11,511 stories by "Trav S.D."
I first learned about Michael Strange (Blanche Oelrichs, 1890-1950) as the second wife of John Barrymore and the mother of Diana Barrymore, but she's way more fascinating than that. fascinat…
Max Morath (1926-2023) would have been 97 today; he passed away just three months ago. Morath was both an entertainer and an educator, and definitely a crucial figure linking the original ra…
"Fatso Marco" Marcella (1906-1962) was a 300 lb. comedian best known as a regular cast member on The Texaco Star Theatre with Milton Berle. Marcella appeared in vaudeville, burlesque, minstr…
How crazy perfect is it that Tony Darrow (Anthony Borgese, b. 1938) shares a birthday with Fatso Marco Marcella? They could share a nice torta di compleanno. Or perhaps squabble over who it …
A special treat to celebrate National Podcast Day " a treat for me, anyway. I had the honor and pleasure of talking with show biz biographer Eve Golden this week about her new book Strictly …
Happy National Podcast Day! In honor of the day, I've done a little round-up of some of my more recent (i.e., post-Covid) podcast appearances for your delectation. (And please stay tuned for…
We have two reasons for selecting this birthday on which to celebrate comic actress Fran Drescher (b. 1957). The first will be obvious to anyone who has followed the news. As the President o…
Born 100 years ago today composer, singer and pianist Donald Swann (1923-1995). Together with lyricist, singer, and monologist Michael Flanders (1922-1975) he formed the English songwriting …
September 30, Jazz Age bandleader and bassist Thelma Terry (Thelma Combes, 1901-66). Born in Michigan, Terry was raised in Chicago by a single mother who worked as a domestic servant to a ri…
And by this we do NOT mean the nemesis of Lillian Hellman and the author of The Group. That's Mary McCARTHY. Mary McCarty (1923-80) was a workhorse of stage and screen for over 50 years " an…
Among other things, September 29 is Goose Day, chiefly because it is also Michaelmas and goose is traditionally eaten on that day in some countries. Compared with ducks, for example, there a…
Happy Silent Movie Day! Of course, just about every day is Silent Movie Day here at Travalanche, what with nearly 1,400 posts related to silent movies, about a third of which concern slapsti…
September 28 was the birthday of songwriter Dave Franklin (1895-1970), best known for writing, with his frequent collaborator Cliff Friend the song "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" which bega…
Don't shoot the messenger " I don't make the news, I just report it! And the extraordinary news is true: in 1937 Hal Roach and Benito Mussolini announced their joint project, to be called "R…
Laurie Bird's best known movie role is her smallest one. She plays Paul Simon's girlfriend in Annie Hall (1977); at the time, she was Art Garfunkle's girlfriend. It was her third and last pa…
Casual classic movie fans surely know at least two of the later supporting performances of Antonio Moreno (Antonio Monteagudo, 1887-1967); he has memorable roles in the horror classic Creatu…
Happy National Comic Book Day! At present you'll find all of Travalanche's comic book related posts in a common section with comic strips and animated cartoons " at some point in the near fu…
Tap dancer Arthur Duncan (b. 1925) passed away earlier this year; today would have been his 98th birthday. Duncan was known primarily for two things: he was a regular on Betty White's variet…
Horror fans undoubtedly know the name Nick Castle (b. 1947). He was the original Michael Myers in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), and reprised the role in cameos in the three films of the…
It's World Gorilla Day, and while we have certainly dealt with gorilla depictions here, in this post about ape horror movies, this one about King Kong, and this one just a couple of days ago…
Lovers of American folk music know and revere the name of Lomax. For over a century and four generations this family has devoted itself to the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of t…
September, 1973 (50 years ago) marked the first televised broadcast of the 1968 box office hit Planet of the Apes. Probably not coincidentally that was also the year the last in the original…
The woman who would be "Boobs" is unleashing her superpower tonight in a weekly show that runs through the end of October at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. We're hoping to catch it, but the wo…
Balk if you must; scoff if you will; but all roads lead to vaudeville. Case in point, I had an entirely different agenda in catching Frontier Marshal (1939) on Criterion's streaming platform…
I originally intended to do a post on The Mamas and the Papas on the birthday of their late songwriter and arranger John Phillips (1935-2001), but by most accounts he was a piece of work and…
