John R. Ellis

John Raymond Ellis (born March 2, 1955) is an American artist, filmmaker, animator, director, producer, and writer in Los Angeles, California, known particularly for his special effects.

Background

Ellis was born in Wilmington, Ohio south of Dayton. He was the youngest of two sons and two daughters of John Leonard MacDonald Ellis (1918–1997) of Clinton County and the former Rachel Jeanette Wilson (1918–1980), a native of neighboring Warren County. The senior Ellis was Methodist; Mrs. Ellis, Quaker. John R. Ellis is of English, Scottish, and Dutch descent. He was reared on a small farm in Clinton County until 1960, when the family moved to the Lakewood section of Wilmington. As a child, John liked to go to downtown Wilmington to buy comic books or go to the movie theater; he often pulled a wagon to collect soft drink bottles to trade for comics. His family encouraged him to develop his artistic and creative talents. At an early age, he developed an interest in aviation and built model planes and rockets.

John R.

John R. (born John Richbourg, August 20, 1910, Manning, South Carolina; died February 15, 1986, Nashville, Tennessee) was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame in the 1950s and 1960s for playing rhythm and blues music on Nashville radio station WLAC. He was also a notable record producer and artist manager.

Richbourg was arguably the most popular and charismatic of the four announcers at WLAC who showcased popular African-American music in nightly programs from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. (The other three were Gene Nobles, Herman Grizzard, and Bill "Hoss" Allen.) Later rock music disc jockeys such as Alan Freed, Wolfman Jack, and others mimicked Richbourg's practice of using speech that simulated African-American street language of the mid-twentieth century.

Richbourg's highly stylized approach to on-air presentation of both music and advertising earned him popularity, but it also created identity confusion. Because Richbourg and fellow disc jockey Allen used African-American speech patterns, many listeners thought that both announcers were actually African-Americans. The disc jockeys used the mystique to their commercial and personal advantages until the mid-1960s, when their racial identities as Euro-Americans became public knowledge.