[78-L] Pat Willard and Henry Blankfort

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

One of the people Pat Willard worked with at Revell Inc. in the 1950s 
was a man named Henry Blankfort. Henry preferred his name be pronounced 
“blank-fort.” I first met Henry in the early 1970s when he was a 
consultant and involved with the Los Angeles school system. Most of the 
people in my industry who knew or knew of Henry thought him a pompous 
blowhard. Actually, Henry was quite the character with an interesting 
background and a droll sense of humor. Early on he had been a 
fundraiser for Haganah, and later, for State of Israel bonds. At the 
time, he was involved in the film industry, but in the early 1950s, he 
was blacklisted because of left-wing associations. No longer able to 
work in the film industry, he went to work in the model kit industry 
where he met Pat Willard. Henry could be annoying to work with, I 
imagine, but the link that he and Pat shared was their connection with 
Ellington. As some people know, Pat acted as a publicist for Duke 
Ellington at various times, and wrote liner notes for a series of 
Ellington reissue CDs in the 1990s. She came to know Louis Bellson 
because she knew all the Ellington men. Blankfort’s link with 
Ellinigton is more obscure and goes back even further. Because of his 
theatre connections, Henry supervised the entire Los Angeles production 
in 1941 of Ellington’s “Jump for Joy.” See “Music is My Mistress.” I 
asked Henry about it. He said Duke had sent him a signed copy of his 
book. Nobody else in the industry that I’m aware of had any idea of 
Henry’s involvement with Elliington, the film industry, or his work on 
behalf  of the State of Israel. At one point, I introduced him to a 
woman who owned a company in the industry. She had served as an officer 
in the Israeli military in the late 1940s. Her name, if I remember 
correctly, was Milli. These were two people who shared something the 
rest of us didn’t.