11,879 stories by "Trav S.d."
A tribute today to the mentalist known as Alexander (Claude Alexander Conlin, 1880-1954), billed sometimes as The Crystal Seer, sometimes as The Man Who Knows. Originally from Alexandria, So…
Thank you, Meg Farrell, for calling my attention to the fact that one of the five fatalities in the Capital Gazette massacre, Wendi Winters, was part of the Travalanche family. She’d w…
Jackie Lynn Taylor (Jacqueline Taylor, 1925-2014) was a child actress and local television personality. She is best known for appearing in several Our Gang shorts, usually playing a characte…
The great stage actor Otis Skinner (1858-194) was a proud son of New England. The son of Universalist minister Charles Skinner, he grew up in Cambridge and Hartford, and was clearly raised t…
A tribute today today to a performer I’ve seen billed many different ways: “Ferry”, “William Ferry”, or “Will Ferry”, “The Frog Man”, &#…
Tonight! A launch event for Jo Weldon’s long awaited book Fierce: The History of Leopard Print! Jo is of course best known as “Jo Boobs” one of the reigning queens, founder…
A little post to follow up on a character I made mention of my recent “drag vaudeville” piece in Chelsea Now. Omar Kingsley (1840-79) hailed from St Louis and ran off to join…
I’ve been promoting this on social media, but thought I’d spread the word here as well, since some of you Neo-Luddites may not follow me there. This Wednesday, June 27 at 8pm the…
It is appropriate that we celebrate character actor Bernie Kopell (b. 1933) today (or any day), don’t you think? To me it is ironic that the role Kopell is best known for (Doc on Th…
Oliver Morosco (Oliver Mitchell, 1875-1945) for whom the Morosco Theatre was named, was born on June 20. Who Morosco was is an interesting story in and of itself but it leads backwards to so…
A tribute today to one of New York’s most colorful and beloved Mayors, James John “Jimmy” Walker (1881-1946). Almost all New York’s Mayors have been fascinating chara…
Elisabeth “Bessie” Marbury (1856-1933) is an important cultural figure for you to know about, for about a dozen different reasons. She was an important New York literary agent an…
My introduction to actor Richard Boone (1917-1981) was no doubt atypical. Instead of initially encountering him through the many westerns for which he is best known, I first saw him in the 1…
This being Father’s Day and a Sunday, I thought I would give myself (and hopefully you) a treat by dropping Part Two of my previous post on comic strips adapted into movies during the …
Stepping off at 1pm today: the 36th annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade! Get all the info you need on the annual beach-side Bacchanalia here. And, by way of mental preparation, check out the …
Happy World Juggling Day, sponsored by the International Jugglers Association. In observance, we invite you to check out the juggling section of Travalanche, which features 3 dozen juggling …
You can be punished by success, and that was most certainly the case with the late Jim Varney (1949-2000), although he was slowly beginning to remedy his peculiar predicament at the time of …
As much as it pains me personally to have to report this, the New-York Historical Society is launching a TERRIFIC looking exhibition and program series drawn from and inspired by the collect…
For Pride Month: my article on drag in classic comedy is in this week’s Chelsea Now! http://chelseanow.com/2018/06/dressed-for-laughs-drag-in-the-days-of-yore/ Advertisements
We’ve been binge watching The Americans of late and so I’ve got Richard Thomas (whose birthday it is) on my mind. Nothing makes me happier than when actors manage to escape the e…
A tribute today to pathbreaking African-American actress Nina Mae McKinney (1912-1967). Originally from Lancaster, South Carolina, she moved to New York where her good looks, and singing and…
I was tempted to save this one for St. Andrews’ Day (since we don’t have a birthday for her) but what the hey, it’s pretty much in the can, so I release it into the world n…
The Great Neck Fair was this past weekend, and to our delight our friend the sideshow star Adam Real Man of Coney Island USA took the stage for an hour. This was a particular delight for us,…
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is happening today in New York, an apt day to celebrate Puerto Rican culture general, and, here on Travalanche, some specific manifestations of it. For e…
Billy Golden (William B. Shires, 1858-1926) was a blackface** comedian in minstrel shows and vaudeville, and later a recording artist. Originally from the river towns of Cincinnati and St. L…
