Betty Reid Soskin ( Charbonnet; born September 22, 1921) is an American retired ranger with the National Park Service, previously assigned to the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. Until her retirement on March 31, 2022, at the age of 100, she was the oldest National Park Ranger serving the United States. She released the memoir Sign My Name to Freedom in February 2018.

Early life

Betty Charbonnet was born in 1921 in Detroit to Dorson Louis Charbonnet and Lottie Breaux Allen, both Catholics and natives of Louisiana. Her father came from a Creole background, and her mother from a Cajun background. Her great-grandmother had been born into slavery in 1846. She spent her early childhood living in New Orleans, until a hurricane and flood destroyed her family's home and business in 1927, when her family then relocated to Oakland, California.

Soskin graduated from Castlemont High School in Oakland.

During World War II she worked as a file clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, an all-black union auxiliary. Her main job was filing change of address cards for the workers, who moved frequently.

In June 1945, she and her then husband, Mel Reid, founded Reid's Records in Berkeley, California, a small black-owned business specializing in Gospel music. They moved to Walnut Creek, California in the 1950s, where their children attended better public schools and an alternative private elementary and middle school called Pinel. The family encountered considerable racism, and she and her husband were subject to death threats after they built a home in the white suburb.

Career

She converted to Unitarianism and became active in the Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church and the Black Caucus of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and in the 1960s became a well-known songwriter in the Civil Rights Movement.

She was divorced from Mel Reid in 1972, and subsequently married William Soskin, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, after Mel Reid's health and finances had declined, she took over management of the music store, which led to her becoming active in area civic matters and a prominent community activist. Reid's Records closed on October 19, 2019.

She later served as a field representative for California State Assemblywomen Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock, and in those positions became actively involved in the early planning stages and development of a park to memorialize the role of women on the Home Front during World War II. Those efforts came to fruition when Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park was established in 2000, to provide a site where future generations could remember the contributions women made to the war effort.

Reflecting on her own role in planning for the park's creation, and on how she brought her personal recollections of the conditions for African American women working in that still segregated environment to bear on the planning efforts, she has said that, often, she "was the only person in the room who had any reason to remember that … what gets remembered is a function of who's in the room doing the remembering."

In 2003, she left her state job and became a consultant at the park she helped create before becoming a park ranger with the National Park Service in 2007 at the age of 85.

Soskin's duties included conducting park tours and serving as an interpreter, explaining the park's purpose, history, various sites, and museum collections to park visitors. She has been celebrated as "a tireless voice for making sure the African-American wartime experienceboth the positive steps toward integration and the presence of discriminationhas a prominent place in the Park's history."

Soskin said in 2015, at the age of 93: "Wish I'd had [the] confidence when the young Betty needed it to navigate through the hazards of everyday life on the planet. But maybe I'm better able to benefit from having it nowwhen I have the maturity to value it and the audacity to wield it for those things held dear."

Soskin suffered a stroke while working at the park in September 2019 and returned to work in a limited, informal capacity in January 2020.

In celebration of her 100th birthday, the West Contra Costa Unified School District renamed Juan Crespi Middle School to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School.

On March 31, 2022, Soskin retired from the National Park Service; she was the oldest serving park ranger at the time.

Honors

 California Woman of the Year, California Legislature, 1995
 Builders of Communities and Dreams, National Women's History Project, 2006
 Cited in "Wherever there's a fightthe history of the ACLU in California" – Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, 2007
 Attended President Obama's Inauguration as a guest of Rep. George Miller, 2009
 Proclamation honoring her by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin on behalf of Richmond City Council, 2009
 Received honorary doctorate at California College of the Arts at Spring Commencement, 2010
 Received the WAVE award as one of three "Women of Achievement" by GirlSource of San Francisco, 2010
 Received a commemorative presidential coin in 2015; it was stolen from her in a home robbery in 2016, but later in 2016 she received a new one
 The National WWII Museum Silver Service Medallion, at the American Spirit Awards gala, 2016
 Recognition in the Congressional Record in 2016.
 Received honorary doctorate of arts and letters at Mills College, 2017
 Received the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the  National Parks Conservation Association, 2018
 Recognition in the Congressional Record in 2019
 Juan Crespi Middle School in the West Contra Costa Unified School District was renamed Betty Reid Soskin Middle School to honor Soskin; the renaming ceremony was held on her hundredth birthday on September 22, 2021

References

Sources
 Rachel Gillett – "Meet the 93-Year-Old Woman Who Still Works 5 Days a Week and Never Wants to Retire: Betty Reid Soskin is the oldest active ranger in the National Park Service", AOL Jobs, July 28, 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-09

External links
 personal blog
 Betty Reid Soskin: Rosie the Riveter World War II American Homefront Oral History Project
Sign My Name to Freedom website for Soskin's memoir
No Time to Waste website for 2020 documentary film

1921 births
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people
Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
African-American activists
African-American centenarians
African-American history in the San Francisco Bay Area
American centenarians
American community activists
American Unitarian Universalists
Castlemont High School alumni
Living people
National Park Service personnel
People from Berkeley, California
People from Oakland, California
People from Richmond, California
Women centenarians

Betty Reid Soskin


The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 American independent animated musical film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thurl Ravenscroft, with Wayne Kaatz, Colette Savage, Phil Hartman, Joe Ranft, and Jim Jackman in supporting roles. It is set in a world where domestic appliances and other consumer electronics come to life, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans. The story focuses on five anthropomorphic household appliances, which include a toaster, a lamp stand, a blanket, a radio and a vacuum cleaner, who go on a quest to search for their owner.

The film was produced by Hyperion Pictures and The Kushner-Locke Company. Many CalArts graduates, including the original members of Pixar Animation Studios, were involved with this film. The rights to the book were acquired by Walt Disney Studios in 1982. John Lasseter, then employed at Disney, wanted to do a computer-animated film based on it, but it was turned down. While the film received a limited theatrical release, The Brave Little Toaster received positive reviews and was popular on home video. It was followed by two sequels, The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue in 1997 and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars in 1998.

