11,549 stories by "Trav S.D."
A celebration this morning of Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (1886-1953). Today people know him pretty exclusively for his pivotal role as "Sam" in Casablanca (1942). But there's much more to his li…
The story of African American vaudeville performer Andrew Tribble (1876-1935) is crazy/rewarding all sorts of ways. Hailing from Richmond, Kentucky, he was the descendent and namesake of (wh…
Leona Anderson (1885-1973) had two careers in show business: one was about silence, one was about noise. The younger sister of cowboy star and mini-mogul Broncho Billy Anderson, Anderson app…
A few words about international stage and screen star Jack Buchanan (1891-1957). Buchanan was a British star, but he got a bit of a toehold in the U.S., as well, which ought to make him of m…
Here at the Travalanche Ranch, we're planning exciting stuff for throughout the year and into the next, but the time has come to let you know about all the exciting plans we have lined up fo…
Beloved character actor Ned Glass (1906-1984) is best remembered from two highly visible turns in the early 1960s: as Doc in West Side Story (1961) and as Gideon in Charade (1963). I was alr…
I have a couple of questions about the Dodge Sisters that are so delightful that I don't know that I ever want them answered. One sprouts from their names: Beth and Betty. Those are both com…
April 1 was the birthday of silent screen comedian Billy Mason (1889-1941), billed sometimes was William Mason, Smiling Billy Mason, Willy Pepper, or Baseball Bill. Originally from South Dak…
Scranton-born Carrie De Mar (1875-1963) was an influential star of vaudeville and musical comedy around the turn of the last century. De Mar's theatrical debut was with the Chicago Opera Hou…
April 1 was the birthday of Flora Zabelle (Flora Zabelle Mangasarian, 1880-1968) and it's unfortunate, for portions of her biography make it seem as though the teller were pulling your leg. …
With great pleasure, we close out Women's History Month, with a tribute to music hall star Jenny Hill (Elizabeth Jane Thompson, 1848-1896). Hill is often described as a contemporary of Bessi…
Today is the birthday of Peter Marshall (Ralph Pierre LaCock, b. 1926), most folks are apt to associate him exclusively with the game show he hosted from 1966 through 1981, Hollywood Squares…
Sometimes you have to start in the middle. It may appall some people to know that I first knew John Astin (b. 1930) from his THIRD starring sitcom, Operation Petticoat (1977-79). At the time…
About a year ago, around the time I wrote about Michael Chaplin's silly hippie book, I briefly entertained the notion of doing a post that would rank Charlie Chaplin's ten children by notabi…
The name Pablo Fanque (1810-1871) has been famous for well over a century and a half, in particular since 1967 when John Lennon made a poster for one his shows into the song "Being for the B…
Bessie Bellwood (Catherine "Kate" Mahoney, 1856-1896), was one of the first and most influential of British music hall stars. Born in London, she was the daughter of Irish immigrants to Lond…
I received my introduction to the charms of singer and actress Pearl Bailey (1918-1990) at a tender age " she briefly had her own TV variety show, The Pearl Bailey Show as a summer replaceme…
If I'd known that Warner Baxter (1889-1951) had some background in vaudeville, I might have done a profile on him earlier, as I've had many an occasion here to mention him. Baxter's unmistak…
The career of Dennis O'Keefe (Edward Flanagan Jr, 1908-1968) has some features in common with those of Broderick Crawford and Ida Lupino " a hard-boiled noir-ish star with a background in a …
For World Theatre Day, some stray thoughts. I've penned many an essay expressing many of these ideas over the past decades, but for various reasons lately new iterations have been bouncing a…
I thought David Janssen (David Meyer, 1931-1980) was a ubiquitous figure in show business when I was a kid, but that may just have been because my mother was obsessed with him and watched ev…
Some thoughts on Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams (1911-83), lifted from my notebooks, in honor of his natal day. Most of these jottings were written about a dozen years ago when I made a …
March 26 is the birthday of Maria Rasputina (1898-1977), a woman at the center of one of the most entertaining tales of all the White Russians. The daughter of the famous Mad Monk Svengali t…
Here's a fine how-do-you-do.I was about to do a squib on radio/tv/film scribe Philip Rapp (1907-1996), whose birthday it is, but here I find that my publisher at Bear Manor Media Ben Ohmart …
From the standpoint of memory Sir Gerald du Maurier (1873-1934) has the mild misfortune of being a middle link in a chain that connects two behemoths. But if he is less remembered, it is pur…
