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Aardvark | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark | [
459
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark"
] | Aardvarks ( ARD-vark; Orycteropus afer) are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to Africa. They have a long snout, similar to that of a pig, which is used to sniff out food.
Aardvarks are the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. They are afrotheres, a clade that also includes elephants, manatees, and hyraxes.
They are found over much of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding areas that are mainly rocky. Nocturnal feeders, aardvarks subsist on ants and termites by using their sharp claws and powerful legs to dig the insects out of their hills. Aardvarks also dig to create burrows in which to live and rear their young.
Aardvarks are listed as "least concern" by the IUCN, although their numbers are decreasing.
Name and taxonomy
Name
The aardvark is sometimes colloquially called the "African ant bear", "anteater" (not to be confused with the South American anteaters), or the "Cape anteater" after the Cape of Good Hope.
The name "aardvark" is Afrikaans (pronounced [ˈɑːrtfark]) and comes from earlier Afrikaans erdvark. It means "earth pig" or "ground pig" (aarde: 'earth', vark: 'pig, young pig'), because of its burrowing habits.
The name Orycteropus means "burrowing foot", and the name afer refers to Africa. The name of the aardvark's order, Tubulidentata, comes from the tubule-style teeth.
Taxonomy
The aardvark is not closely related to the pig; rather, it is the sole extant representative of the obscure mammalian order Tubulidentata, in which it is usually considered to form one variable species of the genus Orycteropus, the sole surviving genus in the family Orycteropodidae. The aardvark is not closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance. The similarities are the outcome of convergent evolution. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, tenrecidae, and golden moles. Along with sirenians, hyraxes, elephants, and their extinct relatives, these animals form the superorder Afrotheria. Studies of the brain have shown the similarities with Condylarthra.
Evolutionary history
Based on his study of fossils, Bryan Patterson has concluded that early relatives of the aardvark appeared in Africa around the end of the Paleocene. The ptolemaiidans, a mysterious clade of mammals with uncertain affinities, may actually be stem-aardvarks, either as a sister clade to Tubulidentata or as a grade leading to true tubulidentates.
The first unambiguous tubulidentate was probably Myorycteropus africanus from Kenyan Miocene deposits. The earliest example from the genus Orycteropus was Orycteropus mauritanicus, found in Algeria in deposits from the middle Miocene, with an equally old version found in Kenya. Fossils from the aardvark have been dated to 5 million years, and have been located throughout Europe and the Near East.
The mysterious Pleistocene Plesiorycteropus from Madagascar was originally thought to be a tubulidentate that was descended from ancestors that entered the island during the Eocene. However, a number of subtle anatomical differences coupled with recent molecular evidence now lead researchers to believe that Plesiorycteropus is a relative of golden moles and tenrecs that achieved an aardvark-like appearance and ecological niche through convergent evolution.
Subspecies
The aardvark has seventeen poorly defined subspecies listed:
Orycteropus afer afer (Southern aardvark)
O. a. adametzi Grote, 1921 (Western aardvark)
O. a. aethiopicus Sundevall, 1843
O. a. angolensis Zukowsky & Haltenorth, 1957
O. a. erikssoni Lönnberg, 1906
O. a. faradjius Hatt, 1932
O. a. haussanus Matschie, 1900
O. a. kordofanicus Rothschild, 1927
O. a. lademanni Grote, 1911
O. a. leptodon Hirst, 1906
O. a. matschiei Grote, 1921
O. a. observandus Grote, 1921
O. a. ruvanensis Grote, 1921
O. a. senegalensis Lesson, 1840
O. a. somalicus Lydekker, 1908
O. a. wardi Lydekker, 1908
O. a. wertheri Matschie, 1898 (Eastern aardvark)
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica also mentions O. a. capensis or Cape ant-bear from South Africa.
Description
The aardvark is vaguely pig-like in appearance. Its body is stout with a prominently arched back and is sparsely covered with coarse hairs. The limbs are of moderate length, with the rear legs being longer than the forelegs. The front feet have lost the pollex (or 'thumb'), resulting in four toes, while the rear feet have all five toes. Each toe bears a large, robust nail which is somewhat flattened and shovel-like, and appears to be intermediate between a claw and a hoof. Whereas the aardvark is considered digitigrade, it appears at times to be plantigrade. This confusion happens because when it squats it stands on its soles. A contributing characteristic to the burrow digging capabilities of aardvarks is an endosteal tissue called compacted coarse cancellous bone (CCCB). The stress and strain resistance provided by CCCB allows aardvarks to create their burrows, ultimately leading to a favourable environment for plants and a variety of animals. Digging is also facilitated by its forearm's unusually stout ulna and radius.An aardvark's weight is typically between 60 and 80 kilograms (130–180 lb). An aardvark's length is usually between 105 and 130 centimetres (3.44–4.27 ft), and can reach lengths of 2.2 metres (7 ft 3 in) when its tail (which can be up to 70 centimetres (28 in)) is taken into account. It is 60 centimetres (24 in) tall at the shoulder, and has a girth of about 100 centimetres (3.3 ft). It is the largest member of the proposed clade Afroinsectiphilia. The aardvark is pale yellowish-grey in colour and often stained reddish-brown by soil. The aardvark's coat is thin, and the animal's primary protection is its tough skin. Its hair is short on its head and tail; however its legs tend to have longer hair. The hair on the majority of its body is grouped in clusters of 3–4 hairs. The hair surrounding its nostrils is dense to help filter particulate matter out as it digs. Its tail is very thick at the base and gradually tapers.
Head
The greatly elongated head is set on a short, thick neck, and the end of the snout bears a disc, which houses the nostrils. It contains a thin but complete zygomatic arch. The head of the aardvark contains many unique and different features. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Tubulidentata is their teeth. Instead of having a pulp cavity, each tooth has a cluster of thin, hexagonal, upright, parallel tubes of vasodentin (a modified form of dentine), with individual pulp canals, held together by cementum. The number of columns is dependent on the size of the tooth, with the largest having about 1,500. The teeth have no enamel coating and are worn away and regrow continuously. The aardvark is born with conventional incisors and canines at the front of the jaw, which fall out and are not replaced. Adult aardvarks have only cheek teeth at the back of the jaw, and have a dental formula of: 0.0.2-3.30.0.2.3 These remaining teeth are peg-like and rootless and are of unique composition. The teeth consist of 14 upper and 12 lower jaw molars. The nasal area of the aardvark is another unique area, as it contains ten nasal conchae, more than any other placental mammal.
The sides of the nostrils are thick with hair. The tip of the snout is highly mobile and is moved by modified mimetic muscles. The fleshy dividing tissue between its nostrils probably has sensory functions, but it is uncertain whether they are olfactory or vibratory in nature. Its nose is made up of more turbinate bones than any other mammal, with between 9 and 11, compared to dogs with 4 to 5. With a large quantity of turbinate bones, the aardvark has more space for the moist epithelium, which is the location of the olfactory bulb. The nose contains nine olfactory bulbs, more than any other mammal. Its keen sense of smell is not just from the quantity of bulbs in the nose but also in the development of the brain, as its olfactory lobe is very developed. The snout resembles an elongated pig snout. The mouth is small and tubular, typical of species that feed on ants and termites. The aardvark has a long, thin, snakelike, protruding tongue (as much as 30 centimetres (12 in) long) and elaborate structures supporting a keen sense of smell. The ears, which are very effective, are disproportionately long, about 20–25 centimetres (7.9–9.8 in) long. The eyes are small for its head, and consist only of rods.
Digestive system
The aardvark's stomach has a muscular pyloric area that acts as a gizzard to grind swallowed food up, thereby rendering chewing unnecessary. Its cecum is large. Both sexes emit a strong smelling secretion from an anal gland. Its salivary glands are highly developed and almost completely ring the neck; their output is what causes the tongue to maintain its tackiness. The female has two pairs of teats in the inguinal region.
Genetically speaking, the aardvark is a living fossil, as its chromosomes are highly conserved, reflecting much of the early eutherian arrangement before the divergence of the major modern taxa.
Habitat and range
Aardvarks are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where suitable habitat (savannas, grasslands, woodlands and bushland) and food (i.e., ants and termites) is available. They spend the daylight hours in dark burrows to avoid the heat of the day. The only major habitat that they are not present in is swamp forest, as the high water table precludes digging to a sufficient depth. They also avoid terrain rocky enough to cause problems with digging. They have been documented as high as 3,200 metres (10,500 ft) in Ethiopia. They are present throughout sub-Saharan Africa all the way to South Africa with few exceptions including the coastal areas of Namibia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. They are not found in Madagascar.
Ecology and behaviour
Aardvarks live for up to 23 years in captivity. Its keen hearing warns it of predators: lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs, hyenas, and pythons. Some humans also hunt aardvarks for meat. Aardvarks can dig fast or run in zigzag fashion to elude enemies, but if all else fails, they will strike with their claws, tail and shoulders, sometimes flipping onto their backs lying motionless except to lash out with all four feet. They are capable of causing substantial damage to unprotected areas of an attacker. They will also dig to escape as they can. Sometimes, when pressed, aardvarks can dig extremely quickly.
Feeding
The aardvark is nocturnal and is a solitary creature that feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites (myrmecophagy); the only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber. In fact, the cucumber and the aardvark have a symbiotic relationship as they eat the subterranean fruit, then defecate the seeds near their burrows, which then grow rapidly due to the loose soil and fertile nature of the area. The time spent in the intestine of the aardvark helps the fertility of the seed, and the fruit provides needed moisture for the aardvark. They avoid eating the African driver ant and red ants. Due to their stringent diet requirements, they require a large range to survive. An aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range encompassing 10 to 30 kilometres (6.2 to 18.6 mi). While foraging for food, the aardvark will keep its nose to the ground and its ears pointed forward, which indicates that both smell and hearing are involved in the search for food. They zig-zag as they forage and will usually not repeat a route for 5–8 days as they appear to allow time for the termite nests to recover before feeding on it again.
During a foraging period, they will stop to dig a V-shaped trench with their forefeet and then sniff it profusely as a means to explore their location. When a concentration of ants or termites is detected, the aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs, keeping its long ears upright to listen for predators, and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long, sticky tongue—as many as 50,000 in one night have been recorded. Its claws enable it to dig through the extremely hard crust of a termite or ant mound quickly. It avoids inhaling the dust by sealing the nostrils. When successful, the aardvark's long (up to 30 centimetres (12 in)) tongue licks up the insects; the termites' biting, or the ants' stinging attacks are rendered futile by the tough skin. After an aardvark visit at a termite mound, other animals will visit to pick up all the leftovers. Termite mounds alone do not provide enough food for the aardvark, so they look for termites that are on the move. When these insects move, they can form columns 10–40 metres (33–131 ft) long and these tend to provide easy pickings with little effort exerted by the aardvark. These columns are more common in areas of livestock or other hoofed animals. The trampled grass and dung attract termites from the Odontotermes, Microtermes, and Pseudacanthotermes genera.
On a nightly basis they tend to be more active during the first portion of night (roughly the four hours between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.); however, they do not seem to prefer bright or dark nights over the other. During adverse weather or if disturbed they will retreat to their burrow systems. They cover between 2 and 5 kilometres (1.2 and 3.1 mi) per night; however, some studies have shown that they may traverse as far as 30 kilometres (19 mi) in a night.
Aardvarks shift their circadian rhythms to more diurnal activity patterns in response to a reduced food supply. This survival tactic may signify an increased risk of imminent mortality.
Vocalisation
The aardvark is a rather quiet animal. However, it does make soft grunting sounds as it forages and loud grunts as it makes for its tunnel entrance. It makes a bleating sound if frightened. When it is threatened it will make for one of its burrows. If one is not close it will dig a new one rapidly. This new one will be short and require the aardvark to back out when the coast is clear.
Movement
The aardvark is known to be a good swimmer and has been witnessed successfully swimming in strong currents. It can dig a yard of tunnel in about five minutes, but otherwise moves fairly slowly.
When leaving the burrow at night, they pause at the entrance for about ten minutes, sniffing and listening. After this period of watchfulness, it will bound out and within seconds it will be 10 metres (33 ft) away. It will then pause, prick its ears, twisting its head to listen, then jump and move off to start foraging.
Aside from digging out ants and termites, the aardvark also excavates burrows in which to live, which generally fall into one of three categories: burrows made while foraging, refuge and resting location, and permanent homes. Temporary sites are scattered around the home range and are used as refuges, while the main burrow is also used for breeding. Main burrows can be deep and extensive, have several entrances and can be as long as 13 metres (43 ft). These burrows can be large enough for a person to enter. The aardvark changes the layout of its home burrow regularly, and periodically moves on and makes a new one. The old burrows are an important part of the African wildlife scene. As they are vacated, then they are inhabited by smaller animals like the African wild dog, ant-eating chat, Nycteris thebaica and warthogs. Other animals that use them are hares, mongooses, hyenas, owls, pythons, and lizards. Without these refuges many animals would die during wildfire season. Only mothers and young share burrows; however, the aardvark is known to live in small family groups or as a solitary creature. If attacked in the tunnel, it will escape by digging out of the tunnel thereby placing the fresh fill between it and its predator, or if it decides to fight it will roll onto its back, and attack with its claws. The aardvark has been known to sleep in a recently excavated ant nest, which also serves as protection from its predators.
Reproduction
Aardvarks pair only during the breeding season; after a gestation period of seven months, one cub weighing around 1.7–1.9 kilograms (3.7–4.2 lb) is born during May–July. When born, the young has flaccid ears and many wrinkles. When nursing, it will nurse off each teat in succession. After two weeks, the folds of skin disappear and after three, the ears can be held upright. After 5–6 weeks, body hair starts growing. It is able to leave the burrow to accompany its mother after only two weeks and eats termites at 9 weeks, and is weaned between three months and 16 weeks. At six months of age, it is able to dig its own burrows, but it will often remain with the mother until the next mating season, and is sexually mature from approximately two years of age.
Conservation
Aardvarks were thought to have declining numbers, however, this is possibly because they are not readily seen. There are no definitive counts because of their nocturnal and secretive habits; however, their numbers seem to be stable overall. They are not considered common anywhere in Africa, but due to their large range, they maintain sufficient numbers. There may be a slight decrease in numbers in eastern, northern, and western Africa. Southern African numbers are not decreasing. It has received an official designation from the IUCN as least concern. However, they are a species in a precarious situation, as they are so dependent on such specific food; therefore if a problem arises with the abundance of termites, the species as a whole would be affected drastically.
Recent research suggests that aardvarks may be particularly vulnerable to alterations in temperature caused by climate change. Droughts negatively impact the availability of termites and ants, which comprise the bulk of an aardvark's diet. Nocturnal species faced with resource scarcity may increase their diurnal activity to spare the energy costs of staying warm at night, but this comes at the cost of withstanding high temperatures during the day. A study on aardvarks in the Kalahari Desert saw that five out of six aardvarks being studied perished following a drought. Aardvarks that survive droughts can take long periods of time to regain health and optimal thermoregulatory physiology, reducing the reproductive potential of the species.
Aardvarks handle captivity well. The first zoo to have one was London Zoo in 1869, which had an animal from South Africa.
Mythology and popular culture
In African folklore, the aardvark is much admired because of its diligent quest for food and its fearless response to soldier ants. Hausa magicians make a charm from the heart, skin, forehead, and nails of the aardvark, which they then proceed to pound together with the root of a certain tree. Wrapped in a piece of skin and worn on the chest, the charm is said to give the owner the ability to pass through walls or roofs at night. The charm is said to be used by burglars and those seeking to visit young girls without their parents' permission. Also, some tribes, such as the Margbetu, Ayanda, and Logo, will use aardvark teeth to make bracelets, which are regarded as good luck charms. The meat, which has a resemblance to pork, is eaten in certain cultures. In the mythology of the Dagbon people of Ghana, the aardvark is believed to possess superpowers. The Dagombas believe this animal can transfigure into and interact with humans.
The ancient Egyptian god Set is usually depicted with the head of an unidentified animal, whose similarity to an aardvark has been noted in scholarship.
The titular character and his families from Arthur, an animated television series for children based on a book series and produced by WGBH, shown in more than 180 countries, is an aardvark. In the first book of the series, Arthur's Nose (1976), he has a long, aardvark-like nose, but in later books, his face becomes more rounded.
Otis the Aardvark was a puppet character used on Children's BBC programming.
An aardvark features as the antagonist in the cartoon The Ant and the Aardvark as well as in the Canadian animated series The Raccoons.
The supersonic fighter-bomber F-111/FB-111 was nicknamed the Aardvark because of its long nose resembling the animal. It also had similarities with its nocturnal missions flown at a very low level employing ordnance that could penetrate deep into the ground. In the US Navy, the squadron VF-114 was nicknamed the Aardvarks, flying F-4s and then F-14s. The squadron mascot was adapted from the animal in the comic strip B.C., which the F-4 was said to resemble.
Cerebus the Aardvark is a 300-issue comic book series by Dave Sim.
Footnotes
References
External links
IUCN/SSC Afrotheria Specialist Group
A YouTube video introducing the Bronx Zoo's aardvarks
"The Biology of the Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)" a diploma thesis (without images)
"The Biology of the Aardvark" (Orycteropus afer)" the thesis with images
Texts on Wikisource:
"Aard-vark" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (9th ed.). 1878. p. 3.
"The Aard-Vark or Earth-Hog" in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 14 (March 1879)
"Aardvark". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
"Aard-vark". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. |
Puppy_teething | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_teething | [
459
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_teething"
] | Puppies first start with sucking from the time of being a newborn up to the time they start teething. Puppies around the age of two weeks old start to experience teething. Teething is the process by which a puppy's deciduous teeth come in and then fall out to make way for their permanent teeth. By 5–6 weeks of life, all of the deciduous teeth have come in, puppies will grow in a set of 28 deciduous teeth or needle teeth. Permanent teeth will start coming in around 12–16 weeks, and puppies will eventually end up with 42 permanent teeth. The process of teething is painful to puppies much like babies. During this process puppies will experience increased salivation, loss of appetite, and extreme irritability when the teeth do erupt from the gums. The gums will swell and become tender to palpation just prior to the tooth coming in. Puppies may exhibit excessive chewing, nipping, and drooling. If there is an extreme change in behavior, it is recommended to visit the veterinarian as soon as possible for an exam. Owners that would like to do an oral exam on their own must be prepared for potential aggressive behavior.
Some ways that dog owners can help their puppies during this painful teething stage is to ensure that your puppy has something to chew on that is soothing for them. Large carrots are recommended for puppies to teethe on and also are nutritious. Often times pet owners will freeze teething toys to soothe their dogs irritated gums. Veterinarians do recommend chew toys help relieve teething pain. It is important that puppies get durable toys so that they can not accidentally swallow plastic or large pieces of fabric since puppy teeth are very sharp and durable. As your puppy's adult teeth start to grow in it is important to start maintaining the dog's dental health. It is recommended to brush your puppy's teeth every day and work with a veterinarian to schedule yearly dental exams and cleanings. If teething turns into aggressive biting, it is not advised to remove healthy canine teeth due to the fact that this does not address the actual problem at hand. Additionally, this could cause oral pathologic conditions that can be expensive to treat and require anesthesia.
See also
Tooth eruption
== References == |
Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand | [
460
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand"
] | The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was one of the key events that led to World War I. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range while being driven through Sarajevo, the provincial capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, formally annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908.
Princip was part of a group of six Bosnian assassins together with Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Vaso Čubrilović, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Cvjetko Popović and Trifko Grabež coordinated by Danilo Ilić; all but one were Bosnian Serbs and members of a student revolutionary group that later became known as Young Bosnia. The political objective of the assassination was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav ("Yugoslav") state. The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the start of World War I.
The assassination team was helped by the Black Hand, a Serbian secret nationalist group; support came from Dragutin Dimitrijević, chief of the military intelligence section of the Serbian general staff, as well as from Major Vojislav Tankosić and Rade Malobabić, a Serbian intelligence agent. Tankosić provided bombs and pistols to the assassins and trained them in their use. The assassins were given access to the same clandestine network of safe-houses and agents that Malobabić used for the infiltration of weapons and operatives into Austria-Hungary.
The assassins and key members of the clandestine network were tried in Sarajevo in October 1914. In total twenty-five people were indicted. All six assassins, except Mehmedbašić, were under twenty at the time of the assassination; while the group was dominated by Bosnian Serbs, four of the indictees were Bosnian Croats, and all of them were Austro-Hungarian citizens, none from Serbia. Princip was found guilty of murder and high treason; too young to be executed, he was sentenced to twenty years in jail, while the four other attackers also received jail terms. Five of the older prisoners were sentenced to be hanged.
Black Hand members were arrested and tried before a Serbian court in Salonika in 1917 on fabricated charges of high treason; the Black Hand was disbanded and three of its leaders were executed. Much of what is known about the assassinations comes from these two trials and related records. Princip's legacy was re-evaluated following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and public opinion of him in the successor states is largely divided along ethnic lines.
Background
Under the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Austria-Hungary received the mandate to occupy and administer the Ottoman Vilayet of Bosnia, while the Ottoman Empire retained official sovereignty. Under this same treaty, the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, the United Kingdom, France, the German Empire, Italy, and the Russian Empire) gave official recognition to the Principality of Serbia as a fully sovereign state, which four years later transformed into a kingdom under Prince Milan IV Obrenović who thus became King Milan I of Serbia. Serbia's monarchs, at the time from the royal House of Obrenović that maintained close relations with Austria-Hungary, were content to reign within the borders set by the treaty.
This changed in May 1903, when Royal Serbian Army officers led by Dragutin Dimitrijević stormed the Serbian Royal Palace. After a fierce battle in the dark, the attackers captured General Lazar Petrović, head of the Palace Guard, and forced him to reveal the hiding place of King Alexander I Obrenović and his wife Queen Draga. The King was subsequently shot thirty times and the Queen eighteen. MacKenzie writes that "the royal corpses were then stripped and brutally sabred." The attackers threw the corpses of King Alexander and Queen Draga out of a palace window, ending any threat that loyalists would mount a counterattack." General Petrović was then killed when Vojislav Tankosić organized the murders of Queen Draga's brothers. The conspirators installed Peter I of the House of Karađorđević as the new king.
The new dynasty was more nationalist, friendlier to Russia and less friendly to Austria-Hungary. Over the next decade, disputes between Serbia and its neighbors erupted, as Serbia moved to build its power and gradually reclaim its 14th-century empire. These conflicts included a customs dispute with Austria-Hungary beginning in 1906 (commonly referred to as the "Pig War"); the Bosnian crisis of 1908–1909, in which Serbia assumed an attitude of protest over Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ending in Serbian acquiescence without compensation in March 1909); and finally the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Serbia acquired Macedonia and Kosovo from the Ottoman Empire and drove out Bulgaria.
Serbia's military successes and Serbian outrage over the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina emboldened Serbian nationalists in Serbia and Serbs in Bosnia who chafed under Austro-Hungarian rule and whose nationalist sentiments were stirred by Serb cultural organizations. One notable example was a Serbian nationalist society Narodna Odbrana, which was formed in Belgrade on 8 October 1908 under the initiative of Milovan Milovanović. Under the guise of cultural activities, it operated to undermine the loyalty of Bosnian Serbs to the Habsburg regime. In the five years leading up to 1914, lone assassins – mostly Serb citizens of Austria-Hungary – made a series of unsuccessful assassination attempts in Croatia-Slavonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina against Austro-Hungarian officials. In Bosnia and Herzegovina existed an aggregation of local revolutionary groups that became known as Young Bosnia, their goal was the end of Austria-Hungarian colonial rule in Bosnia and the unification of all South Slavs.
On 3 June 1910, Bogdan Žerajić, a young revolutionary loosely connected to Young Bosnia, attempted to kill the Austrian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Marijan Varešanin. Žerajić was a 22-year-old Bosnian Serb from Nevesinje, Herzegovina, who was a student at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. (General Verešanin went on to crush the last Bosnian peasant uprising in the second half of 1910). The five bullets Žerajić fired at Varešanin and the fatal bullet he put in his own brain made Žerajić an inspiration to future assassins, including Princip and Princip's accomplice Čabrinović. Princip said that Žerajić "was my first model. When I was seventeen I passed whole nights at his grave, reflecting on our wretched condition and thinking of him. It is there that I made up my mind sooner or later to perpetrate an outrage."
In May 1911, the Black Hand, a secret society dedicated to creating a Greater Serbia through "terrorist action", was established by key members of the Narodna Odbrana including Dimitrijević and Tankosić. Within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the networks of both the Black Hand and Narodna Odbrana penetrated to some extent local revolutionary movements such as Young Bosnia. The fundamental difference between those movements was that the Young Bosnians regarded social revolution as a necessary corollary of national liberation, and that, even though its membership was predominantly Serb, Young Bosnia also attracted an important minority of Croats and some Muslims. In the Spring of 1912, in a plot involving Young Bosnians, Luka Jukić a Bosnian Croat student, tried to assassinate the Governor of Croatia Count Slavko Cuvaj.
In 1913, Emperor Franz Joseph commanded Archduke Franz Ferdinand to observe the military maneuvers in Bosnia scheduled for June 1914. Following the maneuvers, Ferdinand and his wife planned to visit Sarajevo to open the state museum in its new premises there. Duchess Sophie, according to their eldest son, Duke Maximilian, accompanied her husband out of fear for his safety.
As Sophie, although of high aristocratic birth, was not from a dynastic family, her union with the Habsburg heir presumptive could only be a morganatic marriage. Emperor Franz Joseph had only consented to their marriage on the condition that their descendants would never ascend the throne. The 14th anniversary of their marriage fell on 28 June. As historian A. J. P. Taylor observes:
[Sophie] could never share [Franz Ferdinand's] rank ... could never share his splendours, could never even sit by his side on any public occasion. There was one loophole ... his wife could enjoy the recognition of his rank when he was acting in a military capacity. Hence, he decided, in 1914, to inspect the army in Bosnia. There, at its capital Sarajevo, the Archduke and his wife could ride in an open carriage side by side ... Thus, for love, did the Archduke go to his death.
Franz Ferdinand was an advocate of increased federalism and widely believed to favor trialism, under which Austria-Hungary would be reorganized by combining the Slavic lands within the Austro-Hungarian empire into a third crown. A Slavic kingdom could have been a bulwark against Serb irredentism, and Franz Ferdinand was therefore perceived as a threat by those same irredentists. Princip later stated to the court that preventing Franz Ferdinand's planned reforms was one of his motivations.
The day of the assassination, 28 June (15 June in the Julian calendar), is the feast of St. Vitus. In Serbia, it is called Vidovdan and commemorates the 1389 Battle of Kosovo against the Ottomans, at which Sultan Murad I was assassinated in his tent by a Serb. Princip, Čabrinović and other members of the Young Bosnia were inspired by the heroism of Miloš Obilić, reenacting the Kosovo Myth. Čabrinović was deeply
immersed in the myth, personally identifying himself with the Kosovo heroes, while it is known that Princip knew the entire Petar II Petrović-Njegoš's The Mountain Wreath, one of the most celebrated works in the South Slavic literature that glorifies the heroic ideals and spirit of the Kosovo Myth.
Preliminaries
Previous conspiracy
Danilo Ilić was a Bosnian Serb. He had worked as a schoolteacher and as a bank worker but in 1913 and 1914 he lived with, and outwardly off, his mother, who operated a small boarding house in Sarajevo. Ilić was a member of a secret revolutionary society or Kružok organized on the model of the Black Hand. According to Serbian Colonel C. A. Popović, a captain at the time and a member of the Black Hand, in late 1913, Danilo Ilić came to the Serbian listening post at Užice to speak to him. Popović claimed that Ilić recommended an end to the period of revolutionary organization building and a move to direct action against Austria-Hungary. Popović alleged that he sent Danilo Ilić to Belgrade to discuss this matter with Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, known more commonly as Apis. By 1913, Apis and his fellow military conspirators (drawn heavily from the ranks of the May 1903 coup) had come to dominate what was left of the Black Hand.
There are no reports as to what took place between Ilić and Apis during the alleged meeting, but soon Apis's righthand man and fellow Black Hander, Serbian Major Vojislav Tankosić, who by this time was in charge of guerrilla training, called a Serbian irredentist planning meeting in Toulouse, France. Amongst those summoned to the Toulouse meeting was Muhamed Mehmedbašić, a Bosniak carpenter from Herzegovina. According to Luigi Albertini writing in 1942, Mehmedbašić was a member of the Black Hand, having been sworn into the organization by Black Hand Provincial Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina Vladimir Gacinović and Danilo Ilić. Mehmedbašić was (here quoting Albertini paraphrasing Mehmedbašić) "eager to carry out an act of terrorism to revive the revolutionary spirit of Bosnia." During this January 1914 meeting, various possible Austro-Hungarian targets for assassination were discussed, including Franz Ferdinand. However, the participants decided only to dispatch Mehmed Mehmedbašić to Sarajevo, to kill the Governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek.
According to Mehmedbašić while he was traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina from France, police searched his train for a thief. Thinking the police might be after him, he threw his weapons (a dagger and a bottle of poison) in the lavatory. Once he arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina he wrote to Gacinović and did nothing more until Ilić wrote to him to summon him to Mostar. On 26 March 1914, Ilić informed Mehmedbašić that Belgrade (meaning the Black Hand) thought that an attack of Franz Ferdinand instead of the Potiorek would be far more important and that they would support it. (Apis later boasted to the Serbian Court that he ordered the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in his position as head of the Intelligence Department, however Apis made the unproven claims in 1917 attempting to save his own life since he was about to be executed for high treason.)
The assassination team
Unknown to the Black Hand, a second plot against the archduke had arisen that spring of 1914 when student Gavrilo Princip was shown a newspaper cutting announcing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria's visit to Bosnia in June, by his friend and fellow Young Bosnia member Nedeljko Čabrinović. At the time the two young Bosnian Serbs were in Belgrade eager to return to Austrian-occupied Bosnia to commit an attack on an imperial official, what they saw as performing the ultimate act of heroism. Princip asked another friend Trifko Grabež to join the plot, and then wrote to Ilić, his former roommate and confidante, telling him about the plan and asking him to recruit people in Sarajevo.
For the assassination Ilić recruited seventeen-year-old Sarajevo high-school student Vaso Čubrilović, eighteen-year-old student Cvjetko Popović, as well as Mehmed Mehmedbašić, shortly after Orthodox Easter (as given by Dedijer: 19 April 1914), as testified by Ilić, Čubrilović, and Popović at the Sarajevo trial. Princip, Grabež, and Čabrinović testified at the Sarajevo trial that at about the same time (a little after Easter), they approached a fellow Bosnian Serb and former guerrilla fighter known to be well connected and with access to arms, Milan Ciganović, and through him Major Tankosić and reached an agreement to receive arms and get smuggled across the Serbian border back into Bosnia with the weapons.
A principal agreement was quickly reached, but the delivery of the weapons was delayed for more than a month. The assassins met with Ciganović and he put them off. At one point, Ciganović told Grabež: "Nothing doing, the old Emperor is ill and the Heir Apparent [sic] will not go to Bosnia." When Emperor Franz Joseph's health recovered, the operation was a "go" again. Tankosić gave the assassins one FN Model 1910 pistol. They practised shooting a few rounds of scarce and expensive .380 ACP pistol ammunition in a park near Belgrade.
The rest of the weapons were finally delivered on 26 May. The three assassins from Belgrade testified that Major Tankosić, directly and through Ciganović, not only provided six hand grenades and four new Browning FN Model 1910 automatic pistols with .380 ACP ammunition, but also money, suicide pills, training, a special map with the location of gendarmes marked, knowledge of contacts on a clandestine "tunnel" used to infiltrate agents and arms into Austria-Hungary, and a small card authorizing the use of that tunnel. Major Tankosić confirmed to the journalist and historian Luciano Magrini that he provided the bombs and pistols and was responsible for training Princip, Grabež, and Čabrinović and that he (Tankosić) initiated the idea of the suicide pills.
The secret route
Princip, Grabež, and Čabrinović left Belgrade by boat on 28 May and traveled along the Sava river to Šabac where they handed the small card to Captain Popović of the Serbian Border Guard. Popović, in turn, provided them with a letter to Serbian Captain Prvanović, and filled out a form with the names of three customs officials whose identities they could assume and thereby receive discounted train tickets for the ride to Loznica, a small border town.
When Princip, Grabež, and Čabrinović reached Loznica on 29 May, Captain Prvanović summoned three of his revenue sergeants to discuss the best way to cross the border undetected. While waiting for the sergeants to arrive, Princip and Grabež had a falling out with Čabrinović over Čabrinović's repeated violations of operational security. Čabrinović handed over the weapons he was carrying to Princip and Grabež. Princip told Čabrinović to go alone to Zvornik, make an official crossing there using Grabež's ID card and then go on to Tuzla and link back up.
On the morning of 30 May, Prvanović's revenue sergeants assembled and Sergeant Budivoj Grbić accepted the task and led Princip and Grabež by foot to Isaković's Island, a small island in the middle of the Drina river that separated Serbia from Bosnia. They and their weapons reached the island on 31 May. Grbić passed the terrorists and their weapons to the agents of the Serbian Narodna Odbrana for transport into Austro-Hungarian territory and from safe-house to safe-house. Princip and Grabež crossed into Austria-Hungary on the evening of 1 June. Princip and Grabež and the weapons were passed from agent to agent until on 3 June they arrived in Tuzla. They left the weapons in the hands of the Narodna Odbrana agent Miško Jovanović and rejoined Čabrinović.
The Narodna Odbrana agents reported their activities to the Narodna Odbrana President, Božidar Janković, who in turn reported to the then Serbian Caretaker Prime Minister Nikola Pašić. The report to Pašić added the name of a new military conspirator, Serbian Major Kosta Todorović, Boundary Commissioner and Director of Serbian Military Intelligence Services for the frontier line from Rada to Ljubovija. Pašić's handwritten notes from the briefing (estimated by Dedijer to have taken place on 5 June) included the nickname of one of the assassins ("Trifko" Grabež) and also the name of Major Tankosić. The Austrians later captured the report, Pašić's handwritten notes, and additional corroborating documents.
Čabrinović's father was a Sarajevo police official. In Tuzla, Čabrinović bumped into one of his father's friends, Sarajevo Police Detective Ivan Vila, and struck up a conversation. By coincidence, Princip, Grabež and Čabrinović boarded the same train for Sarajevo as Detective Vila. Čabrinović inquired of the detective the date of Franz Ferdinand's visit to Sarajevo. The next morning, Čabrinović passed on the news to his fellow assassins that the assassination would be on 28 June.
On arriving in Sarajevo on 4 June, Princip, Grabež, and Čabrinović went their separate ways. Princip checked in with Ilić, visited his family in Hadžici and returned to Sarajevo on 6 June taking up residence at Ilić's mother's house with Ilić. Grabež joined his family in Pale. Čabrinović moved back into his father's house in Sarajevo.
On 14 June, Ilić went to Tuzla to bring the weapons to Sarajevo. Miško Jovanović hid the weapons in a large box of sugar. On 15 June, the two went separately by train to Doboj where Jovanović handed off the box to Ilić. Later that day, Ilić returned to Sarajevo by train, being careful to transfer to a local train outside Sarajevo and then quickly transfer to a tram to avoid police detection. Once at his mother's house, Ilić hid the weapons in a suitcase under a sofa. Then, on approximately 17 June, Ilić traveled to Brod (Dedijer puts it on 16 June, but trial records put it on 18 June). Questioned at trial, Ilić gave a confusing explanation of the reason for his trip, first saying he had gone to Brod to prevent the assassination and then saying he had returned to Sarajevo from Brod to prevent the assassination. Dedijer puts forward the thesis (citing Bogijević) that Ilić went to Brod to meet an emissary of Apis, Djuro Ŝarac, who had instructions to cancel the assassination and then later Rade Malobabić was dispatched from Serbia to Sarajevo to reauthorize the assassination.
Eve of the attacks
Ilić began handing out the weapons on 27 June. Until that day, Ilić had kept the identities of the assassins from Belgrade secret from those he had recruited locally and vice versa. Then, that night, as Mehmedbašić told Albertini: "On the eve of the outrage Ilić introduced me to Princip in a Sarajevo café with the words 'Mehmedbašić who to-morrow is to be with us.'" The three sent a postcard to Black Hand Provincial Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina Vladimir Gaćinović in France.
Assassination
Motorcade
On the morning of Sunday 28 June 1914, Ilić positioned the six assassins along the motorcade route. Ilić walked the street, exhorting the assassins to bravery. Franz Ferdinand and his party proceeded by train from Ilidža Spa to Sarajevo. Governor Oskar Potiorek met the party at Sarajevo station. Six automobiles were waiting. By mistake, three local police officers got into the first car with the chief officer of special security; the special security officers who were supposed to accompany their chief got left behind. The second car carried the Mayor and the Chief of Police of Sarajevo. The third car in the motorcade was a Gräf & Stift 28/32 PS open sports car with its top folded down. Franz Ferdinand, Sophie, Governor Potiorek, and Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach rode in this third car. The motorcade's first stop on the preannounced program was for a brief inspection of a military barracks. According to the program, at 10:00 a.m., the motorcade was to leave the barracks for the town hall by way of the Appel Quay.
Security arrangements within Sarajevo were limited. The local military commander, General Michael von Appel, proposed that troops line the intended route but was told that this would offend the loyal citizenry. Protection for the visiting party was accordingly left to the Sarajevo police, of whom only about 60 were on duty on the Sunday of the visit.
Bombing
The motorcade passed the first assassin, Mehmedbašić. Danilo Ilić had placed him in front of the garden of the Mostar Café and armed him with a bomb. Mehmedbašić failed to act. Ilić had placed Vaso Čubrilović next to Mehmedbašić, arming him with a pistol and a bomb. He too failed to act. Further along the route, Ilić had placed Nedeljko Čabrinović on the opposite side of the street near the Miljacka river, arming him with a bomb.
At 10:10 am, Franz Ferdinand's car approached and Čabrinović threw his bomb. The bomb bounced off the folded back convertible cover into the street. The bomb's timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, putting that car out of action, leaving a 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m), 6.5-inch-deep (170 mm) crater, and wounding 16–20 people.
Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka river. Čabrinović's suicide attempt failed, as the old cyanide only induced vomiting, and the Miljacka was only 13 cm deep due to the hot, dry summer. Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody.
The procession sped away towards the Town Hall leaving the disabled car behind. Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, and Trifun Grabež failed to act as the motorcade passed them at high speed.
Town Hall reception
Arriving at the Town Hall for a scheduled reception, Franz Ferdinand showed signs of stress, interrupting a prepared speech of welcome by Mayor Fehim Čurčić to protest: "Mr. Mayor, I came here on a visit and I am greeted with bombs. It is outrageous." Duchess Sophie then whispered into Franz Ferdinand's ear, and after a pause, Franz Ferdinand said to the mayor: "Now you may speak." He then became calm and the mayor gave his speech. Franz Ferdinand had to wait as his own speech, still wet with blood from being in the damaged car, was brought to him. To the prepared text he added a few remarks about the day's events thanking the people of Sarajevo for their ovations "as I see in them an expression of their joy at the failure of the attempt at assassination."
Officials and members of the Archduke's party discussed what to do next. The archduke's chamberlain, Baron Rumerskirch, proposed that the couple remain at the Town Hall until troops could be brought into the city to line the streets. Governor-General Oskar Potiorek vetoed this suggestion on the grounds that soldiers coming straight from maneuvers would not have the dress uniforms appropriate for such duties. "Do you think that Sarajevo is full of assassins?" he concluded.