Plot

In a small wooden cottage, five small electric appliances – Toaster, Radio, a lamp stand named "Lampy", an electric blanket named "Blanky" and a vacuum cleaner named "Kirby" – await the return of a young boy named Rob who used to vacation at the cottage with his family, but the family has not come by in many years. One day, upon seeing that the cottage is about to be sold, the appliances decide to venture out and find Rob themselves. They turn Kirby into a makeshift vehicle by attaching a rolling office chair, a power strip and a car battery to him, and set out towards the city.

Along their journey, the appliances have numerous harrowing adventures. When their battery runs low, the group stops for the night in a forest, with Blanky serving as a tent. During the night, a storm blows Blanky up into the trees, and Lampy uses himself as a lightning rod to recharge the battery. After recovering Blanky, the appliances try to cross a waterfall, but everyone except Kirby falls into the murky water below. Kirby dives in and rescues the others; but with the chair, strip and battery lost, the group resorts to pulling the disabled Kirby through a swamp. They are almost swallowed up by a giant bog of quicksand, but are saved by Elmo St. Peters, who takes them to his appliance parts store. There, Elmo prepares to extract and sell Radio's vacuum tubes, but the other appliances frighten Elmo by pretending to be a ghost, causing him to knock himself unconscious. The appliances subsequently escape from the store.

Meanwhile, Rob, now a young adult, goes out to the cottage with his girlfriend Chris to retrieve the appliances to take with him to college. The group arrives at Rob's apartment, but his family's newer appliances, resentful about Rob wanting to take the older appliances instead of themselves, demonstrate how much more technologically advanced they are and throw the group out of the apartment and into a dumpster. Rob and Chris return home empty-handed; but an old black and white television in the apartment, a friend of the five appliances who formerly resided in the cottage with them, plays fictional advertisements for the junkyard the appliances have been taken to, convincing Rob and Chris to go there and find them.

At the junkyard, the appliances fall into despair, believing Rob no longer needs them. They are picked up by a large electromagnet, and are about to be destroyed by a crusher, but after seeing Rob arrive at the junkyard, they regain hope and attempt to escape the magnet and place themselves so Rob will find them. However, the magnet thwarts their escape by separating the group on the conveyor belt leading to the crusher. Rob spots all the appliances except Toaster on the conveyor belt, and attempts to rescue them, but is picked up by the magnet, who drops him and the appliances back on the belt. Toaster jumps into the crusher's gears, stopping the crusher just before it flattens Rob and the others, but is badly mangled in the process. Back at the apartment, Rob repairs Toaster, and he and Chris depart for college with all five appliances in tow.

Voice cast
 Deanna Oliver as Toaster, a pop-up two-slice toaster who is the leader of the group of minor electrical appliances. Toaster is courageous, intelligent, kind, thoughtful and warmhearted, and is the one who devises the idea of going on a journey to locate the appliances' master Rob. While voiced by an actress, Toaster's gender is left ambiguous in the film.
 Timothy E. Day as Blanky, an electric blanket with an innocent demeanor. Child-like and insecure, Blanky is the only youngest appliance who is deeply distressed over Rob's absence and wants nothing more than to be reunited with him. Toaster and Blanky share a warm, older sibling-younger sibling relationship.
 Day also voices Young Rob in several flashbacks.
 Tim Stack as Lampy, an easily impressed yet slightly irascible tensor gooseneck desktop lamp stand. While he can be ironically dim-witted at times despite being "bright" due to his light, he is shown to be clever and resourceful when things get dire. During the storm scene, he nearly sacrifices his life, using himself as a lightning rod to power the group's car battery.
 Stack also voiced a customer at the spare parts shop named "Zeke".
 Jon Lovitz as Radio, a wisecracking vacuum-tube-based dial A.M. radiotelegraphic alarm clock with a personality that parodies loud and pretentious announcers.
 Jerry Rees as Radio's singing voice.
 Thurl Ravenscroft as Kirby, a very deep-voiced, individualistic upright vacuum cleaner who dons a cynical, cantankerous attitude towards the other appliances, though deep inside he cares about them greatly.
 Wayne Kaatz as Master Rob McGroarty, the original human owner of the five appliances. After appearing as a child in flashbacks, Rob as a young adult is leaving for college. While in the book, Rob plans to sell the cabin along with the appliances, in the film, Rob still has sentimentality towards appliances and takes them to college in the end.
 Colette Savage as Chris, Rob's tomboyish, supportive girlfriend.
 Phil Hartman, doing an impression of Jack Nicholson, as Air Conditioner, a sardonic air conditioner who resides in the cabin with the rest of the clan. He lost his temper while arguing with them and became so enraged that he overheated and exploded, but is repaired by Rob near the end of the film.
 Hartman, doing an impression of Peter Lorre, also voiced the Hanging Lamp, a tensor desktop lamp stands with extension cords for arms in the spare parts shop.
 Joe Ranft as Elmo St. Peters, the owner of a spare appliance parts shop where he disassembles even his own appliances and sells the parts.
 Ranft also voices the evil clown in Toaster's nightmare.
 Beth Anderson as the Mae West-inspired magneto phone open-reel tape recorder in "It's a B-Movie" and the wooded wagon in "Worthless".
 Janice Liebhart as the fan in "It's a B-Movie", the phone in "Cutting Edge" and the pink convertible in "Worthless".
 Judy Toll, doing an impression of Joan Rivers, as Mishmash, a mish-mash hybrid device consisting of a can opener, a gooseneck desktop lamp stands and an electric shaver.
 Darryl Phinnessee as various characters in "It's a B-Movie" and "Cutting Edge" and the hearse in "Worthless".
 Jonathan Benair as TV, a black and white TV set who has moved to Rob's apartment and is an old member of the clan.
 Jim Jackman as Plugsy, a pear-shaped night table lamp stand who is the leader of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment. While they were benevolent in the novel, in the film, they are initially jealous and antagonistic towards the clan.
 Mindy Stern as Rob's mother, who is an unseen character.
 Toll and Stern also voiced the Two-Faced Sewing Machine, who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
 Randy Bennett as Computer, who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
 Danny Mann as Stereo, who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
 Randall William Cook as Entertainment Complex, a stereophonic entertainment complex system who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
 Brian Cummings as the oven in "It's a B-Movie".
 Susie Allanson as the toaster oven in Rob's apartment.

