Thursday, December 11, 2025
In my ongoing series of celebrations of U.S. States, to date we’ve done Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Florida, Hawaii, and the midwestern states of Kansas, Iowa, O…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PMNew Yorkers who love vintage children’s literature and illustration: My good friends Hope Cartelli, Jeff Lewonczyk, and Maryanne Olson have just launched the Secret Storybook Club for thos…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for December 11, 2025 includes ones on Marjorie Henderson Buell a.k.a. “Marge” (creator of Little Lulu), a little Holiday event I’m participating in thi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:42PMDecember 11 was the birthday of pioneering female cartoonist and illustrator Marjorie Henderson Buell (1904-1993), who went by the pen name “Marge”. Marge was only a teenager when the Ph…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:12AMWednesday, December 10, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 10, 2025 concern a couple of supporting players from completely different eras: Tisha Sterling and Arthur Vinton. Earlier Travalanche posts for D…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:54PMNot sure how actor Arthur Vinton (Albert Hozel, 1896-1963) made it onto the Travalanche radar — probably by way of The Lambs, of which he was a member. He was also a founding member of the…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:48PMAs we wrote previously, Robert Sterling, best known from the TV version of Topper, and film and TV actress Ann Sothern were briefly a Hollywood power couple. The product of their joint attra…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:32AMTuesday, December 9, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for December 9, 2025 profiles a new book about the Pearson Brothers vaudeville team. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 9 (in no particular order) include …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMAnother plug in time for yer Christmas shopping spree. Rhythm and Pep: The Vaudeville Career of the Pearson Brothers by Dan Henderson is a wonderful window into the rise and fall of a m…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMMonday, December 8, 2025
There may be quite a few movie acting careers more distinguished than that of Mary Woronov (b. 1943), but none are cooler. Woronov’s entrée into screen acting occurred in Andy Warhol film…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMToday’s new Travalanche posts for December 8, 2025 are about James Thurber, Mary Woronov, Georges Feydeau, and various news items about the Marx Brothers. Earlier Travalanche posts for Dec…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 04:48PMThere’s something appropriate about Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (1862–1921) having been born at this festive time of year. What is more merry than a French farce? Furthermore he s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:54PMToday, December 8, 2025 marks 100 years since the Marx Brothers’ The Cocoanuts opened on Broadway. (We talked a little about the theatrical version here). It seems the ideal time to remind…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:36PMIt has now been a century since James Thurber (1894-1961) moved to Greenwich Village and began working as a reporter for the New York Evening Post. His long association with the New Yorker b…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:32PMSunday, December 7, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 7, 2025 are about Broadway composer Rudolf Friml and Comedian Bob Melvin. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 7 (in no particular order) inclu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:54AMThe name Rudolf Friml (Rudolf Antonín Frymel, 1879-1972) ought to be known to more Broadway buffs — he wrote a couple of dozen hit operettas in the teens and twenties of the last century.…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:48AMBorn 100 years ago today, nightclub comedian Bob Melvin (Robert Minkoff, 1925-2015) — not to confused with the Man with Two Faces from the sideshow. (Although at 6’4″ tall, this Robert…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:36AMSaturday, December 6, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for December 6, 2025 is about Bobby Van, and another Bobby Van. Earlier Travalanche posts for December 6 (in no particular order) include ones on: The History …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:54PMInevitably, I reckon, a post on song and dance man Bobby Van (Robert Stein, 1928-1980). When I was a kid in the ’70s, Van was strictly a hokey guy on game shows and cheese TV so far as I k…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:31AMFriday, December 5, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 5, 2025 are about chorus girl and silent movie siren Sally Long; cowboy singer Ray Whitley, comedian Margaret Cho, and the history of Krampus. Ea…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:24PMI just had a rewarding experience a few minutes ago — I was reminded of the decade or so, roughly 2000-2010, when I was an actual arts journalist for several major publications. I had the …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 05:18PMDecember 5 was the birthday of cowboy singer Ray Whitley (1901-1979), best known for co-writing Gene Autry’s theme song “Back in the Saddle Again”. Luke Combs released a song by the sa…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:02PMAbout ten years ago I had a lamentable opportunity to sing a few bars of the song “I Wonder What Became of Sally?” in Dick Zigun’s play Dead End Dummy out at Coney Island USA. (It was …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:54PMGut Krampusnacht! Celebrated in Central Europe on the night before St. Nicholas Day, Krampusnacht is purportedly the time when the goodly saint’s opposite number punishes the bad little ch…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:54AMThursday, December 4, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche post for December 4, 2025 is about the man for whom the Cafe Carlyle is named — against all expectations — Thomas Carlyle. Earlier Travalanche posts for Decembe…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PMCafé Carlyle, long time showplace of Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch, Eartha Kitt and others, turned 70 years old this year. But I’m afraid I’m not going to address that topic much at all. …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:06PMWednesday, December 3, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 3, 2025 are about March Master Henry Fillmore, portrait painter Gilbert Stuart (and daughter), and the 150th Anniversary of the New York Coaching…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:06AMDecember 3 was the birth date (and December 7 the death date) of bandleader, musician, and composer Henry Fillmore (1881-1956), who was especially known for his original marches and screamer…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:54AMI’m quite certain that the first museum and/or historical site of any kind I ever visited was the birthplace of the portrait painter Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), which is located barely ten…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:54AMThis post was prompted by my visit to Newport’s Redwood Library this past summer. December 3, 1875 was the date on which the Coaching Club of New York, sometimes shortened to New York Coac…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:42AMTuesday, December 2, 2025
Today’s new Travalanche posts for December 2, 2025 are about a new Sid Caesar book launch, and a couple of R.K.O. film series that revived silent films and vaudeville. Before we proceed to…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:12PM 
