partnership of John Bland, Vincent Rother (1912-59) and Charles Elliott Trudeau (b. 1922) from 1953 to 1963. Trudeau, a Montreal native who had been educated at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (1935-42) and the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal (1942-44), trained in architecture at the Harvard School of Design. He apprenticed briefly with Vincent Rother (1948-50) before undertaking the grand tour of Europe (1951-3). He returned from Europe to settle into partnership with Bland and Rother in 1953.

Partenariat entre John Bland, Vincent Rother (1912-1959) et Charles Elliott Trudeau de 1953 à 1963. Trudeau est né à Montréal en 1922. Il a fait ses études au collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (1935-1942) et à l'École des beaux-arts de Montréal (1942-1944), puis a reçu sa formation d'architecte à la Harvard School of Design. Pendant quelque temps, il a été apprenti chez Vincent Rother (1948-1950) avant d'entreprendre le grand tour d'Europe (1951-1953). Revenu d'Europe, il s'est associé avec Bland et Rother en 1953.

American composer-lyricist Ralph Uriah Hunskcer (professional name Ralph Blane) was born and died in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He attended Northwestern University. He studied music in New York with Estell Liebling and began singing for radio in the 1930s. He and friend Hugh Martin started the Martins quartet; this friendship developed into a partnership that was to create many songs for stage and MGM musicals. They made their stage debut with “New Faces of 1936” and followed up the next year with “Hooray for What.” In 1941 they made their own musical, “Best Foot Forward.” Then they were off to Hollywood where they wrote three songs that have become classics for the 1944 film musical, “Meet Me in St. Louis”: “Boy Next Door,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “The Trolley Song.” For this they got their first Oscar nomination. A broadway musical adaptation of the film was staged in 1960 and a revival of the same in 1989. A second Oscar nomination followed in 1947 for the song “Pass That Peace Pipe” for the film version of “Good News,” for which they collaborated with Roger Edens. Over the next years they also collaborated with other song writers, including Harry Warren, Harold Arlen and Kay Thompson. In 1983 both Blane and Martin were inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. In the 1990s, Blane returned for his retirement to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, appearing once to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in the Walt Disney World’s 1991 Christmas Candlelight Processional.

William Thomas Blanford was born on October 7, 1832, in London, England.

He was an English geologist and naturalist, educated in private schools in Brighton (until 1846) and Paris (1848). He joined his family business in carving and gilding and studied at the School of Design in Somerset House. In 1851, he was induced to enter the newly established Royal School of Mines. He then spent a year in the mining school (Bergakademie) at Freiberg, Saxony, and in 1854, he obtained a post on the Geological Survey of India where he remained for twenty-seven years. Between 1857 and 1860 he was involved in a survey of the Rajniganj coalfields and in 1860, he went to Burma to study an extinct volcano Puppadoung. In 1867, he joined an expedition to Abyssinia. His extensive travels gave him exceptional opportunities for studying the natural history of various regions. After his retirement in 1882, he became an editor of “The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma” series.
For his many contributions to geological science, Blanford was in 1883 awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. For his labours on the zoology and geology of British India he received in 1901 a royal medal from the Royal Society. He had been elected F.R.S. in 1874 and was chosen president of the Geological Society in 1888. His principal publications were: “Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia” (1870), “Manual of the Geology of India”, with H. B. Medlicott (1879) and the third volume in “Birds” following the work of E. W. Oates in “The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma” series.

In 1883, he married Ida Gertrude Bellhouse. He died on June 23, 1905, in London, England.