Production

Conception and financing
The film rights to The Brave Little Toaster, the original novella by Thomas M. Disch, were purchased by the Walt Disney Studios in 1982, two years after its appearance in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. After animators John Lasseter and Glen Keane had finished a short 2D/3D test film based on the book Where the Wild Things Are, Lasseter and producer Thomas L. Wilhite decided they wanted to produce a whole feature with the same technique.

The story they chose was The Brave Little Toaster, and this became the first CGI film Lasseter ever pitched, but in their enthusiasm, they ran into issues pitching the idea to two high-level Disney executives, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and Disney president Ron W. Miller. Ron Miller asked about the cost after the pitch and when Lasseter replied that it would cost no more than a traditionally animated film, Miller rejected the pitch, saying that the only reason to use computers would be if it was "faster or cheaper".

A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter received a phone call from Hansen and was instructed to come down to his office, where Lasseter was informed that he was dismissed. Originally set to commence at the Disney studios with a budget of $18 million, development was then transferred to the new Hyperion Pictures, which had been created by former Disney employees Tom Wilhite and Willard Carroll, who took the production along with them after Wilhite successfully requested the project from then-president Ron Miller. As a result, the film was financed as an independent production by Disney, with the aid of electronics company TDK Corporation and video distributor CBS/Fox Video.

The budget was reduced by $12.06 million to $5.94 million as production began, approximately a third of the budget offered when in-house. Despite providing funds to get it off the ground, Disney was not involved with production of the film. Rees later commented that there were external forces at work that had the right to say this was a cheap film that could be shipped overseas, which the staff objected to and therefore were willing to make sacrifices to improve the quality of the film despite its limited budget.

Writing
In 1986, Hyperion began to work on the story and character development. Jerry Rees, a crew member on two previous Disney films, The Fox and the Hound and Tron, and co-writer of the screenplay along with Joe Ranft, was chosen to direct the project. He had been working on an animated adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit with Brad Bird, and received a call from Wilhite asking him to develop, write, and direct, explaining that The Brave Little Toaster was being adapted into a short, but that a feature film was possible if handled correctly. Joe Ranft and Rees worked on developing the story. The storyboards were designed by Rees, Ranft, along with Alex Mann and Darrell Rooney. When animators ran out of pages to storyboard, Rees sat down and wrote more of the script.

The work was significantly adapted from the original story. Only about four lines of dialogue from the book ended up in the finished film. Rees decided to move the junkyard sequence from the middle of the story to its end because of the junkyard's symbolism as a graveyard for appliances. He also wanted a definitive moment that earned Toaster the title of "brave", so he had Toaster jump into the gears to save the Master, a plot point that wasn't in the book. Having the character's voices in his head when writing the script helped Rees to personalize the dialogue. He even reworked some of the already-completed script in order to customize sections based on the actors' personalities. After cutting together the storyboards and scene-planning in Taipei, production manager Chuck Richardson explained the logistics issues—the film would be 110 minutes long. As a result, Rees decided to cut around 20 minutes' worth of the story — the deleted scenes have not been released to the public.

Casting
Rees was still in the process of writing when he decided to find actors. Many auditioners presented cartoony, exaggerated voices, which displeased him, because they did not believe their characters or bring a reality to the role. As a result, he sought out voice talent from The Groundlings improvisational group upon recommendation by Ranft, and he appreciated the honesty and naturalism they gave to their performances. Many of their members, including Jon Lovitz (Radio), Phil Hartman (Air Conditioner/Hanging Lamp), Tim Stack (Lampy), Judy Toll (Mishmash), and Mindy Sterling (Rob's mother) voiced characters in the film. Already established as an actor through Tony the Tiger and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Thurl Ravenscroft was cast as Kirby the vacuum cleaner. Heading the ensemble cast were Groundlings performer Deanna Oliver as Toaster, and newcomer Timothy E. Day as Blanky.

Oliver originally auditioned for Air Conditioner using a Bette Davis impression, but accepted the lead when offered. Rees, who had conceived Toaster as a female character, later recalled an anecdote where a crew member "slammed the door and walked out" because he had hired a woman to play the lead role. Day had never done acting work before, and had asked his mother to take him to auditions after becoming fascinated with a child actor voice-over.

Recording
Recording sessions took place at a small derelict property in Hollywood. Rees's direction primarily consisted of ensuring the performances were as natural and realistic as possible. When recording, Rees first had each scene delivered as written, and then allowed the voice actors to play around with the dialogue and ended up using many of the improvised lines in the final film. Unusual for the time, some of the recordings were done in group sessions.

After being cast, Jon Lovitz got an opportunity to appear on Saturday Night Live. Because Rees had written the part of Radio specifically for Lovitz, he tried to find a way to keep Lovitz in the film. They ended up doing a marathon recording session, recording all of Lovitz's lines of dialogue in one night. Rees then stood in for Lovitz when the others were recording.

Rees described Timothy Day as an "amazing performer", who would ask about his character's motivation and the context of each scenario before recording his lines. Day was nicknamed "one-take Timmy" due to nailing the emotional truth of the text so quickly, such as crying loudly or delivering a line with a quiver in his voice. Comparing this film to the sequels, where a high note was dubbed by another singer due to being off-key, Oliver noted that in this film it would have been kept in due to being part of the character.

Animation
The crew initially worked on pre-production for six months in Los Angeles in 1985, and then a staff of ten people moved to Taiwan with Rees for another six months to work with Wang Film Productions Company Limited in Taipei (headed by James Wang) for the principal animation, then returned for a third six-month work period for post-production in the U.S. Rees's wife Rebecca was the film's directing animator, and she taught classes to the Taiwanese animators in order to improve the quality of their output.

The animators also had a mixture of ex-Disney employees and college graduates from CalArts. Every day, they had to do what would normally be done across a two-week period at Disney. The colour stylist was veteran Disney animator A. Kendall O'Connor, a member of Disney's feature animation department from its first feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Oliver likened the light-hearted frog sequence to Merrie Melodies. A massive TDK sign was included by Rees as the company was a big sponsor. The animators used many visual cues to help inform the audience about plot and character. For example, during the nightmare sequence at the beginning of the film, Toaster burns toast and emits smoke, which symbolizes guilt and fear of being responsible.