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie gave up their planned program in favor of visiting the wounded from the bombing, at the hospital. Count Harrach took up a position on the left-hand running board of Franz Ferdinand's car to protect the Archduke from any assault from the river side of the street. This is confirmed by photographs of the scene outside the Town Hall. At 10:45 a.m, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie got back into the motorcade, once again in the third car. In order to ensure the safety of the couple, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the imperial motorcade should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital so that they could avoid the crowded city center. However, Potiorek failed to communicate his decision to the drivers. As a result, the Archduke's driver, Leopold Lojka, took a right turn at the Latin Bridge just as the two drivers ahead of him had done. According to the historian Joachim Remak, the reason for this is that Potiorek's aide Erik von Merizzi was in the hospital, and was therefore unable to give Lojka the information about the change in plans and the driving route. The Sarajevo Chief of Police Edmund Gerde, who had earlier repeatedly warned Potiorek of insufficient security precautions for the imperial visit, was asked by one of the Archduke's aides to tell the drivers of the new route, but in the confusion and tensions of the moment, he neglected to do so.
Fatal shooting
After learning that the first assassination attempt had been unsuccessful, Princip thought about a position to assassinate the Archduke on his return journey, and decided to move to a position in front of a nearby food shop (Schiller's delicatessen), near the Latin Bridge. At this point, the first and second cars of the Archduke's motorcade suddenly turned right into a side street, leaving the Appel Quay. When the Archduke's driver followed their route, Governor Potiorek, who was sharing the third vehicle with the Imperial couple, called out to the driver to stop as he was going the wrong way. The driver applied the brakes, and when he attempted to put the car into reverse gear he accidentally stalled the engine close to where Princip was standing. The assassin stepped up to the footboard of the car, and shot Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range using a Belgian-made Fabrique Nationale model 1910 .380 caliber pistol. Pistol serial numbers 19074, 19075, 19120 and 19126 were supplied to the assassins; Princip used #19074. According to Albertini, "the first bullet wounded the Archduke in the jugular vein, the second inflicted an abdominal wound on the Duchess." Princip tried to shoot himself, but was immediately seized and arrested. At his sentencing, Princip stated that his intention had been to kill Governor Potiorek, rather than Sophie.
After being shot, Sophie immediately fell unconscious and collapsed onto Franz Ferdinand's legs. The Archduke, too, lost consciousness while being driven to the Governor's residence for medical treatment. As reported by Count Harrach, Franz Ferdinand's last words were "Sophie, Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!" followed by six or seven utterances of "It is nothing," in response to Harrach's inquiry as to Franz Ferdinand's injury. These utterances were followed by a violent choking sound caused by hemorrhage. The imperial couple were dead by 11:30 a.m on 28 June 1914; Sophie was dead on arrival at the Governor's residence, and Franz Ferdinand died 10 minutes later.
There is a myth which states that Princip had eaten a sandwich at Schiller's delicatessen just prior to the shooting, but there are no primary sources from the time which mention this. This myth likely originated from the 2001 novel Twelve Fingers, which presents a fictionalized version of the events of the assassination that includes the sandwich.
Funeral
The bodies were transported to Trieste by the battleship SMS Viribus Unitis and then to Vienna by special train. The funeral was arranged by the Obersthofmeister of the Royal Household Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, who was said to have been a lifelong enemy of Franz Ferdinand. With the Emperor's connivance, he decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub of the assassinated couple. Even though most foreign royalty had planned to attend, they were pointedly disinvited and the funeral was attended by just the immediate imperial family, with the dead couple's three children excluded from the few public ceremonies. The Archduke's friend Kaiser Wilhelm II was invited so that the Imperial Cabinet could consult him on foreign policy, but he declined to attend; although he publicly claimed it was due to a case of lumbago, Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg revealed that the real reason was security concerns. The officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train, and this led to a minor revolt led by Archduke Karl, the new heir presumptive. The public viewing of the coffins was curtailed severely and even more scandalously, Montenuovo tried unsuccessfully to make the couple's children foot the bill. Sophie's coffin was slanted down from her husband's to reassert her lower social status, gloves were placed on top of her casket as was traditional for a lady-in-waiting. The Archduke and his wife were interred at Artstetten Castle because the Duchess could not be buried in the Imperial Crypt.
Aftermath
All of the assassins were eventually caught. Those in Austro-Hungarian custody were tried together with members of the infiltration route who had helped deliver them and their weapons to Sarajevo. Mehmedbašić, the only Bosnian Muslim among the conspirators, was arrested in Montenegro by local authorities but managed to escape from the Nikšić prison before his extradition could take place (possibly with help from the gendarmes who were guarding him and were consequently put under arrest). He later resurfaced in Serbia where he joined Major Tankosić's Chetnik detachment during the war, in 1916 the Serbian government imprisoned him on fabricated charges of treason during the Salonika trial, he was released in 1919. (see criminal penalty section below).
Anti-Serb rioting broke out in Sarajevo and various other places within Austria-Hungary in the hours following the assassination until order was restored by the military. On the night of the assassination, country-wide anti-Serb pogroms and demonstrations were also organized in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly on the territory of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. They were organized and stimulated by Oskar Potiorek, the Austro-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first anti-Serb demonstrations, led by the followers of Josip Frank, were organized in the early evening of 28 June in Zagreb. The following day, anti-Serb demonstrations in Sarajevo became more violent and could be characterized as a pogrom. The police and local authorities in the city did nothing to prevent anti-Serb violence. Writer Ivo Andrić referred to the violence in Sarajevo as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate." Two Serbs were killed on the first day of pogrom in Sarajevo, many were attacked, while around 1,000 houses, shops, schools and institutions (such as banks, hotels, printing houses) owned by Serbs were razed or pillaged.
Following the assassination, Franz Joseph's daughter, Marie Valerie, noted that her father expressed his greater confidence in the new heir presumptive, his grandnephew Archduke Charles. The emperor admitted to his daughter, regarding the assassination: "For me, it is a relief from a great worry."
Trials and punishment
Sarajevo trial (October 1914)
Austro-Hungarian authorities arrested and prosecuted the Sarajevo assassins together with the agents and peasants who had assisted them on their way. The majority of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit high treason involving official circles in the Kingdom of Serbia. Conspiracy to commit high treason carried a maximum sentence of death which conspiracy to commit simple murder did not. The trial was held from 12 to 23 October with the verdict and sentences announced on 28 October 1914.
The adult defendants, facing the death penalty, portrayed themselves at trial as unwilling participants in the conspiracy. The examination of defendant Veljko Čubrilović (who helped coordinate the transport of the weapons and was a Narodna Odbrana agent) is illustrative of this effort. Čubrilović stated to the court: "Princip glared at me and very forcefully said 'If you want to know, it is for that reason and we are going to carry out an assassination of the Heir and if you know about it, you have to be quiet. If you betray it, you and your family will be destroyed.'" Under questioning by defense counsel Čubrilović described in more detail the basis of the fears that he said had compelled him to cooperate with Princip and Grabež." Čubrilović explained that he was afraid a revolutionary organization capable of committing great atrocities stood behind Princip and that he therefore feared his house would be destroyed and his family killed if he did not comply and explained that he knew such an organization existed in Serbia, at least at one time. When pressed for why he risked the punishment of the law, and did not take the protection of the law against these threats he responded: "I was more afraid of terror than the law." Another Narodna Odbrana agent, Miško Jovanović, also claimed to have been against the assassination.
The three members of the original assassination team acknowledged full responsibility for their acts, proclaiming their ideal of a liberated and united South Slav people, exonerating Serbia and the Narodna Odbrana whose responsibility the prosecution tried to prove; however the court did not believe the defendants' statements as they differed from their depositions made at the preliminary investigation.
Princip focused on taking full responsibility for the crime on himself, and stated: "Our enterprise was purely private and in no way official as the prosecution asserts. Serbia has no hand in it and cannot be held responsible for our deed." He then asked: "No one else knew of it beyond Ciganović and ourselves. How could Serbia be brought into the affair?" Princip deposed under cross-examination: "I am a Yugoslav nationalist and I believe in unification of all South Slavs in whatever form of state and that it be free of Austria." Princip was then asked how he intended to realize his goal and responded: "By means of terror." Cabrinović testified that he was motivated to kill Franz Ferdinand because he saw him as a danger to the Slavs and to Serbia, something he claimed to have heard in cafés from students and citizens. Grabež stated that he would never have taken part had he known that it would lead to a European war. In spite of the absence of proof, the Sarajevo Court deemed that Serbian military circles were also implicated and thus the verdict ran: "The court regards it as proved by the evidence that both Narodna Odbrana and military circles in the Kingdom of Serbia in charge of the espionage service, collaborated in the outrage."
Prison terms, death sentences and acquittals were as follows:
At trial, Čabrinović had expressed his regrets for the murders. Following sentencing, Čabrinović received a letter of complete forgiveness from the three young children the assassins had orphaned. Čabrinović and Princip died of tuberculosis in prison. Those under the age of 20 years at the time of the crime could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years under Austrian-Hungarian law. The court heard arguments regarding Princip's age, as there was some doubt as to his true date of birth but concluded that Princip was under 20 at the time of the assassination. Because Bosnia and Herzegovina had not been assigned to Austria or to Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Finance Minister administered Bosnia and Herzegovina and had responsibility for recommending clemency to the emperor.
Salonika trial (spring 1917)
From late 1916 into early 1917, secret peace talks took place between Austria-Hungary and France. There is evidence that parallel discussions were held between Austria-Hungary and Serbia with Prime Minister Pašić dispatching his righthand man Stojan Protić and Regent Alexander dispatching his confidant Colonel Petar Živković to Geneva on secret business. Charles I of Austria laid out Austria-Hungary's key demand for returning Serbia to the control of the Serbian Government in exile: that Serbia should provide guarantees that there be no further political agitation emanating from Serbia against Austria-Hungary.
For some time, Regent Alexander and officers loyal to him had planned to get rid of the military clique headed by Apis, as Apis represented a political threat to Alexander's power. The Austro-Hungarian peace demand gave added impetus to this plan. On 15 March 1917 Apis and the officers loyal to him were indicted, on various false charges unrelated to Sarajevo (the case was retried before the Supreme Court of Serbia in 1953 and all defendants were exonerated), by Serbian Court Martial on the French-controlled Salonica front.
On 23 May Apis and eight of his associates were sentenced to death; two others were sentenced to 15 years in prison. One defendant died during the trial and the charges against him were dropped. The Serbian High Court reduced the number of death sentences to seven. Regent Alexander commuted four of the remaining death sentences, leaving just three death sentences in place.
Amongst those tried, four of the defendants had confessed their roles in Sarajevo and their final sentences were as follows:
In justifying the executions, Prime Minister Pašić wrote to his envoy in London: "...Dimitrijević (Apis) besides everything else admitted he had ordered Franz Ferdinand to be killed. And now who could reprieve them?"
As the three condemned men were driven to their execution, Apis remarked to the driver: "Now it is clear to me and clear to you too, that I am to be killed today by Serbian rifles solely because I organized the Sarajevo outrage."
Vojislav Tankosić died in battle in late 1915 and so was not put on trial.
Controversy about responsibility
Serbia's "warning" to Austria-Hungary
Following the assassinations, Serbian Ambassador to France Milenko Vesnić and Serbian Ambassador to Russia Miroslav Spalajković put out statements claiming that Serbia had warned Austria-Hungary of the impending assassination. Serbia soon thereafter denied making warnings and denied knowledge of the plot. Prime Minister Pašić himself made these denials to Az Est on 7 July and to the Paris edition of the New York Herald on 20 July. Other voices eventually spoke out on the "warning". As Serbian Education Minister Ljubomir Jovanović wrote in Krv Sloventsva, in late May or early June, Prime Minister Pašić reviewed the plot of the impending assassination with members of his cabinet. On 18 June, a telegram, lacking in specifics, ordered Serbia's Ambassador to Vienna, Jovan Jovanović Pižon, to warn Austria-Hungary that Serbia had reason to believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia. On 21 June, Ambassador Jovanović met with Austro-Hungarian Finance Minister Leon Biliński. According to Serbian Military Attaché to Vienna, Colonel Lešjanin, Ambassador Jovanović, spoke to Biliński and "...stressed in general terms the risks the Archduke heir apparent [sic] might run from the inflamed public opinion in Bosnia and Serbia. Some serious personal misadventure might befall him. His journey might give rise to incidents and demonstrations that Serbia would deprecate but that would have fatal repercussions on Austro-Serbian relations." Jovanović came back from the meeting with Biliński and told Lešjanin that "...Biliński showed no sign of attaching great importance to the total message and dismissed it limiting himself to remarking when saying goodbye and thanking him: 'Let us hope nothing does happen.'" The Austro-Hungarian Finance Minister took no action based on Jovanović's remarks.
In 1924, J. Jovanović went public stating that his warning had been made on his own initiative, and what he said was that "Among the Serb youths (in the army) there may be one who will put a ball-cartridge in his rifle or revolver in place of a blank cartridge and he may fire it, the bullet might strike the man giving provocation (Franz Ferdinand)." J. Jovanović's account changed back and forth over the years and never adequately addressed Colonel Lešjanin's statement. Biliński did not speak openly on the subject, but his press department chief confirmed that a meeting had taken place including a vague warning, but there was no mention of an ethnic Serb Austro-Hungarian soldier shooting Franz Ferdinand.
In the days leading up to the assassination, Pašić was the caretaker prime minister because during this period the Serbian Government briefly fell to a political alliance led by the Serbian Military. The military favored promoting Jovan Jovanović to Foreign Minister, and Jovanović's loyalties one might expect to have been divided and his orders therefore carried out poorly. By choosing a military loyalist to convey the message, and by not including any of the specifics such as the conspirators' names and weapons, Pašić, a survivor, hedged his bets against the various possible outcomes and consequences of the impending assassination.
Rade Malobabić
In 1914, Rade Malobabić was Serbian Military Intelligence's chief undercover operative against Austria-Hungary. His name appeared in Serbian documents captured by Austria-Hungary during the war. These documents describe the running of arms, munitions, and agents from Serbia into Austria-Hungary under Malobabić's direction.
Owing to the suppression by Serbia of Apis's confession and of the Salonika trial transcripts historians did not initially link Malobabić closely to the Sarajevo attack. Apis's confession, however, states that "I engaged Malobabić to organize the assassination on the occasion of the announced arrival of Franz Ferdinand to Sarajevo." At the Salonika trial, Colonel Ljubomir Vulović (head of the Serbian Frontiers Service) testified: 'In 1914 on occasion of my official trip from Loznica to Belgrade, I received a letter at the General Staff [signed by Marshal Radomir Putnik, Serbia's top military officer] noting that agents of Malobabić would come and a teacher whose name I don't recall (Danilo Ilić was a teacher but it is unclear if the teacher in question was Ilić as Ilić can be placed in Brod but not Loznica) so I could sent [sic] them into Bosnia.' Because of that 'I went to Loznica and either that day or very soon afterwards sent Rade and that teacher into Bosnia.' Soon thereafter occurred the Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand." On the eve of his execution, Malobabić told a priest: "They ordered me to go to Sarajevo when that assassination was to take place, and when everything was over, they ordered me to come back and fulfill other missions, and then there was the outbreak of the war." Vladimir Dedijer in The Road to Sarajevo presented additional testimonial evidence that Malobabić arrived in Sarajevo on the eve of the Sarajevo attack and gave the final go-ahead for the operation to Danilo Ilić. This meshes with Dedijer's theory that Djuro Ŝarac had given instructions to Ilić on 16 June canceling the assassination. Soon after their confessions, Serbia executed Malobabić, Vulović, and Apis on false charges. Serbia published no clarifications of their confessions with regards to the Sarajevo attack.
"Black Hand" or Serbian military intelligence?
An alternative theory to the Sarajevo attack being a Serbian Military Intelligence Operation was that it was a "Black Hand" operation. The "Black Hand" was a Serbian military society formed on 9 May 1911 by officers in the Royal Serbian Army, originating in the conspiracy group that assassinated the Serbian royal couple in May 1903, led by captain Dragutin Dimitrijević (Commonly referred to as "Apis").
After Serbia's victory over Bulgaria in Macedonia in the Balkan Wars, the "Black Hand" became moribund because of the death of its president and the failure to replace him, an inactive secretary, casualties, broken links between its three-man cells, and a drying up of funding. By 1914 the "Black Hand" was no longer operating under its constitution but rather as a creature of the Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence, Apis, and its active ranks were composed mostly of Serbian officers loyal to Apis. Apis's confession to ordering the operation that begins with the phrase "As the Chief of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff", the fact that the military chain of command was invoked, the moribund nature of the "Black Hand" and the fact that under the "Black Hand" constitution Article 16, such an assassination could only be ordered by a vote of the Supreme Council Directorate, the President or the Secretary, and no such order was made, are factors in favor of assigning responsibility to Serbian Military Intelligence. The fact that Milan Ciganović was involved, that the key officers involved were "Black Hand" members, that "Black Hand" Provincial Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina Vladimir Gaćinović was consulted and that there was no official budget for the operation favors assigning responsibility to the "Black Hand".
The newspaper clipping
At trial, it was noted that the three assassins from Belgrade tried to take all blame on themselves. Čabrinović claimed the idea of killing Franz Ferdinand came from a newspaper clipping he received in the mail at the end of March announcing Franz Ferdinand's planned visit to Sarajevo. He then showed the newspaper clipping to Princip and the next day they agreed they would kill Franz Ferdinand. Princip explained to the court he had already read about Franz Ferdinand's upcoming visit in German papers. Princip went on to testify that, at about the time of Easter (19 April), he wrote an allegorical letter to Ilić informing him of the plan to kill Franz Ferdinand. Grabež testified that he and Princip, also at about the time of Easter, agreed between them to make an assassination of either Governor Potiorek or Franz Ferdinand and a little later settled on Franz Ferdinand. The defendants refused or were unable to provide details under examination.
On 26 March Ilić and Mehmedbašić had already agreed to kill Franz Ferdinand based on instructions from Belgrade predating the newspaper clipping and the discussions amongst the three assassins in Belgrade.
Narodna Odbrana
Serbian Military Intelligence – through remnants of the "Black Hand" – penetrated the Narodna Odbrana, using its clandestine tunnel to smuggle the assassins and their weapons from Belgrade to Sarajevo. In the 5 June 1914 report by the President of the Narodna Odbrana Boža Milanović to Prime Minister Pašić, one can sense the frustration of the President over the hijacking of his organization in the final sentence dealing with Sarajevo: "Boža has informed all the agents that they should not receive anyone unless he produces the password given by Boža."
Milan Ciganović
Prime Minister Pašić received early information of the assassination plan. The information was received by Pašić early enough, according to Education Minister Ljubomir Jovanović, for the government to order the border guards to prevent the assassins from crossing. This places the cabinet minister's discussions in late May and the information release to some time before that. Albertini concluded that the source of the information was most likely Milan Ciganović. Bogičević made a more forceful case.
The circumstantial evidence against Ciganović includes his sinecure government job, his protection by the Chief of Police and Serbia's failure to arrest him (Austria-Hungary demanded Serbia arrest Major Vojislav Tankosić and Ciganović, but Serbia arrested only Tankosić and lied saying that Ciganović could not be found), Serbia's protection of Ciganović during the war, and the government's provision for Ciganović after it. In 1917, all of the Sarajevo conspirators within Serbia's control were tried at Salonika on false charges, except Ciganović, who even gave evidence against his comrades at the trial.
Russian military attaché's office
Apis's confession to ordering the assassination of Franz Ferdinand states that Russian Military Attaché Viktor Artamonov promised Russia's protection from Austria-Hungary if Serbia would ever come under attack. While admitting funding of the intelligence network in Austro-Hungary, Artamonov denied the involvement of his office in the assassination in an interview with Albertini. Artamonov stated that he went on vacation to Italy leaving Assistant Military Attaché Alexander Werchovsky in charge and though he was in daily contact with Apis he did not learn of Apis's role until after the war had ended. Albertini writes that he "remained unconvinced by the behavior of this officer." Werchovsky admitted the involvement of his office and then fell silent on the subject.
There is evidence that Russia was at least aware of the plot before 14 June. De Schelking writes:
On 1 June 1914 (14 June new calendar), Emperor Nicholas had an interview with King Charles I of Roumania, at Constanza. I was there at the time ... yet as far as I could judge from my conversation with members of his (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov's) entourage, he (Sazonov) was convinced that if the Archduke (Franz Ferdinand) were out of the way, the peace of Europe would not be endangered.
Consequences
In August 1914, The Independent described the assassination as a "deplorable but relatively insignificant" reason for which
the financial system of the world is in chaos, that international commerce is suspended, that industries are everywhere demoralized and families ruined, and that millions of men in Europe have taken up arms with the intent to slaughter each other.
"It may be doubted whether the Archduke [is] worth all this carnage", the magazine wrote. The murder produced widespread shock across European royal houses, and there was initially much sympathy for the Austrian position. Ordinary people did not really care about what happened, and on the evening of the assassination the crowds in Vienna listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened.
Within two days of the assassination, Austria-Hungary and Germany advised Serbia that it should open an investigation, but Secretary-General to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Slavko Grujić, replied: "Nothing had been done so far and the matter did not concern the Serbian Government." An angry exchange followed between the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires at Belgrade and Grujić. After conducting a criminal investigation, verifying that Germany would honor its military alliance, and persuading the sceptical Hungarian prime minister Count István Tisza, Austria-Hungary issued a formal letter to the government of Serbia on 23 July 1914. The letter reminded Serbia of its commitment to respect the Great Powers' decision regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to maintain good neighborly relations with Austria-Hungary. The letter contained specific demands that Serbia should accept, including the suppression of the publication of propaganda advocating the violent destruction of Austria-Hungary, the removal of the people behind this propaganda from the Serbian Military, the dissolution of the Serbian nationalist organization Narodna Odbrana, the arrest of the people on Serbian soil who were involved in the assassination plot and the prevention of the clandestine shipment of arms and explosives from Serbia to Austria-Hungary. It also demanded that Austro-Hungarian officials should take part in the Serbian inquiry into the assassination plot.
This letter became known as the July Ultimatum, and Austria-Hungary stated that if Serbia did not accept all of the demands in total within 48 hours, it would recall its ambassador from Serbia. After receiving a telegram of support from Russia, Serbia mobilized its army and responded to the letter by completely accepting point #8 demanding an end to the smuggling of weapons and punishment of the frontier officers who had assisted the assassins and completely accepting point #10 which demanded Serbia report the execution of the required measures as they were completed. Serbia partially accepted, finessed, disingenuously answered or politely rejected elements of the preamble and enumerated demands #1–7 and #9. The shortcomings of Serbia's response were published by Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary responded by breaking diplomatic relations. According to a 2021 study, Franz Ferdinand's absence was key to the breakdown of diplomacy and escalation into war, as Ferdinand had been the most powerful and effective proponent for peace in Vienna.
The next day, Serbian reservists being transported on tramp steamers on the Danube crossed onto the Austro-Hungarian side of the river at Temes-Kubin and Austro-Hungarian soldiers fired into the air to warn them off. The report of this incident was initially sketchy and reported to Emperor Franz-Joseph erroneously as "a considerable skirmish". Austria-Hungary then declared war and mobilized the portion of its army that would face the (already mobilized) Serbian Army on 28 July 1914. Under the Secret Treaty of 1892 Russia and France were obliged to mobilize their armies if any of the Triple Alliance mobilized. Russia partially mobilized along its Austrian border on 29 July, and on 30 July Russia ordered general mobilization. Russia's general mobilization set off full Austro-Hungarian and German mobilizations. Soon all the Great Powers except Italy had chosen sides and gone to war.
Today
The consequences of his action were very bad for Bosnia. Bosnia ceased to exist in Yugoslavia, and Bosnian Muslims were not recognised until 1968. They [Austria-Hungary] were still much better rulers than the Kingdom of Yugoslavia or communist Yugoslavia. You can look at the historical records and see how Austria-Hungary cared about issues like the rule of law. We lost so much in 1918.
The shots fired 100 years ago by Gavrilo Princip were not fired at Europe, they were shots for freedom, marking the start of the Serbs' fight for liberation from foreign occupiers.
Later, referring to Franz Ferdinand's assassination, Vaso Čubrilović said: "We destroyed a beautiful world that was lost forever due to the war that followed."
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Princip's legacy came under reevaluation in the various successor states. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks and Croats largely view Gavrilo Princip as a terrorist and an ethnic Serb nationalist. Many Serbs consider Princip a national hero. The 100th anniversary of the assassination was commemorated with a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic in the Sarajevo City Hall, in an event that was organized by the European Union. Austrian president Heinz Fischer was the guest of honour.
The World War I commemorations were boycotted by Serb nationalists and dignitaries, who, along with Bosnian Serbs, view "Princip as a hero." On the 100th anniversary of the assassination, a statue of Gavrilo Princip was erected in East Sarajevo. This was followed by another statue in Belgrade, which was erected in June 2015. Serbian history textbooks deny that Serbia or Princip were responsible for starting World War I, laying blame on the Central Powers instead. Milorad Dodik acknowledged that Bosnia is "still divided", but maintained that Princip was a "freedom fighter" and that Austria-Hungary had been an "occupier".
Princip's weapon, along with the car in which the Archduke was riding, his bloodstained uniform and the chaise longue on which he died, are on permanent display in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna, Austria. The bullet fired by Gavrilo Princip, sometimes referred to as "the bullet that started World War I", is a museum exhibit in the Konopiště Castle near the town of Benešov in the Czech Republic. The bronze medallion of Ferdinand and Sophie, which was part of a monument that was erected on the site of the assassination and demolished in 1918 during Yugoslav rule, is currently preserved in the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. A marble plaque commemorating Princip and the assassination was erected in 1930 but, following the 1941 German invasion of Yugoslavia, it was removed by German troops and Volksdeutsche and was subsequently given to Adolf Hitler as a 52nd birthday present. Hitler sent it to the Berlin Zeughaus where it was put on display in the military museum until 1945 when it disappeared.
In art and culture
Literature
The Bridge on the Drina (1945) by Ivo Andrić (Nobel Prize laureate)
The Guns of August (1963) by Barbara W. Tuchman (Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction)
June 28, 1914 (2019) by Zlatko Topčić
Theater
This Grave Is Too Small for Me (2013) written by Biljana Srbljanović
Film
1914 (1931) directed by Richard Oswald
Sarajevo (1940) directed by Max Ophüls
Sarajevo (1940) directed by Ákos Ráthonyi
Sarajevo (1955) directed by Fritz Kortner
The Day That Shook the World (1975) directed by Veljko Bulajić
St. George Shoots the Dragon (2009) directed by Srđan Dragojević
Sarajevo (2014) directed by Andreas Prochaska
The Man Who Defended Gavrilo Princip (2014) directed by Srđan Koljević
The King's Man directed by Matthew Vaughn
TV series
The Great War (1964) written by John Terraine and Correlli Barnett
Fall of Eagles (1974) created by John Elliot
37 Days (2014) directed by Justin Hardy
Citations
General and cited references
Further reading
Bataković, Dušan T. (1996). The Serbs of Bosnia & Herzegovina: History and Politics. Dialogue Association. ISBN 978-2911527104.
Fay, Sidney Bradshaw: Origins of the Great War. New York, 1928
Fomenko, A. "There Was an Alternative! The Legacy of Franz Ferdinand" International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy & International Relations (2009) 55#3 pp. 177–184.
Ponting, Clive. Thirteen Days, Chatto & Windus, London, 2002.
Stoessinger, John. Why Nations Go to War, Wadsworth Publishing, 2007.
Strachan, Hugh (2001). The First World War, Volume I: To Arms. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199261918.
Treusch, Wolf Sören. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und seine Gemahlin werden in Sarajevo ermordet, DLF, Berlin, 2004
External links
Map of Europe at the time of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand at omniatlas.com
Newsreels about Franz Ferdinand's assassination at www.europeanfilmgateway.eu
Prison Interview with Gavrilo Princip after the Assassination |
Franz_Ferdinand_(band) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band) | [
460
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band)"
] | Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 2002. Their original line-up was composed of Alex Kapranos (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals), Bob Hardy (bass guitar, percussion) and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Julian Corrie (keyboards, lead guitar, backing vocals) and Dino Bardot (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) joined the band in 2017 after McCarthy left during the previous year, and Audrey Tait (drums, percussion) joined the band after Thomson left in 2021. The band are one of the more popular post-punk revival bands, garnering multiple UK top 20 hits. They have been nominated for several Grammy Awards and have received two Brit Awards—winning one for Best British Group—as well as one NME Award.
The band's first single, "Darts of Pleasure", just missed out on the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 44. Their second single, "Take Me Out", proved their big commercial breakthrough, peaking at number three. "Take Me Out" charted in several other countries and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal; it became the band's signature song. Their self-titled debut studio album won the 2004 Mercury Prize and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album.
In 2005, the band released their second studio album, You Could Have It So Much Better, produced by Rich Costey. It peaked within the top-ten in multiple countries and earned Grammy-nominations for Best Alternative Album and for one of the singles, "Do You Want To". The band's third studio album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, was released in January 2009; by then the band had shifted from a post-punk-focused sound to a more dance-oriented sound. A remix album of Tonight, titled Blood, was released in July 2009.
Four years after the release of Tonight, the band released their fourth studio album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, in August 2013. In 2015, Franz Ferdinand and American rock band Sparks formed the supergroup FFS and released a one-off self-titled album in June 2015. The band underwent multiple lineup changes following FFS, beginning with McCarthy's departure in 2016. After acquiring Corrie and Bardot, the band released their fifth studio album Always Ascending in February 2018. Thomson departed in 2021 and was replaced by Tait. The band's sixth studio album, The Human Fear, is scheduled for release in 2025.
History
Formation (2001–2003)
The band's members played in various bands during the 1990s, including The Karelia, Yummy Fur, 10p Invaders, and Embryo. Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson met at a party and began a close friendship and played together in Yummy Fur, and subsequently teamed up to write songs. Around the same time, Kapranos taught his friend Bob Hardy how to play bass after being given a bass guitar by Mick Cooke of Belle & Sebastian. Kapranos met rhythm guitarist Nick McCarthy, who had returned to Scotland after studying jazz bass in Germany, in 2001.
Once the members came together, they settled on the name Franz Ferdinand for their band. The name was originally inspired by a racehorse called Archduke Ferdinand. After seeing the horse win the Northumberland Plate in 2001, the band began to discuss Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thought it would be a good band name because of the alliteration of the name and the implications of the Archduke's death: his assassination was a significant factor in the lead-up to World War I. In an interview, Hardy recollected that "mainly we just liked the way it sounded. We liked the alliteration." Kapranos continued, saying "he was an incredible figure as well. His life, or at least the ending of it, was the catalyst for the complete transformation of the world and that is what we want our music to be. But I don't want to over-intellectualise the name thing. Basically a name should just sound good ... like music." Thomson concluded, saying "I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure."
Franz Ferdinand and international breakthrough (2003–2005)
In May 2003 the band signed to Laurence Bell's independent record label, Domino Recording Company. The band moved to Gula Studios in Malmö, Sweden, with Cardigans producer Tore Johansson to record their debut album. In the latter part of 2003, the band released their debut single, "Darts of Pleasure". In January 2004, the single "Take Me Out" reached No. 3 in the UK charts. The album, Franz Ferdinand, was released in early 2004, debuting at No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart in February 2004, and at No. 12 in the Australian album charts in April 2004. The album only reached the lowest levels of the Billboard 200 album charts in the US as of early 2004, but reached the top 5 of the indie rock chart and the Heatseeker chart for debut artists. After a couple of North American tours and heavy rotation of the "Take Me Out" video on MTV, the album eventually reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200 later in 2004, and sold over a million copies in the United States. Franz Ferdinand received a generally strong positive response from critics. NME rated it 9 out of 10, and said that the band was the latest in the line of art school rock bands featuring the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Wire, Travis and Blur.
On 7 September 2004, the album was awarded the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. "Take Me Out" gained first place in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004, winning more than twice the votes of the second-place entry, with This Fire and The Dark of the Matinee entering at No. 24 and No. 50 respectively. Franz Ferdinand won an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 and two Brit Awards in 2005. The avant-garde music video for "Take Me Out" earned them a Breakthrough Video MTV Award. NME named Franz Ferdinand the best album of 2004, and placed it 38th on their 100 Best Albums of All Time list. The band performed "Take Me Out" as a live medley with Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5, The Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2005, in which "Take Me Out" was nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Franz Ferdinand was nominated for Best Alternative Album. "Take Me Out" was featured on the video games NHL 2005, Madden NFL 2005 and the breakthrough game Guitar Hero. The album has sold around 3.6 million copies worldwide.
You Could Have It So Much Better (2005–2007)
The band spent much of 2005 in the studio in Glasgow working on their follow-up album, You Could Have It So Much Better, which was released on 3 October 2005. The band initially intended to leave the album self-titled like their debut, but they changed it to You Could Have It So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand before settling on the final title. The album's cover design was modelled on Alexander Rodchenko's 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik. The band attempted to broaden its musical range on the album; Hardy said, "There's more to life than disco-beat guitar music". It was generally well received in the press and seen as an album equal to, or better than, their first by most critics. It entered the UK Album Charts at Number 1 and the US charts at Number 8. The album eventually sold 2 million copies worldwide.
To support the album, four singles were released. Included in that set is a double A-side single that contained a video-clip-only single as well (both the AA-side "L. Wells" and the video-clip "Jeremy Fraser" are not featured on the album, recorded in early 2006 during the band's tour of Australia in support of the album). Also included is another video-clip-only single called "Wine, In the Afternoon" which is the B-side to "Eleanor Put Your Boots On", and was also not featured on the album, but recorded on tour in Michigan. "Do You Want To" made it to number 4 and was declared by Q to be the greatest single of 2005, while "Walk Away" and "The Fallen" entered the top 15 of the UK Singles Chart. The fourth and final single from the second album, "Eleanor Put Your Boots On", peaked at number 30. You Could Have It So Much Better went on to earn a nomination for Best Alternative Album at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006, as did "Do You Want To" for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (2007–2011)
On 26 January 2009, the band released their third studio album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, which they had been recording in Glasgow since mid-2007. The band recorded the album in a disused building in Glasgow that had been a town hall in the past. Alex Kapranos has stated that "The last record was...like a teenager having sex. This one's a bit more assured and a bit friendlier for the dance floor."
Tonight was mixed by Canadian Mix Engineer Mike Fraser. The song "Ulysses" was chosen to be the first single and was released on 19 January 2009. It was first played by Zane Lowe on 17 November 2008. Shortly afterwards it hit YouTube. It did not see that much success in the UK Top 40, reaching only No. 20, but it fared better in Spain and Japan where it reached No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. It also entered the Top 20 of the US Modern Rock Chart. The album, Tonight was released 26 January 2009 and debuted at No. 2 in the UK Album Chart and No. 9 in the US Billboard 200. The second single, "No You Girls" saw success both in the charts and on the radio prior to release, eventually reaching No. 7 on the US Modern Rock Chart and was performed by Franz Ferdinand on Comic Relief 2009 Top of The Pops special. "Can't Stop Feeling" was released on 6 July as the third single from the album and on 28 August, "What She Came For" was released as the 4th single in the form of a remix single. The band performed "What She Came For" on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on Wednesday, 26 August 2009.
The band appeared on Radio 1's live lounge performing their second single "No You Girls", and did a cover of Britney Spears' comeback single "Womanizer". In February 2009, Glastonbury Festival announced Franz Ferdinand as the first major band playing at that year's festival. The band also unveiled a 19-date tour of the US during the spring, in support of the new album. The tour included a set at the Coachella Festival. The band were also one of the main stage acts performing at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Swindon in May. On 6 May 2009, it was announced that Franz Ferdinand would be the third opening act for the Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown World Tour. They played 8–26 August 2009, and they followed Kaiser Chiefs and The Bravery.
On 1 June 2009, the band released Blood, a compilation album that includes dub music versions of songs from Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. The release was timed to coincide with Record Store Day. iTunes Festival: London 2009, iTunes Store exclusive, was released in June as well.
Also made for the Record Store Day, on 16 April 2011 Domino released the compilation Covers E.P., which featured songs of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand played by Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, Stephin Merritt, ESG and Debbie Harry (who recorded in duet with the band). The first edition was only vinyl, and on 2 May 2011 it was released on CD.
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action and FFS with Sparks (2012–2015)
Writing for a fourth studio album began in 2010. Kapranos stated that the band promised themselves they would also focus on not over-publicising their progress as he felt that's something he regretted about their previous album. In May 2012, the band returned to touring, playing several festivals during the summer of 2012 including a headlining slot at Field Day festival in London's Victoria Park. Other appearances included Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival, Montreal's 2012 Osheaga Music Festival, Chicago's 2012 Lollapalooza Music Festival, Belgium's Dour Festival, Portugal's Marés Vivas Festival and San Francisco's 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival.
During their 2012 tour, the band gradually introduced new songs to their repertoire, along with a reworked version of Tonight cut "Can't Stop Feeling" combined with "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. In March 2013, Franz Ferdinand continued touring and premiering new songs. In early March they performed "Evil Eye" and "Love Illumination", while the end of the month saw the live premiere of "Goodbye Lovers & Friends". On 16 May 2013, Franz Ferdinand officially announced their fourth album, titled Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, along with cover art, track listing and a release date of 26 August 2013. The band launched the new album at a show at the Electric Brixton. FMV Magazine's Dan Jenko praised the gig, saying that "there's no reason why latest LP Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action can't be the belated soundtrack of the summer".
On 9 March 2015, it was announced that the band had formed a supergroup with Sparks under the name FFS, with plans to release a studio album and tour Europe during that summer. A teaser titled "The Domino Effect" was released on the group's YouTube channel that same day. The John Congleton-produced album, FFS, was officially announced on 1 April 2015. Three official singles were released from the album: "Johnny Delusional", which was released on 13 April, "Call Girl", which was released on 28 May, and "Police Encounters", which was released on 23 October.
Lineup change and Always Ascending (2016–2020)
In July 2016, the band announced that guitarist Nick McCarthy would not be involved in the recording and touring of their next album, in order to concentrate on his family and other musical interests. The band, however, have stressed that it is possible he may rejoin the band at a later date. On 14 October 2016, the band released "Demagogue", a song protesting and satirising the candidacy of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. It was released as part of the 30 Days, 50 Songs programme that featured 50 songs lyrically against Trump and his candidacy.
On 19 May 2017, two days prior to the start of their North American tour, Franz Ferdinand announced their new five-piece line-up, with former Yummy Fur and 1990s member Dino Bardot on guitar and Julian Corrie on keyboards, synth and guitar. On 25 October, the band released the title track from their fifth studio album, Always Ascending (2018), as its lead single. They revealed the album's release date, 9 February 2018, and announced dates for a world tour. Corrie joined the band for the recording sessions of the album, while Bardot joined after recording was completed.
Departure of Thomson, Hits to the Head and The Human Fear (2021–present)
On 21 October 2021, the band announced through social media that Paul Thomson had departed the band, with Glasgow-based drummer Audrey Tait joining as his replacement, as well as confirming that studio recordings had been undertaken with Tait. The announcement was accompanied by a statement from Thomson and a photograph of him passing his drumsticks to Tait. Tait's debut performance with the band had taken place several weeks before the announcement, at the Balmain fashion show in Paris on 29 September.
Franz Ferdinand released a new single, "Billy Goodbye", on 2 November 2021. The track is one of two new songs on the greatest hits compilation Hits to the Head, which was released on 11 March 2022.
Franz Ferdinand performed at Night for Ukraine, a fundraising benefit held at the Roundhouse in north London on the evening of March 9, 2022, with the funds raised being donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal, to provide aid to people fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion. The event was organised by Fabien Riggall in collaboration with the Ukrainian pop duo Bloom Twins.
On 11 September 2024, Franz Ferdinand announced their sixth studio album, The Human Fear, to be released on 10 January 2025. The lead single, "Audacious", was released following the announcement of the album. The album will be the first full-length album to feature Audrey Tait on drums following the departure of Paul Thomson. The band will tour the UK and Europe in the first half of 2025, beginning on 14 February in Lisbon and concluding in Glasgow on 7 March.
