Richard LeGrand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard LeGrand (born August 29, 1882 in Portland, Oregon) was an American radio personality.
[edit] Biography
At age 16 LeGrand left home to become a sailor for the ensuing three years. At age 19, he settled down in New York City and got his first taste of stage life at the Bijou Theater working behind the scenes with an artificial snow making machine. From those humble beginnings, he worked his way on stage performing small bit parts in various plays with the Murray Hill Stock Company.
After returning to Oregon, he joined the Dillon and King Repretory Company and toured throughout the West in various musicals and vaudeville shows.
In 1928 he entered radio in San Francisco as an announcer for The Spotlight Review. He also had one of the first sponsored radio programs, Ole and the Girls, in which he impersonated a Swedish immigrant assisted by a group of three women known as the Coquettes. His best known role was that of Mr. Peavey, the friendly neighborhood druggist on the Great Gildersleeve Show in 1942. In 1948 he joined the Fibber McGee and Molly cast as Ole the Swedish born janitor.
