History of ITV television idents

The ITV television network in the United Kingdom began as a group of regional stations, each with their own identities. Each station used its own idents to create an individual identity until the late 1990s when ITV began to introduce a consolidated presentation package as part of a dedicated effort to unify its identity. This article looks at the history of presentation of ITV.
Corporate images.
1981.
When ITV was incepted in 1955, most of the franchises had their own individual logos and identities and were created by the franchise holders for their own use and identification within the network. From 1981, a generic, 'blocky-looking' logo was used infrequently throughout the 1980s, often in a rainbow colouration for promos produced by the "Big Five" franchises (Thames Television, London Weekend Television, Granada Television, Yorkshire Television and Associated Television/Central Independent Television), as well as holding slides used by some of the regions and Channel 4 (for cross-promotion purposes), but it was never widely used as the centrepiece of an identity.
1989.
A new generic ITV logo was introduced on 1 September 1989 and accompanied a first-time, national on-air identity designed by English Markell Pockett with music by Lord David Dundas. The logo was the centre of a whole branding package; there was a national logo and regional logos for all of the ITV franchises. Each franchise had a distinctive portion of their logo included into the V of the ITV logo. The ident was generally formed by beginning with the franchisee's logo, then going into a sliding sequence featuring an arctic tern, a couple in period dress, Big Ben, an athlete, and a pair of dancers before the regional ITV logo is reformed. Along with this, each franchise received a regional clock, trailer style, network font and break bumpers.
However, their new look did not go as the designers intended:
Their look was dropped at various times depending on region:
October 1998 – 2002.
On 5 October 1998, the ITV logo was changed to a lower cased blue and yellow affair. This was in line with the fact that, with the upper cased ITV logo used previously, the viewer perception of ITV was a high brow stuffy channel, not aimed at younger audiences. ITV changed the logo to reverse the younger audience's perceptions.
On 8 November 1999, the next generic look was launched, designed by English and Pockett with music by Lord David Dundas, both of whom were involved with the last look. The main theme of the look was the ITV slogan of 'TV from the heart'. There were three variations of the ident.
The lines and static idents could also feature a spinning hearts background that was tinted brown that was used during Daytime schedules. The look was accompanied by a clock superimposed on a spinning hearts background, as well as promotions provided by ITV's Network Promotions Unit. A heart break bumper was also provided. Upon launch and over time, some changes were made to the look:
As with the last look, not all of the companies adopted it:
Once again like the last look, it was dropped at different times:
October 2002 – 2004.
On Monday 28 October 2002, a new idents package was rolled out across the regions using the central theme of a celebrity posing 'backstage'. There would be a clip of the celebrity chilling-out when they were supposedly off screen. The 'ITV1' logo had been softened with smoother edges by this point and it would animate on in the bottom right hand corner, being formed from 3 aligned blue blocks and one yellow block. This package also coincided with the centralisation of continuity from the English, Isle of Man and Scottish Border regions to London. As a result of this, announcers were always from a national team of six live from the Carlton/LWT continuity booth, even with regional idents. Wales retained its own announcers for the time being.
The regional versions of the idents were now only used in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland throughout the day. The other regions had their own idents specifically for use before local programmes. These varied subtly by region:
The set of idents were updated with new sets and celebrities on 1 September 2003, with the sets more pronounced blues and yellows and removing the backstage feel. Along with this, news ident graphics and the backgrounds to the regional idents were changed to overlapped blue squares.
A number of regions changed their identities throughout the period:
The look was dropped at different times:
November 2004 – January 2006.
The 1 November 2004 heralded a new on-air look coinciding with the launch of ITV3. The ITV1 logo was reworked, splitting it into separate squares. On-screen, the boxes were arranged as a large yellow square containing the '1' with blue ITV boxes on top. This logo would be seen against a generic background of a blue sky with clouds, windows of a high rise building, underwater with bubbles floating by and dark blue ribbons flowing against a blue background.
The plan for these Idents were to use them as mini-menus showing what is coming up soon. The Idents would zoom to the left allowing a short video and description of the upcoming programmes to be shown, before the panels of the videos to become part of the ITV1 logo in the centre of the screen. They were not designed to be traditional idents, however despite the fact that ITV took on a team of associate producers to produce these promotions, the promotional idents were used less and less as the months go on.
During this period, ITV spent a lot of this period using themed idents specific to particular programmes, such as "Celebrity Love Island".
Once again, not all of the companies took the look:
Regional idents were available, and featured the ITV1 ident with the region name written under the logo, to a background of different shades of dark blue. However, the ident was becoming less frequently seen, usually only before some local news bulletins and the decreasing number of regional programming. ITV1 Wales was the exception to the rule, with a Wales name added to the bottom of all idents in their package.
The ITV plc regions, the only regions to adopt the look, dropped it in 2006 in favour of a complete overhaul.
January – November 2006.
On 16 January 2006 a brand new logo and presentation package was unleashed. It brought ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3 in line with ITV4. It was part of a major rebrand of the ITV network, known as "Brand 2010", which also included the News and Sport divisions as well as off screen content. It was designed by Red Bee Media following a perception analysis carried out by the audience. The results stated that although all the ITV channels had a good combining brand, with the ITV logo, they all looked the same, couldn't be told apart, that their programming values were blurred and that the ITV logo itself was getting boring.
The solution was to make a new logo in a rounded off box, involving the lower case itv. These, it was claimed, made the service look friendly, retaining what had been attempted in 1998, and yet fresh and crisp. From there they added an extra rectangle on the other side of the channel name. All channel shared this look with the colour being the only main difference with the exception of the name. This provided the distinctiveness, yet unity they sought.
The ITV1 idents were created on the basis that ITV1 provokes "an emotion response in all of us" and therefore the so-called 'Emotion' idents were created. Many were shot in South Africa and featured a montage of unrelated scenes, which include such things as a man rubbing his bare chest, girls rolling down a hill and two people hugging trees. These represented moods such as joy, pride, sadness, love etc. In them the 'ITV1' logo would open out and enclose the footage it was superimposed on to. The exception to the rule was one of the ITV1 logo on a black background, used to introduce the news.
The look was controversial both with critics, online and in print, viewers and ITV bosses who saw the look too vague. This look had one regional ident, Pride which was used before regional programming and also for a time at the 19:00 and 22:30 junctions on Thursdays, with an announcer name checking the regional station on some occasions. These were the last ITV idents to include the region's name onscreen. ITV1 Wales also had a full selection of idents for a time before they began using the standard ITV1 idents with the Wales added on the live television feed during transmission.
Only two of the four ITV parent companies adopted any part of the look:
The Idents themselves and their contents:
November 2006 – January 2013.
The next presentation of ITV1 was launched on 13 November 2006, just 10 months after the last new look. Following the issues with the previous one, the themes were changed slightly: the logo remained the same shape and style, but with the letters ITV changed to black so as to contrast with the yellow of the logo better. This look had also saw another change for regional idents for the ITV plc owned stations; the regional names were now used leading into the regional news only.
The ident films themselves were scrapped and a new set created following the theme of "Alive with Colour" with ITV promoting the new idents as the "second phase" of the look introduced in January. The idents, based on the previous set by Red Bee Media, were designed by The Mill and produced by Blink Productions and Pleix include surreal scenes featuring yellow colours to the same audio track.
The look launched with six idents: 'Beach', 'Bike', 'Lake', 'Market', 'Basketball' and 'Pavement Art', with another 4 added on 3 September 2007 which runs in tandem with the previous ones. These latest idents included an ITV1 logo that was bigger than the ones launched in 2006, but retained the same soundtrack. In April 2010, ITV1 HD was launched, featuring an updated glossier logo based on that of ITV1. In response, ITV1 changed their logo to the glossier version and launched another four idents. These latest idents have been noticeably different from their predecessors: the logo was once again larger and faded on in parts. They also featured individual soundtracks based on those previously and the style of the ident themselves, namely the shooting of them, was very different from those before them. They were accompanied on screen by updated programme promotions, end credit promotions, stings and break bumpers.
Because of these changes, all of the idents were updated with the new logo, including making it bigger in many places. However, the soundtracks remained the same causing some to question why the other idents weren't changed with the new looks. Viewer opinions suggest that the original music is unpopular, but the ident package itself generally popular. This has been the longest lasting ITV generic look to date, lasting far longer than the 1999 Hearts, and being kept by far more companies and for longer collectively than the 1989 Generic look.
The primary criticisms of the look have been the scrapping of regional idents. All regions are introduced with a national ident and the region is not referenced to in the announcement. The exception to the rule is ITV1 Wales, with includes the word 'Wales' either underneath the ident or located in the bottom left hand corner of the ident. The Wales ident was used before all programming except overnight for the first few years of the rebrand before being quietly relegated to regional junctions only.
This package was only seen in some areas of the ITV network however:
The ITV plc regions, the only regions to adopt the look, dropped it in 2013 in favour of a complete overhaul.
The idents include:
January 2013 – December 2018.
On 15 November 2012, it was announced that ITV1 was to receive a rebrand in January 2013, in which it would revert to its old name of ITV. A new "curvy" logo was introduced with new idents and presentation package. This was first implemented on 14 January 2013. On the same day, ITV1 +1 and ITV1 HD were rebranded to ITV +1 and ITV HD respectively, whilst sister channels ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV all received new idents and presentation based upon the new corporate logo (later two new channels based on the 2013 ITV logo, first ITV Encore from June 2014, and then ITVBe from October 2014 were also joined the sister channels).
ITV's new idents were created to reflect "everyday life of the Great British public". New idents will be brought in on a consistent basis to reflect the four seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. In addition, the new ITV logo changes colour on each ident, a process named as "colour picking", in which each segment of the logo adopts the colour of whatever passes behind it.
This package is only seen on the ITV plc owned companies of Anglia, Border, Central, Channel Television, Granada, London, Meridian, Tyne Tees, Wales (Later ITV Cymru Wales), West Country and Yorkshire.
UTV fully used the look, when ITV plc bought the channel in February 2016 and relaunched it on 17 October 2016 to match ITV's 2013 branding.
The STV Group companies of STV Central and STV North have refused their new look, instead continuing with their arrow flip idents introduced on 23 March 2009, before being rebranded on 2 June 2014.
These are the idents to have been featured so far:
Winter set.
At Christmas 2013, a selection of the Winter set of idents returned for use before non-entertainment programming such as news broadcasts. Following the withdrawal of the Christmas idents, the complete set returned for its second rotation on 2 January 2014, all in edited form: as with the subsequent sets, the idents now have the logo form-up much earlier, and it stays on for the remainder of the duration. (Fire Breather, though, is an exception which remains unedited until 1 January 2016.)
Spring set.
On 13 April 2013, three months on from the rebrand, ITV introduced a new set of idents. A notable change with these idents is that the logo stays on screen until the end whereas in previous idents would fade away during the ident.
Summer set.
On 8 June 2013, ITV introduced its latest set of idents.
Autumn set.
ITV's autumn set of idents was introduced on 31 August 2013.
Later additions.
On 29 December 2014, ITV introduced 4 new idents from January 2015 and later, more new idents from February 2015 onwards.
Special idents.
Special idents have also been used to mark occasions. The idents used for Easter celebrations during 2013 are documented in the list of Spring idents.
Football.
Special idents have used to coincide the ITV's coverage of football leagues and sporting programmes, with four idents continued as the part of the live coverage and sport events: "Face Painting", "Garden Kickout", "Trophy Engraving" and "Celebration".
Back to School Idents.
Two one-off idents are used during Back to School season on ITV in September 2015 to mark the start of the new school day, they're both aired only once.
Rugby World Cup Idents.
These special idents were used to coincide the ITV's coverage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup during 18 September until 31 October, as well as sporting programmes. This coverage will continue as part of the Six Nations 2016.
ITV Creates (2019–present).
In December 2018, ITV announced a new project, "ITV Creates", which would be the basis of its idents beginning on 1 January 2019. The network will commission artwork featuring the ITV logo from British artists, which will be used as the basis for a new set of idents every week. The first 8 artists of the project were Ravi Deepres, Sutapa Biswas, James Brunt, Patricia Volk, Mark Titchner, Katrina Russell Adams, Kristina Veasey, and James Alec Hardy. ITV Creative executive creative director Tony Pipes explained that the project was meant to be a platform for British visual artists, reflect ITV's position as being an "endlessly creative" broadcaster, and counter the traditional notion of idents being a static theme used for a long-term period.
Until April 2020, the ITV Creates idents were only used by the ITV-branded stations in England, Wales, and the Channel Islands. UTV initially continued to use the 2013 ident series, with a new on-air presentation used alongside the new idents, but began taking on full ITV branding in April 2020. This was initially meant to be temporary due the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was later made permanent in November of the same year. The STV Group of STV Central and STV North refused to adopt the new idents, instead continuing their 2014 series.
ITV Creates Project (2021–present).
A new set of idents, entitled "ITV Creates Project", debuted on 1 January 2021. Unlike the original set, each ident will be now be used for a month rather than a week. No ident was created for March 2021, due to ITV using their "ITV Kids Create" idents that month.