Collaborations and covers
Franz Ferdinand covered the LCD Soundsystem song "All My Friends" which appeared as a B-side on the single and LCD Soundsystem covered their song Live Alone in return, which appeared on a covers EP alongside Stephin Merritt, ESG and Debbie Harry who all covered songs from Tonight. They have also covered "Sexy Boy" by Air, "It Won't Be Long" by the Beatles, Pulp's "Mis-Shapes", Gwen Stefani's top 5 hit "What You Waiting For?", Blondie's "Call Me", Britney Spears' "Womanizer" and David Bowie's song "Sound and Vision", featuring Girls Aloud on backing vocals, for a compilation disc marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1, along with other leading artists. Additionally, Franz Ferdinand recorded a cover of the Fire Engines' song "Get Up and Use Me". In return, the Fire Engines recorded a cover of "Jacqueline". The band also took a similar approach with Dutch band De Kift, covering the song "Heisa-Ho" whilst De Kift recorded a cover of "Love and Destroy" with Dutch lyrics. The cover by De Kift is named "Liefde En Puin" which is the title "Love and Destroy" translated into Dutch. The band has had remixes by electronic artists Daft Punk, Hot Chip, Justice, The Avalanches, Microfilm and Erol Alkan.
The band also performed, played and recorded with Jane Birkin, covering the Serge Gainsbourg song "Sorry Angel" for the 2005 album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. In addition, Franz re-recorded the track "Brown Onions" for David Shrigley's compilation album Worried Noodles. The band kept instrumentation identical but used lyrics written by Shrigley which include the consistent repetition of the word "No" and occasionally "No brains, no teeth, no legs, no eyes...". Hot Chip, a band who are reported to be a favourite of Franz Ferdinand, also performed their own version of "No" on the same album.
The band partnered with Sony in Tokyo, filming commercials for the launch of the A Series Walkman music player on 8 September 2005. A limited edition Franz Ferdinand-themed Walkman A Series player was released by Sony Japan in January 2006, with only one hundred made.
The band 'met' Gorillaz in December 2005 and interviewed each other for a feature in Observer Music Monthly.
At the 2009 NME Awards ceremony, they performed a cover of Blondie's "Call Me" with Elly Jackson of La Roux on guest vocals.
When Franz appeared on Radio 1's Live Lounge on 6 April 2009, to promote "No You Girls", they covered "Womanizer" by Britney Spears.
They have also collaborated with Marion Cotillard for the 2010 Lady Dior campaign. The band wrote the lyrics and plays the music for the song "The Eyes of Mars", while the actress is on vocals. Kapranos noted that it was refreshing working with her as she had a lot of fun going and retrying the song time and time again.
In 2010, Franz Ferdinand contributed to the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack with their adaption of the song "The Lobster Quadrille". Later that year, Kapranos and McCarthy collaborated on the song "Do It Again" with Edwyn Collins on his album Losing Sleep.
In 2016, Alex Kapranos took part in a documentary about Glasgow music and Chemikal Underground Records called Lost in France. The film was directed by Niall McCann and brought Kapranos (along with members of The Delgados, Mogwai and others) to Mauron, Brittany, to recreate a gig they played when Kapranos was in his earlier band, The Karelia. The film features Kapranos playing live with Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai, and other musicians such as Emma Pollock and RM Hubbert, and Holy Mountain, as well as interviews with Kapranos and his old label-mates. Lost in France premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to wholly positive reviews and was called "funny, vital and sobering" by Scotland's arts bible The Skinny.
In 2022, Franz Ferdinand's single, "This Fire" served as the opening theme song for the Polish-Japanese animated series, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Style
Music and art
Stylistically, the band has been labelled as indie rock, garage rock revival, post-punk revival, dance-punk, dance-rock and art rock. The band is notable for its use of Russian avant-garde imagery in album and single covers designed by Matthew Cooper. Examples include: "You Could Have It So Much Better", which references a 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko; "Take Me Out", which references One-Sixth Part of the World, also by Alexander Rodchenko; "This Fire" which references Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by El Lissitzky; and "Michael", with single art based on A Proun by Lissitzky. The song "Love and Destroy" was inspired by the scene of disorder made by Margarita, a character of Michael Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita", in the apartment of the literature critic Latunzky.
Also, in "Outsiders", the lyrics "In seventeen years will you still be Camille, Lee Miller, Gala or whatever" are a reference to the lovers of the artists Auguste Rodin, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí.
The band have been credited with helping to increase the popularity of men's fringed hairstyles.
Music videos
Many of the videos to promote the band's singles take inspiration from Russian avant-garde much like their LP and CD sleeves.
The avant-garde music video for "Take Me Out", directed by Jonas Odell, was inspired by Dadaism (especially Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté), Busby Berkeley choreographies and Russian constructivist design. Alex Kapranos explained the many and varied influences behind the 1930s-style promo for second single "Take Me Out": "It's kind of two dimensional in a three dimensional style if that makes any sense. It's a montage of images; ourselves, pictures and things taken from other places and put together in a strange, abstract way. That's what gives the video that strange, jerky, style".
The lyrics of "Do You Want To" make reference to parties at the "trendy" Glasgow art gallery Transmission, and the video includes a variety of the work of contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft.
Members
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Franz Ferdinand (2004)
You Could Have It So Much Better (2005)
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (2009)
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action (2013)
Always Ascending (2018)
The Human Fear (2025)
Awards and honours
See also
List of bands from Glasgow
List of Scottish musicians
Notes
References
Hiatt, Brian (2005). "Hot Scots – Franz Ferdinand get rock fans dancing again" Rolling Stone (Retrieved 16 June 2006)
Franz Ferdinand book out later this month Rebecca Nicholson (2 Nov 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2008
Josh Lovseth (Feb 2007).. Retrieved 22 March 2008
Else, D. (2007). Great Britain. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-565-9.
External links
Official website |
Northumberland_Plate | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumberland_Plate | [
460
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumberland_Plate"
] | The Northumberland Plate is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Newcastle over a distance of 2 miles and 56 yards (3,270 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in late June or early July.
History
The event was established in 1833, and the inaugural running was won by Tomboy. It was initially held at Town Moor, and it was part of a meeting first staged at Killingworth in 1623. It was transferred to its present venue at Gosforth Park in 1882.
The Northumberland Plate originally took place on a Wednesday, and for many years the meeting was a holiday for local mine workers. The race became popularly known as the "Pitmen's Derby". The meeting ceased to be a holiday in 1949, and the race was switched to a Saturday in 1952.
The Northumberland Plate is now one of the richest two-mile handicaps in the world. It was sponsored by John Smith's from 2003 to 2016, by Stobart Rail Limited in 2017 and 2018 and by Betfair since 2019.
Since 2016, it has been run on an artificial all-weather surface, Tapeta, having previously been run on turf.
Records
Winners since 1985
Weights given in stones and pounds.
Earlier winners
* The 1946 running took place at Aintree.
See also
Horse racing in Great Britain
List of British flat horse races
References
Racing Post:
1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
galopp-sieger.de – Northumberland Plate.
pedigreequery.com – Northumberland Plate – Newcastle. |
American_Pie_(film_series) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie_(film_series) | [
461
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie_(film_series)"
] | American Pie is a film series consisting of four sex comedy films. American Pie, the first film in the series, was released by Universal Pictures in 1999. The film became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon and gained a cult following among young people. Following American Pie, the second and third films in the series, American Pie 2 (2001) and American Wedding (2003), were released; the fourth, American Reunion, was released in 2012. A spin-off film series entitled American Pie Presents consists of five direct-to-video films that were released from 2005 to 2020.
Throughout the first film in the original series, Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) tries to develop a relationship with his school classmate Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). Jim and three of his best friends, Kevin Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and Chris Ostreicher (Chris Klein), make a pact to lose their virginity before their high school graduation. Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), the obnoxious jock of the group, provides them with unorthodox advice while hosting wild parties in the meantime. In the second film, the five boys host a summer party and Jim becomes interested in his friend, Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan). In the third film, Jim and Michelle plan to marry, although the forced invitation of Stifler could ruin everything. In the fourth film, the group gets back together in anticipation of their 13th year since graduating high school. The spin-off series revolves around relatives of Stifler, including his brother Matt (Tad Hilgenbrink), his cousins Erik (John White), Dwight (Steve Talley), Scott (John Patrick Jordan), and Stephanie (Lizze Broadway), and their respective friends.
The original production produced on a total budget of US$145 million, has grossed nearly a billion worldwide. The spin-off films were released direct-to-video. The original series has received mixed reviews from critics, while the spin-off series has received negative reviews.
Cast
Principal cast
Additional crew
Production
Development
In the original American Pie (1999), Jim Levenstein and his friends Kevin Myers, Paul Finch, and Chris Ostreicher attempt to lose their virginity before their high school graduation. Jim pursues Czech exchange student Nadia, but his attempts fail after he ejaculates prematurely twice during foreplay, and instead pursues band geek Michelle, asking her to the prom. At Stifler's prom after-party, Jim has a one-night stand with Michelle, and the rest of the friends lose their virginity as well.
In American Pie 2 (2001), Jim and his friends organize a party at a summer beach house in Grand Harbor reuniting the high school gang. Nadia returns, and Jim asks Michelle to help him finally have sex with her. Jim ends up realizing he is in love with Michelle (whose feelings are mutual), and goes to a recital where she is performing to reveal this to her.
American Wedding (2003) begins with Jim proposing to Michelle. Finch, Kevin, and Stifler help the arranging of his marriage.
In the years that have passed since American Wedding, the most recent installment American Reunion (2012) shows Jim and Michelle married with a child, and Kevin has gotten married himself, whereas Oz and Heather grew apart, Finch still has not found love (not counting Stifler's mom), and Stifler has not come to terms with the fact that his teenage years are long gone. Now these lifelong friends have come home as adults for their thirteenth high school class reunion, to reminisce about – and get inspired by – the hormonal teens they once were.
The film series began with American Pie, released on July 9, 1999. This was followed by three sequels: American Pie 2, released on August 10, 2001, American Wedding, released on August 1, 2003, and American Reunion, released on April 6, 2012.
Future
A fifth theatrical film, under the working title American Pie 5, was in consideration in 2012, as the fourth film had done well internationally and Universal had secured a production deal with Hurwitz and Schlossberg. In August 2017, Seann William Scott said in an interview that the fourth film probably had not made enough at the domestic box office to warrant another film. In August 2018, Tara Reid said she met with the directors, with them saying that the fifth film will happen, and that filming could begin soon. In March 2021, Reid further elaborated that both the script is written, and that "it’s one of the best ones" in the series. A few months later, Jason Biggs denied the fact regarding script developments, but said that there were always ideas for a sequel, albeit having many obstacles.
On September 29th, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter informed, that another American Pie Presents movie is in the works at Universal 1440. The film is developed and written by Sujata Day.
Spin-off series
Additional crew
Production
Development
American Pie Presents: Band Camp (2005) follows Stifler's younger brother Matt Stifler (Tad Hilgenbrink), who is forced to attend band camp for the summer. While there, he realizes he must change his arrogant ways in order to win over Elyse.
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006) follows Erik Stifler (John White), the only Stifler to possibly graduate from high school a virgin. After a failed attempt at sex with his girlfriend Tracy (Jessy Schram), she gives Erik a free pass to go to the University of Michigan, where his cousin Dwight (Steve Talley) attends, to lose his virginity. In the process, Erik's loyalty is put to the test.
American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007) continues a year after The Naked Mile. Erik has now graduated from high school, has lost his girlfriend to her previous boyfriend, and is starting college. He must complete a series of tasks before he can join Dwight's fraternity and also begins a new relationship with Ashley Thomas (Meghan Heffern), a girl he met in the co-ed bathrooms in their dorm.
American Pie Presents: The Book of Love (2009) takes place ten years after American Pie. Set in East Great Falls, a fire in the school's library results in the destruction of the Book of Love (the "Bible" from the first film). With the help of the book's creator, Mr. Levenstein, the people who started the fire set out to restore the book and lose their virginity.
American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules (2020) follows a group of four teenage girls who make a pact to get what they want before their prom and end up falling in love with the same guy.
More than six years after the release of the original American Pie, the franchise continued with a direct-to-video spin-off Presents series; consisting of Band Camp, released on December 26, 2005, The Naked Mile, released on December 12, 2006, Beta House, released on December 26, 2007, The Book of Love, released on December 22, 2009, and Girls' Rules, released on October 6, 2020. All five spin-offs center around relatives of Steve Stifler, who include his brother Matt and his cousins Erik, Dwight, Scott and Stephanie Stifler.
Several films set in the American Pie continuity were released. The films featured mostly new characters. Aside from the raunchy humor, the common elements among the American Pie Presents films are the continued presence of Jim's Dad and members of the Stifler clan. Other than Jim's Dad, the only other returning characters are Matt Stifler, who takes center stage for the first spin-off, albeit played by a new actor, and Chuck Sherman, who is the guidance counselor for East Great Falls High School in the first spin-off.
Reception
Box office performance
Critical and public response
Home media
DVD release
Blu-ray
References
External links
Official website |
Eugene_Levy | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Levy | [
461
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Levy"
] | Eugene Levy (born December 17, 1946) is a Canadian actor and comedian. Known for portraying flustered and unconventional figures, Levy has won multiple accolades throughout his career including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011, and was made Companion of the Order of Canada in 2022.
Levy started his career writing and acting in the Canadian television sketch series SCTV (1976–1984), earning two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. He also appeared in the films National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Splash (1984), and Multiplicity (1996). He also became known for co-writing and appearances in a string of films with Christopher Guest, including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). He also appeared in the American Pie series of films.
From 2015 to 2020, he starred as Johnny Rose in the sitcom Schitt's Creek, a comedy series that he co-created with his son and co-star Dan Levy. In 2019 and 2020, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, which he won in 2020. He also received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. In 2023, he began hosting a travel documentary series The Reluctant Traveler.
Early life
Levy was born to a Jewish family in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. His mother, Rebecca (née Kudlatz), was a homemaker, and his father, Joseph, was a foreman at an automobile plant. He has a brother, Fred, and sister, Barbara. His mother was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Polish Jewish parents, later moving to Canada. His father was Sephardi Jewish, with ancestors from Spain and Bulgaria.
Levy attended Westdale Secondary School, where he was student council president. He subsequently attended McMaster University. He was vice-president of the McMaster Film Board, a student film group, where he met filmmaker Ivan Reitman.
Career
The 1972–1973 Toronto production of the hit musical Godspell opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and was intended to be a run of a few dozen performances for a subscription audience. The cast was drawn entirely from local performers, instead of a touring cast. The Toronto production launched the careers of many actors, including Levy, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, and Martin Short, as well as the show's musical director, Paul Shaffer. Howard Shore played saxophone for this production. After an enthusiastic response from the audience, the scheduled run at the Royal Alexandra ended and the show moved uptown to the Bayview Playhouse in Leaside. The Bayview Playhouse production ran until August 1973, with a then-record run of 488 performances.
An alumnus of both the Second City, Toronto and the sketch comedy series Second City Television, Levy often plays unusual supporting characters with nerdy streaks. Perhaps his best-known role on SCTV is the dimwitted Earl Camembert, a news anchor for the "SCTV News" and a parody of real-life Canadian newsman Earl Cameron. Celebrities impersonated by Levy on SCTV include Perry Como, Ricardo Montalbán, Alex Trebek, Gino Vannelli, Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, Henry Kissinger, Menachem Begin, Bud Abbott, Milton Berle, John Charles Daly, Gene Shalit, Judd Hirsch, Jack Carter, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Tony Dow, James Caan, Lorne Greene, Rex Reed, Ralph Young (of Sandler and Young), F. Lee Bailey, Ernest Borgnine, former Ontario chief coroner and talk show host Dr. Morton Shulman, Norman Mailer, Neil Sedaka and Howard McNear as Floyd the Barber.
Original Levy characterizations on SCTV are news reporter Earl Camembert, comic Bobby Bittman, scandal sheet entrepreneur Dr. Raoul Withers, "report on business" naïf Brian Johns, 3-D horror auteur Woody Tobias Jr., cheerful Leutonian accordionist Stan Schmenge, lecherous dream interpreter Raoul Wilson, hammer-voiced sports broadcaster Lou Jaffe, diminutive union patriarch Sid Dithers ("San Francisckie! Did you drove or did you flew?"), fey current-events commentator Joel Weiss, buttoned-down panel show moderator Dougal Currie, smarmy Just for Fun emcee Stan Kanter, energetic used car salesman Al Peck, guileless security guard Gus Gustofferson, Phil the Garment King (also of Phil's Nails), and the inept teen dance show host Rockin' Mel Slirrup.
Though he has been the "above the title" star in only two films, Armed and Dangerous (1986) and The Man (2005), he has featured prominently in many films. He is the co-writer and frequent cast member of Christopher Guest's mockumentary features, particularly A Mighty Wind (2003), where his sympathetic performance as emotionally unstable folksinger Mitch Cohen won kudos; his accolades included a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Musical or Comedy and the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other collaborations with Guest include Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), and For Your Consideration (2006).
From the 1980s through the 2010s, Levy appeared in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Splash (1984), Club Paradise (1986), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), Stay Tuned (1996), Multiplicity (1996), the American Pie film series (1999-2012), Serendipity (2001), Bringing Down the House (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), Madea's Witness Protection (2012), and other comedies. He also voiced characters in films such as Over the Hedge (2006), Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), and Finding Dory (2016). Levy was the creator of Maniac Mansion, a television sitcom based on the LucasArts video game of the same name. He was also seriously considered for the role of Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, a role that went to actor Richard Schiff.
Levy, along with his son Dan Levy, is co-creator of the CBC/Pop TV sitcom Schitt's Creek. He also stars in the show alongside his son as head of the Rose family, Johnny Rose. His daughter, Sarah Levy, portrays Twyla Sands, the waitress at the Schitt's Creek diner. Eugene Levy's brother Fred is also a producer on the show.
Levy hosted and executive produced an Apple Original eight-episode travel series titled The Reluctant Traveler (2023) on Apple TV+.
In 2024, Levy attended a ceremony honoring him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Personal life
Levy married Deborah Divine in 1977. Divine's career has been in TV production. The couple have two children whom they raised in Toronto: actors Dan and Sarah, both of whom starred alongside their father on Schitt's Creek.
Levy is an advocate for autism awareness and treatment. He was a close friend of actor and fellow SCTV cast member John Candy. Levy is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.
In 2021, he was named honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades.
Filmography
Film
Television
Other
Awards and nominations
Levy, along with Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, was awarded the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for the title song from A Mighty Wind. Levy received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in 2008.
In March 2006, it was announced that he would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2002, the entire cast of SCTV was given a group star, and although Levy is not mentioned on the actual star, he was still inducted as a part of the group. This makes him one of only four two-time honourees, alongside fellow SCTV alumni John Candy, Martin Short, and Catherine O'Hara. Levy is one of only a handful of people who have won at least five Canadian Comedy Awards, including two for Best Writing (Best in Show in 2001 and A Mighty Wind in 2004) and three for Best Male Performer (Best in Show, American Pie 2 in 2002, and A Mighty Wind).
In 2008, the Governor General of Canada presented Levy with the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA), a lifetime achievement award considered "for their outstanding body of work and enduring contribution to the performing arts in Canada.". In 2010, Levy was awarded the ACTRA Award by the union representing Canada's actors. In 2011, Levy was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for his contributions as a comic actor and writer, and for his dedication to charitable causes" and promoted to the rank of Companion in 2022.
On May 22, 2012, Levy delivered a commencement address at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was awarded the degree Doctor of Laws (honoris causa). On June 11, 2012, Levy was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
On March 13, 2016, Levy took home the award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role" at the 4th Annual Canadian Screen Awards, for his performance as Johnny Rose in the CBC/Pop TV sitcom Schitt's Creek.
References
External links
Eugene Levy at IMDb
Eugene Levy discography at Discogs
Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
Eugene Levy on Twitter |
David_Foster_Wallace | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace | [
462
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace"
] | David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended Amherst College. He taught English at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. After struggling with depression for many years, he died by suicide in 2008, at age 46.
Early life and education
David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, to Sally Jean Wallace (née Foster) and James Donald Wallace. The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where he was raised along with his younger sister, Amy Wallace-Havens. His father was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His mother was an English professor at Parkland College, a community college in Champaign, which recognized her work with a "Professor of the Year" award in 1996. From fourth grade, Wallace lived with his family in Urbana, where he attended Yankee Ridge Elementary School, Brookens Junior High School and Urbana High School.
As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He wrote about this period in the essay "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley", originally published in Harper's Magazine as "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes". Although his parents were atheists, Wallace twice attempted to join the Catholic Church, but "flunk[ed] the period of inquiry". He later attended a Mennonite church.
Wallace attended Amherst College, his father's alma mater, where he majored in English and philosophy and graduated summa cum laude in 1985. Among other extracurricular activities, he participated in glee club; his sister recalls that he "had a lovely singing voice". In studying philosophy, Wallace pursued modal logic and mathematics, and presented in 1985 a senior thesis in philosophy and modal logic that was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize and posthumously published as Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (2010).
Wallace adapted his honors thesis in English as the manuscript of his first novel, The Broom of the System (1987), and committed to being a writer. He told David Lipsky: "Writing The Broom of the System, I felt like I was using 97 percent of me, whereas philosophy was using 50 percent." Wallace completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona in 1987. He moved to Massachusetts to attend graduate school in philosophy at Harvard University, but soon left the program.
Later life
In 2002, Wallace met the painter Karen L. Green, whom he married on December 27, 2004.
Wallace struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicidal tendencies, and was repeatedly hospitalized for psychiatric care. In 1989, he spent four weeks at McLean Hospital—a psychiatric institute in Belmont, Massachusetts, affiliated with Harvard Medical School—where he completed a drug and alcohol detoxification program. He later said his time there changed his life.
Dogs were important to Wallace, and he spoke of opening a shelter for stray canines. According to his friend Jonathan Franzen, he "had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and [were] unlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them".
Abuse allegations
In the early 1990s, Wallace was in a relationship with writer Mary Karr. She later described Wallace as obsessive about her and said the relationship was volatile, with Wallace once throwing a coffee table at her as well as physically forcing her out of a car, leaving her to walk home. Years later, she claimed that Wallace's biographer D. T. Max underreported Wallace's abuse. Of Max's account of their relationship, she tweeted: "That's about 2% of what happened." She said that Wallace kicked her, climbed up the side of her house at night, and followed her five-year-old son home from school.
Work
Career
The Broom of the System (1987) garnered national attention and critical praise. In The New York Times, Caryn James called it a "manic, human, flawed extravaganza ... emerging straight from the excessive tradition of Stanley Elkin's The Franchiser, Thomas Pynchon's V., [and] John Irving's World According to Garp".
In 1991, Wallace began teaching literature as an adjunct professor at Emerson College in Boston. The next year, at the suggestion of colleague and supporter Steven Moore, Wallace obtained a position in the English department at Illinois State University. He had begun work on his second novel, Infinite Jest, in 1991, and submitted a draft to his editor in December 1993. After the publication of excerpts throughout 1995, the book was published in 1996.
In 1997, Wallace received a MacArthur Fellowship. He also received the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, awarded by editors of The Paris Review for one of the stories in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, which had been published in the magazine.
In 2002, Wallace moved to Claremont, California, to become the first Roy E. Disney endowed Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College. He taught one or two undergraduate courses per semester and focused on writing.
Wallace delivered the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. The speech was published as a book, This Is Water, in 2009. In May 2013, parts of the speech were used in a popular online video, also titled "This Is Water".
Bonnie Nadell was Wallace's literary agent during his entire career. Michael Pietsch was his editor on Infinite Jest.
Wallace died in 2008. In March 2009, Little, Brown and Company announced that it would publish the manuscript of an unfinished novel, The Pale King, that Wallace had been working on before his death. Pietsch pieced the novel together from pages and notes Wallace left behind. Several excerpts were published in The New Yorker and other magazines. The Pale King was published on April 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times wrote that The Pale King "showcases [Wallace's] embrace of discontinuity; his fascination with both the meta and the microscopic, postmodern pyrotechnics and old-fashioned storytelling; and his ongoing interest in contemporary America's obsession with self-gratification and entertainment." The book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Throughout his career, Wallace published short fiction in periodicals such as The New Yorker, GQ, Harper's Magazine, Playboy, The Paris Review, Mid-American Review, Conjunctions, Esquire, Open City, Puerto del Sol, and Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern.
Themes and styles
Wallace wanted to progress beyond the irony and metafiction associated with postmodernism and explore a post-postmodern or metamodern style. In the essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (written 1990, published 1993), he proposed that television has an ironic influence on fiction, and urged literary authors to eschew TV's shallow rebelliousness:
I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird, pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that, at the same time, they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that, for aspiring fictionists, they pose terrifically vexing problems.
Wallace used many forms of irony, but tended to focus on individual persons' continued longing for earnest, unself-conscious experience and communication in a media-saturated society.
Wallace's fiction combines narrative modes and authorial voices that incorporate jargon and invented vocabulary, such as self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long, multi-clause sentences, and an extensive use of explanatory endnotes and footnotes, as in Infinite Jest and the story "Octet" (collected in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men), and most of his non-fiction after 1996. In a 1997 interview on Charlie Rose, Wallace said that the notes were to disrupt the linear narrative, to reflect his perception of reality without jumbling the narrative structure, and that he could have jumbled the sentences "but then no one would read it".
D. T. Max has described Wallace's work as an "unusual mixture of the cerebral and the hot-blooded", often featuring multiple protagonists and spanning different locations in a single work. His writing comments on the fragmentation of thought, the relationship between happiness and boredom, and the psychological tension between the beauty and hideousness of the human body. According to Wallace, "fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being", and he said he wanted to write "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" that could help the reader "become less alone inside". In his Kenyon College commencement address, Wallace described the human condition as daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warned against succumbing to solipsism, invoking the existential values of compassion and mindfulness:
The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. ... The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. ... The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness.
Nonfiction
Wallace covered Senator John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and the September 11 attacks for Rolling Stone; cruise ships (in what became the title essay of his first nonfiction book), state fairs, and tornadoes for Harper's Magazine; the US Open tournament for Tennis magazine; Roger Federer for The New York Times; the director David Lynch and the pornography industry for Première magazine; the tennis player Michael Joyce for Esquire; the movie-special-effects industry for Waterstone's magazine; conservative talk radio host John Ziegler for The Atlantic; and a Maine lobster festival for Gourmet magazine. He also reviewed books in several genres for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, which commemorated the magazine's 150th anniversary, Wallace was among the authors, artists, politicians and others who wrote short pieces on "the future of the American idea".
These and other essays appear in three collections, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster and the posthumous Both Flesh and Not, the last of which contains some of Wallace's earliest work, including his first published essay, "Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young". Wallace's tennis writing was compiled into a volume titled String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis, published in 2016.
Some writers have found parts of Wallace's nonfiction implausible. Jonathan Franzen has said that he believes Wallace made up dialogue and incidents: "those things didn't actually happen". Of the essays "Shipping Out" and "Ticket to the Fair", John Cook has remarked that in Wallace's nonfiction: Wallace encounters pitch-perfect characters who speak comedically crystalline lines and place him in hilariously absurd situations...I used both stories [when teaching journalism] as examples of the inescapable temptation to shave, embellish, and invent narratives.
Death
Wallace's father said that David had suffered from major depressive disorder for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. Wallace suffered what was believed to be a severe interaction of the medication with the food he had eaten one day at a restaurant, and in June 2007, on his doctor's advice, he stopped taking phenelzine, his primary antidepressant drug. His depression recurred, and he tried other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. Eventually he went back on phenelzine but found it ineffective. On September 12, 2008, at age 46, Wallace wrote a private two-page suicide note to his wife, arranged part of the manuscript for The Pale King, and hanged himself on the back porch of his house in Claremont, California.
Memorial gatherings were held at Pomona College, Amherst College, the University of Arizona, Illinois State University, and on October 23, 2008, at New York University (NYU). The eulogists at NYU included his sister, Amy Wallace-Havens; his literary agent, Bonnie Nadell; Gerry Howard, editor of his first two books; Colin Harrison, an editor at Harper's Magazine; Michael Pietsch, editor of Infinite Jest and later works; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at The New Yorker magazine; and the writers Don DeLillo, Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Mark Costello, Donald Antrim, and Jonathan Franzen.
Legacy
In March 2010, it was announced that Wallace's personal papers and archives—drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, letters, and research, including the handwritten notes for Infinite Jest—had been purchased by the University of Texas at Austin. They are held at that university's Harry Ransom Center.
Since 2011, Loyola University New Orleans has offered English seminar courses on Wallace. Similar courses have also been taught at Harvard University. The first David Foster Wallace Conference was hosted by the Illinois State University Department of English in May 2014; the second was held in May 2015.
In January 2017, the International David Foster Wallace Society and the Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies were launched.
Among the writers who have cited Wallace as an influence are Dave Eggers, Jonathan Franzen, Rivka Galchen, Matthew Gallaway, David Gordon, John Green, Porochista Khakpour, George Saunders, Michael Schur, Zadie Smith, Darin Strauss, Deb Olin Unferth, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and Charles Yu.
Adaptations
Film and television
A feature-length film adaptation of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, directed by John Krasinski with an ensemble cast, was released in 2009 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
The 19th episode of the 23rd season of The Simpsons, "A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again" (2012), is loosely based on Wallace's essay "Shipping Out" from his 1997 collection, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. The Simpson family takes a cruise, and Wallace appears in the background of a scene, wearing a tuxedo T-shirt while eating in the ship's dining room.
The 2015 film The End of the Tour is based on conversations David Lipsky had with Wallace, transcribed in Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010). Jason Segel played Wallace, and Jesse Eisenberg Lipsky. The film won an Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Sarasota Film Festival, and Segel was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
"Partridge", a Season 5 episode of NBC's Parks and Recreation, repeatedly references Infinite Jest, of which the show's co-creator, Michael Schur, is a noted fan. Schur also directed the music video for The Decemberists' "Calamity Song", which depicts the Eschaton game from Infinite Jest.
Stage and music adaptations
Twelve of the interviews from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men were adapted as a stage play in 2000 by Dylan McCullough. This was the first theatrical adaptation of Wallace's work. The play, Hideous Men, was also directed by McCullough, and premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2000.
Brief Interviews was also adapted by director Marc Caellas as a play, Brief Interviews with Hideous Writers, which premiered at Fundación Tomás Eloy Martinez in Buenos Aires on November 4, 2011. In 2012 it was adapted as a play by artist Andy Holden for a two-night run at the ICA in London.
The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko", from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, was adapted by composer Eric Moe into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections. The piece was described as having "subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture".
Infinite Jest was performed once as a stage play by Germany's experimental theater Hebbel am Ufer. The play was staged in various locations throughout Berlin, and the action took place over a 24-hour period.
"Good Old Neon", from Oblivion: Stories, was adapted and performed by Ian Forester at the 2011 Hollywood Fringe Festival, produced by the Los Angeles independent theater company Needtheater.
The song "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies", from the album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships by The 1975, borrows its title from the opening line of Infinite Jest. Matty Healy, The 1975's lead singer, said in an interview with Pitchfork that he was inspired by the novel after reading it during a stint in rehabilitation:
I was reading [Infinite Jest] when I was in rehab. There was no one there. It was me and my nurses, who'd come in and check on me, and then Angela [the protagonist of the song], miles away. I was surrounded by no one, and the book was just open on the front page, as most copies of Infinite Jest are ... nobody reads [Infinite Jest] all the way! Everyone our age has got a battered, quarter-read copy of Infinite Jest.
Bibliography
Novels
The Broom of the System (1987). ISBN 9781101153536
Infinite Jest (1996). ISBN 9780316920049
The Pale King (2011, posthumous). ISBN 9780316175296
Short story collections
Girl with Curious Hair (1989). ISBN 9780393313963
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999). ISBN 9780316086899
Oblivion: Stories (2004). ISBN 9780759511569
Nonfiction collections
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (1997). ISBN 9780316090520
Consider the Lobster (2005). ISBN 9780349119519
Both Flesh and Not (2012, posthumous). ISBN 9780316214698
Other books
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity (2003).
Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (2010). Columbia University Press [reprint of 1985 thesis]. ISBN 978-0231151573. An essay collection.
The David Foster Wallace Reader (2014, posthumous). ISBN 9780316182393 A collection of excerpts.
Something to Do with Paying Attention (2022, posthumous). ISBN 9781946022271 A novella excerpted from The Pale King.
Awards and honors
Pulitzer Prize nomination for The Pale King, 2012. No prize was awarded for the fiction category that year
Inclusion of "Good Old Neon" in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2002
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, 1997–2002
Lannan Foundation Residency Fellow, July–August 2000
Named to Usage Panel, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th Ed. et seq., 1999
Inclusion of "The Depressed Person" in Prize Stories 1999: The O. Henry Awards
Illinois State University, Outstanding University Researcher, 1998 and 1999
Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for the story "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men #6", 1997
Time magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction), 1996
Salon Book Award (Fiction), 1996
Lannan Literary Award (Fiction), 1996
Inclusion of "Here and There" in Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards
Whiting Award, 1987
See also
Hysterical realism
Postmodern literature
Inverse cost and quality law
References
Sources
Boswell, Marshall; Burn, Stephen, eds. (2013). A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies. American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137078346. OCLC 832399604.
External links
Biographical
David Foster Wallace Archive, The University of Texas at Austin
Whiting Foundation Profile
Portals
David Foster Wallace AUDIO PROJECT
International David Foster Wallace Society |
Infinite_Jest | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest | [
462
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest#Adaptations"
] | Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, Infinite Jest is featured in Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
The novel has an unconventional narrative structure and includes hundreds of extensive endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.
A literary fiction bestseller after having sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication, the novel has since sold more than a million copies worldwide.
Development
Wallace began Infinite Jest, "or something like it", at various times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive; by the end of 1993, he had a working draft of the novel.
From early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including Harvard Review, Grand Street, Conjunctions, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Harper's Magazine, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
The book was edited by publisher Little, Brown and Company's Michael Pietsch. Pietsch made suggestions and recommendations to Wallace, but every editing decision was Wallace's. He accepted cuts amounting to around 250 manuscript pages from his original submission. He resisted many changes for reasons that he usually explained.
The novel gets its name from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester, Yorick, and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"
Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment.
Setting
In the novel's future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American superstate known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. (an allusion to onanism).
Corporations are allowed the opportunity to bid for and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing traditional numerical designations with ostensibly honorary monikers bearing corporate names. Although the narrative is fragmented and spans several "named" years, most of the story takes place during "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" (Y.D.A.U.).
On the orders of U.S. President Johnny Gentle (a "clean freak" who campaigned on the platform of cleaning up the US while ensuring that no American would be caused any discomfort in the process), much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a giant hazardous waste dump, an area "given" to Canada and known as the "Great Concavity" by Americans due to the resulting displacement of the border.
Plot
There are several major interwoven narratives, including:
A fringe group of Québécois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (lit. 'The Wheelchair Assassins'; A.F.R.), plans a violent geopolitical coup, and is opposed by high-level US operatives.
Various residents of the Boston area reach "rock bottom" with their substance abuse problems, and enter a residential drug and alcohol recovery program (Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House) where they progress in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
Students train and study at the Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.) run by James and Avril Incandenza and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis.
The history of the Incandenza family unfolds, focusing on the youngest son, Hal.
These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest, also called "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film is so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die. It was James Incandenza's final work. He completed it during a period of sobriety that was insisted upon by its lead actress, Joelle van Dyne. The Québécois separatists seek a replicable master copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (O.U.S.) aims to intercept the master copy to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations, or else to find or produce an anti-entertainment that can counter the film's effects. Joelle seeks treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House. A.F.R. member (and possible O.U.S. double agent) Rémy Marathe visits Ennet House, aiming to find Joelle and a lead to the master copy of "the Entertainment".
Major characters
The Incandenza family
Hal Incandenza is the youngest of the Incandenza children and arguably the novel's protagonist, as its events revolve around his time at E.T.A. Hal is prodigiously intelligent and talented, but insecure about his abilities (and eventually his mental state). His friend Michael Pemulis calls him Inc, and his favorite thing to do is secretly smoke marijuana in the seclusion of the E.T.A. tunnels. He has difficult relationships with both his parents. He has an eidetic memory and has memorized the Oxford English Dictionary, and like his mother often corrects his friends' and family's grammar. Hal's mental degradation and alienation from those around him culminate in his chronologically last appearance in the novel, in which his attempts at speech and facial expressions are incomprehensible to others. The origin of Hal's final condition is unclear; possible causes include marijuana withdrawal, a drug obtained by Michael Pemulis, a patch of mold Hal ate as a child, and a mental breakdown from years of training to be a top junior tennis player.
Avril Incandenza, née Mondragon, is the domineering mother of the Incandenza children and wife of James. A tall (197 cm, or 6 ft. 5.5 in.), beautiful francophone Quebecer, she becomes a major figure at Enfield Tennis Academy after her husband's suicide and begins, or perhaps continues, a relationship with Charles Tavis, the school's new head, also a Canadian and Avril's either adoptive or half-brother. Her sexual relationships with men are a matter of some speculation/discussion; one with John "No Relation" Wayne is depicted. Avril has phobias about uncleanliness and disease, closed doors, and overhead lighting, and is also described as agoraphobic. She has an obsessive-compulsive need to watch over E.T.A. and her two youngest sons, Hal and Mario, who live at the school; Avril and Orin are no longer in contact. James Incandenza believes that he can connect with his children only through her. Orin believes she runs the family with ingrained manipulation and the illusion of choice. Her family nickname is "the Moms".
James Orin Incandenza Jr., Avril's husband and Orin's, Mario's and Hal's father, is an optics expert and filmmaker as well as the founder of Enfield Tennis Academy (though he increasingly leaves E.T.A. business to Charles Tavis). The son of small-time actor James O. Incandenza Sr. (who played "The Man from Glad" in the 1960s), James Jr. created Infinite Jest (also known as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat"), an enigmatic and fatally seductive film that was his last work. He used Joelle van Dyne, his son Orin's strikingly beautiful girlfriend, in many of his films, including the fatal "Entertainment". He appears in the book mainly either in flashbacks or as a "wraith", having killed himself at the age of 54 by placing his head in a microwave oven. He is an alcoholic who drinks Wild Turkey whiskey. His family nickname is "Himself". Orin also calls him "the Mad Stork" or (once) "the Sad Stork".
Mario Incandenza is the Incandenzas' second son, although his biological father may be Charles Tavis. Severely deformed since birth—he is macrocephalic, homodontic, bradykinetic, and stands or walks at a 45-degree angle—as well as mentally "slow", he is nonetheless perennially cheerful and kind. He is also a budding auteur, having served as James's camera and directorial assistant and later inheriting the prodigious studio equipment and film lab his father built on the academy grounds. Somewhat surprisingly, he is an avid fan of Madame Psychosis's dark radio show, partly because he finds her voice familiar. Hal, though younger, acts like a supportive older brother to Mario, whom Hal calls "Booboo".
Orin Incandenza is the Incandenzas' eldest son. He is a punter for the Phoenix Cardinals and a serial womanizer, and is estranged from everyone in his family except Hal. It is suggested that Orin lost his attraction to Joelle after she became disfigured when her mother threw acid in her face during a Thanksgiving dinner, but Orin cites Joelle's questionable relationship with his father as the reason for the breakup even though he later admits he knows there was no romance. Orin focuses his subsequent womanizing on young mothers; Hal suggests that this is because he blames his father's death on his mother. Molly Notkin, a friend of Joelle's, says that Orin has numerous "malcathected issues with his mother". Orin's relationship with his father was tense. His father tells Joelle "he simply didn't know how to speak with either of his undamaged sons without their mother's presence and mediation. Orin could not be made to shut up."
