Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marina Zenovich. It concerns film director Roman Polanski and his sexual abuse case. It examines the events that led to Polanski fleeing the United States after being embroiled in a controversial trial, and his unstable reunion with his adopted country. A follow-up to the film, also directed by Zenovich, titled Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out was released on 26 March 2013, detailing Polanski's successful legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, a battle that took place after Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired came out.

Reception
Metacritic rates Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired a score of 78/100 based on 16 reviews ("generally favorable"). Rotten Tomatoes scores the film at 85% positive reviews based on 48 reviews.

Cathleen McGuigan, reviewing the film for Newsweek, referred to the film as "deft and subtle" and particularly noted "an enigmatic little scene near the end [where] [y]ou see a fierce old whale of a man in a chair, banging a drum while an elfin youth jumps and hops to the beats, like a puppet on a string. The hopping boy finally escapes his tormentor by scurrying and tumbling across a field, running toward the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The tyrannized, barefoot kid is Polanski himself, and the footage is from a 16-minute short called The Fat and the Lean that he made in 1961, on the brink of his fame as a brilliant new European director. The wordless scene may last less than a minute in Marina Zenovich's documentary, but it sticks with you, and it echoes another clip in her film. This one is from a television interview Polanski did decades later where he says he felt like 'a mouse with which an abominable cat was making sport.' The cat in question was Los Angeles Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, who'd presided over the director's 1977 criminal case for having sex with a 13-year-old girl".

One negative review by Bill Wyman, writing for Salon, stated: "The film, which has inexplicably gotten all sorts of praise, whitewashes what Polanski did in blatant and subtle fashion[.] The tone is set early on, when a friend of Polanski's tells of being woken up and informed that the director had to call his attorney. The moment is actually played for laughs, with interspersed shots of a worried Mia Farrow using the phone in a scene from Rosemary's Baby — that, too, about a horrifically abused woman. But the scene isn't used to illustrate the victim's story -- it's about poor Roman. He's the person making the desperate phone call. It's an odd juxtaposition when you think about it."

Nathan Southern of Allmovie writes that, "filmmaker Marina Zenovich revisits this difficult case via extensive interviews with Geimer [the underage victim], defense attorney Douglas Dalton, Assistant DA Roger Gunson, and others. In the process, she raises pivotal questions about the U.S. legal system and the fairness of the judge, Laurence J. Rittenband (who was reportedly extremely vocal about his desire to topple Polanski) and encounters many recollections of judicial malfeasance from those who were involved".

Awards
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired was nominated for five primetime Emmy Awards and won two: "Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming" and "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming". The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures awarded it the title of one of the top 5 documentaries of 2008. It won the "Editing Award Documentary" at the Sundance Film Festival It was also listed as one of ten films in the "Hall of Shame" of the 2008 Women Film Critics Circle Awards.

Retraction by David Wells
After the arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland in 2009, David Wells, now a retired deputy district attorney, recanted the interview he gave the director about advising the judge in the case in ex parte communication. According to Marcia Clarke of The Daily Beast:
"'I lied', Wells told me yesterday, referring to his comments in the movie that he told the judge how he could renege on a plea-bargain agreement and send Polanski back to jail after he had been released from a 42-day psychiatric evaluation—the heart of Polanski's claims of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. 'I know I shouldn't have done it, but I did. The director of the documentary told me it would never air in the States. I thought it made a better story if I said I'd told the judge what to do".

Zenovich responded, as reported by Peter Knegt at IndieWire:
"I am perplexed by the timing of David Wells' statement to the press that he lied in his interview with me for the documentary 'Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired', she said. 'Since June of 2008, the film has been quite visible on U.S. television via HBO, in theaters and on DVD, so it is odd that David Wells has not brought this issue to my attention before.

Zenovich said that the day she filmed Mr. Wells at the Malibu Courthouse, he gave her a one-hour interview. 'He signed a release like all my other interviewees, giving me permission to use his interview in the documentary worldwide, she said. "At no time did I tell him that the film would not air in the United States.

She went on to say she is 'astonished' that Wells has changed his story. 'Mr. Wells was always friendly and open with me', she said. 'At no point in the four years since our interview has he ever raised any issues about its content. In fact, in a July 2008 story in The New York Times, Mr. Wells corroborated the account of events that he gave in my film…  It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens".
Michael Ceply commented on the affair in the New York Times:
"The incident points to the power and the limitations of the documentary art.[...] Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University [...] pointed out that the documentarians' tendency to focus on 'untold stories' has occasionally reopened a legal case or righted a perceived wrong.[...]"

"But even an on-camera account like that of Mr. Wells, which provoked a legal challenge that is still before the appellate courts in California, has its vulnerabilities. Ms. Zenovich acknowledged on Thursday, for instance, that she had no second person describing the contacts between Mr. Wells, who was assigned to the courthouse but had no official role in the Polanski case, and Judge Rittenband, who has since died. 'There wasn't a witness to the conversations with Rittenband', she said".

"Since Mr. Polanski's arrest, Ms. Zenovich said, a strong public reaction against his misdeeds in the original case seem to have overridden concerns about any misdeeds in the courts. Originally charged with seven counts, including rape and sodomy, he pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor and then fled the country before his sentencing".

"People don't seem to connect to what this is, really, because of the crime, and the schism it has caused with finding normalcy and sanity' she said of her continuing examination of the Los Angeles legal system, with its problems with celebrity justice".

"Even if Dave Wells were to be lying' in the original film, she said, 'we still have a judge who was instructing the prosecutor and defense lawyer on how to behave, and doing it based on how he would look in the media,' she added, referring to other allegations in the documentary".

See also
The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski a book by Samantha Geimer

References

External links

Photcopy of statement dated 11 June 2008, signed by Douglas Dalton and Roger Gunson
The public information office at the Los Angeles County Superior Court sends out this media advisory on Roman Polanski documentary on HBO.
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired  Official Website and Blog for film, by Director Marina Zenovich.

Primetime Emmy Award-winning broadcasts
Documentary films about Roman Polanski
American independent films
Documentary films about child abuse
British independent films
HBO documentary films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
2000s British films
Sundance Film Festival award-winning films

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired


The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It is a biodiversity hotspot, with notable biocultural diversity.

Geologic strata
The Eastern Himalayas has a more varied geomorphic history and pervasive topographic features than the Central Himalayas. In the southwest of the Sub-Himalayas lies the Singalila Ridge, the western end of a group of uplands in Nepal. Most of the Sub-Himalayas are in Nepal; a small portion reaches into Sikkim, India and a fragment is in the southern half of Bhutan. The region's topography, in part, has facilitated the region's rich biological diversity and ecosystem structure.

The Buxa range of Indo-Bhutan is also a part of the ancient rocks of the Himalayas. The ancient folds, running mainly along an east-west axis, were worn down during a long period of denudation lasting into cretaceous times, possibly over a hundred million years. During this time the carboniferous and permian rocks disappeared from the surface, except in its north near Hatisar in Bhutan and in the long trench extending from Jaldhaka River to Torsa River, where limestone and coal deposits are preserved in discontinuous basins. Limestone deposits also appear in Bhutan on the southern flanks of the Lower Himalayas. The rocks of the highlands are mainly sandstones of the Devonian age, with limestones and shales of the same period in places. The core of the mountain is exposed across the centre, where Paleozoic rocks, mainly Cambrian and Silurian slates and Takhstasang gneiss outcrops are visible in the northwest and northeast, the latter extending to western Arunachal Pradesh in India.

