11,628 stories by "Trav S.D."
Born 100 years ago today James Best (Jewel Franklin Guy, 1926-2015) Yes, okay, Best is best known for having played Roscoe on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985, with various reunions thereafte…
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 26, 2026 are about Hal Yates, James Best, and the Lambs Club. Earlier Travalanche posts for July 26 (in no particular order) include ones on: Gracie A…
This has been a lucky year for America’s oldest theatrical club The Lambs (est. 1874). First, their hard hustling “Shepherd” Kevin Fitzpatrick found them a new headquarters right in th…
July 26 was the birthday of slapstick comedy film director Hal Yates (1899-1969). Which presents us with an opportunity to clear something up. There is a widespread misconception across the …
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 25, 2026 is about husband-wife western stars Jack Perrin and Josephine Hill. Also: Happy National Merry Go Round Day Earlier Travalanche posts for Jul…
Fortuitously this year the birthday (July 25) of Jack Perrin (Lyman Wakefield Perrin (1896-1967) falls on National Day of the Cowboy (4th Saturday in July). Perrin was a star of silent and e…
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 24, 2026 is about Jean Webster and Daddy Long Legs. Earlier Travalanche posts for July 24 (in no particular order) include ones on: Ruth Buzzi William…
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of author Jean Webster (Alice Jane Chandler Webster, 1876-1916). Webster’s best known book Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) was adapted for stage and s…
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 23, 2026 are about Bert Convy and a new 3D version of Animal Crackers Earlier Travalanche posts for July 23 (in no particular order) include ones on: …
Yes that’s right! Eyepop 3D, the same folks who produced the retrofitted 3D version of The Cocoanuts which we screened at Coney Island last year, have done a new version of Animal Crackers…
Respect for Bert Convy (1933-1991)? When I was a kid in the ‘70s and early ‘80s the very idea would have struck me as a howler. At that time, Convy was thought of primarily as a game sho…
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 22, 2026 are about Luana Walters and the late Peter Jason. Earlier Travalanche posts for July 22 (in no particular order) include ones on: Emma Lazaru…
Peter Jason (Peter Ostling, 1944 2025) passed away last year. The name may not ring a bell, but the prolific character actor had over 250 screen credits. The one I always think about is his …
Luana Walters (1912-1963) was widely considered the sexiest damsel in B movie westerns. Her looks had gotten her in the pictures in the first place. An LA local, she was touring United Artis…
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 21, 2026 is about Undercrank Productions’ release of their restored version of Marion Davies’ 1928 comedy The Cardboard Lover for home video. Also…
Good news for Marion Davies fans — Undercrank Productions has just announced the imminent release of their restored version of Davies’ 1928 comedy The Cardboard Lover for home video. …
Today’s new Travalanche post for July 20, 2026 is about character actor Tom McDermott. For National Moon Day: On Tin Pan Alley songs about the moon On the 1969 moon landing(s) on TV The Gr…
Among the thousands of showbiz biographies on Travalanche, this one on stage and screen actor Tom McDermott (1912-1996) delineates one of the more minor careers we’ve covered. Yet it is no…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 19, 2026 are about Helen Gallagher, William Makepeace Thackeray, and the recently late Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon. Earlier Travalanche posts for J…
July 19th was the birthday of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), author of some 30 books, though we’ve only had the wherewithal for three: We touched on The Luck of Barry Lyndon (184…
Thanks, Eve Golden, for news about the passing of Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon (Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr., 1936-2026.) We’ve had occasion to mention Cannon here on Travalanche a …
The actress Helen Gallagher (1926-2024) was born 100 years ago today, and left us a mere matter of a few months ago. It’s probable that Gallagher is most widely known for having played the…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for July 18, 2026 are about silent screen comedian Walter Hiers and New York area screenings of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Earlier Travalanche posts f…
Another shoe dropping in the wake of our recent post on James Curtis’s new book Comedy is a Grim Business: The Making of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World — not to mention our original m…
“I’m told you need my type”, is what Walter Hiers (1893-1933) is reported to have said upon meeting D.W, Griffith at Biograph in 1910. Fortunately he was correct, and others concurre…
