Red Blanchard (radio personality)
Encyclopedia
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.
, 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
."[3] 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.[1]&[3] Also, from 1935 to 1939, Red, who got his sobriquet from his bright red hair, played the trombone for a big band;[1] "...a local New England band named 'Eddie Hamilton,' nowhere near the caliber of Goodman, Miller, etc."[3]
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)."[1] After a few months the Army decided it had enough cadets at Greensboro and transferred Blanchard to March Field in Riverside, California
.[3]
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."[3] 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.[3]
(FCC). He became a lifetime member of the Amateur Radio Relay League and was awarded a certificate for 60 years of service in 1999.[1]&[3]
After the Army, Blanchard went to the west coast and worked for the rest of his career for various radio and TV stations in California and Nevada:
In radio as an on-air personality:
In TV as Technical Director:
in San Diego, early in 1950, Blanchard had developed a formula of "...puns, parodies and gross-out gags, much of it delivered in a jive patois he called Zorch, with the occasional novelty record thrown in, [he] became a huge hit..."[2] An article in
the San Diego Daily Journal gave Blanchard the "Show of the Month" award and wrote, "Blanchard['s]... zany, screwball disk jockey show [was] quite funny. And rather catchy."[4]
Over the years, Blanchard had collected a record library of around 3500 disks of bebop
, jive/swing and unusual novelty numbers, plus a hundred or so disks of film stars in one-way interviews that were made for syndication so that the DJ or announcer had only to ask the written questions and let the disc give the impression that the stars were being interviewed live.[4] On air, he would mix and match songs, interrupt to add the voice of a celebrity, put in recorded sound effects, and otherwise enhance the experience for his listeners.
Blanchard left San Diego for Las Vegas, Nevada
, but didn't stay there long before he landed in northern California, in beatnik
-populated San Francisco. Blanchard's popularity skyrocketed and by 1953, while he was at KCBS
, both Time
and Life
magazines wrote about him. The Time article starts out, "In San Francisco, some teen-agers dye their hair green. Others pencil their eyebrows in red, paint cat's whiskers on their faces, wear purple lipstick. Their hats are trimmed with swizzle sticks, foxtails and pipe cleaners. Shouting the password 'Zorch!'... they storm into a radio studio in the Palace Hotel five nights a week to pay homage to a bop-talking disk jockey named Richard Bogardus Blanchard... His press agents describe [him] as [the] 'uncrowned king of juvenile Northern California.'" Blanchard said of his show, "It's a good thing this show happened in California. It's too Zorch for the rest of the country. They're not nervous and mixed-up enough or they'd be out here, too."[5]
Blanchard developed many characters using his collection of voices, and would tape funny stories starring these characters to play on his show. Some of the more notable shows and characters were episodes of "Tombstone Bogardus," the "Junk Box Jury" sketch, "Mr. Moto, Famous Japanese Detective," and lovable old "Dr. Christian Bogardus."[1] He kept his San Francisco fans busy "...mailing him dirt to 'help fill up San Francisco Bay,' or sending in empty orange juice cans to be used in building a 60-foot antenna. Twenty-five bottle caps earned a listener an 'I Dread Red' card [to play
off the 'I Like Ike' campaign], and a usable joke is repaid with an 'I Write for CBS' certificate. His fans also enrolled in the 'I Listen to Red in Bed' club."[5]
in the early 1950s when Blanchard was on KCBS, and became enamored of Blanchard's style. Drake spent a lot of his trucking downtime writing songs that "invoked in some fashion Blanchard, his program or both."[2]
In late 1954, Drake, who somehow did not see himself as a singer, sent one of his songs, "Transfusion," to Blanchard hoping Blanchard would record it. Blanchard thought Drake's song was almost perfect the way it was, other than the need for a little "added drama" Blanchard-style; so from his sound effects library, Blanchard added to Drake's recording the sound of an auto skid and car crash into appropriate spaces on Drake's tape.[2] Blanchard finished the recording in about two hours, put it on the air and "Transfusion" immediately became a big hit.
