12,167 stories from Trav S.D.
The day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are in the right frame of mind to do a brief tribute to character actor John Banner (Johann Banner, 1910-1973). The central irony about Banner is …
Somehow I didn't get the memo that author/critic/journalist Stefan Kanfer passed away a year and a half ago. The years are flying by now. We'd exchanged some correspondence over the years…
Full disclosure: the majority of the intelligence in this post comes from Brent Walker's indispensable reference Mack Sennett's Fun Factory. Only with great restraint do I not spill all the …
Paterson native Charlotte Parry (1873-1959) attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then went into vaudeville as a mimic or impersonator, doing a repertoire of celebrity impressio…
Walter Stull (1879-1961) was a silent screen comedian, best known as "Jabbs" or "Jabs" in the Pokes and Jabs comedies, in which he was partnered with Bobby Burns, with a young Oliver Hardy a…
Bernice Claire (Bernice Jahnigen, 1906-2003) was a star of operetta and vaudeville, which translated into a brief movie career in the early days of talkies. Originally from Oakland, Californ…
It's a wonderful fact: whenever I have no post planned for the day something always falls into my lap anyway. I've long been interested in Philly's Mummer's Parade, drawing as it does from M…
A wink and a nod to silent screen actor/director Rupert Julian (Percival Hayes, 1879-1943). How appropriate that his birthday falls on Australia Day eve, for, though he was actually from New…
In response to nationwide release today of The Turning, a little post on Henry James' 1898 The Turn of the Screw, the novella on which it is based, and it's previous film versions. The Turn …
Happy Chinese Year of the Rat! Today seems an ideal time to announce the imminent emergence of a show I have been working on for years with composer David Malamud, The Twisted Tale of the Ra…
In the midst of all chaos and drama happening down in Washington, a benchmark will happen this year. November will mark the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock. Throug…
To the best of my knowledge, burlesque star Betty Rowland (b. 1916) is still with us at age 104. When she hit the century mark a few years ago there was much hoopla, as in this Leslie Zam…
Three Cheers for Florence Halop (1923-86) whose career in radio and television spanned five and a half decades. A native of Queens, Florence was the younger sister of Billy Halop, one of the…
Today a long overdue post on the terrific Hollywood star Randolph Scott (1898-1987). Scott is someone you can use as a sort of litmus test: if you meet someone who is someone is familiar wit…
We are very sorry to hear we have lost Monty Python's Terry Jones at only age 77, although of course we lost him several years ago to the aphasia from which he suffered. I often thought of J…
Tribute today to the delightful music hall performer Leslie Sarony (Leslie Legge Frye, 1897-1987), who kept audiences tickled for a remarkable SEVEN decades. Our subject was from an artistic…
Brooklyn born performer Lee Dixon (1914-1953) performed in vaudeville and was only 18 when he danced in the chorus of the Vitaphone short A Modern Cinderella (1932) starring Ruth Etting. He …
Jack Coogan (1886-1935), originally from Syracuse, started out in vaudeville as a dancer and comedian. In 1913 he married fellow performer Lillian Dolliver. Their child John Leslie "jackie" …
Some days a theme emerges on Travalanche and today it is sideshow. Having just written about little person actor John George and plus-sized comedian "Fat" Karr, we take the occasion of carto…
A tribute today to little person/actor John George (Tutie Fatella, 1898-1968). While George had over 225 screen credits, it is fitting that one of his biggest and best known parts was in a f…
Hilliard "Fat" Karr (1899-1945) is today best remembered as one third of the plus sized silent comedy team Tons of Fun, but he had a thriving solo career before, during, and after that popul…
The career of Johnny Haymer (Haymer Lionel Fileg, 1920-1989) is kind of small fry but I do like the arc of it. Though he might be best remembered as Sgt. Zale on M*A*S*H (1974-79), it was hi…
Dolly Parton (b. 1946) is a one-woman industry at this stage. A true biography naming all of her accomplishments would need to be book-length. But the rationale for this post can be summed u…
This is Part Five of Carolyn Raship's Agatha Christie series launched here. Almost everyone has heard of Agatha Christie's characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, as they're constantly re…
There is no particular occasion for this post on the Pink Panther movies today, other than that I had nothing else in the pipeline and this one, which I've been picking away at for months, w…