In the Mesozoic era the whole of the worn-down plateau was under sea. In this expansive shallow sea, which covered most of Assam and Bhutan, chalk deposits formed from seawater tides oscillating between land and sea levels. During subsequent periods, tertiary rocks were laid down. The Paro metamorphic belt may be found overlying Chasilakha-Soraya gneiss in some places. Silurian metamorphics in other places suggest long denudation of the surface. This was the time of Alpine mountain and large number of "active volcanoes" formation which act as backbone of the Himalayas and much of the movement in the palaeozoic region was probably connected with it. The Chomolhari tourmaline granites of Bhutan, stretching westwards from the Paro Chu and adds much depth below the present surface, were formed during this period of uplift, fracture and subsidence.

Climate

The climate of the Eastern Himalayas is of a tropical montane ecosystem. The tropical rainforest climate is hot and wet all year round, with no dry season in the foothills in Köppen Climate Classification System (Af), and chilly winters mainly on higher elevations. The hot season commences around the middle of April reaching its maximum temperature in June, and finishing by the end of August. The average summer temperature is generally . The average annual rainfall is 10,000 mm (390 inches). A significantly large amount of snowfall is rare, and it is uncommon even at higher elevations. This belt of Himalayas is wetter as it receive more rain than the drier Western Himalayas.

In the valleys of Rangeet, Teesta, and Chumbi most precipitation during winter takes the form of snowfall. Snow accumulation in the valleys greatly reduces the area's wintertime temperature. The northeast monsoon is the predominant feature of the Eastern Himalayan region's weather, while on the southern slopes cold season precipitation is more important.

Agriculture
Agricultural conditions vary throughout the region. In the highlands the soil is morainic, and the hill slopes are cut by the locals into successive steps or terraces only a few meters broad, thus preventing water run-off and allowing spring crops to thrive. The region's economy relied mostly on shifting cultivation agriculture, supplemented by hunting, fishing and barter trade. Agricultural does not produce sufficient yields to meet local needs. The region's economy remained stagnant and at subsistence levels for centuries due to the lack of capital, investor access, or entrepreneurial knowledge. Inhabitants also relied heavily on wild and semi-cultivated species for food and herbal medicines.

Political divisions

The Eastern Himalayas consist of 6 distinct political/national territories:
 Nepali Himalaya (central, eastern and southern Nepal)
 Darjeeling Sub-Himalaya
 Sikkim (Indian) Himalaya
 Assam Sub-Himalaya
 Bhutan Himalaya
 Arunachal Pradesh Himalaya
 Garhwal/Kumaon Himalaya

Wildlife

The Eastern Himalayas sustain a diverse array of wildlife, including many rare species of fauna and flora. Wildlife in Nepal includes snow leopard in its Himalayan region, and Indian rhinoceros, Asian elephant and water buffalo in the foothills of the Himalayas, making the country one of the world's greatest biodiversity hotspots. Three major river basins of Nepal, namely the Ghaghara, Gandaki River and Koshi River basins, feature dense forests and provide habitat for butterfly species and 8% of the world's bird species. Preserving this diverse wilderness is essential for the area's and the world's biodiversity. The area has many ecological projects intended to ensure the survival and growth of many species.

The most diverse cloud forest is in India and China at , and tropical rainforest on the lower slopes up to  in the foothills. At higher elevations, wet páramo grasslands occur up to ), and above this elevation snow and ice occupies the space. Asian black bear, Himalayan vulture, and pikas are common around higher elevations, and also on the Tibetan plateau. Arunachal macaque (Macaca arunachalensis) and Rhesus macaque (M. mulatta) live in the tropical cloud forests, alongside various sunbird and pheasant species. Himalayan high-elevation wetlands are also notable for their biodiversity.

The picture seen right is of the national flower of Bhutan Meconopsis gakyidiana, commonly called the blue poppy. This flower was the source of an ecological mystery for nearly a century, due to its misclassification as Meconopsis grandis. In 2017, after three years of field work and taxonomic studies, its classification was corrected by Bhutanese and Japanese researchers. It was theorised this misclassification may have arisen due to the finding that some Himalayan flora readily hybridize with each other and produce viable seeds, causing wider morphological diversity.

See also

 Western Himalaya
 Indus-Yarlung suture zone
 Main Himalayan Thrust
 Lower Himalayan Range
 Ecology of the Himalayas
 Geology of the Himalaya
 Sivalik Hills
 Geography of Myanmar
 Indian Himalayan Region
 Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)
 Transhimalaya
 Indo-Gangetic Plain

References

External links

 Eastern Himalayas – World Wildlife Fund projects

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Mountain ranges of Asia
Mountain ranges of India
Mountain ranges of Myanmar
Mountain ranges of Nepal
Mountain ranges of Pakistan
Mountain ranges of Tibet
East Asia
Regions of India
Regions of Myanmar
Regions of Nepal
Physiographic divisions

Eastern Himalayas


The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples were built in stone.

Unaltered hall houses are almost unknown. Where they have survived, they have almost always been significantly changed and extended by successive owners over the generations.

Origins

In Old English, a "hall" is simply a large room enclosed by a roof and walls, and in Anglo-Saxon England simple one-room buildings, with a single hearth in the middle of the floor for cooking and warmth, were the usual residence of a lord of the manor and his retainers. The whole community was used to eating and sleeping in the hall. This is the hall as Beowulf understood it. Over several centuries the hall developed into a building which provided more than one room, giving some privacy to its more important residents.

A significant house needs both public and private areas. The public area is the place for living: cooking, eating, meeting and playing, while private space is for withdrawing and for storing valuables. A source of heat is required, and in northern latitudes walls are also needed to keep the weather out and to keep in the heat. By about 1400, in lowland Britain, with changes in settlement patterns and agriculture, people were thinking of houses as permanent structures rather than temporary shelter. According to the locality, they built stone or timber-framed houses with wattle and daub or clay infill. The designs were copied by their neighbours and descendants in the tradition of vernacular architecture.  They were sturdy and some have survived over five hundred years. Hall houses built after 1570 are rare.

The open hearth found in a hall house created heat and smoke. A high ceiling drew the smoke upwards, leaving a relatively smoke-free void beneath. Later hall houses were built with chimneys and flues. In earlier ones, these were added as alterations and additional flooring often installed. This, and the need for staircases to reach each of the upper storeys, led to much innovation and variety in floor plans. The hall house, having started in the Middle Ages as a home for a lord and his community of retainers, permeated to the less well-off during the early modern period. During the sixteenth century, the rich crossed what Brunskill describes as the "polite threshold" and became more likely to employ professionals to design their homes.

General description

In its earliest and simplest form the medieval hall house would be a four-bay cruck-framed structure, with the open hall taking up the two bays in the middle of the building. An open hearth would be in the middle of the hall, its smoke rising  to a vent in the roof. Two external doors on each side of the hall formed a cross passage. One end bay at the "screens end" or "lower end" of the hall would contain two rooms commonly called the pantry, used for storing food, and the buttery used for storing drink. These were intentionally unheated. The rooms in the "upper end"  bay formed the private space. This layout was analogous to that found in the great houses of the day, the difference being merely that of scale.

