All credit to the Mad Marchioness for being the one to unearth this a couple of years ago. It being Barbara Stanwyck’s birthday, I thought it would be a good time to share it. In 1980,…
Today is the birthday of Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990). Over her 60 year career, Stanwyck played in every conceivable kind of picture, including some very funny comedies (The Lady Eve, Ball o…
Tonight on TCM: a selection of films from John Wayne’s mature period. Late phase Duke is an interesting phenomenon. He stuck out like a dodo in the Hollywood of the liberal 1970s. He w…
Well, your correspondent just seems to have his finger on the pulse, doesn’t he? I was already planning this post about indie cinema from the 80s, when the Mad Marchioness tipped…
Today is the birthday of ill-fated actress Martha Mansfield (Martha Ehrlich, 1899-1923) Thanks to BronxDawn of Woodlawn Cemetery for making me acquainted with her story during my recent fiel…
The following is an excerpt from my 2013 book  Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, published by Bear Manor Media, available from Amazo…
Tonight (tomorrow morning, actually) at 12:45 a.m. (EST) on Turner Classic Movies: William Wellman’s Westward, the Women (1951). This fairly amazing movie depicts the journey…
Today is the birthday of Toby Wing (Martha Virginia Wing, 1915-2001). The child of an assistant director at Paramount, she and her sister Pat began getting roles in silent films in 1924. The…
Visiting the progeny in Burlington, Vermont over the weekend we were privileged to have the opportunity to spend some time at the nearby Shelburne Museum on Saturday. Founded by Electr…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin short A Woman (1915). In this Essanay comedy, Chaplin plays his usual park masher, who ends up coming home wit…
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies from 8pm-Midnight (Eastern), a variety of vintage film shorts, including Robert Benchley’s 1935 gem How to Sleep, and a bunch of Pete Smith Specialt…
Today is the birthday of screenwriter and director Edward Bernds (1905-2000). Bernds got in on the ground floor of professional radio broadcasting as a teenager in his native Chicago. When t…
Today on TCM at high noon (EST), the terrific 1955 Anthony Mann western The Man from Laramie. (Warning: we always include spoilers). Jimmy Stewart plays the title character, a f…
Well, it’s a banner day here at Travalanche. A little before 9am this morning we watched with pleasure as our number of accumulated pageviews topped one million. Thank you, readers!…
The unbelievable tale of the chucklehead and his charger set the internet abuzz over the past few days, especially amongst my set in the theatre world, as you can imagine. Just to be a crank…
How’s this for a spaz? I went to that whole launch for Spaz Comics the other day and it wasn’t until last night that I actually thought to open a copy and read it! So now I can r…
Tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 8pm (EST): John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) This is the second film of Ford's so-called Cavalry Trilogy. To me, the human drama is les…
To misappropriate Ko-Ko: “I’ve got a little listicle.” There’s nothing objective about this list. It’s not THE top vaudevillians, but MY top vaudevillians, my f…
Great news! Noah Diamond’s swell book-length book of his comic Love Marches On is now available to purchase — just in time for Bastille Day! It’s a visual love poem to T…
Today is the birthday of British character actor Sebastian Cabot (1918-1977). American fans who know him best as Brian Keith’s lovable Gentleman’s Gentleman on Family Af…
July 4, 1872 was the birthdate of Harry Tate (Ronald McDonald Hutchinson), star of the British music hall, who also made some tours of America and Australia. His stage name was taken from hi…
As part of our pre-Fourth festivities on Friday night the Mad Marchioness and her faithful hound dog headed out to Coney Island for fun and fireworks. (Coney Island has a fireworks displa…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Keystone ensemble comedy Court House Crooks (1915), directed by and starring by Ford Sterling. This little comedy has a number of interesting feat…
Tonight on Turner Movie Classics, two of the greatest classic anti-war satires of all time, followed by an exploration of the the Thanhouse Film Company. 8:00 pm (EST): Duck Soup (1933) Duck…
Happy 4th of July! Since I had a holiday from work yesterday, I thought I would do a little photo essay illustrating a little known fact…not just little known to Americans, but little …