11,521 stories by "Trav S.D."
Roy Stewart (1883-1933) starred in over 100 silent films, most of them westerns, but I am personally most interested in the beginning of his career, for that is when he acted in some of the …
Phyllis Gordon (1889-1964) was mostly a supporting player during her brief heyday " in our visiually focused age, she is primarily known for a couple of flashy publicity stunts. Gordon was f…
A few words of apprecation this morning for Ann Guilbert, or Ann Morgan Guilbert (1928-2016). Guilbert enjoyed a sort of charmed career. She went from being a key cast member in the popular …
Attention paid today to poet, novelist, historian and activist Helen Hunt Jackson (Helen Maria Jackson, 1830-1885), best known today for her 1884 novel Ramona, which was adopted for the Amer…
Frustrating, but amusing " if you Google "Dick Bernie", you will get pictures of 94 year old Dick Van Dyke championing Bernie Sanders for President, or clips of Bernie Mac saying "Give her d…
We are delighted to report that our friend Lynn Sally (whom I initially knew as the burlesque performer "Dr. Lucky") has just hit the market with a tremendous new book entitled Neo-Burlesque…
I was very jazzed last night to, through the good graces of the estimable Allen Lewis Rickman (Boardwalk Empire, A Serious Man, and the reigning king of Yiddish theatre), attend the invited …
I'm pretty sure that I have never heard a better name for a performing little person than Dolleta Boykin (Dolly Dodd, 1881-1948). Not just Doll like the Doll Family, but "Dolletta", an even …
I'm not certain if I would otherwise have done a post on singer/actor Yves Montand (Ivo Levi, 1921-1991) before I learned of his early years. In America, we thought of him as one of a handfu…
There are fewer than two dozen film acting credits in the dossier of Jean Wallace (Jean Walaceck, 1923-1990). Yet hers is a story worth knowing for show biz buffs I think. Wallace was raised…
Buster Brodie (Max Broida, 1885-1948) billed himself as "The Hairless Man", but he had an additional distinguishing characteristic: he was only 4′ 9 1/2″ tall, making an almost l…
By happy coincidence, the natal day of Chief Caupolican (Emile Barrangon, 1876-1968) falls on Indigenous Peoples Day this year. Chief Caupolican was believed to have been a member of the Map…
We hope you will forgive the split nature of this portmanteau-post, which is intended to do double duty as a capsule biography of Madame Tussaud (Anna Maria Grosholtz, 1761-1850) and a revie…
Alastair Sim (1900-1976) rarely stirred from his "right little, tight little island", spent more time on stage than screen, and jealously guarded his private life. As a consquence, he is alm…
We are apt to think of Elmer Calvin "Hank" Patterson (1888-1975) as a rube comedian on account of his long standing role as Fred Ziffel, proprietor of Arnold the Sentient Pig on the Paul Hen…
Before the Floradora Girls, the Ziegfeld Girls, or the Goldwyn Girls, there were the Gaiety Girls. These were the creation of West End impresario George Edwardes (1855-1915). Edwardes had le…
In his day, Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) was known as "America's Best Loved Poet". Today, I fear that most English departments regard his work as primitive kitsch and he has…
Every person who aspires to write film scores should know the name Louis F. Gottschalk (1863-1934). He was the first guy to do it, at least the first to compose complete scores; prior to him…
While Lyle Tuttle (1931-2019) could easily have exhibited himself in sideshows, he did not. He was a guy who made many sideshow artists possible. Tuttle himself sported a full tattoo "body s…
Three cheers today for hard-working character actor Jerome Cowan (1897-1972). Cowan appeared in over 200 films and TV productions; if you don't know the name, I hope you know that face from …
400 years ago this November " whatever you feel about it " there occurred the event that is traditionally known in America as the "First Thanksgiving." (1621, right? The Pilgrims had just go…
It has been 40 years now since the world lost Allen Ludden (1917-1981), so long that the weird cult of young Betty White fans that sprang up since her first 2010 Saturday Night Live appearan…
The Sword Swallowers Hall of Fame informs me that today is the birthday of sideshow performer and impresario Bobby Reynolds (b. 1931). I know this estimable personage (who billed himself as …
I have no idea how Scotty Beckett (1929-1968) has fallen through the Travalanche cracks. He is sure one of the Little Rascals I knew about first, but I've not mentioned him at all, despite h…
Luis Alberni (1886-1962) was a much beloved Hollywood character actor for decades. Though often cast as comical Italians, and his surname sure sounds Italian, he was actually Spanish. Albern…