They deduced toasters would be afraid of things like forks and falling into the bathtub while plugged in, so they included them in this sequence. Oliver described the transition from bathtub sparks to lightning outside the house as proper filmmaking. Similarly, Blanky being a certain shade of yellow bears significance to the plot. In the beginning of their journey, the other characters dismiss him, even Toaster. Then Toaster encounters a flower that is the same color, who also wants to snuggle. After explaining it is just a reflection, he walks away, thereby making the flower wilt. The next moment shows Toaster proactively rescuing Blanky. The idea is that the flower informs Toaster that his actions will make Blanky wilt too.

Music and sound
The film score of The Brave Little Toaster was composed and conducted by David Newman and performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. Newman's score for this movie was one of his earlier works and apparently one that he felt very close to. He did not view it as a cheerful one and decided to give the film a dramatic score to reinforce the serious nature of many of the film's themes. Rees admired his "rich, classical style", and chose him so that the film wouldn't have "cartoon music". Rees stated that Newman would attempt to get into the headspace of the characters and thought in the terms of the inanimate objects being real characters.

Rees said that Newman's score was as "grand as anything he would ever do", rather than composing the music differently due to the medium being animation. He wove death, joy, love, loss, and struggle into the work. Newman's composing style was influenced by his philosophy that behind every "chord of joy" lies an element of sadness, whether it being the knowledge it won't last forever, that it is a facade for a deeper emotion, or that joy itself comes from sadness. He used lush strings in the opening scenes to convey a sense of longing. As the characters are introduced, the score becomes more lively, and each character has their own theme, influenced by their personality. For example, Kirby is a grumpy and old vacuum cleaner, and so Newman provides a theme consisting of low chords, whereas Radio was given a brassy fanfare to reflect his self-important personality. These musical motifs wove their way into the entire movie score.

At some points, the style of music was used to provoke an emotional response, for example when the Air Conditioner breaks down, the orchestra first trembles and then bursts with energy. After this the music returns to a somber tone, as the appliances start to realize that there is truth to what he said. When they explore the outside world for the first time, the music fills with a "pastoral grandeur", and when they enter the woods, strings, flutes, bells and brass are used to convey the simultaneous magic and danger of the outdoors. The film also contains a Busby Berkeley Italian opera-esque sequence containing a fish. The score was finally given a limited release in 2004. The film contains four original songs ("City of Light", "It's a B-Movie", "Cutting Edge", and "Worthless") that were written by Van Dyke Parks. Rees "felt uncomfortable with the full Broadway book musical approach", and his philosophy was that the songs should be part of the action and plot without stopping for a big production number.

Rees specifically wanted characters to be able to break out into song whenever they wanted to, similar to the films of the Hollywood Golden Age. Once they were written, Newman used the songs in his own score. For example, the first song in the film, "City of Light", displays the character's naivety and apprehension, and contains a motif that gets more complex as the film goes on. This approach made the score more cohesive. "It's a B-Movie" is filled with black humor and an ominous pipe organ as the mutant appliances scare the main characters. The synthesizer driven "Cutting Edge" sees the master's state-of-the-art appliances boast about how great they are. The poignant number "Worthless" is a track filled with piano, strings, guitar, and vocals which are abruptly cut off when the singing cars are crushed. The junkyard sequence's climax evokes feelings of desperation, danger, suspense and real-world peril. Newman "reprises the score's subtle and varied themes over the end credits". Newman wrote and orchestrated the score over a 50-hour period, which included embarking on a 12-hour flight to Japan to record with the orchestra in Maeda Hall.

The New Japan Philharmonic gave the score a "luxurious sound" that was impressive given the limited resources available. The sound effects were not from a library, and were instead, exclusively made Foley sounds, with various real-world objects around Los Angeles being used in the score, such as objects in antique stores. This technique was used because Rees wanted to create new characters with new sounds. The sound mixers, including former Disney studio mixer Shawn Murphy who recorded the score, asked how they would do their job due to the film being animated, and Rees explained that they should mix it like any other film, instead of thinking of it like it were a cartoon.

Music

David Newman's score for The Brave Little Toaster was his first for an animated work; Van Dyke Parks wrote the songs' music and lyrics. In most of the songs, Beth Anderson, Janice Liebhart, and Darryl Phinnessee perform the singing voices of various background characters, while also doubling as the chorus. In addition, the songs "Tutti Frutti" and "My Mammy" are played by the character Radio during the film.

The Orlando Sentinel Jay Boyar wrote in October 1989: "The songs (by Van Dyke Parks)...are clever. The best of a very good batch is 'Cutting Edge', a Talking Heads-for-kids-style ditty in which a gang of high-tech gadgets amazes and frightens Toaster's band with some electronic prowess". Thomas Glorieux gave the soundtrack three stars in a  2000s review.

Songs
Original songs performed in the film include:

Themes
Director Jerry Rees described the main message the film asks as: "what would it be like to be an appliance, and feel good when you're useful, and help people..."? He also explained that the film's themes included a "fear of being abandoned and wanting to be reunited with somebody that you love..."—the opposing forces of feeling like you're worthless and the joy of redemption". Another important notion was that of "valuing things from the past and taking them...into the future", both in terms of objects and relationships. All of the main characters have personalities that are unique twists on the appliance functionality.

Blanky is an electric security blanket but is insecure without its owner, the bright Lampy is mentally dim, Kirby is supposed to hold everything inside but has a nervous breakdown, Toaster is warm and reflective so can easily empathize, and Radio is constantly switched on and entertaining. He has the philosophy that despite being inanimate, they each symbolized things that humans actually feel. As the foundation for writing the story, Rees reasoned that the characters would only be happy if they were being used by the Master. As a result of this, a major aspect of the film is about inanimate objects becoming alive when someone is not observing them.

As opposed to other films of the time, The Brave Little Toaster was able to include dark, scary, edgy, or risqué content due to being an independent feature. They were able to explore the "wouldn't it be fun if" places that Disney wouldn't allow. They rejected the false dichotomy of being joke-driven or overly sincere, and instead incorporated both elements as that is how real conversations work.