The rooms on the ground floor of the private space, were often known as parlours while the upper floor provided rooms called solars. The upper rooms would be reached in the simplest buildings by means of a ladder or steep companionway. The solars often stretched beyond the outer wall of the ground floor rooms, jettying out at one end or else at both ends of the building. As the hall itself had no upper floor within it, its outer walls always stood straight, without jettying.
Single ended hall plans

Here a two-storey wing is attached to one end of the hall. This can project beyond one side wall or both side walls of the hall, or sometimes just the upper storey is jettied beyond the side wall. There were multiple solutions as to where the staircase was placed.
Double ended hall plans

The open hall is flanked by two two-storey extension. Together they can give the appearance of an H-shape as at Little Moreton Hall or a U-shape as is found in Cambridgeshire. The Clothiers' houses of the West Riding of Yorkshire were built with elaborate gables
Wealden houses

Wealden houses are a specific form of the double ended hall plan. They are built of timber and at ground floor level the wings do not project being the width of the hall in length. The upper-storeys of the wings are jettied out, and the roof-line follows this projection.

Later alterations

The vast majority of those hall houses which have survived have changed significantly over the centuries. In almost all cases the open hearth of the hall house was abandoned during the early modern period and a chimney built which reached from the new hearth to above the roof. This was created in the vicinity of the cross passage, and sometimes this added chimney actually blocked the cross passage. Once the clearance within the hall was no longer needed for smoke from the central hearth, the hall itself would often be divided, with a floor being inserted which connected all the upper rooms.

Timber framed hall houses often had the infilling between their structural timbers replaced several times. While the timbers themselves were the strongest part of the building, it is unusual for all to have survived without replacement. In many cases whole outer walls have been replaced with solid brick or with solid stone. Usually a thatched roof was turned into one of slates or tiles.

A successful building was likely to be extended to follow the fashion or to add needed additional accommodation, and it is even possible for a medieval hall house to be hidden within an apparently much later building and to go unrecognized for what it is, until alteration or demolition reveals the tell-tale smoke-blackened roof timbers of the original open hall.

Materials
The construction techniques used in vernacular architecture always were dependent on the materials available, and hall houses were no exceptions. Stone, flint, cobble, brick and  earth when available could be used to build walls that would support the mass on the roof structure. Alternatively, a cruck or a box frame structure of timber was built and this could be infilled with cob or be panelled with timber, tiles, or wattle and daub.  Depending on the local tradition and availability thatched and stone roofs were used. A thirteenth century example of a stone roofed  hall-house survives in a good state of preservation at Aydon Hall in Northumberland.

Hearths, smoke bays and fireplaces
In a two-wing hall house, with the hall open to the roof, smoke accumulated in the roofspace before exiting through louvres or raised tiles. Placing the hearth at the lower end of the hall was deliberate because combustion could be controlled by varying the through draught between the two doors.

The next phase was to jetty out the first floor (American English: second floor) private accommodation into the open hall creating a half floor. The smoke rose into the remaining space into a smoke bay. The house benefitted from the extra space created, and the extended chambers benefitted from the extra heat. The use of smoke hoods enabled the smoke bays to be compressed further. In Surrey smoke bays were introduced in the early 16th century while in the North it was later, smoke hoods being introduced in the late 17th century.

A brick built fireplace, chimney breast, flue and chimney stack gave more efficient combustion. This allowed the whole of the hall to be floored, then the stack could contain an extra flue to provide a fire on the upper floor. Fireplaces and chimney stacks could be fitted into existing buildings against the passage, or against the side walls or even at the upper end of the hall. It was only at the end of the 18th century that this innovation reached the north.

The design and total function of the chimney depended on the size of the house or cottage and its location. English fires never became like the continental tiled cocklestove or the North American metal stove. In the earliest houses combustion of wood was helped by increasing the airflow by placing the logs on iron firedogs. In smaller houses the fire was used for cooking. Andirons provided a rack for spit roasting, and trivets for pots. Later an iron or stone fireback reflected the heat forward and controlled the unwelcome side draughts. Unsurprisingly the hearth migrated to a central wall and became enclosed at the sides.
The earliest firehoods directed the smoke away from the low underthatch to the apex of the roof. They were constructed in wicker which was then lime-plastered to render them fire-proof.

Inglenook fireplaces were a development. One side of the inglenook was a transverse wall, one of the others was the exterior wall which was pierced with a little 'fire window' that gave light. To the other side was a low partition wall with a settle to provide seating. A beam or bressumer at head height finished off the open end. The hearth stone extended across this whole area, and it was topped with a firehood. It became a room within a room. It was particular suited to burning logs and peat. In the Weald of Kent and Sussex, which were early iron smelting regions the back wall was protected by an iron fireback.

The fireplace is a three-sided incombustible box containing a grate that allows an updraught and a controlled flue. It is most suited to burning sea-cole. Sea-cole or coal as it is now called was quarried from outcrops around England and transported to London as early as 1253.  In larger houses, fireplaces and chimneys were first used as supplementary heating in the parlour, before eventually suppressing the open hearth. In smaller hall houses, where heat efficiency and cooking were the prime concern, fireplaces became the principal source of heat earlier. The design of the coal grate was important and the open fire became more sophisticated and enclosed leading in later centuries to the coal burning kitchen range with its hob, oven and water boiler, and the Triplex type kitchen range with a back boiler and the 1922 AGA cooker.

Examples

Unaltered hall houses are almost unknown. A large number of former hall-houses do still exist and many are cared for by the National Trust, English Heritage, local authorities and private owners. Wealden hall houses can be found in the weald of Kent and Sussex where the combination of good quality hard wood and wealthy yeoman farmers and iron founders prevailed in the 14th to 16th centuries. In Crawley today the Ancient Priors, the Old Punch Bowl and the Tree House are well documented as is Alfriston Clergy House in Polegate, East Sussex, which was the first house to be acquired by the National Trust. The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum has a collection of rescued house which have been extensively researched prior to their reconstruction. Elsewhere such as in Cheshire and Suffolk historic timber-framed house often contain the remnants of hall houses.  Hole Cottage in Kent near Cowden (operated by Landmark Trust) has an intact private dwelling wing of a Wealden hall house.

Ancient Priors

The Ancient Priors is a medieval timber-framed hall house on the High Street in Crawley.  It was built in approximately 1450, partly replacing an older (probably 14th-century) structure—although part of this survives behind the present street frontage.  It has been expanded, altered and renovated many times since, and fell into such disrepair by the 1930s that demolition was considered.  It has since been refurbished and is now a restaurant, although it has been put to various uses during its existence.  English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance, and it has been described "the finest timber-framed house between London and Brighton". Crawley's development as a permanent settlement dates from the early 13th century, when a charter was granted for a market to be held; a church was founded by 1267.  The area, on the edge of the High Weald. Some sources assert that a building stood on the site of the Ancient Priors by this time, claiming that it was built between 1150 and 1250 and was used as a chantry-house.  Extensive archaeological investigation in the 1990s determined that although the possibility of an older building on the site could not be ruled out,  the oldest part of the present structure is 14th-century and the main part (fronting the east side of the High Street) dates from about 1450 and incorporates no older fabric. Burgage plots—medieval land divisions with houses or other buildings which were rented from the Lord of the Manor—were particularly clearly defined on the east side of the High Street; the buildings within them usually faced the High Street, but plots were sometimes subdivided.  This is believed to have happened at the site of the Ancient Priors, where the main (15th-century) part of the building faces west on to the High Street, and the older section faces south and is hidden from view. The building was originally used as a dwelling house, and the accompanying burgage plot was used for small-scale agriculture.  The first confirmed owners were a family of colliers, who acquired it in 1608.  It passed through many owners throughout the 17th century, some of whom rented the building to others; furthermore, in many cases the two parts of the building were occupied by different families or tenants.  By 1668, when it was owned by a resident of Worth, the whole building had become an inn.  Known at first as The Whyte Harte, its spelling was later standardised to The White Hart. Around this time, the entire messuage consisted of the inn itself, some barns, an orchard and a garden.  In the early 18th century, the prominent local ironmaster Leonard Gale—holder of much property in the Crawley area—owned the building, and is believed to have lived there.  By 1753, when the Brett family (who had held the property for 26 years) sold the messuage for £473 (£ as of ), it also had stables, and covered about .

