Henry and Dolly Kramer and Their Big Little Troupes of Little People by Trav S.D.

When working on Rose's Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville I came within a whisker of including mention of a couple of troupes for whom I'd seen lots of pictorial references.…

Montague Glass and the "Potash and Perlmutter" Phenomenon by Trav S.D.

I'm pretty certain I have never heard a better named for a British-born Jewish guy than Montague Glass (1877-1934). Glass was the son of an English linen merchant; the family moved to New Yo…

A Tip of the Topper to Big Tim Sullivan by Trav S.D.

Just a few words of acknowledgement for a character we New York City vaudeville fans are especially fond of, Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan (1862-1913). The son of Irish immigrants, Sullivan gre…

Florence Vidor: From Houston to Heifetz by Trav S.D.

Actress Florence Vidor (Florence Cobb, 1895-1977) was a player in the movie game a scant decade and a half, though that was longer than the marriage to the man whose name she bore, film dire…

Phillips Holmes: An American Tragedy by Trav S.D.

The actor Phillips Holmes (1907-1942), both of whose names are so infuriating in the possessive case, came by them honesly, being as he was the son of the actors Edna Phillips and Taylor Hol…

A Headshot of Henrietta Moritz by Trav S.D.

Ordinarily, little people are photographed from head to toe so you can get the full effect of their remarkable size. But I kind of love this framing of the likeness of Berlin-born Henrietta …

The Life and Death of Natalie Wood by Trav S.D.

The career of Natalie Wood (Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, 1938-1981) may be divided into four phases: childhood (1943-1955), which includes such films as The Moon is Down (1943), Tomorrow i…

Fleischer Studios: Out of the Inkwell and Up, Up, and Away by Trav S.D.

It's a surety I have nothing to teach classic animation nerds about the art and story of Fleischer Studios (1921-1942). But I've mentioned that outfit on Travalanche on many occasions and I …

Richard Dix: Of Westerns and "The Whistler" by Trav S.D.

Most people who know the name Richard Dix (Ernst Brimmer, 1893-1949) today probably know it from a single quip spoken by David Huddleston in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Dix was indeed assoc…

The Sid Gould Salute by Trav S.D.

I was reminded of the existence of Sid Gould (Sydney Greenfader, 1912-1996) during our recent Covid quarantine binging of The Love Boat. He had a recurring role as a waiter on about a half d…

On Four Funny Fred Sullivans by Trav S.D.

I knew a Fred Sullivan years ago; he's a longtime (decades long) company member of Trinity Rep in Providence, where I studied, as well as Boston's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. (I am del…

Acquanetta: The Venezuelan Volcano by Trav S.D.

O, if only Acquanetta (1921-2004) had been in vaudeville or burlesque. She had that genius for hype and camp and self-creation. Her real name seems to have been Mildred Davenport but everyth…

Erle Stanley Gardner and the Many Cases of Perry Mason by Trav S.D.

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) was one productive S.O.B. Originally a practicing lawyer, he went on to write hundreds of legal dramas and mystery novels and short stories, as well as trave…

Stanley Clements: From Bowes to the Bowery by Trav S.D.

Stanley Clements (Stanislaw Klimowicz, 1926-1981) is best known to classic comedy fans as "Stash" and "Duke" from the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys franchises, but he's one of the few of th…

Enter "A Coney Island State of Mind" " thru Aug. 26 by Trav S.D.

Belated Rest in Peace to Don B. Wilmeth by Trav S.D.

We have our finger in many pies here at Travalanche so sometimes we miss major news (e.g. departures from the mortal plane) by people we care about. Thus it is with Don B. Wilmeth, whom we j…

George Tobias: From Broadway to "Bewitched" by Trav S.D.

Today a salute to George Tobias (1901-1980) best remembered for his role as Abner Kravitz, long-suffering neighbor of the Stevens family on the TV sitcom Bewitched (1964-1971). Kravitz was s…

Vera Ralston: Skated Through Life by Trav S.D.

Today, a smattering of applause for classic cinema's second favorite ice skating movie star, Vera Ralston (VÄ›ra Helena Hrubá, ca. 1920-2003) The first is of course Sonja Henie. So don…

This was Sidney Blackmer by Trav S.D.

Most of us remember Sidney Blackmer (1895-1973) as Roman Castavet, the nice elderly friend who helps Mia Farrow in her lonely, terrifying predicament in Rosemary's Baby (1968). Unlike many o…

For National Swimming Pool Day: "The Swimmer" by Trav S.D.

"When you talk about The Swimmer, will you talk about yourself?" asks a 1968 poster for this impossible-to-pigeonhole film. The short answer is, probably not when you're 20. I was that age w…

Belated Love for Barbara Loden by Trav S.D.

I begin my appreciation of Barbara Loden (1932-1980) by telegraphing the ending. She died young, at age 48. If she hadn't it's likely she'd be better known today for she was on the cusp of b…

Lili Damita: from Paris to Hollywood to…Fort Dodge by Trav S.D.

The life story of Lili Damita ( Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré, 1904-1994) resolves into nice, discrete chapters for convenient consumption. She made quite a journey. The daughter of a Fr…

Coney Island Is Back and All Over Brooklyn Today by Trav S.D.

In the unlikely event that you didn't get the memo, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow is up and running Fridays through Sundays throughout the summer season. They have a killer core cast this…

R.I.P. Tom by Trav S.D.

We have a sort of theme emerging today: first this celebration of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and now a eulogy to a character who dates from that era of experimental theatre in the Off-Of…

R.G. Davis and the San Francisco Mime Toupe by Trav S.D.

Today we spotlight the too little celebrated (and too little understood) contributions of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and its founder R.G. "Ronnie" Davis (b. 1933). There are struggles and…

Three New Books About Vaudeville by Trav S.D.

Far be it from me to recommend any vaudeville book above my own (and I'm not, I stand by it as the best of its kind available, though I am also champing at the bit to do a revised, updated e…

Kim Darby: Daughter of the Dancing Zerbys by Trav S.D.

There was a stretch there, from the late '60s through the early '70s when Kim Darby (Deborah Zerby, b. 1947) was very "flavor-of-the-month". I associate her especially with the title role in…

The George Cukor Story by Trav S.D.

Having mentioned him a couple of dozen times on this blog, today some attention for George Dewey Cukor (1899-1983). "Cukor" is Hungarian for sugar, an apt brand, given how so many of his mov…

A Journey to Asgard with Janet Leigh by Trav S.D.

I was watching The Vikings (1958) on TCM the other day (and a surprisingly entertaining picture it is, if a preposterous one) but I feel compelled to to report that one of my main unanticipa…

R.I.P. Richard Donner (Long Live "The Omen") by Trav S.D.

Hollywood director and producer Richard Donner (Richard Donald Schwartzberg) has passed away at age 91. I've written about a few of Donner's films, as it happens: Salt and Pepper (1968), Sup…

Barbara Weeks: Of WAMPAS, Westerns and Ed Wood by Trav S.D.

Today we salute actress Barbara Weeks (Susan Kingsley, 1913-2003). Weeks is often confused with another actress of the same name who appeared in five Broadway plays from 1927 to 1936, was a …