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166_2 | He was an avid theatregoer, and they had long talks about Shakespeare and melodrama. The second reason, her uncle Harold Furber, an amateur actor, read plays with her and introduced her to contemporary drama. Thirdly, her mother had wanted to be an actress, an ambition frustrated except for walk-on parts, once in the company of Sarah Bernhardt. Smith wrote her first play at the age of ten, and she began acting in minor roles during her teens at the Manchester Athenaeum Dramatic Society. Presently there is a blue plaque commemorating the building where Dorothy grew up. The formative years of Dorothy's childhood were spent at this house.
Move to London |
166_3 | In 1910 Ella remarried and moved to London with her new husband and the 14-year-old Dodie, who attended school in both Manchester and at St Paul's Girls' School. In 1914 Dodie entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her first role came in Arthur Wing Pinero's play Playgoers. Other roles after RADA included a Chinese girl in Mr. Wu, a parlour maid in Ye Gods, and a young mother in Niobe, which was directed by Basil Dean, who would later buy her play Autumn Crocus.
She was also in the Portsmouth Repertory Theatre, travelled with a YMCA company to entertain troops in France during World War I, toured with the French comedy French Leave, and appeared as Anne in Galsworthy's play The Pigeon at the Everyman Theatre and at a festival in Zürich, Switzerland. During her mother's illness while dying of breast cancer, Dodie and her mother became devotees of Christian Science.
Career after acting |
166_4 | Even though Smith had sold a movie script, Schoolgirl Rebels, using the pseudonym Charles Henry Percy, and written a one-act play, British Talent, that premiered at the Three Arts Club in 1924, she still had a hard time finding steady work. In 1923, she accepted a job in Heal and Son's furniture store in London and became the toy buyer (and mistress of the chairman, Ambrose Heal). She wrote her first staged play, Autumn Crocus, in 1931 using the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Its success, and the discovery of her identity by journalists, inspired the newspaper headline, "Shopgirl Writes Play". The show starred Fay Compton and Francis Lederer. |
166_5 | Smith's fourth play Call It a Day was acted by the Theatre Guild on 28 January 1936 and ran for 194 performances. It ran in London for 509 performances, the longest run of any of Smith's plays to date. American critic Joseph Wood Krutch compared it favorably to George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's play Dinner at Eight and Edward Knoblock's Grand Hotel. He said the London production "stays pretty consistently on the level of comedy and imposes upon its brittle structure no greater emotional weight than that structure is capable of bearing."
The success of Call It a Day, enabled Smith to purchase The Barretts, a cottage near the village of Finchingfield, Essex. Her next play, Bonnet Over the Windmill (1937), was not as successful. It concerns three aspiring young actresses and their landlady, a middle-aged former music-hall performer, and the young women's attempts to attract the attention of a playwright and a theatre producer with hopes of obtaining dramatic roles. |
166_6 | Her next play, Dear Octopus (1938), featured Dame Marie Tempest and Sir John Gielgud. The unusual title refers to a toast in the play: "To the family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to." Brooks Atkinson termed Smith a "domestic panoramatist" and compared her to many English novelists, from Samuel Richardson to Archibald Marshall; he also described her as the "appointed recorder" of the English family. The production in London ran for 376 performances, compared to that in New York of only 53. |
166_7 | When Smith travelled to America to cast Dear Octopus, she brought with her Alec Macbeth Beesley (son of Titanic survivor Lawrence Beesley), who had also worked at Heal's and had become her longtime friend and business manager. The two married in 1939. She would not have another play staged in London until 1952, though Lovers and Friends did play at the Plymouth Theatre in 1943. The show featured Katharine Cornell and Raymond Massey.
Smith lived for many years in Dorset Square, Marylebone, London, where a plaque now commemorates her occupation.
Later life
During the 1940s Smith and Beesley relocated to the United States to avoid legal difficulties of his being a conscientious objector. She felt homesick for Britain, which inspired her first novel, written in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, named I Capture the Castle (1948). She and Beesley also spent time in Beverly Hills, Malibu, and Wilton, Connecticut. |
166_8 | During their American interlude, the couple became friends with writers Christopher Isherwood, Charles Brackett and John Van Druten. In her memoirs Smith credits Beesley with making the suggestion to Van Druten that he adapt Isherwood's Sally Bowles story Goodbye to Berlin into a play (the Van Druten play, I Am a Camera, later became the musical Cabaret). In her memoirs, Smith acknowledges having received writing advice from her friend, the novelist A. J. Cronin.
Smith's first play back in London, Letter from Paris, was an adaptation of Henry James's short novel The Reverberator. She used the adapting style of William Archibald's play The Innocents (adapted from The Turn of the Screw) and Ruth and Augustus Goetz's play The Heiress (adapted from Washington Square).
In the 1970s she lived in Stambourne, Essex.
Death |
166_9 | Smith died in 1990 (three years after Beesley) in Uttlesford, north Essex, England. She was cremated and her ashes scattered to the wind. She had named Julian Barnes as her literary executor, a job she thought would not be much work. Barnes writes of the complicated task in his essay "Literary Executions", revealing among other things how he secured the return of the film rights to I Capture the Castle, which had been owned by Disney since 1949. Smith's personal papers are housed in Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and include manuscripts, photographs, artwork and correspondence (including letters from Christopher Isherwood and John Gielgud).
The Hundred and One Dalmatians |
166_10 | Smith and Beesley loved dogs and kept Dalmatians as pets; at one point the couple had nine of them. The first was named Pongo which became the name Smith used for the canine protagonist of her The Hundred and One Dalmatians novel. Smith had the idea for the novel when one of her friends observed a group of her Dalmatians and said "Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat".
The novel has been adapted by Disney twice, an animated film in 1961 called One Hundred and One Dalmatians and a live-action film in 1996 called 101 Dalmatians. Although both of the Disney films spawned a sequel film, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure and 102 Dalmatians, neither sequel has any connection to Smith's own sequel, The Starlight Barking.
Works
Autobiography
Look Back with Love: a Manchester Childhood (1974)
Look Back with Mixed Feelings (1978)
Look Back with Astonishment (1979)
Look Back with Gratitude (1985) |
166_11 | Novels
I Capture the Castle (1949)
The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956)
The New Moon with the Old (1963)
The Town in Bloom (1965)
It Ends with Revelations (1967)
The Starlight Barking (1967)
A Tale of Two Families (1970)
The Girl from the Candle-lit Bath (1978)
The Midnight Kittens (1978)
Plays
Autumn Crocus (1931)
Service (1932)
Touch Wood (1934)
Call It a Day (1935)
Bonnet Over the Windmill (1937)
Dear Octopus (1938)
Lovers and Friends (1943)
Letter from Paris (1952)
I Capture the Castle (1954)
These People, Those Books (1958)
Amateur Means Lover (1961)
Screenplays
The Uninvited (1944), written by Smith and Frank Partos
Darling, How Could You! (1951), written by Smith and Lesser Samuels
Films adapted from her works |
166_12 | Looking Forward (1933), based on Service
Autumn Crocus (1934)
Call It a Day (1937)
Dear Octopus (1943)
The First Day of Spring (1956), based on Call It a Day
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
101 Dalmatians (1996)
102 Dalmatians (2000)
I Capture the Castle (2003)
Cruella (2021)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
The Dodie Smith Information Site (archived 2006-04-30)
1896 births
1990 deaths
English dramatists and playwrights
English children's writers
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
English Christian Scientists
People from Whitefield, Greater Manchester
English expatriates in the United States
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
People from Finchingfield
People from Marylebone |
167_0 | Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1983 and is the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Fernández won 17 Grand Slam doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur. She now shares her knowledge of doubles with tennis enthusiasts throughout the US by conducting Master Doubles with Gigi Clinics and Doubles Boot Camps. |
167_1 | Career
Fernández was recognized primarily as a doubles specialist during her professional career. She won a career doubles Grand Slam with 17 Grand Slam women's doubles title – six French Open, five US Open, four Wimbledon, and two Australian Open winning at least one Grand Slam title every year from 1988 to 1997, except 1989, and for three straight years winning three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles in the same year (1992–1994). She won 14 of her 17 Grand Slam titles partnering Natasha Zvereva; their partnership is the second most successful doubles pair in the Open era after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. |
167_2 | In mixed doubles, Fernández was the runner-up in three of the four Grand Slam mixed doubles events in 1995 (Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) partnering Cyril Suk. Fernández captured 68 career titles in women's doubles and reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in 1991 and attained the No. 1 ranking again in 1993, 1994 and 1995. She won a total of 69 doubles titles during her career.
