investigate Nigel de Brulier (Francis Packer, 1877-1948) by his role as Rajah the Fortune Teller in Mae West's I'm No Angel (1933). But I quickly realized that I k…
A brief thing on Nora "Teddy" Sampson (1895-1970), who figures in the histories of vaudeville and silent comedy both. Sampson was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of an Irish i…
Happy National Sisters Day! This is an especially auspicious day to peruse our section on the sister acts of vaudeville and other entertainment forms, where you will find over 50 posts. Toda…
I chanced to come across the name of John W. Ransone (1852-1929) the other day and recognized it, and was nonplussed to see that I had not yet done an article on this once popular and signif…
I can't tell you how delighted I was this morning to realize that Paul Bartel (1938-2000) shares a birthday with Andy Warhol. Not only did Bartel frequently work with former Warhol Superstar…
I only just learned the sad news from friend Paul Bartlett that Theater for the New City co-founder George Bartenieff (b. 1933) passed away on July 30. Bartenieff was one of those exceedingl…
August 4th was the birthday of vaudeville performer Jed Dooley (1884-1973). According to this auction site, Dooley's partners in his trick cycling act were his siblings Ethel and Billy. They…
On the strength of his movie career alone, I doubt I would have done a post on actor David Brian (Brian Davis, 1914-1993), despite the fact that insomuch that he is remembered at all, that w…
We are over a week late in reporting the news of the passing of that towering international exponent of Irish culture Mick Moloney (1944-2022). Though sad news, I was glad to have learned of…
The deep, dark, dirty secret of Travalanche is that its author spends much more of his time watching contemporary television than either classic movies or theatre. I tend not to blog about c…
We promise that it is only a coincidence that we are posting about Yank cover girls two days in a row. As it happens, today's subject, Patricia Dane (Thelma Patricia Pippins, 1917-1995) is p…
