Tuesday, September 17, 2024
September 17, 1944 was the premiere date of The Baby Snooks Show on CBS radio (it later switched to NBC, hence the call letters on the mic in the photo above). We’ve done many a post on Sn…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:12AMMonday, September 16, 2024
I first learned the story of Mildred Fish Harnack (1902-1943) with Erik Larson’s 2011 book In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. Harnack was t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:02PMThis has always been my favorite photo of Lauren Bacall (Betty Perske, 1924-2014). I like the fact that it appears uncharacteristically candid, with almost nothing observably artifical about…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMSunday, September 15, 2024
For the life of me I can’t recall how I stumbled upon the existence of Janelee “Twinkle” Watts (1933-2018), and I only know the public part of the story, but it seemed worth sharing. B…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMSaturday, September 14, 2024
Yes, it’s true! The birthday of Joey Heatherton (b. 1944) is a couple of days after that of Lola Falana (b. 1942). I don’t know if Catherine O’Hara knew that when she cooked up her sat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PMFriday, September 13, 2024
How rare is it for the public to know the name of ANY network television executive? We know the stars, and sometimes some of the writers/producers/showrunners, but the guys who make the deci…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PMThursday, September 12, 2024
There were a couple of famous singers born on this day, but I find myself much more jazzed to write about this fellow Bruce Mahler (b. 1950) than about either of them. I also find that he ra…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:42PMWednesday, September 11, 2024
Well, I don’t know if it’s true that Lola Falana (b. 1942) is more alive than others as this advert claims, but she is still alive. The reason we haven’t heard much from her since the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:24AMTuesday, September 10, 2024
September 5, 1774 was opening day of the First Continental Congress, and the odds are very good that the only place you’re hearing about it is HERE. I might have missed it myself if not fo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:42PMA celebration today of burlesque queen Georgia Sothern (Hazel Anderson, 1909-1981). She was no apparant relationship to Ann Sothern, but I can see where it might cause confusion, as the latt…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:18AMMonday, September 9, 2024
September 9 was the birthday of silent screen actress Marguerite Snow (1889-1958). Snow was second generation showfolk, her father being the old time minstrel performer Billy Snow (ca. 1855-…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:32AMSunday, September 8, 2024
A brief celebration today of country crossover singer Patsy Cline (Virginia Hensley, 1932-1963). Her birthday falls on the same day as country pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, who also died young, an…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:48PMSaturday, September 7, 2024
A bulletin has just reached my desk about yet another half-century anniversary. Today marks 50 years since the premiere of the original Land of the Lost (1974-76). How fortuitous that it hap…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:02PMIt’s Julie Kavner’s birthday as I type this (b. 1950), but we’re also a couple of days shy of a second benchmark — 50 years since many of us have known who she is. Rhoda premiered on…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMFriday, September 6, 2024
No foolin’–Leo McCarey’s younger brother Ray (1904-1948) was also a hard-working screen director, one also associated with comedies. I’m not quite sure why this is an obscure fact. L…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:36AMThursday, September 5, 2024
Save the dates and stop the presses! For those who missed Marxfest, the Marxian fun is not yet over by a long way! I have two upcoming launch events tied to the release of my new book The Ma…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AMWednesday, September 4, 2024
If the Jazz Age followed hard upon World War One, no one was in more of a hurry to pivot than British stage star Billie Carleton (Florence Leonora Stewart, 1896-1918), whose sordid drug deat…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:42AMTuesday, September 3, 2024
Thanks, Eve Golden, for the intel that James Darren (James Ercolani, 1936-2024) left us yesterday. I am going to lead with the elephant in the room, which most other obits have been either t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:48AMMonday, September 2, 2024
September 2 is World Coconut Day! We observe it as we did with National Banana Day last year, with a little survey of key moments when the humble coconut (sometimes spelled cocoanut) has ins…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:02AMSunday, September 1, 2024
This one goes out to my good buddy Kevin Fitzpatrick, who made me more aware than I might otherwise be of Helen Falconer Buck (1890-1968), and who enhanced her Find a Grave entry substantial…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:32PMThis is something I only became aware of a few days ago, on a recent trip to the Museum of Modern Art. On September 1, 1966, artist Öyvind Fahlström staged and filmed a work of street thea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMBorn 100 years ago today, child star Lawrence “Sunny” McKeen (1924-1933). McKeen was only two years old when he was cast as Snookums in a series of silent comedy shorts based on George M…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:48AMSaturday, August 31, 2024
There were two generations of Tiny Littles in this miniature musical dynasty. The elder, Irvine “Tiny” Little (1902-82) was originally from Goldfield, Iowa, but eventually settled in Wor…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AMFriday, August 30, 2024
Today is a banner day for lovers of early American jazz — it’s the release date for Archeophone Record’s epic new box set Centennial: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. The centenary it…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMThursday, August 29, 2024
August 29 was the birthday of exotic dancer Carol Doda (1937-2015). And learning about her has provided delights beyond the obvious. To wit: I had long wondered about when American culture t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMI think we can go ahead and call my old friends of The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus a New York institution by now. Among their many programs and activities (their Open Stage Variety Show, the F…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMDon’t get the wrong idea! I almost never take requests on this blog, maybe one time in a thousand. The fuel that this blog runs on is its author’s own whims. Has to come from me. In fact…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMBorn 100 years ago today, blues, jazz and pop vocalist Dinah Washington (Ruth Lee Jones, 1924-1963). Washington started out singing and playing piano with gospel choirs in her native Tuscalo…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:32AMWednesday, August 28, 2024
This one comes with a trigger warning, because the story gets pretty dark. In fact it approaches maximum darkness. I’ve occasionally gone there in my writing, though not so often on this b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMTuesday, August 27, 2024
Harry Hill (1827-1896) died of an August 27. The exact date of birth is not known; he was not of the class that kept careful track of such things. Hill was born in the vicinity of Epsom Down…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:54AMMonday, August 26, 2024
August is both Women’s Equality Day and the birthday of writer Zona Gale (1874-1938). Today happens to be the 150th anniversary of her birth. As Gale was a suffragist and a feminist, the a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:12PM 