Release and home media

United States
The film's premiere was at Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles on July 10, 1987. With the producer's help, the film premiered in various festivals, including the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration in 1987, and the Sundance Film Festival in 1988. It made history as the first original animated film ever exhibited at Sundance (Faith Hubley's The Cosmic Eye, a compilation film featuring several shorts she made with spouse John Hubley, was screened in the 1986 festival) and remained the only one until 2001's Waking Life.

Though the prize went to Rob Nilsson's Heat and Sunlight, before the awards ceremony, Rees claims he was told by the judges that they considered Toaster the best film, but they decided not to give the award to a cartoon as they considered people would not take the festival seriously afterwards. Though it is sometimes thought that the film was not released in cinemas because it failed to find a distributor, in reality arthouse film distributor Skouras Pictures took on the distributing rights for the theatrical release, and was going to do evening screenings, noting it was more for college and young adult than kids.

However, Disney, who had invested in the video and television rights, according to Rees did not want competition so moved their television premiere date up and ended up preventing it from being financially successful in theatres, forcing Skouras to withdraw their deal. The film premiered on the Disney Channel on February 27, 1988. To compensate, Hyperion continued its plan to enter the film into various festivals and managed to secure limited theatrical airings at arthouse facilities across the United States, such as spending two weeks at New York's Film Forum in May 1989, and shortly in Washington, D.C. in March 1990.

Rees thinks most people discovered the film through syndication on the Disney Channel, or through home video releases. In July 1991, Walt Disney Home Video released the film to home video format via VHS and Laserdisc. A DVD release was released in 2003; like most budget Disney releases from the time, the DVD uses the transfer from the LaserDisc release.

While the sequels, The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, are available, the original film has yet to appear on Disney+, or any video on demand services for that matter.

International
ITC Entertainment held international distribution rights to the film and began syndicating the film starting with the ATPE 1991 TV trade show.

In the UK, the VHS tapes were released under PolyGram Video (1990s) and Carlton Video (2000s), while in Australia, Roadshow Home Video held the rights.

In Spain, Divisa Home Video and Aurum Produccines were in charge of distribution, the former during the 2000s.

In September 2003, Prism Leisure, under license from Carlton Communications (the then-owners of ITC Entertainment's library), released the film on DVD in the UK to tie-in with its 15th Anniversary. This DVD release, compared to the US Disney version, uses a brand new remastered transfer sourced from an international print. Their license has since expired, but the disc can still be found on UK shopping sites.

Reception and legacy
The film has garnered a 77% rating on the reviews website Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.31/10. Mary Houlihan-Skilton of Chicago Sun-Times gave a positive review, but found a problem with the storytellers using caricatures of Bette Davis, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson, Mae West, Joan Rivers and others to portray them, feeling that became "so old that it has been used forever and should be given a rest".

The Washington Post called it "a kid's film made without condescension", while The New York Times said that the film visually "has a smooth-flowing momentum and a lush storybook opulence". Time Out said the film had "a winning combination of inventive characters, amusing dialogue, excellent voice-overs, likeable tune and first-rate animation". Deseret News wrote it is "a wonder of the movie industry...a funny, occasionally thrilling animated feature aimed at kids, but with a sophisticated sensibility intended to reach their parents as well". Halliwell's Film Guide called it an "odd fantasy of pots and pans with no more than adequate animation".

Projection Booth, Film Freak Central, Arizona Daily Star, and Leonard Maltin all gave the film similar praise, describing it as "among the finest animated films Disney never made", "Blade Runner for children", "an overlooked classic [and] utterly rewatchable fable", and "a real breath of fresh air in contemporary cartoons" respectively. Needcoffee.com gave the film a 4/5, writing that despite the film having a questionable premise, "it's an actually cute and extremely fun animated flick". Las Vegas Review-Journal, Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies, and eFilmCritic.com all gave the same score, the latter describing it as a "perfectly charming kid's flick about adventuring appliances". Northwest Herald gave a 3/5, EmanuelLevy.Com and Talking Pictures gave a 2/5 rating.

This film is unique in that it attracted a substantial amount of talent from both old and new sources. Many of the cast and crew members went on to have successful careers in the animation industry. Co-writer Joe Ranft became a script supervisor at Pixar, while animators Kirk Wise and Kevin Lima went on to animate and co-direct films of the Disney Renaissance, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan. Effects animator Mark Dindal directed Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little, as well as Warner Bros.' Cats Don't Dance. Character designer Rob Minkoff directed The Lion King, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. After directing a financially unsuccessful film The Marrying Man in 1991, Jerry Rees went on to direct Disney theme park films. Voice actors Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman wound their way onto animated series such as The Simpsons and The Critic. Many have noted that this film shares similarities to the Toy Story franchise, also worked on by John Lasseter. Rees saw it as "the next inanimate object feature".

The Brave Little Toaster was followed by two sequels a decade later: The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue. The former (Mars) is based on the sequel to Disch's novella while the latter (Rescue) is a brand new story. While reuniting most of the cast, they had a new director and crew. Rees noted that the original film was made out of pure love and not thought of as a kids' film or a product, and that he had heard the new approach was a more commercial venture. Deanna Oliver felt that despite Ramirez being a talented director who handled the franchise with care, instead of "film" and "character-driven", the project seemed more about getting it done because it could be made. Neither Rees nor Oliver have watched the finished sequels.

In 2006, the official website of Hyperion Pictures posted an image of a possible fourth film in CGI, but that film was never produced. The website has been inactive since then but was recently updated in 2019. Waterman Entertainment planned a remake, but was never produced.

Despite its limited release, the cult following of the film has seen the cast and crew get substantial recognition throughout the world. Rees recalled a situation where a person he was doing an online project with messaged him on IMDb, discovering his work on TBLT, and explained how deeply the film affected him due to teaching life lessons. He appreciated this genuine reaction from a real person. Oliver went to the Afghanistan deployment ceremony for her son in June 2010, and he had told Brave Company his mother played Toaster, so they brought toasters with them for her to sign, which the soldiers took to the country with them. She also received fan art from one of the soldiers. The consensus among people who worked on the film such as Tom Wilhite and Donald Kushner is that the original is the one that has the cult following as opposed to the sequels. Rees said that when his future Pixar friends saw the film, they appreciated it despite the animation due to the heavy financial and time constraints.

