11,821 stories by "Trav S.d."
Today's new Travalanche post for March 9, 2026 is about Paul Revere and the Raiders. Also Joe Franklin was born 100 years ago today! My 2015 post on the show business legend is here. Earlier…
We have been circling AROUND this topic for ages. We have posted about their greatest hit  "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)", and about their producer T…
Today's new Travalanche posts for March 8, 2026 are about my recent appearance on the Flash Back internet radio show (topic: the Marx Brothers), and a couple of new record releases by old fr…
Geordie Austen released this new album Moments That Shine with his band The Sad Dogs about a week ago, and I'm just now catching up with it. Geordie was a key member of my vaudeville show ba…
Last week, I was delighted to chat for an hour about the Marx Brothers with Dr. Wesley Britton on his internet radio show Flash Back, in connection with my recent book The Marx Brothers Misc…
Yes, I know they say it's 1884 on the signs, but 1876 was the year that year that Civil War hero and homeopath Dr. Augustin Thompson (1835-1903) first concocted his patent medicine and "genu…
Lainie Miller (Sheila Elaine Halpern, 1941-2025) passed away back in May; today would be her 85th birthday. Miller battled polio as a young kid in Toronto, then took dance lessons for years,…
Today's new Travalanche posts for March 7, 2026 are about Moxie, National Cereal Day, Barbara Heller (The Jackie Gleason Show), Virginia Pearson (Larry Semon's Wizard of Oz), Beatrice Robert…
Beatrice Roberts (1905-1970) had over 70 screen credits, all between the years 1932 and 1949, and yet her screen career manages not to be the most interesting thing about her somehow; it's t…
A few fragments on silent screen star Virginia Pearson (1886-1958). Travalanche readers may consider her especially notable for a trio important supporting parts she played in 1925: as the c…
March 7 has been designated by somebody as National Cereal Day " but isn't EVERY day National Cereal Day for most of us? After all, the King of the Quotidian, Jerry Seinfeld is surely the mo…
Singer, impressionist, comedienne, and "pantomimist" Barbara Heller (Barbara Jean Thompson, 1926-1995) Vintage show biz fans may know her as a regular on Jackie Gleason's variety show Americ…
Today's new Travalanche posts for March 6, 2026 are about an important upcoming Marx Brothers event, the recent panel about The Comics vs. The Fascists, the many incarnations of Star Search,…
Some synchronicity afoot " I've posted a half dozen comics related posts over the past week (sometimes weeks pass between posts on that topic); purely by coincidence it is also Will Eisner W…
Here's a timely bit of info " the Marx Brothers Council Podcast, the show I was on most recently just a week ago, and co-hosted by Noah Diamond of Pintele, has announced their first ever LIV…
March 6 was the birthday of the late great Ed McMahon but we've already done a dedicated post on his life and career, so I thought I would do one that focuses on the best known project of Mc…
Here's an illustration of how vaudeville entertainment evolved into contemporary show business in some quarters without a break. James Robert "Bob" Wills (1905-1975) is generally conceded to…
We honor Monty O'Grady (1916-2000) here today more for quantity than his quality. Not that he's bad " it's just that most of his nearly 500 screen credits were as a crowd extra. O'Grady's bi…
Today's new Travalanche post for March 5, 2026 is about Noah Diamond's Pintele Earlier Travalanche posts for March 5 (in no particular order) include ones on: The Much Mourned Catherine O'Ha…
Noah Diamond's long awaited podcast series Pintele launched three weeks ago. I've listened to all four of the projected seven episodes that have been released so far within minutes after the…
I've hated sports all my life, but that's not true of 95% of the other straight males, so there have been times when I have had to grin and bear it. That was especially true in childhood, th…
Today's new Travalanche posts for March 3, 2026 are about Disney animator Ward Kimball, cartoonist Milt Gross, character actor Wallace Howe; Singing Cowgirl Dorothy Page, stage and screen di…
Unlike so many friends, colleagues, peers, etc, your correspondent never could whip himself into a dither about any particular Golden Age animator. I obviously love old cartoons " anyone who…
This post is about the cartoonist Milt Gross (1895-1953), not the sportswriter Milton Gross (1912-1973). How that must have confused people back in the day, since they both worked for newspa…
Dorothy Page (Dorothy Lillian Stofflett, 1904-1961) enjoyed but a brief minute in the spotlight, but it's more than many get to experience! Page's career came about as a result of her winnin…