Fernández represented the United States at the Olympic Games in 1992 (Barcelona) and 1996 (Atlanta). She teamed with Mary Joe Fernández (no relation) to win the women's doubles gold medal on both occasions. The first gold medal was won against the home team of Conchita Martínez and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario with the king and queen of Spain in the audience. The two medals are on Fernández's desk, and a license plate on her car states "DBL GLD". |
167_3 | Fernández represented Puerto Rico when San Juan played host to the Pan Am Games in 1979. Just 15, Fernández won a bronze medal. In 1982 at the Central American-Caribbean Games in Cuba, she teamed with Marilda Julia to win doubles gold and won a silver medal in the singles as well. She represented Puerto Rico at the 1984 Olympics.
Fernández was also on the United States team that won the Federation Cup in 1990.
In singles, Fernández reached as high as world No. 17. She also won two top-level titles and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1994 (ranked 99 becoming the lowest-ranked grand Slam singles semifinalist at Wimbledon) and the quarterfinals at the US Open in 1991 and 1994.
Fernández retired from the professional tour in 1997, and in 1999, she was named Puerto Rico's "Female Athlete of the Century".
On July 12, 2010, Fernández was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame with Zvereva. |
167_4 | Personal life
Her parents are Tuto Fernández, a well-known doctor in Puerto Rico, and Beatriz Fernández. Her cousin José Ferrer was a famous Puerto Rican actor and director. Fernández started playing tennis when she was seven. She studied at the prestigious Academia San José in Guaynabo. When she turned professional in 1983, she became Puerto Rico's first female professional athlete. Before turning professional, she played tennis for one season at Clemson University in 1982–83, where she was singles and doubles All-American and reached the National Collegiate Athletics Association singles final.
Since retiring from the tour, Fernández has worked as a tennis coach. She has coached players including the former world No. 1 doubles player Rennae Stubbs, Lisa Raymond, and Samantha Stosur. She coached Sam Stosur to her first Grand Slam title at the 2005 US Open with Lisa Raymond. She also coached for the Puerto Rican national team and the University of South Florida. |
167_5 | She earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of South Florida in 2003 and later graduated from Rollins College's Crummer School of Business where she earned a Master of Business Administration. She is the mother of twins, Karson Xavier and Madison Jane, and the partner of retired professional golfer and former LPGA and WWE executive Jane Geddes.
In 2010, Fernández started a company named Baby Goes Pro. She presently resides in Tampa, Florida and was the Director of Adult Tennis at Chelsea Piers Connecticut, as well as Summer Director at The Long Ridge Tennis Club.
In a 2021 interview, Fernández states she receives a lot of negative comments from some Puerto Ricans via her social media and that it saddens her.
Major finals
Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 23 (17–6)
Mixed doubles: 3 (0–3)
Olympic finals
Doubles: 2 (2 gold medals)
WTA Tour titles
Singles (2) |
167_6 | Doubles (69)
1985: Washington (with Martina Navratilova), Miami (w/Navratilova), Toronto (w/Navratilova), Fort Lauderdale (with Robin White)
1987: U.S. Indoor Championships (with Lori McNeil), Newport (w/McNeil), Mahwah (w/McNeil)
1988: Tokyo Outdoor (w/White), US Open (w/White)
1989: Newport (w/McNeil), Toronto (w/White), Tokyo Doubles Championships (w/White), Filderstadt (w/White)
1990: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (with Elizabeth Smylie), Hamburg (w/Navratilova), Los Angeles (with Jana Novotná), US Open (w/Navratilova), New England (with Helena Suková)
1991: Brisbane (w/Novotná), Chicago (w/Novotna), Light n' Lively Doubles (w/Suková), French Open (w/Novotna), Oakland (with Patty Fendick), Indianapolis (w/Fendick)
1992: Houston (w/Fendick), French Open (with Natasha Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), Barcelona Olympics (with Mary Joe Fernández), US Open (w/Zvereva), Oakland (w/Zvereva), Philadelphia (w/Zvereva) |
167_7 | 1993: Australian Open (w/Zvereva), Delray Beach (w/Zvereva), Light n' Lively Doubles (w/Zvereva), Hilton Head (w/Zvereva), Berlin (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), Eastbourne (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), San Diego (w/Suková), Leipzig (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Zvereva)
1994: Australian Open (w/Zvereva), Chicago (w/Zvereva), Miami (w/Zvereva), Italian Open (w/Zvereva), Berlin (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), Eastbourne (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva), Philadelphia (w/Zvereva), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Zvereva)
1995: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (w/Zvereva), Hamburg (with Martina Hingis), Rome (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), San Diego (w/Zvereva), Los Angeles (w/Zvereva), US Open (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva)
1996: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (w/Zvereva), Atlanta Olympics (w/Mary Joe Fernández), San Diego (with Conchita Martínez), US Open (w/Zvereva) |
167_8 | 1997: Sydney (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario), French Open (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva) |
167_9 | Doubles performance timeline
See also
History of women in Puerto Rico
List of Puerto Ricans
Monica Puig
Sports in Puerto Rico
References
External links |
167_10 | 1964 births
American female tennis players
Australian Open (tennis) champions
Clemson Tigers women's tennis players
French Open champions
Hispanic and Latino American sportspeople
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Lesbian sportswomen
LGBT sportspeople from Puerto Rico
LGBT tennis players
Living people
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in tennis
Olympic tennis players of Puerto Rico
Sportspeople from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sportspeople from Stamford, Connecticut
People from Seminole County, Florida
Puerto Rican female tennis players
Rollins College alumni
South Florida Bulls women's tennis coaches
Tennis people from Florida
Tennis players at the 1979 Pan American Games
Tennis players at the 1983 Pan American Games
Tennis players at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
US Open (tennis) champions
Wimbledon champions |
167_11 | Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Puerto Rico
Pan American Games silver medalists for Puerto Rico
Pan American Games medalists in tennis
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in tennis
Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Puerto Rico
Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Puerto Rico
Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Puerto Rico
Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games
American tennis coaches |
168_0 | Sir John Pender KCMG GCMG FSA FRSE (10 September 1816 – 7 July 1896) was a Scottish submarine communications cable pioneer and politician.