Robert A. McGowan

Robert Anthony McGowan (May 22, 1901 – June 20, 1955) was an American screenwriter and film director.
Biography.
Born in Denver, McGowan is best known as a junior director for the "Our Gang" short subjects film series from 1926 to 1930, and as the co-writer of the series during the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer period from 1938 to 1944. McGowan was named for his uncle, "Our Gang" senior director Robert F. McGowan. Since both Robert McGowans worked on the series, Robert Anthony McGowan was usually credited as Anthony Mack.
While McGowan directed a number of "Our Gang" entries in the late-1920s, his work is considered lesser than that of his uncle. He appears on-screen in the 1932 short "Free Wheeling", in which he is socked by a boxing glove attached to the kids' makeshift taxi.
Personal.
McGowan married Madeline Rosselle, the daughter of a choreographer, and had two children. McGowan's personal memorabilia was destroyed.
Death.
His career came to an end during the Communist "witch hunt" era of the late-1940s, during which he was blacklisted for associating with blacklisted screenwriters. He died in Los Angeles, California on June 20, 1955, five months after his uncle, at the age of 54, on the day of the longest solar eclipse in that century.


Terri Crawford Hansen

Terri Crawford Hansen (born 1953) is a journalist who focuses primarily on environmental and scientific issues affecting North American tribal and worldwide indigenous communities. Hansen, an enrolled Native American citizen of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is a correspondent for "YES! Magazine" and "Indian Country Today", and contributes to "Earth Island Journal", "Pacific Standard", "High Country News", "VICE News", "PBS", "BBC News" and other news publications. Hansen maintains an online public service news project titled "Mother Earth Journal."
Education and Honors.
Hansen attended Portland State University while employed at "The Oregonian", from which she retired in 1992. In 2014 she was selected a National Association of Science Writers Diverse Scholar Fellow. That same year she also was a Fellow of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. She was a 2010 Climate Media Fellow of the Earth Journalism Network in which she reported the Sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) United Nations Climate Summit from Cancun, Mexico. She received a 2009 Fellowship from the National Press Foundation; and 2009 and 2010 Fellowships from the Association of Health Care Journalists. She received funding in 2009 from the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples to report the COP15 UN Climate Summit from Copenhagen, Denmark. She was a 2008 Project Word journalism grant recipient. She was a 1994 Fellow of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Books.
Co-author, Water in the 21st Century West, Oregon State University Press, 2008. Co-author, The Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Marshall Cavendish Reference Books, Tarrytown, NY, 1997.
Memberships.
Hansen is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association, the Earth Journalism Network, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. As a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, she requested with other journalists that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) end current practices that restrict the public's access to health information.
Personal life.
Hansen was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She lives in Whidbey Island, Washington. She has one daughter, Danielle Hansen.


Kalaya Tasmai Namaha

Kalaya Tasmai Namaha is a 2012 Kannada Crime drama movie directed and written by Chandrashekar Shrivastav. The film stars Yogesh and debutante Madhubala in the lead roles. Snake Shyam makes a special appearance in a song sequence. The music is composed by A. M. Neel.
Plot.
The story revolves around a man who is a serial Supari killer and his love interest played by Madhubala.
Production.
Director Chandrashekar, after a brief gap from his previous film, "Patre Loves Padma", approached Yogesh with a different screenplay oriented script and soon after roped in him in the lead role. Yogesh plays a Supari serial killer and lead actress Madhubala plays a homely girl character.
Filming.
The film is shot in central cities such as Bangalore, Mysore and Haasan. For songs, the unit has shot at Jaipur locales. The filming officially begun on 5 August 2011 and Duniya Vijay and Bhavana attended the inaugural event to wish the team.
Soundtrack.
A. M. Neel composed 7 songs to the lyrics of director Chandrashekar Shrivastav.


