Friday, March 25, 2022
It is with a good deal of hometown pride today that I celebrate the career of pianist, bandleader, and composer Frankie Carle (Francis Nunzio Carlone, 1903-2001). The son of a Providence fac…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:33AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 24, 2022
Louie Anderson (1953-2022) passed away two months ago, in a crazy cluster of celebrity deaths that included Peter Bogdanovich, Betty White, Meat Loaf, and Bob Saget. On January 21, when Ande…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PM[SHARE]Few in show business have had as great an impact in their particular discipline as Gorgeous George Wagner (1915-1963). In the case of George one can use the word "legend" without hyperbole. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 23, 2022
RIP Madeleine Albright. I hope Ian W. Hill doesn't mind my sharing this image from his Flickr page. It's the Former and First Female U.S. Secretary of State at my old haunt The Brick Theater…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:18PM[SHARE]Sad am I that I was only a toddler when The Pickle Brothers had their big moment; sadder still that the moment didn't last longer. The trio consisted of three Hofstra theatre alum Michael Mi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PM[SHARE]I'm so thrilled to announce that I am among the Little Engines That Could whom Ayun Halliday interviewed for her great new book Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto, from Microco…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PM[SHARE]Baby Boomers will certainly have a very different perspective than I do on character actor Louis Quinn (Louis Frakt, 1915-1988). They're going to remember him from particular roles " one, in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:33AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Happy International Day of the Seal! And yes I know that seals and sea lions are different species, but it does seem like just the right time to plug Gary Bohan's new book Sharkey: When Sea …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:37PM[SHARE]She's scarcely in three dozen films, is Derelys Perdue (Geraldine Perdue, 1902-1989), and half of those are comedies in a single series of comedy shorts based on a comic strip, The Newlyweds…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Monday, March 21, 2022
We take the occasion of Florenz Ziegfeld's birthday to fill out his footprint on Travalanche a little further. Our main post on him, adapted from my long-ago talk to the Ziegfeld Club, ends …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:42PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 20, 2022
One week following William Hurt's death, is the title of this post "too soon"? Given the many charges of violence against women (several of them) over the decades which taint his dossier, we…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]Saturday, March 19, 2022
Ah the old time show biz Alices! So far, we've done Alice Howell, Alice Lake, Alice Day, Alice Faye, Alice White, Alice Brady, Alice Davenport, Alice Joyce, Alice Lloyd, Alice Cooke, and Ali…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:06PM[SHARE]The title of this post refers less to our six fortunate decades in the presence of one of the 20th century's greatest recording artists than to the man's eponymous debut album, released this…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AM[SHARE]Friday, March 18, 2022
Carl Gottlieb (b. 1938) has been at the hub of American show business for over half a century and its hard to find a decent vintage photo of him online! This is because, though he sometimes …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 17, 2022
My entry point for today's excursion was silent screen actress Ella Hall (1896-1981), born on this day. But she proved to be a human hub at the center of a family of other performers, now al…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Yes, THAT Pat Nixon (1912-1993), First Lady of the United States (1969-1974), and hopefully the title of this post will attract as many people as it repels, if no other reason than to find o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]Given that nowadays one of her best known roles is as the voice of the demon in The Exorcist (1973), it is with perfect logic that we learn that Mercedes McCambridge (1916-2004) started out …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 15, 2022
We just got the bad but somewhat expected news that beloved vocal teacher Barbara Maier Gustern has passed away from her injuries sustained from an unprovoked attack a few days ago. "Unprovo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:33PM[SHARE]Though he was one of the top Hollywood movie stars of the late teens and most of the 1920s, multiple factors have served to obscure the memory of Charles Ray (1891-1943). Nowadays, there's h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM[SHARE]Monday, March 14, 2022
Okay, this literally just happened five minutes ago: I was eulogizing Conrad Janis, noticed that he was in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and remembered that I'd been meaning to do a post on Bill…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:06PM[SHARE]I'm sure I'll be roundly ridiculed for this, but while the rest of the blogosphere has been mourning the untimely passing of William Hurt since last night, I am going to have to take the Roa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]A few words this morning on German-American bandmaster and composer Theodore "Theo" Metz (1848-1936). Born the same year as Europe's multiple "Revolutions of 1848", Metz became one of thousa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 13, 2022
Classic film fans know well the work of Henry Hathaway (1898-1985), especially later triumphs like the original True Grit (1969), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), How the West Was Won (1962, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:07AM[SHARE]Friday, March 11, 2022
Young singer/pianist Estrild Raymona Myers (1909-1972) performed under the single name "Ramona", much like the incomparable Hildegard, and "Jerry" (she of the Baby Grands). In her day, it wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 10, 2022
We just learned of the passing of designer and director Tony Walton (1934-2022). I once had the honor of talking to him for about an hour at a party, although I rather stupidly didn't know i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PM[SHARE]Like millions around the world, I can't help obsessing about the conflict in Ukraine (I was about to characterize it as "one-sided" but, no, the Ukrainians, from uniformed soldiers to old la…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Playwright Kenneth H. Brown (1936-2022) passed away a month ago, but as with my recent Howard Hesseman post, I thought I'd save an obit for his impending D.O.B, which is today. And another t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24PM[SHARE]Haha, THAT title got your attention! With this post, I believe we complete the Holy Trinity of Jewish comedy Marties, joining Marty Allen and Marty Feldman. No less of a kooky character than…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 8, 2022
I am proud and relieved to report that, as it turns out, my lifelong record of never having seen Cirque du Soleil remains unbroken. (Curious about why? Looka here). I was offered a chance to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:18PM[SHARE]This past weekend we had the distinct privilege of obtaining a much clarified picture of an American institution we had long known and written about and occasionally experienced: the small t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:04PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 6, 2022
A hard-working sword swallower was born in Russia on this day in 1881. He had more professional names than a check kiter and I've no idea which came first, although over his half century car…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:06AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
