11,709 stories from Trav S.D.
Today’s new Travalanche posts for May 5, 2026 are about kiddie star impresario Ethel Meglin and comedian Sandy Baron. Also Happy Cinco de Mayo to those who celebrate. In observance of whic…
I noticed to my delight yesterday that I passed 10,000 blogposts a few days ago. Atsa lotta posts, boss. I’ll be truthful with you, I’ve done all this much more because I want to learn t…
May 5 was the birthday of Ethel Meglin (Ethel Marie Redman, 1890-1988), Hollywood’s top kiddie act impresario during the Golden Years. To the best of my knowledge, this is the most thoroug…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for May 4, 2026 are about Orange Julius, Frederic Church, and Jim Moore’s all-star variety show tonight. How’s that for a crazy bill of fare? And May the …
Born 200 years ago today, the great American landscape painter Frederic Church (1826-1900). I developed an appreciation of this important American artist and his fellows of the Hudson River …
Happy 80th Birthday to Jim R. Moore, the best friend the contemporary variety arts scene in New York has had, as just about anyone will tell you. Jim has chronicled circus, burlesque, sidesh…
May the 4th may be popularly observed far and wide as Star Wars Day, but there are some who use the date to celebrate something closer to our own galaxy: it’s also Orange Juice Day. We tho…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for May 3, 2026 are about Ann B. Davis, and a tremendous resource created by an alum of the American Vaudeville Theatre. Earlier Travalanche posts for May 3 (…
May 3 is World Press Freedom Day and I thought of the perfect way to mark it. I want to point you toward a beacon of clarity, truth, and that rarest of all things in today’s media landscap…
Born 100 years ago today, a much beloved and missed American icon, Ann B. Davis (1926-2014). Davis is interesting for many reasons, among them that she is almost entirely known for just TWO …
Today’s new Travalanche post for May 2, 2026 is about Lorenz Hart and the recent bio-pic Blue Moon. And since it’s Kentucky Derby Day, this little post about on and around horse racing. …
May 2 was the birthday of genius Broadway and Hollywood lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895-1943), best known for his 25 year songwriting partnership with Richard Rodgers. I wrote about the pair as a…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for May 1, 2026 are about: Joy Harmon, Sylvia Gerrish, and The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition. And several posts for May Day: peruse the s…
Today we tie up one of the few remaining loose ends from our recent excursion to our ancestral Southern homelands (as reported in this series of posts). May 1, 1897 was opening day of the Th…
A few words on a star of old who fell on hard times, Sylvia Gerrish (Lillian Rollins, 1860-1906). Gerrish was a native San Franciscan; her parents were Mainers drawn to the west coast by the…
I was already planning a post on Joy Harmon (1938-2026), probably because she was in beach party and other teen oriented movies in the 1960s, and perhaps I had confused her in my head with J…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for April 30, 2026 are about Gary Collins, William H. Crane, and the Till Marionettes Today we also celebrate: Walpurgisnacht and the Witches of Travalanche a…
At this juncture, I feel the need to reorient my attitude toward TV personality Gary Collins (1938-2012). Is it a fit subject for worry? I reckon not. At any rate, I always found him likable…
William H. Crane (1845-1928) had a long career in the theatre, but is best known to us today from the handful of silent motion pictures he made during the last years of his life, a couple of…
April 30 was the birthday of puppeteer and vaudeville entertainer John Coates Till (1843-1910). Forgive me, but I can’t recall now who put me on to the existence of “Professor” Till an…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for April 29, 2026 are about big bandleader Russ Morgan, and actress Eve Plumb, best known from The Brady Bunch. Also it is International Dance Dance, birthda…
Yes, I am an unabashed fan of the lovely Eve Plumb (birth year redacted for both our sakes) for all sorts of reasons, including 1) the fact that I met her once, when she was acting in my for…
Strange that in all of our thousands of posts we haven’t yet had occasion to mention big bandleader Russ Morgan (1904-1969) even once. Remedied today! Morgan was born and raised in Scranto…
Today’s new Travalanche post for April 28, 2026 is about Harper Lee (born 100 years ago today) and To Kill a Mockingbird. Also for National Superhero Day, check out nearly 50 posts about s…
Alabama novelist Harper Lee (Nelle Harper Lee, 1926-2016) was born 100 years ago today. A relative of Robert E. Lee (though not a descendent), the author was born, raised, and died in the sm…