A. R. Pillai

Ayyappan Pillai Raman Pillai (26 December 1879–7 September 1938), also known as A. Raman Pillai or A. R. Pillai, was an Indian expatriate who worked for India's freedom in Germany, journalist, writer and a book publisher in Göttingen in Germany.
Early life.
Pillai was born on 26 December 1879 as the only son of Padmanabha Pillai, a Government School Inspector, who hailed from the then South Travancore. A. R. Pillai's mother, Narayani Pillai Kaaliyamma Pillai, niece (maternal cousin's daughter) of the famous Easwara Pillai Vicharippukar, was a member of an aristocratic and affluent Hindu (Nair) matriarchal/matrilineal joint family. The family lived in a large complex of buildings known as Punnackal, situated on the western side of Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple inside the Fort, Thiruvananthapuram. The house had been built for Easwara Pillai Vicharippukaar, the celebrated doyen of Kathakali actors of Valia Kottaaram Kathakali Yogam of 19th century Travancore State and Palace manager (Palliyara Vicharippukaar) in the Travancore Palace, by his patron and king, Uthram Thirunaal MarthandaVarma.
Punnackal at the time of A. R. Pillai's birth was still a joint family ("Tharavaad") with the eldest male member on the matrilineal side heading the family and taking care of its members and looking after its properties. The joint family had two other branches (sub-Tharavaads), one in Piralakkode, Perunkadavila, a village off Neyyattinkara, and the other at Nadayara, a village off Varkala, with the main branch and the two rural branches having separate "Kaaranavans" (heads of family).
Raman Pillai had two sisters; his elder sister, named Kaaliyamma Pillai Narayani Pillai alias Gowri Amma, and younger sister, named Kaaliyamma Pillai Lakshmi Pillai alias Kunjulakshmi Amma. As the only male member of his generation in the Punnackal family, Kochuraman, as he was fondly called by his mother, and Ramooppy by his uncles and elder sister, was the darling of the family.
Pillai was a social activist and used to organize many social functions among his community of Nairs in collaboration with literary luminaries like C. V. Raman Pillai and cultural activities involving the city's socio-cultural elite. He took an active part in convening and organizing the first all-Kerala Nair Maha Sammelanam in Thiruvananthapuram. He also became a Member of the Royal Asiatic Society or M.R.A.S.
Pillai gave up his studies after high school matriculation and took to book-selling as a career; he set up an English bookshop, the first such in Thiruvananthapuram, by the side of the main thoroughfare of the city; he used to import English books of every kind from publishers like Blackies & Co. and Longmans Green & Co., etc. in the UK and also Western musical instruments like Piano, Violin and cello. Having grown up as a socially prominent and notable youth, A. R Pillai (then 24) sought the hand of B. Gouri Amma (then 12). Gouri Amma was born on 9 June 1892 A.D. as the eldest daughter of C. V. Raman Pillai, the greatest Malayalam novelist, pioneer Malayalam dramatist, newspaper journalist/editor and well-known social activist. The wedding ceremony was consecrated according to social rites of the Nair community on 23 August 1904.
Four years after his marriage, A. R. Pillai had to close down his bookshop following a tiff with M. Rajaraja Varma, the then Education Secretary of the erstwhile Travancore Government. Varma totally refused to include any of the large number of English books imported by Pillai from England in the list of textbooks prescribed for the schools in the State. Consequently, A. R. Pillai had to face severe financial problems and wind up his business venture.
In Europe.
Pillai then decided to pursue higher studies and seek better avenues of employment. He left for Europe in May 1909 and joined the four-year BSc degree course in Forestry of the Edinburgh University. After completing the four-year BSc course in Forestry of the Edinburgh University and finishing the written examinations, went to Germany in October 1913 for preparing a Working Plan on the Black Forest as a part of the BSc Forestry 'course. He spent eight months at the Black Forest and then went to Göttingen in April 1914 and joined the Georg-August-University, named after King George II of Great Britain. there to complete his work. Then, unluckily for Pillai, the First World War broke out, with Germany attacking Britain, France, etc., in 1914 and Pillai got stranded in Göttingen and could not go back to Edinburgh, submit the Working Plan and secure his BSc degree in Forestry and then return to Trivandrum. A.R.Pillai, even though he did not then have a basic university degree, was, however, allowed to register and work for PhD in the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Göttingen and also of the University of Giessen by the University authorities. But he was able to complete only two courses for the PhD degree when the situation brought about by the First World War, which began in October 1914 and lasted till November 1918 came in the way; the monthly remittances of money to A.R.Pillai by his maternal uncle (the head of his matriarchal family, Punnackal) and letters from his mother in Punnackal and his wife and children and his father-in-law, C.V.Raman Pillai, at Rosscote in Thiruvananthapuram, were stopped from August 1914 by the British authorities, Pillai being in their enemy country. It put him in a terrible quandary and pitiable plight of having no money even for his daily food.
Indian Independence Committee.
Pillai then established close contacts with the few Indians in Germany including Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, immediate younger brother of Sarojini Naidu, Bhupendranath Datta, younger brother of Narendranath DuttaSwami Vivekananda, M. Prabhakar, Raja Mahendra Pratap, who became the President of the exile Government of India in Afghanistan during the First World War of 1914–18 and the renowned expatriate Chempakaraman Pillai, from Thiruvananthapuram. Chempakaraman Pillai wrote "I am extremely pleased of your broadminded patriotic sentiments. I did not know you as such until I made your personal acquaintance." A. R. Pillai along with all these compatriots was imprisoned by the German Government on the ground that they were British subjects. However, they were later released when the few Indians there together formed the India Independence Committee in Berlin under the chairmanship of Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (referred, in short, as Chatto). """I assure you I have a great regard for you and a sincere feeling of comradeship especially since we are in the same boat. Please keep us informed of your literary activities... We must carry out the idea of a book on the National Movement on the lines I suggested", wrote Chatto. On the request of the India Independence Committee, A. R. Pillai regularly wrote and published articles condemning British Imperialism and canvassing support for India's struggle for freedom (see copies of letters below). He had also corresponded with veteran freedom fighters of other countries like Sir Roger Casement of Ireland, then under British rule, trying to make common cause for India's freedom struggle abroad. Sir Roger in his letter to A.R. Pillai said: "I can do more than thank you warmly for your letter and express my sincere and deep respect for all like you who set their country's cause above self interest."
During the War, A. R. Pillai wrote several articles in German newspapers and gave lectures in various places in Germany, at various universities and other institutions, on Indian history, culture and architecture. Bhupendranath Datta of the India Independence Committee wrote "We want brochures on economic, political, social, religious, etc. , showing how British rule is injuring and hindering the development of the Indian people on the above-mentioned lines. Of course the books or booklets will be published in the name of the Committee ". Among them was an article in "Westermanns Monatshefte" of December 1914 which called for German support for the Indian struggle for freedom under the title "Indien Und Die Europaische Krisis" (India and the European Crisis- in translation. Some of these articles and the texts of the lectures were later brought out in book form; eight of these books are listed in the Authors' Catalogue in the Library of the University of Göttingen. One of these books is entitled Deutschland- Indiens Hoffnung (Germany – India's Hope – in translation). He also wrote and published articles on various aspects of life in Germany like Education in Germany, etc., in the then-famous Indian magazine, "The Modern Review", of Calcutta.
When on 21 February 1918 the Bund der Freunde Indiens (Union of Friends of India) was founded in Berlin for the spreading of knowledge about India, A. R. Pillai along with other prominent Indians including Chempakaraman Pillai, Bhupendranath Datta, Mahendra Pratap and Naik and Germans like Admiral Recke, Hermann von Staden and L. Viereck joined the Bund. The first public activity of this new organisation was a reception held in honour of Raja Mahendra Pratap, "the most colourful Indian personality then in Germany" (also called "The Marco Polo of the East") on 13 April 1918. In a letter to A. R. Pillai, Mahendra Pratap wrote: "I am glad to hear that you are doing a useful service both to your country and mankind at large since the literary service to science is beneficial all round. I am also trying my best to serve our mutual cause according to my light." When the World War ended in the defeat of Germany and its allies, the Indian Independence Committee of Berlin wrote to A.R. Pillai (see letters below), saying that the Committee could not thereafter give him any financial aid or support to continue living in Germany and that he had to fend for himself. The British even after the War continued to prevent any letters or money from his home reaching him or his letters reaching anyone in India, considering him as an enemy of the British Crown; they would not also allow him to return to India unless he recanted and apologized, which he considered shameful and would not do.
A. R. Pillai then wanted to complete his course of studies for PhD at the University of Göttingen; however, his straitened circumstances forced him to discontinue his studies and work for earning his livelihood there. Thus he set up a business firm in partnership with a few German friends for selling and publishing books; this firm was called Firma A. R. Pillai & Co., A. G., Göttingen.
Soon, however, some of his German partners fell out with him and he had to approach the judiciary there but he lost the case. Thereupon he founded another company called A. Raman Pillai, Export-Buchhandlung, Göttingen, and imported books from publishers and booksellers all over the world and also published books in German. A prestigious tome in German that his firm published is mentioned in his reply to his father-in-law, C. V. Raman Pillai, who asked him to come back to India. After tackling enormous agonizing problems in giving up his firm and getting a fresh passport from the British after undertaking not to involve in local politics in India and not to correspond with Germany any more, A. R. Pillai could return to Trivandrum only in October 1926, four and a half years after C. V.'s death on 21 March 1922.
On his return to Trivandrum via Colombo in October 1926 after 18 years abroad, A. R. Pillai was kept under surveillance and spied by the British for quite some time at Rosscote where he lived with his wife and children. (Rosscote is the house built by C. V. and named after his Guru, John Ross, a Scotsman and the first Principal of H.H.The Maharaja's College – now called the University College – in Trivandrum). He was denied the headship of the undivided matriarchal family, which was his due, and access to the family properties.
He resumed his social activities in Trivandrum. He was on the executive of the All India Exhibition, Fair and Amusement Park in 1934 and all the annual Sree Chitra Exhibitions before and after. In fact, in all these exhibitions, he did the lay-out and gardening and designed the Ravanan Kotta. He then gradually began to correspond with well-known automobile manufacturing and other business firms in Germany and other European countries with a view to start his own business firm in Thiruvananthapuram. Pillai acquired the sole agency for the sale of Mercedes Benz cars in South India, but before he could formally launch his firm and execute the order for the limousine, he died a year before the Second World War broke out; within a few months, A.R. Pillai died on 7 September 1938, eight months past the age of 58 years. He had lived only for about 12 years after coming back home. He was survived by his wife Gouri Amma, and five children, Thankamma, Kesavan Nair, Rosscote Krishna Pillai, Suseela Bai and Padmanabhan Nair, the last three children having been born to him after return from Germany.


