Today marks the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) " and not coincidentally it's also World Opera Day. Folks of Strauss's day would be distressed to learn that Strauss would com…
October 23 was the birthday of Charlie Smalls (1943-1987), best remembered as the composer of the songs in The Wiz. Smalls was a child piano prodigy (or "whiz", if you prefer) who was alread…
Today's new Travalanche posts for October 24, 2025 are about Several Stars Who Had Polio, and Grass, the first film made by Merian C. Cooper, creator of King Kong. Earlier Travalanche posts …
October 24 was the birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-2995), who literally gave the world the polio vaccine. By literally, I mean, he didn't patent it. He chose not to profit from his discover…
A century ago: the world premier of Grass (1925)! That's right! Grass was invented in 1925! Prior to that, nothing but sand pits, gravel banks, mud holes! Once grass arrived, there could be …
Today's new Travalanche posts for October 23, 2025 are about Warhol Superstar Baby Jane Holzer, and burlesque dancer (and much more) Jennie Lee. Johnny Carson (born 100 years ago today) Also…
October 23 was the birthday of burlesque dancer, pin-up model, actress, labor organizer and entrepreneur Jennie Lee (Virginia Lee Hicks, 1928-1990). A Kansas City native, Lee was billed as "…
Today marks the 85th birthday of Baby Jane Holzer (Jane Brukenfeld, b. 1940), on of the first of the Warhol Superstars and one of the few not to have self-destructed in some spectacular way.…
Today's new Travalanche posts for October 22, 2025 are about John Reed and the movie Reds, Dory Previn, Parker Fennelly (The Fred Allen Show) and Sidney Miller. I have also done a complete o…
Comic actor Parker Fennelly (1891-1988) has to rank among the last performers with a vaudeville background to have a prominent place in American pop culture, though most Americans never knew…
Wow! Just wow. I am so floored by the credits of actor/director/songwriter Sidney Miller (1916-2004) and shocked myself that I'm just now getting around to him. Miller started out as a juven…
October 22 was the birthday of journalist John Reed (1887-1920) and October was the month of the Russian Revolution (by the old calendar; it took place in November according to the modern on…
Born 100 years ago today, Dorothy Langdon Previn Shannon (1925-2012), commonly known as Dory Previn, through her marriage to composer/conductor Andre Previn, to whom she was married from 195…
Today's new Travalanche post for October 21, 2025 is a menu of recommendations for some cool new things you might want to check out! Earlier Travalanche posts for October 21 (in no particula…
Having no planned essay for today, and an ungodly number planned for tomorrow, I thought I'd share this little goody bag of plugs for things I am excited about at the moment. Together they m…
Today's new Travalanche post for October 20, 2025 is about "alien abductees" Betty and Barney Hill and the telefilm about same, entitled The U.F.O. Incident (1975). Earlier Travalanche posts…
October 20, 1975 was the premiere air date of the made-for-tv movie The UFO Incident. Right away you may find yourself asking, "THE incident?" Well, yes, that was a simpler time, before the …
Today's new Travalanche posts for October 19, 2025 are about Samantha Eggar, Bob Sweeney, Kate Manx, and Louis John Bartels. And also an account of yesterday's No Kings march in NYC with a t…
Well, the results are in, and it looks like yesterday's No Kings rally was the biggest one-day nationwide protest event in American history, beating out the previous No Kings protest by a co…
Samantha Eggar (b. 1939) passed away earlier this week. The British beauty wasn't a hugely memorable actress, but the fact that it's the Halloween season made me note the great proportion of…
A few words on a pretty spectacular footnote, starlet Kate Manx (Kathryne Barbara Mylroie, 1930-1964). Mylroie is a pretty exotic surname, and I always look this up. Most sources give Irish …
Here's a somewhat major if unsung figure in American comedy I stumbled upon surprisingly recently. Bob Sweeney (1918-1992) was successful in live performance, radio, films, and television. I…
Louis John Bartels (1895-1931) was a man comedy fans at least would have likely known a lot better if he'd lived a few more years. As it is, he did make quite a significant mark, but his han…
Well, today we bid a sad farewell to a sideshow Renaissance man. I had the honor of working with Scott Baker (1948-2025) eleven years ago in Dick Zigun's play Dead End Dummy at Coney Island …
Today's new Travalanche post for October 18, 2025 is about the passing of the late Scott Baker. Earlier Travalanche posts for October 18 (in no particular order) include ones on: BBC Formed …