Dot Records
signed Drake up and made the record out of the tape that Blanchard made. "The final piece of the puzzle was for Jimmy Drake to transform himself into Nervous Norvus
. In Blanchard's Zorch-speak, nervous meant 'cool' and its more conventional meaning, which aptly conveyed Drake's morbid bashfulness, made the word doubly suitable. The Norvus part Drake apparently invented out of thin air."[2] "He just thought of a word to be alliterative to nervous," says Blanchard.[2] "Transfusion" was released by Dot in May 1956 and reached the status of being in the top ten records in the country.[6]
Blanchard himself made a couple novelty records: "Pagan Love Song," on which he did all the parts, and the more famous "Captain Hideous (King of Outer Space)." He collaborated with Nervous Norvus on other songs, notably "Ape Call;" the alleged story of the dinasaur age, during which Red would do a live Ape Call every few bars, while Nervous sang about the ancient beings discovering each other.
to Kenilworth, Utah
. He continued to operate his personal Website, http://redblanchard.com and General Broadcasting System, http://gbs.bz occasionally still playing the trombone, drums, piano, or guitar for his own amusement until his death from surgery complications. (He was a life member of the Musicians' Union, Local 47 of Hollywood).
Nervous Norvus
Nervous Norvus was the performing name of Jimmy Drake . His novelty song "Transfusion" was a major hit in 1956, as was a second song, "Ape Call," released later that year....
, and to radio commercials. In 1965 Blanchard became the technical director of the Los Angeles station KHJ-TV
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
until he retired in 1978.
Early life
Blanchard was born in Gardner, MassachusettsGardner, Massachusetts
Gardner, Massachusetts is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,228 as of the 2010 census. Gardner is home to Dunn State Park, Gardner Heritage State Park, Lake Wampanoag Wildlife Sanctuary, and Mount Wachusett Community College.-History:Named in honor of...
, to Richard Bogardus Blanchard, Sr., and Dorothy Rolfe Follett Blanchard, who, according to Blanchard, Jr., was "a direct descendant of John Rolfe
John Rolfe
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.In 1961, the Jamestown...
, of the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
."[3] 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.[1]&[3] Also, from 1935 to 1939, Red, who got his sobriquet from his bright red hair, played the trombone for a big band;[1] "...a local New England band named 'Eddie Hamilton,' nowhere near the caliber of Goodman, Miller, etc."[3]
In 1940 he moved to Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
, and started working for a defense plant.(GE) Three years later, in 1943, he volunteered for the Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
and was sent to the Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, 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
Drill instructor
A drill instructor is a non-commissioned officer or Staff Non-Commissioned Officer in the armed forces or police forces with specific duties that vary by country. In the U.S. armed forces, they are assigned the duty of indoctrinating new recruits entering the military into the customs and...
(probably due to his loud voice)."[1] After a few months the Army decided it had enough cadets at Greensboro and transferred Blanchard to March Field in Riverside, California
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
.[3]
While at March Field, Blanchard met his future wife, Phyllis East from Colton, California
Colton, California
Colton is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The city is located in the Inland Empire region of the state and is approximately 57 miles east of Los Angeles. The population of Colton is 52,154 according to the 2010 census, up from 47,662 at the 2000 census.Colton is the...
, 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."[3] 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.[3]
Broadcast career
As a young man Blanchard was interested in radio. In 1938 he got his first ham radio license, W1LDI, and in 1968 the call sign, W6AG was issued by the U.S. Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC). He became a lifetime member of the Amateur Radio Relay League and was awarded a certificate for 60 years of service in 1999.[1]&[3]
After the Army, Blanchard went to the west coast and worked for the rest of his career for various radio and TV stations in California and Nevada:
In radio as an on-air personality:
- KPROKPROKPRO is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Riverside, California, USA, the station serves the Riverside-San Bernardino area. The station is currently owned by Impact Radio, Inc. and features programing from CNN Radio and Westwood One.The station airs mainly...
