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The Men in Cary Grant’s Life (A Guest Post by Lauren Milberger)
It’s been a minute since I’ve shared a guest post here on Travalanche, and I don’t do it very frequently, but I am excited to be presenting one today. My most frequent guest poster has been my wife,...
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It Takes a Village People
Yes, I know that Pride Month is just gone, but the thing is July 1 is Victor Willis’s birthday. Willis (b. 1951) was the main singer and songwriter for the Village People, although amusingly, by all...
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A Bicentennial Tribute to Liver Eating Johnson
Born 200 years ago today, John Jeremiah Garrison (1824-1900), gold prospector, guide, hunter, lawman, sailor, scout, soldier, trapper, woodhawk, whiskey peddler, and more. Originally from New Jersey,...
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A Statue to Stephen Stucker
I’m in major need of a laugh today (if you follow the news and have a half a brain I imagine you are too) so I am grateful that today is the birthday of Stephen Stucker (1947-1984). Stucker literally...
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John Mason Brown: Cheers for a Forgotten Critic
July 3 was the birthday of theatre critic, columnist and author John Mason Brown (1900-1969). Most of the major theatre critics of Brown’s day enjoyed lingering pop culture fame by expanding into...
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200 Years Ago Today: The Birth of Castle Garden
A few days ago I led a 13 mile walking tour tracing the origins of New York theatre to its peak in the 20th century. I began that tour at Castle Clinton National Monument in the Battery, not because...
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Hooray for Henry Armetta
Henry (Enrico) Armetta (1888-1945) is top of mind at the moment because I recently watched the Marx Brothers’ The Big Store (1941) while putting together my new book and prepped for Marxfest. You see?...
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For the Eva Marie Saint Centennial: On the Bonnie Maid Versatile Varieties
Happy 100th birthday to the still-kicking Eva Marie Saint! I confess the occasion presented me with something of a dilemma. Like everyone else I’m a big fan of her two biggest movies On the Waterfront...
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A DIY P.T. Barnum NYC Walking Tour
This is the first of three new posts for our P.T. Barnum section today, in observance of the showman’s birthday. He’s top of mind at the moment because I conducted a walking tour of notable show biz...
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Leave Barnum Alone: 7 Reasons Donald Trump is NOTHING Like P.T. Barnum, but...
The walking tour I referred to in the previous post was, as intended, a revivifying return to basics for this correspondent. As I mentioned in that post, locations connected to P.T. Barnum were a...
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For Barnum’s Birthday: A P.T. Barnum Finding Aid
Three P.T. Barnum posts in one day? This is unprecedented! I’m pretty sure I’ve never done that for anybody, two is the max. But I just so happened to have gotten three ideas for new Barnum posts...
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For International ‘Zine Month: On Some Close-to-Home Theatre ‘Zines
July is International ‘Zine Month! The occasion has inspired a little navel gazing, for in those dim dark days before blogging was available, ‘zines were the only way many of us could self-publish...
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The Fairy Tale Life of Shelley Duvall
Brewster McCloud (1970) is one of the least well-remembered films by its director Robert Altman, and doesn’t even top the list of movies people know which feature its star Bud Cort (surely they think...
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A Look at Lydia Knott and Lambert Hillyer
…And Adelbert Knott (1858-1933), as well, for he came onto the scene first. Hailing from Tyner, Indiana (about a half hour from South Bend), Knott was both a writer and an actor. He was only 21 years...
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WNYC Turns 100
July 8, 1924 was the day that WNYC radio in New York first went on the air. It’s been years since I was a regular listener, but I am a big fan of public media, and certainly went through phases when I...
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Some Additional Arbuckles
Having already written about such Fatty Arbuckle-adjacent figures as nephew Al St. John, wife Minta Durfee, ill-fated associate Virginia Rappe, and countless of his professional colleagues (Mack...
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Digging Up Dudley Murphy
Juy 10 was the birthday of filmmaker Dudley Murphy (1897-1968); 2024 marks the centennial of one of his best known works Ballet mécanique (1924), an avant-garde film co-directed with Fernand Léger ,...
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R.I.P. Ruth Westheimer and Richard Simmons
Well, my friend the author Eve Golden had scarcely announced the launch of her new website Eve’s Obits when two prominent celebrities obligingly demonstrated its usefulness by dying within 24 hours of...
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The Val Avery Centennial
Born 100 years ago today: Armenian-American character actor Val Avery (Sebouh Der Abrahamian, 1924-2009). Avery’s family was among the persecuted Armenian minority in Ottoman Turkey. He grew up in...
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Born 100 Years Ago Today: Bess Myerson, The First Jewish Miss America
When I first moved to NYC the big local scandal of the day was the Bess Mess, a bribery beef centered around the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Bess Myerson (1924-2014). In...
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