11,441 stories by "Trav S.D."
I was made aware of the dance team of Harold and Lola due to their inclusion in the 1948 film Variety Time, which I wrote about here. "Harold" was Harold Liebmann (1895-1960), born of a Janu…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 6, 2026 is about E.L. Doctorow and Ragtime. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 6 (in no particular order) include ones on: Chaplin's The Cir…
I've wanted to do a dedicated post on E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime for a while now, mostly on account of his treatment of several real life characters I have researched and written about, and som…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 5, 2026 is about the death of Beatles' friend and confidant Mal Evans. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 5 (in no particular order) include…
You can always gauge the extent of someone's Beatles' fandom by how deeply they've gone into their biographies, with the side effect of their eventually knowing about as much about the peopl…
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 4, 2026 are about Hypnotism in Show Business; and The Story of the Brothers Grimm. Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 4 (in no particular o…
Ever since the advent of the World Wide Web I have sought to track down the edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales I owned as a small child, all in vain. My own copy eventually fell apart and had to…
January 4 is observed by those in the field as World Hypnotism Day. By "the field", I mean of course practitioners, mostly therapists and those working within the psychology and psychiatry d…
We first heard of Canadian born hypnotist Herbert L. (Longley) Flint (b. 1862) as a mentor to the later Pauline, but have since gathered some additional fragments. Dr. Flint worked the vaude…
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 3, 2026 are about British silent screen star Alma Taylor, jazz sax star Rudy Wiedoeft, low budget horror actor Conrad Brooks, and Mexican actress an…
Two facts of life inspired me to subtitle this post on Conrad Brooks (Conrad Biedrzycki, 1931-2017) "never say die". The first is because, as happened in one of Brooks' better known films, s…
Rudy Wiedoeft (1893-1940) is widely revered as the man who pioneered and popularized the jazz saxophone. Wiedoeft was Rudy Vallee's musical hero (Vallee's first name is an homage to Wiedoeft…
The world lost Yolanda Montes a.k.a. Tongolele (1932-2025) just last February. Having heard about her strictly from the obits, I figured I'd save a post for her natal day, as she was a perso…
Alma Taylor (1895-1974) was one of Great Britain's earliest and biggest film stars during the silent era. In 1915 she was voted Britain's most popular screen actor, beating out even Charlie …
Today's new Travalanche posts for January 2, 2026 are about crooner Julius La Rosa, and a new show about Feltman's Hot Dogs! Other earlier Travalanche posts for January 2 (in no particular o…
I don't often plug shows sight unseen (here or anywhere), but there are times when the pull is so great, I'll take the risk. I first became aware of Michael Quinn as a Coney Island booster a…
When I was a kid in the '70s, Julius La Rosa (1930-2016) was still remembered for being at the center of one of the most notorious incidents in show biz history. All the grownups seemed to e…
Today's new Travalanche post for January 1, 2026 is about character actor Rick Hurst from The Dukes of Hazzard. Way to start the New Year with a bang, Trav! Other earlier Travalanche posts f…
Country character actor Rick Hurst (1946-2025) would be 80 years old today, had he not passed away back in June. Standing 6′ 5″ and gifted (or if you prefer, afflicted) with a a …
My annual report, down to the wire, and a little truncated. But I want to celebrate this year's triumphs, and to thank you for being a part of it. There were fewer public events this year, a…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 31, 2025 are about the early days of MTV, and my annual end of year Travalanche wrap-up. Other earlier Travalanche posts for December 31 (in no par…
For those of us who there at the beginning, MTV has long been dead, i.e., the part that mattered, the showing of round-the-clock music videos. But apparently there's some scrap or remnant th…
Today's new Travalanche posts for December 30, 2025 are about Patti Smith, and a wrap-up of those we lost in 2025. There are a large number of rock and rock adjacent births on December 30. I…
I won't mince words. The top things we lost in 2025 weren't mere individuals, they were institutions that once served American society: democracy, rule of law, the U.S. Congress and Supreme …
Patti Smith (b. 1946) hits a much rounder birthday next year, but I have multiple reasons for wanting to visit this topic now, among them: 1) the fact that Smith's debut LP Horses turned 50 …
