Good news (for me) ! Starting January 1, the content on Travalanche (over 6000 posts, including over 2000 profiles of historical variety performers, greater than any similar resource) is goi…
We watched Shoot Me, the 2013 documentary about Elaine Stritch (1925-2014) recently, and my main takeaway from the film was "How could anyone abide that wretched woman? WHY would anyone? For…
Some words of appreciation today for the great French singer and national symbol Edith Piaf (Édith Giovanna Gassion, 1915-1963). "Piaf" was a stage name " it is French for "Sparrow". The…
Two generations of Burrows conquered a huge swath of American show biz between them: radio, Broadway and television, with some dabbling in the recording industry and films. The founder and f…
Happy National Twins Day! Travalanche has long had a special section devoted to conjoined twins " we now have amassed enough posts on the more common sort of twins to justify their own categ…
No, shame on YOU, Spade Cooley! "Spade" was western swing fiddle player and band leader Donnell Clyde Cooley (1910-1969). The native Oklahoman was part Cherokee; his folks were sharecroppers…
The Montague Brothers were a strong man act of the British music hall in the early 20th century. Their real last name was Woollaston; their father owned a shoe factory, was a Methodist preac…
My wife and I have been binging Seinfeld re-runs for the sheer pleasure of it in recent weeks and I caught a "Farfel" reference in one not long ago. Of course, the origin of that name is a J…
Great was our enjoyment, occasionally swelling to awe, of Showtime's The Real Charlie Chaplin, which we mentioned here a few days ago. Directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney pulled off …
…And by that I mean of course, not just the period in which she wrote but the need to restore Aphra Behn (1640-1689) to her rightful place in the hierarchy of English writers. I'm uncertai…
Norman Foster (Norman Foster Hoeffer, 1903-1976) was one of the rare ones who worked in Hollywood as an actor, screenwriter and director " all three " during the talkie era. If that sounds W…
Grateful homage today to Margo Jones (Margaret Virginia Jones, 1911-1955), whose contributions to American culture were significant and real, though they are often badly articulated and misu…
Today, two weeks out from Christmas, you've no doubt heard the most lasting hit of Brenda Lee (Brenda Mae Tarpley, b. 1944) several times already, as America does every year. "Rockin' Around…
Well, I don't get Showtime, and I don't know anyone who does, but periodically they show something that makes me wish I did. Tonight they premiere a program called The Real Charlie Chaplin. …
A few words today on a Scottish strongman born in Banff as William Bankier (1870-1949). Bankier's father was, of all things, a hand loom weaver, an occupation that can hardly have been remun…
This may come as news to many of you below a certain age, but some of us had not one, but two Hermiones in our lives prior to the 1997 publication of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.…
The internet possesses no shortage of gushing, enthusiastic blogger valentines to the great actor Lee J. Cobb (1911-1976) and that's as it should be. So I'm not going to dwell on Cobb's exce…
It may be hard to credit for those who were alive and sentient back then but it's nonetheless true " while he was alive, Sam Kinison (1953-1992) was only prominent in the pop culture landsca…
80 years ago today, the air forces of Imperial Japan attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, precipitating U.S. entry into World War Two. My Tennessee grandfather enlisted in t…
A gingerly nod of the head today to Joseph Milana (1884-1959), a.k.a. Ajax the Great, Professor Ajax or the Mighty Ajax. A native of Washington DC, Milana began working in dime museums as a …
Tonight, I was flipping through channels and stopped just in time to see a fan of one of my books accept her Kennedy Center Award from the President. Congratulations, Bette Midler. I am kvel…
With Steven Spielberg's reboot of West Side Story due for nationwide release this coming Friday, he will be the last of the major "New Hollywood" directors of the 1970s to tackle a famously …
60 years ago (late 1961) a group named Joey Dee and the Starliters released a new variation on the Twist craze spawned by Chubby Checker the previous year. By January 1962, their single "The…
I had the best time this afternoon rapping with the illimitable Wayne Federman about comedy and vaudeville on his podcast. In addition to being the former headwriter for Jimmy Fallon, a co-p…
Tonight (December 3) at 8pm Eastern " our pal Torkova the magician and mentalist will be on Penn and Teller Fool Us on the CW Network. It was honor to present Bobby Torkova many a time in my…