12,210 stories from Trav S.D.
Today is the birthday of ubiquitous Hollywood character actor Percy Helton (Percy Alfred Michel, 1894-1971). We’ll get get into his movies anon, but few people probably know how cha…
Filed under: CULTURE & POLITICS Tagged: New York, Rally Against Hate, Tompkins Square Park
I found everything to love about the Grey Art Gallery’s current exhibition Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City 1952-1965. It’s not the world’s most…
Today is the birthday of Elise Cavanna (Elise Seeds, 1902-1963). Originally from Philadelphia, Cavanna took art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy before studying dance with Isadora Duncan.…
Thousands gathered at Battery Park today to protest Trump’s Muslim Ban — a location obviously chosen for its symbolic value, across the harbor from the Statue of Liberty and Elli…
Filed under: PLUGS, Radio (Old Time Radio) Tagged: Fireside Mystery Theatre, podcast, radio drama, Slipper Room, Snowbound in Sunken Harbor
Today is the birthday of one of America’s greatest stage and screen artists, W.C. Fields. Thus far, we have published over 130 articles about Fields on Travalanche. To read them go …
This new series of posts came out of the realization that I have relatives and roots in all 50 U.S. states. My ancestors lived in 14 of them (all on the eastern seaboard or adjacent), and I …
My first ever two-protest day, and my first 4 protest week, though that’s not as remarkable as it sounds. The Cheeto-in-Chief is working havoc on a thousand fronts, and both of today&#…
“Watch what we do” was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s boast in response to the public’s fears about the installation of America’s new fascist President …
This Sunday (January 29) at 11am,  Film Forum will be screening that purported classic Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). The title of the film in some ways prom…
Filed under: Comedy, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS, Stand Up
I have been remiss in not informing you about a project I think my readers will find very important. My friend Kevin Fitzpatrick, founder of Marxfest and the Dorothy Parker Society, has star…
We would certainly be remiss if we didn’t lay down a few words in honor of the late Mary Tyler Moore. As I tweeted yesterday, she influenced many of us not just as a comedienne but as …
Today is the birthday of Geoffrey Kerr (1895-1971). Kerr was the son of character actor Frederick Kerr, best known perhaps today for playing Frankenstein’s father in the 1931 film. …
Filed under: Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Cardone, Church of Satan, Nude Witch Revue, Slipper Room
Trump’s Executive Orders authorizing a travel ban on Muslims from certain countries and initiating the building of the wall on the Mexican border, prompted an emergency rally at Washin…
This new series of posts came out of the realization that I have relatives and roots in all 50 U.S. states. My ancestors lived in 14 of them (all on the eastern seaboard or adjacent), and I …
Filed under: Comedy, Italian, PLUGS, Women Tagged: Cutting Room, Danny Aiello, The Italian Chicks
Today is the birthday of Mary Mulhern (1908-1925). Originally from Newark, NJ, Mulhern was the daughter of Irish immigrants, her father a traveling salesman. When she was only 17 years ol…
Originally posted on Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations (and more): Looking south, the recently demolished Vitaphone Studios (yellow outline) in relation to many of Roscoe’s filming s…
My experience of the Women’s March in NYC was both unremarkable (i.e., “not unique to me”) and completely remarkable (i.e., “I’ve never experienced anything lik…
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of one of Charlie Chaplin’s best known and best loved comedy shorts Easy Street (1917). Easy Street was made and released at…
Today is the birthday of Samuel Spencer “Samri” Baldwin (1848-1924) . Originally from Cincinnati, Baldwin became inspired to become a magician by studying the Davenport Brothers,…
Travalanche was dark yesterday in observance of the National Tragedy. Rather than rubberneck at the slow motion car wreck in Washington we opted to go to our nearby Brooklyn Museum, where th…
