11,500 stories by "Trav S.D."
When Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) passed away a few years ago and the entire theatrical world went into a mass keening we marked the occasion with held tongue. I find the reverence the world…
I don't really need to rationalize the reasons why profiles of poets are a content stream on Travalanche, though it has has theatre and show business at its core. But I will. All poetry was …
Today is the birthday of the great showman Flo Ziegfeld! I thought I would use the occasion of to present you without a little finding aid to help you navigate our several post about the gre…
March 21 is World Puppetry Day and that seemed like the perfect time to realize my long standing ambition to get the full skinny on a pair of impressive folks I met about a year ago at Marxf…
Spike Lee (b. 1957) has been a public figure for nearly 40 years now, at least since his first feature She's Gotta Have It (1986), and he's been making movies for longer than that. I was jus…
Just thought I'd give you a heads up about some film screenings in New York that got ME excited, at any rate: Tomorrow, March 20, 2015 at 7:30pm: Ben Model (preservationist, author, presente…
Well, it's National Poultry Day, and I'm getting mighty sick of talk of the price of eggs, so I thought I'd skip the hens and give a shout-out to the place of roosters in pop culture. Chicke…
Today is actually Brad Dourif's 75th birthday, but we're coming up on 50 years since he first came to widespread public attention as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). I…
His full name was Maurice Oscar Louis Mouvet (1889-1927), though professionally he was usually known simply as "Maurice". Though he was an international trendsetter for nearly two decades hi…
No one is quite certain of the birth date of Clara Morris, although IBDB informs us with great assurance that it was March 17, 1848, so we go with that " with the caveat that others tell us …
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Given the importance of the Irish to the history of vaudeville, I annually feel I don't do enough to celebrate this day, and perhaps someday I'll get it together. It…
March 16 was the birthday of singer/guitarist Corinna Mura (Corrina Wall, 1910-1965). Mura's career was brief but fascinating. Through only one quarter Spanish she made a career as a "Latin …
Ford Dabney (1883-1958) was an African American composer, pianist, and bandleader of the ragtime and early jazz eras, best known for writing the tune to the song "Shine" a.k.a. "That's Why T…
Quincy Jones (1933-2024) would have been 92 today; he passed away with much accompanying fanfare back in November. I saved this appreciation for today so it wouldn't get lost in the flurry o…
Oh, the Duke ain't Dead! Don't ya fret on that score. It's just that the 50th anniversary year of Saturday Night Live seemed the appropriate time to remember her peak years, when she was a c…
I wish to God this were not a timely story, but we are never masters of our own chronologies. In the interest of dramatic reveal, I will make you wait a bit for the astounding parts. William…
We all return to Clay. And by that I mean Clay M. Greene (1850-1933), playwright, critic, journalist, film-maker, and man of business. The phrase also happens to apply to Greene's life. A co…
March 11 is the birthday of downtown impresario Robert Prichard, co-founder and bull goose looney of the much missed performance space known as Surf Reality (or, by the full title, Surf Real…
Today happens to be a notable comedy history day for two reasons: 1) it is the centennial anniversary of the released of the Buster Keaton comedy Seven Chances (1925). But I wrote about that…
This one is strictly for New York area hardcore comedy freaks. Tomorrow, March 11, 2025, at 7:30pm " a rare chance to see what many feel is the comedy to end all comedies, It's a Mad, Mad, M…
Had she lived a bit longer, Luba Lisa (Luba Lisa Gootnick, 1941-1972) would almost certainly be well known and associated with the other show bizzy chicks of her generation: Barbra Streisand…
Actor Stuart Holmes (Joseph Liebschen, 1884-1971) may have appeared in as many as 600 movies from the years 1909 through 1964. Throughout his career he was mostly a supporting player, often …
This one goes out to all W.C. Fields fans, silent movie fans, circus fans, and fans of the Borough of Queens and its history! I sure hope that covers everyone! My old friends at the Greater …
First off, that's not a typo: Sue Ane Langdon (b. 1936) spells the second part of her first name with a single "n" " as in "Nything to stand out in show business." In her heyday, she was mos…
March 8 was the birthday of stage and screen performer Ada May (Ada May Weeks, 1896-1978.) She was the most successful of four performing sisters from Oyster Bay, Long Island named Weeks. Of…
