11,832 stories by "Trav S.D."
This new series of posts came out of the realization that I have relatives and roots in all 50 U.S. states. My ancestors lived in 14 of them (all on the eastern seaboard or adjacent), and I …
Yesterday, after I posted my piece about the various contemporary secession movements (hint: none of them are in the middle of the country), Dick Zigun, Coney Island’s Unofficial Mayor…
Filed under: CULTURE & POLITICS, Indie Theatre, Protests, Valentine's Day Tagged: Charas, El Bohio, rally, theatre
Today is the birthday of actress Helen MacKeller (1895-1966). Originally from Detroit, MacKellar began trouping in melodramas and vaudeville as a teenager. I see references to her in reviews…
Sometimes the difference between comedy and satire can seem slight, but when the latter is properly done, you can drive a truck through the gulf. Satire is comedy made by an angry moralist. …
Today is the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. How sad Lincoln would be to know that 152 years after his death, the country would still be divided, and for reasons not too different fro…
Today is the birthday of dancer Ralph Riggs (1885-1951). With his wife Katherine Witchie (d. 1967) had an acrobatic dance act in vaudeville for many years. A description of their act from Th…
It may beyond the capacity of younger people to imagine, but there was a time within living memory when New England’s smaller cities (towns like Worcester, Providence, Hartford, Waterb…
Well, I’m, very blue today to hear that Rich Conaty has passed. I’d heard that he was very sick, but I somehow missed the news that he’d left us. I’ll let my 2009 pro…
Just a few oddments of circus news I’ve gotten in recent days, so it made sense to loop ’em together. As we wrote here, the Big Apple Circus went under earlier this year. As repo…
At Travalanche we are of the opinion that all who were once household words…should always be so. My friends at the Metropolitan Playhouse share a similar mission, making the works of p…
Here’s an irony for you: I love to learn, but am not so interested in teaching. Because of what I do, this attitude on my part confounds people all the time, but it’s true: I loo…
Filed under: BROOKLYN, Coney Island, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Coney Island USA, gala, Mermaid Parade
It undoubtedly speaks to my present state of mind that I wasn’t crazy about Hustling Hitler: The Jewish Vaudevillian Who Fooled The Fuhrer. Someone recommended it to me online ju…
Today is the anniversary of the Los Angeles premiere of D.W. Griffith’s landmark film The Birth of a Nation (1914), which like America itself, is epic in scale, unprecedented, in…
I learned this weekend the devastating news that a pivotal person in my life was near death. Even hearing that it was close in these raw, heartbreaking days was enough to double me over with…
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Darlinda Just Darlinda, Hill and Dale, Ula Uberbusen, Victrola Burlesque
Today is the birthday of the great American author Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951). And today I must take this opportunity to apologize to the members of my old book club. Ten or 15 years ago at …
There’s been lots of chatter on social media since last night and I finally got definitive word from Bob Greenberg: Professor Irwin Corey has passed away at age 102. Â Those old enou…
Today is the birthday of Arthur “McKee” Rankin (1844-1914). Rankin is they keystone of America’s greatest acting dynasty. I don’t call him the founder because he̵…
Today is the birthday of Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004). Reagan has to be one of the most polarizing figures in American history. People tend to either love him or hate him. Personally, as…
This new series of posts came out of the realization that I have relatives and roots in all 50 U.S. states. My ancestors lived in 14 of them (all on the eastern seaboard or adjacent), and I …
In addition to its long history as a traditional gathering spot for protest, New York’s Washington Square Park has an association with (often movement related) folk music just as long.…
I find myself much disappointed in Nancy Isenberg’s much hyped White Trash: The 400 Year Untold Story of Class in America. If anything, as far as I can tell this particular “unto…
I wish I could claim I hurt my foot strictly by going to anti-Trump protest marches, but, nah, I walk several miles every day and ignored the mounting discomfort, and now am strictly resting…
