Sunday, February 6, 2022
In 1884, a man advertised that he would walk a tight rope suspended between the roofs of two buildings on opposite sides of the main street in Corsicana, Texas, some 20 or 30 feet in the air…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 5, 2022
Criswell predicts that not many of my compadres will be celebrating this particular day, even if they knew it was upon us. The first issue of Reader's Digest was published on February 5, 192…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Were she not untimely taken from us, ventriloquist Angela Martin (Angel Mignanelli, 1942-2004) would be turning 80 today. Martin was a child prodigy from Astoria, Queens. She was still a twe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Friday, February 4, 2022
I first became aware of Agnes "Aggie" Herring (1876-1939) from her key role in Harold Lloyd's Among Those Present (1921) as the society dame mother of the girl Harold is courting, and from s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:33PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 3, 2022
A few days ago I got a couple of related but separate news bulletins from Undercrank Productions. Their latest DVD/Blu-ray release Zander the Great (1925) dropped on Tuesday; and a day or tw…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Having long been familiar with Edmund Goulding's original 1947 Nightmare Alley, and recently read William Lindsay Gresham's original 1946 novel, my reaction to Guillermo del Toro's recent re…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]Sure, February 2 is Groundhog Day but it also happens to be National Ukulele Day, and for reasons that should be obvious, that will always take precedence where I live. I had planning on per…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:18PM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Very excited to report that Jim Moore's gorgeous new photography book Don't Miss This: A Decade of Eccentric Performing Arts Photography is now available to purchase in pre-sales! Don't Miss…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:36PM[SHARE]A few months ago, I was laid up with a bad back and you know how when you're unwell and immobile you'll watch anything, because well you HAVE to? So I found myself watching Atlantis: The Los…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AM[SHARE]Monday, January 31, 2022
"Chief" Willie Bowlegs (1896-1964) was a sword swallower, alligator wrestler, knife thrower and juggler from the Everglades of Florida. A full-blooded Seminole, he was named in apparent homa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 30, 2022
I first became aware of David Wayne (Wayne James McMeekan, 1914-95) from his role as Jim Hutton's dad on the very fun mystery series Ellery Queen (1975-76). Over the years I caught him in do…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 29, 2022
Say hello to the 1,702nd vaudeville performer we have written about on Travalanche. Toby Claude (Harriette Mary Kavanaugh, 1877-1962) was the Dublin-born daughter of English burlesque perfor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Friday, January 28, 2022
In the mid '80s, I was briefly diverted by the charmless charms of a low-budget independent horror movie called Mother's Day (1980). I am not ordinarily a fan of graphic horror, nor was I th…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:07PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 27, 2022
It's always amused me that though Howard McNear (1905-1969) was a key member of the ensemble on The Andy Griffin Show from 1961 to 1967 he did not play Howard. That was Jack Dodson. McNear w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 26, 2022
The first William Redfield (1927-1976) performances I ever saw were among his last (and I figure my experience is not unusual). He was the persnickety "Harding" in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Fragments this morning on a vaudeville couple. I'm uncertain how I became aware of them " most likely from movie comedies in which they played supporting parts. May Milloy (1875-1967) was fr…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:06PM[SHARE]Monday, January 24, 2022
I don't write today to celebrate the person in the title of this post per se. Ray Stevens (b. 1939) left the American mainstream 40 years ago and for at least half that time he has devoted h…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, January 23, 2022
A few words today in celebration of the great instrumentalist Django Reinhardt (Jean Reinhardt, 1910-1953). Not only has the word "legend" been overused in show business, so has the phrase "…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]January 23 is National Pie Day, and so I thought I would, rather grudgingly, address a topic that may be of some interest to some classic comedy fans, and one I have sort of danced around in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PM[SHARE]Saturday, January 22, 2022
I have no recollection of how I first learned of the existence of the fascinating Burtis "Bert" Valjien Brookhart (1881-1942) but not only do I have no regrets, I find myself more interested…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:33PM[SHARE]Friday, January 21, 2022
Well, that inappropriately hilarious headline had to happen sometime, and if it sounds like Hazel burnt the dinner, the fault lies with the high school football coach of Dallas native Marvin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:03AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 20, 2022
We were delighted to learn this morning that beloved Scottish character actor Finlay Currie (1878-1969) had a vaudeville and music hall background. Currie occupied a wonderful casting niche,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Here's a poser for all you aesthetically philosophical journalists out there: which photo of Cindy Sherman does one use to go with the story? There are thousands, all different. I chose the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PM[SHARE]I undoubtedly first became aware of Lancelot "Lanny" Ross (1906-1988) by way of his film work, which is an irony, because there is so little of it. Ross's fame was chiefly on radio and recor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 18, 2022
On our first date my wife and I talked of many things: "of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings" doesn't begin to cover it. And of the thousand things we discovered w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54PM[SHARE]It's been 10 years since my original, rather cursory post on Danny Kaye. This year I thought I would mark the occasion of his birthday with a look at his major film and TV work in a little m…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:48PM[SHARE]Monday, January 17, 2022
Like many lovers of classic comedy and other vintage Hollywood movies I had no doubt seen Jack "Tiny" Lipson (1901-1947) dozens of times, but his sight-gag walk-ons were too brief for me to …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54PM[SHARE]Coincidentally, today is the centennial birthday of Sally Demay (born 1922), born the very same day as Betty White. I first became aware of her from Marcia Keegan's terrific, quirky 1975 boo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54PM[SHARE]James Earl Jones (b.1931) turns 91 today. I was half-tempted to backdate this post for last year, when Jones reached a much rounder age, but this year his birthday falls on Martin Luther Kin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PM[SHARE]Well, Betty White (1922-2022) passed away just 2.5 weeks shy of her centennial birthday, but "close enough", say I. To paraphrase Hamlet, let the funeral cake coldly furnish the birthday par…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 16, 2022
The title of this piece refers to the fact that another female star of B movies whom we've written about, Carol Hughes, also sometimes went by the name of Kay Hughes. Meanwhile, the one in q…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