In Cheshire Willot Hall, Bramall Hall and Little Moreton Hall all noted for their black and white half timbered appearance, are extended from an initial hall-house. And in Merseyside Speke Hall and Rufford Old Hall similarly benefited from agricultural prosperity.

Rufford Old Hall

Rufford Old Hall is a National Trust property and Grade I listed building, in Rufford, Lancashire, England. Only the great hall, built around 1530 for Sir Robert Hesketh, survives from the original building but it indicates the wealth and position of the family. Until 1936, Rufford Old Hall was in the continuous ownership of the Hesketh family who were lords of the manor of Rufford from the 15th century. The Heskeths moved to Rufford New Hall in 1798. In 1936 Rufford Old Hall, with its collection of arms and armour and 17th century oak furniture, was donated to the National Trust by Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 1st Baron Hesketh.

The timber-framed hall house with great hall, in a late medieval pattern which continued in use in Tudor times, was built for Sir Robert Hesketh in about 1530. The hall, which formed the south wing of the present building, is substantially as built,  long and  wide, with the timbers sitting on a low stone wall. The hall has a flagged floor. It has a stone chimney, five bays, and a hammerbeam roof. The five hammerbeams each terminate, at both ends, in a carved wooden angel. The hall is overlooked by a quatrefoil squint in an arched doorway in the second-floor drawing room. In 1661 a Jacobean style rustic brick wing was built at right angles to the great hall which contrasts with the medieval black and white timbering. This wing was built from small two-inch bricks similar to Bank Hall, and Carr House and St Michael's Church in Much Hoole.

Ufford Hall

Ufford Hall is a Grade II* listed manor house in Fressingfield, Suffolk, England, dating back to the thirteenth century. Fressingfield is 12 miles east of Diss, Norfolk. The timber-framed manor house with rosy ochre coloured plaster walls and dark tiled roof, incorporates the medieval core of an earlier open-hall house. At least twenty raised-aisled houses have been identified in the area, "forming a characteristic group, rarely found elsewhere in England".
The Hall has attracted the attention of architectural historians, such as Pevsner and Sandon, and has been described as the "ultimate development (…) of the early hall house." Its most noteworthy features include: cross-beamed ceiling in the parlour which has not been disturbed since the late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century; striking original sixteenth-century mullioned and transomed windows; back-to-back stuccoed fireplaces on both floors and chimney stacks of Tudor origin; fine Jacobean dog-leg staircase with turned balusters and newel posts with ball finials. The latter is the last major addition to the house, which remains largely unaltered from the original.

Plas Uchaf

Plas Uchaf () is a 15th-century cruck-and-aisle-truss hall house, that lies within the stone building belt  south-west of Corwen, Denbighshire, Wales and  north of Cynwyd. The house consists of a long rectangle divided by a cross passage. The west end is a large hall some  high. The east end consists of smaller rooms on two floors. The roof structure is substantial, of paired cruck beams with additional horizontal, vertical and diagonal bracing. It features an aisle truss, a form normally only found in much larger buildings such as barns and churches. This suggests the use of English craftsmen and is an indication of the status of the original inhabitants. The walls are of stone rubble but were originally half-timbered. The original construction was thought to date from the late 14th or early 15th century, but part of the structure has been dated to 1435 by tree-ring dating. In the 16th century the hall was divided horizontally by the addition of an inserted floor supported by moulded cross beams. The house was listed as a house of the gentry as late as 1707 but was later split into two or three labourers' cottages.

West country

Old Shute House (known as Shute Barton between about 1789 and the 20th century), located at Shute, near Colyton, Axminster, Devon, is one of the more important extant non-fortified manor houses of the Middle Ages. It was built about 1380 as a hall house and was greatly expanded in the late 16th century and partly demolished in 1785. The original 14th-century house survives, although much altered.
Whitestaunton Manor in south Somerset was built in the 15th century as a hall house and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. It consists of an east–west range with two wings which were added later.

Northumberland
Aydon Hall and Featherstone Castle in Northumberland were stone-built hall houses. The owners applied for permission to crenellate to protect the buildings from the marauding Scottish insurgents. The original halls became part of substantial castles- which later, with the Act of Union became grand country houses. Harewood Castle is a 12th-century stone hall house and courtyard fortress, located on the Harewood Estate, Harewood, in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

See also
List of hall houses in England
Hall (concept)
Great hall
Hall and parlor house
Low German hall house
Middle German house
Wealden hall house
Vernacular architecture

References
Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading
  (detailed description of co-evolution of heating fuels and hall architecture in England)

Architecture in England
Vernacular architecture
Timber framing
House types
House types in the United Kingdom

Hall house


Bertram Schmiterlöw (20 January 1920, Karlskrona–28 December 2002, Stockholm) was a Swedish painter, printmaker, draughtsman and sculptor. Bertram Schmiterlöw's artistry extends through more than five decades and is characterized by figurative, expressive and colorist works where light and surface jointly create the setting. The themes are often of a desolate, dreamy atmosphere where people are portrayed more as staffage figures rather than as the primary subject matter of the work. His works include human depictions and natural scenes from Sweden and the Mediterranean countries. Schmiterlöw also painted portraits of many important members of the Swedish and Argentine trade, industry and government institutions. In addition he was commissioned to do the portraits of many politicians, royal family members and cultural celebrities in Sweden. Schmiterlow had his artistic training at Otte Skölds art school but left Sweden for Europe and Argentina in his early years. His artistry was inspired by Edward Hopper, Giorgio Morandi and Pedro Figari. He is the halfbrother of actress Vera Schmiterlöw. In 1974 he was decorated with the Royal Order of Vasa and in August 2001 with the Order of the Liberator General San Martín.

Other
Portrayed in the documentary film "Two Brothers - Two Worlds" by Tom Alandh SVT 2002
Biography "From my two worlds "by Patrik Reutersvärd and Bertram Schmiterlöw, Karlsson's publishing company, 1999

References

 Knut Andersson, red (1967). Svenskt Konstnärslexikon. Knut Andersson, eds (1967). Swedish Artist Dictionary. Malmö: Allhems Förlag. Malmo: Allhems Publisher. sid. sid. 74-75 74-75
 Vera Månsson, red (2004). Svenska Konstnärer. Vera Mansson, eds (2004). Swedish Artists. Sala: Galleri och Bolförlaget Sala. Sala: Gallery and Bolförlaget Sala. sid. sid. 509th.

