11,545 stories by "Trav S.D."
Fred Kitchen (1872-1951) was the most legendary member of three generations of British music hall Kitchens. His father, Richard Henry "R.H." KItchen (1830-1910) was on the boards for six dec…
This coming Monday, June 17, 8 p.m., I'll be performing once again in Necromancers of the Public Domain , the terrific monthly series produced by Theatre of the Apes. This month we wil…
It's been my good fortune to get to work with scholar L. Marc Fields recently on the liner notes for the CD release of Archeophone Records' Joe Weber and Lew Fields: The Mike and Meyer Files…
The name of director/ screenwriter/ producer William Taylor "Tay" Garnett (1894-1977) ought to be at least as recognized as some of his better known films, like The Postman Always Rings T…
Tip, Tap and Toe were an acrobatic African American tap dance act that started in night clubs and vaudeville in the late 1920s. Its core members were Ray Winfield (1912-1967), Sammy Green (1…
I'm not certain that each and every one of the Seven Little Foys merits his or her own post on Travalanche, but besides Bryan Foy and Eddie Foy Jr, whom we've already done, the second oldest…
Romy Nordlinger's new show Places launches tonight at HERE Arts Center. It's all about the great actress Alla Nazimova! If you come to tomorrow night's show, I will be leading the post…
A long overdue tribute today to showman and charlatan Walford Bodie (Samuel Murphy Brodie, 1869-1939). Our shocking lapse in waiting so long to add him to our rosters of great vaudevillians …
Just a few jottings about minor movie musical star June Haver (1926-2005), whom we've had occasion to mention here a few times. Haver's mother was an actress, her father a musician. When Jun…
The name Hagenbeck was attached to the trade in exotic critters even before Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) came into the picture. His father Claus Gottfried Carl Hagenbeck (1810"1887), a seafood…
I remember being virtually alarmed when I saw Robert Cummings (1910-1990) in a TV screening of the 1963 Frankie and Annette musical Beach Party, realizing he was the same guy I had seen in m…
Like many in the early days of cinema, Dorothy Coburn (1905-1978) had a western background. Her grandfather founded Montana's Circle C Ranch. Her father Wallace Coburn had acted in a couple …
As I write this, it happens to be Robert Preston's (1918-1987) birthday. Preston's never been my favorite actor " he always struck me more as an announcer type than an actor. He'd have been …
Some very brief words of tribute to make you aware of a very important family in American theatre whom the sands of time have unjustly swallowed up. The founder, pictured above, is playwrigh…
The 2019 Tony Awards are happening this coming Sunday, June 9, and my good friends at BroadwayHD have wisely sent a reminder that the PERFECT way to bone up on many of the nominated shows an…
Actor Charles Ogle (1865-1940) is one of the few major stars I can think of whose career stretches the early Edison days (1908) to the time of the modern studio system (mid '20s). His body o…
 As Ward Cleaver said to Fred Rutherford, "June is busting out all over!" We have much hopping of a theatrical nature this month, and we thrill to report it below. Coming up:   C…
Today we'd like to acquaint you with vaudeville and burlesque comedian Sam Goldman (Samuel Isaac Goldman, 1883-1945). The bulk of this post is drawn from pre-eminent Marx Brothers scholar Ro…
Russell Hicks (1895-1957) appeared in over 300 films, in all sorts of genres, but he's probably best remembered by classic comedy fans in particular for his priceless turn as a flim flam man…
I've seen both Finley, Tennessee and Osceola, Arkansas as birthplaces for B movie and radio western character actor Horace Murphy (1880-1975) " but both are near the Mississippi River, and t…
Ellen Corby (Ellen Hansen, 1911-1999) has over 250 screen credits, though today she is remembered almost exclusively as no-nonsense Grandma Walton, who was always scolding Grandpa (Will Geer…
According to Mack Sennett's Fun Factory by Brent Walker, Kansas City-born Josh Binney (Harold Joshua Binney, 1889-1956) attended the University of Washington and acted in vaudeville and with…
 Having already written about Tony Curtis's comedies, and about Houdini (one of my favorite show biz movies), I am startled to discover an additional occasion to write about Bernard Schw…
Old movie buffs will get the joke in our subtitle: Johnny Weissmuller (1904-84) was a famous swimmer. But there's a certain application to his screen career, as well: yes, he amassed 38 scre…
What a joy to have an opportunity to share with you my enthusiasm for kooky, breezy, cheerful, good-hearted, folksy, slick Max Showalter (1919-2000), who was billed for a time as Casey Adams…
