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Richard Bogardus "Red" Blanchard, Jr. (June 11, 1920 – June 16, 2011) was an American radio show personality in California markets from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s whose shows were novelty- and comedy-oriented. He was also a musician and record producer and released a few novelty songs of his own in the early 1950s. Blanchard also added his voice to novelty songs written and performed by recording personality Nervous Norvus, and to radio commercials. In 1965 Blanchard became the technical director of the Los Angeles station KHJ-TV until he retired in 1978. ==Early life== Blanchard was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, to Richard Bogardus Blanchard, Sr., and Dorothy Rolfe Follett Blanchard, who, according to Blanchard, Jr., was "a direct descendant of John Rolfe, of the ''Mayflower.''"〔Personal correspondence with R.B. Red Blanchard, Jr. June 2009.〕 The family moved to California in 1921 but back to Gardner in 1935, where Blanchard attended Gardner High School for his sophomore through senior years. During that time he became a member of the Haywood-Wakefield Furniture Company Band, sponsored by one of the biggest furniture factories in New England at the time.〔〔http://www.redblanchard.com〕 Also, from 1935 to 1939, Red, who got his sobriquet from his bright red hair, played the trombone for a big band;〔 "...a local New England band named 'Eddie Hamilton,' nowhere near the caliber of Goodman, Miller, etc."〔 In 1940 he moved to Schenectady, New York, and started working for a defense plant.(GE) Three years later, in 1943, he volunteered for the Army Air Corps and was sent to the Greensboro, North Carolina, Basic Training Camp. According to his Website, "Red went into the army at age 23, when everybody else in basic training was about 18, so they made him a drill instructor (probably due to his loud voice)."〔 After a few months the Army decided it had enough cadets at Greensboro and transferred Blanchard to March Field in Riverside, California.〔 While at March Field, Blanchard met his future wife, Phyllis East from Colton, California, and at about the same time the Army Air Corps transferred him again, this time to engineering school at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he remained for the rest of his military service and was discharged early in 1945. When asked how he got back to California, he responded, "A 1935 Ford... No wait—I remembered how I was raised in So Cal and wanted to go back so I went to Riverside where a radio job was waiting for me."〔 Phyllis East was also waiting there for him and they were married on July 12, 1945 in San Francisco. (Later one of Phyllis's sisters married one of Red's brothers.) Phyllis died of breast cancer June 1, 1986.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Red Blanchard (radio personality)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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