External links
 Official website

1920 births
2002 deaths
20th-century Swedish painters
Swedish male painters
Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin
Recipients of the Order of Vasa
Swedish printmakers
Swedish male sculptors
20th-century sculptors
20th-century printmakers
20th-century Swedish male artists

Bertram Schmiterlöw


Deborah Ann Woll (born February 7, 1985) is an American actress. She well known for playing Jessica Hamby in the HBO drama series True Blood (2008–2014) for which she earned her a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She then starred as Karen Page in the Marvel series Daredevil (2015–2018), The Defenders (2017), and The Punisher (2017–2019). Her movie roles include Mother's Day (2010), Seven Days in Utopia (2011), Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011), Catch .44 (2011), Ruby Sparks (2012), Meet Me in Montenegro (2014), The Automatic Hate (2015), and the commercially-successful Escape Room (2019) and its 2021 sequel. In 2022, she was the voice and did the motion capture of Faye in the video game God of War: Ragnarok.

American actors

Deborah Ann Woll


The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is a museum in Kennesaw, Georgia, that contains a collection of artifacts and relics from the American Civil War, as well as from railroads of the state of Georgia and surrounding regions. The centerpiece is the General, a steam locomotive used in the Great Locomotive Chase in April 1862.

The Archives house a significant collection of company records, engineering drawings, blueprints, glass plate negatives, photographs and correspondence from various American businesses representing the railroad industry in the South after the Civil War. The Archives also contain a growing collection of Civil War letters, diaries, and official records.

History and evolution

The museum (then known as the Big Shanty Museum), in a barn that once housed a cotton gin, initially opened on April 12, 1972, appropriately on the very date which the chase occurred one hundred and ten years prior, with the General as the centerpiece.  Later, the theme expanded to include Civil War pieces as well.

In the mid- to late 1990, the property of the former Glover Machine Works was to be demolished.  The buildings on this site, having sat vacant for nearly 50 years, still contained records, locomotive parts, machinery for locomotive construction, and at least one complete locomotive, which had only seen a few months of active service before being repossessed.  Descendants of the Glover family, who had retained ownership of the firm and its collection, in turn donated the collection to the museum in 2001.

With the acquisition of the rather large collection of artifacts, the museum closed in late 2001 and began a massive expansion to house them.  During the construction, a large "box" of plywood boards was built overtop of the General to protect it.  The augmented museum reopened in March 2003 as the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.  A further expansion was finished in 2007 to house the recently acquired French Merci Boxcar.

External links
 Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
 Fansite devoted to the General (includes photos of the 2001-2003 construction).
 Site devoted to the Merci Boxcars given to the US, such as the Southern Museum's car.
 360 degree Panoramic photos of the Southern Museum
 1916 Glover Machine Works Locomotive historical marker
 HawkinsRails' Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History collection

Railroad museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
Museums in Cobb County, Georgia
American Civil War museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
Kennesaw, Georgia
Museums established in 1972
1972 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Smithsonian Institution affiliates
Great Locomotive Chase


Eddie Hinton (15 June 1944 – 28 July 1995) was an American songwriter and session musician, best known for his work with soul music and R&B singers. He played lead guitar for Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section from 1969 to 1971 and after leaving the band, he was replaced by Pete Carr as lead guitarist.

Career
Hinton was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on June 15, 1944, to Laura Deanie and Horton C. Hinton. Hinton's parents divorced in 1949, and he and his mother moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his mother later remarried.

He formed the Five Minutes, also known as Five Men-Its, who quickly garnered regional recognition. Two of the members of the group, drummer Johnny Sandlin and keyboardist Paul Hornsby, would join Duane and Gregg Allman in the Hour Glass and later go on to success as record producers. Hinton, Sandlin and Hornsby all spent time working as session players in Muscle Shoals. Hornsby and Sandlin worked at Rick Hall's FAME Studios (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) and from there went to Capricorn Records in Macon, Ga. Hinton had joined some former FAME players known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (or "the Swampers") who split off from Hall and started their own studio, Muscle Shoals Sound, in Sheffield. Hinton was replaced at MSS by Wayne Perkins.

As a session guitarist in Muscle Shoals, Hinton played on hit records recorded by Wilson Pickett, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Solomon Burke, Percy Sledge, The Staple Singers, The Dells, Bonnie Bramlett, Paul Kelly, Johnny Taylor, The Box Tops, R. B. Greaves, Boz Scaggs, Evie Sands, Looking Glass, Toots Hibbert and Otis Redding.

Hinton was a songwriter in his own right as well. His most well known song is "Breakfast in Bed" which has been recorded many times, most notably by Dusty Springfield and by UB40 with Chrissie Hynde. He also co-wrote "It's All Wrong But It's All Right" sung by Laura Lee. Willy Deville recorded his song "Help Me To Make It (Power of a Woman's Love)" on his album Coup de Grâce.

The song "Sandwiches for the Road" by fellow Alabamians Drive-By Truckers is based on the life of Hinton. It appears on their 1998 debut LP, Gangstabilly.

A documentary of the life and musical career of Hinton called Dangerous Highway was made by New Mexico Filmmakers Deryle Perryman and Moises Gonzalez. Narrated by bluesman Robert Cray, it screened in film festivals across the US and made its European premiere at the 2008 Porretta Soul Festival in Porretta, Italy.

Hinton was the grandson of a preacher and used his gospel influences to weave stories of pain and redemption. He died at his home in Birmingham, Alabama from a heart attack at age 51.

Dangerous Highway
Beginning in 2009, Shake It Records based in  Cincinnati, Ohio, began releasing entries from their series Dangerous Highway: A Tribute to the Music of Eddie Hinton. This series  featured cover versions of Hinton's songs by artists who were inspired by and continue his legacy. Volumes one and two were released in 2009.

Volume 1 – Greg Dulli
Side A – "Hard Luck Guy"; Side B – "Cover Me"

Volume 2 – Drive-By Truckers
Side A – "Where's Eddie?"; Side B – "Everybody Needs Love"

Volume 3 – Heartless Bastards and Wussy
Side A – "Got Down Last Saturday Night" – Heartless Bastards ; Side B – "Breakfast in Bed" – Wussy

Volume 4 – Buffalo Killers
Side A – "Heavy Makes You Happy"; Side B – "Still Water Runs Deep"

Discography
 Very Extremely Dangerous (1978) Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
 Letters From Mississippi (1987) Birdland Recording Studio
 Cry & Moan (1991) Duck Tape Studio
 Very Blue Highway (1993) Birdland Recording Studio
 Hard Luck Guy (1999) Birdland & Duck Tape Recording Studios

Session works
 Breakfast in Bed, Dusty Springfield and UB40 with Chrissie Hynde
 Down in Texas, Oscar Tony Jr.
 Cover Me, Jackie Moore
 A Little Bit Salty, Bobby Womack
 Sure as Sin, Candi Staton
 300 Pounds of Hongry, Tony Joe White
 Masquerade, Don Varner
 Always David, The Sweet Inspirations
 Help Me Make It, Mink DeVille
 Save the Children, Cher
 Session work with John P. Hammond appears on the re-release of So Many Roads

See also
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

References

External links
Entry at The Encyclopedia Of Alabama
Entry at AllMusic
Illustrated Eddie Hinton discography

1944 births
1995 deaths
American rhythm and blues guitarists
American male guitarists
Songwriters from Alabama
American soul musicians
People from Tuscaloosa, Alabama
American session musicians
20th-century American guitarists
American rock guitarists
Lead guitarists
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members
Guitarists from Alabama
American soul guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
American male songwriters

Eddie Hinton


Triumph is a fictional former superhero in the DC Comics universe whose first full appearance was in Justice League America #92 (August 1994). He was created by Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid and Howard Porter, though the character is primarily associated with writer Christopher Priest.