Early life
He was born in the Vale of Leven, Scotland, the son of James Pender and his wife, Marion Mason. He was educated at Glasgow High School. He became a successful merchant in textile fabrics, first in Glasgow, then in Manchester (where he had a warehouse in Peter Street near The Great Northern Warehouse). He lived at Middleton Hall, County Linlithgow, Foots Cray Place, Sidcup, Kent, and Arlington House, 18 Arlington Street London. |
168_1 | Telegraph companies |
168_2 | In London 1866, John Pender was the leading financier/director and Chairman of the Companies involved who, with his colleagues, undertook the first successful laying of the transatlantic cable from Valentia Island off the coast of Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador. This cable was the most successful and commercially viable of all the transatlantic cables and was 100% British financed, unlike the previous transatlantic cable-laying attempts, which had had some financial backing from American Investors. The Anglo-American Telegraph Company (formerly the Atlantic Telegraph Company) and The Gutta Percha Company and Glass, Elliott (Greenwich, London) merged into the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company 'Telcon' (which was taken over decades later by British Insulated Callender's Cables), and laid the first successful cable in 1866 and ended up manufacturing and laying all of Eastern Telegraph's cables and most of the submarine telegraph cables of the rest of |
168_3 | the world. |
168_4 | He founded 32 telegraph companies, including Eastern Telegraph, Eastern and South African Telegraph, Western Telegraph Europe and Azores Telegraph Company, Australasia and China Telegraph Company, London Platino-Brazilian Telegraph Company, Pacific and European Telegraph Company which later became Cable & Wireless. In 1934, Imperial and International Communications, formerly the Eastern Telegraph Company (the amalgamation of those 32 telegraph companies), became Cable & Wireless. The new name was designed to more clearly reflect the combined radio and cable services which it offered, without reference to the Empire. Cable & Wireless is one of the world's leading international communications companies. It operates through two standalone business units. International and Europe, Asia & U.S. |
168_5 | Parliament
He represented Totnes in parliament as a Liberal MP in 1862 to 1866 (the seat was disenfranchised by the Reform Act 1867), and Wick Burghs from 1872 until his defeat in 1885. He was unsuccessful Liberal Unionist candidate in Wick Burghs in 1886 and in Govan at the by-election in 1889, and again represented Wick Burghs from 1892 to 1896.
He was made a K.C.M.G. in 1888 and was promoted in 1892 to be G.C.M.G.
His eldest son James (b. 1841) Sir James Pender, 1st Baronet, who was MP. for Mid Northamptonshire in 1895–1900, was created a baronet in 1897; and his third son, John Denison-Pender (b. 1855), was created a K.C.M.G. in 1901, the year in which he was living at Footscray Place in Sidcup. |
168_6 | Railways and paintings
Pender also had interests in railways and was persuaded to invest in the Isle of Man Steam Railway. As a result of this, No. 3 was named Pender in his honour. He was a director of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway in the United States, which connected major midwestern cities and stimulated their economies. In 1883 he founded Yule Ranch in western North Dakota. Pender, Nebraska was named for him. |
168_7 | He also amassed a considerable collection of paintings, including some of the works of J. M. W. Turner, including Giudecca La Donna Della Salute and San Georgio, a view of Venice. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841 and arguably Turner's best work, it was sold in 1897 for 1,650 guineas to Donald Currie. A century later it broke all auction records for works by a British artist when it was sold to Steve Wynn (entrepreneur) through Christie's (New York) for US$35.8 Million in April 2006 This painting is one of four of Turner's paintings of Venice to be in private hands. Also in Pender's collection were the works An Event in the forest by Landseer, 'Portrait of Princess Sobieski' by Joshua Reynolds, and works by John Everett Millais, Gainsborough, and Canaletto. The collection was sold in parts the year after John Pender's death.
Family relationships |
168_8 | At the time of his death, which occurred at Foots Cray Place, Kent, on 7 July 1896, he controlled companies having a capital of 15 million sterling and owning of cables (one third of the cables in the world), these cables formed the base of the networks that years later developed into the World Wide Web. |
168_9 | Pender was married twice: firstly in 1840 to Marion Cairns, who died giving birth to his son Henry in 1841 (their eldest son James survived); and in 1851 he married Emma Denison (d.1890). They also had a son John Denison Pender (1855–1929) and two daughters Marion Denison Pender (1856–1955), who married George William Des Voeux, and Anne Denison Pender (1853–1902). The girls were painted in an Aesthetic Movement portrait titled "Leisure Hours" by John Everett Millais in 1864 Detroit Institute of Arts. Pender is buried in the grounds of All Saints' Church, Rectory Lane Foots Cray with a fine but simple Celtic cross memorial, and is also remembered via the inauguration of the Pender Chair from the money raised by the memorial fund at the time of his death. |
168_10 | Anglo-American Telegraph Company
In the 1850s the United States supplied about three-quarters of Britain's cotton imports, more than 2 million bales per year; and as a cotton merchant Pender well understood the importance of transatlantic communication; he made his first fortune trading cotton. He was one of the 345 original investors who each risked a thousand pounds in the Transatlantic Cable in 1858, and when the Atlantic Telegraph Company was ruined by the loss of the 1865 cable he formed the Anglo-American Telegraph Company to continue the work, but it was not until he had given his personal guarantee for a quarter of a million pounds that the makers would undertake the manufacture of a new cable. In the end he was justified, and telegraphic communication with America became a commercial success. |
168_11 | Early submarine cables |
168_12 | The first working submarine cable had been laid in 1851 between Dover and Calais. Its design formed the basis of future cables: a copper conductor, the cable's core, was insulated with gutta-percha, a type of latex from Malaya which had been found preferable to India rubber for under-water use. The cable was armoured with iron wire, thicker at the shore ends where extra protection from anchors and tidal chafing was needed. Although this basic technology was in place, there was a world of difference between a cross-Channel line of less than twenty-five miles and a cable capable of spanning the Atlantic, crossing the between Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, and Newfoundland in depths of up to two miles (3 km). There were difficulties of scale, and also of electrical management. In long submarine cables, received signals were extremely feeble, as there was no way of amplifying or relaying them in mid-ocean. In 1858, in Newfoundland, using the first Atlantic Cable, it was taking |
168_13 | hours and hours to send only a few words, with repeats necessary to try to interpret the weak signals that had to be detected with a candlelit mirror galvanometer on which earth currents registered higher than the actual signals. Three operators at a time had to stand and watch the beam trace on a wall at Newfoundland and make a majority guess about what the intended character was that was coming in. |
168_14 | The original sending voltage applied to the first Atlantic cable in 1858 had been about 600 volts. The British physician, Dr. Whitehouse, made one of the classic mistakes that is still today being made by telecommunications users, when the signals didn't get through, he raised the voltage. Lord Kelvin, the physicist director of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, had reservations, but he was overridden by the non-technical "chief electrician," Dr. Whitehouse. Whitehouse cobbled together apparatus to raise the sending voltage to about 2,000 volts, and the cable's insulation failed and blew apart. After only three months of use and a total of 732 messages, the first cable across the Atlantic Ocean went dead, apparently forever; and with thousands of investors losing their money 'in the sea.' |
168_15 | The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company 'Telcon' came up with an improved cable design and built a new cable that was three times the diameter of the failed 1858 cable and weighed in at 9,000 tons in one piece. To handle this huge weight of copper and iron, Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company had to charter the largest ship in the world at the time, a ship sailors regarded as jinxed, the cargo ship originally named Leviathan, later named the Great Eastern, and fitted it out to be a cable ship. |
168_16 | Transatlantic cable