, Riverside: 1945-January 1950. - KCBQKCBQKCBQ is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format and is owned by Salem Communications. The station offers Conservative talk programming such as Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager and Michael Medved...
, San Diego: February–December 1950. - KLASKLAS-TVKLAS-TV, virtual channel 8 , is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada market; it is owned and operated by Landmark Media Enterprises...
, Las Vegas: January–March 1951. - KCBSKCBSKCBS may refer to:* KCBS-TV, a television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States* KCBS-FM, a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States...
, San Francisco: 1951-1955. - GBSGBSGBS may refer to:In medicine:*Gastric bypass surgery, a class of medical procedures used to treat morbid obesity*Group B streptococcus, a type of bacteria which causes a Group B streptococcal infection...
, San Francisco: 1955–present. (GBS, or General Broadcasting System, is a name owned by Blanchard. When he left KCBS he started syndicating radio shows and sometime within the next year registered the name General Broadcasting System with the U.S. Patent Office.)[1]&[3] - KFVD/KPOPKTNQKTNQ is a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, with a Spanish News/Talk format. It is owned by Univision. on June 13, 1925 until 1955 it was called . From August 1, 1955 until 1960 it was called KPOP. From June 29, 1960 until 1976, it was called KGBS...
, KABCKABCKABC may refer to:* KABC , a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States* KABC-TV, a television station licensed to Los Angeles, California...
, KFWB, and KNXKNX (AM)KNX is an all-news radio station in Los Angeles, California, USA. The station operates on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio. KNX broadcasts from facilities shared with sister stations KFWB, KCBS-FM, KTWV, and KAMP on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile...
, Los Angeles: 1956-1965.
In TV as Technical Director:
- KHJ-TVKCAL-TVKCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
, Los Angeles: 1965-1978.
On-air personality
By the time he got to KCBQKCBQ
KCBQ is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format and is owned by Salem Communications. The station offers Conservative talk programming such as Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager and Michael Medved...
in San Diego, early in 1950, Blanchard had developed a formula of "...puns, parodies and gross-out gags, much of it delivered in a jive patois he called Zorch, with the occasional novelty record thrown in, [he] became a huge hit..."[2] An article in
the San Diego Daily Journal gave Blanchard the "Show of the Month" award and wrote, "Blanchard['s]... zany, screwball disk jockey show [was] quite funny. And rather catchy."[4]
Over the years, Blanchard had collected a record library of around 3500 disks of bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, jive/swing and unusual novelty numbers, plus a hundred or so disks of film stars in one-way interviews that were made for syndication so that the DJ or announcer had only to ask the written questions and let the disc give the impression that the stars were being interviewed live.[4] On air, he would mix and match songs, interrupt to add the voice of a celebrity, put in recorded sound effects, and otherwise enhance the experience for his listeners.
Blanchard left San Diego for Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, but didn't stay there long before he landed in northern California, in beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
-populated San Francisco. Blanchard's popularity skyrocketed and by 1953, while he was at KCBS
KCBS
KCBS may refer to:* KCBS-TV, a television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States* KCBS-FM, a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States...
