DON BLANDING
Poetry Readings, Lectures & Public Appearances

      Blanding was lecturing as early as 1922 when he presented a "Color Theory" talk in Honolulu.
      One of Don's earliest known poetry readings was in Los Angeles at a dinner of the Wampas Club. Wampas stood for Western Associated Motion Picture Advertisers, which was a fraternal group of movie press agents that existed during the 1920s and 30s. One of their main objectives was the annual selection of thirteen promising Hollywood starlets, known as "Wampas Babies," which included such notables as Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers and Sally Rand. It's claimed that the Wampas Club may have actually launched many of these Hollywood careers.
      Blanding was invited to read his original poem "The Virgin of Waikiki," a bawdy tale of 'Virgin Annie,' and the reading was so popular with the audience, that the poem was privately printed as a small booklet, and handed out to members. The Virgin of Waikiki would be printed again later in the year, and then picked up by the Mark M. Snyder Publishing Company in 1928, and reprinted in 1930, 1933 & 1937.

Blanding at a booksigning following a lecture

     Blanding's first lecture for the 'World Celebrities Lecture Series' was in Seattle in 1928, shortly after the publication of "Vagabond's House." He would become a career lecturer, working on what he called the "creamed chicken and green peas tour" for the rest of his life.

to be continued...

Copyright ©2007 by Keith Emmons Design.  All rights reserved.