It took from January 1865 to that June to coil up the of cable in the three circular tanks of the SS Great Eastern. A crew of 500 was needed to operate the ship, of which 200 were needed merely to raise its anchor. Finally, on 23 July 1865 the Great Eastern started off from Valentia to attempt retracing the route of seven years earlier. This attempt was almost as problem-filled as the first failed one in 1858. Several times, faults were found in the wire as it was paid out, and the operation had to stop for cable repairs on deck. On 2 August, the cable broke after laying of cable, and the end was lost to the ocean floor. Dragging and grappling for it for nine days, and losing the end after snagging it twice, more than under the water, the attempt was abandoned on 11 August 1865, and the expedition turned back to England. |
168_17 | A major and sudden obstacle at the beginning of 1866 was the discovery that the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which had been established under an Act of Parliament in 1856, was acting outside its powers in trying to raise its capital by a further £600,000 to finance the 1866 expedition. There was no parliamentary time to amend the company's charter. To avoid another year's delay, Gooch and Pender established a new limited liability company, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company Ltd, to take over the project. Daniel Gooch and John Pender's actions saved the scheme. The balance of funds needed was secured through Telcon and the merchant bank of Morgan and Company only days before a stock market crash which might have ended any hopes of laying a cable that summer. |
168_18 | That year, 1866, the Great Eastern and its fleet set off again from Valentia Bay, Ireland, and started westward. The cable was, as in all previous attempts, operated from the deck of the ship, and was connected back through to England, so the English public knew of the progress. (This may have been the world's first press reports from the deck of a ship at sea, since in earlier attempts, the cable, while being operated, had not been connected through to shore.) After just two weeks and a relatively trouble-free run of laying of cable, the Great Eastern arrived offshore from Heart's Content, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Being so large, the Great Eastern could not approach the shore closely, so a smaller ship took aboard the shore end to make the connection to the cable station. |
168_19 | On 27 July 1866 Daniel Gooch the cable laying engineer on board the Great Eastern, sent a message back down the cable just before cutting the shore end off for transport to the cable station, informing Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby the British Foreign Secretary, that the New World was once again connected with the Old. Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson exchanged formal opening messages on 29 July 1866. The celebrations in America were muted in comparison with those of 1857, as war had recently ended, and the new Atlantic telegraph, much more than on previous expeditions, was now seen as a product of British work and capital. As to operating details, the speed of transmission was eight words per minute (a speed that many submarine telegraph cables operated at for decades afterwards), and the rate for twenty words or less, including address, date and signature, was $100 in gold or $150 in greenback banknotes, while additional words were $5 in gold, $7.50 in greenbacks |
168_20 | each. Deep-sea cables, no longer a heroic struggle against the elements, had become instead a mature technology and a serious business. |
168_21 | As an aftermath to final success, Great Eastern sailed back to sea, and after 30 attempts managed to grapple the end of the 1865 cable it had lost the year before, splice to it, and lay a new end to Heart's Content. This meant that the first successful cable crossed the Atlantic on 27 July 1866 (with service to the U.S. on 29 July) was duplicated on 9 September 1866. So, the first successful route had two cables from very early days. |
168_22 | John Pender's contribution to the Atlantic venture, especially after 1862, had been substantial, and ultimately he had risked everything he owned on the 1866 attempt. Experience with the Atlantic line had shown Pender that intercontinental cables were no longer a gamble, that technical improvements had reduced them to an acceptable risk. Moreover, they could be exceptionally profitable. This encouraged him to continue promoting long-distance telegraphs, and the companies he launched during the following years laid cables to the Far East, Australasia and South America. Once a line was established, he followed a pattern of consolidating it into his parent company. Pender made another fortune, and was rewarded with his knighthood in 1888. |
168_23 | Nationalisation |
168_24 | In 1868 the British government decided to buy up all the inland telegraph companies, including English and Irish Magnetic, a process completed in 1870, but left overseas telegraphy in private hands. In 1869 John Pender created three more companies. The British-Indian Submarine Telegraph Company and the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company completed the cable system between London and Bombay in 1870, while the China Submarine Telegraph company set about connecting Singapore and Hong Kong, Britain's main possessions in East Asia. Pender's other company, Telcon, supplied cable not only for these ventures but also for a cable from Marseilles to Malta, which provided France with a link to its colonies in North Africa and Asia. When the governments of South Australia and Queensland, Australia, decided that the monthly steamships between Australia and Britain were too slow a means of communication, it was John Pender whom they invited to fill the telegraphic gap between Bombay and |
168_25 | Adelaide, Australia. The All-Sea Australia to England Telegraph, supplied by Telcon (which became British Insulated Callender's Cables), was opened in 1872. It was operated in two sections, Bombay to Singapore by the British India Extension Telegraph Company and Singapore to Adelaide by the British Australian Telegraph Company, both under Pender's control. |
168_26 | Reorganization |
168_27 | In 1872 Pender now set about reorganising his cable interests, first came the amalgamation of British Indian Submarine, Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta, and the Marseilles, Algiers, and Malta companies with the Anglo-Mediterranean, which had been created in 1868 to link Malta, Alexandria, and the new Suez Canal. He became chairman of the Eastern Telegraph Company that resulted from their merger. Next, in 1873, he presided over the merger of his Australian, Chinese, and British India Extension companies into the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company. It was also in 1873 that Pender created a holding company, the Globe Telegraph and Trust Company. The holding company's investors received portions of shares in the operating companies, chiefly the Eastern Telegraph and the Anglo-American. All the companies so far named remained within the Eastern Telegraph group, except Anglo-American, which was taken over in 1910 by a U.S. firm, Western Union. Finally, 1873 also saw the |
168_28 | creation of the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company, which had several directors and shareholders in common with Eastern Telegraph and opened a cable from Lisbon, Portugal, to Pernambuco, Brazil, in 1874. |
168_29 | Between 1879 and 1889 Pender's group added Africa to its list of cable routes through three companies, African Direct, a joint venture with Brazilian Submarine; West African, incorporated into Eastern Telegraph; and Eastern and South African. In 1892, following the expiration of the telegraph concession operated by Brazilian Submarine, that company and its main rival, Western and Brazilian, formed a new venture, the Pacific and European Telegraph Company, to renew the concession and link Brazil with Chile and Argentina. Having helped to arrange this operation, Pender became chairman of Brazilian Submarine in 1893, further reinforcing his position as the leading figure in the worldwide cable business. After John Pender died in 1896; his successor as chairman of Eastern Telegraph and Eastern Extension was Lord Tweeddale, while Pender's son John Denison-Pender, later Sir John, continued as managing director. The last stage in restructuring the set of companies Pender had been so |
168_30 | instrumental in creating, came in 1899, when Brazilian Submarine, having absorbed two other London-based telegraph companies operating in South America, was renamed the Western Telegraph Company. |
168_31 | Effect of wireless
The first confrontation between cable and the new medium of wireless ended in acrimony. Guglielmo Marconi's success in sending a signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland in 1901 was soured when the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, part of the Pender group, forbade any further experiments, since they would infringe on the Pender group's monopoly of communications in Newfoundland. Marconi moved his work to Nova Scotia, and found the Americans and Canadians generally more receptive to his achievement than Europeans. Just years later their companies and technologies would merge.
Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited
Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Jabez Balfour, Pender founded the investment underwriting firm the Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited in December 1887.