Ned Glass

Nusyn "Ned" Glass (April 1, 1906 – June 15, 1984) was a Polish-born American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly, or deceitful characters. Short and bald, with a slight hunch to his shoulders, he was immediately recognizable by his distinct appearance, his nasal voice, and his pronounced New York City accent.
Notable roles he portrayed included Doc in "West Side Story" (1961) and Gideon in "Charade" (1963).
Early life.
Glass was born in Radom, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, to a Jewish family. He emigrated to the United States at an early age and grew up in New York City. He attended City College.
Career.
Glass worked in vaudeville, and appeared on Broadway in 1931 in the Elmer Rice play "Counsellor-at-Law". He continued to act and direct on Broadway until 1936, when he was signed as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. He made his first film appearance in 1937, with an uncredited role in "True Confession", and his first credited film appearance came in two episodes of the serial "Dick Tracy Returns" (1938).
Beginning in 1937, Glass worked regularly in films, helped by friends like producer John Houseman. He was a frequent member of Columbia Pictures' short subjects dept. roster, and a favorite of directors Jules White and Del Lord. White prominently featured Glass in The Three Stooges' "Nutty But Nice" and costarred him with Buster Keaton in "Mooching Through Georgia". A Toluca Lake neighbor friend of Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, that real-life factoid inspired an untrue myth that Moe arranged for Ned to have parts the Stooges' films; actually, Moe had minimal-to-zero input into casting. He also appeared in "From Nurse to Worse", "Three Little Sew and Sews", "You Nazty Spy! "and "I'll Never Heil Again" Glass did not appear in any films released between 1942 and 1947, possibly because of military service, but he generally worked in a handful of films almost every year thereafter, playing small roles and bit parts, including additional Three Stooges films "Hokus Pokus", "Three Hams on Rye" and "Flagpole Jitters". He was reportedly briefly blacklisted, during which time he found work as a carpenter.
Glass began showing up on television in 1952, when he was cast on an episode of "The Red Skelton Show". He later was frequently seen on CBS in Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners" sketches. He was in an early episode (2.28) of Gunsmoke, "The Photographer", as a scruffy little prospector who's brutally murdered and scalped to obtain a cheaply thrilling photograph of Western violence (He was in 8 other episodes as well). From 1955 to 1958, Glass played "Sgt. Andy Pendleton" on "You'll Never Get Rich" (better remembered as "The Phil Silvers Show"). In 1957, he appeared as "Jackson", an arms dealer to Indians, in an episode of the syndicated western series, "Boots and Saddles", as well as a railroad ticket agent in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest". He appeared in the syndicated crime drama, "Sheriff of Cochise", starring John Bromfield and in the ABC western series, "The Rebel", starring Nick Adams. He appeared too in David Janssen's crime drama, "Richard Diamond, Private Detective".
Glass guest starred in three sitcoms in the early years of television, NBC's "The People's Choice", starring Jackie Cooper, CBS's "Angel", with Annie Fargé, and ABC's "Guestward, Ho!", starring Joanne Dru. He portrayed Doc, the drugstore owner, in the Hollywood version of "West Side Story". In the fall of 1963, Glass guest starred in an episode of the 13-week CBS combination sitcom/drama, "Glynis", starring British actress Glynis Johns as a mystery writer, with Keith Andes as her attorney-husband. In 1964 he guest-starred in an episode of the sitcom "The Cara Williams Show", in 1965 he appeared in an episode of the comedy-drama "Kentucky Jones", and in 1966 he appeared in two episodes of "The Fugitive", working with David Janssen once more.
Glass popped up in the 1967 episode of "The Monkees" titled "Monkees in the Ring" as fight promoter Joey Sholto, and as convicted forger "Freddie the Forger" in a fifth-season episode of NBC's "Get Smart" titled "Do I Hear a Vaults?" (1970). He played "Sol Cooper" on the Diahann Carroll vehicle "Julia" from 1968 to 1971, and was nominated in 1969 for an Emmy Award for his performance in the "A Little Chicken Soup Never Hurt Anybody" episode. Glass also played "Uncle Moe Plotnick" on the short-lived series "Bridget Loves Bernie" (1972–1973). In 1981 he appeared on "Barney Miller", as Stanley Golden, in the episode "Field Associate" and also in 1975, in the episode, "You Dirty Rat", as Mr. Sam Becker, the exterminator, from Becker & Sons.
Highlights of Glass's film career include playing "Doc" in "West Side Story" (1961), "Popcorn" in Blake Edwards's thriller "Experiment in Terror" (1962), and bad guy "Leopold W. Gideon" in Stanley Donen's "Charade" (1963). His other film appearances included the Elvis Presley film "Kid Galahad" (1962), "Who's Got the Action?" (1962), "Papa's Delicate Condition" (1963), "Blindfold" (1965), "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" (1966), "The Fortune Cookie" (1966), "Blackbeard's Ghost" (1968), "Never a Dull Moment" (1968), "The Love Bug" (1969), "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972), "Save the Tiger" (1973), "The All-American Boy" (1973), and the TV movie "Goldie and the Boxer" (1979). His final film appearance was in the low-budget comedy "Street Music" (1981), and his final TV appearance was as a pickpocket on "Cagney & Lacey" in 1982.
Personal life.
Glass was married to actress Kitty McHugh, sister of character actor Frank McHugh and bit player Matt McHugh. Kitty committed suicide on 3 September 1954. Glass later married actress Jean (also known as Jhean) Burton, but that marriage ended in divorce.
Death.
Glass died in Encino Hospital in Encino, California, on 15 June 1984 at the age of 78, after a long illness.


Quantegy

Quantegy Inc. was a manufacturer of magnetic tape and professional external hard drives based in Opelika, Alabama. Their tape products were primarily used in analog audio and video recording studios, but they also have some use with digital data storage devices and instrumentation recorders along with some audiophile home hobbyists.
The company was created at the end of World War II by Major John Herbert Orr as Orradio Industries. This was a result of the US Army requiring an American supplier of magnetic tape. Magnetic tape was a German invention and after the war, the German manufacturing ability was destroyed.
, Quantegy was working on reviving Quantegy 456 Studio Mastering Tape, Quantegy 499 Gold Studio Mastering Tape, GP9 Platinum Studio Mastering Tape, as well as the Black Diamond Series of products. But , no progress had been made. Most of the tape production facilities, located in Opelika, Alabama, were sold in 2008 and few years later demolished.


7-inch single


Colonial Exposition Issue

The Colonial Exposition Issue was the first joint issue of postage stamps by the French colonial empire. Issued in 1931, in conjunction with the Paris Colonial Exposition, it consisted of four different engraved designs, denominated in the local currency. 26 French territories participated.
The four designs had themes reflecting those of the exposition:
Stamp inscriptions read "Exposition Coloniale Internationale Paris 1931". The designs were identical for all territories, differing only in currency, and the name of the territory, which was printed in black. France also issued stamps for the Colonial Exposition, but with different designs.


Classic Rock 92FM

Classic Rock 92FM was a radio station in Tauranga, New Zealand, on 92.5FM until it was replaced with Solid Gold in 1997.


Xeditor

Xeditor is a web-based XML editor with a WYSIWYG interface.
It hides the XML-code in the background and presents the content in a more user-friendly format.
The frontend is similar to Microsoft Word.
The editor offers support for XML standards (DITA / DocBook / S1000D / TEI / JATS).
Thanks to WIRIS the author can edit and display mathematical formulas in MathML.
The JavaScript architecture is based on ExtJS.
Use and features.
During data entry the XML document structure is monitored on a continuous basis. The author may only execute actions that are valid at the corresponding positions.
The validation is based on mapping of XSD / DTD / RELAX NG, Schematron.
All content modifications by authors are independently tracked and can be analyzed for final editing. Xeditor supports comments being added regarding individual text passages.
Remarks and corrections can be directly entered and saved in the document without interrupting the text.
Xeditor is webbased. No further plug-ins and installations are required. Xeditor can be integrated into existing systems such as CMS, DMS, PIM, DAM and other relational databases.
Awards.
Winner of the EDP Awards 2013/2014 in the category "Best design/layout/editorial solution".
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Winner of BEST OF 2015 Innovationspreis-IT in the category "Content Management".
Winner of BEST OF 2016 Innovationspreis-IT in the category "Content Management".
One of Econtent Trendsetting Products 2016


Stephen Packard

Stephen Packard (born 1943) is an American conservationist, author, and ecological restoration practitioner active in the Chicago area.
Packard began his career in restoration ecology in 1977 as a volunteer with the "North Branch Prairie Project" in Cook County, Illinois. The project is now known as the North Branch Restoration Project. In 1978, he became a field representative for the Illinois chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC-Illinois). From 1983-1999, he was the Director of Science and Stewardship for TNC-Illinois. Packard founded the Audubon Chicago Region chapter in 1999 and worked for this organization until 2014. The chapter has since expanded to encompass the Great Lakes region and is now known as Audubon Great Lakes. Between 2008 and 2013 he taught "Science and Policy of Ecological Conservation" at Northwestern University.
Stephen Packard is a founding member/contributor to Society for Ecological Restoration, TNC's Volunteer Stewardship Network, Chicago Wilderness and its "Mighty Acorns" program, Friends of the Forest Preserves, and the Wild Things conference. He sits on the national advisory board for Wild Ones.
He serves as a volunteer land steward for the Forest Preserves of Cook County's Somme Prairie Grove.


Take back the future


Juan Villalonga

Juan Villalonga Navarro (born April 8, 1953) is a Spanish businessman. He was a partner at McKinsey & Company in the 1980s, CEO for Credit Suisse First Boston and Bankers Trust in Spain in the early 1990s, and CEO of Telefónica from 1996 to 2000.
In 2010, "Harvard Business Review" named Villalonga one of the world's top 100 CEOs.
Early life, education.
Juan Villalonga is a native of Madrid, Spain, and was born on April 8, 1953. He comes from an established Spanish family deeply entrenched in the economics and politics of the country. His paternal family owned the Tramway and Railway Company of Valencia from CTFV to 1917. His great uncle, Ignacio Villalonga, was Governor of Catalonia when Generalitat was suspended in 1935. His great uncle was also chairman for one of Spain's largest banks, Banco Central (1943–1970), and was an outspoken critic of Francoist Spain.
Villalonga attended school at the Colegio Nuestra Senora del Pilar in Madrid. There, he became friends with José María Aznar, who would serve as Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. In 1970 Villalonga began attending his great uncle's alma mater, the University of Deusto, to earn a degree in law. He graduated in 1975. While undertaking an MBA at the IESE in Barcelona, Spain, University of Navarre from 1975 to 1977, he completed his military service, rising to the rank of Alferez (Second Lieutenant) (1974–1975).
Career.
For the next 18 years Villalonga worked in the financial markets, starting in New York with J.P. Morgan’s credit analyst team. In this role, he evaluated the credit worthiness of companies and made quantitative analysis and credit projections. In 1979, he was promoted to Account Officer and assigned to Madrid.
He joined McKinsey & Company in 1980 and worked as a partner across the United States, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and Spain. During this period, he serviced McKinsey clients such as Banco Santander, which is ranked as the largest bank in the Eurozone. He opened McKinsey’s Rome office in 1987.
He subsequently became CEO for Credit Suisse First Boston, Spain and Bankers Trust in Spain.
Telefónica.
In 1996, Villalonga was appointed chief executive officer of Telefónica, proposed by shareholders Argentaria, Banco Bilbao, La Caixa, and with endorsement of the Spanish Premier, Jose Maria Aznar. In four years under his leadership, Telefónica’s market capitalization increased by $127 billion, securing the company's leadership position in Spain and turning Telefónica into an international telecommunications power. He also developed a successful model for acquisitions where transactions were made in stock.
In 1997, the European telecommunications market was liberalized, and Telefónica ceased to have a monopoly in Spain. Villalonga used the event to expand the company beyond Spain into other Spanish-speaking markets. In 1997, he entered the company into pre-BRIC Brazil.
In 1998, Villalonga launched Telefónica Interactiva (also known as Terra Networks), Telefónica’s Internet portal. He aggressively acquired several local start-ups in Spain and the main Latin American markets, turning Terra into a major internet company. These acquisitions included Ole (Spain), Zaz (Brazil), Infosel (Mexico), Gauchonet y Donde (Argentina) and Chevere (Venezuela). In November 1999, Terra had a high-profile IPO in the U.S. and Spain, and its shares rose from the initial price of €11.81 to €157.65 within three months.
He then had Telefónica purchase the American Internet search company, Lycos, creating one of the world’s largest Internet companies. It opened the U.S. market of 30 million Spanish speakers to Terra and provided access to parts of the world where Telefónica did not yet have a foothold, such as Asia. The purchase for $12.5 billion in stock in May 2000 created a new company known as Terra Lycos Inc., which had a pro-forma revenue of approximately $500 million, an estimated 50 million new users, and 175 million page views per day.
In June 2000, Villalonga strengthened the international standing of Telefónica’s Spanish Group in an equity swap known as "Operation Verónica." He had Telefónica buy out minority shareholders in its Latin American subsidiaries: Telefónica de Argentina, Telesp in Brazil, Telefónica del Perú, and Tele Sudeste. He also reorganized the company along product rather than geographical lines. During the same period, Telefónica acquired Dutch entertainment giant Endemol for €5.5 billion in stock.
In June 2000, the Madrid daily "El Mundo" claimed that Villalonga had been involved in insider trading. Amid these rumors and pressure from the Spanish government, Villalonga resigned as chairman of Telefónica in July 2000. In August 2000, the Spanish stock market commission, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), cleared Villalonga of insider trading charges.
Recent career.
Villalonga served as a board member of the Espirito Santo Financial Group until September 2011. He is a board member of Axiata, and is a director of the technology company Idea.
In 2010, "Harvard Business Review" named Villalonga one of the Best-Performing CEO’s in the World.
Personal life.
He is married to photographer Vanessa von Zitzewitz.


