Friday, October 26, 2018
Having written about Gavin MacLeod (Captain Stubing) and Bernie Kopell (Doc) as well as executive producer Aaron Spelling, and scores of the actors who guest starred on the show, today we se…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 24, 2018
We don’t know if the Halloween-season timing of Jody Christopherson’s presentation of her spooky solo work St. Kilda at Torn Page the other night was by design, but it sure was p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:32PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 23, 2018
It’s Gummo Marx’s birthday today (and also that of the Marx Brothers’ father Frenchie) and that seems a MOST apt occasion on which to plug The Marx Brothers Council Podcast…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:18PM[SHARE]Monday, October 22, 2018
With Halloween near upon us today we take a look at a minor but powerful horror subgenre, that of the wax museum based murdering madman. At least since Pygmalion and Galatea, storytellers an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Though I like him a great deal, as with Jerry Orbach, whom we profiled here a few days ago, I’m not sure I’d be doing a tribute to stage and screen actor Tony Roberts (b. 1939) i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:36AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 21, 2018
Stan and Ollie is due to have its world premiere tonight at the BFI Film Festival. To mark the occasion, we contribute this post on the first leg of their career as a comedy team — the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:04PM[SHARE]Saturday, October 20, 2018
When Jerry Orbach (1935-2004) started attaining new heights of prominence in the late 1980s/ early 1990s, I found it hard to reconcile the guy I saw (a sort of thuggish, streetwise New York …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06AM[SHARE]Friday, October 19, 2018
The late Robert Reed (John Robert Rietz, Jr, 1932-1992) was born on this day. A trained Shakespearean actor who’d studied at RADA and was a member of the Actor’s Studio, with man…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 18, 2018
We choose Pam Dawber’s birthday for a Mork and Mindy post because we already wrote about Robin Williams on the occasion of his sad passing. In the ’70s, pretty, nice, bland ̶…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PM[SHARE]An appreciation today for histrionic Hollywood hotsy-totsy Miriam Hopkins (Ellen Miriam Hopkins, 1902-1972). Don’t read too much into that description, I just like alliteration. On the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]The name of New York born playwright Sidney Kingsley (Sidney Kirschner, 1902-1995) is no longer a household word, if it ever was one, bit it ought to be. Kingsley invented not one but at …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 17, 2018
How appropriate that magician and spook show innovator El-Wyn (Elwin Charles Peck, 1902-1956) was born during the Halloween season. We have already written about guys like Dr. Silkini and Bi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 16, 2018
The Conners, i.e., the Roseanneless Roseanne, premiers on ABC tonight. It seems a savvy and even a just move, and even a fitting punishment for the banished one herself, given that the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Monday, October 15, 2018
Linda Lavin (whose birthday is today) was a Broadway star both before and after her famous sitcom Alice (1976-1985)…AND Ellen Burstyn also played the main character…so our title …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:32PM[SHARE]I don’t normally throw a big party on Penny Marshall’s birthday but it seemed a good occasion to do a post on Laverne and Shirley (1976-1983). I was a big fan of this sitcom duri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]There’s too much to tell about P.G. Wodehouse (Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 1881-1975), whose birthday it is today, to be in any way comprehensive…but I thought I would draw a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]I’ve long wanted to do a post on character actor Fritz Feld (Fritz Feilchenfeld 1900-1993) and am so glad I have the opportunity to squeeze it in today. Feld was mostly a bit player, b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Denman Thompson (Henry Denman Thompson, 1833-1911) was a 19th century theatrical figure whose career took him nearly to the edge of the modern era (cinema), making him a tantalizing connecti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 14, 2018
Sam Rice (George O’Hanlon, 1874-1946) was not the only guy to use the handle “King of Burlesque” but his choice to do so revealed a becoming Moxie. Rice produced full on bu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Saturday, October 13, 2018
Rounding out the final day of this year’s Fire Prevention Week, we thought we’d take a look at five major blazes that afflicted P.T. Barnum over his long career as an impresario.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AM[SHARE]Friday, October 12, 2018
The great Polish-American actress Helena Modjeska (Jadwiga Benda,1840-1909) was born on this day. Born in Krakow, there is murkiness in Modjeska’s early background, especially with reg…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:04AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 11, 2018
“Good things cometh to he who waiteth as long as he hustleth while he waiteth.” — P.G.; Lowery African American bandmaster,musician and impresario Perry G. Lowery (1869-194…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Confession: I never understood what all the fuss was about Helen Hayes (1900-1993). But then again I only ever saw her on film and television, never in the theatre where her reputation for g…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:48PM[SHARE]Big doings at one of my favorite NYC theatre companies, the Irish Repertory Theatre lately. I’ve loved everything I’ve ever seen at that theatre. More importantly (and this can&#…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:36PM[SHARE]Child star (then former child star) Johnny Downs (1913-1994) had a truly interesting if minor career on stage and screen, one that was ironically much better than those of better known colle…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Thank you, Great Neck Record, for this terrific article on your new adopted son:Â http://greatneckrecord.com/local-historian-brings-vaudeville-to-life/ As I wrote here when we moved here s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]The name “Bostock” is one that turns up often in show business annals in the context of menageries of trained animals. For Americans, the crucial figure is Frank Charles Bostock …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AM[SHARE]Monday, October 8, 2018
I was going to post this short listicle during November, Native American Heritage Month, but realized this morning that since it’s REALLY about Italians, and this is Columbus Day, and …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PM[SHARE]Just a few words of tribute to honor the late Scott Wilson, who passed away from leukemia this past weekend at age 76. I was a big fan of his quiet understated acting. He was one of those ch…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 7, 2018
Fire Prevention Week begins today. Any study of history is to become aware of the frequency and the severity of fires in human existence prior to modern regulations and fire prevention metho…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 4, 2018
Today is Buster Keaton’s birthday. See my biographical article on the great silent comedian’s early years here and the Buster Keaton section of Travalanche, containing c…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