See also
Pender v Lushington (1877) 6 Ch D 70
References
Attribution
External links |
168_32 | 1816 births
1896 deaths
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Scottish Liberal Party MPs
Liberal Unionist Party MPs for Scottish constituencies
UK MPs 1865–1868
UK MPs 1868–1874
UK MPs 1874–1880
UK MPs 1880–1885
UK MPs 1892–1895
UK MPs 1895–1900
Telegraphy
Submarine communications cables
People from West Dunbartonshire
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Highland constituencies
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Totnes |
169_0 | Ğazı II Giray (1554 – November 1607) was a khan of the Crimean Khanate. Born in 1554, he distinguished himself in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90), gaining the trust of his Ottoman suzerains. He was appointed khan in 1588, after his homeland experienced a period of political turmoil. He failed to capture Moscow during his 1591 campaign against Tsardom of Russia, however he managed to secure a favorable peace treaty two years later. He was then summoned to support his Ottoman allies in the Long Turkish War, taking part in multiple military expeditions centered in Hungary. In late 1596, the Ottoman sultan briefly unseated Ğazı II Giray in favor of Fetih I Giray after heeding the advice of Grand Vizier Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha. He returned to power three months later, continuing his reign until his death in November 1607. |
169_1 | Early life
Ğazı Giray was born in 1554. Little is known about his youth, it is speculated that while being hanzade (son of the khan) he was sent to the Circassian tribe of Besleni to receive training in horsemanship and the military arts. His name is first mentioned in a document detailing a 1575 Tatar raid on Podolia. The raid was sparked by the revolt of Moldavian voivode John III the Terrible who refused to accept the raise in tribute he had to pay to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans requested the Crimean Khanate to aid them in the conflict after realizing that Zaporozhian Cossacks had intervened on John's side. The conflict ended when the Ottomans executed the Cossack commander Ivan Pidkova and unseated John. |
169_2 | In November 1578, Crimean khan Mehmed II Giray entered the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90) on the Ottoman side. Ğazı Giray was among the soldiers taking part in the expedition. The Crimean army under the khan's brother Adil Giray relieved the besieged Shemakha garrison at a critical point, defeating the Safavids. The first rift between the allies appeared when the Ottomans prohibited the Tatars from conducting booty raids and insisted on organizing them into a regular unit of their army. Looting had been the primary objective of all Tatar military campaigns and a major source of wealth for the common soldier as they did not receive salaries. The dispute was settled after the Tatars managed to pillage a convoy carrying the treasury of Aras Khan. On 30 November, the Tatar army clashed with the main Safavid force on the Menla Hasan river. The battle lasted three days and ended with a Tatar defeat, Adil Giray was captured yet Ğazı Giray managed to escape. Due to Adil's death in captivity, |
169_3 | Mehmed II Giray appointed his son Saadet II Giray as kalgay. A year later, Mehmed II Giray arrived at the front with reinforcements, departing in the summer after a successful raid on Gence netted him enough booty. In the meantime, Mehmed's younger brother Alp Giray instigated a revolt, in an effort to take the throne for himself. The Ottomans questioned the loyalty of the khan after he declared that he was an independent ruler rather than an Ottoman vassal, ordering İslâm II Giray to ascend. |
169_4 | Ğazı Giray remained in the Caucasus at the head of a small force. In the winter of 1579, Ğazı Giray distinguished himself during a surprise attack on a Safavid encampment in Gence. The Ottoman sultan rewarded him for this action with 50,000 akçes. In the spring of 1581, Ğazı Giray suffered a defeat in the vicinity of Shemakha and was taken prisoner. After refusing numerous proposals of collaboration he was imprisoned in the Alamut Castle. He managed to escape after he was transferred to Tabriz, joining Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha in Erzurum. He continued his participation in the campaign until the death of Osman Pasha on 30 November 1585. He then traveled to Constantinople where he was granted the salyane of Yambol where he continued to live until 1588. That year he received news that he was appointed khan in place of his brother İslâm II Giray. The Ottomans chose Ğazı Giray due to his familiarity with the inner workings of the empire and his experience in military affairs. Upon his |
169_5 | arrival, his authority was not disputed by the Crimean tribal aristocracy. |
169_6 | First Reign |
169_7 | Ğazı Giray's first action as khan was to appoint his brother Fetih Giray and nephew Nepht Giray as the first and second heirs apparent (Kalgay and Nura'l-din respectively) to the throne. Alp Giray and his Nura'l-din Sakay Giray fled to Constantinople and Circassia respectively. He then moved in to secure the khanate's external borders from the Cossacks who had stepped up their raids following the death of Stephen Báthory in 1586. A fort was erected on the mouth of river Dnieper and a punitive expedition was launched on Podolia. The expansion of Russian influence in the Caucasus the successive reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Feodor I caused concern in Crimea. Ğazı Giray seized opportunity of a Swedish offer of an alliance to attack Muscovy from the south, while the Swedes invaded from the north. On 13 July 1591, the Crimeans besieged Moscow, realizing that their cavalry was no match for the city's modern fortifications they lifted the siege. The khan was wounded in the campaign, |
169_8 | returning to his palace in a cart on 9 August. After negotiations over a peace agreement broke down Fetih Giray successfully raided Tula and Ryazan, taking numerous prisoners later to be sold in the khanate's lucrative slave markets. Fearing a war on two fronts the Muscovites yielded, gifting the khan 10,000 rubles and agreeing to withdraw the Cossacks from Terek and Don. In return the Tatars swore not to attack Russia during the summer of 1594, the agreement was concluded in October 1593. The agreement paved the way for the Crimean intervention into the Long Turkish War in Hungary, while Russia was able to augment its northern borders. |
169_9 | On 28 April 1594, the Tatar army crossed into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth en route to Hungary. The Tatars found the Balkan pass blocked by ruble and then marched to the so-called Tatar pass which was guarded by Kaspar Kornis an officer of the Voivode of Transylvania Sigismund Báthory and commander of the nearby Huszt castle. A battle ensued, whereupon the defenders suffered a devastating defeat. The Tatars clashed with the Hungarians under Bastuvan in Devirsin (possibly Debrecen), achieving another victory. The Tatar force united with their Ottoman allies commanded by grand vizier Koca Sinan Pasha on 31 July, the event was later celebrated by a full dress military parade and a feast. At the time the Muslim army had camped opposite of Raab and was separated from the city by the river of the same name. On 1 August, the Ottoman–Tatar army crossed the river and stormed the Raab castle, they were met by a flurry of gunfire and were forced to retreat. The following day the Ottomans |
169_10 | began constructing a bridge across the river, enabling their musketeers and artillery to close in on their target. On 27 September, a second assault took place, it proved successful and the city fell. A part of the Crimean army was diverted to the fort of Pápa, which they found abandoned. The Muslims then besieged Komárom, however the siege was soon lifted after the advent of winter. Ğazı Giray retired to his winter quarters after leaving 2,000 of his men to garrison Pápa and Székesfehérvár. |