Mike Levey

Michael Stephen Levey (May 28, 1948 – August 2, 2003) was an American infomercial host. He was best known for hosting "Amazing Discoveries", a series of infomercials that aired on late night television from 1989 to 1997.
Career.
A former electrical engineer and copy writer for mail advertisements, Levey started Dial-A-Joke line in the 1970s called "The Mainline" in Los Angeles. In 1988, Levey and two partners founded Positive Response Television, a company that produced infomercials.
Levey rose to fame as the host of "Amazing Discoveries", a series of episodic infomercials that began airing in 1989. "Amazing Discoveries" consisted of over 100 episodes and aired in more than 60 countries in 12 languages. His onscreen persona as the enthusiastic "Sweater Man" was often
parodied in films like "The Cat in the Hat" and on the comedy sketch series "MADtv". Levey also appeared as himself on episodes of "Sliders", "Friends", and "The Weird Al Show".
At the height of his fame, Levey received 500 fan letters a week and was dubbed "the most viewed person on television". The success of the "Amazing Discoveries" infomercials also led to a spin-off infomercial series titled "Ask Mike". Levey's company, Positive Response Television, was bought by National Media in 1997. "Amazing Discoveries" aired its final episode the following year.
Death.
On August 2, 2003, Levey died from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His private memorial was held on August 6 at Mount Sinai Memorial Park. He was survived by his wife Lisa Levey and their three children.


Wild In Your Garden

Wild In Your Garden was a live BBC television show, broadcast in 2003.
Presenters Bill Oddie, Kate Humble (both in a suburban garden in Bristol, England) and Simon King (mostly on location nearby) presented live action from a number of hidden cameras in or near nest boxes, badger setts and the like. Short, pre-filmed documentary pieces were also included. It was shown twice a day, but at different times, sometimes after midnight.
A sequel, "Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie", was broadcast in 2004 and the format eventually developed into the "Springwatch" series.


