11,537 stories by "Trav S.D."
One of the largest stars in my personal cosmology is French writer Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). There are many ways in which Jarry can be said to be a Father of All We Hold Dear. A figure of th…
While this is ostensibly a show biz blog, I have always been gratified by the fact that the 4th most popular Travalanche post of all time is simply a transcription of Tom Joad's speech from …
The career of Milton Watson (1902-82) intersected with so many of the top names in show business, classic comedians, vaudeville, stage, radio and screen stars. His period of greatest promine…
Roscoe Karns (1891-1971) is generally remembered for several beloved supporting turns he did in the 1930s and '40s, though his screen career stretched nearly a half century, from 1915 throug…
Today at 3pm (Eastern) on the Silent Comedy Watch Party hosts Ben Model and Steve Massa have Suzanne Lloyd as their special guest to chat about her grandfather Harold Lloyd and his short Fro…
Little Person Jean Bregant (1869-1944) was originally from Cilli, Austria. In Europe he performed under the name Prince Colibri. While touring the American circuits he met his wife, Inez Lew…
Let me quickly stipulate that I have plenty of professional respect for actor and director Dennis Dugan (b. 1946). I literally grew up watching his work. It's just that, well, the characters…
Some brief approving words for Glora Holden (1903-1991). With a little more than three dozen screen parts over nearly a quarter century, she wasn't the most prolific actress in the world, an…
Today we celebrate the 80th birthday of sex symbol and actress Raquel Welch (Jo Raquel Tejada, b. 1940). Welch was a major pop culture figure in my younger childhood (the early '70s). I knew…
Around 1976 I had two formative circus experiences, each of which couldn't have been more different from the other. The first I've written about a few times, the Ringling Brothers Barnum and…
Some bite size factoids today on bandleader, piano player and songwriter Gus Arnheim (1897-1955). Arnheim was born in Philadelphia and raised in Chicago, two great vaudeville towns. Early in…
This day in 1972 marked the final closure of San Francisco's Playland at the Beach, a great historic amusement park, and really the last of a great collection of attractions that had been in…
I try to build double meanings into the titles of ,my posts " shame on you if you didn't already get the one that heads this one. Alan Ladd (1913-1964) was famously on the diminutive sid…
I'm sorry I missed Marge Champion's more significant birthday last year but we'll attempt to redress the wrong by bestowing maximum attention upon her today. What a remarkable life and caree…
Guido Deiro (1886-1950) was Italian aristocracy, a count from the countryside from an area near Turin which literally bore his surname. The family grew cattle, grapes, and a variety of fruit…
I thought I would finish out August with a post on the Beatles' Help! album, five years and three weeks after its Golden Anniversary. Well…I've done posts about all of their later records …
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)Â has been more in our consciousness of late, thanks to the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein's publication (and the superlative exhibition about same at the Morga…
Let us begin by clarifying that Lurene Tuttle (1907-86) was also a prolific actress of the screen; it's merely that she achieved a dominance in radio unmatched by her work in other media, th…
I imagine many people, like me, grew up watching Elliott Gould in the '70s, little dreaming the nature of his career in the previous decade. I'm here to tell ya about it! Born Elliott Goldst…
Sam Levene is an important guy to know about. He acted constantly on Broadway, in films, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century. The reason you may not have heard of him i…
I consider the case of Tuesday Weld (Susan Weld, b. 1943) to be one of maddeningly unfulfilled promise. One of the screen's great beauties as well as one of its great talents, she had the po…
Fate appears to be conspiring to make me (and thus you) aware of The Sisters G: I caught them recently (they are hard to miss) in Paul Whiteman's The King of Jazz (1930) and Frank Fay's God'…
Well, now: in the heat of current events we are apt sometimes to neglect benchmarks. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of my play House of Trash in the 2000 New York Internatio…
How appropriate that National Dog Day falls during the dog days of August! Having already offered up close and personal peeks at Rin Tin Tin and Pete the Pup, we thought it it only right…
Some brief acknowledgment this day for June Collyer (Dorothea Heermance, 1904-1968). June was the older sister of Bud Collyer, who voiced the character of Superman on radio and in animated c…
