11,555 stories by "Trav S.D."
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 29, 2026 are about B movie star Dorothy Short and vaudeville dancer Lucille Page. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 29 (in no particular order) incl…
We’ve only some scraps on dancer and actress Lucille Page (Lucille Berdell, 1913-1995), but on the other hand, it’s the most complete and accurate article about her on the internet. Orig…
Adorable, right? She reminds me a little of the young Lillian Roth in this photo. It’s Dorothy Short (1915-1963), best known today as the innocent damsel at the center of the exploitation …
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 28, 2026 are about Mel Brooks (100 years old today!) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Also today being the day of New York’s Pride Parade, we share again…
June 28th was the birthday of the great Enlightenment polymath Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Ostensibly this is a blog concentrated on topics related to theater and show business — an…
Happy 100th birthday to Mel Brooks (b. 1926) ! (New Yorkers, if you have the wherewithal, join Dick Zigun, Permanent Unelected Mayor of Coney Island, at the Parachute Jump today July 28, 202…
You’ve had a couple of weeks to recover from the most recent Tony Awards ceremony, but the subject is not exhausted. June 27 happens to be the birthday of the woman for whom it is named, B…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 27, 2026 are about Antoinette “Tony” Perry, Audrey Christie, and Richard Dmitri. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 27 (in no particular order) i…
Here’s an acorn off of my recent post on the Tracy-Hepburn film Keeper of the Flame (1942). As expressed in that piece, I enjoyed many elements of that movie. One of them in particular was…
Richard Dimitri (1942-2025) passed away six months ago. Dmitri had been retired from show business for over a quarter of a century at the time, but the name sounded familiar, so I looked him…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 26, 2026 are about the Ross Sisters and Zion Meyers. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 26 (in no particular order) include ones on: The Gold Rush (C…
Born of a June 26, movie director, writer and producer Zion Myers (1898-1948). He was the brother of movie star Carmel Myers, and the son of a rabbi. How ironic that a man so named died thre…
Thanks Eve Golden for tipping me off to the existence of the Ross Sisters, a superhuman sister act that incorporated three part harmony, dance, acrobatics, and show-stopping contortionism. T…
Today’s new Travalanche post for June 25, 2026 is about the Ahern Sisters. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 25 (in no particular order) include ones on: Charlotte Greenwood Arthur Tracy …
Today we point our spotlight at a pair of sisters who began as child stars during the silent era, and kept the plates spinning as long as they could: Peggy Ahern (1917-2012) and Lassie Lou A…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 24, 2026 are about actress Leigh Snowden, and my late, great, epically loveable friend Ken Simon. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 24 (in no partic…
I got some terrible news yesterday, and I still don’t have all of it. My friend Ken Simon died on Monday. We’ve been informed rather cryptically that he “fell from a height” and that…
My recent post on the accordion king Dick Contino made me aware of his wife, the model and actress Leigh Snowden (Martha Lee Estes, 1929-1989). Snowden was in the business herself scarcely m…
Today’s new Travalanche posts for June 23, 2026 are about humorist/journalist Irvin S. Cobb, and news about a couple of publications I have been privileged to write for. Also, for this day…
For Pride Month! I wanted to alert you to the fact that Scott Stiffler’s LGBTQ Community News, which we told you about last fall has been up and running for months as represented by its we…
The title of this post sounds unintentionally absurd because (as with so many on this blog) the figure at its center is almost completely forgotten today. Yet (as with almost everyone on thi…
Today’s new Travalanche post for June 22, 2026 is about TV producer and Friar Ken Greengrass, born 100 years ago today. Earlier Travalanche posts for June 22 (in no particular order) inclu…
Sorry! Not Barney Greengrass, the Sturgeon King! I imagine many of you would prefer that, but it’s like they say: the greengrass is always greener on the other side (particularly the West …
June 21 is National Arizona Day. We select it rather than Statehood Day for this post because Arizona achieved statehood on February 14, 1912, and it seems smarter to set that date aside for…
Here’s another distinguished Cady cousin of mine I discovered while working on this blog. He is of the same line as others I have boastfully reported about, including feminist pioneer Eliz…