Cars 2

Cars 2 is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to 2006's "Cars" and the second film in the "Cars" franchise. In the film, race car Lightning McQueen and tow truck Mater head to Japan and Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix, but Mater accidentally becomes sidetracked with international espionage. In the film's ensemble voice cast, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Bonnie Hunt, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles from the first film. Paul Newman, who voiced Doc Hudson in the previous film, died in September 2008, so his character was written out of the film, while George Carlin, who previously voiced Fillmore, died during the same year, so his role was passed to Lloyd Sherr. The returning cast is joined by Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Eddie Izzard, and Thomas Kretschmann, who voice the new characters introduced in this film. It was directed by John Lasseter, written by Ben Queen, and produced by Denise Ream.
"Cars 2" was released in the United States on June 24, 2011. The film was presented in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats.
The film was first announced in 2008, alongside "Up", and "Brave", and it is the 12th animated film from the studio. Despite the fact that the film received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics, it grossed $562 million worldwide and fans of the franchise consider it a good sequel. A sequel, "Cars 3", was released on June 16, 2017.
Plot.
British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates an oil rig owned by a group of lemon cars to rescue a fellow spy. He witnesses the lemons, seemingly led by Professor Zündapp, load an electromagnetic pulse emitter, disguised as a camera onto a shipping crate. After finding out the agent he came to rescue is dead, he flees and fakes his death.
Lightning McQueen is now a four-time Piston Cup champion after the recent death of his mentor Doc Hudson, and returns to Radiator Springs. However, Italian formula race car, Francesco Bernoulli, challenges McQueen to race in the newly created World Grand Prix, led by its creator Sir Miles Axlerod, who intends to promote his new environmentally friendly fuel, Allinol. McQueen and his best friend Mater — along with Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge — depart for Tokyo for the first race of the Grand Prix.
At a World Grand Prix promotional event, Mater makes a scene after leaking oil and eating a bowl of Wasabi, angering McQueen. While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline (whom McMissile and his new partner Holley Shiftwell attempt to meet) and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline passes his information to Mater. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Professor Zündapp, who reveals that Allinol combusts when hit with an EMP pulse. Zündapp informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information. Holley mistakes Mater to be Redline and recruits him to help foil Zündapp's plot.
At the first race, three cars are ignited by the camera. McQueen places second in the race after Bernoulli, due to Mater accidentally giving him bad racing advice while evading Zündapp's henchmen with help from Holley and Finn. McQueen snaps at Mater, who is abducted by Finn while attempting to return to Radiator Springs. After traveling to Paris to collect more information from Finn's old friend Tomber, they travel to Porto Corsa, Italy, where the next race is being held. During the race, Mater infiltrates the criminals' meeting, just as the camera is used on a few more cars, causing a multi-car pileup, while McQueen finishes first. Due to increased fears over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts the requirement to use it for the final race. However, when McQueen decides to continue using it, the criminals plan to kill McQueen in the next race in London. This spooks Mater, causing him to blow his cover and allowing him, Finn, and Holley to be captured.
Mater, Finn, and Holley are taken to and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is. Mater learns that the camera did not function on McQueen, but the criminals tell him they planted a bomb in his pits as a backup plan, spurring him to break free and escape. Finn and Holley escape soon after but realize that the bomb is on Mater's air filter. Mater had already arrived at the pits when they tell him this, so he flees down the racecourse while McQueen chases after him to apologize for his earlier outburst. Finn apprehends Professor Zündapp while he attempts to escape. The other lemons arrive and outnumber Finn, Holley, Mater, and McQueen, but they are soon rescued by the arrival of the other Radiator Springs residents. Mater and McQueen go to Buckingham Palace, where Mater reveals Axlerod as the mastermind behind the plot by forcing him to disable Mater's bomb. It is revealed Axlerod had major investments in crude oil, which would have surged in value once the failure of Allinol disgraced the idea of environmentally friendly fuel. After Axlerod is arrested, Mater receives an honorary knighthood from the Queen. In the end, McQueen forgives Mater and allows him to come to all of his races if he chooses.
Back in Radiator Springs, Fillmore reveals that Sarge changed McQueen's fuel from Allinol to his organic biofuel, explaining why the camera did not work on him. A "Radiator Springs Grand Prix" is held featuring all the World Grand Prix contenders. Mater declines an invitation from Finn and Holley to go on another mission, choosing to stay in Radiator Springs. However, he is allowed to keep his special rockets and uses them to catch up to McQueen in the race. The film ends with McQueen speeding off with Mater behind him just as Finn and Holley's jet flies off into the distance.
Voice cast.
Much of the cast from the original "Cars" remained intact for the sequel, but three voice actors of the original film have died since its release. Joe Ranft (who voiced Red) died in an automobile accident on August 16, 2005, ten months before "Cars" was released. The first film was dedicated in memoriam to him. Red appears in this film, but he does not speak or vocalize. George Carlin (who voiced Fillmore) died of heart failure on June 22, 2008; Fillmore also shows up in "Cars 2", and he was voiced by Lloyd Sherr (who also voices Tony Trihull). Paul Newman (who voiced Doc Hudson) died of cancer on September 26, 2008. After Newman's death, Lasseter said they would "see how the story goes with Doc Hudson." Doc was eventually written out, with a few references to the character as having died before the events of the film.
In international versions of the film, the character Jeff Gorvette is replaced with race car drivers better known in the specific countries in his dialogue scenes (however, he still appears as a competitor).
In Brazil, Gorvette is replaced by Carla Veloso in his dialogue scenes (Carla appears in all other versions of the film, but with no lines); Carla is voiced by Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. Sportspeople still appear, with Lewis Hamilton becoming Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi, while Brent Mustangburger and David Hobbscap were done by sports announcers José Trajano and Luciano do Valle.
Production.
Development.
"Cars" is the second Pixar film, after "Toy Story", to have a sequel as well as becoming a franchise. John Lasseter, the director of the film, said that he was convinced of the sequel's story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. He said:
"Cars 2" was originally scheduled for a summer 2012 release, but Pixar moved the release up by a year.
In 2009, Disney registered several domain names, hinting to audiences that the title and theme of the film would be in relation to a "World Grand Prix".
In March 2011, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a U.K. screenwriter, sued Disney and Pixar alleging copyright infringement and breach of implied contract. In his complaint he alleged that "Cars" and "Cars 2" are based in part on work that he had submitted early in the 1990s and he sought an injunction to stop the release of "Cars 2" and requested actual or statutory damages. On May 13, 2011, Disney responded to the lawsuit, denying "each and every one of Plaintiff's legal claims concerning the purported copyright infringement and substantial similarity of the parties' respective works." On July 27, 2011, the lawsuit was dismissed by a district court judge who, in her ruling, wrote that the "Defendants have sufficiently shown that the Parties' respective works are not substantially similar in their protectable elements as a matter of law".
Casting.
In November 2010, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Kretschmann were confirmed as the voice talent featured in the film. From November 2010 until May 2011, Disney released information about the other voice talent, including Jenifer Lewis, Katherine Helmond, Michael Wallis, Darrell Waltrip, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Bruce Campbell, Sig Hansen, Michel Michelis, Jeff Gordon, Lewis Hamilton, Brent Musburger, David Hobbs, John Turturro, and Eddie Izzard.
Soundtrack.
The "Cars 2" soundtrack was released on both CD album and digital download June 14. It is the fourth Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino after "The Incredibles", "Ratatouille" and "Up". "Cars 2" was the first and only Pixar film directed by John Lasseter not to be scored by Randy Newman, who scored the first and third films of the "Cars" franchise.
Release.
During the Summer of 2008, John Lasseter announced that "Cars 2" would be pushed forward and released in the summer of 2011, one year earlier than its original 2012 release date. The US release date was later confirmed to be June 24, 2011, with a UK release date set for July 22, 2011. The world premiere of the film took place at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on June 18, 2011. "Cars 2" was released in 4,115 theaters in the USA and Canada setting a record-high for a G-rated film and for Pixar. The latter was surpassed by "Brave" (4,164 theaters).
Short film.
The film was preceded by a short film titled "Hawaiian Vacation", directed by Gary Rydstrom and starring the characters of the "Toy Story" franchise.
Home media.
The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and digital download on November 1, 2011. This release was produced in four different physical packages: a 1-disc DVD, a 2-disc combo pack (DVD and Blu-ray), a 5-disc combo pack (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and Digital Copy), and an 11-disc three movie collector's set, which features "Cars", "Cars 2", and "Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales". The film was also released as a Movie Download edition in both standard and high definition.
The Movie Download release includes four bonus features: "Cars Toons" "Air Mater", the "Toy Story Toon" "Hawaiian Vacation", "World Tour Interactive Feature", and "Bringing Cars 2 to the World". The 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack releases include the shorts "Air Mater" and "Hawaiian Vacation", plus the "Director John Lasseter Commentary". The 5-disc combo pack includes all of the same bonus features as the 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack versions, in addition to "World Tour Interactive Feature" and "Sneak Peek: The Nuts and Bolts of Cars Land." The 11-disc three movie collection comes packaged with "Cars" (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy), "Cars 2" (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, nand Digital Copy), and "Mater's Tall Tales" (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy).
"Cars 2" sold a total of 1,983,374 DVD units during its opening week, generating $31.24 million and claiming first place. It also finished on the top spot on the Blu-ray chart during its first week, selling 1.76 million units and generating $44.57 million. Its Blu-ray share of home media was 47%, indicating an unexpectedly major shift of sales from DVD to Blu-ray. Blu-ray 3D contributed to this, accounting for 17% of total disc sales.
Reception.
Box office.
"Cars 2" grossed $191.5 million in the USA and Canada, and $370.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $562.1 million. Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title. Overall, "Cars 2" became seventh biggest Pixar film in worldwide box office among the fourteen released.
"Cars 2" made $25.7 million on its debut Friday (June 24, 2011), marking the second-largest opening day for a Pixar film, at the time, after "Toy Story 3"'s $41.1 million. During this time, though, it was the third least-attended opening day for a Pixar film, only ahead of "Up" and "Ratatouille". It also scored the sixth largest opening day for an animated feature. On its opening weekend as a whole, "Cars 2" debuted at No.1 with $66.1 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated feature, the seventh largest opening for Pixar, the eighth largest among films released in June, and the fourth largest for a G-rated film. In its second weekend, however, the film dropped 60.3%, the largest second weekend drop ever for a Pixar film, and grossed $26.2 million. At the end of its theatrical run, "Cars 2" became the lowest-grossing Pixar film in North America since "A Bug's Life". As of 2018, it is Pixar's fourth lowest-grossing film in this region. It was also the least attended Pixar film ever until 2015's "The Good Dinosaur".
Outside North America, it grossed $42.9 million during its first weekend from 3,129 theaters in 18 countries, topping the box office. It performed especially well in Russia where it grossed $9.42 million, marking the best opening weekend for a Disney or Pixar animated feature and surpassing the entire runs of "Cars" and "Toy Story 3". In Mexico, it made $8.24 million during its first weekend, while in Brazil, it topped the box office with $5.19 million ($7.08 million with previews). It also premeiered at No.1 with $5.16 million in Australia, where it debuted simultaneously with "Kung Fu Panda 2" and out-grossed it. It is the highest-grossing film of 2011 in Lithuania ($477,117), Argentina ($12 million). It is the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 in Estonia ($442,707), Finland ($3.2 million), Norway ($5.8 million).
Critical response.
On Rotten Tomatoes, "Cars 2" has an approval rating of 39% based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 5.48/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Cars 2" is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood." It is the lowest-rated Pixar film on the site to date, and the only one to earn a "rotten" certification. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
"The original "Cars" was not greeted with exceptional warmth," said "The New York Times", "but the sequel generated Pixar's first truly negative response."
Critics generally criticized the G-rating, the focus on Mater and felt the film lacked warmth and charm, while also feeling the film was made as an exercise in target marketing. Reviewing the film for "The Wall Street Journal", Joe Morgenstern wrote, “This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity." "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman said, ""Cars 2" is a movie so stuffed with "fun" that it went right off the rails. What on earth was the gifted director-mogul John Lasseter thinking – that he wanted kids to come out of this movie was [sic] more ADD?" Although Leonard Maltin on "IndieWire" claimed that he had "such high regard for Pixar and its creative team led by John Lasseter" he said he found the plot "confusing" and felt that Mater's voice was annoying, saying that he'd "rather listen to chalk on a blackboard than spend nearly two hours with Tow Mater." Considering the low reviews given to the Pixar production, critic Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" said, "They said it couldn't be done. But Pixar proved the yaysayers wrong when it made its first bad movie, "Cars". Now it has worsted itself with the even more awful "Cars 2"."
Conversely, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the movie 3½ stars out of four, and said that "the sequel is a tire-burning burst of action and fun with a beating heart under its hood." He also praised its "fluid script" and called it a "winner". Roger Ebert was the most effusive of the more positive reviews, praising Lasseter's channeling of childhood playtime for the film's spirit and writing, “At a time when some ‘grown-up’ action films are relentlessly shallow and stupid, here is a movie with such complexity that even the cars sometimes have to pause and explain it to themselves.” Justin Chang of "Variety" commented, “The rare sequel that not only improves on but retroactively justifies its predecessor.” Ticket buyers also gave the film an A– in exit polls, on par with other Pixar titles.
A central current of the negative reviews was the theory that "Cars 2" was forced out of Pixar by its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, out of greed to drive merchandising sales. Lasseter vehemently denied these claims, which he attributed to "people who don’t know the facts, rushing to judge." Some theorized that the vitriol was less about the film but more about Pixar's broadened focus to sequels. "The New York Times" reported that although one negatively reviewed film would not be enough to scratch the studio, "the commentary did dent morale at the studio, which until then had enjoyed an unbroken and perhaps unprecedented run of critical acclaim."
Accolades.
"Cars 2" marks the first Pixar film not to be nominated for an Oscar. It is also the first Pixar film not nominated for Best Animated Feature since its introduction in 2001.

Video games.
A video game based on the film was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Disney Interactive Studios for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and Nintendo DS on June 21, 2011. The PlayStation 3 version of the game was reported to be compatible with stereoscopic 3D gameplay. A Nintendo 3DS version was released on November 1, 2011, and a PSP version was released on November 8, 2011.
An app based on the film was released on iTunes for a dollar on June 23, 2011. The Lite version was released for free that same day. The object of the game was to complete each race, unlock new levels, and get a high score. As of June 28, 2011, the app had hit No. 1 on the App Store. The game was retired on August 29, 2014.
A V.Smile version was also released.
Expanded franchise.
Sequel.
A stand-alone sequel, titled "Cars 3", was released on June 16, 2017. Directed by Brian Fee, the film focuses on Lightning McQueen, now a veteran racer, who after being overshadowed by a new wave of rookies, gets help from a young race car, Cruz Ramirez, to instruct him for the increasingly high-tech world and defeat new rival Jackson Storm.
Spin-offs.
An animated feature film spin-off called "Planes", produced by DisneyToon Studios, was released on August 9, 2013. A sequel to "Planes", titled "", was later released the following year on July 18, 2014.