Years after Triumph's initial appearance, Priest revealed that the character was partially based on Neal Pozner, DC's Director of Creative Services: "His shtick was: Triumph was always right... it was what made him so annoying to his fellow heroes... He was. At the end of the day, Neal would be proven right. That fact, more than anything else, annoyed many staffers beyond reason".

Publication history
The character Triumph (real name: William MacIntyre) was portrayed as a hot-headed, arrogant and self-righteous individual who felt he was "denied his destiny" to become one of Earth's greatest heroes. Via a retcon in a three-part story running through Justice League America #92, Justice League Task Force #16 and Justice League International (vol. 2) #68, he was revealed to have been a founding member of the Justice League, serving as their leader. On his first mission with the fledgling Justice League, Triumph seemingly "saved the world", but was teleported into a dimensional limbo that also affected the timestream, resulting in no one having any memory of him and his original peers now being veterans.

DC Comics fans initially disliked the character; Christopher Priest and editor Brian Augustyn decided to play to this by having the characters dislike him as well.

Return from limbo
One of Triumph's motivations for becoming a superhero was that his father was a low-ranking henchman for supervillains, a life that worried his mother. The young Triumph, however, misinterpreted her concern as a sign that his father was abusive and his henchman outfit to mean that his father had been a major supervillain. Another motivation was a visit by the Hourman, whom the child would grow up idolizing (and who had arrested his father).

When he first returned from the dimensional limbo to the modern era, Triumph's meeting with Justice League International quickly devolved into a violent confrontation. He ended up starring in a significant portion of the Justice League Task Force comic book (issues #0 and 16–37), alongside regulars the Ray and Gypsy; he developed a strong relationship with the Ray and saved Gypsy's life, though he later claimed he had almost let her die out of fear of dying himself and thought that it would "look bad" if he did not save her. Dissatisfied with the infrequency of JLTF missions, he also founded a second team of his own to target perpetrators of violent crime and completely dismantle their organizations.

His attitude ultimately resulted in his expulsion from the Justice League Task Force. Alternatively, it could be seen that J'onn J'onzz fired Triumph because of Triumph regularly not consulting him.

In JLTF #30, Triumph receives a carved black candle from the demon Neron, which could give him his lost decade back in exchange for his soul. In JLTF #37, the final issue, Triumph tried to make amends with J'onn and admits to his anger at the League Christmas party – only to blow up and storm out when he was not let back into the group. He considered lighting the candle, despondent and weary with his failed career, but Gypsy came after him and, without knowing, convinced him to leave the candle by pointing out he had saved her life. Triumph decided his life might have meaning and went back to talk to J'onn, but the Ray and Gypsy unwittingly lit his candle for a memorial. Triumph gained back his lost decade after all, but found the League was the same as it had always been and Gypsy was still alive even without his presence.

Writer Christopher Priest has stated that Triumph's lost soul explains his future appearances as an evil character.

Fall from grace and death
Later during DC's 1990s resurrection of the JLA ongoing series, Triumph was destitute and a failure, resorting to selling stolen League items to supervillains just to pay his rent. Because of this, he came under the influence of an evil imp from the Fifth Dimension named Lkz, similar to the one possessed by Golden Age Justice Society member Johnny Thunder. Triumph mind-controlled his former Justice League Task Force teammates Gypsy and the Ray, striking at the newly reformed JLA. He believed he was using Lkz to fake a disaster that would overwhelm the current JLA so much that "his" team could step in, while Lkz simply intended to destroy the world. The combined forces of the JSA and JLA were required to stop the rampaging Thunderbolt and subdue Triumph, culminating in Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt merging with Lkz to become a new purple Thunderbolt (now summoned by the phrase "So Cool").

Throughout his attack, Triumph expressed disgruntlement with the League's alleged elitism, accusing the League of ignoring his team after the "headliners" came back, and claiming (in JLA #30) that Aquaman (who had been teammates with Gypsy in the "Detroit" League) had not cared about Gypsy and happily ignored her and "the old days" "once he made the dream". To Triumph's ultimate shock, Superman told him that he had been "a fine Leaguer" and would have been "welcomed any time" if only he had simply asked.

At the end of this story arc, the then-hostless Spectre-Force transformed Triumph into an ice statue and prepared to smash him with a hammer, but was stopped by a compassionate plea by the angel Zauriel. His frozen form was stored in the Justice League Watchtower, marked "Founding Member of the J.L.A." as a memorial. Grant Morrison, the writer of this story, later had Prometheus destroy the Watchtower, but forgot to remove Triumph; he was confirmed dead a few years later.

Later mentions
Several years after Triumph's death, it was revealed that he had unknowingly sired a son named Jonathan. During a college protest against the construction of a nuclear reactor, the deranged teenager manifested superhuman abilities similar to those of his father. After going on a rampage and killing 19 people (including his girlfriend Christie), Jonathan was confronted by Supergirl and Raven of the Teen Titans. The two used Raven's abilities to enter Jonathan's mind, where they learned that he had been driven insane by fractured visions of Triumph's removal from history and subsequent return, as well as the changes in history caused by Superboy-Prime's actions during Infinite Crisis. Raven was ultimately able to defeat Jonathan by conjuring an image of Triumph, who persuaded his son to stop his murderous actions. Jonathan then disappeared in a blinding flash of light, and exactly what became of him after this is unknown.

Triumph was briefly mentioned by Doctor Light during his battle with Kimiyo Hoshi in Blackest Night. He was mockingly used as an example of once-prominent heroes who were quickly forgotten after their deaths, a fate that Light claimed was in store for Kimiyo.

Trinity
In the 2009 52-issue weekly miniseries Trinity, Triumph was revealed as alive in the warped reality created by the forceful extraction of the Trinity formed by Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. There, he was a member of Justice Society International and had camaraderie with fellow hero and Trinity stand-in the Tomorrow Woman. Both were informed by Hawkman that according to a scroll detailing the true timeline, they were supposed to be dead, but Triumph still fought to restore the timeline.

In the end, he took an attack meant for the Tomorrow Woman and saved her life at the cost of his own. He died in her arms, wondering if she could see the world that they were fighting for. She, in turn, promised to stay alive long enough to see it.

Powers and abilities

Though not fully elaborated, Triumph's powers were said to be control over the electromagnetic spectrum. This power gives Triumph what he calls "360 degree hyper senses" or what could be described as a form of electromagnetic psychometry, which allowed him to perceive and to interpret the entire electromagnetic spectrum. With this ability Triumph could "hear" TV and radio signals and decode satellite transmissions. Triumph also displayed advanced electromagnetic energy manipulation; Superman even remarked that Triumph could kill Superman himself by cutting off the solar energy from Superman's cells to the rest of his body.

Triumph can bend the electromagnetic energy around him for offensive purposes. For instance, he can store energy in his hands and send it through metallic wiring as a powerful electric current. He can project powerful electric blasts from his eyes capable of melting thick plastic or rubber objects, or even shredding through steel alloys like confetti.

Other uses of Triumph's electromagnetic powers include creating a force field around his body granting him invulnerability as long as he is actively thinking about creating one. He has the ability to change the density of matter using his electromagnetic powers, e.g., changing water into a solid ramp. He can absorb and channel energy directed at him, such as fire. Triumph can also use his electromagnetic powers to triple the g-force inside a magnetic field while pressurizing the field to several atmospheres creating a stasis field, essentially freezing everyone inside the field.

