First off, that’s not a typo: Sue Ane Langdon (b. 1936) spells the second part of her first name with a single “n” — as in “Nything to stand out in show business.” In her heyday,…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AMMarch 8 was the birthday of stage and screen performer Ada May (Ada May Weeks, 1896-1978.) She was the most successful of four performing sisters from Oyster Bay, Long Island named Weeks. Of…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMI had been creating Travalanche for many years before I began taking note of centennials and other major anniversary benchmarks here (I think 500 may be the oldest I’ve observed). I didn�…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:06AMThis is a mind blower of a story; I’m astounded that it’s not more widely known. I wasn’t aware of it myself until I sat down to write this post. And for once I won’t bury the lede: …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMThe Happiest of birthdays to Penn Jillette (b. 1955) who enters his seventh decade today. My previous Penn and Teller post was published on Teller’s birthday, because he was the one I got …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMI first encountered Gladys Leslie (Gladys Leslie Moore, 1899-1976) as Houdini’s leading lady in Haldane of the Secret Service (1923). Though she was a star in her own day, Haldane was to b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMMarch 5 is the birthday of lady magician Suzy Wandas (Jeanne Van Dyke, 1896-1986). Suzy was a second generation conjurer, born and raised in Belgium to a husband-wife variety team. Her initi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:54AMI first learned about mentalist Washington Irving Bishop (1855-1889) many decades ago from Ricky Jay’s indispensable Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Born in New York City (plainly to fan…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:03AMOn the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special the other night, one participant you might not have noticed (for he was seated in the audience, and at 5’2″ is easy to miss) was forme…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:42AMBelieve it or not I actually know where I was — not because it was a major trauma for me, but because it was when I first took note of the name in the first place. Cookie Mueller (Dorothy …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMToday marks the 125th anniversary of the birth Kurt Weill (1900-1950). (I sure love his music, but pictures of him always make me think he would have been good in the lead role in M. This wa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:12PMMarch 1, 1925 was the release date of the silent comedy/adventure Too Many Kisses, which contains the earliest extant footage of a Marx Brother prior to the release of The Cocoanuts fo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMBorn 100 years ago today, the man who brought the Beats together Lucien Carr (1925-2005). (Confusingly, this important figure has nothing to do with either Lucien Truscott IV or C. Carr, who…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:12AMWe love to share the lives of remarkable people here on Travalanche — on rare occasion they’re still alive! So it is with Diane Kiesel, a New York Supreme Court Justice for almost 20 yea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AMMarian Anderson (1897-1993) retired the year I was born (1965) but she continued to be widely revered as an American institution long afterward. Anderson reigned as something like America’…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMWe wake to the sad news of Gene Hackman’s passing, along with wife Betsy Arakawa, and their dog. All sources are vague about the manner of death. The police say they don’t suspect foul p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMGreat fun at the Zeppo Marx birthday at the Algonquin Hotel last night, sponsored by the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, all in celebration of Robert Bader’s new biography Zeppo: The Reluctant M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PMFor the Great One’s birthday, a navigational aid to our many posts about, or relevant to, the comedian. Some additional posts, about particular films that Gleason appeared in, are planned.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMWell, now! This isn’t the post I was expecting to write about Carrot Top (Scott Thompson, b. 1965) at all. To be honest, until recently I’d really only known about Carrot Top second hand…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:24PMIt’s been so long (over four years) since I’d posted in the “Forgotten Shows of My Nonage” section of Travalanche that I’d almost forgotten that it existed. In fact, I may have for…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMBorn 100 years ago today, character actor Bert Remsen (Herbert Remsen, 1925-1999). Like many, I became aware of Remsen as a devotee of Robert Altman; he was a key member of Altman’s cinema…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMThough he directed nearly 200 movies, some of them enduringly famous, we have had but one occasion to mention director Richard Thorpe (1896-1991) thus far on Travalanche. He was the second d…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:12AM“I dig my father. I wish he could open his eyes and dig me.” — Peter Fonda (1940-2019). It seems significant that Peter Fonda came into the world at around the same time audiences were…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMFebruary 23, 1965 was the day on which Stan Laurel (Stanley Jefferson, b. 1890), best known as one half of the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy, made his way toward the Pearly Gates. In a way…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMThanks Eve Golden, Daughter of Three Gods (Hermes, Aphrodite, and Thanatos) for relating the sad news of the passing Lynne Marie Stewart (1946-2025), best known as Miss Yvonne (The Most Beau…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PMWorld Sword Swallowers Day happens every year for the last Saturday in February. It falls a little early this year. We hope you will use the opportunity to peruse the Travalanche Sword Swall…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PMBorn 100 years ago today: illustrator, author, designer Edward Gorey (1925-2000). While primarily celebrated for his book illustrations, Gorey did cross over into stage and screen success br…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:32AMBorn 100 years ago today, Hollywood’s original poet of violence, Sam Peckinpah (1922-1984). I reckon it was always forgone that Peckinpah would not live to see this day. The man consumed v…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PMFounded 100 years ago today, that seminal American organ of taste, craft, wisdom, and discernment (and almost always several good laughs), The New Yorker. The New Yorker was the innovative b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:42AMFebruary 21 is International Tourist Guide Day, sponsored by the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations. As it happens, I had the great honor to be invited to speak to their local af…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:32AMSinger-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie (b. 1941) was back in the news just a couple of weeks ago, and I bet she’s glad that we’re living under a tsunami of catastrophic headlines, for hers…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:18PM