The Enfield Tennis Academy
Michael Pemulis, a working-class teenager from an Allston, Massachusetts family, and Hal's best friend. A prankster and the school's resident drug dealer, Pemulis is also very proficient in mathematics. This, combined with his limited but ultraprecise lobbing, made him the school's first master of Eschaton, a computer-aided turn-based nuclear wargame that requires players to be adept at both game theory and lobbing tennis balls at targets. Although the novel takes place long after Pemulis's Eschaton days (the game is played by 12- to 14-year-olds), Pemulis is still regarded as the game's all-time greatest player, and he remains the final court of appeal for the game. His brother, Matty, is a gay hustler who as a child was sexually abused by their father.
John "No Relation" Wayne, the top-ranked player at E.T.A. He is frighteningly efficient, controlled, and machine-like on the court. Wayne is almost never directly quoted in the narrative; his statements are either summarized by the narrator or repeated by other characters. His Canadian citizenship has been revoked since he came to E.T.A. His father is a sick asbestos miner in Quebec who hopes John will soon start earning "serious $" in "the Show" (professional tennis) to "take him away from all this". Pemulis discovers Wayne is having a sexual relationship with Avril Incandenza, and it is later revealed that Hal is also aware of the relationship. Wayne may be sympathetic to, or actively supporting, the radical Quebec separatists.
Ortho "The Darkness" Stice, another of Hal's close friends. His name consists of the Greek root ortho ("straight") and the anglicized suffix -stice ("a space") from the noun interstice, which originally derived from the Latin verb sistere ("to stand"). He endorses only brands that have black-colored products, and is at all times clothed entirely in black, hence his nickname. Late in the book Stice nearly defeats Hal in a three-set tennis match, shortly after which his forehead is frozen to a window and his bed appears either bolted or mysteriously levitated to the ceiling. There are indications that Stice is being visited by the ghost of James Incandenza.
Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House
Don Gately, a former thief and Demerol addict, and current counselor in residence at Ennet House. One of the novel's primary characters, Gately is physically enormous and a reluctant but dedicated Alcoholics Anonymous member. He is critically wounded in an altercation with several Canadian men, and much of the later part of the novel involves his inner monologue while he recuperates in a Boston hospital. Gately had a complicated childhood. His stepfather abused his mother. During his middle-school and high-school years, Gately's size made him a formidable football talent. During his period as an addict and burglar, he accidentally kills M. DuPlessis, a leader of one of the many separatist Québécois organizations featured in the novel. Gately is visited by the ghosts of James O. Incandenza and Lyle.
Joelle van Dyne, also known as "Madame Psychosis" (cf. metempsychosis), a stage name she received from James Incandenza when she starred in his films (and later her on-air name in her radio show "60+/−"). She became acquainted with James through her college relationship with Orin Incandenza, who referred to her as "The Prettiest Girl of All Time", or P.G.O.A.T. She appears in the lethally addictive Entertainment, reaching down toward a wobbly "neonatal" lens as if it were in a bassinet and apologizing profusely, her face blurred beyond recognition. Extremely beautiful as a young woman, Joelle later becomes a member of the Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed (U.H.I.D.), and wears a veil to hide her face. According to Molly Notkin, Joelle's face was disfigured by a beaker of acid her mother threw, intending to hit Joelle's father, who had just revealed he was in love with her (Joelle). Joelle says she wears the veil because her superlative attractiveness plagued her throughout her life, causing her to suffer social and romantic isolation until she met Orin. Joelle tries to "eliminate her own map" (that is, suicide) in Notkin's bathroom by massive ingestion of freebase cocaine, which lands her in Ennet House as a resident. Gately and Joelle develop a mutual attraction.
Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents
Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (A.F.R.), the Wheelchair Assassins, are a Québécois separatist group. (The use of "rollents" where "roulants" would be correct is in keeping with other erroneous French words and phrases in the novel.) They are one of many such groups that developed after the United States coerced Canada and Mexico into joining the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.), but the A.F.R. is the most deadly and extremist. While other separatist groups are willing to settle for nationhood, the A.F.R. wants Canada to secede from O.N.A.N. and to reject America's forced gift of its polluted "Great Concavity" (or, Hal and Orin speculate, is pretending that those are its goals to put pressure on Canada to let Quebec secede). The A.F.R. seeks the master copy of Infinite Jest as a terrorist weapon to achieve its goals. The A.F.R. has its roots in a childhood game in which miners' sons would line up alongside a train track and compete to be the last to jump across the path of an oncoming train, a game in which many were killed or rendered legless (hence the wheelchairs).
Only one miner's son ever (disgracefully) failed to jump—Bernard Wayne, who may be related to E.T.A.'s John Wayne. Québécoise Avril's liaisons with John Wayne, and with A.F.R.'s Guillaume DuPlessis and Luria Perec, suggest that Avril may have ties to the A.F.R. as well. There is also evidence linking E.T.A. prorector Thierry Poutrincourt to the group.
Rémy Marathe is a member of the Wheelchair Assassins who secretly talks to Hugh/Helen Steeply. Marathe is a quadruple agent: the A.F.R. thinks that he is a triple agent, only pretending to betray the A.F.R., while Marathe and Steeply know that he only pretends to pretend to betray them. He does this in order to secure medical support for his wife (who was born without a skull) from the Office of Unspecified Services. Late in the novel, Marathe is sent to infiltrate Ennet House in the guise of a Swiss drug addict.
Other recurring characters
These characters cross between the major narrative threads:
Hugh Steeply, an agent who assumes a female identity ("Helen") for an operative role, with whom Orin Incandenza becomes obsessed. Hugh works for the government Office of Unspecified Services and has gone undercover to get information out of Orin about the Entertainment. He is the U.S.O.U.S.'s contact with the A.F.R. mole Marathe.
Lyle, E.T.A. weight room guru. He spends most of his time perched atop the towel dispenser in the lotus position. Lyle licks the sweat off the boys' bodies after they work out and in turn gives them life advice. His behavior is described by the narrator as unusual but "nothing faggy". Lyle is close to Mario, whom he sometimes employs to speak to players who struggle with self-esteem.
"Poor Tony" Krause, a cross-dressing junkie and thief who steals a woman's exterior heart, causing her death, and later robs Ennet House residents.
Randy Lenz, a "small time organic-coke dealer who wears sportcoats rolled up over his parlor-tanned forearms and is always checking his pulse on the inside of his wrists". An Ennet House resident, he constantly asks the time but refuses to wear a watch and regularly violates the sobriety rule.
Geoffrey Day, an Ennet House resident who struggles with the clichés of AA. He comes to Ennet House after putting his car through a sporting-goods store window.
Marlon Bain, a former E.T.A. student who was close to Orin. His obsessive-compulsive disorder has made it nearly impossible for him to leave his apartment. Steeply contacts him for information about Orin and the Incandenzas.
Style
Infinite Jest is a postmodern encyclopedic novel, famous for its length, detail and digressions involving 388 endnotes, some of which themselves have footnotes. It has also been called metamodernist and hysterical realist. Wallace's "encyclopedic display of knowledge" incorporates media theory, linguistics, film studies, sport, addiction, science, and issues of national identity. The book is often humorous yet explores melancholy deeply. The novel's narration mostly alternates between third-person limited and omniscient points of view, but also includes several first-person accounts.
Eschewing chronological plot development and straightforward resolution—a concern often mentioned in reviews—the novel supports a wide range of readings. At various times Wallace said that he intended for the novel's plot to resolve, but indirectly; responding to his editor's concerns about the lack of resolution, he said "the answers all [exist], but just past the last page". Long after publication Wallace maintained this position, stating that the novel "does resolve, but it resolves ... outside of the right frame of the picture. You can get a pretty good idea, I think, of what happens". Critical reviews and a reader's guide have provided insight, but Stephen Burn notes that Wallace privately conceded to Jonathan Franzen that "the story can't fully be made sense of".
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Wallace characterized the novel's heavy use of endnotes as a method of disrupting the linearity of the text while maintaining some sense of narrative cohesion. In a separate interview on Michael Silverblatt's radio show Bookworm, Wallace said the plotting and notes had a fractal structure modeled after the Sierpiński gasket.
Themes
The novel touches on many topics, including addiction (to drugs, but also to sex and fame), withdrawal, recovery, death, family relationships, absent or dead parents, mental health, suicide, sadness, entertainment, film theory, media theory, linguistics, science, Quebec separatism, national identity, and tennis as a metaphysical activity.
Literary connections
Infinite Jest draws explicitly or allusively on many previous works of literature.
As its title implies, the novel is in part based on the play Hamlet. Enfield Tennis Academy corresponds to Denmark, ruled by James (King Hamlet) and Avril (Queen Gertrude). When James dies, he is replaced by Charles (Claudius), the uncle of Avril's gifted son Hal (Prince Hamlet). As in the play, the son's task is to fight incipient mental breakdown in order to redeem his father's reputation.
Another link is to the Odyssey, wherein the son Telemachus (Hal) has to grow apart from his dominating mother Penelope (Avril) and discover the truth about his absent father Odysseus (James). (That pattern is also reproduced in the novel Ulysses, set in a realistic version of Dublin populated by a wide range of inhabitants, just as Infinite Jest is mostly in a realistic Boston with a varied population.) In one scene, Hal, on the phone with Orin, says that clipping his toenails into a wastebasket "now seems like an exercise in telemachry." Orin then asks whether Hal meant telemetry. Christopher Bartlett has argued that Hal's mistake is a direct reference to Telemachus, who for the first four books of the Odyssey believes that his father is dead.
Links to The Brothers Karamazov have been analyzed by Timothy Jacobs, who sees Orin representing the nihilistic Dmitri, Hal standing for Ivan and Mario the simple and good Alyosha.
The film so entertaining that its viewers lose interest in anything else has been likened to the Monty Python sketch "The Funniest Joke in the World", as well as to "the experience machine", a thought experiment by Robert Nozick.
Critical reception
Infinite Jest was marketed heavily, and Wallace had to adapt to being a public figure. He was interviewed in national magazines and went on a 10-city book tour. Publisher Little, Brown equated the book's heft with its importance in marketing and sent a series of cryptic teaser postcards to 4,000 people, announcing a novel of "infinite pleasure" and "infinite style". Rolling Stone sent reporter David Lipsky to follow Wallace on his "triumphant" book tour—the first time the magazine had sent a reporter to profile a young author in 10 years. The interview was never published in the magazine but became Lipsky's New York Times-bestselling book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010), of which the 2015 movie The End of the Tour is an adaptation.
Early reviews contributed to Infinite Jest's hype, many of them describing it as a momentous literary event. According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on 11 critic reviews, with eight "raves" and three "positive".
In the Review of Contemporary Fiction, Steven Moore called the book "a profound study of the postmodern condition". In 2004, Chad Harbach wrote that, in retrospect, Infinite Jest "now looks like the central American novel of the past thirty years, a dense star for lesser work to orbit". In a 2008 retrospective, The New York Times called the book "a masterpiece that's also a monster—nearly 1,100 pages of mind-blowing inventiveness and disarming sweetness. Its size and complexity make it forbidding and esoteric."
Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
As Wallace's magnum opus, Infinite Jest is at the center of the new discipline of "Wallace Studies", which, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, "... is on its way to becoming a robust scholarly enterprise."
Not all critics were as laudatory. Some early reviews, such as Michiko Kakutani's in The New York Times, were mixed, recognizing the inventiveness of the writing but criticizing the length and plot. She called the novel "a vast, encyclopedic compendium of whatever seems to have crossed Wallace's mind." In the London Review of Books, Dale Peck wrote of the novel, "... it is, in a word, terrible. Other words I might use include bloated, boring, gratuitous, and—perhaps especially—uncontrolled." Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, called it "just awful" and written with "no discernible talent" (in the novel, Bloom's own work is called "turgid"). In a review of Wallace's work up to the year 2000, A. O. Scott wrote of Infinite Jest, "[T]he novel's Pynchonesque elements...feel rather willed and secondhand. They are impressive in the manner of a precocious child's performance at a dinner party, and, in the same way, ultimately irritating: they seem motivated, mostly, by a desire to show off."
Some critics have since qualified their initial stances. In 2008, A. O. Scott called Infinite Jest an "enormous, zeitgeist-gobbling novel that set his generation's benchmark for literary ambition" and Wallace "the best mind of his generation". James Wood has said that he regrets his negative review: "I wish I'd slowed down a bit more with David Foster Wallace." Infinite Jest is one of the recommendations in Kakutani's book Ex Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread.
Adaptations
Playwright Ken Campbell worked on an adaptation of Infinite Jest for the Millennium. His concept was to have 1,000 performers who each paid $23 to take part in the event, which would last a week. It did not come to fruition. German theatrical company Hebbel am Ufer produced a 24-hour avant-garde open-air theatre adaptation in 2012.
Infinite Jest was adapted in Finnish for radio and broadcast in six episodes by Yle in January 2023.
In popular culture
The Parks and Recreation episode "Partridge" contains various references to the novel. For example, Ann and Chris take the "Incandenza-Pemulis Parenting Compatibility Quiz", and Ann's fertility counselor, Dr. Van Dyne, works at the C.T. Tavis Medical Center.
The video for The Decemberists' "Calamity Song" recreates the novel's Eschaton chapter.
The music video for MC Lars and Wheatus's "Finite Jest" recounts the plot of Wallace's novel from Hal's perspective, recreating scenes from the book.
The Infinite Summer project, an online book group with the goal of reading Infinite Jest over a single summer, took place in 2009. It included daily commentary from well-known writers, musicians and media personalities.
The rock band We Are the Fury named its 2006 EP Infinite Jest after the novel.
The hardcore punk band Fury named its album Failed Entertainment after the novel's working title.
The indie pop rock band The 1975's song title "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies" was inspired by the novel's opening line. The band's lead singer, Matty Healy, was reading the book while in rehab.
Translations
Infinite Jest has been translated:
Blumenbach, Ulrich (2009). Unendlicher Spaß (in German). Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch. ISBN 978-3-462-04112-5.
In 2010, Blumenbach received the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the Kurd Laßwitz Award for the translation.
Nesi, Edoardo; Villoresi, Annalisa; Giua, Grazia (2000). Infinite Jest (in Italian). Roma: Fandango Libri. ISBN 978-88-87517-10-1.
Telles de Menezes, Salvato; Teles de Menezes, Vasco (2012). A Piada Infinita (in Portuguese). Quetzal. ISBN 978-989-722-063-0.
Covián, Marcelo; Calvo, Javier (2002). La broma infinita (in Spanish). Barcelona: Mondadori. ISBN 978-84-397-0236-8.
Galindo, Caetano W. (2014). Graça Infinita (in Brazilian Portuguese). Companhia das Letras. ISBN 978-85-3592-504-3.
Kerline, Francis (2015). L'infinie comédie (in French). Éditions de l'Olivier. ISBN 978-28-7929-982-2.
Kemény, Lili; Sipos, Balázs (2018). Végtelen tréfa (in Hungarian). Jelenkor Kiadó. ISBN 978-9-636-76614-6.
Polyarinov, Alexey; Karpov, Sergey (2018). Бесконечная Шутка (in Russian). AST. ISBN 978-5-17-096355-3.
Valkonen, Tero (2020). Päättymätön riemu (in Finnish). Siltala / Sanavalinta. ISBN 978-952-234-653-7.
In 2021, Valkonen was awarded the Mikael Agricola Prize.
Kozak, Jolanta (2022). Niewyczerpany żart (in Polish). Wydawnictwo W.A.B. ISBN 978-83-83180-26-7.
Književnost, Svetska; Naslovi, Novi (2022). Beskrajna Lakrdija (in Serbian). Kontrast. ISBN 9788660361655.
Yu, Bingxia (2023). 无尽的玩笑 (in Chinese (China)). 上海人民出版社 (Shanghai People's Publisher). ISBN 9787208161757.
Michal Sapir (2023). "מהתלה אינסופית" (in Hebrew). Hakibutz Hameuchad.
See also
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
The End of the Tour
Something to Do with Paying Attention
Infinite Summer
Hysterical realism
Postmodern literature
The Zahir
References
Further reading
In-depth studies
Interviews
Lipsky, David, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace. New York: Broadway, 2010.
Miller, Laura (1996), "David Foster Wallace", Salon (interview), vol. 9, archived from the original on October 13, 1999.
Goldfarb, Michael (June 25, 2004), David Foster Wallace (radio interview), The Connection, archived from the original on September 11, 2010.
NPR interview about Infinite Jest
Wallace talking about his novel on Michael Silverblatt's "Bookworm" radio show
External links
The Infinite Jest Wiki
"Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace" by Ted Gioia (The New Canon)
Infinite Atlas An interactive map of all the characters, places, and events in Infinite Jest
Interactive visualization of Infinite Jest |
The_1975 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1975 | [
462
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1975"
] | The 1975 are
an English pop rock
band formed in Wilmslow, Cheshire in 2002. The band consists of Matty Healy (lead vocals, guitar, primary songwriter), Adam Hann (lead guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass), and George Daniel (drums, primary producer). The band's name was inspired by a page of scribblings found in Healy's copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac that was dated "1 June, The 1975".
The band members met in secondary school and first performed together as teenagers in 2002, before professionally releasing music in 2012 under the independent label Dirty Hit. From 2012 to 2013, they opened for several major acts and released a series of extended plays—Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars, and IV—before releasing their UK chart-topping self-titled debut album (2013), which included the popular singles "Sex", "Chocolate", and "Robbers".
All of the band's albums hit No. 1 in the United Kingdom and charted in the Billboard 200, garnering critical praise and appearing in numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists. Their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), also reached No. 1 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and its box set received a nomination for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 59th Grammy Awards. The band's third album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), received widespread acclaim and won British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brit Awards with its single "Give Yourself a Try" earning a nomination for Best Rock Song at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. It was followed by Notes on a Conditional Form (2020) and Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022) with the latter receiving a nomination for British Album of the Year at the 2023 Brit Awards.
Rolling Stone stated that the band has been at "the forefront of modern pop rock" since their debut, with Billboard declaring them "the most ambitious pop-rock band of their generation". Pitchfork has described them as a "band of friends" who "ascended from scrappy emo rockers to global superstars". Entertainment Weekly has characterised them as "British Phenoms," NME has proclaimed them as "Art Pop Heroes," and the BBC has called them “Modern Pop Icons”. They have received several awards and nominations including four Brit Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, as well as two nominations for the Mercury Prize and two nominations for Grammy Awards. In addition, they have been awarded "Band of the Decade" at the 2020 NME Awards.
History
2002–2011: Formation
In 2002, at Wilmslow High School, Adam Hann who plays guitar, recruited Matty Healy to be the drummer of a band he was forming with Ross MacDonald who plays bass. Hann wanted to form a band because a local council worker had begun organising gigs for teens, and wanted to play at one. When the band's prospective singer, Elliot Williams, dropped out after one rehearsal, Healy took over the role playing double duty as lead vocalist and drummer. He eventually relinquished playing drums to George Daniel, recalling that meeting Daniel "changed his life". Daniel describes his first impression of Healy as "the most outwardly passionate person in school—endearing, and intimidating." The quartet began as a band playing covers of punk and emo songs at school and at Healy's house before eventually writing their own music.
To keep the band together, Hann, MacDonald, and Daniel all went to university in Manchester while Healy briefly attended music school. They played gigs and recorded their own music while working as delivery boys at a local Chinese restaurant.
By 2010, the band was being managed by Jamie Oborne but remained unsigned due to their genre-hopping approach, so he set up his own independent record label–Dirty Hit–and signed the band for 20 pounds.
Before settling on The 1975, the band performed under multiple names including Me and You Versus Them, Those 1975s, Forever Drawing Six, Talkhouse, the Slowdown, and Bigsleep. They have been called Drive Like I Do before renamed to the present band name in 2012. Healy recounted that the final name was inspired by scribblings found on the back page of the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac."I found a page of scribblings [on Jack Kerouac's On the Road]. It wasn't really disturbing or dark or anything...the important thing that stuck with me was that the page was dated '1st June, The 1975'. At the time I just thought that the word 'The' preceding a date was a strong use of language. I never thought it would be something that would later come to be so important. When it came to naming the band, it was perfect."
2012–2014: Early career and self-titled debut album
The band's self-titled debut album was recorded with Mike Crossey. Between autumn 2012 and spring 2013, during which time the album was recorded, the band released four EPs. They toured to support and build momentum for the album, including numerous gigs and special appearances with other artists.
The album received positive reviews from critics, and topped the UK Albums Chart on 8 September. As of March 2016, it had sold 410,981 copies in the UK, and 390,000 copies in the US. Critics at Pitchfork have favourably compared them to the Big Pink. Sex EP was described by Paste as "equal parts ethereal and synth pop", with "haunting" and "smooth" vocals. Their "mellow", stripped down style was praised for its lack of "attention-grabbing production theatrics".
The release of the band's first EP, titled Facedown, in August 2012 saw the band's first UK airplay on national radio with lead track "The City", which was also featured as part of a BBC Introducing show with Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1. The 1975 once again garnered national radio attention in late 2012, with BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe championing their single "Sex" from the eponymous EP, which was released on 19 November. They embarked on a United Kingdom and Ireland tour extended into early 2013, before beginning a US tour in Spring 2014. Upon the release of Music for Cars on 4 March 2013, the 1975 found mainstream chart success with "Chocolate", reaching number 19 in the UK Singles Chart. On 20 May 2013 the band released IV, which included a new version of "The City". The track charted in the UK and received airplay in several other countries.
The 1975 toured extensively to support releases and to build hype before releasing their debut. The band supported Muse on the second leg of The 2nd Law World Tour at the Emirates Stadium in London on 26 May 2013. They also toured with the Neighbourhood in the United States in June 2013, and supported the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park on 13 July. In August, the band performed on the Festival Republic Stage at 2013 Reading and Leeds Festivals.
In a feature article, Elliot Mitchell of When the Gramophone Rings wrote that releasing a string of EPs before the debut album was "a move that he deemed necessary to provide context to the band's broad sound, rather than just building up with singles alone." Healy said, "We wouldn't have been able to release the album without putting out the EP's first, as we wanted to make sure we could express ourselves properly before dropping this long, ambitious debut record on people."Their self-titled debut, The 1975, was released on 2 September 2013, co-produced by Mike Crossey, known for his work with Arctic Monkeys and Foals. The 1975 were selling out shows even before the debut of their full-length album as Healy recalled in an interview with Larry Heath of The AU Review. The lead single was a re-worked "Sex", which was released on 26 August 2013. The song premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 July 2013, and a music video premiered on YouTube on 26 July. The 1975 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Public reaction to the band's music has been mixed, particularly on social media platforms like Twitter, "perhaps the last public space for unfettered music criticism in an increasingly anti-critical landscape", according to Vice magazine's Larry Fitzmaurice in 2016. In an essay on the critical response, he said they have been "the Most Hated and Loved Band in the World" and described "as underrated and overhyped, although the needle has far more often swung towards the former direction". Veteran rock critic Robert Christgau said he thinks "they suck" and should not be called a "rock band" as they do not "rock". In Fitzmaurice's opinion, the band's debut album was mainly a straightforward rock album recorded "with a soft-focus and especially British sensibility", while I Like It When You Sleep was only rock music in the loosest sense of the word. Overall, he said their music is pop "in the realm of Alternative", most comparable to INXS.
The 1975 toured in the UK in September 2013, among others performing in Kingston upon Hull as headliners at Freedom Festival, a celebration of the city's shortlisting for 2017 UK City of Culture designation, and at iTunes Festival on 8 September as an opening act for indie electronic quartet Bastille.
The band undertook a North American tour in October 2013, a European tour for November, and in January 2014 the band performed in New Zealand and Australia. In September 2013, the band performed three sold-out shows at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. In April 2014, the band performed for the first time in a major American music and arts festival: Coachella. The band played at Royal Albert Hall the same month. In May, the band's recorded output was distributed digitally while they were touring North America. Healy noted that the band had recording scheduled in Q2 2015.
2015–2017: I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It
On 1 June 2015, the band's social accounts were terminated, which caused intense speculation. A comic strip was posted on Healy's Twitter a day prior but was later posted on their manager's (Jamie Oborne) account, which suggested the band's break-up. The next day, the accounts were reinstated, but the cover images and profile photos were white and light pink, instead of the usual black and white, revealing it to be a publicity stunt.
On 8 October, the band announced their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. They premiered the lead single, "Love Me", simultaneously scheduling a support tour in Europe, North America, and Asia. They premiered the second single, "UGH!", on 10 December on Beats 1. The album's third single, "The Sound" debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 14 January 2016. The 1975 released the fourth single "Somebody Else" on 15 February on Beats 1 before the album's release. "A Change of Heart" premiered on Radio 1 on 22 February, four days prior to the album's release.
NME, who had previously been highly critical of the band, praised the album for its scope and ambition, writing that "Any record that burrows as deep into your psyche as ‘I Like It…' should be considered essential. It's hugely clever and wryly funny, too." They later named it their Album of the Year for 2016. Although music journalist Alexis Petridis noted that parts of the album were over-ambitious, he went on to claim that "incredibly, though, most of the time Healy gets away with it. That's sometimes because his observations are sharp — as a skewering of celebrity squad culture, 'you look famous, let's be friends / And portray we possess something important / And do the things we like' is pretty acute — but more usually because they come loaded with witty self-awareness and deprecation: the endless depictions of vacuous, coke-numbed girls he has met would get wearying were it not for the fact that he keeps turning the lyrical crosshair on himself." In a more mixed review, Rolling Stone criticised tracks like "Lostmyhead" and "Please Be Naked" for being "boring-melty" but praised songs such as "Somebody Else", "Loving Someone" and "Love Me".
The album was released on 26 February and topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. The band released a free download for "How to Draw" on Twitter and through Target Exclusive. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Mercury Music Prize and nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards.
2017–2019: A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
On 13 November 2016, member George Daniel teased the band's third album by releasing a video on his Instagram account captioned "2018", containing snippets of audio along with Healy playing the keyboards.
On 3 April 2017, Healy tweeted "I like it when you sleep is coming to an end" before following up with "Music for Cars", which shares the name of their third extended play. In March 2017, the band confirmed that two songs for the new album have already been written. In June, Healy also confirmed that Drive Like I Do, one of the 1975's prior incarnations, will release a debut album as a side project 'in a few years'.
In November, Healy teased the release of an EP within 2017. Besides being confirmed, the EP was delayed to 2018, with manager Jamie Oborne stating that "something" would be released instead; this was the band's debut live album, DH00278. He also confirmed that no singles from Music for Cars will be released in 2017, with the band confirming that something will be released on 1 June 2018.
In March 2018, the band deleted many media posts across their accounts going back to July 2017, during their final show at Latitude Festival for I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. On 22 April 2018, in response to a fan comment on Twitter, Oborne stated that their second album's campaign would remain for "a few more days". At the end of April, cryptic posters titled "Music for Cars" appeared in London and Manchester, containing taglines and a Dirty Hit catalogue number, DH00327, amongst a black background. Various billboards were also spotted in the United Kingdom, having used détournement to apply themselves over existing advertisements.
The band updated their website to display a timer counting down towards 1 June at the beginning of May 2018, becoming active again on social media. Within its first hours, it was revealed to contain a hidden zip file with four individual posters, each of the names leading to a hidden page on the website that displayed a conversation between a 'human' and a 'machine'. Over social media, the band frequently released different posters, all titled "A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships". On 31 May 2018, the band released the single "Give Yourself a Try", after premiering as Annie Mac's "Hottest Record in the World" on BBC Radio 1 that same day.
The album garnered almost universal praise from critics. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received a weighted score of 83 based on 29 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork gave the album a score of 8.5, earning it the Best New Music tag, and called it "outrageous and eclectic", as well as "similar to its predecessor in its boundless sense of style, swerving from Afrobeats to brushed-snare jazz balladry to one track that sounds like a trap remix of a Bon Iver ayahuasca trip", but "more purposeful" than I Like It When You Sleep. Time considered it one of the Best Albums of 2018, placing it at number nine on their list.
However, Conrad Duncan writing for the same site gave the album a positive review, calling it "full of genuine heart, intelligence and wit". Popmatters criticised the album as bloated and inconsistent, stating "The band's reach exceeds their grasp here, and vocalist/band leader Matt Healy's indulgences are often more tiresome than charming", while still praising it as "fascinating". Healy, in an interview for Beats 1, said that "Music for Cars" is more of an era to release music, after renaming Music for Cars to A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. It was released on 30 November 2018. The band headlined both Radio 1's Big Weekend in Stewart Park, Middlesbrough on 26 May 2019 and Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2019.
The album was shortlisted for the 2019 Mercury Music Prize and won the award for British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brit Awards.
2020–2021: Notes on a Conditional Form
On 24 July 2019, the opening song of Notes on a Conditional Form, titled "The 1975", was released, featuring climate activist Greta Thunberg, the proceeds of the song going to Extinction Rebellion. The lead single, entitled "People" released on 22 August 2019. This was announced by a countdown on the band's social media accounts, including small snippets of lyrics from the song that fans could piece together. A second single, titled "Frail State of Mind", was released on 24 October. The music video for the song was released on 30 November 2019. The next single, "Me & You Together Song", was released on 16 January 2020.
On 15 February, the group did their UK tour that lasted until 3 March 2020. The tour began in Nottingham's Motor point arena, which holds a capacity of 10,000, and they ended their tour in Dublin after performing in Places such as London's O2, Manchester, Glasgow and other hit places in the UK. On 17 February 2020, the band put up a "digital detox" website called MindShowerAI which contained a countdown to their next single as well as several odd messages like “I am doing my mind and my life!” and “I feel comfort and respect." A fourth single, ‘The Birthday Party’, was released on 19 February 2020 at the end of the website's countdown. On 3 April, the band released "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", featuring guest vocals from Phoebe Bridgers, which was followed by "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)", featuring guest vocals by FKA Twigs, on 23 April 2020.
The band's fourth album, Notes on a Conditional Form, was released on 22 May 2020. It became the band's fourth consecutive album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart as well as reaching number one in Australia and number four in the United States. On 4 December 2020, the album became certified silver in the UK via Brits certified.
Many of the band's 2020 shows which were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic were ultimately cancelled. During this time, lead singer Matty Healy teased future music under the name "Drive Like I Do", and said that the band was working on their fifth studio album, although there was no indication as to when writing, recording, mixing, etc. would be complete.
In February 2021, No Rome, a Dirty Hit labelmate, announced he was working on a track featuring the 1975 along with Charli XCX, which would make it the second No Rome single to feature the band after 2018's "Narcissist". The track's title is "Spinning" and was released on 4 March 2021. An EP that Healy and Daniel produced and co-wrote, Beabadoobee's Our Extended Play, was released in March 2021. In October 2021, Healy opened for Phoebe Bridgers at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on her Reunion Tour. He performed two new songs, one called "New York".
2022–present: Being Funny in a Foreign Language
On 14 February 2022, the band deactivated their main social media accounts, hinting at new material. On 1 June, the band's social media accounts were re-activated, and the beginning of a new era was signalled by a series of posts, and updates to the band's official website.
In late June 2022, the first single "Part of the Band" from their fifth album Being Funny in a Foreign Language was teased. Postcards sent to fans revealed an album track listing, while posters of Healy in London promoted the single. The lyrics of "Part of the Band" were posted by Healy on Instagram. The song was released on 7 July. On 14 October, the album was released. On 1 October, the band appeared on BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland.
On 7 November 2022, the band performed a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden, which was also live-streamed on Twitch. The show—one of the first few in their At Their Very Best tour—was highly acclaimed with some critics praising it for its boldness, while others wrote that the band proved they really were "at their very best." It received five star reviews from the Rolling Stone, NME, The Observer, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, and Metro.
The band was banned from performing in Malaysia due to "controversial conduct and remarks" during their performance at the Good Vibes Festival on 21 July 2023. This included a same-sex kiss onstage between Healy and MacDonald, and Healy openly criticising the country's strong anti-LGBT laws. The remainder of the festival was then cancelled by local authorities. Malaysian authorities forced the organisers to immediately halt and cancelled the rest of the three-day festival citing that Healy's "controversial conduct and remarks" are "against the traditions and values of the local culture". Reactions to the incident from Malaysians on social media were generally critical of Healy. Some members of the LGBT community in Malaysia were frustrated by the incident and expressed concern it would lead to further reprisals from the religious right. The band subsequently cancelled shows in Taiwan and Indonesia following the incident. The organisers of the festival sued the band in the High Court for breach of contract and sought £1.9 million in damages.
In August 2023, they headlined Reading and Leeds Festivals for the third time with a "10th Anniversary Performance" of their self-titled debut album. Their fifth concert tour commenced in September 2023 titled Still... At Their Very Best. It is their biggest tour to date in North America performing in arenas across the United States and Canada. In the opening show in Sacramento, Healy has stated that after the tour, the band will have a hiatus from touring.
In October 2024, two Charli xcx's highly anticipated remix album Brat and it's completely different but also still brat themed billboards were found in the band's hometown, Manchester. After some speculations, it was officially revealed that the band will feature on the remixed version of the song ″I might say something stupid″ with Jon Hopkins.
Musical style and influences
The band's work has been described broadly as pop-rock art pop and alt-pop, synth-pop, new wave, and indie rock. NPR noted that Healy "has long treated writing songs for the 1975 as his diary". Per The Guardian, his lyrics distinguish the 1975's music from other artists'. He and Daniel are the principal songwriters of the band with Daniel describing himself as the "primary producer" and Healy as the "primary songwriter". He has described their relationship as "symbiotic": "We've got a shared musical vocabulary. Even if we're both working remotely, we're both working together."
Healy specifically cites Talking Heads, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Michael Jackson as musical influences; he states that his greatest influence is the oeuvre of filmmaker John Hughes. Healy said that their influence is "heavily rooted" in African-American music in many interviews.
The 1975 is known for their artistic reinventions and musical eclecticism. Their debut album has been described as electropop, funk rock, indie pop, indie rock, pop, pop rock and rock. Scott Kerr of AllMusic wrote that the band combined "the dark and youthful themes of sex, love, and fear with ethereal alt-rock music." Dissentingly, veteran rock critic Robert Christgau argues that they should not be considered a "rock band" as they do not "rock".
For their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, Healy cited Christina Aguilera, D'Angelo, Roberta Flack, Boards of Canada, and Sigur Rós as inspirations saying that they're "a post-modern pop band that references a million things. I don't even know what my band is half the time."
Legacy and impact
Healy and the band has been described by several publications as "the voice of a generation". Rolling Stone stated that the band has been at "the forefront of modern pop rock" since their debut, with Billboard declaring them "the most ambitious pop-rock band of their generation". Pitchfork has described them as a "band of friends" who "ascended from scrappy emo rockers to global superstars". Entertainment Weekly has characterised them as "British Phenoms," NME proclaimed them as "Art Pop Heroes," and the BBC has called them “Modern Pop Icons”.The Guardian has called them "Britain's Biggest Band" in 2020, The Telegraph stated that they're "Britain's Hottest Band", and the Evening Standard proclaimed them the "Most Compelling Pop Band in the Planet" in 2023.
The 1975's influence in the indie pop scene has been termed "Healywave" by NME. Described as "deftly plucked, palm-muted guitar line, hop, skip and jumping its way across shimmering pop synth work and third-wave emo lyricism," The Big Issue added that it's a "dreamified take on Eighties pop-rock". "Healywave" acts named by the NME include Pale Waves, Fickle Friends, and the Aces among others.
Members
Matty Healy – lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
Adam Hann – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Ross MacDonald – bass, keyboards, backing vocals
George Daniel – drums, programming, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals
Current touring musicians
John Waugh – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (2013–present)
Jamie Squire – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, triangle, recorder, lap steel guitar (2015–present)
Polly Money – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2022–present)
Carly Holt-Hann – guest vocals (2022–present)
Gabrielle Marie King – percussion, backing vocals (2023–present)
Former touring musicians
Taitlyn Jaiy – backing vocals, dancer (2018–2020)
Kaylee Jaiy – backing vocals, dancer (2018–2020)
Rebekah Rayner – percussion (2022–2023)
Discography
Studio albums
The 1975 (2013)
I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016)
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018)
Notes on a Conditional Form (2020)
Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022)
Concert tours
The 1975 Tour (2013-2015)
I Like It When You Sleep Tour (2016–2017)
Music for Cars Tour (2018–2020)
At Their Very Best (2022–2023)
Still... At Their Very Best (2023–2024)
Awards and nominations
See also
Songs by Matty Healy
References
External links
Official website
The 1975 discography at Discogs |
Pok%C3%A9mon_Diamond_and_Pearl | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Diamond_and_Pearl | [
463
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Diamond_and_Pearl"
] | Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version are role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in 2006. They are the first installments in the fourth generation of the Pokémon video game series. They were first released in Japan on September 28, 2006, and released in North America, Australia, and Europe in 2007. Pokémon Platinum, a third version, was released two years later in each region. Remakes titled Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were released for the Nintendo Switch worldwide on November 19, 2021. A prequel, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, was released for the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.
Like previous Pokémon games, Diamond and Pearl chronicle the adventures of a young Pokémon Trainer as they train and battle Pokémon while also thwarting the schemes of a criminal organization called Team Galactic. The games added many new features, such as Internet play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, changes to battle mechanics and Pokémon Contests, along with the addition of 107 new Pokémon. The games are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot, and while both can be played separately, it is necessary to trade between them in order to complete the games' Pokédex.
Development of Diamond and Pearl was announced at a Nintendo press conference in the fourth calendar quarter of 2004. The games were designed with features of the Nintendo DS in mind. It was forecasted to be released in Japan in 2005, but ultimately shipped in 2006, the 10th anniversary year of the franchise. In promotion of the games, Nintendo sold a limited-edition Nintendo DS Lite in Japan, and held a release party celebrating their North American release.
The games received generally favorable reviews. Most critics praised the addition of Wi-Fi features and graphics, and felt that the gameplay, though it had not received much updating from previous games, was still engaging. The games enjoyed more commercial success than their Game Boy Advance predecessors: with around 18 million units sold worldwide, Diamond and Pearl have sold over 2 million more units than their predecessors Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and almost 6 million more units than Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, while also outselling their successors, Pokémon Black and White, by over 2 million copies. The games are among the most successful Pokémon games of all time.
Gameplay
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are role-playing video games with adventure elements. The basic mechanics of the games are largely the same as their predecessors. As with all Pokémon games for handheld consoles, the gameplay is in a third-person overhead perspective, and consists of three basic screens: a field map, in which the player navigates the main character; a battle screen; and the menu, in which the player configures their party, items, or gameplay settings. Players begin the game with no Pokémon or Poké Balls but are given the choice of three Pokémon as a part of the storyline. Once Poké Balls are obtained, the player can capture more Pokémon. Players can use their Pokémon to deal damage to other Pokémon in battle. Whenever the player encounters a wild Pokémon or is challenged by a trainer to a battle, the screen switches to a turn-based battle screen where the Pokémon fight. During the battle, the player may use a move, use an item, switch the active Pokémon, or flee. Fleeing is not an option during battles against trainers. All Pokémon have hit points (HP); whenever a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and cannot battle unless revived at a Pokémon Center or with an item. If the player's Pokémon defeats the opposing Pokémon by causing it to faint, it receives experience points. After accumulating enough experience points, it will level up; most Pokémon evolve into a new species of Pokémon whenever they reach a certain level. Pokémon's stats also increase every time it levels up, and they will also learn new moves at certain levels as well. If a Pokémon is prevented from evolving it will learn new moves faster.
Apart from battling, capturing Pokémon returns as a critical component of Pokémon gameplay. Although other trainers' Pokémon cannot be captured, the player can use different kinds of Poké Balls on a wild Pokémon during battle. A successful capture adds the Pokémon to the player's active party or stores it if the player already has a maximum of six Pokémon in their party. Factors in the success rate of capture include the HP of the target Pokémon and the strength of the Poké Ball used; the lower the target's HP and the stronger the Poké Ball, the higher the success rate of capture is. Also, inflicting certain status effects such as sleep or paralysis adds a multiplier to the capture rate, making it easier to capture wild Pokémon. Each species has a capture rate of its own as well.