Chocolate Castle

Chocolate Castle is a puzzle video game developed by New Zealand-based company Lexaloffle and published on April 2, 2007. The game was developed by Lexaloffle's owner and operator Joseph White, who designed "Chocolate Castle" as a platform for further puzzle games. In this game, players clear a castle's rooms of chocolate by combining smaller pieces into large bars and commanding animals to consume them. After clearing a room, they can select new rooms that are still yet to be cleared. The full version of the game includes a room editor for players to create their own rooms; players may upload these newly created rooms to Lexaloffle's website for other players to attempt.
Critics praised "Chocolate Castle" for its depth, for the option to create new rooms with the room editor, and for the ability to download rooms created by other players. The game's retro-styled graphics and sound received a mixed response. One reviewer expressed disappointment in the lack of music during gameplay, while others praised the attention to detail and graphical effects such as balloons and confetti showering the screen when the player clears a room.
Gameplay.
"Chocolate Castle"'s core gameplay consists of a combination of mazes and sliding puzzles. The object of the game is to clear all blocks of chocolate in each room of a castle by getting anthropomorphic animals to eat them. Rooms are classed as easy, medium or hard. There are 120 rooms to complete in the full version of "Chocolate Castle", with each difficulty level containing 40 puzzles. The trial version features 12 rooms. Rooms can be skipped if the player finds them too difficult, any moves made during play can be undone should the puzzle become unsolvable due to error. The full version contains a room editing program allowing players to create their own puzzles. Further rooms created by other players can be obtained from Lexaloffle's bulletin board system online.
Four varieties of chocolate are found scattered around the castle rooms' floors, along with four species of animal. Each animal type can only eat chocolate of the same color. The player must slide all of the chocolate pieces into large blocks before maneuvering the appropriate animal next to the bar in order to consume it. Animals can only eat one piece of chocolate of any size before being removed from play. Animals and chocolate can be dragged across rooms via the player's mouse. If players move two identical types of chocolate next to each other, either horizontally or vertically, they form a larger bar. Once the pieces of chocolate has been formed into larger bars, they cannot be separated again. Larger bars hinder the player by blocking access to different parts of the room; the effects of combinations must be considered before they are made.
Development.
Developer Joseph White began creating ASCII games on a BBC Micro computer at the age of 10, trying to reproduce arcade games such as "Moon Patrol" and "Elevator Action" in a more basic form. White released his first title as shareware, a puzzle game called "Neko Puzzle" during 1993, at the age of 14. The developer's next game offered for sale was not released until a decade later. White stated that most of his ideas for game design "come from things which have nothing to do with games", in an interview with Game Set Watch. When intentionally trying to come up with game design ideas he listens to chip music and studying pixel art.
White prototypes game ideas as soon as they occur; adding them to a smaller group of games in active development over time. Games moved from prototype to active development undergo "a lot of pixelling, coding, map designing, play testing and tweaking in no particular order." White stated he finds this is a good system for developing, since games "can sort of cross-pollinate", and development can be switched from one title to another. The negative aspect of this type of development is that the ratio between released and incomplete games "isn't so great." Both "Chocolate Castle" and "Jasper's Journeys"' development were overlapped this way, the former was developed as "a platform for designing mean puzzles."
Reception.
"Chocolate Castle" was well received by independent gaming critics and placed third at indie game website Game Tunnel's 2007 Casual Game of the Year awards. The website's panel of reviewers also voted "Chocolate Castle" their Game of the Month for May 2007. Simon Carless, a video game journalist and developer writing for Kotaku said "The art style is adorable and the gameplay twistedly interesting—thumbs up". IndieGames.com writer Tim W. described it as "one of the better puzzle games I've ever played". Independent game developer Derek Yu praised the attention to detail in the game, in particular "the windows in the castle that light up as you complete stages, and the way the chocolate gets munched up and leaves crumbs".
The level editor's presence was noted by reviewers, as was the number of levels and the range of difficulty levels. Yu criticized the game's value, stating that "The full game costs $20 US...it’s a little steep Mike Hommel of Game Tunnel said "I don't know how Lexaloffle does it" in reference to the number of levels and the level editor. Fellow Game Tunnel reviewer Caspian Prince said that the combination of "the huge number of puzzles" and the level editor "should extend its play life". NZGamer reviewer Reuben Ellett said "With over a hundred levels and the ability to build your own; Chocolate Castle is guaranteed to provide hours of fun and challenge to anyone of any age." Susie Ochs of MacLife agreed, saying "this is really the game that keeps on giving".
"Chocolate Castle"'s graphics and music received mixed responses. Game Tunnel's reviewers were divided; Prince said "In "Chocolate Castle" we've got a slickly presented puzzle game polished to a sparkling shine", but John Bardinelli disagreed and stated the game "doesn't look like much at first glance". William Usher described the graphics as "simplistic", and the chip tune music as "nothing but 80's-gaming incarnate". Tim W. praised the graphics as "sharp", but stated that the game's lack of music during play was his only complaint; "some people can do without it, but it doesn't feel right to me without background music." Yu said "Joseph White’s games are always brimming with charm and atmosphere, and "Chocolate Castle" is no exception!" Ochs said "This game's graphics, music, and sound effects won't blow you away, but they still exude a retro charm reminiscent of 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System games".
"Chocolate Castle"'s gameplay and longevity were praised by reviewers, regardless of their opinions of the game's presentation. Ellett said "It may not have ground breaking graphics or music but it has got a lot of character...and chocolate." He found completing levels the most rewarding part of the game; "Balloons and glitter shoot up the screen and funky 8-bit music sounds your triumphant passing." Ellett also stated that the game was suitable for children "since it is addictive, rewarding, and stimulating", adding "You could even have it on your computer at work for a quick lunch break puzzle fix."


Stone Mountain High School

Stone Mountain High School is a college preparatory and public high school located in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, near Stone Mountain and in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
History.
It is one of the oldest high schools in the DeKalb County School District.


Morris Carnovsky

Morris Carnovsky (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1992) was an American stage and film actor. He was one of the founders of the Group Theatre (1931-1940) in New York City and had a thriving acting career both on Broadway and in films until, in the early 1950s, professional colleagues told the House Un-American Activities Committee that Carnovsky had been a Communist Party member. He was blacklisted and worked less frequently for a few years, but then re-established his acting career, taking on many Shakespearean roles at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and performing the title roles in college campus productions of "King Lear" and "The Merchant of Venice". Carnovsky's nephew is veteran character actor and longtime "Pathmark Guy" James Karen.
Early life.
Carnovsky was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 5, 1897 to Ike and Jennie Carnovsky, both Russian Jewish
immigrants. His father, a grocer, took him to performances of the Yiddish theater. In 1975 he recalled: "There was such richness in their portrayals of Jewish life. I could savor it. Once I smelled greasepaint, I was committed." He graduated from Washington University in 1920 and then moved to Boston where he acted in his first professional stage production.
Acting career.
In 1922, Carnovsky began his long career on Broadway with his New York stage debut as Reb Aaron in "The God of Vengeance". Two years later, Carnovsky joined the Theatre Guild acting company and appeared in the title role of "Uncle Vanya" (by Anton Chekhov). This was followed by roles in "Saint Joan" (by George Bernard Shaw), "The Brothers Karamazov", "The Doctor's Dilemma" (also by Shaw) and the role of Kublai Khan in Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions".
In 1931, he helped found the Group Theatre, which specialized in dramas with socially relevant and politically tinged messages. He later explained: "We founded the Group because we were sick and tired of the old romantic theater and the encrusted star system. We weren't interested in stars. We were looking for real, living drama." Many of the Group's members were inspired by the Moscow Art Theatre and several members, including Carnovsky and his wife Phoebe Brand also joined the American Communist Party. Carnovsky summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut, with the Group Theatre in 1936, as he worked with the Group during all their summer rehearsal periods, most of which were spent in the Catskills and upstate New York.
Carnovsky appeared in almost every major Group Theatre production, often playing parts that had been written specifically for him by his good friend, the actor and playwright Clifford Odets. Among Carnovsky's major triumphs at the Group Theatre were the Odets plays "Awake and Sing", "Golden Boy", "Paradise Lost" and "Rocket to the Moon".
He also appeared in the anti-war musical "Johnny Johnson", Sidney Kingsley's "Men in White", the Elia Kazan-directed "Thunder Rock", "My Sister Eileen", and "Cafe Crown". Writing about the Group's production of "Awake and Sing!", the "New York Times" critic Brooks Atkinson said, "...Morris Carnovsky as the lonely old sage struggling with ideas he cannot resolve or use, gives a performance worth a mayor's reception on the steps of City Hall. Probably Mr. Carnovsky and Mr. Adler would have become remarkable actors in any case. But the discipline of the Group Theatre has given them a mastery of acting they could never have achieved by themselves. The Group Theatre makes good!"
In 1937 Carnovsky, along with several other actors from the Group, went to Hollywood in hopes of raising money to bolster the Group's shaky finances by working in films. Carnovsky's movie debut came in the Academy Award-winning best picture of 1937, William Dieterle's "The Life of Emile Zola" starring Paul Muni. It was followed by a supporting role in Anatole Litvak's "Tovarich", before Carnovsky returned to New York and a newly re-configured formation of the Group Theatre. After the collapse of the Group Theatre in 1940, Carnovsky returned to Hollywood where he appeared in several more films. In 1939, he provided the narration for a film called "The City" that was screened at the 1939 New York World's Fair. He continued his stage work by joining the Actors' Lab, an acting troupe much like the Group, serving as its first director.
In 1943, he played a retired Norwegian school teacher, Sixtus Andresen, in the Warner Bros. anti-Nazi film, "Edge of Darkness", which starred Errol Flynn and was directed by Lewis Milestone. Carnovsky portrayed George Gershwin's father in "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1945, and in "Dead Reckoning" (1947), he starred as the villainous nightclub owner Martinelli with Humphrey Bogart. In 1950, he portrayed LeBret in "Cyrano de Bergerac" starring José Ferrer. Later that year, he played Dr. Raymond Hartley in the mystery "The Second Woman" and the kindly judge who sentences a young boy who likes to play with firearms in Joseph H. Lewis's "Gun Crazy". This was to be Carnovsky's last Hollywood film for 12 years.
On Broadway, Carnovsky appeared alongside Fredric March in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People", adapted by Arthur Miller, in the 1950-51 season. Atkinson wrote: "The impact of Mr. March's acting is dramatically balanced by the rich, forceful and accomplished acting of Morris Carnovsky as the cynical mayor of the town."
Hollywood blacklist.
Carnovsky was at one time a member of the American Communist Party. In April 1951, when questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), he refused to answer any questions, citing his rights under the U.S. Constitution. At the same hearing, actor Marc Lawrence testified that he and Carnovsky had attended some of the same Communist Party functions. Carnovsky issued a statement after the hearing which said the committee's work was not really an inquiry, but "an inquisition into the inviolable area's of one's deepest manhood and integrity–the end result is the blacklist, the deprivation by innuendo of one's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in work."
He and his wife Phoebe Brand, were identified as Communists by Elia Kazan, a Communist Party member himself at one time, in testimony before the HUAC in 1952, along with six other members of the Group Theatre. Actor Sterling Hayden testified before HUAC that he had attended Communist Party meetings that were sometimes held at Carnovsky's house in Hollywood. When Carnovsky was called before the HUAC he refused to "name names", which ended his film career. In 1975, he assessed the experience:
In 1953, he and his wife, who had also been blacklisted, appeared off-Broadway in "The World of Sholem Aleichem" as part of a cast of blacklisted actors that were assembled to demonstrate that the New York theater audience would not make them outcasts. It ran for two years.
While Hollywood's lack of interest in him after his dealings with HUAC were unspoken, in one incident he was publicly uninvited from appearing as scheduled in May 1953 at a Jewish Community Center in Queens because he "would not be acceptable to the community".
Return to acting.
In 1955 he returned to Broadway as Priam in Jean Giradoux' "Tiger at the Gates".
Then in 1956, Carnovsky recalled, "Shakespeare suddenly discovered me!" "In 1956", he said, "John Houseman, who was then the general director and producer at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, called me up and said, 'would you like to do some Shakespeare?' I said, 'Yes, of course!' So that's how I began. The first year I did a part in "King John", a part in "Measure for Measure" and a part in "The Taming of the Shrew". Then I proceeded to learn what Shakespeare was all about, in light of the realistic method of acting that I had discovered during my years with the Group Theatre. The following year, I found myself doing Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice", and that was really the opening of the can of peas, for me." At Stratford he played many roles, notably Feste in "Twelfth Night" in a production featuring Katharine Hepburn as Viola, and Prospero in a celebrated production of "The Tempest" directed by William Ball of the American Conservatory Theater.
Again on Broadway, Carnovsky appeared in 1957 in Noël Coward's "Nude with Violin",
He also appeared in a few more pictures: In 1962, he went to Paris to appear in Sidney Lumet's "A View from the Bridge", an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play of the same name. In May 1966, he appeared in the title role of Bertolt Brecht's "Galileo Galilei" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. He played Creon in a TV play of "Medea", and in 1974 appeared in "The Gambler", playing James Caan's grandfather. Public TV's Hollywood Television Theater. He played Judge Hoffman in the 1975 PBS tv two‐and‐a‐half hour dramatization of "The Chicago Conspiracy Trial." Culled by Christopher Burstall and Stuart Hood from 23,000 pages of the original transcript, the program is a 1970 co‐production of the British Broadcasting Corporation and Bavarian Television. Mr. Burstall also served as producer and director.(NYT July 10-1975)
He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979.
In 1980, he served on the artistic advisory board of the Yiddish National Theatre, a nonprofit effort to promote awareness of an increasingly forgotten part of stage history.
A highly acclaimed performance at Stratford Shakespeare Festival in "King Lear" led to something of a second career for Carnovsky as a mentor of young actors, as he traveled to universities all over the country, playing the leading roles of Lear, Falstaff, and Shylock in the Shakespeare classics with supporting casts made up of college students.
Writing.
In 1984, he wrote a book "The Actor's Eye" with friend and colleague Peter Sander that distilled his theory of acting.
Death.
Morris Carnovsky died at his home in Easton, Connecticut, on September 1, 1992, four days before his 95th birthday, from natural causes. His wife, Phoebe Brand, died on July 3, 2004, at the age of 96 from pneumonia. The couple had a son, Stephen Carnovsky.