Awards and nominations

|-
| 1988
| The Brave Little Toaster
| Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program
|
|-
| 1988
| Jerry Rees
| Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic
|
|-
| 1988
| The Brave Little Toaster
| Special Jury Recognition
|
|-
| 1988
| The Brave Little Toaster
| Parent's Choice Award
|
|}

See also
 Toy Story
 Tin Toy
 Arthouse animation

References

 Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Reader Press. . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
 Datlow, Ellen and Windling, Terri (2001). The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. St. Martin's Press. . Retrieved March 29, 2007.

External links

 Information at Disney.com

 The Brave Little Toaster at Jerry Rees website
 24 page analysis of The Brave Little Toaster history

1987 films
1987 animated films
1980s American animated films
1980s fantasy adventure films
1980s musical fantasy films
American children's animated adventure films
American children's animated fantasy films
American children's animated musical films
American fantasy adventure films
American musical fantasy films
Animated films based on American novels
Disney animated films
1980s English-language films
Films based on American novels
Films with screenplays by Joe Ranft
Films with screenplays by Jim Ryan (writer)
Films scored by David Newman
Films directed by Jerry Rees
Hyperion Pictures films
Independent animated films
1980s children's animated films
Animated films set in the United States
Animated films set in California
Films with screenplays by Jerry Rees
Films produced by Donald Kushner
The Kushner-Locke Company films
Sundance Film Festival award-winning films
American independent films
1987 independent films

The Brave Little Toaster


During the Holocaust, death marches took place mostly in 1944-1945. Many Jewish prisoners were forced to walk to concentration camps, and more than 15,000 people died along the way. German Soldiers followed strict orders to shoot any prisoner who went too slow or fell down. Prisoners were brutally mistreated and killed while they marched forward.

The Holocaust

Death marches during the Holocaust


Shawnacy Campbell "Shawn" Barber (born 27 May 1994) is a Canadian track and field athlete specialising in the pole vault. He is a world champion in pole vault having won the event with a height of 5.90 m at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. Barber also became a Pan American Games champion in winning the 2015 edition of the Games with a height of 5.80 m. Barber won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as well.

His outdoor personal best jump of 5.93 metres was made on July 25, 2015, it is the current national record. His indoor personal best is 6.00 metres from 2016 (Canadian Indoor Record). Barber is tied for the Pan Am record together with Lázaro Borges. He also holds the NCAA Collegiate Indoor Record at 5.91m.

Career

College
After competing at the 2013 World Championships Barber failed to qualify for the final. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where he met with success winning bronze as a 20-year-old in the event clearing 5.45 m on the first attempt but failing at 5.55.

During the 2015 season Barber set a personal best and national record of 5.91 m at the 2015 Texas Relays to set an NCAA Collegiate Record. With the first event of the season he set a world leading number. After the Texas Relays event he said "You know, six months ago if you asked me if I'd be jumping at 5.90 consistently, I would have told you 'No way.' But it's funny how things happen, and I couldn't be more grateful to be where I am right now.". Barber was 2015 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional Field Athlete of the Year. At the 2015 NCAA finals in June Barber won the event with a jump of 5.60 metres. With this title Barber became the only three-time NCAA champion for Akron after winning the 2014 and 2015 NCAA indoor titles as well.

Pan Am and World success
The 2015 Pan American Games took place on Canadian soil in Toronto, Ontario. Barber jumped to a 5.80 there, tying a Pan Am record with Lázaro Borges who set the record in 2011. He had missed his 5.40 jump very badly in the early rounds, bringing on some nerves to both himself and the home crowd. He later explained the slip up as a result of earlier applying sunscreen with some residue remaining on his hands. Barber signed with Nike in August 2015.

Following the Pan American games in Toronto Barber next competed in the 2015 World Championships in Athletics taking place in Beijing. There he staked his name as a rising star cementing his status by winning the world title with a jump of 5.90 m. This was Canada's first world title in athletics since 2003, though Derek Drouin would match Barber's gold later on in the high jump in Beijing. After the win Barber said "I don't think it has sunk in quite yet, and I'm looking forward to the next few days when it does. I was fortunate to be very consistent throughout the meet. That was the name of the game. I came in knowing that it was going to be a meet that came down to first attempts. I couldn't have asked for a better competition."

He cleared six metres for the first time in January 2016 at the Pole Vault Summit, improving his own national record and becoming the first under-23 athlete to ever reach that height. Barber took this momentum into the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships. There had been a growing rivalry with himself and Renaud Lavillenie since the outdoor world championships, though here in the indoor event Barber did not meet those expectations. He finished fourth while Lavillenie would go on to win the event. Barber was disappointed after, saying that "The nerves were definitely there. Anytime you get together with this group of guys and you start jumping at these heights, it's definitely a nervous event. Coming through on those third attempts definitely helped, and it taught me a lot about my jumping style, and gives me a good platform to go on outdoors."

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Barber placed tenth in wet and windy conditions.  He cleared 5.50 metres before missing on all three attempts at 5.65.

After the Games, Canada's Sport Dispute Resolution Centre announced that Barber had tested positive for cocaine prior to the Games, but was permitted to compete as the use was found to be inadvertent. According to the NY Times Barber avoided a multiyear suspension in 2016, successfully attributing a low-level cocaine violation to an intimate encounter with a woman he had met on Craigslist the night before Olympic trials.

Personal
Barber holds dual Canadian-American citizenship, having been born in Las Cruces, New Mexico and his father George Barber grew up in El Paso, Texas, but was himself born in Kincardine, Ontario. At age 10 his mother Ann Barber divorced his father and he moved to New Caney, Texas. He split his time growing up between the Toronto area and the United States and graduated from Kingwood Park High School in Houston. Barber refers to Toronto as his hometown during competitions and says he chose to represent Canada since his particular sport was more important in Canada as well as to follow in his father's footsteps who was a pole vaulter for Canada at the 1983 World Championships and a competitor twice at Team Canada Summer Olympic trials. Barber came out as gay in April 2017.