169_11 | The palace intrigues surrounding the death of sultan Murad III frustrated Ottoman plans in Hungary. More importantly Wallachian voivode Michael the Brave and voidode of Moldavia Aaron the Tyrant had revolted against Ottoman authority. In late January 1595, the Tatars now loaded with booty began their journey home. Upon crossing the frozen Danube into Wallachia they were attacked by Michael's troops, suffering a devastating defeat they fell back to Silistra. The Khan informed the grand vizier Serdar Ferhad Pasha of the new state of affairs in Wallachia and urged him to dispatch a fleet to Ochakiv in order to ferry a 100,000 man army under Fetih Giray to the Balkans. The khan spent the summer in Crimea. The arrival of Fetih's army in September coincided with the Ottoman decision to transform Wallachia and Moldavia from tributary states into beylerbeyliks. Ğazı Giray seized the opportunity and requested that one of his relatives be appointed governor of the new province. The Ottomans |
169_12 | feared that the Tatars would merge Moldavia with the rest of the khanate and instead appointed Ahmed Bey to the position. The Tatars conquered Moldavia after vanquishing Sigismund Báthory's and Ștefan Răzvan's forces. The Poles reacted by tasking Jan Zamoyski with checking the Tatar advance in the region. The two sides fought the Battle of Cecora (1595) on 19 September, before agreeing to mutually withdraw and recognize Ieremia Movilă as the new Moldavian voivode. The khan wintered in Bender, launching numerous diversionary raids into Wallachia while Fetih Giray besieged Eger with the Ottomans. In the meantime, the Habsburgs had crossed the swamps in the Eger area posing a threat to the Muslim army. The two sides engaged in the Battle of Keresztes on 26 October 1596. The Muslims emerged victorious at the conclusion of the battle, the largest to take place during the course of the war. |
169_13 | Second Reign |
169_14 | Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier in recognition of his role in the battle. He immediately dismissed Ğazı Giray and elevated Fetih I Giray to khan. Ğazı Giray's refusal to personally participate in the campaign, alleged separatist tendencies and his aspirations over Moldavia being the main reasons behind the downfall. Ğazı Giray addressed a letter to the sultan claiming that he was preoccupied by the defense of Wallachia from Michael the Brave and that his dismissal was unjust since he did not engage in bribery, revolt or oppression of rayah. Although he was supported by a number of viziers, his letter had not achieved the desired effect and the sultan remained true to his word. Fetih accepted his new role with reluctance as he only commanded 20,000 soldiers and the Ottomans were unable to provide him with reinforcements due to their commitments in Hungary. Fetih built his network of supporters around the relatives of Selamet Giray and Baht Giray. However his |
169_15 | influence was still limited and the Tatar army demanded that the old khan be brought back. Cığalazade was dismissed only 20 days after his appointment further complicating the situation, the new grand vizier Damat Ibrahim Pasha supported the idea of reinstating Ğazı Giray. The sultan prepared two different letters of confirmation one for Fetih and another for Ğazı, instructing his representative Hamdan Agha to grant the letter to the candidate with the biggest base of support among the Tatars. Unbeknownst to the sultan Hamdan Agha had been a long time personal friend of Ğazı Giray, giving him the letter along with the regalia. Fearing for his safety Fetih fled to the Circassian controlled Taman Peninsula, he took the decision to meet Ğazı Giray one last time before departing for Constantinople. He was murdered by a member of the Mangit tribe outside of Kefe, Baht Giray met a similar fate. Selamet Giray avoided the power struggle by remaining in Circassia. Fetih's reign of three months |
169_16 | was thus cut short and Ğazı Giray regained control over the khanate in early 1597. |
169_17 | The khan refused to take part in the 1597 Ottoman campaign in Hungary. After renewing the truce with Russia, he sent envoys to Poland, Wallachia and Moldavia in an attempt to gain concessions. The Crimean army returned to the Balkans in July 1598. The khan served as an intermediary between the sultan and emperor Rudolf II, as the Ottomans sought to divert forces to Anatolia due to the outbreak of the Celali rebellions. The Tatars joined the Ottoman war camp at Beckerek on 29 August, afterwards the khan took active part in the planning of the upcoming offensive in Wallachia. Marching along the Moros river, the Muslims conquered the small fort of Canat before besieging their main target Varad on 1 October. Major shortages in gunpowder and ammunition, as well as difficult weather conditions rendered the siege unsuccessful. The Habsburgs had exploited the diversion of Ottoman troops to Wallachia by seizing Tata, Várpalota and Veszprém, as well as encircling Buda. The khan spent the winter |
169_18 | in Sombor, while the Tatar contingent was stationed in Szeged. Citing shortages in provisions the khan declared that the Crimeans would return home despite repeated Ottoman requests for him to remain, this may be attributed to bribes he had received from Rudolf II. He remained within the khanate until 1602, during that time he had fallen seriously ill. He accused his wife of bewitching him, leading to her execution. In 1601, he learned that Nura'l-din Devlet Giray had conspired with a number of Mirzas to assassinate and take power for themselves. The plotters were invited to a feast where they were gunned down by arquebusiers. Devlet Giray's brothers fled either to Circassia or Anatolia with Selamet Giray following suit. In late August 1602, the khan once again set off for the Hungarian plains. On 23 September, the Tatars were defeated in the battle of Telzayn, whereupon the fell back to Silistria and united with the Ottomans in the middle of October. |
169_19 | Ğazı Giray spent the winter in Pécs, while his army commenced raids on the Međimurje mountains, Lugoj, Sebeș, Tokaj, rivers Krka and Rába. The Tatars rode home at the end of the winter after the sultan failed to satisfy their monetary demands. Little is known about the last years of the khan's life. He did not campaign in person, sending his son and kalgay Toqtamış Giray to Hungary in 1604. He erected the castle of Gazikerman in Circassia, dying from a plague outbreak shortly afterwards (November 1607). Toqtamış Giray succeeded him as khan following his death.
Notes
References
1554 births
1607 deaths
16th-century rulers in Europe
17th-century rulers in Europe
Crimean Khans
People of the Long Turkish War
Crimean Tatar writers |
170_0 | Australian Crawl (often called Aussie Crawl or The Crawl by fans) were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano/harmonica), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David Reyne (drums) in 1978. David Reyne soon left and was replaced by Bill McDonough (drums, percussion). They were later joined by his brother Guy McDonough (vocals, rhythm guitar). The band was named after the front crawl swimming style also known as the Australian crawl.
Australian Crawl were associated with surf music and sponsored a surfing competition in 1984. However, they also handled broader social issues such as shallow materialism, alcoholism, car accidents, and cautionary tales of romance. |
170_1 | After their 1980 debut album, The Boys Light Up, reached No. 4, Australian Crawl had two No. 1 albums; 1981's Sirocco and 1982's Sons of Beaches. Their early singles reached the top 25 but none broke into the Top Ten; their best performing single was No. 1 hit "Reckless" which showed a more mature approach than earlier hits, and came from their 1983 Semantics EP.
Upheaval within the band occurred from 1983 onwards. First Bill McDonough left, then his brother Guy McDonough died in 1984, then various other members left. Their 1985 release Between a Rock and a Hard Place was expensive but sales were disappointing and they disbanded early in 1986. The band's status as an icon on the Australian music scene was acknowledged by induction into the 1996 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. Founding guitarist Brad Robinson was unable to attend the Hall of Fame induction in person, as he was hospitalised with lymphoma and died two weeks later.
Biography |
170_2 | 1975–1979: formation and "Beautiful People"
The band Spiff Rouch formed in 1976 in the Mornington Peninsula suburb of Mount Eliza on the outskirts of Melbourne. The group lineup featured James Reyne, brothers Bill and Guy McDonough, Paul Williams, Robert Walker and Simon Binks. Reyne had previously played drums for Archie Slammit and the Doors.
