Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Larry Crane (Lawrence McCrann, 1877-1950) was a close-up magician who billed himself on the vaudeville stage as “The Irish Wizard”. Born in County Rosecommon, Ireland in August o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:24AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 31, 2018
All Hail, Ted Cassidy (1932-1979)! At 6’9″ tall you bet we bow down to him, although one would hardly need to — he was 3/4 of a foot taller than me! As his fans know from h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:54PM[SHARE]Hey check it out! Michele Gouviea, chair of the West Fest Committee sat down with Joanna and Kevin’s Big Show to talk about the upcoming West Fest, our celebration organized around …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AM[SHARE]Monday, July 30, 2018
Princess Radjah (sometimes spelled Princess Rajah) was one of those rare but irreplaceable links between the sideshow midway and the big time vaudeville stage. Her real name was Rose (or Ros…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 28, 2018
Well now, sometimes I’m tardy getting to time-sensitive material but seldom this tardy! And yet, perhaps a review of 100 year old movies isn’t so time-sensitive after all. Volume…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:48PM[SHARE]Friday, July 27, 2018
Wow. It is a testament to a life well lived that when I googled Norman Lear just now to find an image for this post, all the top images are from THIS YEAR. The guy just turned 96 years old, …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 26, 2018
We’ve had occasion a few times here to refer to farcical American dramatist Charles H. Hoyt (1859-1900) so we do a post on him today, his birthday. A New Hampshire native, Hoyt attende…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 25, 2018
July 25 is the birthday Irish-American vaudeville singer Andrew Mack (William Andrew McAloon, 1863-1931). Born and raised in Boston, McAloon started out in minstrel** shows as a teenager und…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:36AM[SHARE]I’ve had occasion to refer to this chap a few times on Travalanche so now I devote an entire post to playwright/screenwriter/director/ producer William C. de Mille (1878-1955). Today t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 24, 2018
July 24 is the birthday of Lynda Carter (b. 1951), so we take the occasion to recall the role she is best (almost exclusively) known for, the title role in the TV series Wonder Woman (1975-7…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:06AM[SHARE]A tribute today to character actress Mabel Albertson (1901-1982), perhaps best known for playing Darren’s mother on Bewitched, whose visits usually culminated in the hilarious catchphr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:54AM[SHARE]Monday, July 23, 2018
August 4, 5pm: Coney Island and the Birth of Burlesque Coney Island Museum (Coney Island USA ) Talk included with Museum Admission. $5 for Adults, $3 for Seniors, Kids (under 12) and residen…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:33PM[SHARE]With very little imagination one can picture this bare-bones, but highly skilled production, touring on the back of a wagon from village to village across the Pale of Settlement. It's not po…
SOURCE: chelseanow.com at 11:57AM[SHARE]Born July 23: 19th century singer and actress Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876), first native-born star of the American stage, known for playing for a wide variety of male roles in addition to t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 22, 2018
Having done posts on several of Russ Meyer’s key stars, our mania for completion, along with genuine interest, compels this shout out to Erica Gavin (Donna Graff, b. 1947) Gavin was a …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 21, 2018
What a delight it was, and not a shock, to learn that quintessential English character actor C. Aubrey Smith (1863-1948), who appeared in such films as Rebecca (1940), Waterloo Bridge (1940)…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:33AM[SHARE]Friday, July 20, 2018
It would no doubt be difficult to convey to younger people who know Dame Diana Rigg (b. 1938) primarily or exclusively as Lady Olenna Tyrell on Game of Thrones, her power as a sex symbol fou…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 19, 2018
I have now reached a point where I have done so many articles about Yiddish theatre, and going so far back, that I can’t find ’em all to count ’em. But there’s exciti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Today is the birthday of Margaret “Maggie” or “Molly” Brown (1867-1932), a figure of legend and fact who gradually who worked her way into American mythology over the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 17, 2018
I’ve wanted to do a post here on Hubert’s Museum, the old Times Square freak show, for the longest time, having written about many people who performed there and given it a menti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Monday, July 16, 2018
This one goes out to Adam Gertsacov, a good friend to the author of this blog decades before it was even a twinkle in my eye, and the principle and only instigator of the Acme Miniature Circ…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 15, 2018
A tribute today to stage and screen actress Marjorie Rambeau (1889-1970). Rambeau was a direct descendant of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo (1611-1698), the “Father” of the short lived N…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 14, 2018
You remember MarxFest (2014), our festival celebrating the Marx Brothers. You remember Fields Fest (2016) our festival celebrating W.C. Fields. Well, as every comedy fan knows, everything go…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:24PM[SHARE]Friday, July 13, 2018
I can’t have been any older than 13 when it hit me that Hogan’s Heroes (1965-1971), which I’d been watching in reruns all my life, was some weird, fucked-up shit. A prison …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:18PM[SHARE]This one goes out to pal Lauren Milburger, co-producer and co-host of The Fordcast: A Harrison Ford Podcast and sometime contributor to Travalanche. Like most living breathing humans, I̵…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PM[SHARE]A shout-out today to vaudeville singer and actress Elsie Baker (1883-1971). An oft-quoted legend states that Baker’s first stage performance was at age 10 months, which suggests that h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 12, 2018
I’ve saved this post about the ’60s pop band The Cowsills for months so that it would publish on the birthday of its most unique member, Barbara Cowsill (1928-1985), the mother o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:04AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Proof that Mummenschanz is a tabula rasa (and that I was highly caffeinated as I wrote this): the many cosmic attributes I projected onto the mime troupe in this Chelsea Now review, which I …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Born July 10, 1925, Mildred Kornman is the little sister of Mary Kornman, one of the principal stars of Hal Roach’s Our Gang series during its silent period. Mildred appeared as a non-…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:36AM[SHARE]Monday, July 9, 2018
Lillian Shaw (ca. 1886-1978) was too important a stage star in her day to be as forgotten as she is now, even among theater buffs. As her outline emerges she seems to have had an act you mig…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 8, 2018
The Four Mortons were an Irish family act in big time vaudeville, not unlike the Four Cohans or the Three Keatons. The team consisted of the parents, Sam and Kate (“Kitty”), the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:04PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