New features
As with other generations of Pokémon games, Diamond and Pearl retain the basic gameplay of their predecessors while introducing additional new features. The day-night cycle makes a return and has increased from three times of day in Gold and Silver to five time periods in Diamond and Pearl: morning, day, afternoon, evening, and night. Diamond and Pearl also introduce several changes to battle mechanics. In previous generations, Pokémon moves were classified as "physical" or "special" based on their type; for example, all Fire-type moves were special and all Ground-type moves were physical. In Diamond and Pearl, however, moves are categorized into three groups. Attacks that make physical contact with the opponent are "physical", attacks that do not make physical contact are "special", and moves that do not deal damage are classified as "status".
Some of the games' new features capitalize on the Nintendo DS's features. The Pokétch, a simulated smartwatch, resides on the DS's bottom screen and hosts various applications including a clock, calculator, map, counter, and a drawing pad. These applications are obtained throughout the game. Beneath Sinnoh's surface is the Underground, a large area used for wireless multiplayer gaming; in it, players can create and decorate secret bases, first featured in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and participate in minigames. The items mined in the Underground can then be transferred into the player's bag in the main game. Diamond and Pearl also employ support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (since discontinued), allowing players to communicate through voice chat, trade, and battle online. The main system for trade is the Global Trade Station, which allows players to trade with people around the world. Players can search for any Pokémon that they have seen in the game and can offer their own; if another player is offering the requested Pokémon and is looking for the offered Pokémon, the trade occurs immediately. A trade does not have to be instant; an offer can be left for other players to browse and complete, even while the player is offline. Certain species of Pokémon traded internationally will have a Pokédex entry in the language of the game it originated from. According to Pokémon art director Ken Sugimori, the Global Trade Station was the new feature he was most pleased with.
Pokémon Contests are events in which the player's Pokémon compete in a show to win ribbons and, in Diamond and Pearl, they consist of three stages, two more than the Contests of the Game Boy Advance games. In the Visual Competition stage, players use the Nintendo DS's touchscreen to place accessories on their Pokémon to boost a particular trait, such as "Cool" or "Cute", and earn points. In the Dance Competition stage, the player must tap buttons on the touchscreen in rhythm with the music. The final stage, Acting Competition, is similar to Pokémon Contests of the Game Boy Advance games; Pokémon use their moves to appeal to the judges and crowd. Like Pokéblocks in the third-generation games, baked goods called Poffins can be made from berries and fed to Pokémon to boost a particular trait, and therefore, the likelihood of success in a relevant Contest.
Connectivity to other devices
In addition to compatibility with each other, Diamond and Pearl offer compatibility with the third generation Pokémon games, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Emerald, and FireRed and LeafGreen. They are also compatible with Pokémon Ranger and Pokémon Battle Revolution. After earning the National Pokédex in Diamond and Pearl, the player can "Migrate" Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance games to Diamond and Pearl by inserting a Game Boy Advance cartridge into the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot of the Nintendo DS while Diamond or Pearl is in the DS slot. After six Pokémon are uploaded from the cartridge, they are sent to the Pal Park, an area where the player can capture the transferred Pokémon. Pokémon uploads are restricted to six every twenty-four hours per Game Boy Advance cartridge, and the player must capture the uploaded Pokémon before performing another transfer. Pokémon transferred to Diamond and Pearl this way cannot be sent back to a Game Boy Advance cartridge. After completing a special mission in Pokémon Ranger, the player will be able to send a Manaphy egg or Riolu from Ranger to Diamond or Pearl. Finally, players can wirelessly upload Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl to the Wii games Pokémon Battle Revolution and My Pokémon Ranch.
Plot
Setting
Diamond and Pearl are set in the fictional region of Sinnoh, an island based on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. Sinnoh is not directly connected to any other Pokémon region. It is characterized by large, snow-covered mountains; Mt. Coronet, a part of a mountain range, divides Sinnoh in half. Unlike previous regions, Sinnoh has a "northern" feel to it because it is the first region with snow-covered routes. Sinnoh is also characterized by its waterways with three main lakes, Verity, Acuity, and Valor, that form a triangle. Unlike the Hoenn region, however, which is mostly water routes, only 30 percent of Sinnoh's landscape comprises waterways. Underneath Sinnoh's surface is the Sinnoh Underground, which is a large maze of caves and tunnels.
Story
The games chronicle the adventures of a new Pokémon Trainer who strives to become the Pokémon League Champion by collecting and training Pokémon. Like most games in the series, Diamond and Pearl feature eight Pokémon Gyms led by Gym Leaders, professional trainers whose expertise lies in a particular Pokémon type. Gym Leaders serve as bosses and reward skilled trainers with Gym Badges, the key to the advancement of the plot. As with all core games, the protagonist must also thwart the schemes of a crime syndicate, in this case, Team Galactic, who plan to use Pokémon to create a new universe just for themselves, while destroying the current one.
As with all other Pokémon role-playing games, Diamond and Pearl begin in the protagonist's hometown. After viewing a television report about a media-conducted search for a red Gyarados, which was spotted at a faraway lake, the protagonist and their best friend, Barry by default, travel together to check the local lake for a Pokémon like it. They spot Professor Rowan, a Pokémon evolution researcher, and his assistant, the playable character not selected in the game: Lucas (boy) or Dawn (girl). After a short discussion, the professor and his assistant leave the lake, leaving a briefcase behind. When they are attacked by a wild Starly each, the protagonist and their rival decide to examine the briefcase. They are then given a choice of one of three Pokémon found within—the Grass-type Turtwig, the Fire-type Chimchar, or the Water-type Piplup—and proceed to battle the attacking Pokémon. After defeating the Starly, Lucas or Dawn retrieves and returns the briefcase to the professor. Noticing that a bond has been forged between the young protagonist and his or her chosen Pokémon, Rowan offers it to them, asking that they embark on a journey and fill their Pokédex.
The protagonist encounters the antagonistic group, Team Galactic, early in the game, when he or she must save Professor Rowan from some of their thugs; however, their motives are unclear until later. The player encounters Team Galactic again when they take over a wind farm and when they set up a base in Eterna City, before eventually taking over Sinnoh's three lakes in an attempt to capture the Mirage Pokémon Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Shortly after the player earns their seventh Gym Badge, Team Galactic captures the Mirage Pokémon and imprisons them inside the science laboratory of the Team Galactic Headquarters Building, where its members extract crystals from the Pokémon to create the Red Chain, an object that can control the legendary Pokémon Palkia in Pearl, or Dialga in Diamond. After releasing the trio, the protagonist can access the Spear Pillar, an ancient ruin atop Mt. Coronet, where the leader of Team Galactic summons Dialga or Palkia. The legendary Pokémon's powers begin to overwhelm Sinnoh, causing the newly free Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit to attempt to stop it. The player then battles Palkia or Dialga, and after defeating or capturing the Pokémon, Sinnoh returns to normal. Afterward, the player continues their journey, eventually reaching the Sinnoh Pokémon League. After defeating all Elite Four members, they battle the Sinnoh Pokémon League Champion, a blonded woman named Cynthia, who had appeared before in the game. After the protagonist defeats Cynthia, they become the new Sinnoh Pokémon League Champion, finishing the main story. In the post-game, a new island to explore contains Pokémon not seen in the main game and has some new stores and a tournament center. The protagonist's old friend, who challenged them to battles multiple times before, will also be waiting for them here and will challenge them to one more battle.
Development
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were developed by Game Freak and Junichi Masuda served as game director. The game's music was scored by Hitomi Sato and Junichi Masuda under the supervision of Go Ichinose, with a few other fanfares composed by Morikazu Aoki. According to The Pokémon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara, the games were designed with the DS's unique features in mind, such as the Wi-Fi capabilities and slot for Game Boy Advance cartridges. The command buttons in the battle screen are large and color-coded; according to Masuda, this feature would facilitate gameplay for players unable to read. Also, the touchscreen interface was designed to encourage players to use their fingers rather than the stylus to manipulate the screen. Though most of the graphics in Diamond and Pearl are 2D, some of the background elements are 3D. The decision to retain 2D graphics in Diamond and Pearl drew criticism; in response, Tsunekazu Ishihara said that "we wanted to maintain the original idea of Pokémon being a game that you played on this big map" and explained that physically, the games were in three dimensions but was designed to "maintain the original feel of the game". Responding to criticism over the use of Friend Codes in the games, Ishihara explained that it was a security measure taken to ensure that players would not be able to chat with strangers over the Wi-Fi connection. Nintendo released a statement detailing glitches found in Japanese releases of Diamond and Pearl. The glitches caused players to be stuck in an in-game wall or lose saved data. Nintendo released patches to certain retailers in Japan to fix these glitches.
In mid 2020, dataminers leaked the source code for Diamond and Pearl, revealing a collection of unused sprites and scrapped designs for new Pokémon. They were first leaked onto ResetEra, and were part of a series of Nintendo-related leaks of unfinished builds of games in development.
Release
Development of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl was announced at a Nintendo press conference in the fourth calendar quarter of 2004 alongside the reveal of Pokémon Dash and details on the Japanese launch of the Nintendo DS. Masuda stated it would "become a new type of game that offers a number of new forms of play" and that he was determined to create "the ultimate [Pokémon] version". Though Diamond and Pearl were expected to be released in Japan by 2005, Nintendo revealed that the developers were still working on aspects of the gameplay and that the games would not be released until 2006. The company said that Diamond and Pearl would be able to communicate with Pokémon games for the Game Boy Advance, allowing players to transfer their Pokémon to the new games. Nintendo also announced that the games would make full use of the Wi-Fi capabilities of the DS, allowing 16 players to communicate wirelessly at one time. Further information concerning the games was not released until mid-2006, when Nintendo President Satoru Iwata mentioned that connectivity with Pokémon Battle Revolution was also still in development; new features such as the Pokétch and time sensitivity were also mentioned.
The games were released in Japan on September 28, 2006. To commemorate the release, Nintendo sold a limited-edition DS Lite in Japanese Pokémon Center stores and through the Pokémon fan club by mail. The console featured the games' mascots Dialga and Palkia painted in silver and gold respectively on a metallic black finish. A two-disc soundtrack, Nintendo DS Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Super Music Collection, was also released in Japan on December 22, 2006. It peaked at #253 on Japan's Oricon charts and charted for one week. On December 20, 2006, Nintendo of America announced that the North American release of the games was slated for April 22, 2007, and that those who pre-ordered their copies of the games would receive special DS styluses branded with some of the new Pokémon. Shortly before the games' North American release, The Pokémon Company presented a limited demo of the games for Nintendo's booth at the Game Developer's Conference. To celebrate the games' North American release, Nintendo held a release party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City's Rockefeller Plaza. Nintendo of Europe announced a release date of July 27, 2007, for the European Union, and Nintendo Australia announced a June 21 release date. A launch event was held in GAME stores at Hamleys to celebrate the European release of the games. The event, held on July 26, 2007, offered a chance to purchase the games one day before their official release date and featured an appearance by band McFly. To celebrate the Australian release of the games, Nintendo launched the nationwide Nintendo DS Connection Tour 07; each stop in the tour featured events such as Pokémon Trading Card Game competitions and Pokémon trivia games.
The success of the games revived the popularity of the Pokémon brand. George Harrison, then Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing, noted that the games were attracting "players of all ages"—from younger children to "grown men and women" and older players who "played the original Pokémon games". As a result, Pokémon USA opened a temporary boutique in the Times Square Toys "R" Us that sold exclusively Pokémon licensed merchandise including Jakks Pacific-created action figures, plush toys, backpacks, and clothing. Ronald Boire, president of Toys "R" Us, stated that the store planned to open temporary boutiques in all 585 of its domestic locations. Other Pokémon merchandise included a BattleDome Playset and a talking Pokédex. Additionally, Pokémon USA partnered with Burger King in 2008 to launch a promotional campaign in which Burger King included exclusive Pokémon trading cards and accessories with Kids Meals. The promotion lasted from July 7 to August 3 in the United States and continued through the fall internationally.
Pokémon Platinum
Pokémon Platinum Version is the third version after Pokémon Diamond and Pearl developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was released on September 13, 2008, in Japan, March 22, 2009, in North America, May 14, 2009, in Australia, and May 22, 2009, in Europe.
Pokémon Platinum has been met with generally positive reception, holding aggregate scores of 84 and 83.14% at Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. It was praised for the additions and changes made to Diamond and Pearl by publications such as IGN, Nintendo Power, and GamePro, though it has been criticized for being too similar to them. IGN included it as the ninth-best Nintendo DS game ever made, as well as nominating it as one of the best DS role-playing games of 2009. It was the fastest-selling game in Japan at the time, shifting 7.6 million copies overall.
Reception
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl garnered slightly higher ratings than FireRed and LeafGreen and Ruby and Sapphire. The highest score given was a 92 by UK Official Nintendo Magazine, while the lowest was a 67 by Game Revolution. Official Nintendo Magazine would later go on to rank the game 20th in a list of the greatest Nintendo games. Ryan Davis of GameSpot gave the games an 8.5/10, "Great", and called the games "the most well-rounded Pokémon games to date." IGN and GameZone also gave the games an 8.5/10. The UK Official Nintendo Magazine gave the games 92%, and GameSpy gave them a 4.5/5. The games received slightly lower reviews from ComputerAndVideoGames.com than Ruby and Sapphire had, but earned an "A−" grade from 1UP.com, an improvement from Ruby and Sapphire's "B−".
Most reviewers felt that though the gameplay and storyline had not changed much since the first games, Diamond and Pearl were still engaging. Ryan Davis of GameSpot said, "[I]t's a little surprising how well the formula holds up in Diamond and Pearl, which is a testament to the strong fundamentals of the series as well as the quality of the execution." The games' Wi-Fi connectivity also earned largely positive reviews. 1UP.com called the addition of wireless connectivity the games' "biggest improvements". GameSpot and GameSpy both listed the addition of online play as one of the positive points of the games and called the system "robust" and "probably the most significant new feature." ComputerAndVideoGames.com said of the Global Trade Center, "Suddenly, Pokémon feels properly alive for the first time since playgrounds were abuzz with monsters in the late '90s – and you'll instantly forgive Game Freak their technical stubbornness the first time you switch on your DS and find the level 100 Munchlax you craved is on your cart."
The graphics generally received positive reviews. GameSpot praised the blend of 2D and 3D graphics, and GameZone said that the graphics were "better than what I had originally imagined" and that "a Pokemon title hasn't ever looked this good on a handheld." GameSpy felt that the graphics, though simple, made the game "a pleasure to explore". ComputerAndVideoGames.com, however, said that "the so-called '3D' isn't up to much: it's just a viewpoint shuffle, with DS's gutsy engine taking a nice long nap between the odd hypnotic windfarm or fog effect." The audio was not so well-received: IGN felt that the cries made by the Pokémon "still screech with the flair of the original Game Boy" and that the music, while "more advanced", was "not much beyond [Game Boy Advance] quality". GameZone also felt that the sounds had not been updated, saying "This [the audio] is the only area that hasn't taken one step forward. It remains stagnant and doesn't show any progression over the GBA titles". GameSpot cited the games' "recycled" sounds as one of the negative points.
Sales
First released in Japan in 2006, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have the most successful launch week of games in the Pokémon series, and the best launch week for any Nintendo DS game for the country alone. Within forty-six days, the games sold three million units, becoming the fastest DS games to do so; by the end of the year, the number increased to five million units in just under three months, making Diamond and Pearl the best-selling Pokémon games in Japan. In the United States, pre-orders for Diamond and Pearl passed 533,000, almost twice the pre-sale numbers for FireRed and LeafGreen. Within five days of release, the games sold around one million copies and were the fastest-selling Pokémon games ever until the release of Pokémon Platinum. The games were the seventh-best-selling video games of 2007, with around 4.27 million units sold in the United States; in early 2009 sales passed 5.3 million units. As of September 30, 2017, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl combined have sold 17.67 million copies worldwide, making their sales totals around one million higher than those of Ruby and Sapphire and around six million higher than those of FireRed and LeafGreen. The games also boosted sales of hardware in the United States, spurring the sales of 471,000 DS units and causing the sales of video games in April 2007 to rise 20% from April 2006. In Europe, the games sold around 1.6 million units within just seven weeks of their release and topped the charts in Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, there have been more than 10 million Pokémon trades via Wi-Fi.
Awards
At G4's G-phoria 2007, the games won "Best Handheld Game", and were nominated for "Best RPG". In 2008 Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Children's Kids Vote Award. In IGN's Best of 2007 Awards, Diamond and Pearl were named the best Nintendo DS online multiplayer games and the best Nintendo DS RPG games of the year. In the 2006 Famitsu Game Awards, Diamond and Pearl won the Best Hit award and tied with Final Fantasy XII for the Game of the Year award.
Competitive battling in Pokémon became much more popular with Diamond and Pearl. The physical special split allowed Pokémon such as Gengar and Gyarados to use their higher attacking stat and gave special/physical coverage moves to formerly all-physical/special types, and online play made Pokémon battling possible all over the world.
Legacy
Remakes and Prequel
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are enhanced remakes of the games and were released for the Nintendo Switch on November 19, 2021. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an action role-playing game which serves as a prequel to Diamond and Pearl and is set in an older version of the Sinnoh region known as the Hisui region. It was released for the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022. Both games were initially revealed in a Pokémon Presents presentation on February 26th, 2021.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were produced by ILCA, and acted as "faithful" remakes to Diamond and Pearl, with the addition of game mechanics introduced in later titles. The games were released to "mixed" or average reviews, with positivity being directed towards its faithful nature, with criticism towards the lack of Pokémon Platinum features and how the game handled newer features being meshed with older ones. Additionally, its graphics art-style, which made characters in the overworld resemble "chibis" received mixed responses from critics. As of May 2022, the games had sold over fourteen million copies.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus, while maintaining core gameplay mechanics, changed how the overworld was traversed, with players being able to freely explore five different areas or "biomes" of Hisui. Players can actively interact with Pokémon in the overworld, with hostile Pokémon capable of attacking and injuring the player character. Players can engage with Pokémon in battle from the overworld. The game received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, with many praising the new gameplay style and direction, with criticism being directed towards the game's art-style. The game was nominated for Best RPG at The Game Awards. By May 2022, the game had shifted over twelve million copies.
Related games
Pokémon Battle Revolution is the first Wii incarnation of the Pokémon video game franchise. The game uses wireless connection in order to connect to the Nintendo DS, allowing players to use their Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl in the game's various modes.
My Pokémon Ranch is a Wii game developed by Ambrella and released via the WiiWare download service. First released on March 25, 2008, in Japan, it was later made available in North America on June 9, 2008, and in Europe on July 4, 2008, for 1,000 Wii Points, equivalent to US$10.00. Like the GameCube's Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire, Pokémon Ranch allows players to store and arrange Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl. Pokémon transferred from those games to My Pokémon Ranch are rendered in 3D and can interact with the player's Miis.
Footnotes
Notes
References
External links
Official website |
Dippin%27_Dots | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin%27_Dots | [
464
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin%27_Dots"
] | Dippin' Dots is an American ice cream snack invented by Curt Jones in 1988. The confection is created by flash freezing ice cream mix in liquid nitrogen. The snack is made by Dippin' Dots, Inc., headquartered in Paducah, Kentucky. Dippin' Dots are sold in 14 countries, including Honduras and Luxembourg.
Because the product requires storage at temperatures below −40 °C (−40 °F), it is not sold in most grocery stores, as most cannot meet such extreme cooling requirements.
Dippin' Dots are sold in individual servings at franchised outlets. Many are in stadiums, arenas, shopping malls, and in vending machines, though there are also locations at aquariums, zoos, museums and theme parks.
History
Dippin' Dots was founded in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1988. Jones began the company in his parents' garage. It was originally invented as cow feed when Jones, who specialized in cryogenics, was trying to make efficient fodder for farm animals.
The company is now headquartered in Paducah, Kentucky.
In 1992, Dippin' Dots received U.S. patent 5,126,156 for its ice cream making process, and in 1996 unsuccessfully sued its main competitor, Mini Melts, for patent infringement, losing the suit in February 2007.
Japan became the first international licensee of Dippin' Dots in 1995.
In 2007, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled against Dippin' Dots because the process of creating the ice cream was "obvious" rather than proprietary.
On November 4, 2011, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after failing to reach an agreement with their lender, Regions Bank. According to The New York Times, the bank had been trying to foreclose on Dippin' Dots for over a year.
On May 18, 2012, U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the purchase of the company by Scott Fischer and his father Mark Fischer. The Fischers had co-founded Chaparral Energy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They retained company founder Curt Jones as CEO, and planned to expand from 1,600 sales locations to 2,000 locations, keeping the production and headquarters in Paducah, where it employed 165 people.
In mid-2014, the company purchased gourmet popcorn franchisor Doc Popcorn, which had about 100 stores. On February 10, 2015, the company announced they would co-brand stores with both products. The 1,000-square-foot stores would sell Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn, with a common selling counter, register and employees.
In May 2022, J & J Snack Foods Corp. announced that it was going to acquire Dippin’ Dots for $222 million, and the acquisition was closed on June 21, 2022.
Charity work
Dippin' Dots has sponsored the "Celebrity Grand Slam Paddle Jam" celebrity table tennis tournament in Hollywood, whose proceeds benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
The company is a contributor to the charity Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Florida.
DD Cryogenics
Dippin' Dots are stored and transported at –40 degree Fahrenheit (–40 °C), which is colder than most frozen foods require. The company's development of ultra low temperature freezers, proper storage and transportation got the company involved from about 1988 with selling their equipment for other uses, such as preserving microbiological cultures for fermentation.
To expand this side business after the 2011 bankruptcy and sale, a subsidiary company, Dippin' Dot (DD) Cryogenics LLC, was established in May 2019. DD Cryogenics did contract freezing and pelletizing of microbiological products out of their Paducah plant. In August 2020 a new dedicated 6,000 square foot, US$3.2 million manufacturing plant came online in Paducah.
Their services now include contract design and manufacturing, cryogenic processors, and ultra low temperature freezers.
Vaccine storage
DD's creation of ultra low temperature freezing for their own food products, and commercial freezers going as low as −122 °F (−86 °C), sparked interest when vaccines were developed for COVID-19 that required storage at -94 °F (-70 °C). Pharmacists and distributors of those vaccines reached out for those freezers.
References
External links
Official website |
Paducah,_Kentucky | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paducah,_Kentucky | [
464
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paducah,_Kentucky"
] | Paducah ( pə-DOO-kə) is a home rule-class city in the Upland South, and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located in the Southeastern United States at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missouri, to the northwest and Nashville, Tennessee, to the southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,137, up from 25,024 in 2010. Twenty blocks of the city's downtown have been designated as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Paducah is the principal city of the Paducah metropolitan area, which includes McCracken, Ballard, Carlisle and Livingston counties in Kentucky and Massac County in Illinois. The total population of the metro area was 103,481 in 2020. The Paducah–Mayfield combined statistical area had a total population of 140,138.
History
Early history
Paducah was first settled as "Pekin" around 1821 by European Americans James and William Pore. The town was laid out by explorer and surveyor William Clark in 1827 and renamed Paducah.
Although local lore long connected this name to an eponymous Chickasaw chief "Paduke" and his band of "Paducahs", authorities on the Chickasaw have since said that there was never any chief or tribe of that name, or anything like it. The Chickasaw language does not have related words. Instead, historians believe that Clark named the town for the Comanche people of the western plains. They were known by regional settlers as the Padoucas, from a Spanish transliteration of the Kaw word Pádoka or the Omaha Pádoⁿka.
Incorporation, steamboats and railroads
Paducah was formally established as a town in 1830 and incorporated as a city by the state legislature in 1838. The city charter was drafted by Quintus Quincy Quigley and H. Clay King in 1856.
By this time, steam boats traversed the river system, and its port facilities were important to trade and transportation. In addition, developing railroads began to enter the region. A factory for making red bricks, and a foundry for making rail and locomotive components became the nucleus of a thriving "River and Rail" economy. Paducah became the site of dry dock facilities for steamboats and towboats, and thus headquarters for many barge companies. Because of its proximity to coalfields further to the east in Kentucky and north in Illinois, Paducah also became an important railway hub for the Illinois Central Railroad. This was the primary north–south railway connecting the industrial cities of Chicago and East St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico at Gulfport, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Illinois Central system also provided east–west links to the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railways (which later merged to become the BNSF Railway).
In 1924 the Illinois Central Railroad began construction at Paducah of their largest locomotive workshop in the nation. Over a period of 190 days, a large ravine between Washington and Jones streets was filled with 44,560 carloads of dirt to enlarge the site, sufficient for the construction of 23 buildings. The eleven million dollar project was completed in 1927 as the fourth-largest industrial plant in Kentucky. The railroad became the largest employer in Paducah, having 1,075 employees in 1938.
As steam locomotives were replaced through the 1940s and 1950s, the Paducah shops were converted to maintain diesel locomotives. A nationally known rebuilding program for aging diesel locomotives from Illinois Central and other railroads began in 1967. The shops became part of the Paducah and Louisville Railway in 1986. In the early 21st century, they are operated by VMV Paducahbilt.
Civil War
At the outset of the Civil War, Kentucky attempted to take a neutral position. However, when a Confederate force occupied Columbus, a Union force under General Ulysses S. Grant responded by occupying Paducah. Throughout most of the war, Col. Stephen G. Hicks was in charge of Paducah, and the town served as a massive supply depot for Federal forces along the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee river systems.
On December 17, 1862, under the terms of General Order No. 11, US forces required 30 Jewish families to leave their long-established homes. Grant was trying to break up a black market in cotton, in which he assumed Jewish traders were involved due to racial stereotyping associated with anti-Semitic tropes. Cesar Kaskel, a prominent local Jewish businessman, dispatched a telegram of complaint to President Lincoln and met with him. As there were similar actions taken by other Jewish businessmen and loud complaints by Congress about the treatment of their constituents, Lincoln ordered the policy to be revoked within a few weeks.
On March 25, 1864, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest raided Paducah as part of his campaign northward from Mississippi into Western Tennessee and Kentucky. He intended to re-supply the Confederate forces in the region with recruits, ammunition, medical supplies, horses and mules, and especially to disrupt the Union domination of the regions south of the Ohio River. Known as the Battle of Paducah, the raid was successful in terms of the re-supply effort and in intimidating the Union, but Forrest returned south. According to his report, "I drove the enemy to their gunboats and fort; and held the city for ten hours, captured many stores and horses; burned sixty bales of cotton, one steamer, and a drydock, bringing out fifty prisoners." Much of the fighting took place around Fort Anderson on the city's west side, in the present-day Lower Town neighborhood; most buildings in the neighborhood postdate the war, as most of the neighborhood was demolished soon after the battle to deny any future raids the advantage of surprise that they had enjoyed during the battle. Among the few houses that were not destroyed is the David Yeiser House, a single-story Greek Revival structure.
Later having read in the newspapers that 140 fine horses had escaped the raid, Forrest sent Brigadier General Abraham Buford back to Paducah, to get the horses and to keep Union forces busy there while he attacked Fort Pillow in Tennessee. His forces were charged with a massacre of United States Colored Troops among the Union forces whom they defeated at the fort. On April 14, 1864, Buford's men found the horses hidden in a Paducah foundry, as reported by the newspapers. Buford rejoined Forrest with the spoils, leaving the Union in control of Paducah until the end of the War.
1937 flood
In a far-reaching flood, on January 21, 1937, the Ohio River at Paducah rose above its 50-foot (15 m) flood stage, cresting at 60.8 feet (18.5 m) on February 2 and receding again to 50 feet on February 15. For nearly three weeks, 27,000 residents were forced to flee or to stay with friends and relatives on higher ground in McCracken or other counties. The American Red Cross and local churches provided some shelters. Buildings in downtown Paducah still bear historic plaques that define the high water marks.
Driven by 18 inches (460 mm) of rainfall in 16 days, along with sheets of swiftly moving ice, the Ohio River flood of 1937 was the worst natural disaster in Paducah's history and elsewhere in the Ohio Valley. The earthen levee was ineffective against this flood. As a result, Congress authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build the flood wall that now protects the city.
Atomic City
In 1950, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected Paducah as the site for a new uranium enrichment plant. Construction began in 1951 and the plant opened for operations in 1952. Originally operated by Union Carbide, the plant has changed hands several times. Martin Marietta, its successor company Lockheed-Martin, and now the United States Enrichment Corporation have operated the plant in turn. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), successor to the AEC, remains the owner. The plant was closed in June 2013, and the Department of Energy began the process of decontaminating and shutting down the facilities.
Quilt City
On April 25, 1991, the National Quilt Museum opened in downtown Paducah. Paducah has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of craft and folk art since November 2013. The national quilt show takes place yearly at the Schroeder Expo Center. The American Quilter's Society hosts a week of quilt shows with quilt classes, fabric shops and a variety of vendors. They host a variety of award-winning quilts from across the country. The show features exhibits that include hand pieced and appliqued quilts, Kentucky heritage quilts, and Paducah contest quilts.
The Heath shooting
On December 1, 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal brought five loaded guns to Heath High School and shot a group of fellow students in the school's lobby as they were leaving a prayer group before school. Three students, all girls, were killed and five others were wounded; one of the wounded was left a paraplegic. Carneal subsequently received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. In 2022, the Kentucky Parole Board denied his bid for parole.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 20.0 square miles (52 km2), of which 19.9 square miles (52 km2) is land and 0.10 square miles (0.26 km2), comprising 0.52%, is water.
Climate
Paducah has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with four distinct seasons and is located in USDA hardiness zone 7a. Spring-like conditions typically begin in mid-to-late March, summer from mid-to-late-May to late September, with fall in the October–November period. Seasonal extremes in both temperature and precipitation are common during early spring and late fall; severe weather is also common, with occasional tornado outbreaks in the region. Winter typically brings a mix of rain, sleet, and snow, with occasional heavy snowfall and icing. The city has a normal January mean temperature of 34.6 °F (1.4 °C) and averages 13 days annually with temperatures staying at or below freezing; the first and last freezes of the season on average fall on October 25 and April 8, respectively. Summer is typically hazy, hot, and humid with a July daily average of 78.9 °F (26.1 °C) and drought conditions at times. Paducah averages 48 days a year with high temperatures at or above 90 °F (32 °C). Snowfall averages 8.9 inches (23 cm) per season, contributing to the average annual precipitation of 50.32 inches (1,280 mm). Extremes in temperature range from 108 °F (42 °C) on July 17, 1942, and June 29, 2012, down to −15 °F (−26 °C) on January 20, 1985. Paducah is prone to river flooding from the Ohio River, and as of late February 2018, the river had been expected to crest at 49 feet on February 28.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 27,137 people, 11,330 households, and 5,561 families residing in the city.
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 25,024 people, 11,462 households, and 6,071 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,251.0 inhabitants per square mile (483.0/km2). There were 12,851 housing units at an average density of 642.5 per square mile (248.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 70.99% White, 23.67% African American, 0.22% Native American, 1.02% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.07% from other races, and 3.01% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.68% of the population.
There were 11,462 households, out of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.5% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.0% were non-families. 41.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.84.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.8% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 27.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.2% who were 65 or older. The median age was 41.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $31,220, and the median income for a family was $42,645. Males had a median income of $36,778 versus $27,597 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,430. About 18.1% of families and 22.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.3% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.
2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,307 people, 11,825 households, and 6,645 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,350.2 inhabitants per square mile (521.3/km2). There were 13,221 housing units at an average density of 678.6 per square mile (262.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 72.78% White, 24.15% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.64% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.55% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.38% of the population.
There were 11,825 households, out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.8% were married couples living together, 16.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.8% were non-families. 39.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.84.
In the city the population was spread out, with 22.5% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 20.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,137, and the median income for a family was $34,092. Males had a median income of $32,783 versus $21,901 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,417. About 18.0% of families and 22.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.8% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
Dippin' Dots, the Paducah & Louisville Railway and several barge companies have their headquarters in Paducah.
The river continues to be a prominent source of industry for Paducah. Twenty-three barge companies have their operating or corporate headquarters in Paducah. In 2017, the city of Paducah opened a 340-foot transient boat dock that provides space for transient boaters to tie up for a few hours or several nights, increasing tourism in the city. Amenities include fuel (diesel and marine grade gasoline), water, power pedestals, and a sewer pumpout station (seasonal for water and sewer amenities).
A federal National Weather Service Forecast Office is based in Paducah, providing weather information to western Kentucky, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwestern Indiana.
Top employers
According to Paducah's 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were entities in healthcare and education services:
Source:
Several employers in McCracken County call Paducah home, although their facilities are located outside the city limits. Paducah and McCracken County jointly operate Greater Paducah Economic Development ("GPED"). GPED lists the top employers in McCracken County, several of which include employers within the City of Paducah limits, and is more reflective of the true top employer situation as perceived by citizens of Paducah, as:
Arts and culture
Art
Murals
In 1996, the Paducah Wall to Wall mural program was begun by the Louisiana mural artist Robert Dafford and his team on the floodwall in downtown Paducah. They have painted more than 50 murals addressing numerous subjects, including Native American history, industries such as river barges and hospitals, local African-American heritage, the historic Carnegie Library on Broadway Street, steamboats, and local labor unions.
In May 2003, photographer Jim Roshan documented the painting of the Lewis and Clark Expedition mural during the America 24/7 project. One of the images was used in the book Kentucky24/7, published in 2004.
By 2008 the mural project was completed and being maintained. Muralist Herb Roe returned to the city each year to repaint and refurbish the panels. Roe is the only muralist associated with the project to have worked on all of the panels. Roe added a new mural to the project in the summer of 2010. It shows the 100-year history of the local Boy Scout troop, Troop 1. Troop 1 is one of only a handful of troops who share their centennial with that of the national scouting organization itself. The dedication for the mural was held on National Scout Sunday, February 6, 2011.
In 2017, artist Char Downs debuted the newest addition to the Wall to Wall mural program: a series of murals of award-winning quilts on the floodwall facing Park Street. Downs invested nearly 500 hours recreating Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's historic award-winning quilt Corona II: Solar Eclipse—the first quilt in the series—in her studio in Paducah's Lower Town Arts District.
The Paducah Art Alliance has a program of Artist in Residencies to bring respected artists in to the city. In 2018 British Artist Ian Berry came and put on an exhibition to great acclaim. Ian is famed around the world with his art in denim, and fitted in with the textile art that Paducah is known for.
Lower Town Artist Relocation Program
In August 2000, Paducah's Artist Relocation Program was started to offer incentives for artists to relocate to its historic downtown and Lower Town areas. The program has become a national model for using the arts for economic development. It has received the Governors Award in the Arts, the Distinguished Planning Award from the Kentucky Chapter of the American Planning Association, the American Planning Association's National Planning Award, and most recently, the Kentucky League of Cities' Enterprise Cities Award.
Lower Town, home of the Artist Relocation Program, is the oldest neighborhood in Paducah. As retail commerce moved toward the outskirts of the city, efforts were made to preserve the architectural character, and historic Victorian structures were restored in the older parts of the city. The artists' housing program contributed to that effort and became a catalyst for revitalizing the downtown area. The Luther F. Carson Center for the Performing Arts was completed in downtown Paducah in 2004.
UNESCO Creative City
On November 21, 2013, Paducah was designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art. Arts and cultural initiatives have included the Lower Town Artist Relocation program, the National Quilt Museum, Paducah "Wall to Wall" floodwall murals, and the Paducah School of Art and Design. Participation in the program has been criticized by local business owners and by Paducah's economic development council due to the financial cost to the city, and because the "UNESCO Creative Cities Network only benefits a small portion of Paducah's economy".
Music
The Luther F. Carson Center for the Performing Arts was completed in downtown Paducah in 2004. From Crosby, Stills & Nash to Garrison Keillor, Shanghai Circus to STOMP, the Carson Center hosts touring Broadway productions, well-known entertainers, dramas, dance and popular faith-based and family series.
In September 2004, plans came together to highlight Paducah's musical roots through the redevelopment of the southern side of downtown. The centerpiece of the effort is the renovation of Maggie Steed's Hotel Metropolitan.[28] Prominent African-American musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb's orchestra, B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ike and Tina Turner and other R & B and blues legends have performed here as part of what has become known as the "Chitlin' Circuit". Supporters want to promote Paducah's role in the history of American music.
Paducah is the birthplace and residence of musicians in various genres. Rockabilly Hall of Fame artists Ray Smith, whose recording of "Rockin' Little Angel" was a hit in 1960, and Stanley Walker, who played guitar for Ray Smith and others, grew up in Paducah. Terry Mike Jeffrey, an Emmy-nominated songwriter, is a resident of Paducah. Nashville, Tennessee–based composer–violinist, Mark Evitts, is also from Paducah. The most prominent mainstream artist is Steven Curtis Chapman, the top-selling Christian artist of all time.
Paducah is one of only two cities named in the world-famous song "Hooray for Hollywood", which is used as the opening number for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards (the Oscars). The 1937 song, with music by Richard Whiting and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, contains in the second verse: "Hooray for Hollywood! That phony, super Coney, Hollywood. They come from Chilicothes and Padukahs..."
Both cities were misspelled in the original published lyrics, though that may have been the fault of the publishers rather than Mercer. He was noted for his sophistication and the attention to detail he put into his lyrics. The correct spellings are "Chillicothe" and "Paducah".
Sports
Paducah was home to professional baseball's minor league Class D Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League (or KITTY League) Paducah Paddys (1903), Paducah Indians (1904–06, 1910, 1914, 1922–23, 1936–41), Paducah Polecats (1911), Paducah Chiefs (1912–13, 1951–55), and Paducah Redbirds (1935). The Chiefs competed in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League from 1949 to 1950.
The Chiefs played in J. Polk Brooks Stadium from its opening in 1948 until the KITTY League folded after the 1955 season. Since then, the ballpark has served as the home venue for Paducah Tilghman High School and American Legion Post 31 baseball teams, as well as various special baseball games and tournaments. In recent years, Brooks Stadium hosted the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament (2001–2009) and the National Club Baseball Association World Series (2015 and 2016). Brooks Stadium currently is the home field for the Paducah Chiefs of the Ohio Valley Summer Collegiate Baseball League.
In 1969, the Paducah Community College Indians won the National Junior College men's basketball championship.
The Paducah International Raceway is a 3/8-mile motorsport racetrack built in 1972.
Government
Paducah operates under a council–manager form of city government. The Paducah Board of Commissioners is made up of the mayor and four commissioners elected at-large by the citizens on a non-partisan basis. The mayor is elected for a four-year term and commissioners each for a two-year term. The mayor and council select and appoint a city manager to operate the city.
Education
Paducah Public Schools operates public schools serving most of the City of Paducah. Three K-5 elementary schools, Clark Elementary School, McNabb Elementary School and Morgan Elementary School, serve the city. All district residents are zoned to Paducah Middle School and Paducah Tilghman High School.
Parts of the city and surrounding county are instead served by the McCracken County Public Schools. Concord Elementary School and Reidland Elementary/Intermediate serve students through the 5th grade; Lone Oak Elementary School and Hendron–Lone Oak Elementary School end at the third grade, with 4th and 5th grade students in those schools' attendance zones attending Lone Oak Intermediate School. Middle school students in those areas may be zoned into Heath, Lone Oak, or Reidland Middle School. The county district began operating a single, consolidated McCracken County High School on August 9, 2013. The Paducah city district did not participate in this consolidation and Paducah Tilghman High School remains separate.
Paducah is also home to two private school systems, St. Mary High School and Community Christian Academy.