Manyata Dutt

Dilnawaz Shaikh (born July 22, 1978) better known as Manyata Dutt or simply Manyata, is an Indian entrepreneur, former actress and the current CEO of Sanjay Dutt Productions. She married Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in 2008. She is best known for her item number in Prakash Jha's 2003-hit "Gangaajal".
Personal life.
Manyata Dutt was born in a Muslim family on 22 July 1978 as Dilnawaz Shaikh in Mumbai. She was raised in Dubai. She was known as Sara Khan in the film industry. After her launch in Kamaal Rashid Khan's "Deshdrohi" in 2008, she was given the screen name "Manyata", by Jha, but her aspirations to become a star ended when her father died, leaving the responsibility of the family business on her.
Sanjay Dutt on 7 February 2008 in a private wedding in Goa. After two years she became the mother of twins, a boy named Shahraan and a girl named Iqra on 21 October 2010.
Career.
Prior to her marriage and before she met Dutt, Maanayata worked in Hindi films, such as "Lovers Like Us", opposite actor Nimit Vaishnav. The rights of the film were later purchased by Sanjay Dutt for Rs. 20 lakh.
In popular culture.
In the biographical film "Sanju", directed by Rajkumar Hirani, which has been released on 29 June 2018, based on the life of Sanjay Dutt, her part has been portrayed by the actress Dia Mirza, while Ranbir Kapoor has portrayed the title role.


Sammy Amalu

Sammy Apollo Kapiʻikauinamokuonalani Amalu (1917-1986) was a Kanaka Maoli descendant of a Hawaiian high chiefess, socialite, ex-con, and columnist with The Honolulu Advertiser. Known by the media as "Hawaiʻi's favorite rascal," Amalu went by many aliases throughout his life. He famously posed as a mysterious Indian Maharaja in San Francisco, a banker named Albert Wilcox, and a Swiss-based syndicate who went by The Presidium, to name a few.
Sheraton Deal.
Playing the part of a Swiss-based syndicate, Amalu is popularly known for his role in a multi-million-dollar real-estate hoax called the "Sheraton Deal," where he was able to fool wealthy business tycoons who held large swaths of Hawaiian land into believing that the deal was legitimate. In May 1962, prominent headlines in Honolulu's newspapers printed columns about a mysterious syndicate from Switzerland who offered the Sheraton Hotels $34 million for the land they had purchased just three years before for $18 million. The hotel franchise was looking at a $16 million profit.
During this time, Amalu offered Molokaʻi Ranch executive George Murphy $5 million for the ranch's land. The very next day, Amalu posed an offer to purchase the entirety of Mākaha Valley for $9 million, as well as $1.2 million for the Waianae Development Company owned by a businessman named Chinn Ho.
While Amalu was playing the role of a syndicate, he was able to garner representation through the real-estate firm of Milton Beamer and Ann Feltzer, which aided in his successful endeavor to fool big money. Within a single week, Amalu made seven offers on real-estate, which totaled $62 million. Another factor in Amalu's successful prank was his claim that he had married an Italian Princess named Maria. Amalu claimed that Maria and their son were both financiers in his business transactions. Amalu later admitted that the entire scheme was a joke.
Marriages.
Little is known about Amalu's claims to being married other than what he shared with reporters and columnists. Only one of Amalu's marriages is confirmed to that of a Mrs. Jane Tomberlin. Mrs. Tomberlin had been married to a millionaire from Texas before she married Amalu in 1956 at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. On their wedding day in November 1956, Amalu failed to show up to the altar, claiming that he had been abducted by his brother in Texas, who disagreed with the marriage. Regardless, Mrs. Tomberlin continued with the reception, serving champagne to her guests, some of whom had come from as far away as California. Amalu reconnected with Mrs. Tomberlin not long after, and the two were married at the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs. Five days after their wedding, FBI agents arrested Amalu in Texas because his checks in both Denver and Texas bounced. Mrs. Tomberlain then filed an annulment and cut financial ties with Amalu as the $45,000 check he used to purchase their home in San Francisco also bounced. Mrs. Tomberlin later reversed her decision to annul their marriage.
In January 1946, The Honolulu Advertiser printed a story in the society section that spoke of Sammy Amalu's marriage to an Italian princess named Maria Anastasia di Torlonia. According to the article, Princess Maria was the daughter of Mrs. Drexel Palmer-Hyde from Philadelphia and Prince Vittorio Alesandro di Torlonia. The article went into great detail about the royal couple's lavish ceremony, attire, and jewels. However, readers eventually started to doubt the validity of the story because the source of the writing was obscure. Some readers wondered if the article was submitted by letter because it had not been credited to any press outside Honolulu. Fantastical stories of the so-called royal couple circulated through The Honolulu Advertiser's Society section leading some presses like the Honolulu Newsweek to proclaim the story a sham. Bob Krauss, (a columnist who continued Amalu's controversial newspaper column in the latter years of Amalu's life called “The Special World of Sammy Amalu"), asked the then elderly Amalu about this wedding to the Princess. According to Krauss, Amalu seemed surprised by the article written in 1946 and claimed to have been married three years before to a Mrs. Irmgard Spaur von Bohlen in Jamaica. According to Amalu, the two were divorced a year later, in 1942. After this divorce, Amalu then claimed to marry Maria, referred to as "Mimi."
Some in the Hawaiian community have speculated that Amalu was māhū (a third-gendered/ person in the middle of the gender spectrum). This speculation does have some credibility because Amalu was medically discharged from his position as a U.S. Army private on the grounds of homosexuality. When questioned about it, Amalu always denied this allegation.
Career.
Amalu was also known to push the lines of social norms in his writing. While incarcerated at Folsom Prison in 1967, serving time on embezzlement charges, Amalu gained a position as a columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser. He made his way into this position by writing letters to his former Punahou School classmate and the editor of the advertiser, Mr. Thurston Twigg-Smith. Twigg-Smith was the grandson of the infamous Hawaiian annexationist Lorrin A. Thurston who founded the Honolulu Advertiser. Then, in 1968, the column called “The World of Sammy Amalu” was created. Amalu produced a diverse cache of political and social commentary about gun and prison reform, sexuality, prison life, political issues in Hawaiʻi, as well as Kānaka Maoli traditions, genealogy, and history. In 1968, Folsom Prison's warden stopped Amaluʻs columns because prison officials had grown uncomfortable with Amaluʻs work. Public outcry from his readership resounded in pleas to reinstate Amaluʻs right to write. Some of Amalu's fans made their pleas to the then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, in hopes of garnering his support to overturn the decision. Amalu's case was taken up by the civil rights lawyer George T. Davis, and Amalu's columns soon began again.
In 1970 Amalu was released from prison on parole. Upon returning to Honolulu, Amalu was given a full-time columnist position with the Honolulu Advertiser.
Latter years and death.
In 1976 Amalu became paralyzed below the waist after enduring an embolism. However, this did not stop him from making public appearances. In 1984, Amalu testified in defense of Mrs. Gertrude K, Toledo, in her husband's murder trial. Mrs. Toledo was later relieved of any suspicion in her husband's death. Two years later, in 1986, Sammy Amalu passed away. Sixteen years before his passing, Amalu published his own obituary, which read:
“"Sing no sad songs over my mortal dust. Nor come to me weeping. I was born of an ancient line of a high and princely house. I have known a true friend. I have loved a good woman. I have fathered a son. I have known tears. I have tasted victory; I have sipped of failure. Is that not enough? Say only this of me when I am no more: He was a child of a princess, and the dust of this flesh was fashioned of Hawaiʻis soil!”"


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