Competition record

1Representing the Americas

References

External links

  (archive)

1994 births
Living people
Canadian people of Scottish descent
Sportspeople from Las Cruces, New Mexico
Canadian male pole vaulters
Pan American Games track and field athletes for Canada
Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada
Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada
World Athletics Championships medalists
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Canada
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic track and field athletes for Canada
Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
LGBT track and field athletes
Canadian LGBT sportspeople
Gay sportsmen
Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Canadian Track and Field Championships winners
World Athletics Championships winners
Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games
Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Canadian gay men

Shawnacy Barber


Bical is a white Portuguese wine grape planted primarily in the Bairrada region. It can produce high acid wines and is often used in sparkling wine production.

Synonyms
Bical is also known under the synonyms Arinto de Alcobaça, Barrado das Moscas, Bical de Bairrada, Borrado das Moscas (in the Dao), Pintado das Moscas, and Pintado dos Pardais. Bical and Bical Tinto are also used as synonyms for Touriga Nacional.

See also
List of Portuguese grape varieties

References

White wine grape varieties

Bical (grape)


Nihilism (frae the Laitin , naething) is a filosofical doctrine that suggests the lack o belief in ane or mair reputitly meaninfu aspects o life. Maist commonly, nihilism is presentit in the form o exeestential nihilism, which argues that life is withoot objective meanin, purpose, or intrinsic vailyie. Moral nihilists assert that thare is na inherent morality, an that acceptit moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism mey an aa tak epistemological, ontological, or metapheesical forms, meanin respectively that, in some aspect, knawledge is nae possible, or reality disna actually exeest.

References

Ethical theories
Metapheesical theories
Filosofie o life
Poleetical ideologies

Nihilism


The Laguna Mountains are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System in eastern San Diego County, southern California. The mountains run in a northwest/southeast alignment for approximately .

The mountains have long been inhabited by the indigenous Kumeyaay people.

Geography
The Laguna Mountains are bordered by the Cuyamaca Mountains area on the west and the Colorado Desert on the east, where the mountains form a steep escarpment along the Laguna Salada Fault. To the north the Laguna Mountains are bounded by the Elsinore Fault Zone and to the south by Cameron Valley and Thing Valley.

The highest point is Cuyapaipe Mountain at . The mountains are largely contained within the Cleveland National Forest. Snow falls on the highest peaks several times a year. Mount Laguna is a village in the Laguna Mountains with a population of about 80.

The headwaters of three perennial streams begin in the Laguna Mountains: Noble Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Kitchen Creek.

The Laguna Mountains extend northwest about  from the Mexican border at the Sierra de Juárez range.
The Sawtooth Range and In-Ko-Pah Mountains are adjacent to the east. The Santa Rosa Mountains lie further to the northeast. The Cuyamaca Mountains are adjacent along the west.

The southern section is in the Mountain Empire region of San Diego County, and the northern section is in the East County region.

Recreation
The Laguna Mountains are a popular recreation area in the Cleveland National Forest. They comprise the southernmost crest along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Their relatively high altitude induces the highest snowfall in San Diego County making it one of the few local places to offer snow activities like sledding and snowshoeing.

See also

References

External links

Peninsular Ranges
Mountain ranges of San Diego County, California
Cleveland National Forest
Escarpments of the United States
East County (San Diego County)
Mountain Empire (San Diego County)
Kumeyaay
Mountain ranges of the Colorado Desert
Mountain ranges of Southern California

Laguna Mountains


Jimoh Ibrahim (born 24 February 1967) is a Nigerian lawyer, politician, businessman and philanthropist who is the senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District since 2023.

He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Global Fleet Group, a diversified conglomerate based in Nigeria, with business interests and subsidiaries in neighboring West African countries. In July 2022, he was awarded a professional Business Doctorate (BusD) by the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Background
Ibrahim traces his origins to Ondo State, in southwestern Nigeria. He studied law at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Laws (LLB). Subsequently, he obtained the degree of Master of Public Administration (MPA), also from Obafemi Awolowo University. Later, he attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, graduating with a combined Master of Laws (LLM) and Master's In International Taxation degree.
His investments include the following sectors, among others: oil & gas distribution, hotels, resorts, airlines, banking, real estate, insurance, publishing and investments.

Business interests
Global Fleet Group has the following subsidiary companies, among others:

 Air Nigeria - Lagos, Nigeria - Formerly Virgin Nigeria
 NICON Insurance - Lagos, Nigeria
 Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation - Lagos, Nigeria
 NICON Luxury Hotel - Abuja, Nigeria - Formerly Le' Meridien Hotel
 Global Fleet Oil & Gas - A chain of gasoline stations (estimated at about 200 in 2011), across Nigeria
 The NICON Group - Lagos, Nigeria - Holdings include investment companies, schools, real estate holdings, transport companies and others
 Global Fleet Building - Lagos, Nigeria - Formerly Allied Bank Building
 Meidan Hotel - Lagos, Nigeria
 Global Fleet Industries - Lagos, Nigeria - Formerly HFP Industries Limited
 Energy Bank - Accra, Ghana - A new commercial bank in Ghana, started operations in February 2011
 Oceanic Bank São Tomé - São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe - Commercial bank purchased from Oceanic Bank in May 2011.
 Newswatch Magazine - Lagos, Nigeria

Other responsibilities
In 2003, Jimoh Ibrahim mounted an unsuccessful bid to become the governor of Ondo State, on the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) ticket. He has authored three books. He is married to Mrs Modupe Jimoh Ibrahim and is the father of four children. He is also the publisher of the National Mirror Newspaper in Nigeria.

Controversy
Sahara Reports published a number of articles making allegations of substantial misconduct during 2013–15.

On Wednesday 11 November 2020, it was reported that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) had obtained a court order to freeze bank accounts and seize assets belonging to Jimoh Ibrahim over unpaid NGN69.4 billion debts.