Higher education
West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) is a member of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and is a public, two-year, degree-granting institution serving the Western Region of Kentucky. There are approximately 6,200 students enrolled at the college. WKCTC was rated as one of the top 10 community colleges in the United States by the Aspen Institute for 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
There is a Paducah campus of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering located on the WKCTC campus.
There is also a Paducah campus of Murray State University, which offers approximately 20 bachelor's and master's degree programs. It has a 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m2) facility located on a 23-acre (9.3 ha) campus adjacent to WKCTC that was opened in 2014.
Public library
Paducah has a lending library, the McCracken County Public Library.
Media
Broadcast
Paducah is one of three control cities of the Paducah-Cape Girardeau-Harrisburg media market, and is served by all the major network affiliates in the market. Locally, television stations in Paducah include NBC affiliate WPSD-TV, MyNetworkTV affiliate WDKA (a sister station to Cape Girardeau-based Fox affiliate KBSI), and Kentucky Educational Television satellite station WKPD. Paducah was also previously home to WQWQ-LD, which served as the area's affiliate of The CW. That station now operates from Cape Girardeau as the market's Telemundo affiliate, but still nominally licensed in Paducah.
Six radio stations are located in Paducah; half of the stations are owned by Bristol Broadcasting Company.
Print
The main print outlet is the regional daily newspaper The Paducah Sun, owned by Paxton Media Group, which owns WPSD. The weekly newspapers, the West Kentucky News and The Good Neighbor, enjoy significant readership.
The bi-monthly magazine Paducah Life debuted in 1994 and continues publication today. The magazine features articles about life and residents in and around Paducah. Purchase Area Family Magazine, a monthly publication distributed throughout Western Kentucky and Metropolis, Illinois, debuted in 2003. The magazine features a comprehensive calendar of events for the Purchase Area as well as unique articles about events, organizations and activities for families in the region.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Port Authority
The Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority was established in 1964 by the legislative bodies of the County of McCracken and the City of Paducah under an equal ownership agreement. The Riverport Authority is a quasi-government agency that provides essential maritime services for the rural regions of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, and Northwestern Tennessee. The agency specializes in bulk, agricultural, general, and containerized cargoes, and operates Foreign Trade Zone No. 294. It is the only United States Maritime Administration Marine Highway Designation on the Ohio River and the only Marine Highway port on the river that is designated for container on barge service. The authority owns the largest flat-top crane in North America.
Air service
Barkley Regional Airport (PAH) serves the area offering regional jet service to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). CLT is ranked among the world's top 10 busiest airports, offering nonstop service to 178 destinations, including 36 international. Barkley Regional Airport is served by one airline, Contour Airlines. Barkley Regional Airport is concluding a multi-million dollar construction/relocation of its terminal.
Transit
The Paducah Area Transit System (PATS) provides fixed-route transit and paratransit service in and around the city.. Fixed-route services operate from Monday through Saturday from 7 AM to 7 PM on four routes.
Roadways
Interstate 24 is a four-lane freeway that routes west to St. Louis and east to Nashville. The highway has a business loop that runs through downtown Paducah.
Interstate 69 is planned to follow the route of the existing Purchase Parkway to the south and east of Paducah. When completed, it would connect north to Indianapolis and south to Memphis.
US 60 is a major east–west highway that runs through the Paducah business district.
US 45 enters the city from the north via the Irvin S. Cobb Bridge from Brookport, Illinois, and runs south down to Mayfield.
US 62 connects to Cairo, Illinois, to the west and Calvert City to the east.
US 68 connects the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Hopkinsville and Bowling Green to the east-southeast.
Notable people
See also
List of cities and towns along the Ohio River
Paducah, Texas
WIAR (Kentucky)
References
External links
Official website
Paducah, Kentucky at Curlie |
Empire_State_Building | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building | [
465
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building"
] | The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet (443.2 m) tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building until the first tower of the World Trade Center was topped out in 1970; following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was New York City's tallest building until it was surpassed in 2012 by One World Trade Center. As of 2022, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, and the 54th-tallest in the world.
The site of the Empire State Building, on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was developed in 1893 as the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel. In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the site and devised plans for a skyscraper there. The design for the Empire State Building was changed fifteen times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building. Construction started on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931. Despite favorable publicity related to the building's construction, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners did not make a profit until the early 1950s.
The building's Art Deco architecture, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around four million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th- and 102nd-floor observatories; an additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019. The Empire State Building is an international cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 television series and films since the film King Kong was released in 1933. The building's size has been used as a standard of reference to describe the height and length of other structures. A symbol of New York City, the building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was ranked first on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture in 2007. Additionally, the Empire State Building and its ground-floor interior were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Site
The Empire State Building is located on the west side of Fifth Avenue, between 33rd Street to the south and 34th Street to the north, in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Tenants enter the building through the Art Deco lobby located at 350 Fifth Avenue. Visitors to the observatories use an entrance at 20 West 34th Street; prior to August 2018, visitors entered through the Fifth Avenue lobby. Although physically located in South Midtown, a mixed residential and commercial area, the building is so large that it was assigned its own ZIP Code, 10118; as of 2012, it is one of 43 buildings in New York City that have their own ZIP codes.
The areas surrounding the Empire State Building are home to other major points of interest, including Macy's at Herald Square on Sixth Avenue and 34th Street, and Koreatown on 32nd Street between Madison and Sixth avenues. To the east of the Empire State Building is Murray Hill, a neighborhood with a mix of residential, commercial, and entertainment activity. The block directly to the northeast contains the B. Altman and Company Building, which houses the City University of New York's Graduate Center. The nearest New York City Subway stations are 34th Street–Herald Square, one block west, and 33rd Street at Park Avenue, two blocks east; there is also a PATH station at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue.
Architecture
The Empire State Building was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in the Art Deco style. The Empire State Building is 1,250 ft (381 m) tall to its 102nd floor, or 1,453 feet 8+9⁄16 inches (443.092 m) including its 203-foot (61.9 m) pinnacle. It was the first building in the world to be more than 100 stories tall, though only the lowest 86 stories are usable. The first through 85th floors contain 2.158 million square feet (200,500 m2) of commercial and office space, while the 86th floor contains an observatory. The remaining 16 stories are part of the spire, which is capped by an observatory on the 102nd floor; the spire does not contain any intermediate levels and is used mostly for mechanical purposes. Atop the 102nd story is the 203 ft (61.9 m) pinnacle, much of which is covered by broadcast antennas, and surmounted with a lightning rod.
Form
The Empire State Building has a symmetrical massing because of its large lot and relatively short base. Its articulation consists of three horizontal sections—a base, shaft, and capital—similar to the components of a column. The five-story base occupies the entire lot, while the 81-story shaft above it is set back sharply from the base. The setback above the 5th story is 60 feet (18 m) deep on all sides. There are smaller setbacks on the upper stories, allowing sunlight to illuminate the interiors of the top floors while also positioning these floors away from the noisy streets below. The setbacks are located at the 21st, 25th, 30th, 72nd, 81st, and 85th stories. The setbacks correspond to the tops of elevator shafts, allowing interior spaces to be at most 28 feet (8.5 m) deep (see § Interior).
The setbacks were mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which was intended to allow sunlight to reach the streets as well. Normally, a building of the Empire State's dimensions would be permitted to build up to 12 stories on the Fifth Avenue side, and up to 17 stories on the 33rd Street and 34th Street sides, before it would have to utilize setbacks. However, with the largest setback being located above the base, the tower stories could contain a uniform shape. According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the building's form contrasted with the nearly contemporary, similarly designed 500 Fifth Avenue eight blocks north, which had an asymmetrical massing on a smaller lot.
Facade
The Empire State Building's Art Deco design is typical of pre–World War II architecture in New York City. The facade is clad in Indiana limestone panels made by the Indiana Limestone Company and sourced from a quarry in south-central Indiana; the panels give the building its signature blonde color. According to official fact sheets, the facade uses 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m3) of limestone and granite, ten million bricks, and 730 short tons (650 long tons) of aluminum and stainless steel. The building also contains 6,514 windows. The decorative features on the facade are largely geometric, in contrast with earlier buildings, whose decorations often were intended to represent a specific narrative.
The main entrance, composed of three sets of metal doors, is at the center of the facade's Fifth Avenue elevation, flanked by molded piers that are topped with eagles. Above the main entrance is a transom, a triple-height transom window with geometric patterns, and the golden letters "Empire State" above the fifth-floor windows. There are two entrances each on 33rd and 34th streets, with modernistic, stainless steel canopies projecting from the entrances on 33rd and 34th streets there. Above the secondary entrances are triple windows, less elaborate in design than those on Fifth Avenue.
The storefronts on the first floor contain aluminum-framed doors and windows within a black granite cladding. The second through fourth stories consist of windows alternating with wide stone piers and narrower stone mullions. The fifth story contains windows alternating with wide and narrow mullions, and is topped by a horizontal stone sill.
The facade of the tower stories is split into several vertical bays on each side, with windows projecting slightly from the limestone cladding. The bays are arranged into sets of one, two, or three windows on each floor. The bays are separated by alternating narrow and wide piers, the inclusion of which may have been influenced by the design of the contemporary Daily News Building. The windows in each bay are separated by vertical nickel-chrome steel mullions and connected by horizontal aluminum spandrels between each floor. The windows are placed within stainless-steel frames, which saved money by eliminating the need to apply a stone finish around the windows. In addition, the use of aluminum spandrels obviated the need for cross-bonding, which would have been required if stone had been used instead.
Lights
The building was originally equipped with white searchlights at the top. They were first used in November 1932 when they lit up to signal Roosevelt's victory over Hoover in the presidential election of that year. These were later swapped for four "Freedom Lights" in 1956. In February 1964, flood lights were added on the 72nd floor to illuminate the top of the building at night so that the building could be seen from the World Fair later that year. The lights were shut off from November 1973 to July 1974 because of the energy crisis at the time. In 1976, the businessman Douglas Leigh suggested that Wien and Helmsley install 204 metal-halide lights, which were four times as bright as the 1,000 incandescent lights they were to replace. New red, white, and blue metal-halide lights were installed in time for the country's bicentennial that July. After the bicentennial, Helmsley retained the new lights due to the reduced maintenance cost, about $116 a year.
Since October 12, 1977, the spire has been lit in colors chosen to match seasonal events and holidays. Organizations are allowed to make requests through the building's website. The building is also lit in the colors of New York-based sports teams on nights when they host games: for example, orange, blue, and white for the New York Knicks; red, white, and blue for the New York Rangers. The spire can also be lit to commemorate events including disasters, anniversaries, or deaths, as well as for celebrations such as Pride and Halloween. In 1998, the building was lit in blue after the death of singer Frank Sinatra, who was nicknamed "Ol' Blue Eyes".
The structure was lit in red, white, and blue for several months after the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. On January 13, 2012, the building was lit in red, orange, and yellow to honor the 60th anniversary of the NBC program The Today Show. After retired basketball player Kobe Bryant's January 2020 death, the building was lit in purple and gold, signifying the colors of his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers. The evening after iconic actor James Earl Jones died, September 9, 2024, the building was lit up to look like Jones's iconic Darth Vader villain from “Star Wars.”
In addition to lightings, the Empire State Building is able to do immersive visual projections on the building's exterior. It partnered with Netflix in May 2022 to celebrate the return of Stranger Things fourth season by projecting the Upside Down onto the Empire State Building.
In 2012, the building's four hundred metal halide lamps and floodlights were replaced with 1,200 LED fixtures, increasing the available colors from nine to over 16 million. The computer-controlled system allows the building to be illuminated in ways that were unable to be done previously with plastic gels. For instance, CNN used the top of the Empire State Building as a scoreboard during the 2012 United States presidential election, using red and blue lights to represent Republican and Democratic electoral votes respectively. Also, on November 26, 2012, the building had its first synchronized light show, using music from recording artist Alicia Keys. Artists such as Eminem and OneRepublic have been featured in later shows, including the building's annual Holiday Music-to-Lights Show. The building's owners adhere to strict standards in using the lights; for instance, they do not use the lights to play advertisements.
Interior
According to official fact sheets, the Empire State Building weighs 365,000 short tons (331,122 t) and has an internal volume of 37 million cubic feet (1,000,000 m3). The interior required 1,172 miles (1,886 km) of elevator cable and 2 million feet (609,600 m) of electrical wires. It has a total floor area of 2,768,591 sq ft (257,211 m2), and each of the floors in the base cover 2 acres (1 ha). This gives the building capacity for 20,000 tenants and 15,000 visitors.
The riveted steel frame of the building was originally designed to handle all of the building's gravitational stresses and wind loads. The amount of material used in the building's construction resulted in a very stiff structure when compared to other skyscrapers, with a structural stiffness of 42 pounds per square foot (2.0 kPa) versus the Willis Tower's 33 pounds per square foot (1.6 kPa) and the John Hancock Center's 26 pounds per square foot (1.2 kPa). A December 1930 feature in Popular Mechanics estimated that a building with the Empire State's dimensions would still stand even if hit with an impact of 50 short tons (45 long tons).
Utilities are grouped in a central shaft. On the 6th through 86th stories, the central shaft is surrounded by a main corridor on all four sides. Per the final specifications of the building, the corridor is surrounded in turn by office space 28 feet (8.5 m) deep, maximizing office space at a time before air conditioning became commonplace. Each of the floors has 210 structural columns that pass through it, which provide structural stability but limits the amount of open space on these floors. The relative dearth of stone in the Empire State Building allows for more space overall, with a 1:200 stone-to-building ratio compared to a 1:50 ratio in similar buildings.
Lobby
The original main lobby is accessed from Fifth Avenue, on the building's east side, and is the only place in the building where the design contains narrative motifs. It contains an entrance with one set of double doors between a pair of revolving doors. At the top of each doorway is a bronze motif depicting one of three "crafts or industries" used in the building's construction—Electricity, Masonry, and Heating. The three-story-high space runs parallel to 33rd and 34th Streets. The lobby contains two tiers of marble: a wainscoting of darker marble, topped by lighter marble. There is a pattern of zigzagging terrazzo tiles on the lobby floor, which leads from east to west. To the north and south are storefronts, which are flanked by tubes of dark rounded marble and topped by a vertical band of grooves set into the marble. Until the 1960s, there was a Longchamps restaurant next to the lobby, with six oval murals designed by Winold Reiss; these murals were placed in storage when the Longchamps closed.
The western ends of the north and south walls include escalators to a mezzanine level. At the west end of the lobby, behind the security desk, is an aluminum relief of the skyscraper as it was originally built (without the antenna). The relief, which was intended to provide a welcoming effect, contains an embossed outline of the building, with rays radiating from the spire and the sun behind it. In the background is a state map of New York with the building's location marked by a "medallion" in the very southeast portion of the outline. A compass is depicted in the bottom right and a plaque to the building's major developers is on the bottom left. A scale model of the building was also placed south of the security desk.
The plaque at the western end of the lobby is on the eastern interior wall of a one-story-tall rectangular-shaped corridor that surrounds the banks of escalators, with a similar design to the lobby. The rectangular-shaped corridor actually consists of two long hallways on the northern and southern sides of the rectangle, as well as a shorter hallway on the eastern side and another long hallway on the western side. At both ends of the northern and southern corridors, there is a bank of four low-rise elevators in between the corridors. The western side of the rectangular elevator-bank corridor extends north to the 34th Street entrance and south to the 33rd Street entrance. It borders three large storefronts and leads to escalators (originally stairs), which go both to the second floor and to the basement. Going from west to east, there are secondary entrances to 34th and 33rd Streets from the northern and southern corridors, respectively. The side entrances from 33rd and 34th Street lead to two-story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel-and-glass-enclosed bridges at the mezzanine floor.
Until the 1960s, an Art Deco mural, inspired by both the sky and the Machine Age, was installed in the lobby ceilings. Subsequent damage to these murals, designed by artist Leif Neandross, resulted in reproductions being installed. Renovations to the lobby in 2009, such as replacing the clock over the information desk in the Fifth Avenue lobby with an anemometer and installing two chandeliers intended to be part of the building when it originally opened, revived much of its original grandeur. The north corridor contained eight illuminated panels created in 1963 by Roy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov, in time for the 1964 World's Fair, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World alongside the traditional seven. The building's owners installed a series of paintings by the New York artist Kysa Johnson in the concourse level. Johnson later filed a federal lawsuit, in January 2014, under the Visual Artists Rights Act alleging the negligent destruction of the paintings and damage to her reputation as an artist. As part of the building's 2010 renovation, Denise Amses commissioned a work consisting of 15,000 stars and 5,000 circles, superimposed on a 13-by-5-foot (4.0 by 1.5 m) etched-glass installation, in the lobby.
Elevators
The Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators. Its original 64 elevators, built by the Otis Elevator Company, in a central core and are of varying heights, with the longest of these elevators reaching from the lobby to the 80th floor. As originally built, there were four "express" elevators that connected the lobby, 80th floor, and several landings in between; the other 60 "local" elevators connected the landings with the floors above these intermediate landings. Of the 64 total elevators, 58 were for passenger use (comprising the four express elevators and 54 local elevators), and eight were for freight deliveries. The elevators were designed to move at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min). At the time of the skyscraper's construction, their practical speed was limited to 700 feet per minute (213 m/min) per city law, but this limit was removed shortly after the building opened.
Additional elevators connect the 80th floor to the six floors above it, as the six extra floors were built after the original 80 stories were approved. The elevators were mechanically operated until 2011, when they were replaced with automatic elevators during the $550 million renovation of the building. An additional elevator connects the 86th and 102nd floor observatories, which allows visitors access the 102nd floor observatory after having their tickets scanned. It also allows employees to access the mechanical floors located between the 87th and 101st floors.
Observation decks
The 80th, 86th, and 102nd floors contain observatories. The latter two observatories saw a combined average of four million visitors per year in 2010. Since opening, the observatories have been more popular than similar observatories at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Chrysler Building, the first One World Trade Center, or the Woolworth Building, despite being more expensive. There are variable charges to enter the observatories; one ticket allows visitors to go as high as the 86th floor, and there is an additional charge to visit the 102nd floor. Other ticket options for visitors include scheduled access to view the sunrise from the observatory, a "premium" guided tour with VIP access, and the "AM/PM" package which allows for two visits in the same day.
The 86th floor observatory contains both an enclosed viewing gallery and an open-air outdoor viewing area, allowing for it to remain open 365 days a year regardless of the weather. The 102nd floor observatory is completely enclosed and much smaller in size. The 102nd floor observatory was closed to the public from the late 1990s to 2005 due to limited viewing capacity and long lines. The observation decks were redesigned in mid-1979. The 102nd floor was again redesigned in a project that was completed in 2019, allowing the windows to be extended from floor to ceiling and widening the space in the observatory overall. An observatory on the 80th floor, opened in 2019, includes various exhibits as well as a mural of the skyline drawn by British artist Stephen Wiltshire. An interactive multimedia museum, with multiple hands-on exhibitions about the building's history, was added during this project. The design of the 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) Observatory Experience was inspired by the plans and designs of the original Empire State Building.
According to a 2010 report by Concierge.com, the five lines to enter the observation decks are "as legendary as the building itself". Concierge.com stated that there were five lines: the sidewalk line, the lobby elevator line, the ticket purchase line, the second elevator line, and the line to get off the elevator and onto the observation deck. In 2016, New York City's official tourism website made note of only three lines: the security check line, the ticket purchase line, and the second elevator line. Following renovations completed in 2019, designed to streamline queuing and reduce wait times, guests enter from a single entrance on 34th Street, where they make their way through 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) exhibits on their way up to the observatories. Guests were offered a variety of ticket packages, including a package that enables them to skip the lines throughout the duration of their stay. The Empire State Building garners significant revenue from ticket sales for its observation decks, making more money from ticket sales than it does from renting office space during some years.
New York Skyride
In early 1994, a motion simulator attraction was built on the 2nd floor, as a complement to the observation deck. The original cinematic presentation lasted approximately 25 minutes, while the simulation was about eight minutes. The ride had two incarnations. The original version, which ran from 1994 until around 2002, featured James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty, as the airplane's pilot who humorously tried to keep the flight under control during a storm. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the ride was closed. An updated version debuted in mid-2002, featuring actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot, with the new flight also going haywire. This new version served a more informative goal, as opposed to the old version's main purpose of entertainment, and contained details about the 9/11 attacks. The simulator received mixed reviews, with assessments of the ride ranging from "great" to "satisfactory" to "corny".
Spire
Above the 102nd floor
The final stage of the building was the installation of a hollow mast, a 158-foot (48 m) steel shaft fitted with elevators and utilities, above the 86th floor. The spire of the Empire State Building was originally intended to serve as a mooring mast for zeppelins and other airships, although the plan was abandoned after high winds made that impossible. At the top would be a conical roof and the 102nd-floor docking station. Inside, the elevators would ascend 167 feet (51 m) from the 86th floor ticket offices to a 33-foot-wide (10 m) 101st-floor waiting room. From there, stairs would lead to the 102nd floor, where passengers would enter the airships. The airships would have been moored to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor.
As constructed, the mast contains four rectangular tiers topped by a cylindrical shaft with a conical pinnacle. On the 102nd floor (formerly the 101st floor), there is a door with stairs ascending to the 103rd floor (formerly the 102nd). This was built as a disembarkation floor for airships tethered to the building's spire, and has a circular balcony outside. It is now an access point to reach the spire for maintenance. The room now contains electrical equipment, but celebrities and dignitaries may also be given permission to take pictures there. Above the 103rd floor, there is a set of stairs and a ladder to reach the spire for maintenance work. The mast's 480 windows were all replaced in 2015. The mast serves as the base of the building's broadcasting antenna.
Inflatable objects have sometimes been mounted to the spire for promotional purposes. For example, a King Kong balloon was attached to the spire in 1983 to mark the 50th anniversary of the character's introduction, and am inflatable dragon was placed on the spire in 2024 to promote the TV series House of Dragon.
Broadcast stations
Broadcasting began at the Empire State Building on December 22, 1931, when NBC and RCA began transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the mast, with two separate transmitters for the visual and audio data. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there. In 1934, RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in a cooperative venture to test his FM system from the building's antenna. This setup, which entailed the installation of the world's first FM transmitter, continued only until October of the next year due to disputes between RCA and Armstrong. Specifically, NBC wanted to install more TV equipment in the room where Armstrong's transmitter was located.
After some time, the 85th floor became home to RCA's New York television operations initially as experimental station W2XBS channel 1 then, from 1941, as commercial station WNBT channel 1 (now WNBC channel 4). NBC's FM station, W2XDG, began transmitting from the antenna in 1940. NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the building until 1950 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the exclusive deal be terminated. The FCC directive was based on consumer complaints that a common location was necessary for the seven extant New York-area television stations to transmit from so that receiving antennas would not have to be constantly adjusted. Other television broadcasters would later join RCA at the building on the 81st through 83rd floors, often along with sister FM stations. Construction of a dedicated broadcast tower began on July 27, 1950, with TV, and FM, transmissions starting in 1951. The 200-foot (61 m) broadcast tower was completed in 1953. From 1951, six broadcasters agreed to pay a combined $600,000 per year for the use of the antenna. In 1965, a separate set of FM antennae was constructed ringing the 103rd floor observation area to act as a master antenna.
The placement of the stations in the Empire State Building became a major issue with the construction of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in the late 1960s, and early 1970s. The greater height of the Twin Towers would reflect radio waves broadcast from the Empire State Building, eventually resulting in some broadcasters relocating to the newer towers instead of suing the developer, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Even though the nine stations who were broadcasting from the Empire State Building were leasing their broadcast space until 1984, most of these stations moved to the World Trade Center as soon as it was completed in 1971. The broadcasters obtained a court order stipulating that the Port Authority had to build a mast and transmission equipment in the North Tower, as well as pay the broadcasters' leases in the Empire State Building until 1984. Only a few broadcasters renewed their leases in the Empire State Building.
The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and the broadcast centers atop it, leaving most of the city's stations without a transmitter for ten days until the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey, was re-activated temporarily. By October 2001, nearly all of the city's commercial broadcast stations (both television and FM radio) were again transmitting from the top of the Empire State Building. In a report that Congress commissioned about the transition from analog television to digital television, it was stated that the placement of broadcast stations in the Empire State Building was considered "problematic" due to interference from nearby buildings. In comparison, the congressional report stated that the former Twin Towers had very few buildings of comparable height nearby thus signals suffered little interference. In 2003, a few FM stations were relocated to the nearby Condé Nast Building to reduce the number of broadcast stations using the Empire State Building. Eleven television stations and twenty-two FM stations had signed 15-year leases in the building by May 2003. It was expected that a taller broadcast tower in Bayonne, New Jersey, or Governors Island, would be built in the meantime with the Empire State Building being used as a "backup" since signal transmissions from the building were generally of poorer quality. Following the construction of One World Trade Center in the late 2000s and early 2010s, some TV stations began moving their transmitting facilities there.
As of 2021, the Empire State Building is home to the following stations:
Television: WABC-7, WPIX-11, WXTV-41 Paterson, and WFUT-68 Newark
FM: WINS-92.3, WPAT-93.1 Paterson, WNYC-93.9, WPLJ-95.5, WXNY-96.3, WQHT-97.1, WSKQ-97.9, WEPN-98.7, WHTZ-100.3 Newark, WCBS-101.1, WFAN-101.9, WNEW-FM-102.7, WKTU-103.5 Lake Success, WAXQ-104.3, WWPR-105.1, WQXR-105.9 Newark, WLTW-106.7, and WBLS-107.5
NOAA Weather Radio station KWO35 broadcasts at a frequency of 162.550 MHz from the National Weather Service in Upton, New York.
History
The site was previously owned by John Jacob Astor of the prominent Astor family, who had owned the site since the mid-1820s. In 1893, John Jacob Astor Sr.'s grandson William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel on the site. Four years later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, opened the 16-story Astoria Hotel on an adjacent site. The two portions of the Waldorf–Astoria hotel had 1,300 bedrooms, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time. After the death of its founding proprietor, George Boldt, in early 1918, the hotel lease was purchased by Thomas Coleman du Pont. By the 1920s, the old Waldorf–Astoria was becoming dated and the elegant social life of New York had moved much farther north. Additionally, many stores had opened on Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street. The Astor family decided to build a replacement hotel on Park Avenue and sold the hotel to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation in 1928 for $14–16 million. The hotel closed shortly thereafter on May 3, 1929.
Planning
Early plans
Bethlehem Engineering Corporation originally intended to build a 25-story office building on the Waldorf–Astoria site. The company's president, Floyd De L. Brown, paid $100,000 of the $1 million down payment required to start construction on the building, with the promise that the difference would be paid later. Brown borrowed $900,000 from a bank but defaulted on the loan.
After Brown was unable to secure additional funding, the land was resold to Empire State Inc., a group of wealthy investors that included Louis G. Kaufman, Ellis P. Earle, John J. Raskob, Coleman du Pont, and Pierre S. du Pont. The name came from the state nickname for New York. Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York and U.S. presidential candidate whose 1928 campaign had been managed by Raskob, was appointed head of the company. The group also purchased nearby land so they would have the 2 acres (1 ha) needed for the base, with the combined plot measuring 425 feet (130 m) wide by 200 feet (61 m) long. The Empire State Inc. consortium was announced to the public in August 1929. Concurrently, Smith announced the construction of an 80-story building on the site, to be taller than any other buildings in existence.
Empire State Inc. contracted William F. Lamb, of architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, to create the building design. Lamb produced the initial building design in just two weeks using the firm's earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as the basis. He had also been inspired by Raymond Hood's design for the Daily News Building, which was being constructed at the same time. Concurrently, Lamb's partner Richmond Shreve created "bug diagrams" of the project requirements. The 1916 Zoning Act forced Lamb to design a structure that incorporated setbacks resulting in the lower floors being larger than the upper floors. Consequently, the building was conceived from the top down, giving it a pencil-like shape. The plans were devised within a budget of $50 million and a stipulation that the building be ready for occupancy within 18 months of the start of construction. Design drawings and construction were concurrent. Steel drawings were completed in mid-January 1930, when foundations were underway.
Design changes
The original plan of the building was 50 stories, but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories. Height restrictions were placed on nearby buildings to ensure that the top fifty floors of the planned 80-story, 1,000-foot-tall (300 m) building would have unobstructed views of the city. The New York Times lauded the site's proximity to mass transit, with the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit's 34th Street station and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's 33rd Street terminal one block away, as well as Penn Station two blocks away and Grand Central Terminal nine blocks away at its closest. It also praised the 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) of proposed floor space near "one of the busiest sections in the world". The Empire State Building was to be a typical office building, but Raskob intended to build it "better and in a bigger way", according to architectural writer Donald J. Reynolds.
While plans for the Empire State Building were being finalized, an intense competition in New York for the title of "world's tallest building" was underway. 40 Wall Street (then the Bank of Manhattan Building) and the Chrysler Building in Manhattan both vied for this distinction and were already under construction when work began on the Empire State Building. The "Race into the Sky", as popular media called it at the time, was representative of the country's optimism in the 1920s, fueled by the building boom in major cities. The race was defined by at least five other proposals, although only the Empire State Building would survive the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The 40 Wall Street tower was revised, in April 1929, from 840 feet (260 m) to 925 feet (282 m) making it the world's tallest. The Chrysler Building added its 185-foot (56 m) steel tip to its roof in October 1929, thus bringing it to a height of 1,046 feet (319 m) and greatly exceeding the height of 40 Wall Street. The Chrysler Building's developer, Walter Chrysler, realized that his tower's height would exceed the Empire State Building's as well, having instructed his architect, William Van Alen, to change the Chrysler's original roof from a stubby Romanesque dome to a narrow steel spire. Raskob, wishing to have the Empire State Building be the world's tallest, reviewed the plans and had five floors added as well as a spire; however, the new floors would need to be set back because of projected wind pressure on the extension. On November 18, 1929, Smith acquired a lot at 27–31 West 33rd Street, adding 75 feet (23 m) to the width of the proposed office building's site. Two days later, Smith announced the updated plans for the skyscraper. The plans included an observation deck on the 86th-floor roof at a height of 1,050 feet (320 m), higher than the Chrysler's 71st-floor observation deck.
The 1,050-foot Empire State Building would only be 4 feet (1.2 m) taller than the Chrysler Building, and Raskob was afraid that Chrysler might try to "pull a trick like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute." The plans were revised one last time in December 1929, to include a 16-story, 200-foot (61 m) metal "crown" and an additional 222-foot (68 m) mooring mast intended for dirigibles. The roof height was now 1,250 feet (380 m), making it the tallest building in the world by far, even without the antenna. The addition of the dirigible station meant that another floor, the now-enclosed 86th floor, would have to be built below the crown; however, unlike the Chrysler's spire, the Empire State's mast would serve a practical purpose. A revised plan was announced to the public in late December 1929, just before the start of construction. The final plan was sketched within two hours, the night before the plan was supposed to be presented to the site's owners in January 1930. The New York Times reported that the spire was facing some "technical problems", but they were "no greater than might be expected under such a novel plan." By this time the blueprints for the building had gone through up to fifteen versions before they were approved. Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan:
The program was short enough—a fixed budget, no space more than 28 feet from window to corridor, as many stories of such space as possible, an exterior of limestone, and completion date of [May 1], 1931, which meant a year and six months from the beginning of sketches.
Construction
The contractors were Starrett Brothers and Eken, which were composed of Paul and William A. Starrett and Andrew J. Eken. The project was financed primarily by Raskob and Pierre du Pont, while James Farley's General Builders Supply Corporation supplied the building materials. John W. Bowser was the construction superintendent of the project, and the structural engineer of the building was Homer G. Balcom. The tight completion schedule necessitated the commencement of construction even though the design had yet to be finalized.
Hotel demolition
Demolition of the old Waldorf–Astoria began on October 1, 1929. Stripping the building down was an arduous process, as the hotel had been constructed using more rigid material than earlier buildings had been. Furthermore, the old hotel's granite, wood chips, and "'precious' metals such as lead, brass, and zinc" were not in high demand, resulting in issues with disposal. Most of the wood was deposited into a woodpile on nearby 30th Street or was burned in a swamp elsewhere. Much of the other materials that made up the old hotel, including the granite and bronze, were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean near Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
By the time the hotel's demolition started, Raskob had secured the required funding for the construction of the building. The plan was to start construction later that year but, on October 24, the New York Stock Exchange experienced the major and sudden Wall Street Crash, marking the beginning of the decade-long Great Depression. Despite the economic downturn, Raskob refused to cancel the project because of the progress that had been made up to that point. Neither Raskob, who had ceased speculation in the stock market the previous year, nor Smith, who had no stock investments, suffered financially in the crash. However, most of the investors were affected and as a result, in December 1929, Empire State Inc. obtained a $27.5 million loan from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company so construction could begin. The stock market crash resulted in no demand for new office space; Raskob and Smith nonetheless started construction, as canceling the project would have resulted in greater losses for the investors.
Steel structure
A structural steel contract was awarded on January 12, 1930, with excavation of the site beginning ten days later on January 22, before the old hotel had been completely demolished. Two twelve-hour shifts, consisting of 300 men each, worked continuously to dig the 55-foot (17 m) deep foundation. Small pier holes were sunk into the ground to house the concrete footings that would support the steelwork. Excavation was nearly complete by early March, and construction on the building itself started on March 17, with the builders placing the first steel columns on the completed footings before the rest of the footings had been finished. Around this time, Lamb held a press conference on the building plans. He described the reflective steel panels parallel to the windows, the large-block Indiana Limestone facade that was slightly more expensive than smaller bricks, and the building's vertical lines. Four colossal columns, intended for installation in the center of the building site, were delivered; they would support a combined 10,000,000 pounds (4,500,000 kg) when the building was finished.
The structural steel was pre-ordered and pre-fabricated in anticipation of a revision to the city's building code that would have allowed the Empire State Building's structural steel to carry 18,000 pounds per square inch (120,000 kPa), up from 16,000 pounds per square inch (110,000 kPa), thus reducing the amount of steel needed for the building. Although the 18,000-psi regulation had been safely enacted in other cities, Mayor Jimmy Walker did not sign the new codes into law until March 26, 1930, just before construction was due to commence. The first steel framework was installed on April 1, 1930. From there, construction proceeded at a rapid pace; during one stretch of 10 working days, the builders erected fourteen floors. This was made possible through precise coordination of the building's planning, as well as the mass production of common materials such as windows and spandrels. On one occasion, when a supplier could not provide timely delivery of dark Hauteville marble, Starrett switched to using Rose Famosa marble from a German quarry that was purchased specifically to provide the project with sufficient marble.
The scale of the project was massive, with trucks carrying "16,000 partition tiles, 5,000 bags of cement, 450 cubic yards [340 m3] of sand and 300 bags of lime" arriving at the construction site every day. There were also cafes and concession stands on five of the incomplete floors so workers did not have to descend to the ground level to eat lunch. Temporary water taps were also built so workers did not waste time buying water bottles from the ground level. Additionally, carts running on a small railway system transported materials from the basement storage to elevators that brought the carts to the desired floors where they would then be distributed throughout that level using another set of tracks. The 57,480 short tons (51,320 long tons) of steel ordered for the project was the largest-ever single order of steel at the time, comprising more steel than was ordered for the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street combined. According to historian John Tauranac, building materials were sourced from numerous, and distant, sources with "limestone from Indiana, steel girders from Pittsburgh, cement and mortar from upper New York State, marble from Italy, France, and England, wood from northern and Pacific Coast forests, [and] hardware from New England." The facade, too, used a variety of material, most prominently Indiana limestone but also Swedish black granite, terracotta, and brick.
By June 20, the skyscraper's supporting steel structure had risen to the 26th floor, and by July 27, half of the steel structure had been completed. Starrett Bros. and Eken endeavored to build one floor a day in order to speed up construction, achieving a pace of four and a half stories per week; prior to this, the fastest pace of construction for a building of similar height had been three and a half stories per week. While construction progressed, the final designs for the floors were being designed from the ground up (as opposed to the general design, which had been from the roof down). Some of the levels were still undergoing final approval, with several orders placed within an hour of a plan being finalized. On September 10, as steelwork was nearing completion, Smith laid the building's cornerstone during a ceremony attended by thousands. The stone contained a box with contemporary artifacts including the previous day's New York Times, a U.S. currency set containing all denominations of notes and coins minted in 1930, a history of the site and building, and photographs of the people involved in construction. The steel structure was topped out at 1,048 feet (319 m) on September 19, twelve days ahead of schedule and 23 weeks after the start of construction. Workers raised a flag atop the 86th floor to signify this milestone.
Completion and scale
Work on the building's interior and crowning mast commenced after the topping out. The mooring mast topped out on November 21, two months after the steelwork had been completed. Meanwhile, work on the walls and interior was progressing at a quick pace, with exterior walls built up to the 75th floor by the time steelwork had been built to the 95th floor. The majority of the facade was already finished by the middle of November. Because of the building's height, it was deemed infeasible to have many elevators or large elevator cabins, so the builders contracted with the Otis Elevator Company to make 66 cars that could speed at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min), which represented the largest-ever elevator order at the time.
In addition to the time constraint builders had, there were also space limitations because construction materials had to be delivered quickly, and trucks needed to drop off these materials without congesting traffic. This was solved by creating a temporary driveway for the trucks between 33rd and 34th Streets, and then storing the materials in the building's first floor and basements. Concrete mixers, brick hoppers, and stone hoists inside the building ensured that materials would be able to ascend quickly and without endangering or inconveniencing the public. At one point, over 200 trucks made material deliveries at the building site every day. A series of relay and erection derricks, placed on platforms erected near the building, lifted the steel from the trucks below and installed the beams at the appropriate locations. The Empire State Building was structurally completed on April 11, 1931, twelve days ahead of schedule and 410 days after construction commenced. Al Smith shot the final rivet, which was made of solid gold.
The project involved more than 3,500 workers at its peak, including 3,439 on a single day, August 14, 1930. Many of the workers were Irish and Italian immigrants, with a sizable minority of Mohawk ironworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction, although the New York Daily News gave reports of 14 deaths and a headline in the socialist magazine The New Masses spread unfounded rumors of up to 42 deaths. The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build (equivalent to $661 million in 2023), including demolition of the Waldorf–Astoria. This was lower than the $60 million budgeted for construction.
Lewis Hine captured many photographs of the construction, documenting not only the work itself but also providing insight into the daily life of workers in that era. Hine's images were used extensively by the media to publish daily press releases. According to the writer Jim Rasenberger, Hine "climbed out onto the steel with the ironworkers and dangled from a derrick cable hundreds of feet above the city to capture, as no one ever had before (or has since), the dizzy work of building skyscrapers". In Rasenberger's words, Hine turned what might have been an assignment of "corporate flak" into "exhilarating art". These images were later organized into their own collection. Onlookers were enraptured by the sheer height at which the steelworkers operated. New York magazine wrote of the steelworkers: "Like little spiders they toiled, spinning a fabric of steel against the sky".
Opening and early years
The Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931, forty-five days ahead of its projected opening date, and eighteen months from the start of construction. The opening was marked with an event featuring United States President Herbert Hoover, who turned on the building's lights with the ceremonial button push from Washington, D.C. Over 350 guests attended the opening ceremony, and following luncheon, at the 86th floor including Jimmy Walker, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Al Smith. An account from that day stated that the view from the luncheon was obscured by a fog, with other landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty being "lost in the mist" enveloping New York City. The Empire State Building officially opened the next day. Advertisements for the building's observatories were placed in local newspapers, while nearby hotels also capitalized on the events by releasing advertisements that lauded their proximity to the newly opened building.
According to The New York Times, builders and real estate speculators predicted that the 1,250-foot-tall (380 m) Empire State Building would be the world's tallest building "for many years", thus ending the great New York City skyscraper rivalry. At the time, most engineers agreed that it would be difficult to build a building taller than 1,200 feet (370 m), even with the hardy Manhattan bedrock as a foundation. Technically, it was believed possible to build a tower of up to 2,000 feet (610 m), but it was deemed uneconomical to do so, especially during the Great Depression. As the tallest building in the world, at that time, and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building became an icon of the city and, ultimately, of the nation.
