Monday, March 10, 2025
Had she lived a bit longer, Luba Lisa (Luba Lisa Gootnick, 1941-1972) would almost certainly be well known and associated with the other show bizzy chicks of her generation: Barbra Streisand…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Actor Stuart Holmes (Joseph Liebschen, 1884-1971) may have appeared in as many as 600 movies from the years 1909 through 1964. Throughout his career he was mostly a supporting player, often …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 9, 2025
This one goes out to all W.C. Fields fans, silent movie fans, circus fans, and fans of the Borough of Queens and its history! I sure hope that covers everyone! My old friends at the Greater …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 8, 2025
First off, that's not a typo: Sue Ane Langdon (b. 1936) spells the second part of her first name with a single "n" " as in "Nything to stand out in show business." In her heyday, she was mos…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]March 8 was the birthday of stage and screen performer Ada May (Ada May Weeks, 1896-1978.) She was the most successful of four performing sisters from Oyster Bay, Long Island named Weeks. Of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Friday, March 7, 2025
I had been creating Travalanche for many years before I began taking note of centennials and other major anniversary benchmarks here (I think 500 may be the oldest I've observed). I didn't b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 6, 2025
This is a mind blower of a story; I'm astounded that it's not more widely known. I wasn't aware of it myself until I sat down to write this post. And for once I won't bury the lede: Gus Mein…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 5, 2025
The Happiest of birthdays to Penn Jillette (b. 1955) who enters his seventh decade today. My previous Penn and Teller post was published on Teller's birthday, because he was the one I got to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]I first encountered Gladys Leslie (Gladys Leslie Moore, 1899-1976) as Houdini's leading lady in Haldane of the Secret Service (1923). Though she was a star in her own day, Haldane was to be …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AM[SHARE]March 5 is the birthday of lady magician Suzy Wandas (Jeanne Van Dyke, 1896-1986). Suzy was a second generation conjurer, born and raised in Belgium to a husband-wife variety team. Her initi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 4, 2025
I first learned about mentalist Washington Irving Bishop (1855-1889) many decades ago from Ricky Jay's indispensable Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Born in New York City (plainly to fans …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:03AM[SHARE]Monday, March 3, 2025
On the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special the other night, one participant you might not have noticed (for he was seated in the audience, and at 5'2″ is easy to miss) was for…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 2, 2025
Believe it or not I actually know where I was " not because it was a major trauma for me, but because it was when I first took note of the name in the first place. Cookie Mueller (Dorothy Ka…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PM[SHARE]Today marks the 125th anniversary of the birth Kurt Weill (1900-1950). (I sure love his music, but pictures of him always make me think he would have been good in the lead role in M. This wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]Saturday, March 1, 2025
March 1, 1925 was the release date of the silent comedy/adventure Too Many Kisses, which contains the earliest extant footage of a Marx Brother prior to the release of The Coc…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PM[SHARE]Born 100 years ago today, the man who brought the Beats together Lucien Carr (1925-2005). (Confusingly, this important figure has nothing to do with either Lucien Truscott IV or C. Carr, who…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Friday, February 28, 2025
We love to share the lives of remarkable people here on Travalanche " on rare occasion they're still alive! So it is with Diane Kiesel, a New York Supreme Court Justice for almost 20 years, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 27, 2025
Marian Anderson (1897-1993) retired the year I was born (1965) but she continued to be widely revered as an American institution long afterward. Anderson reigned as something like America's …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AM[SHARE]We wake to the sad news of Gene Hackman's passing, along with wife Betsy Arakawa, and their dog. All sources are vague about the manner of death. The police say they don't suspect foul play,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Great fun at the Zeppo Marx birthday at the Algonquin Hotel last night, sponsored by the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, all in celebration of Robert Bader's new biography Zeppo: The Reluctant Mar…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PM[SHARE]For the Great One's birthday, a navigational aid to our many posts about, or relevant to, the comedian. Some additional posts, about particular films that Gleason appeared in, are planned. O…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Well, now! This isn't the post I was expecting to write about Carrot Top (Scott Thompson, b. 1965) at all. To be honest, until recently I'd really only known about Carrot Top second hand, mo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PM[SHARE]It's been so long (over four years) since I'd posted in the "Forgotten Shows of My Nonage" section of Travalanche that I'd almost forgotten that it existed. In fact, I may have forgotten " I…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]Born 100 years ago today, character actor Bert Remsen (Herbert Remsen, 1925-1999). Like many, I became aware of Remsen as a devotee of Robert Altman; he was a key member of Altman's cinemati…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AM[SHARE]Monday, February 24, 2025
Though he directed nearly 200 movies, some of them enduringly famous, we have had but one occasion to mention director Richard Thorpe (1896-1991) thus far on Travalanche. He was the second d…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 23, 2025
"I dig my father. I wish he could open his eyes and dig me." " Peter Fonda (1940-2019). It seems significant that Peter Fonda came into the world at around the same time audiences were watch…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]February 23, 1965 was the day on which Stan Laurel (Stanley Jefferson, b. 1890), best known as one half of the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy, made his way toward the Pearly Gates. In a way…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 22, 2025
Thanks Eve Golden, Daughter of Three Gods (Hermes, Aphrodite, and Thanatos) for relating the sad news of the passing Lynne Marie Stewart (1946-2025), best known as Miss Yvonne (The Most Beau…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PM[SHARE]World Sword Swallowers Day happens every year for the last Saturday in February. It falls a little early this year. We hope you will use the opportunity to peruse the Travalanche Sword Swall…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PM[SHARE]Born 100 years ago today: illustrator, author, designer Edward Gorey (1925-2000). While primarily celebrated for his book illustrations, Gorey did cross over into stage and screen success br…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AM[SHARE]Friday, February 21, 2025
Born 100 years ago today, Hollywood's original poet of violence, Sam Peckinpah (1922-1984). I reckon it was always forgone that Peckinpah would not live to see this day. The man consumed vas…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