, both Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazines wrote about him. The Time article starts out, "In San Francisco, some teen-agers dye their hair green. Others pencil their eyebrows in red, paint cat's whiskers on their faces, wear purple lipstick. Their hats are trimmed with swizzle sticks, foxtails and pipe cleaners. Shouting the password 'Zorch!'... they storm into a radio studio in the Palace Hotel five nights a week to pay homage to a bop-talking disk jockey named Richard Bogardus Blanchard... His press agents describe [him] as [the] 'uncrowned king of juvenile Northern California.'" Blanchard said of his show, "It's a good thing this show happened in California. It's too Zorch for the rest of the country. They're not nervous and mixed-up enough or they'd be out here, too."[5]
Blanchard developed many characters using his collection of voices, and would tape funny stories starring these characters to play on his show. Some of the more notable shows and characters were episodes of "Tombstone Bogardus," the "Junk Box Jury" sketch, "Mr. Moto, Famous Japanese Detective," and lovable old "Dr. Christian Bogardus."[1] He kept his San Francisco fans busy "...mailing him dirt to 'help fill up San Francisco Bay,' or sending in empty orange juice cans to be used in building a 60-foot antenna. Twenty-five bottle caps earned a listener an 'I Dread Red' card [to play
off the 'I Like Ike' campaign], and a usable joke is repaid with an 'I Write for CBS' certificate. His fans also enrolled in the 'I Listen to Red in Bed' club."[5]
Novelty/comedy records
One member of the "I Listen to Red in Bed Club" was long-haul trucker, songwriter, and singer Jimmy Drake. Drake was living in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
in the early 1950s when Blanchard was on KCBS, and became enamored of Blanchard's style. Drake spent a lot of his trucking downtime writing songs that "invoked in some fashion Blanchard, his program or both."[2]
In late 1954, Drake, who somehow did not see himself as a singer, sent one of his songs, "Transfusion," to Blanchard hoping Blanchard would record it. Blanchard thought Drake's song was almost perfect the way it was, other than the need for a little "added drama" Blanchard-style; so from his sound effects library, Blanchard added to Drake's recording the sound of an auto skid and car crash into appropriate spaces on Drake's tape.[2] Blanchard finished the recording in about two hours, put it on the air and "Transfusion" immediately became a big hit.
Dot Records
Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
signed Drake up and made the record out of the tape that Blanchard made. "The final piece of the puzzle was for Jimmy Drake to transform himself into Nervous Norvus
Nervous Norvus
Nervous Norvus was the performing name of Jimmy Drake . His novelty song "Transfusion" was a major hit in 1956, as was a second song, "Ape Call," released later that year....
. In Blanchard's Zorch-speak, nervous meant 'cool' and its more conventional meaning, which aptly conveyed Drake's morbid bashfulness, made the word doubly suitable. The Norvus part Drake apparently invented out of thin air."[2] "He just thought of a word to be alliterative to nervous," says Blanchard.[2] "Transfusion" was released by Dot in May 1956 and reached the status of being in the top ten records in the country.[6]
Blanchard himself made a couple novelty records: "Pagan Love Song," on which he did all the parts, and the more famous "Captain Hideous (King of Outer Space)." He collaborated with Nervous Norvus on other songs, notably "Ape Call;" the alleged story of the dinasaur age, during which Red would do a live Ape Call every few bars, while Nervous sang about the ancient beings discovering each other.
Retirement
Blanchard lived in Escondido, California. His extended family (which includes a Richard Bogardus Blanchard V), are scattered from Oceanside, CaliforniaOceanside, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Oceanside had a population of 167,086. The population density was 3,961.8 people per square mile...
to Kenilworth, Utah
Kenilworth, Utah
Kenilworth is a census-designated place in northern Carbon County, Utah, United States. The population was 180 at the 2010 census. It lies along State Route 157 north of the city of Price, the county seat of Carbon County. Although it is unincorporated, Kenilworth has a post office, with the ZIP...
. He continued to operate his personal Website, http://redblanchard.com and General Broadcasting System, http://gbs.bz occasionally still playing the trombone, drums, piano, or guitar for his own amusement until his death from surgery complications. (He was a life member of the Musicians' Union, Local 47 of Hollywood).
Awards
- Inducted into the Bay Area Hall of fame - October 1, 2008.
- Awarded Amateur Radio Relay League certificate for 60 years of service - 1999.
- Presented with a Clio Award for a commercial for Vision Windshield Cleaner on which he was the announcer. - 1970.