11,829 stories from Trav S.D.
Forgive an old soldier, won't ye? I just passed a milestone birthday two days ago, one so significant and potentially traumatic that I'm on day ten of self-coddling. This impending series of…
Today (November 9) is the closing day of Asheville's centennial celebration of a seminal series of recording sessions that took place in that city during August 1925, which featured such pio…
Today's new Travalanche posts for November 9, 2025 are about Earlier Travalanche posts for November 9 (in no particular order) include ones on the Gentry Brothers Circus and some seminal 192…
November 9 was the natal day of circus impresario Henry B. Gentry (1864-1940). Gentry was a farm boy who lived with his large family on a spread outside Bloomington, Indiana. When the Van Am…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 8, 2025 is about British actress Angela Scoular. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 8 (in no particular order) include ones on: Some Famous and …
Angela Scoular (1945-2011) turned 20 the day I was born; it's hard not to feel a bond with someone when there's a correspondence like that. As it turns out, that period was to be the peak of…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 7, 2025 is about Joni Mitchell and a can of worms she opened. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 7 (in no particular order) include ones on: It'…
Joni Mitchell (b. 1943) was born on November 7. Unlike some of my friends (all of them singers, and all of them female) I know very little of Joni Mitchell's music apart from her hit singles…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 6, 2025 is about rock musician, movie actor, and murderer Bobby Beausoleil. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 6 (in no particular order) includ…
November 6 is the birthday of murderous Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil (b. 1947). I'm not here to celebrate the man's life, by any means, but I just wanted to point out some areas whe…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 5, 2025 is about silent movie child star Baby Marie. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 5 (in no particular order) include ones on: Hats Off wit…
Thus far we have told you of Baby Peggy, Baby Leroy, and even Baby Rose Marie on this all-encompassing universal Ur blog! Today we tell a tale of yet ANOTHER baby! Can there be more babies? …
Today's new Travalanche post for November 4, 2025 is about Ralph Spence (The Gorilla). Earlier Travalanche posts for November 4 (in no particular order) include ones on: Will Rogers Joe Fris…
Little is known about the origins of Ralph Spence (1890-1949), but by the mid '20s he had earned a reputation as Hollywood's most highly paid and best known title writer, and was highly valu…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 3, 2025 is about the life and death of Hungarian Jewish silent comedian Charles Puffy. Earlier Travalanche posts for November 3 (in no particular or…
I first learned about plus sized silent comedian Charles Puffy (Károly Hochstein, 1883-ca. 1943) from Ben Model's excellent book The Silent Film Universe earlier this year. He also wrote …
Today's new Travalanche post for November 2, 2025 is an All Souls' Day message. For real! Earlier Travalanche posts for November 2 (in no particular order) include ones on: Burt Lancaster Bu…
November 2 is, for some of us, All Souls' Day, the day when we remember the Departed, which is to resurrect them, so to speak. Confusingly, it's the third day of Allhallowtide, with All Sain…
Today's new Travalanche post for November 1, 2025 is about about barnstorming Shakespearean Daniel Bandmann. On this day 100 years ago, three significant things happened: 1) Buster Keaton's …
We had occasion to mention 19th century actor Daniel Bandmann (1837-1905) the other day. As it happens, November 1 was his birthday. A German Jew from the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Bandmann firs…
Brian Doyle-Murray (b. 1945) turns 80 today. I always find it amusing when someone who has seemed old and crusty and cantankerous for many decades reaches such a benchmark, because what's th…
Ah, Worlds within Within Worlds Within War of the Worlds! As it happens, 50 years ago was the broadcast premier of the TV movie The Night That Panicked America (1975)…whereas the actual "n…
Happy Halloween! Today's new Travalanche posts for October 31, 2025 are about Brian Doyle-Murray, John Keats, a new documentary about John Candy, the 1975 TV movie The Night That Panicked Am…
John Keats (1795-1821) had a lot of nerve being born on Halloween when it was Byron and Shelley who were were at that Frankenstein party, but on the other hand he was obsessed with death, an…
How fitting for a man named Candy to have been born on Halloween, eh? My original post on John Candy (1950-1994) was written a dozen years ago, and now it's over three decades since he left …
