Radio de Korla Pandit

Korla Pandit (September 16, 1921 ? October 2, 1998), born John Roland Redd in St. Louis, Missouri, was a musician, composer, pianist, organist and television pioneer. He was known as "The Godfather Of Exotica". Arriving in Los Angeles, California in 1940, John Roland Redd donned a turban and performed under the name Juan Rolando. Redd married Disney artist Beryl June DeBeeson in 1944, and the two overhauled his image, eventually replacing "Juan Rolando" with "Korla Pandit" and fabricating a romantic history for him as a baby born in New Delhi, India to a Brahman priest and a French opera singer, who traveled from India via England, finally arriving in the United States.