Saturday, June 14, 2025
The United States Army was created by the Continental Congress on this day in 1775. George Washington was appointed as its commander on the following day. (Note how the army was always inten…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:24AMFriday, June 13, 2025
If you’re a fan of classic films and don’t recognize the name Ian Hunter (1900-1975), relax, it’s okay. I didn’t! But he’s right there, right there, in prominent roles in some of t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AMThursday, June 12, 2025
June 12 was the birthday of Anne Frank (1929-1945). Confronted with the bewildering descent of America into a place where schoolgirls need to hide out in attics and where Jews are being viol…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PMJune 12 being the birthday of Weegee (1899-1968), we thought it might be useful to create a little post that relates him to some of this blog’s customary topics. First, some short biograph…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:06AMWednesday, June 11, 2025
Just got the word that Brian Wilson has passed. Never mind the cause. The man was 82. Still, who’d ever dream that all three Wilson brothers would die before Keith Richards? I had somethin…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMIf I didn’t know any better and you had asked me which of the cast members of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) was named “DUDLEY MANLOVE” I almost certainly would have pointed to Bunny B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:02AMTuesday, June 10, 2025
According to IMDB June 10 was the birthday of female impersonator Frederick Kovert (1895-1949). The name is sometimes rendered “Ko Vert”, making it seem exotic somehow. Kovert, his real …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMPaul Marco (Angelo Inzalaco, 1927-2006) dined out better than most on being part of the Ed Wood stock company. Die-hards know him as the guy who played goofy Officer Kelton, the Gilligan-esq…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:12AMMonday, June 9, 2025
The world is horrible so as an antidote, I proffer these two Rhode Island cultural tidbits, as fluffy as a clamcake: 1) The streaming series Sirens is set in a very Block Island-esque locati…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMCole Porter, Jackie Mason, S.N. Behrman, Bob Cummings, Michael J. Fox, Fred Waring, Skip James, Harry Gribbon, George Axelrod, John Howard Payne, and Leslie Banks were all born on June 9; so…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:18AMSunday, June 8, 2025
The title of this piece in not to imply that my previous post on Joan Rivers (Joan Molinsky, 1933-2014) was in any way improper. It was however, incomplete. I wrote it in 2013, when she was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:54PMVaudeville lovers owe much to the enterprise of Hans August (H.A.) Spanuth (1884-1976). Spanuth was a second generation cultural figure. His father, August Spanuth (1857-1920) was a German p…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:32AMTribute today to burlesque legend Kitty West (Abbie Jewel Slawson, 1930-2019), whose ingenious stage name plants the idea in your head that you’ve heard of her before, no doubt because it …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:24AMSaturday, June 7, 2025
Broadway composer Charles Strouse (1928-2025) would have been 97 years old today; we lost him three weeks ago. Strouse left behind a staggering body of accomplishment at the time of his pass…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:02AMFriday, June 6, 2025
Having had temperatures in the high 80s in New York the past couple of days put me in an odd frame of mind to contemplate the life (and death) of British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott (…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:54PMThis may shock you, maybe it won’t, most likely you won’t care, but I was a huge fan of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (2002-2004) back in the day, and I’m still a fan of Quinn’s. If y…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:32PMBefore Mitzi Green and Mitzi Gaynor, show biz had Mitzi Mayfair (Juanita Emylyn Pique, 1914-1976). This Mitzi started out as a kid act in vaudeville at age 11 in her hometown of St. Louis, e…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMTribute now to stage and screen actor Tyler Brooke (Victor Hugo de Bierre, 1886-1943), known especially for his association with classic comedy. Brooke had been a bank clerk and a lawyer pri…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMOkay, no one remembers Peter Donald (1918-1979) but the handful who do know him as the Irishman Ajax Cassidy from Allen’s Alley on The Fred Allen Show. In that and such-like capacities he …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:06AMThursday, June 5, 2025
June 5 is National Hot Air Balloon Day, so we thought we would expend a little hot air celebrating their history and presence in pop culture, as we have done previously with blimps and Zeppe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AMWednesday, June 4, 2025
Of all the major comic strips of the early 20th century, it seems to me none have been quite as forgotten as Toonerville Folks. I’m trying to think why. In its own time (1908-1955) there w…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AMTuesday, June 3, 2025
I’ve only caught the first episode of The Mortician, HBO’s three-part documentary series, airing over three consecutive Mondays through June 15, but I hasten to recommend it for a couple…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:36AMJune 3, 2025 marks the centennial anniversary of the maiden voyage of the Goodyear Type AD airship Pilgrim, the first commercial non-rigid airship to use helium. Though the company had been…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMMonday, June 2, 2025
June 2 is the birthday of Charlie Watts, Johnny Weissmuller, Jerry Mathers, Marvin Hamlisch, Max Showalter, Kevin Brownlow, Cagliostro, June MacCloy, Leopoldo Fregoli, and Valaida Snow, et a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PMI’ve come across the occasional mention of this chap, who appears to have been well-regarded by contemporaries, so we include him now in our annals. Jack Goode a.k.a. Jack Good (Irwin Thom…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMSunday, June 1, 2025
I was so bummed to miss the premiere and launch party for The Big Johnson, Lola Rocknrolla’s documentary on the life of queer icon Dean Johnson (1961-2007) a couple of weeks ago, but fortu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:24AMSaturday, May 31, 2025
Tomorrow is the release date of Aaron Smith’s new book Natural Born: Circus, Sideshow, and The Art of Being Human (Outside Talker Press). But before I sing its praises, I only just realize…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:42AMFriday, May 30, 2025
Today, a show biz father and son, each legendary in completely different spheres. The father was character actor Douglas Fowley (Daniel Fowley, 1911-1998). Fowley amassed over 300 credits in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:31AMThursday, May 29, 2025
Well, I couldn’t let National Alligator Day pass without adding pop culture representations of this ancient reptile to our store of animal posts. Just click on links below to learn more ab…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36PMWe seem to to be all about the headlines today, although I think you’ll agree we are keeping it on mission. Dramatic events concerning the Texas Renaissance Festival, generally touted as t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:54PM 