Triumph may also possess high-level physical strength, speed, and invulnerability—on at least one occasion he engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Superman and claimed: "I'm as strong as you, I'm as fast as you, I have powers you don't even have names for..."

Triumph only possesses superhuman powers when he has a connection to the electromagnetic spectrum; without that source he has no powers.

References

External links
 Digital Priest archive of the script for Triumph #1
 Christopher J. Priest essay on Triumph (archived)
 Triumph at the DC Database Project

Comics characters introduced in 1994
Characters created by Mark Waid
DC Comics titles
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics LGBT supervillains
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics male supervillains
Fictional gay men
Comics based on real people
DC Comics metahumans
Fictional characters from parallel universes
Fictional characters with electric or magnetic abilities

Triumph (comics)


The AGM-131 SRAM II ("Short-Range Attack Missile") was a nuclear air-to-surface missile intended as a replacement for the AGM-69 SRAM. The solid-fueled missile was to be dropped from a B-1B Lancer, carry the W89 warhead and have a range of 400 km. However, the program was canceled by President George H. W. Bush for geopolitical reasons just as the first flight-test missile was delivered.

Development
The mission of the SRAM family is to deliver the warhead to the target without the need for the penetrating bomber to directly overfly the target. The SRAM family of weapons had an extremely small radar signature and were near-impossible to counter. SRAM ensured the airborne leg of the US nuclear triad (the others being land-based ICBMs and SLBM) and was the penetrating air launched strategic nuclear weapon for the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit.

In 1977, the USAF planned to develop an upgrade of the SRAM for the forthcoming B-1A bomber as AGM-69B SRAM B. When the B-1A was cancelled in 1978, the AGM-69B was dropped, too. After the resurrection of the B-1 program (as B-1B) in 1981, it was decided to develop an entirely new weapon, the SRAM II.

In 1986, Boeing was finally awarded a development contract for the AGM-131A SRAM II. The AGM-131A was planned to have only about 2/3 the size of an AGM-69A, so that 36 missiles could be carried by the B-1B, as compared to 24 AGM-69As. The final design of the SRAM II ended up with the "II" version roughly equal to the "A" version in size and about 80% of the weight. One new feature of SRAM II was a lighter, simpler, and more reliable two-pulse solid rocket motor designed by Hercules for increased range and age stability.

The SRAM II was slated to use the newly developed W89 thermonuclear warhead, which being much newer, was also much safer to operate than the W-69 of the AGM-69.  The W89 had a 200 kiloton design yield.

Initial Operational Capability for the AGM-131A was planned for 1993, but before flight tests could take place, the program was cancelled in 1991.

SRAM-T
The SRAM II air vehicle was also the basis for a tactical nuclear variant - the SRAM T which employed a different warhead, the W91 thermonuclear warhead, with a selectable yield from 10 to 100 kilotons. It had a longer range than the baseline SRAM II, around 250 miles (approximately 400 kilometers). As a NATO theater nuclear weapon, SRAM-T was to be carried by the F-15E and F-111, but it was also compatible with the F-16 and the Tornado. Deployment was planned for 1995.

Cancellation
Both SRAM II and SRAM T were canceled in September 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, along with the W89 and W91 warheads.

Specifications
Data from designation-systems.net
Length:
Diameter:
Weight:
Speed: Mach 2+
Range:
Propulsion: Thiokol solid-fuel rocket
Warhead:
AGM-131A: W-89 thermonuclear
Blast Yield:
AGM-131B: W-91 thermonuclear
Blast Yield:

References

Nuclear air-to-surface missiles
Cold War air-to-surface missiles of the United States
Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States
Air-to-surface missiles of the United States

AGM-131 SRAM II


Col. Paul Whitin, (1767–1831) was an American blacksmith and pioneering industrialist who in 1826 Northbridge, Massachusetts established P Whitin and Sons, a new cotton mill with his sons. This company would grow and acquire other mills in the area. In 1831 his son John C Whitin obtained a patent for a mechanized Cotton Picker. Textile machinery would become a larger percentage of their business over time. would later become the largest maker of specialty textile machinery in the world.

Paul was born in 1767 in Roxbury,MA as Paul Whiting to Nathaniel and Sarah (Draper) Whiting . He began his career as an apprentice in Colonel James Fletcher's forge in South Northbridge. In 1793, he married Fletcher's daughter, Elizabeth (Betsey) Fletcher at which time he changed his name by dropping the "g". They would have eight children, including five sons.

Whitin and four of his sons and their descendants would become very influential in the development of the textile industry in the Blackstone Valley area during the 19th Century, establishing or acquiring several mills throughout the Blackstone Valley area, including ones at Uxbridge, Linwood, Riverdale and Rockdale. It was the Whitin Machine Works however, which would have the greatest impact on the area and the textile industry.

In 1835, the village of South Northbridge became known as Whitinsville in his honor.

Pioneer of industry
In 1809, Whitin and his father-in-law James Fletcher and others from Northbridge and Leicester, established the Northbridge Cotton Manufacturing Company. This wood-framed spinning mill, two and one-half stories high had 200 spindles and was only the third cotton mill in the Blackstone Valley at the time.

In 1815, Whitin became a partner with Colonel Fletcher, Betsey's father, and his two brothers-in-law, Samuel and Ezra Fletcher, under the firm name of Whitin and Fletcher. Then they built a second mill with 300 spindles on the opposite side of the Mumford River. Paul Whitin then bought out the Fletcher shares in 1826 and formed a new partnership with his two sons, Paul Jr. and John Crane Whitin. The new company was called Paul Whitin and Sons. Also in 1826, a new brick mill was constructed, having 2000 spindles, which still stands today at Whitinsville, having been recently restored. The 1826 brick mill is perhaps the oldest surviving, unaltered textile mill remaining in Massachusetts. Colonel Fletcher's 1772 Blacksmith Forge is also still standing, next to the Brick Mill, on the west bank of the Mumford River.

Later on, Whitin's two other younger sons, Charles P. and James F. later also entered into the family-run business.

Whitin died in 1831. Years later, with the cotton business on a solid basis and escalating in 1845, Betsey Whitin and her sons built a new, stone textile factory, largely of granite known as the Whitinsville Cotton Mill, which gave the family business 7,500 more spindles. The Whitinsville Cotton Mill would later be used as a testing facility for new equipment developed by the Whitin Machine Works, across the street. This is now called the restored Cotton Mill Apartments, in Whitinsville.

Whitin Machine Works and the Village of Whitinsville
In 1831, Whitin's third son John Crane Whitin designed and had patented a new cotton picker machine that outperformed others in the previous mills. This was to be first of other successive inventions that would establish the Whitin Machine Works as a great textile machinery company.

In 1847, the Whitins built "The Shop," which consisted of a new textile production area that was four times larger than the brick mill. It contained machine shops, foundries, and other specialized structures.

As the family textile businesses expanded, so did the village of Whitinsville. More housing was provided by the company for new workers on North Main St. and on other side streets as Irish workers poured into the labor pool that same year (1847). Just seven years prior, John C. Whitin had developed the first of stately mansions, which had occupied land where the Whitin Gymnasium now stands. During this time also, Paul Whitin Jr. had married Sarah Chapin and built a new Italian-styled home, along with his brother in 1856.