By early 1978 Spiff Rouch had separated into two groups: The Flatheads (including the McDonough brothers and Walker, along with Sean Higgins and Nigel Spencer) and Australian Crawl. The original lineup for the latter was Reyne as vocalist, Binks on lead guitar, Williams on bass guitar, along with Reyne's younger brother David Reyne on drums and schoolmate Brad Robinson on rhythm guitar. Australian Crawl performed their first live gig in October 1978 and toured the pub circuit. |
170_3 | David Reyne left the group in 1979 to finish his acting course, later becoming an actor and TV presenter as well as drumming for Cats Under Pressure and the Chantoozies (1986–1990). He was replaced in Australian Crawl by Bill McDonough. The group's popularity in the Mornington Peninsula area increased with further pub gigs, then they gained audiences with university students and inner city residents.
Once the band's escalating popularity brought them into Melbourne they caught the attention of Little River Band's guitarist David Briggs, who helped them gain a recording contract with EMI and he produced their first single. "Beautiful People" (1979) reached No. 22 on the national charts. Reyne had co-written the song with guitarist Mark Hudson in 1975. The track included references to the shallow materialism of residents of Toorak and to the Bombay Rock night club in Brunswick. |
170_4 | Just days before recording "Beautiful People" Reyne had been hit by a car on Swanston Street, Melbourne, breaking bones in both wrists, an episode later chronicled in the track "Indisposed". Australian Crawl made one of the most memorable debuts on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV series Countdown performing "Beautiful People" as Reyne still had both arms encased in plaster. "Beautiful People" remains one of their most popular songs according to listeners of Triple M in 2007.
1980 The Boys Light Up
Australian Crawl's debut album, The Boys Light Up (1980), also produced by Briggs for EMI, had a number of hit singles with songwriting shared around the group and beyond. Tracks from this album included the previously released single "Beautiful People", the title track (written by Reyne and Mark Hudson); "Indisposed" (Brad Robinson, James Robinson, Reyne, Bill McDonough) and "Downhearted" (Sean Higgins, Guy McDonough, Bill McDonough) (from The Flatheads). |
170_5 | "The Boys Light Up", their second single, was almost banned from radio play due to its explicit lyrics. Many listeners believed the chorus lyrics were about smoking marijuana but Reyne has stated that it was about smoking tobacco cigarettes at school. It also reached No. 22 on the National charts and became their signature song and their most popular track especially live. Their third single "Downhearted" charted higher at #12 and was a cautionary tale of romance gone wrong.
The Boys Light Up reached No. 4 on the Australian album charts and remained in the charts for an unbroken 101 weeks. It sold five times platinum: over 280,000 copies, and became one of the biggest Australian albums of the 1980s. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Guy McDonough (ex-The Flatheads and Bill's younger brother) joined the group in October 1980.
Rock journalist and commentator Glenn A. Baker compared Australian Crawl with various fellow Australian bands: |
170_6 | However, according to James Reyne some people accused them of being demonic. He said whenever you bumped into the member of Little River Band who had found God, he'd tell him "you shouldn't be playing that, it's demonic".
1981–1982: Sirocco and Sons of Beaches
In 1981, Australian Crawl recorded their second album, Sirocco, with producer Peter Dawkins in Sydney. Named for Errol Flynn's yacht, the album peaked at No. 1 on the Australian album chart on 3 August and remained there for six weeks. At about this time Robinson was married to actress Kerry Armstrong, later an Australian Film Institute Award winner, who co-wrote a track "Easy on Your Own" for the album. |
170_7 | Sirocco spawned the hit singles "Things Don't Seem" (May, No. 11 National charts) and "Errol" (August, #18). It also included "Oh No Not You Again" (November). Of these, "Errol" about womanising Tasmanian-born actor Flynn is the band's third most popular song of all. Another track from the album, "Lakeside", became a popular radio inclusion. 1981 Australian End of Year Album Charts has Sirocco at No. 2 behind Double Fantasy by John Lennon and ahead of AC/DC's Back in Black making it the best charting album by an Australian act.
Another track on this album, Unpublished Critics has been compared several times to the later song "Sweet Child o' Mine" by US band Guns N' Roses as acknowledged, by its writer, James Reyne. He was responding to media comments in May 2015 about the possibility of plagiarism by the American band. |
170_8 | On the wave of this popularity the band toured extensively playing to huge crowds at Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl (10,000), Sydney's Domain (90,000), the Narara Rock festival (70,000), smashing attendance records at indoor venues in Brisbane and Perth. They were voted Countdown 1981 Most Popular Group, and James Reyne was voted 1980 and 1981 Most Popular Male Performer.
Sons of Beaches (1982) was recorded in Hawaii with expatriate Australian Mike Chapman producing. The album had a rougher, rock 'n' roll edge than its glossy pop rock predecessors and featured the No. 17 hit "Shut Down" (June). It also included a re-recorded version of "Downhearted" and became their second album to reach No. 1 on the Australian albums chart and remained there for five weeks. EMI issued the album in the USA. Two further singles, "Daughters of the Northern Coast" (August) and "Runaway Girls" (November) failed to reach the Australian Top 40. |
170_9 | Over 1982 and 1983, Reyne was filmed with Australian actresses Rebecca Gilling and Wendy Hughes in the television miniseries Return to Eden, which was screened in September 1983. For Reyne's role of playboy tennis professional Greg Marsden, he was given the 1984 "Most Popular New Talent Award" at the TV Week Logie Awards. Reyne later declared he was not very good in the part, declining many acting offers since. During breaks in filming, the singer accepted an offer from Paul Christie (Mondo Rock) and Kevin Borich to join their part-time band The Party Boys with Harvey James from Sherbet and Graham Bidstrup from The Angels. The group played a short run of shows around Sydney venues and played covers exclusively. The resultant album, Live at Several 21sts, peaked at No. 9 on the national chart.
1983–1984: "Reckless", Semantics and Phalanx |
170_10 | Soon after Reyne finished acting for Return to Eden, Bill McDonough left due to tensions within the band. The remaining members then recorded the EP Semantics (1983) with Bidstrup (from The Party Boys, later a founder of GANGgajang) on drums. The four track EP contained their best-known song, "Reckless" (aka "Don't Be So Reckless", "She Don't Like That") which was written by Reyne, and went to No. 1 on the Australian singles chart on 28 November. John Watson (Kevin Borich Express) then came in as a permanent replacement for McDonough. The live album Phalanx was something of a stop-gap measure between studio albums, nevertheless it reached No. 4 during December. The band's biggest overseas break came when Duran Duran took the band as support on certain legs of their "Sing Blue Silver" tour of the UK. |
170_11 | US label Geffen Records signed Australian Crawl and issued Semantics (1984) as an album (with the four songs from the EP and re-recordings of tracks from past Australian records) for the American market. In April 1984 Australian Crawl became the first Australian band to sponsor an ASP surfing competition. The Rip Curl/Australian Crawl Bell's Beach Surfing Festival was won by Australian surfer, Cheyne Horan. |
170_12 | In June 1984 the band was forced off the road when Guy McDonough was admitted to hospital in Melbourne; he died soon after of viral pneumonia. Australian Crawl regrouped with Mark Greig on guitar (ex-Runners) for a series of live performances in late 1984. Prior to Guy's death, he had recorded demos with his brother Bill McDonough (drums, percussion), Sean Higgins (synthesisers) and Nigel Spencer (bass, synthesisers), (all former The Flatheads); and Mick Hauser (saxophone) and Michael Bright (guitar). Bill McDonough assembled the tapes and produced Guy McDonough's posthumous album My Place on Wheatley Records in April 1985. Singles "My Place" / "Things Don't Seem" and "What's in it For Me" / "Hook, Line and Sinker" were also released. "Things Don't Seem" written by Guy McDonough and Sean Higgins, had been released as an Australian Crawl single in 1981 off Sirocco. Tracks from these sessions were re-mastered and released on Lost & Found in 1996. |
170_13 | 1985–1986: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, The Final Wave and split
By 1985 the group recorded their last studio album, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, with English producer Adam Kidron. It was released in Australia on Australian Crawl's own label Freestyle Records. The album, which allegedly cost $400,000 to record, was a mishmash of styles and a commercial disaster (it peaked at No. 12 in August 1985 but slipped out of the Top 40 two weeks later). None of the singles had any Top 40 chart success. Harry Brus (Kevin Borich Express) replaced long-standing bass player Paul Williams in May 1985. The band performed three songs for the July 1985 Oz for Africa concert—part of the global Live Aid program—"Reckless (Don't Be So)", "Two Can Play" and "The Boys Light Up". It was broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. |
170_14 | When the album virtually failed to chart, the band was ready to split but had to go out on tour to pay off its debts. On 27 January 1986, their final Melbourne concert was recorded and released as the live album The Final Wave in October. The band performed its final concert on 1 February at the Perth Entertainment Centre.
