Sunday, July 5, 2026
Born 100 years ago today: actress, child star, and concert pianist Diana Lynn (Dolores Loehr, 1926-1971). Classic comedy fans are apt to know Lynn from three movies with Dean Martin and Jerr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:50AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 4, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 4, 2026 is about…July 4, 1776. Happy 250th, birthday, America! For lots of relevant reading, see: My Finding Aid to Posts Related to the American R…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:15AM[SHARE]Well today is the big day. I last experienced something similar 50 years ago at the Bicentennial, a tortured time no less than our own which I wrote about here. I’ll be watching the Tall S…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:05AM[SHARE]Friday, July 3, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 3, 2026 is about the 1996 film Independence Day. Earlier Travalanche posts for July 3 (in no particular order) include ones on: Castle Garden Leon Er…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:05PM[SHARE]Continuing our theme from yesterday…. Released nationwide 30 years ago today (July 3, 1996), Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day. How fortuitously timed, right there in the perineum betwi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:35AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 2, 2026
I seldom venture into first-run cinemas any more these days, but this one was my Father’s Day present, which I very much appreciated! I was especially keen to see the film on account of my…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:25PM[SHARE]Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 2, 2026 are reviews of Larry David’s new history-themed sketch comedy series, and Steven Spielberg’s latest movie Disclosure Day. Earlier Travala…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:25PM[SHARE]Sorry to do this to you on your birthday, Larry David, but this new show just dropped, and episode two premieres tomorrow, plus the show is advertised as being linked to the 250th birthday o…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:10PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 1, 2026 are about kids of Edie Adams, and playwright Susan-Glaspell. Also, July is International Zine Month. July 1 is Canada Day. For which this pos…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:40PM[SHARE]Born 150 years ago today: Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, author, journalist, and Provincetown Playhouse co-founder Susan Glaspell (1876-1948). Today, Glaspell is most widely known as the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:35PM[SHARE]Here’s news related to yesterday’s post on It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Betty Kovacs (1947-2026), daughter of Ernie Kovacs and adopted daughter of Edie Adams, died of pancreatic ca…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 30, 2026 are about a new book on It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Walter Stanton, vaudeville’s “Giant Rooster” and his performing family.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:45PM[SHARE]June 30 was the birthday of animal impersonator Walter Stanton (Walter Stanton Burch, 1855-1943), who performed in the guise of various barnyard critters, roosters a specialty, in music hall…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:20AM[SHARE]I rarely cop to wishing I’d written someone else’s book, or a book on “that” topic, but this is one of those occasions. In fact, I have been kidded that, at 12,000 words, my post on …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:15AM[SHARE]Monday, June 29, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 29, 2026 are about B movie star Dorothy Short and vaudeville dancer Lucille Page. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 29 (in no particular order) incl…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:45PM[SHARE]We’ve only some scraps on dancer and actress Lucille Page (Lucille Berdell, 1913-1995), but on the other hand, it’s the most complete and accurate article about her on the internet. Orig…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:40AM[SHARE]Adorable, right? She reminds me a little of the young Lillian Roth in this photo. It’s Dorothy Short (1915-1963), best known today as the innocent damsel at the center of the exploitation …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:35AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 28, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 28, 2026 are about Mel Brooks (100 years old today!) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Also today being the day of New York’s Pride Parade, we share again…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:25PM[SHARE]June 28th was the birthday of the great Enlightenment polymath Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Ostensibly this is a blog concentrated on topics related to theater and show business — an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:15PM[SHARE]Happy 100th birthday to Mel Brooks (b. 1926) ! (New Yorkers, if you have the wherewithal, join Dick Zigun, Permanent Unelected Mayor of Coney Island, at the Parachute Jump today July 28, 202…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:55AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 27, 2026
You’ve had a couple of weeks to recover from the most recent Tony Awards ceremony, but the subject is not exhausted. June 27 happens to be the birthday of the woman for whom it is named, B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:10AM[SHARE]Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 27, 2026 are about Antoinette “Tony” Perry, Audrey Christie, and Richard Dmitri. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 27 (in no particular order) i…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:10AM[SHARE]Here’s an acorn off of my recent post on the Tracy-Hepburn film Keeper of the Flame (1942). As expressed in that piece, I enjoyed many elements of that movie. One of them in particular was…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:05AM[SHARE]Richard Dimitri (1942-2025) passed away six months ago. Dmitri had been retired from show business for over a quarter of a century at the time, but the name sounded familiar, so I looked him…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:00AM[SHARE]Friday, June 26, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 26, 2026 are about the Ross Sisters and Zion Meyers. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 26 (in no particular order) include ones on: The Gold Rush (C…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:40PM[SHARE]Born of a June 26, movie director, writer and producer Zion Myers (1898-1948). He was the brother of movie star Carmel Myers, and the son of a rabbi. How ironic that a man so named died thre…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AM[SHARE]Thanks Eve Golden for tipping me off to the existence of the Ross Sisters, a superhuman sister act that incorporated three part harmony, dance, acrobatics, and show-stopping contortionism. T…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:30AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 25, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche post for June 25, 2026 is about the Ahern Sisters. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 25 (in no particular order) include ones on: Charlotte Greenwood Arthur Tracy …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:00PM[SHARE]Today we point our spotlight at a pair of sisters who began as child stars during the silent era, and kept the plates spinning as long as they could: Peggy Ahern (1917-2012) and Lassie Lou A…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:55AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 24, 2026 are about actress Leigh Snowden, and my late, great, epically loveable friend Ken Simon. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 24 (in no partic…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:55PM[SHARE]I got some terrible news yesterday, and I still don’t have all of it. My friend Ken Simon died on Monday. We’ve been informed rather cryptically that he “fell from a height” and that…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:45PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