In 1864, Betsy Whitin decided to split the family businesses among the four sons. Paul Jr. got the Rockdale and Riverdale Mills. Charles P. received the 1845 Whitinsville Cotton Mill and the 1826 brick mill. James F. got the Crown and Eagle Mill of North Uxbridge, and the land near the Whitin Railroad Depot, where he built in 1866, the Linwood Cotton Mill with his brother Charles. However, it was John C. who got The Machine Shops of 1847 (The Shop) proper, which had just been expanded along North Main Street.

The Whitin family continued to hold the Whitin Machine Works privately until 1946. By 1948, the company was operating at peak capacity, employing 5,615 men and women. However, the business began a decline over then next two decades. In 1966, Whitin Machine Works was sold to White Consolidated Industries. The plant would struggle along for another decade, when in 1976 the doors were closed.  The huge plant is now occupied by a variety of smaller businesses along both sides of the Mumford River in Whitinsville.

External links
Blackstone River Valley Article

References

People from Northbridge, Massachusetts
American textile industry businesspeople
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
American blacksmiths
1767 births
1831 deaths

Paul Whitin


Inside the NFL is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL).

Each NFL season, the program airs from Week 1 of the regular season until the week after the Super Bowl. The show principally features highlights of the past week's games that were captured by NFL Films, in addition to commentary and analysis by the hosts, and occasional interviews with current and former NFL players and personnel.

The show originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008. Following Super Bowl XLII, it moved to Showtime, airing there until 2021, when it moved to streaming service Paramount+. In April 2023, it was reported that Paramount+ would drop the show; it was picked up by The CW later that June.

History
Inside the NFL first aired in 1977 and had been cable television's longest-running series until it departed for Paramount+. The first episode followed San Diego Chargers quarterback Rhett Swanson from his final college pass at USC to draft day. The show is significant for being the first regular weekly sports program on HBO outside its live sports coverage, and the first NFL-endorsed program to air on a premium subscription television platform. The original hosts were Al Meltzer, at the time play-by-play man for the Buffalo Bills, and Chuck Bednarik, Pro Football Hall of Fame two-way player for the Philadelphia Eagles.

1978–2001
In 1978, Meltzer and Bednarik left the show and were replaced by Merle Harmon and Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson respectively. In 1980, Merle Harmon left for NBC as Len Dawson was joined by fellow Hall of Famer and former Miami Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti. In 1989, newly retired Cris Collinsworth joined as an on-air reporter. In 1990, Collinsworth joined Dawson and Buoniconti as the third host. Several former players and coaches served as co-host throughout this period including Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Glanville.

From 1999 to 2001, the hosts of Inside the NFL appeared on HBO's corporate cousin, Cartoon Network, hosting faux pregame shows for the network's Big Game specials (featuring classic theatrical cartoons edited together as a parody of the Super Bowl).

2001–2006
After the 2001 NFL season, Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti retired from the show. From 2002–2007 seasons, the show was hosted by Bob Costas with former players Dan Marino, Cris Collinsworth, and Cris Carter serving as co-hosts. Bob Costas acknowledged this change in the season's first episode and paid tribute to the former hosts, saying they paved the way for the show to succeed. In addition to the change in hosts, Inside the NFL also featured segments featuring comics such as George Lopez, Jim Florentine, Lewis Black and Wanda Sykes.

During the last three weeks of the 2005 NFL season, Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel filled in for Bob Costas. Costas was unavailable because he was in Turin, Italy preparing to cover the 2006 Winter Olympics for NBC.

In a special 30th anniversary episode that aired in December 2006, Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti were invited back to co-host the show.

2008–present
On February 6, 2008, HBO suddenly announced that the show would end its run after 31 seasons. HBO Sports cited increased competition in NFL-related programming since the show's inception as a reason for its cancellation. Skeptics, however, believe that the real reason for HBO's decision to drop the show was due to the increasing cost for usage of the NFL Films produced highlights. In the final episode, a taped montage with highlights from the series' 31 seasons was aired. In addition, former hosts Dawson and Buoniconti did the final signoff as the credits rolled. Bob Costas soon regarded the cancellation by HBO as being a "boneheaded" move.

On June 3, 2008, CBS Sports and NFL Films announced that Inside the NFL had found a new home on CBS Corporation-owned Showtime and would air on Wednesdays starting September 10 (9 p.m. ET/PT) on the cable channel. Inside the NFL aired every Wednesday throughout the 2008 NFL season through Wednesday, February 11, 2009. It is produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films. On July 6, it was announced that James Brown would host Inside the NFL, the role Bob Costas had on HBO. Brown would also be joined by lead CBS NFL analyst Phil Simms, retired former Defensive Player of the Year Warren Sapp and the returning Cris Collinsworth. Jenn Brown joined the team as the first female special correspondent on the show. Her main responsibility would be to do various features throughout the season. While Sapp was competing on Dancing with the Stars, former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach and current NFL Today analyst Bill Cowher along with former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann filled in.

As of the 2019 NFL season, the show is hosted by James Brown, Phil Simms, Brandon Marshall and Ray Lewis.

On February 24, 2021, it was announced that Inside the NFL would move from Showtime to Paramount+, with former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman also becoming a part of the series. The season premiered on September 7, 2021.

On April 5, 2023, it was reported that Paramount+ canceled the show, with the NFL shopping it to other outlets.

On June 7, 2023, it was announced that The CW picked up the series, which premiered on September 5, 2023. On August 30, 2023, it was announced that former Steelers safety Ryan Clark would be the show's new host, along with Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson and Chris Long as analysts.

Format
Much like other shows on pay-cable networks and streaming providers, Inside the NFL has the freedom to stray from the traditional network format for its program. While the basic elements were the same as any other sports recap show by featuring highlights of the week's games and discussion of events around the league, the fact that there were no commercials allows the panel to discuss subjects at length without the normal network time restrictions.

Highlights
The highlight segments consist of NFL Films footage of the past week's games with narration by Scott Graham (previously Harry Kalas until his death in 2009). This has long been considered a major asset of the show as the game highlights are filmed and packaged longer than the average highlights package using game broadcast video and without any digital on-screen graphics marring the presentation. It also aired on premium services, meaning there was no advertising through the hour.

In the last few years of Inside the NFL, the show removed lower-profile games for more extended analysis of the top games; the transition to The CW will likely remove some games to account for it now being a program with traditional advertising.

Interviews
Aside from the highlights, Inside the NFL features in-depth interview segments with various players, coaches and front office personnel. Among the notable segments over the years was Cris Carter interviewing former coach Buddy Ryan. Ryan was Carter's first head coach when both were with the Philadelphia Eagles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ryan released Carter with his explanation being the infamous quote "All he does is catch touchdowns." The interview revealed what some had learned over the years, that Ryan released Carter because of his substance abuse problems that were affecting his performance but did not want that to become public, lest it hinder Carter's chances to sign with another team. Carter admitted that his release was a wake-up call and saved his life as he became a born again Christian soon after, and went on to have a successful NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings in which he became the NFL's second-leading receiver of all-time.

Production

HBO
The show was taped in a New York City studio on Wednesday and aired at various times throughout the week beginning Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern Time.

Showtime
The show was taped at NFL Films' headquarters in Mount Laurel, New Jersey on Tuesday and aired at various times throughout the week beginning Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Greg Gumbel was replaced in September 2015 by Adam Schein of CBS Sports, with Brown returning in 2016 as host and Schein taking a supporting role.

References

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Inside the NFL