In seven years, Australian Crawl had sold over one million records in Australia, with five of its albums and an EP reaching the Australian Top 5 Album Charts, two of which had been No. 1 hits. A cumulative total of eleven weeks at Number 1 on the Albums Charts places them equal fourth for Australian groups behind Skyhooks, The Seekers and Midnight Oil.
1986–1995: Solo careers |
170_15 | In 1985, Lin Buckfield (Electric Pandas) and Reyne released a duet single "R.O.C.K." / "Under My Thumb". After Australian Crawl disbanded, Reyne went on to a solo career. His first few singles failed to chart but 1987's "Fall of Rome" and the self-titled album that followed were the beginning of a string of hits that lasted until the early 1990s. In 1992 he and James Blundell had a hit with a cover of The Dingoes' "Way Out West" (#2, May 1992). Reyne also formed Company of Strangers that year with former Sherbet lead singer Daryl Braithwaite, Simon Hussey and Jef Scott. Company of Strangers only released one self-titled album, Company of Strangers in 1992, which produced the hits "Motor City (I Get Lost)" (#26, September 1992), "Sweet Love" (#21, January 1993) and "Daddy's Gonna Make You a Star" (#35, March 1993). |
170_16 | In 1993 Reyne appeared as Tina Turner's manager Roger Davies in What's Love Got to do With It?. He featured in twelve episodes of State Coroner during 1998 and in 2003's The Postcard Bandit. Reyne lives on the Mornington Peninsula with his partner, Tina, and a daughter. He has released his eighth solo studio album, Every Man a King (2007) and still performs occasionally. |
170_17 | Almost immediately after the split Robinson became manager of Chantoozies (with early Crawl drummer David Reyne). Their first single, "The Witch Queen of New Orleans" (1986), a cover of Redbone's song, reached No. 4 on the National charts. Robinson then moved into a career in television (with Network Ten's Page One) and as a co-producer of documentaries. In the 1990s he became the manager for the Reyne brothers and worked as an agent for the Advantage Sports Management Group. This included managing Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis. Three years after being diagnosed with lymphoma, Robinson died on 13 October 1996. |
170_18 | Binks played in the Broderick Smith Band in 1988. He was injured in a 1995 car crash at a council roadworks that left him slightly brain-damaged. A court in 2006 awarded him $330,253 in damages, down from an estimated $750,000 because he was said to be over the legal limit. Binks later disputed the alcohol reading as belonging to another driver and stated the remuneration mostly went to his lawyers. A 2007 appeal by the council, saw amount awarded further reduced to $304,750.
Williams who had left the band in 1985, was working in music-related retail.
1996–present: ARIA Hall of Fame and compilations |
170_19 | In 1996, a compilation titled Lost & Found was released. It contained seven of the tracks from Guy McDonough's solo album My Place which were remastered. Compilers and producers of Lost & Found were Bill McDonough and Peter Blyton. Lost & Found tracks from My Place include "Too Many People" a duet sung by Guy McDonough with Colin Hay of Men at Work. Some My Place tracks used on Lost & Found have Reyne singing backing vocals. As of 2001, Bill McDonough left the music industry and began working in the construction industry and continues to own and operate his building and demolition companies in 2017.
The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in September 1996. Three weeks later, Robinson died.
Additional compilation albums were released; More Wharf in 1998, Reckless: 1979–1995 in 2000 and The Definitive Collection in 2002. The Definitive Collection contained songs from the band and from James Reyne's solo career. |
170_20 | In 2001, as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, the Australian Performing Right Association (APRA) compiled a list of the Top 30 Australian songs, with "Reckless (Don't Be So)" coming in at number nineteen.
In October 2007, eleven Australian Crawl tracks were featured in the Triple M Essential 2007 Countdown of songs (positions are voted by listeners out of the best 2007 songs of all time). They were "Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama" #1673; "Lakeside" #1354; "Indisposed" #956; "Downhearted" #728; "Oh No Not You Again" #587; "Shut Down" #415; "Things Don't Seem" #371; "Boys Light Up" #305; "Errol" #227; "Beautiful People" #153; and "Reckless" #39.
In January 2014, Universal Music Australia celebrated the 35th anniversary of the release of "Beautiful People" by releasing The Greatest Hits, which peaked at number 4 and was the 40th best selling album in Australian in 2014. |
170_21 | In October 2016, Australian Crawl released a seven album vinyl collection, titled The Album Collection. The collection included the band's four studio albums, two live albums and the US-expanded version of the Semantics album which had previously been unavailable to Australian audiences.
Members
Chronological list:
Simon Binks – guitars (1978–1984, 1985–1986)
David Reyne – drums (1978)
James Reyne – vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica (1978–1986)
Brad Robinson (d. 1996) – guitars, keyboards (1978–1986)
Paul Williams – bass guitar (1978–1985)
Bill McDonough – drums (replaced David Reyne) (1978–1983)
Guy McDonough (d. 1984) – vocals, guitar (1980–1984)
Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup – drums (replaced Bill McDonough) (1983)
John Watson – drums (replaced Bidstrup) (1983–1986)
Mark Greig – guitars (replaced Guy McDonough) (1984–1986)
Simon Hussey – guitars, keyboards (replaced Binks on Between a Rock and a Hard Place) (1984)
Harry Brus – bass guitar (replaced Williams) (1985–1986)
Discography |
170_22 | Studio albums and EP
The Boys Light Up (1980)
Sirocco (1981)
Sons of Beaches (1982)
Semantics (EP) (1983)
Semantics (US LP) (1984)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (1985)
Live recordings
Phalanx (1983)
The Final Wave (1986)
Live at Billboard 1981 (2020)
Compilations
Crawl File (1984)
Lost & Found (1996)
More Wharf: Greatest Hits (1998)
Reckless: 1979-1995 credited to Australian Crawl and James Reyne (2000)
The Definitive Collection (2002)
The Greatest Hits (2014)
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Australian Crawl were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996.
|-
| 1987
| Art Scarff for The Final Wave by Australian Crawl
| ARIA Award for Best Cover Art
|
|-
| 1996
| Australian Crawl
| ARIA Hall of Fame
| |
170_23 | TV Week / Countdown Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974–1987, it presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards. |
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