Editing Mel Blanc (section)

==Early life==
Blanc was born on May 30, 1908, in [[San Francisco]], [[California]]. He was the younger of two children born to Eva (''née'' Katz) and Frederick Blank. His mother was a [[History of the Jews in Lithuania|Lithuanian Jew]] who had immigrated to the United States, while his father had been born in [[New York City]] to [[German Jewish]] immigrant parents.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2023-07-01|title=Fredrick H Blanc|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Fredrick-Blanc/6000000002023511324|access-date=2024-08-03|website=geni_family_tree|language=en-US}}</ref> He grew up in San Francisco's [[Western Addition, San Francisco|Western Addition]] neighborhood,<ref>Mintun, Peter (April 13, 1993) [http://www.amacord.com/fillmore/museum/mintun01.html "Look Back to the Upper Fillmore"] ''The Fillmore Museum''</ref> and later in [[Portland, Oregon]], where he attended [[Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon)|Lincoln High School]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/mel_blanc.html|title=Mel Blanc|work=pdxhistory.com|access-date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> He had an early fondness for voices and dialect, which he began practicing at the age of 10. He claimed that he changed the spelling of his name when he was 16, from Blank to Blanc, because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be like his name, a "blank". He joined the [[DeMolay International|Order of DeMolay]] as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://demolay.org/project/mel-blanc/|title=DeMolay Hall of Fame|author=DeMolay International|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710144008/https://demolay.org/halloffame/bio.php?id=8|archive-date=July 10, 2017|access-date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> After graduating from high school in 1927, he divided his time between leading an orchestra, becoming the youngest conductor in the country at the age of 19; and performing ''[[shtick]]'' in [[vaudeville]] shows around Washington, Oregon and northern California.<ref name="Blanc">{{Cite book|last1=Blanc|first1=Mel|first2=Philip|last2=Bashe|title=That's Not All, Folks!|location=Clayton South, VIC, Australia|publisher=Warner Books|year=1989|isbn=0-446-51244-3|url=https://archive.org/details/thatsnotallfolks00blan}}</ref>