In 1932, the Fifth Avenue Association gave the building its 1931 "gold medal" for architectural excellence, signifying that the Empire State had been the best-designed building on Fifth Avenue to open in 1931. A year later, on March 2, 1933, the movie King Kong was released. The movie, which depicted a large stop motion ape named Kong climbing the Empire State Building, made the still-new building into a cinematic icon.
Tenants and tourism
At the beginning of 1931, Fifth Avenue was experiencing high demand for storefront space, with only 12 of 224 stores being unoccupied. The Empire State Building, along with 500 Fifth Avenue and 608 Fifth Avenue, were expected to add a combined 11 stores. The office space was less successful, as the Empire State Building's opening had coincided with the Great Depression in the United States. In the first year, only 23 percent of the available space was rented, as compared to the early 1920s, where the average building would be 52 percent occupied upon opening and 90 percent occupied within five years. The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State Building" or "Smith's Folly".
The earliest tenants in the Empire State Building were large companies, banks, and garment industries. Jack Brod, one of the building's longest resident tenants, co-established the Empire Diamond Corporation with his father in the building in mid-1931 and rented space in the building until he died in 2008. Brod recalled that there were only about 20 tenants at the time of opening, including him, and that Al Smith was the only real tenant in the space above his seventh-floor offices. Generally, during the early 1930s, it was rare for more than a single office space to be rented in the building, despite Smith's and Raskob's aggressive marketing efforts in the newspapers and to anyone they knew. The building's lights were continuously left on, even in the unrented spaces, to give the impression of occupancy. This was exacerbated by competition from Rockefeller Center as well as from buildings on 42nd Street, which, when combined with the Empire State Building, resulted in surplus of office space in a slow market during the 1930s.
Aggressive marketing efforts served to reinforce the Empire State Building's status as the world's tallest. The observatory was advertised in local newspapers as well as on railroad tickets. The building became a popular tourist attraction, with one million people each paying one dollar to ride elevators to the observation decks in 1931. In its first year of operation, the observation deck made approximately $2 million in revenue, as much as its owners made in rent that year. By 1936, the observation deck was crowded on a daily basis, with food and drink available for purchase at the top, and by 1944 the building had received its five-millionth visitor. In 1931, NBC took up tenancy, leasing space on the 85th floor for radio broadcasts. From the outset the building was in debt, losing $1 million per year by 1935. Real estate developer Seymour Durst recalled that the building was so underused in 1936 that there was no elevator service above the 45th floor, as the building above the 41st floor was empty except for the NBC offices and the Raskob/Du Pont offices on the 81st floor.
Other events
Per the original plans, the Empire State Building's spire was intended to be an airship docking station. Raskob and Smith had proposed dirigible ticketing offices and passenger waiting rooms on the 86th floor, while the airships themselves would be tied to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor. An elevator would ferry passengers from the 86th to the 101st floor after they had checked in on the 86th floor, after which passengers would have climbed steep ladders to board the airship. The idea, however, was impractical and dangerous due to powerful updrafts caused by the building itself, the wind currents across Manhattan, and the spires of nearby skyscrapers. Furthermore, even if the airship were to successfully navigate all these obstacles, its crew would have to jettison some ballast by releasing water onto the streets below in order to maintain stability, and then tie the craft's nose to the spire with no mooring lines securing the tail end of the craft. On September 15, 1931, a small commercial United States Navy airship circled 25 times in 45-mile-per-hour (72 km/h) winds. The airship then attempted to dock at the mast, but its ballast spilled and the craft was rocked by unpredictable eddies. The near-disaster scuttled plans to turn the building's spire into an airship terminal, although one blimp did manage to make a single newspaper delivery afterward.
On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors. One engine completely penetrated the building and landed in a neighboring block, while the other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. Fourteen people were killed in the incident, but the building escaped severe damage and was reopened two days later.
Profitability
By the 1940s, the Empire State Building was 98 percent occupied. The structure broke even for the first time in the 1950s. At the time, mass transit options in the building's vicinity were limited compared to the present day. Despite this challenge, the Empire State Building began to attract renters due to its reputation. A 222-foot (68 m) radio antenna was erected on top of the towers starting in 1950, allowing the area's television stations to be broadcast from the building.
Despite the turnaround in the building's fortunes, Raskob listed it for sale in 1951, with a minimum asking price of $50 million. The property was purchased by business partners Roger L. Stevens, Henry Crown, Alfred R. Glancy and Ben Tobin. The sale was brokered by the Charles F. Noyes Company, a prominent real estate firm in upper Manhattan, for $51 million, the highest price paid for a single structure at the time. By this time, the Empire State had been fully leased for several years with a waiting list of parties looking to lease space in the building, according to the Cortland Standard. That same year, six news companies formed a partnership to pay a combined annual fee of $600,000 to use the building's antenna, which was completed in 1953. Crown bought out his partners' ownership stakes in 1954, becoming the sole owner. The following year, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the building one of the "Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders".
In 1961, Lawrence A. Wien signed a contract to purchase the Empire State Building for $65 million, with Harry B. Helmsley acting as partners in the building's operating lease. This became the new highest price for a single structure. Over 3,000 people paid $10,000 for one share each in a company called Empire State Building Associates. The company in turn subleased the building to another company headed by Helmsley and Wien, raising $33 million of the funds needed to pay the purchase price. In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wien, and Peter Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly sought retail area.
Loss of "tallest building" title
In 1961, the same year that Helmsley, Wien, and Malkin had purchased the Empire State Building, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey formally backed plans for a new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The plan originally included 66-story twin towers with column-free open spaces. The Empire State's owners and real estate speculators were worried that the twin towers' 7.6 million square feet (710,000 m2) of office space would create a glut of rentable space in Manhattan as well as take away the Empire State Building's profits from lessees. A revision in the World Trade Center's plan brought the twin towers to 1,370 feet (420 m) each or 110 stories, taller than the Empire State. Opponents of the new project included prominent real-estate developer Robert Tishman, as well as Wien's Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center. In response to Wien's opposition, Port Authority executive director Austin J. Tobin said that Wien was only opposing the project because it would overshadow his Empire State Building as the world's tallest building.
The World Trade Center's twin towers started construction in 1966. The following year, the Ostankino Tower succeeded the Empire State Building as the tallest freestanding structure in the world. In 1970, the Empire State surrendered its position as the world's tallest building, when the World Trade Center's still-under-construction North Tower surpassed it, on October 19; the North Tower was topped out on December 23, 1970.
In December 1975, the observation deck was opened on the 110th floor of the Twin Towers, significantly higher than the 86th floor observatory on the Empire State Building. The latter was also losing revenue during this period, particularly as a number of broadcast stations had moved to the World Trade Center in 1971; although the Port Authority continued to pay the broadcasting leases for the Empire State until 1984. The Empire State Building was still seen as prestigious, having seen its forty-millionth visitor in March 1971.
1980s and 1990s
By 1980, there were nearly two million annual visitors, although a building official had previously estimated between 1.5 million and 1.75 million annual visitors. The building received its own ZIP code in May 1980 in a roll out of 63 new postal codes in Manhattan. At the time, its tenants collectively received 35,000 pieces of mail daily. The Empire State Building celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 1, 1981, with a much-publicized, but poorly received, laser light show, as well as an "Empire State Building Week" that ran through to May 8. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to designate the building and its lobby as city landmarks on May 19, 1981,
Capital improvements were made to the Empire State Building during the early to mid-1990s at a cost of $55 million. Because all of the building's windows were being replaced at the same time, the LPC mandated a paint-color test for the windows; the test revealed that the Empire State Building's original windows were actually red. The improvements also entailed replacing alarm systems, elevators, windows, and air conditioning; making the observation deck compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); and refurbishing the limestone facade. The observation deck renovation was added after disability rights groups and the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the building in 1992, in what was the first lawsuit filed by an organization under the new law. A settlement was reached in 1994, in which Empire State Building Associates agreed to add ADA-compliant elements, such as new elevators, ramps, and automatic doors, during the renovation.
Prudential sold the land under the building in 1991 for $42 million to a buyer representing hotelier Hideki Yokoi, who was imprisoned at the time in connection with the deadly Hotel New Japan Fire at the Hotel New Japan in Tokyo. In 1994, Donald Trump entered into a joint-venture agreement with Yokoi, with a shared goal of breaking the Empire State Building's lease on the land in an effort to gain total ownership of the building so that, if successful, the two could reap the potential profits of merging the ownership of the building with the land beneath it. Having secured a half-ownership of the land, Trump devised plans to take ownership of the building itself so he could renovate it, even though Helmsley and Malkin had already started their refurbishment project. He sued Empire State Building Associates in February 1995, claiming that the latter had caused the building to become a "high-rise slum" and a "second-rate, rodent-infested" office tower. Trump had intended to have Empire State Building Associates evicted for violating the terms of their lease, but was denied. This led to Helmsley's companies countersuing Trump in May. This sparked a series of lawsuits and countersuits that lasted several years, partly arising from Trump's desire to obtain the building's master lease by taking it from Empire State Building Associates. Upon Harry Helmsley's death in 1997, the Malkins sued Helmsley's widow, Leona Helmsley, for control of the building.
21st century
2000s
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, but was only the second-tallest building in the Americas after the Sears (later Willis) Tower in Chicago. As a result of the attacks, transmissions from nearly all of the city's commercial television and FM radio stations were again broadcast from the Empire State Building. The attacks also led to an increase in security due to persistent terror threats against prominent sites in New York City.
In 2002, Trump and Yokoi sold their land claim to the Empire State Building Associates, now headed by Malkin, in a $57.5 million sale. This action merged the building's title and lease for the first time in half a century. Despite the lingering threat posed by the 9/11 attacks, the Empire State Building remained popular with 3.5 million visitors to the observatories in 2004, compared to about 2.8 million in 2003.
Even though she maintained her ownership stake in the building until the post-consolidation IPO in October 2013, Leona Helmsley handed over day-to-day operations of the building in 2006 to Peter Malkin's company. In 2008, the building was temporarily "stolen" by the New York Daily News to show how easy it was to transfer the deed on a property, since city clerks were not required to validate the submitted information, as well as to help demonstrate how fraudulent deeds could be used to obtain large mortgages and then have individuals disappear with the money. The paperwork submitted to the city included the names of Fay Wray, the famous star of King Kong, and Willie Sutton, a notorious New York bank robber. The newspaper then transferred the deed back over to the legitimate owners, who at that time were Empire State Land Associates.
2010s to present
Starting in 2009, the building's public areas received a $550 million renovation, with improvements to the air conditioning and waterproofing, renovations to the observation deck and main lobby, and relocation of the gift shop to the 80th floor. About $120 million was spent on improving the energy efficiency of the building, with the goal of reducing energy emissions by 38% within five years. For example, all of the windows were refurbished onsite into film-coated "superwindows" which block heat but pass light. Air conditioning operating costs on hot days were reduced, saving $17 million of the project's capital cost immediately and partially funding some of the other retrofits. The Empire State Building won the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold for Existing Buildings rating in September 2011, as well as the World Federation of Great Towers' Excellence in Environment Award for 2010. For the LEED Gold certification, the building's energy reduction was considered, as was a large purchase of carbon offsets. Other factors included low-flow bathroom fixtures, green cleaning supplies, and use of recycled paper products.
On April 30, 2012, One World Trade Center topped out, taking the Empire State Building's record of tallest in the city. By 2014, the building was owned by the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), with Anthony Malkin as chairman, CEO, and president. The ESRT was a public company, having begun trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange the previous year. In August 2016, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) was issued new fully diluted shares equivalent to 9.9% of the trust; this investment gave them partial ownership of the entirety of the ESRT's portfolio, and as a result, partial ownership of the Empire State Building. The trust's president John Kessler called it an "endorsement of the company's irreplaceable assets". The investment has been described by the real-estate magazine The Real Deal as "an unusual move for a sovereign wealth fund", as these funds typically buy direct stakes in buildings rather than real estate companies. Other foreign entities that have a stake in the ESRT include investors from Norway, Japan, and Australia.
A renovation of the Empire State Building was commenced in the 2010s to further improve energy efficiency, public areas, and amenities. In August 2018, to improve the flow of visitor traffic, the main visitor's entrance was shifted to 20 West 34th Street as part of a major renovation of the observatory lobby. The new lobby includes several technological features, including large LED panels, digital ticket kiosks in nine languages, and a two-story architectural model of the building surrounded by two metal staircases. The first phase of the renovation, completed in 2019, features an updated exterior lighting system and digital hosts. The new lobby also features free Wi-Fi provided for those waiting. A 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) exhibit with nine galleries opened in July 2019. The 102nd floor observatory, the third phase of the redesign, reopened to the public on October 12, 2019. That portion of the project included outfitting the space with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a brand-new glass elevator. The final portion of the renovations to be completed was a new observatory on the 80th floor, which opened on December 2, 2019. In total, the renovation cost $160 million or $165 million and took four years to finish.
A comprehensive restoration of the building's mooring and antenna masts also began in June 2019. Antennas on the mooring mast were removed or relocated to the upper mast, while the aluminum panels were cleaned and coated with silver paint. To minimize disruption to the observation decks, the restoration work took place at night. The project was completed by late 2020.
Height records
The longest world record held by the Empire State Building was for the tallest skyscraper (to structural height), which it held for 42 years until it was surpassed by the North Tower of the World Trade Center in October 1970. The Empire State Building was also the tallest human-made structure in the world before it was surpassed by the Griffin Television Tower Oklahoma (KWTV Mast) in 1954, and the tallest freestanding structure in the world until the completion of the Ostankino Tower in 1967. An early-1970s proposal to dismantle the spire and replace it with an additional 11 floors, which would have brought the building's height to 1,494 feet (455 m) and made it once again the world's tallest at the time, was considered but ultimately rejected.
With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, and the second-tallest building in the Americas, surpassed only by the Willis Tower in Chicago. The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in New York until the new One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012. As of 2022, it is the seventh-tallest building in New York City and the tenth-tallest in the United States. The Empire State Building is the 49th-tallest in the world as of February 2021. It is also the eleventh-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas behind the tallest U.S. buildings and the CN Tower.
Notable tenants
As of 2013, the building housed around 1,000 businesses. Current tenants include:
Former tenants include:
The National Catholic Welfare Council (now Catholic Relief Services, located in Baltimore)
The King's College (now located at 56 Broadway)
China National Tourist Office (now located at 370 Lexington Avenue)
National Film Board of Canada (now located at 1123 Broadway)
Nathaniel Branden Institute
Schenley Industries
YWCA of the USA (relocated to Washington, DC)
Incidents
1945 plane crash
At 9:40 am on July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr., crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors (then the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council). One engine completely penetrated the building, landing on the roof of a nearby building where it started a fire that destroyed a penthouse. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft, causing a fire that was extinguished in 40 minutes. Fourteen people were killed in the incident. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver fell 75 stories and survived, which still holds the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.
Despite the damage and loss of life, many floors were open two days later. The crash helped spur the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the incident. Also as a result of the crash, the Civil Aeronautics Administration enacted strict regulations regarding flying over New York City, setting a minimum flying altitude of 2,500 feet (760 m) above sea level regardless of the weather conditions.
A year later, on July 24, 1946, another airplane narrowly missed striking the building. The unidentified twin-engine plane scraped past the observation deck, frightening the tourists there.
2000 elevator plunge
On January 24, 2000, an elevator in the building suddenly descended 40 stories after a cable that controlled the cabin's maximum speed was severed. The elevator fell from the 44th floor to the fourth floor, where a narrowed elevator shaft provided a second safety system. Despite the 40-floor fall, both of the passengers in the cabin at the time were only slightly injured. After the fall, building inspectors reviewed all of the building's elevators.
Suicide attempts
Because of the building's iconic status, it and other Midtown landmarks are common locations for suicide attempts. More than 30 people have attempted suicide over the years by jumping from the upper parts of the building, with most attempts being successful.
The first suicide from the building occurred on April 7, 1931, before it was even completed, when a carpenter who had been laid-off went to the 58th floor and jumped. The first suicide after the building's opening occurred from the 86th floor observatory in February 1935, when Irma P. Eberhardt fell 1,029 feet (314 m) onto a marquee sign. On December 16, 1943, William Lloyd Rambo jumped to his death from the 86th floor, landing amidst Christmas shoppers on the street below. In the early morning of September 27, 1946, shell-shocked Marine Douglas W. Brashear Jr. jumped from the 76th-floor window of the Grant Advertising Agency; police found his shoes 50 feet (15 m) from his body.
On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the 86th floor observation deck and landed on a limousine parked at the curb. Photography student Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale's oddly intact corpse a few minutes after her death. The police found a suicide note among possessions that she left on the observation deck: "He is much better off without me.... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody". The photo ran in the May 12, 1947, edition of Life magazine and is often referred to as "The Most Beautiful Suicide". It was later used by visual artist Andy Warhol in one of his prints entitled Suicide (Fallen Body). A 7-foot (2.1 m) mesh fence was put up around the 86th floor terrace in December 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three-week span in October and November of that year. By then, sixteen people had died from suicide jumps.
Only one person has jumped from the upper observatory. Frederick Eckert of Astoria ran past a guard in the enclosed 102nd-floor gallery on November 3, 1932, and jumped a gate leading to an outdoor catwalk intended for dirigible passengers. He landed and died on the roof of the 86th floor observation promenade.
Two people have survived falls by not falling more than a floor. On December 2, 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor, only to be blown back onto a ledge on the 85th floor by a gust of wind and left with a broken hip. On April 25, 2013, a man fell from the 86th floor observation deck, but he landed alive with minor injuries on an 85th-floor ledge where security guards brought him inside and paramedics transferred him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Shootings
Two fatal shootings have occurred in the direct vicinity of the Empire State Building. Abu Kamal, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher, shot seven people on the 86th floor observation deck during the afternoon of February 23, 1997. He killed one person and wounded six others before committing suicide. Kamal reportedly committed the shooting in response to events happening in Palestine and Israel.
On the morning of August 24, 2012, 58-year-old Jeffrey T. Johnson shot and killed a former co-worker on the building's Fifth Avenue sidewalk. He had been laid off from his job in 2011. Two police officers confronted the gunman, and he aimed his firearm at them. They responded by firing 16 shots, killing him but also wounding nine bystanders. Most of the injured were hit by bullet fragments, although three took direct hits from bullets.
Impact
As the tallest building in the world and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building immediately became an icon of the city and of the nation. In 2013, Time magazine noted that the Empire State Building "seems to completely embody the city it has become synonymous with". The historian John Tauranac called it "'the' twentieth-century New York building", despite the existence of taller and more modernist buildings.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the building and its lobby as city landmarks on May 19, 1981, citing the historic nature of the first and second floors, as well as "the fixtures and interior components" of the upper floors. The New York City Planning Commission endorsed the landmark status. The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1986 in close alignment with the New York City Landmarks report. The Empire State Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year due to its architectural significance.
Contemporary reception
Early architectural critics also focused on the Empire State Building's exterior ornamentation. Architectural critic Talbot Hamlin wrote in 1931, "That it is the world's tallest building is purely incidental." George Shepard Chappell, writing in The New Yorker under the pseudonym "T-Square", wrote the same year that the Empire State Building had a "palpably enormous" appeal to the general public, and that "its difference and distinction [lay] in the extreme sensitiveness of its entire design". Edmund Wilson of The New Republic wrote that the building's neutral color palette made it "New York's handsomest skyscraper".
Architectural critics also wrote negatively of the mast, especially in light of its failure to become a real air terminal. Chappell called the mast "a silly gesture", and Lewis Mumford called it "a public comfort station for migratory birds". Nevertheless, architecture critic Douglas Haskell said the Empire State Building's appeal came from the fact that it was "caught at the exact moment of transition—caught between metal and stone, between the idea of 'monumental mass' and that of airy volume, between handicraft and machine design, and in the swing from what was essentially handicraft to what will be essentially industrial methods of fabrication."
As icon
Early in the building's history, travel companies such as Short Line Motor Coach Service and New York Central Railroad used the building as an icon to symbolize the city. In a 1932 survey of 50 American architects, fourteen ranked the Empire State Building as the United States' best building; the Empire State Building received more votes than any building except the Lincoln Memorial. After the construction of the first World Trade Center, architect Paul Goldberger noted that the Empire State Building "is famous for being tall, but it is good enough to be famous for being good."
As an icon of the United States, it is also very popular among Americans. In a 2007 survey, the American Institute of Architects found that the Empire State Building was "America's favorite building". The building was originally a symbol of hope in a country devastated by the Depression, as well as a work of accomplishment by newer immigrants. The writer Benjamin Flowers states that the Empire State was "a building intended to celebrate a new America, built by men (both clients and construction workers) who were themselves new Americans." The architectural critic Jonathan Glancey refers to the building as an "icon of American design". Additionally, in 2007, the Empire State Building was first on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.
The Empire State Building has been hailed as an example of a "wonder of the world" due to the massive effort expended during construction. The Washington Star listed it as part of one of the "seven wonders of the modern world" in 1931, while Holiday magazine wrote in 1958 that the Empire State's height would be taller than the combined heights of the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramid of Giza. The American Society of Civil Engineers also declared the building "A Modern Civil Engineering Wonder of the United States" in 1958 and one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1994. Ron Miller, in a 2010 book, also described the Empire State Building as one of the "seven wonders of engineering". It has often been called the Eighth Wonder of the World as well, an appellation that it has held since shortly after opening. The panels installed in the lobby in 1963 reflected this, showing the seven original wonders alongside the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building also became the standard of reference to describe the height and length of other structures globally, both natural and human-made.
The building has also inspired replicas. The New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, contains the "Empire Tower", a 47-story replica of the Empire State Building. A portion of the hotel's interior was also designed to resemble the Empire State Building's interior.
In media
As an icon of New York City, the Empire State Building has been featured in various films, books, TV shows, and video games. According to the building's official website, more than 250 movies contain depictions of the Empire State Building. In his book about the building, John Tauranac writes that its first documented appearance in popular culture was Swiss Family Manhattan, a 1932 children's story by Christopher Morley. A year later, the film King Kong depicted Kong, a giant stop motion ape that climbs the Empire State Building during the film's climax, bringing the building into the popular imagination. Later movies such as An Affair to Remember (1957), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Independence Day (1996) also prominently featured the building. The building has also been featured in other works, such as "Daleks in Manhattan", a 2007 episode of the TV series Doctor Who; and Empire, an eight-hour black-and-white silent film by Andy Warhol, which was later added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.
Throughout its history, the Empire State Building has welcomed celebrities, royalty, and dignitaries to visit the observation deck. From celebrities like Taylor Swift and Zendaya to royalty such as Prince William, the Empire State Building hosts notable figures every year.
Empire State Building Run-Up
The Empire State Building Run-Up, a foot race from ground level to the 86th-floor observation deck, has been held annually since 1978. It is organized by NYCRUNS. Its participants are referred to both as runners and as climbers, and are often tower running enthusiasts. The race covers a vertical distance of 1,050 ft (320 m) and takes in 1,576 steps. The record time is 9 minutes and 33 seconds, achieved by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in 2003, at a climbing rate of 6,593 ft (2,010 m) per hour.
See also
Early skyscrapers
NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building
List of buildings with 100 floors or more
List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
List of tallest buildings by U.S. state
List of tallest freestanding steel structures
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Aaseng, Nathan (1998). Construction: Building the Impossible. The Oliver Press, Inc. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-1-881508-59-5.
Dupré, Judith (2013). Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings-Revised and Updated. New York: Hachette/Black Dog & Leventhal. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-1-57912-942-2.
James, Theodore Jr. (1975). The Empire State Building. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-012172-3.
Kingwell, Mark (2006). Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10622-0.
Pacelle, Mitchell (2001). Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-40394-4.
External links
Official website
Empire State Building on CTBUH Skyscraper Center
Empire State Building under construction (1930–1931) at the New York Public Library
Empire State Building archive, circa 1930–1969, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University |
Shreve,_Lamb_%26_Harmon | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shreve,_Lamb_%26_Harmon | [
465
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shreve,_Lamb_%26_Harmon"
] | Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, founded as Shreve & Lamb, was an architectural firm best known for designing the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world at the time of its completion in 1931. The firm was prominent in the proliferation of Art Deco architecture in New York City.
History
The firm was founded in 1920 as Shreve & Lamb, a partnership of Richmond Harold ("R.H.") Shreve, a Canadian from Nova Scotia, and William F. Lamb, from Brooklyn, New York. Shreve was the administrator, while Lamb was the architect. The two met while working at Carrère & Hastings, and Shreve & Lamb was initially a Carrère & Hastings firm. In 1924 the pair decided to leave Carrère & Hastings and became an autonomous architectural company.
In 1929, Arthur Loomis Harmon, from Chicago, Illinois, joined Shreve & Lamb, and the firm became Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. Prior to joining the firm, Harmon's works included battle monuments at Tours, Cantigny and Somme-Py in France, a YMCA in Jerusalem, and the Shelton Hotel in New York, U.S.
For the construction of the Empire State Building, the firm's most notable work and a symbol of the American expression of the Art Deco style, Lamb was responsible for the design, while Shreve's planning skills facilitated the completion of the construction in a year. Shreve's planning skills were recognized in New York, and he was involved in projects beyond the firm, such as the Slum Clearance Committee of New York.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's primary focus was commercial office buildings, and their work in this area was described as "spare and functional" in 2010 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. However, the firm completed numerous residential projects, such as No. 130 East 57th Street, and this facet of the company's work was mainly conducted in neo-Tudor, as well as other popular historical styles of the 1920s.
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon had also employed the future architect behind the original World Trade Center complex, Minoru Yamasaki, after he had completed a masters degree in architecture in 1936. Lasting until 1945, this professional relationship was cut short when Yamasaki took a job at Smith, Hinchman & Grylls.
It is not entirely clear when the company went out of business, with 1989 being a likely date.
The archives of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon are kept at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library of Columbia University.
Notable buildings
All buildings are located in New York City unless otherwise indicated:
Reynolds Building, Winston-Salem, 1929
521 Fifth Avenue (also known as the Lefcourt National Building), 1929
740 Park Avenue (with Rosario Candela), 1930
3 East 57th Street, 1930
500 Fifth Avenue, 1931
Empire State Building, 1930–1931
14 Wall Street (formerly the Bankers Trust Company Building) addition, 1931–1932
99 John Street (also known as '99 John Deco Lofts'), 1932
Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and United States Courthouse (with R. H. Hunt), Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1932
99 John Deco Lofts (formerly The Great American Insurance Company Building), 1933
Jerusalem International YMCA (architect Arthur Loomis Harmon), Jerusalem, Israel, 1933
Acacia Building, Washington, D.C., 1936
Hill Building (formerly the SunTrust Tower, CCB Building or Central Carolina Bank, and Durham Bank and Trust Building), Durham, North Carolina, 1935–1937
100 Ardsley Avenue West (Hudson House), Irvington, NY 1936
Lever Brothers Co. Headquarters (now MIT Sloan School, Building E52), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1938
Hunter College, 1940
Parkchester buildings, 1939–1942
Best & Company Building (demolished), 1947
1740 Broadway (formerly the MONY Building or Mutual of New York Building), 1950
New York Supreme Court, Kings County, 1957
Carman Hall, 1960
United Engineering Center (demolished in 1997), 1961
280 Park Avenue (formerly the Bankers Trust Building, with Emery Roth & Sons), 1961
222 Broadway (formerly the Western Electric Building), 1961
Calyon Building (formerly the Crédit Lyonnais Building and J. C. Penney Building), 1964
Uniroyal Giant Tire, Allen Park, Michigan, 1964
245 Park Avenue (formerly the Bear Stearns Building, American Brands Building, and American Tobacco Company Building), 1967
1250 Broadway (formerly the Cooper-Bregstein Building), 1967–1968
Stonehenge, North Bergen, New Jersey, 1968
475 Park Avenue South, 1969
Gouverneur Hospital, 1970
Textron Tower (formerly the 40 Westminster Building and Old Stone Tower), Providence, Rhode Island, 1972
55 Church Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 1974
Deutsche Bank Building (formerly the Bankers Trust Plaza, now demolished), 1974
3 Park Avenue, 1975
References
Notes
External links
Media related to Shreve, Lamb & Harmon at Wikimedia Commons |
Richmond_Shreve | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Shreve | [
465
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Shreve"
] | Richmond Harold Shreve (June 25, 1877 – September 11, 1946) was a Canadian-American architect.
Biography
He was born on June 25, 1877, in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, the son of Richmond Shreve, an Anglican priest, and Mary Catherine Parker Hocken. Shreve attended Cornell University, taught there from 1902 to 1906, and was a member of the Sphinx Head Society.
He was president of the American Institute of Architects from 1941 through 1943.
He died on September 11, 1946, in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Legacy
His company Shreve, Lamb and Harmon led the construction of the Empire State Building as well as several Cornell University buildings. Shreve was also the lead architect for the landmark 1937 Williamsburg Houses housing development in Brooklyn.
He was profiled in the book The 100 Most Notable Cornellians.
Notes
External links
Richmond H. Shreve, William F. Lamb and Arthur L. Harmon, photographed in 1941. |
William_F._Lamb | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Lamb | [
465
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Lamb"
] | William Frederick Lamb (November 21, 1883 – September 8, 1952), was an American architect, chiefly known as one of the principal designers of the Empire State Building.
Biography
Lamb joined the New York architecture firm Carrère & Hastings in 1911, shortly after returning from Paris, where he earned a diploma at the École des Beaux-Arts. Lamb became a partner in 1920; the firm would be known as Shreve & Lamb from 1924 to 1929 and thereafter as Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. Lamb's notable projects include the Empire State Building, the Standard Oil Building, 521 Fifth Avenue, the Forbes Magazine Building, and the General Motors Building in New York City; the Acacia Mutual Life Insurance Building in Washington, D.C.; and academic buildings for the Connecticut College for Women, Williams College, Cornell University, and Wesleyan University. In addition to his studies at the École des Beaux Arts, Lamb received a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1904 and did graduate work at the School of Architecture, Columbia University, from 1904 to 1906. Lamb received an honorary doctorate from Williams College in 1932; other honors include two gold medals from the Fifth Avenue Association (1930, 1931), a medal from the Architectural League of New York (1931), and a medal of honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (1932). He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Art Commission of the City of New York, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and the Architectural League of New York. In the period preceding the 1939 New York World's fair, Lamb served as "Coordinator of Design" for the fair's board of planners. Lamb served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1937 to 1945, including as vice chairman from 1941 to 1945. In 1942 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1950.
The firm also designed 521 Fifth Avenue, the Forbes Magazine Building, the Standard Oil Building, and the Bankers Trust Building and worked with H. Craig Severance on 40 Wall Street in New York. He also designed the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
He died in New York on September 8, 1952.
References
Bibliography
Tauranac, John. The Empire State Building, St. Martin's Griffin, New York (USA), ISBN 0-312-14824-0, 1995; pp. 102–4.
External links
Structurae
New York Architecture
Richmond H. Shreve, William F. Lamb, Arthur L. Harmon and Walter Percy Chrysler. photographed in 1941. |
Birdman_(film) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_(film) | [
466
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_(film)"
] | Birdman, stylized as BİRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), is a 2014 American dark comedy-drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The film stars Michael Keaton as a washed-up Hollywood actor, best known for playing a superhero named Birdman, and follows the struggles he faces while trying to make a comeback by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". The film's supporting cast includes Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts.
With a brief exception, Birdman is presented as though it was filmed in one continuous take, an idea Iñárritu had from the film's conception. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki believed that the recording time necessary for the long take approach could not have been made with older technology. The film was shot in New York City during the spring of 2013 with a budget of $16.5 million, jointly financed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Regency Enterprises, and Worldview Entertainment. It premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014.
Birdman had a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 17, 2014, followed by a wide release on November 14. Grossing more than $103 million worldwide, the film received critical acclaim, with praise for its screenplay, direction, cinematography, and the performances of the cast (particularly Keaton, Norton, and Stone). It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography from a total of nine nominations, tying it with The Grand Budapest Hotel for the most nominated and awarded film at the 87th Academy Awards. It also won Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Keaton and Best Screenplay at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.
Plot
Riggan Thomson is a faded actor famous for playing a superhero named Birdman in a film trilogy from 1989 to 1992. He is tormented by the mocking and critical internal voice of his past self as Birdman and frequently visualizes himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis. Riggan is trying to regain recognition by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". However, the Birdman voice wants Riggan to return to blockbuster cinema and insists that he is essential to Riggan's identity.
Riggan's best friend and lawyer Jake is producing the play, which co-stars Riggan's girlfriend Laura and Broadway newcomer Lesley. Riggan's daughter Sam, a recovering drug addict with whom he is trying to reconnect, works as his assistant. A light fixture falls onto Riggan's hapless co-star Ralph the day before the first preview. At Lesley's suggestion, Riggan replaces Ralph with her boyfriend, the brilliant but volatile and self-absorbed method actor Mike Shiner.
The first previews are disastrous: Mike breaks character over replacing his gin with water, attempts to rape Lesley during a sex scene, and complains that the prop gun does not look natural. When Riggan berates Sam after finding her smoking marijuana, she insultingly rebukes and chastises him, telling him that he is irrelevant and the play is for his own vanity. Riggan clashes continually with Mike, culminating in a brawl after Riggan reads a New York Times interview with Mike in which he steals Riggan's personal reason for doing a Raymond Carver play. Jake persuades Riggan to continue with the play.
During the final preview, after seeing Mike and Sam kissing backstage, Riggan goes for a smoke and accidentally locks himself outside with his robe stuck in the fire escape door. He is forced to walk through Times Square in his briefs and enter through the audience to begin the final scene. A concerned Sam is waiting in his dressing room after the show, and she thinks the performance was very unusual but interesting. She shows him that the Times Square footage is going viral and explains how this actually helps him.
Riggan goes to a bar for a drink and approaches Tabitha Dickinson, a cynical and highly influential theater critic. She promises to "kill" his play with a deprecating review without seeing it. On the way back, Riggan buys a pint of whiskey, drinks it, and passes out on a stoop. The next day, walking to the theater with a severe hangover, he visualizes Birdman trying to convince him to abandon the play and make a fourth Birdman film. Riggan then imagines himself flying through the streets of Manhattan before arriving at the theater.
On opening night, the play goes very well. In his dressing room, a strangely calm Riggan confesses to his ex-wife, Sylvia, that several years ago, he attempted to drown himself in the ocean after she caught him having an affair. He also tells her about the Birdman voice, which she ignores. After Sylvia leaves, Riggan picks up a real gun for the final scene in which his character commits suicide. At the climax, Riggan shoots himself seemingly through the head on stage. The play receives a standing ovation.
Riggan wakes up in a hospital and learns he merely shot off his nose, which has been surgically reconstructed. Tabitha has published a glowing review of the play, mistaking the suicide attempt for a new acting technique. Sam visits with flowers and takes a picture of him to share with the skyrocketing number of followers on the Twitter account she has created for him. While she steps outside to find a vase, Riggan goes into the bathroom, removes the bandages revealing his swollen new nose, and says goodbye to Birdman, seen seated on the toilet. Fascinated by the birds flying outside his room, he opens the window, peers up at them, and then climbs out onto the ledge. Sam returns to an empty room and frantically runs to the open window, scanning the ground before slowly looking up into the sky and smiling at what she sees.
Cast
Production
Development
Birdman director Alejandro G. Iñárritu originally conceived the film as a comedy filmed in a single shot set in a theatre. The original choice behind the film's genre, which was subsequently re-adapted to concentrate on Riggan's final emotional tailspin, came from the director wanting to see a change in his approach. All his previous films were dramas, and after directing Biutiful, he did not want to approach his new film in the same tragic manner again. The decision to make the film appear as a single shot came from his realization that "we live our lives with no editing". By presenting the film as a continuous shot, he could "submerge the protagonist in an 'inescapable reality' and take the audience with him". Iñárritu shared his idea with the Argentine screenwriters/cousins Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bo, as well as playwright Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., who had all worked with him on his previous film. Their first reaction was to tell him the continuous-shot idea could not work. According to Dinelaris and Giacobone, "huge" and "important" people told him to not even try the project for the same reason. Iñárritu himself described the technique as "almost suicidal", worrying that it would be distracting, instead of immersive. Dinelaris later said that had they truly paused and considered the idea, they might have talked Iñárritu out of it.
The personal and vocational experiences of the four co-writers were central to writing the script. Dinelaris' exposure to Broadway shaped the depictions of rehearsals and events backstage, though he admitted exaggerating these. He also felt his background writing long scenes of dialogue helped since scenes in the film "were really more like play scenes". Iñárritu's own experiences influenced many of Birdman's themes. "What this film talks about, I have been through", Iñárritu recalled. "I have seen and experienced all of it; it's what I have been living through the last years of my life." Dinelaris described this aspect as "a laughing look at oneself", but said it had to be done in a comedic way; otherwise, "it would have been the most unbelievably self-absorbed look at the subject". Themes from Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love", which Riggan adapts for stage in the story, also influenced the script. Iñárritu wanted to find the connection between the themes in Riggan's story and those of Carver's. Because of this, it was important to the director that Carver's story be the subject of the play depicted within the film. Therefore, Iñárritu stated that his desire to use Carver's work was "terrifying" because the rights to using the Carver material were still subject to the possibility of being rejected during development of the film, but no issues arose. Carver's widow, writer Tess Gallagher, loved the script and permitted the adaptation, saying that Carver would be laughing about the film.
While some aspects of the film – the first frame with Riggan, for instance – went unchanged from Birdman's conception to release, others went through several iterations. One of these was the sequence in which alter ego Birdman takes complete control over Riggan's thoughts. The writers knew it would occur at Riggan's lowest point, so at one stage planned for it to happen after Riggan hears the initial negative press coverage and destroys his dressing room. In another discarded version, Riggan tries to drown himself in Central Park and flies out to save himself.
The film's ending also changed, the final version being written halfway through filming. The original intended to depict Johnny Depp in Riggan's dressing room with a Pirates of the Caribbean poster in the back. Iñárritu grew to strongly dislike this ending, calling it "so embarrassing", and rewrote it with Dinelaris and Giacobone after a new ending came to him in a dream. Iñárritu was reluctant to describe the original ending, but it was leaked by Dinelaris. He said the original ending was set in the theatre, instead of the hospital, and involved Depp putting on Riggan Thomson's wig, and in Jack Sparrow's voice, "... the poster asks Depp, 'What the fuck are we doing here, mate?', and it was going to be the satire of the endless loop of that." The director and co-authors ruled out the satirical ending, and favored the new, more ambiguous, ending.
The project of co-writing was expedited by the collaboration between the four co-writers on the internet working from different geographical locations. With Iñárritu in Los Angeles, Giacobone and Bo in Buenos Aires, and Dinelaris in New York, the script was mainly written through Skype calls and emails. Although this complicated the writing process, Dinelaris said he believed the best ideas in Birdman came from Skype sessions at two in the morning where he and Giacobone were "cracking each other up". Incorporating the one-shot feature also affected the writing. Bo said: "We wrote everything thinking of this one shot, and a lot of decisions that would mostly be taken in the editing room were taken before shooting". The one-shot approach meant the scenes could not be removed or re-ordered in post-production, so the writers needed to be "very, very sure about what was on the page". As a result, it took about a year and a half to complete the final draft. As Dinelaris summarized, "You have to be an idiot to do it all in one shot. You have to be an idiot to attempt it. It takes a great, great deal of ignorance to not pay attention to the difficulties and to think you're going to do this. Birdman looks like a good idea now, but [at the time of production] we did not know how we would land."
Casting
Iñárritu cast several of the leading roles before the film was financed. Among these was the lead role. Early in script development, Iñárritu did not have Keaton in mind, but he had changed his mind by the end: "When I finished the script, I knew that Michael was not the choice or option, he was the guy". Iñárritu cast Keaton for his depth in a variety of acting styles: He could handle the demands of the stage, up-close work, and comedy and empathy "with a profound depth to both".