See also
Global Fleet Group
Air Nigeria
Energy Bank

References
https://
"www.vanguardngr.com/2022/07/akeredolu-hails-jimoh-ibrahim-after-obtaining-cambridge-varsitys-business-doctorate-degree/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwj22fD7re_5AhX5wgIHHRr9A-cQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1OQ6BjlESEn2vU1d4LJaSw

External links
 Interview With Jimoh Ibrahim

1967 births
Living people
People from Ondo State
Nigerian chief executives
Harvard Law School alumni
Obafemi Awolowo University alumni
21st-century Nigerian businesspeople
Nigerian chairpersons of corporations

Jimoh Ibrahim


Special Effects is the fifteenth studio album by American rapper Tech N9ne. It was released on May 4, 2015, by Strange Music. The album is broken up into several portions representing days of the week, with collaborations with artists including Corey Taylor, B.o.B, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, T.I., Hopsin, E-40, Yo Gotti, Audio Push and Eminem, among others. The album also features fellow Strange Music artists Krizz Kaliko, Big Scoob and Ces Cru. Production on the album was handled by Seven, Strange Music's in-house producer, Excision along with  Joseph Bishara who was the composer of Insidious and The Conjuring.

Critical reception

Special Effects was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. David Jeffries of AllMusic said, "Sticking to his guns with angry, soul-searching lyrics spewing out while the high-powered crossover collaborations fly about, Tech N9ne skillfully rides his career trajectory as it soars ever upwards with Special Effects, an album that's powerful more than purposeful, plus a therapy session where all the party people can sing along." Eric Diep of HipHopDX praised the production, and said, "Casual listeners — who are more familiar with his Hip Hop catalogue — will likely be turned off by the handful of straight-up rap records. His core audience, though, will revel in the album's moments like the return of "Psycho Bitch" with a crazy storytelling verse from Hopsin over sinister production." Michael Blair of XXL said, "Steadily nearing the fine line between underground and mainstream for years now, Tech's 15th studio album finds itself as the apex of where the two classifications meet and invite both the well-acquainted enthusiast and the curious onlooker."

Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200, selling 60,000 copies in the United States. In its second week of sales, the album sold 14,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

2015 albums
Tech N9ne albums
Albums produced by Seven (record producer)

Special Effects (album)


Erwin Friedrich Karl Rösener (2 February 1902 – 4 September 1946) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he was responsible for mass executions of civilians in Slovenia. Rösener was put on trial for war crimes and sentenced to death on 30 August 1946, then executed by hanging on 4 September 1946. He was posthumously included in the indictment at the Nuremberg Trials for war crimes.

Early life and SS career
Rösener was born on 2 February 1902 in Schwerte, a town in the Westphalia. He joined the Nazi Party and the Sturmabteilung ("Brownshirts") paramilitary group on 6 November 1926. He applied to join the SS in October 1929 (his application was accepted in 1930). He was promoted 11 times between 1930 and 1944, eventually finishing with the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and Police. He was a member of the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, or "Circle of Friends of the Economy", a group of German industrialists whose aim was to raise funds for racial research within Nazi Germany. He was a close associate of SS chief Heinrich Himmler, and reported directly to him during the war.

War crimes in Yugoslavia
From the end of 1941 to the end of the war Himmler assigned Rösener as the Higher SS and Police Leader for SS-Oberabschnitt Alpenland, part of whose territory was Slovenia. Between October 1944 and the end of the war he was head of anti-Partisan warfare in Ljubljana. During both assignments he ordered the execution of civilians, hostages and prisoners of war, actions which led to his name being on the indictment for war crimes at Nuremberg.

Rösener worked closely with Leon Rupnik in fighting the Partisans, and ordered the formation of the pro-Nazi Domobranci, the Slovenian Home Guard forces on 24 September 1943.

Rösener escaped to Austria after the war but was arrested by the British and returned to Yugoslavia. He was put on trial alongside Leon Rupnik and others, and was sentenced to death on 30 August 1946. He was executed by hanging on 4 September 1946, aged 44, and was buried the same day in an unmarked grave at Ljubljana's Žale cemetery.

Gallery

References

1902 births
1946 deaths
Burials at Žale
Executed German mass murderers
Holocaust perpetrators in Yugoslavia
Jewish Slovenian history
Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
Nazis executed by Yugoslavia by hanging
SS and Police Leaders
SS-Obergruppenführer
Sturmabteilung personnel
Waffen-SS personnel

Erwin Rösener


Skederid Church () is a medieval church, which belongs to the Lutheran Archdiocese of Uppsala. It lies just outside Norrtälje in Stockholm County, Sweden. It was built by Birger Persson, father of Saint Bridget of Sweden, and it is probably the church where she was baptised.

History

The oldest parts of Skederid Church date from the end of the 13th century, and was built by lawspeaker Birger Persson, a man closely connected to King Birger of Sweden and the father of Saint Bridget of Sweden. The area surrounding the church is rich in cultural heritage, having been the site of continuous population since at least the Bronze Age. A runestone is immured in the church. The church was originally built as a private church belonging to Birger Persson's farmstead. The original church was very small, the size of the choir of the presently visible building, but still consciously built, displaying influences from French church building traditions. The church was ravaged by fire some time during the 14th century, and the original wooden ceiling destroyed.

The young Saint Bridget had some of her earliest religious visions here. After she was proclaimed a saint in 1391, the church became a pilgrimage site. In connection with this, the church was expanded and rebuilt. By the mid-15th century it acquired the size and form it still largely has.

In 1748, the former choir was turned into a vestry, and in 1880 the old vestry was demolished. The medieval gate entrance to the cemetery was transformed into a bell tower in 1775. A memorial stone dedicated to Saint Bridget was erected outside the church in 1930.

Architecture
The church is built of granite blocks, with some details in brick. The oldest parts of the church is the choir and vestry. A substantial enlargement of the church was carried out in the 15th century, when the present-day nave and interior vault were constructed. The church was originally decorated with frescos but only fragments remain of these.

The church has housed a number of medieval furnishings, most now in the Swedish History Museum, and possibly also relics (now lost) of Saint Bridget. A wooden sculpture depicting the same saint is still displayed in the church, while a triumphal cross, a processional cross and another wooden saint, all medieval, now are on displayed in the aforementioned museum. A number of carved wooden epitaphs belonging to various aristocratic families adorn the walls of the church.

References

External links
Official site (in Swedish)

Buildings and structures in Stockholm County
13th-century churches in Sweden
Churches in the Diocese of Uppsala
Churches converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Church of Sweden

Skederid Church