Keaton knew about Birdman before Iñárritu contacted him. He was in the middle of production of another project when he learned that Iñárritu was making another film. Keaton, a fan of his work, flew home to find out more. Iñárritu sent him the script and they discussed it over dinner. The first thing Keaton asked the director was whether he was making fun of him (regarding his role in Tim Burton's Batman films), but after Iñárritu explained the role, its technicalities, and the film's production, Keaton agreed to play Riggan. Despite this, the final film contains numerous references to Burton's Batman films, including the year Riggan is mentioned to have last played Birdman being 1992.
Iñárritu called his decision behind casting Galifianakis as Jake "a bet". Galifianakis met the director's criteria of being lovable and funny, but Iñárritu also considered him sensitive, which scored him the role. Emma Stone already knew she wanted to work with Iñárritu before she was offered the role of Sam. The script that Iñárritu gave her and the rest of the cast came with the photo Man on Wire, which featured Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers on a tightrope. Iñárritu told the cast, "We are doing that".
Once these actors were committed, Iñárritu sought funding. He first invited Fox Searchlight Pictures to finance the project, but they turned his offer down because they felt his asking budget was too high. At one stage Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures wanted to be involved in the project, but decided against it because, unlike her other films, she had not been involved since the beginning. Iñárritu approached Brad Weston, president of New Regency, who accepted the offer. When executive Claudia Lewis of Searchlight heard about the deal, she reconsidered and asked to be included in the deal. Searchlight and New Regency had previously worked together to finance 12 Years a Slave, and they decided to join together for Birdman, financing a budget of $16.5 million.
Weston and Lewis developed a close relationship with Iñárritu, editing the script with him and switching some of the actors. When they joined production, Josh Brolin was set to play the role of Mike Shiner, but the financiers decided to switch him for Norton because of scheduling conflicts.
He said Norton's experience as a theatre actor, combined with his self-confidence, meant that "in a way, there was some kind of mental reality to Edward", but Norton believes he was the one who convinced Iñárritu to take him on. Norton was a fan of the director's work and impressed with his ability to push outside film-making boundaries. Norton heard about Iñárritu's project from a friend. Once he got the script, he read it straight through until 3:00 am. Norton said, "I laughed so hard I woke people up." Norton wanted to meet Iñárritu the next day, and once they met, Norton told him he could not cast someone who was the "embodiment" of what the script was taking aim at. Instead, the director needed to cast someone "who has at least a little bit of authentic depth of experience, in this world". Iñárritu agreed.
Amy Ryan, one of the last actors to be cast, was invited because Iñárritu had seen her in the play Detroit. Lindsay Duncan had vast experience in the theatre world too, and decided to accept the offer to play the critic because of the quality of the script. "It's delicious because of the writing." But like Shiner's character, Iñárritu found casting Laura difficult. Riseborough met him on a street corner for a cup of tea, and recalling the event, said, "I told him that I would crawl across hot coals to work with him". Iñárritu described Laura as "a very wacky, quirky role", but said, "when [Andrea Riseborough] did it, I knew that it was her, because she did it right in the tone, and she understood who she was – she was not judging".
Rehearsal and filming
Once the writing was finished, Iñárritu contacted friend and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to discuss his idea for the film. After reading the script, Lubezki was worried that Iñárritu would offer him the job since Birdman "had all of the elements of a movie that I did not want to do at all" – comedy, studio work and long takes – but changed his mind after further discussion with the director. The pair had worked together on commercials and a short film in the anthology To Each His Own Cinema, but not on any feature films. Lubezki wanted to be sure that this was a decision Rodrigo Prieto, cinematographer of all four of Iñárritu's feature films, was comfortable with, but after receiving his blessing, the two headed into pre-production.
Lubezki was concerned that no film had been shot in the way Iñárritu envisioned, meaning there would be no reference material to look up. The two decided the only way to learn how to shoot it would be to shoot it themselves, so they built a proxy stage at Sony Studios in Los Angeles. The setup was minimal. Canvas and C-stands were used for walls, while tape and a few pieces of furniture marked out areas. Using a camera and some stand-ins, the duo worked through the movie to see if it was possible. Realizing no theatre could accommodate the intricate camerawork they needed, they hired Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York. Still, Iñárritu wanted to shoot at a Broadway theater, but would have to wait until several weeks into rehearsals before securing St. James Theatre. They then spent a few months designing and making "blueprints" of the shots and blocking the scenes, using the stand-ins to read and walk through the script. The planning was precise. Iñárritu said: "There was no room to improvise at all. Every movement, every line, every door opening, absolutely everything was rehearsed." The actors started rehearsing once this preliminary work was completed: According to Lubezki, they did the scenes with the actors "once we kind of knew what the rhythm of the scenes were". He described the atypical approach "like an upside down movie where you do post-production before the production".
I know Alejandro is very adamant about kind of keeping the rabbit in the hat and not being super specific about how it was shot, but I will say it took a lot of rehearsal and it was very specific... There was no luxury of cutting away or editing around anything. You knew that every scene was staying in the movie, and like theater, this was it, this was your chance to live this scene.
Editors Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione were involved in the project by this stage. When Iñárritu told Mirrione that he planned for Lubezki to record table readings and the rehearsals, he suggested they edit them immediately to discover what was and was not working early on. The editing also allowed the editors to discuss pacing issues with the director, such as the position of the night-day transitions and other moments of rest in the film. Production designer Kevin Thompson was on hand too, and mapped out the scenes. The camerawork required many elements of the set to be built in a certain way. For example, Riggan's makeup mirror and desk were constructed so that the camera would see his reflection. Thompson also took into consideration the needs of the crew, for instance designing the stairs a little wider for Steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff's footsize.
He then constructed a template of the set they would build when in New York. The writers were also involved in the rehearsals, fine-tuning the script to "make sure the film was fluid and never stopped".
Once the logistics of the scenes were worked out and they had the timing down, the team headed to Kaufman Studios for more rehearsals, followed by principal photography based exclusively in New York during the spring of 2013. The studios were used to film the backstage areas of the film, including Riggan's dressing room and the theatre corridors. St. James Theatre was used for two weeks; it was the location for the stage scenes. The bar segments were shot in The Rum House on 47th Street, and 43rd Street was used for the action-sequence. The film was unable to be shot chronologically because of scheduling with the theatre. Throughout the locations, including the studio, the scenes were lit with natural light, since Lubezki wanted the movie "to look as naturalistic as possible". The night-time scenes were possible to film in this way due to the brightness of New York. Lubezki found lighting the scenes to be the hardest part of his work on the film. Not only did the lighting need to look realistic, but also had to be designed so that the continuous movements of the camera did not project the crew's shadows onto the actors.
Throughout shooting, Arri Alexa cameras were used; an Alexa M was used for handheld sequences, and an Alexa XT was attached to the Steadicam. Neither used matte boxes, however. Steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff explained this decision: "We didn't want this big black thing gliding into their eyeline. This way we could get very close and get the light past the lens and onto the actor's face." Lubezki – who did all the handheld camerawork – had chosen the Alexa M because the camera was very small and allowed him to get into tiny spaces and close to the actors, sometimes filming two inches (5 cm) away from Keaton's face. The camera also allowed recording for such a long period – necessary for the long takes of the movie – that Lubezki went so far as to say the movie would have been impossible to do years before. The cameras were lensed with Leica Summilux-C or Zeiss Master Primes. Lubezki stated that these gave clean images, saying "You can have all these lights in the frame and they are not really causing bad flare or things like that". In terms of sizes, they initially trialled a 21mm, but this did not give Iñárritu the "intimacy" he wanted. The crew instead went to an 18mm Leica, which was used for the majority of the film. Only when emphasis was needed did they switch the lens to a 14mm, but this was rare.
Despite all the preparation, a typical shooting day would begin with rehearsals. These usually lasted most of the morning, after which photography followed. The meticulous timing for the scenes meant that takes were cancelled because of the slightest mishaps. Emma Stone, in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, recalled how a six-minute take of the scene where Riggan first meets Mike was ruined after she walked around a corner too quickly. Takes were also repeated if a scene's rhythm did not feel right to Iñárritu, or if he and Lubezki were not satisfied with a shot's framing. As shooting progressed, lines of dialog would also be dropped, giving Iñárritu more options during post-production. Because of this, the number of takes for a given scene was high, usually 20 for the shorter scenes, the takes running smoothly around the fifteenth. Chris Haarhoff described it as "a type of dance where everyone would hopefully try to peak all at the same moment". The locations sometimes placed restrictions on the takes too; the live Times Square sequence was shot only twice since they did not want to attract the attention of tourists.
Whenever shooting was taking place there was pressure on everyone involved, but the cast had a positive experience. Norton said that normally in movie production half the people can "check out" due to repetitive aspects, but during the shooting of Birdman, "everybody's on, the whole thing, and you're all on pins and needles because you're all relying on forty other people not to drop the ball". Because of this, Stone said the director was able to get the best out of the cast, saying Iñárritu's process "creates this sort of fury in you, and then you end up realizing that he just got so much out of you that you didn't even know you had". Naomi Watts commented that the atmosphere "felt emblematic of how it feels onstage – at least my long-time memories from long ago". Andrea Riseborough, meanwhile, described the process as "wonderful", mentioning how it was possible to hear the filming of a sequence from far away before the camera arrived, and then "the magic happens with you, and then everything leaves you, and everything's silent". Once they successfully completed a take though, it was obvious to everybody involved. Norton said: "I've never, ever been on a set where every day ended with an enormous, authentic sort of cheer at having made it. You're waiting for the scream from [Iñárritu], and everybody was genuinely excited."
Music and soundtrack
The film's original music segments are a drum score consisting entirely of solo jazz percussion performances by Antonio Sánchez. The score is offset by a number of well-known classical music pieces, including Mahler and Tchaikovsky. Iñárritu did not regard the particular choice of classical pieces as important. Nonetheless, the choice of classical music was strongly oriented to highly melodic scores taken predominantly from the 19th century classical repertoire (Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Ravel). Iñárritu stated that the classical components come from the world of the play, citing the radio in Riggan's room and the show itself as two sources of the music. The classical music segments also included two compositions by American composer John Adams. Several jazz compositions by Victor Hernández Stumpfhauser and Joan Valent counterbalance the original music composition by Sánchez. The drum sections comprise the majority of the score, however, and were composed by Sánchez. Iñárritu explained the choice by saying they helped to structure scenes, and that "The drums, for me, was a great way to find the rhythm of the film... In comedy, rhythm is king, and not having the tools of editing to determine time and space, I knew I needed something to help me find the internal rhythm of the film."
Iñárritu contacted friend and jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez in January 2013, inviting him to compose the score for the film. His reaction to writing a soundtrack using only drums was similar to Lubezki's thoughts of shooting the movie like a single shot: "It was a scary proposition because I had no point of reference of how to achieve this. There's no other movie I know that has a score like this." Sánchez had also not worked on a film before, nevertheless, after receiving the script, he composed "rhythmic themes" for each of the characters. Iñárritu was looking for the opposite approach, however, preferring spontaneity and improvisation. Sánchez then waited until production moved to New York before composing more, where he visited the set for a couple of days to get a better idea of the film. Following this, a week before principal photography, he and Iñárritu went to a studio to record some demos. During these sessions the director would first talk him through the scene, then while Sánchez was improvising guide him by raising his hand to indicate an event – such as a character opening a door – or by describing the rhythm with verbal sounds. They recorded around seventy demos, which Iñárritu used to inform the pacing of the scenes on set, and once filming was complete, spliced them into the rough cut. Sánchez summarized the process by saying, "The movie fed on the drums, and the drums fed on the imagery". The official soundtrack was released as a CD (77 min) in October 2014, and as an LP (69 min) in April 2015.
When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released their longlist for the Academy Award for Best Original Score in December 2014, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was absent from the list. The previous day, Sánchez received a note from the award committee explaining the decision, quoting rule fifteen of the 87th Academy Award Rules, noting "the fact that the film also contains over a half an hour of non-original (mostly classical) music cues that are featured very prominently in numerous pivotal moments in the film made it difficult for the committee to accept your submission". Sánchez launched an appeal, and along with Iñárritu and the executive vice-president of Fox Music, they sent letters to Charles Fox, the chair of the Academy's music branch executive committee, asking that the committee reconsider their decision. One of the points they raised was that the committee incorrectly calculated the ratio of classical to original music, which after being clarified Sánchez thought he was "on really solid ground". A response from Fox on December 19, however, explained that a special meeting of the music committee was held, and although its members had "great respect" for the score and considered it "superb", they thought that the classical music "was also used as scoring", "equally contributes to the effectiveness of the film", and that the musical identity of the film was created by both the drums and classical music. Ultimately, they did not overturn their decision. Sánchez said that he and Iñárritu were not satisfied with the explanation.
Post-production and visual effects
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was edited by Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione, who had both worked with the director before on 21 Grams and Babel. Stitching shots together was a crucial component of the editing, but Crise and Mirrione already had experience doing this. The director had included takes that were joined together in previous films, but in these if the editors did not think the stitching worked, they had the ability to introduce cuts. Mirrione said that in Birdman Iñárritu had "let go of that safety net". Because of this the editors needed to be involved in the project early on, and during principal photography Crise was on set every day. (Mirrione was busy and unable to be in New York.) Crise was not used to being on set and providing feedback, but said he was happy Iñárritu "dragged it out" of him, knowing that they would not have much room to fix scenes later so they needed to get them right. For stitching, aside from the director, Crise also discussed strategies with Lubezki and Thompson, and techniques for gluing takes together included panning on walls and actors' bodies. The editors were used to being able to adjust the rhythm of a scene by the positioning of cuts, so without this tool used Sánchez's music instead. The director gave the New York recordings to Crise early on to help with pacing, asking him to cut the music to the film. Still, in terms of the editing workflow, Crise described it as "pretty traditional". The editors cut the film together back in Los Angeles. A few weeks after shooting, they were quite far along the cut itself, and transitioned into visual-effects mode, where they fine-tuned the shots.
They always talk about how when you're cutting a dance scene, a choreographer wouldn't want any cuts because she's designing something to see the whole movement, and that's what Alejandro was doing here.
The visual effects for the film were created by Montreal based studio Rodeo FX. They spent four months working on the film, and according to visual effects supervisor Ara Khanikian "visual effects touched 90% of the frames in the movie". A lot of the work was subtle, such as stitching shots together, or creating the background for the windows in the hospital scene. Many shots in the film feature mirrors, and much work was spent removing the reflections of the crew from these. To accomplish this the studio created a 2.5D digital matte painting of the reflected environment. They then rotoscoped out the parts of the mirror not containing the foreground actors and their reflections, and replaced these with the digital environment. Some of the original shots captured smudges and dirt on the mirrors, so the studio developed a way to extract them so they could paste them back into the film. A matte-painting was constructed for the night-day time lapses in the film too, created by matchmoving and reprojecting shots of the buildings it features, captured at different times of the day, together. Rodeo FX also adjusted the pace of scenes. Iñárritu demanded a "very precise rhythm and flow" to the film, so the studio had to re-speed much of it with timewarp curves to fit the pacing the director desired.
Unlike some of the smaller adjustments though, the flying sequence required extensive preparation. Iñárritu spent three weeks with Halon Entertainment to previsualize the sequence. In New York, Lubezki then used the choreography of the previsualization to shoot background plates for the sequence, using a camera crane on a truck. When these were shot, Lubezki had mounted four GoPro cameras to the lens of the film camera to capture the light environment around him. Later, on a greenstage in Montreal, using a technique he had developed on Gravity, Lubezki lit Keaton with LED panels featuring high-dynamic-range images of the surrounding New York footage. The panels then realistically lit Keaton. Khanikian described the effect of the process, saying, "Instead of using standard lighting on greenscreen, [we were getting] the proper red bounce from the red bricks, and the same color of the sky reflected on Michael's head. It worked so well." Rodeo FX then completed the final shots. The sequence was the last piece the editors inserted into the film. Mirrione commented that before the sequence was finished, they "had only imagined what it was going to feel like", but once it was completed, "it took the movie to this ecstatic level that absolutely blew me away".
Sound design for the film was handled by Martín Hernández, who has worked on all the director's feature films. The production sound his team was given was "surprisingly perfect and clean", so they did not need to spend much time tidying it. The lack of visual cuts in the film meant a departure from the usual way Hernández edited sound though. "Normally, Alejandro likes, as he calls it, 'the clashing of the sounds'. The camera changes angle within the scene and there is a change of everything – backgrounds, texture, dialog. Obviously, that would not work on Birdman because here, everything is flowing." Additionally, the sound of objects in the film needed to be coordinated with their position onscreen, a non-trivial task, since the camera was nearly always moving. Hernández also helped to cut Sánchez's tracks, selecting and editing moments from the New York recordings against the film. When the tracks were re-recording in Los Angeles, in order "to have distance, and closeness and resonance" the team used thirty-two microphones for each take. Hernández described the job as "crazy". A large challenge of the post-production soundwork was designing the sound of the theatre audience, particularly in the scene when Mike is drunk and comes out of character. Iñárritu knew how he wanted the audience to respond, but figuring out the sound of their reaction took four months of work from five sound designers. Hernández said he thought, for a film in general, that the narrative created by sound "provokes more 'explosions'" than that created by images, and that in Birdman, "Alejandro has sound exploding all throughout the film".
The digital intermediate was completed by a team at Technicolor led by Steven Scott. They had previously collaborated with Lubezki on Gravity, but needed to approach Birdman differently because of the continuous-shot approach. According to Scott, "we have never done anything like it before". The color timing had to be done in such a way that the transitions between color-corrected environments were invisible, in contrast to a usual film where the transitions coincide with visible cuts. To do this, the team inserted their own cuts whenever the camera was stationary, and in the middle of pans and other camera movements. They then devised a way to color correct the stationary cuts and turn the moving cuts into a form of dissolve, allowing them to "do all these independent, crazy, complicated, color corrections that would flow organically from one to another". Inserting the dissolves required rotoscoping methods which the software Scott and his team were using did not have, but an enterprise agreement between Technicolor and the software's developer led to the creation of a tool Scott required. For the color timing itself, one of the priorities of the team was making the faces as dimensional and readable as possible. This required, amongst other things, that faces be highlighted, but the moving camerawork meant that the mattes used in this process had to be animated by hand. Lubezki would provide notes on the areas he wanted tracked, then the team would carry out the animations. Of the whole process, Iñárritu remarked that "everyone was out of their comfort zone", while Scott said it was the most challenging DI project of his career.
Analysis and themes
The director has emphasized and defended the various ambiguities intentionally included in the film: "At the ending of the film, [it] can be interpreted as many ways as there are seats in the theater." Many aspects of film theory were debated concerning the film by critical reviews which included, among other subjects, (a) film genre; (b) intended and unresolved ambiguities of plot; and (c) the complex interaction of Riggan's personal life with his professional life as an actor. A short list of the diverse forms of film genre associated with the film has included it being referred to alternatively as a black-humor film, a mental health film, a realism/surrealism/magical realism film, a dark-humor parody film, a film of psychological realism, a failed domestic reconciliation drama, or a film concerning theatrical realism and naturalism. Iñárritu has maintained his penchant, well-known to followers of his previous films, for deliberately including multiple plot lines in this film which are intentionally left unresolved at the ending. Separate reviews in the press have also summarized the film as closely associated with the theme of the final tailspin of a late mid-life crisis in the life of a has-been actor seeking closure and resolution in his public and private life.
The father-daughter themes in the film, portrayed through the relationship of Riggan and Samantha, were the "most difficult" and important parts of the film to depict for co-writers Dinelaris and Giacobone, as they both had similar experiences within their families involving their own relationships with their daughters. When the writers were asked about the meaning of the ambiguous ending which the director refused to comment upon, they stated that any comedic ending was completely ruled out. The writers also stated that reflections about the conclusion to the film were not directly concentrated upon Riggan or the character of Birdman as much as upon the lives of the surviving characters portrayed in the film, in particular the portrayal of Riggan's daughter Samantha.
Noting the thematic pull between Riggan's insanity or actual superpowers, Travis LaCouter of First Things writes that "the importance of these powers – real or imagined – is apparent: They are for Riggan the thing beyond the labels, the kernel of his genius and, because he sees drawing upon them as selling out, the source of his great angst." LaCouter concludes that "the quirky profundity of this film is in how it dares the viewer to consider the everyday magic that we tend to ignore, repress, or resent".
Critics Barbara Schweizerhof and Matthew Pejkovici see the film's central theme as a satirical critique of contemporary theatrical realism, with Pejkovici comparing it favorably to Fellini's film 8½ (1963). As Pejkovici states: "Much like Fellini's 1960[sic] classic 8½, Iñárritu's Birdman is a very intimate film about an artist's malaise, yet is epic, innovative, and ambitious in approach. Iñárritu captures the artist's battle between ambition, admiration, and celebrity with stunning scope and skill in the form of a one-take format, as his camera sweeps through the backstage corridors, across the stage, out on the busy NYC streets, and back again in breathtaking fashion."
Thematically, Richard Brody also compared it to Opening Night (1977) by John Cassavetes. Brody said that the actors played in "the sort of modern naturalism, without eccentricity of gesture, excess of expression, or heightened and formalistic precision, that is the business-casual of contemporary cinema". The Wall Street Journal's Caryn James compared the story to that of Don Quixote (who believes himself to be a knight), as the main character believes he is a superhero (the equivalent to a knight in the 21st century). This relationship was also highlighted by the scholarly literature.
Release and reception
Birdman was selected as the opening film of the 71st Venice International Film Festival along with Mohsen Makhmalbaf's new film. A limited release began in four North American theatres on October 17, 2014, followed by a nationwide release in 857 theatres on November 14, 2014.
Box office
Birdman grossed $42.3 million in North America and $60.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $103.2 million, against a budget of about $17 million.
The film earned $424,397 during its limited North America opening in four theatres in New York and Los Angeles on the weekend of October 17, 2014, a per-theater average of $106,099, making it the 18th all-time earner (eighth among live-action movies) and ranking No. 20. In the second weekend of October 24, 2014, Birdman expanded to 50 theaters and earned $1.38 million, which translates to a $27,593 per-theater average. The film expanded nationwide to 857 theaters in the weekend of November 14, 2014, grossing $2,471,471, with a per theatre average of $2,884, and ranking No. 10. In the same weekend, Birdman grossed $11.6 million.
The film opened in Mexico on November 13, 2014, grossing $628,915 in its opening weekend, and opened in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2015, grossing $2,337,407 over the weekend. In the United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy, the film grossed $7.6 million, $3.97 million, and $1.97 million, respectively.
Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Birdman holds an approval rating of 91%, based on 351 reviews, and an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A thrilling leap forward for director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman is an ambitious technical showcase powered by a layered story and outstanding performances from Michael Keaton and Edward Norton." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 58 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. In 2015, the film was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by The Guardian.
Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from At the Movies praised the film's writing, direction, performances and cinematography. Stratton also described the implementation of the percussion score as "really exciting", while Pomeranz summarised: "It's just really beautifully written and stunningly performed and beautifully made." The pair both gave the film five stars, making Birdman the only film to receive such a rating from the hosts in 2014. In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis compared the main character to Icarus, the Greek mythological figure who crashed to his death after flying too close to the sun. She also noted a reference to Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation in the dressing-room mirror.
Richard Kolker compared the film to both Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (2002). Kolker concludes that Birdman is "a film about acting, identity, transformation, and the mysterious effects of superheroes, (and) is filmed to create the illusion of being made in one continuous take. As with Rope, the edits are hidden, and the result is a rhythmic slide through the life of an actor in search of his self, a search doomed from the start." Ollie Cochran called the film "an amalgam of technical prowess, hypnotising visuals and pragmatically perceptive dialogue", believing it to be "a thought-provoking, energetic perspective of a fading actor looking to revitalise his career."
International reception of the film was also at a high level of praise. In Germany, a film aggregate rating at EPD Film gave the film a 3.4 out of 5 rating, based on seven critiques. The German critic Barbara Schweizerhof gave the film a 4 out of 5 possible stars, complimenting the director's satirical virtuosity in making the film. In her review, Schweizerhof spoke of the film as inviting the viewer to re-watch it "a second and third time", and praised the technical achievement of representing a storyline depicting "the feverish stream of consciousness" of its main character throughout the film.
The camerawork, which depicts most of the film as one continuous take, was met with extensive acclaim for its execution and usage. The acting was widely praised, particularly Keaton's, with Peter Debruge of Variety calling the performance the "comeback of the century". Debruge described the film as "a self-aware showbiz satire", and called it "a triumph on every creative level". Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph rated the film 5/5 and gave particular praise to the use of long takes by Emmanuel Lubezki, director of photography. Richard Roeper gave the film an "A" and wrote that Keaton made a serious case for an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination (which Keaton later achieved).
Writing for The New Yorker, Richard Brody called the film "Godardian", comparing it to Pierrot le Fou (1965), Every Man for Himself (1980), Alphaville (1965), and Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991), four classic films by French director Jean-Luc Godard. However, he suggested the film fell short of reaching the same cinematic mastery, adding, "it's not a good idea for a filmmaker to get in the ring with Mr. Godard". In his critical comments on the film, he concluded that the film "trade[d] on facile, casual dichotomies of theatre versus cinema and art versus commerce" and "deliver[ed] a work of utterly familiar and unoriginal drama". In another review in The New Yorker separately supplementing the review by Brody, Anthony Lane rejected the film's suggestion that film critics are out to destroy films, explaining, "Someone could have told Iñárritu that critics, though often mean, are not preemptively so, and that anybody who'd say, as Tabitha does, 'I'm going to destroy your play', before actually seeing it, would not stay long in the job."
Accolades
At the 87th Academy Awards, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Michael Keaton was nominated for Best Actor, Edward Norton and Emma Stone were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively, and it also received nominations for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Keaton received his first Golden Globe Award, winning for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. The film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.
Top ten lists
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was listed on many critics' top ten lists.
Notes
References
External links
Birdman at IMDb
Birdman at AllMovie
Birdman at Box Office Mojo
Birdman at Metacritic
Birdman at Rotten Tomatoes |
Alejandro_González_Iñárritu | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_González_Iñárritu | [
466
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_González_Iñárritu"
] | Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: [aleˈxandɾo ɣonˈsales iˈɲaritu]; credited since 2014 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the human condition. His projects have garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades including four Academy Awards with a Special Achievement Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards. His most notable films include Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010), Birdman (2014), The Revenant (2015), and Bardo (2022).
Iñárritu's films, Amores Perros (2000), and Biutiful (2010) each received Academy Award for Best International Feature Film nominations. He earned critical and commercial success for his films 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006). He won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Birdman (2014). The following year, he received a consecutive Best Director Oscar for The Revenant (2015). Iñárritu was awarded a Special Achievement Academy Award for his virtual reality installation Carne y Arena (2017).
Iñárritu is the first Mexican filmmaker to be nominated for either director or producer in the history of the Academy Awards, the first to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Picture, the first to receive the Best Director Award at Cannes, and the first to win a DGA Award for Outstanding Directing. In 2019, Iñárritu became the first Latin American to serve as president of the jury for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. Iñárritu and Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro are known in the film industry as "The Three Amigos."
Early life
Iñárritu was born on 15 August 1963 in Mexico City, the youngest of seven siblings, to Luz María Iñárritu and Héctor González Gama. His maternal grandfather, Alfredo Iñárritu y Ramírez de Aguilar, was a prominent lawyer, judge, and justice of the Supreme Court of Mexico with partial Basque origins. Héctor was a banker who owned a ranch, but went bankrupt when Iñárritu was five. A poor student, Iñárritu was expelled from high school at the age of 16 or 17 due to poor grades and misbehavior. He briefly ran off with a girl from a wealthy family to Acapulco, having been influenced by the Miloš Forman film Hair, but returned to Mexico City after a week.
Soon after, Iñárritu left home and worked as a sailor on cargo boats, taking two trips at the ages of 16 and 18, sailing through the Mississippi River and then visiting Europe and Africa. With $1,000 supplied by his father, Iñárritu stayed in Europe for a year on the second trip. Around this time, Iñárritu had the opportunity to watch the Palme d'Or-winning film Yol by world-famous Kurdish director Yılmaz Güney. Iñárritu was very impressed by Yol and later said in interviews that this film was the reason he turned to cinema. According to some Turkish journalists, the scene in The Revenant (2015) where Leonardo DiCaprio enters the belly of a dying horse was a reference to Yılmaz Güney and his film Yol, because there was a similar scene in that film.
He has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a filmmaker, and the settings of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period. After his travels, Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana.
Career
1984–1999: Early career
Iñárritu began his career in 1984 as a radio host at the Mexican radio station WFM, the country's most popular rock music station, where he "pieced together playlists into a loose narrative arc". He worked with and interviewed artists like Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Elton John, Bob Geldof and Carlos Santana. He also wrote and broadcast small audio stories and storytelling promos. He later became the youngest producer for Televisa, the largest mass media company in Latin America. From 1987 to 1989, he composed music for six Mexican feature films. During this time, Iñárritu became acquainted with Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga, beginning their screenwriting collaborations. Iñárritu has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself. In the early 1990s, Iñárritu created Z Films, a production company, with Raul Olvera in Mexico. Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements. Making the final transition into TV and film directing, he studied under well-known theater director Ludwik Margules, as well as Judith Weston in Los Angeles. In 1995, Iñárritu wrote and directed his first TV pilot for Z Films, called Detrás del dinero, or Behind the Money, starring Miguel Bosé.
2000–2009: Directorial debut and breakthrough
In 2000, Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Amores perros explored Mexican society in Mexico City told via three intertwining stories. In 2000, Amores perros premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics' Week Grand Prize. It was the film debut of actor Gael García Bernal, who would later appear in Babel and the Iñárritu-produced Mexican film Rudo y Cursi. Amores perros was
the first installment in Iñárritu's and Arriaga's thematic "Death trilogy", and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2002, Iñárritu directed "Powder Keg", an episode for the BMW short film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen as the driver and Stellan Skarsgård as a war photographer. It won the Cannes Gold Lion Advertising Award.
After the success of Amores Perros, Iñárritu and Arriaga revisited the intersected-stories structure of Amores perros in Iñárritu's second feature film, 21 Grams (2003). The film starred Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, where Penn received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. At the 76th Academy Awards, Del Toro and Watts received nominations for their performances. From 2001 to 2011, Iñárritu directed several short films. In 2001, he directed an 11-minute film segment for 11'09"01 September 11 - which is composed of several short films that explore the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from different points of view around the world. In 2007, he made ANNA, part of French anthology film Chacun son cinéma, which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Chacun son cinéma, a collection of 33 short films by 35 renowned film directors representing 25 countries, was produced for the 60th anniversary of the film festival. In 2012, Iñárritu made the experimental short film Naran Ja: One Act Orange Dance, inspired by L.A Dance Project's premiere performance, featuring excerpts from the new choreography Benjamin Millepied crafted for Moving Parts. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten.
Iñárritu embarked on his third and last film that formed the "Death Trilogy", Babel (2006), written again by Arriaga. Babel comprises four interrelated stories set in Morocco, Mexico, the United States, and Japan, in four different languages. The film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi and Kōji Yakusho. The rest of the cast comprised non-professional actors. The film competed at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where Iñárritu received the Best Director Award (Prix de la mise en scène), becoming the first Mexican-born director to win the award. Babel was a critical and box office success. It received seven nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Gustavo Santaolalla, the film's composer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama in 2007. Iñárritu became the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Directing and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing. After this third feature film collaboration with writing partner Arriaga, Iñárritu and he professionally parted ways, following Iñárritu's barring of Arriaga from the set during filming. Arriaga told the Los Angeles Times in 2009, "It had to come to an end, but I still respect [González Iñárritu]."
2010–2019: Prominence and acclaim
In 2010, Iñárritu directed and produced Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, written by Iñárritu, Armando Bó Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010. Bardem went on to win Best Actor (shared with Elio Germano for La nostra vita) at Cannes. Biutiful is Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish since his debut feature Amores perros. The film was nominated at the 2011 Golden Globes for Best Foreign Language Film, and at the BAFTA Awards for Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Actor. For the second time in his career, Iñárritu's film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards; Javier Bardem's performance was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2010, Iñárritu directed "Write the Future", a football-themed commercial for Nike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which went on to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. In 2012, he directed Procter & Gamble's "Best Job" commercial spot for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies. It won the Best Primetime Commercial Emmy at Creative Arts Emmy Awards and the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials. On 4 October 2012, Facebook released an Iñárritu-directed brand film titled The Things That Connect Us to celebrate the social network reaching one billion users.
In December 2013, Warner Bros. hired Iñárritu to direct a live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book The Jungle Book. Eventually, Andy Serkis directed the film titled Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018). In 2014, Iñárritu won three Academy Awards for directing, co-writing and co-producing Best Picture winner Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, and Andrea Riseborough. The film is an existential dark comedy exploring the ego of a forgotten superhero actor, experienced as if filmed on a single shot. It was the first time a Mexican Filmmaker received Best Picture at the Academy Awards. He also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a DGA Award and a PGA Award for the film. Iñárritu was also set to direct and produce the tv series One Percent, an organic farming drama which he co-created with Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone, and Armando Bo for Starz. Starz gave the show a straight-to-series order, but dropped out in 2017 as the U.S. broadcaster of the series, with production company MRC shopping the project to other networks or streaming platforms.
In 2015, Iñárritu directed The Revenant, initially adapted by Mark L. Smith, before joined the writing process, based on Michael Punke's novel of the same name. The film is a remake of the film Man in the Wilderness (1971) and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and Domhnall Gleeson. It is a "gritty" 19th-century period drama-thriller about fur trapper Hugh Glass, a real person who joined the Rocky Mountain Fur Company on a "journey into the wild" and was robbed and abandoned after being mauled by a grizzly bear. The film considers the nature and stresses on relationships under the duress of the wilderness, and issues of revenge and pardon via Glass's pursuit of the man who was responsible for his hardship. The Revenant took nine months to shoot. With The Revenant being a critical and commercial success, Iñárritu won a second consecutive Oscar for Best Director and was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, winning Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Actor. Iñárritu is one of only three directors to ever win consecutive Oscars, and the first to do it in 65 years. He was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, winning three, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director; received nine Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director; five BAFTAs including Best Picture and Best Director; and a DGA Award, making history as the first person to ever win two in a row.
The One Percent, originally planned as an upcoming American television drama series created and written by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bó, was eventually postponed on early March 2017 due to Alejandro feeling burnt out after the production of The Revenant. The quartet, who also collaborated on Birdman, were to serve as executive producers. Iñárritu was set to direct the first two episodes and set the visual style of the show. Iñárritu's virtual reality project Carne y Arena was the first ever VR installation presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Carne y Arena was also presented, at LACMA, Washington, D.C., and featured at the Prada Foundation in Milan. Additionally, Carne y Arena was awarded the first Special Achievement Academy Award in over 20 years at the Academy's 9th Annual Governors Awards.
2020–present
In 2020, it was reported that Iñárritu would write, direct, and produce a new film in Mexico, his first film made there since Amores Perros 20 years previously, and his third Spanish-Language film after Amores Perros and Biutiful. The film entitled Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths starred Daniel Giménez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani and premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival where it competed for the Golden Lion and was later distributed by Netflix.
The film polarized critics and received mixed reviews. Film critic Wendy Ide of The Guardian called the film "occasionally brilliant" but noted, "It’s audacious, bold film-making, a highly personal work that is cluttered with symbolism and bloated with self-regard". Iñárritu described the response from critics as being "racist" saying, "You can like it or not — that's not the discussion. But for me, there's a kind of racist undercurrent where because I'm Mexican, I'm pretentious". It earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the 85th Academy Awards. In February 2024, it was announced that he is making a new film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, with Legendary Pictures co-producing. Tom Cruise is set to star.
Influences
Iñarritu's cinematic influences include Max Ophüls, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and John Cassavetes. However, his influences are not limited to film and come from a variety of sources.
Personal life
Iñárritu has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He is married to Maria Eladia Hagerman, an editor and graphic designer. They have a daughter, Maria Eladia, and a son, Eliseo.
In 2009, Iñárritu, along with several filmmakers and actors, signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival following his arrest in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."
Filmography
Feature films
Short films
Commercials
Accolades and honors
Iñárritu has been recognized with multiple awards for his films, including five Academy Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards, a Producers Guild of America Award, three British Academy Film Awards, three AACTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, two American Film Institute Awards, and three Cannes Film Festival Award. He is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing, and the first to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, Iñárritu won, among many other accolades, the Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directing, the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, and the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Directing for Birdman, becoming the first Mexican to win three Academy awards. In 2016, Iñárritu won the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on The Revenant, marking the first time in 65 years that a director has won the award in two consecutive years. Iñárritu is the third director to accomplish this feat, following John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
In 2006, Iñárritu was honored at the Gotham Awards' World Cinema Tribute, alongside fellow Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro. In 2011, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Zurich Film Festival. In 2015, Iñárritu received the Sundance Institute's Vanguard Leadership Award for the "originality and independent spirit" of his films. He was also honored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at its Art + Film Gala. That year, he received an honorary doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California. In 2019, he was also made Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters in France.
See also
Cinema of Mexico
Cha Cha Cha Films
List of directors with two or more Academy Awards for Best Director
Notes
References
External links
Alejandro González Iñárritu at IMDb
Alejandro González Iñárritu at AllMovie
Alejandro González Iñárritu at Metacritic |
Emmanuel_Lubezki | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Lubezki | [
466
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Lubezki#Feature_film"
] | Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern (Spanish pronunciation: [emaˈnwel luˈβeski]; born November 30, 1964) is a Mexican cinematographer. He has worked with many acclaimed directors, including Mike Nichols, Tim Burton, Michael Mann, Joel and Ethan Coen, David O. Russell, and frequent collaborators Terrence Malick, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Lubezki is known for groundbreaking uses of natural lighting and continuous uninterrupted shots in cinematography, often utilizing a Steadicam, a 3-axis gimbal, or hand-held camera to orchestrate fluid, uninterrupted camera movements during particularly significant scenes. Lubezki is a member of both the Mexican Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. His work has been praised by audiences and critics alike, which earned him multiple awards, including eight Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography. He won in this category three times, becoming the first person to do so in three consecutive years, for Gravity (2013), Birdman (2014), and The Revenant (2015).
Early life
Lubezki was born to a Jewish family in Mexico City, Mexico. His father was actor and producer Muni Lubezki. His paternal grandfather is Lithuanian Jewish while his grandmother is also Jewish, from Russia. Lubezki studied film at Mexico's Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC), where he met Alfonso Cuarón.
Career
Lubezki began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s. His first international production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks, which followed the journey of a single twenty-dollar bill.
Lubezki is a frequent collaborator with fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. The two have been friends since they were teenagers and attended the same film school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Together they have worked on six motion pictures: Sólo Con Tu Pareja, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, and Gravity.
His work with Cuarón on Children of Men (2006) has received universal acclaim. The film utilized a number of new technologies and distinctive techniques. The "roadside ambush" scene was shot in one extended take utilizing a special camera rig invented by Doggicam systems, developed from the company's Power Slide system. For the scene, a vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera. The windshield of the car was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including Lubezki, rode on the roof. Children of Men also features a seven-and-a-half-minute battle sequence composed of roughly five seamless edits.
Lubezki won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Cuarón's Gravity, a thriller set in outer space. The film was praised for the way it combined two shots through digital backgrounds of space to create the illusion of scenes done in a single shot. Lubezki won his second Academy Award for Best Cinematography in the following year for his work on Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman. The film used a similar technique from Gravity, being very unusual in the way the entire movie was shot so as to appear to be photographed in one continuous take. Lubezki won the award again in 2015 for Iñárritu's The Revenant, becoming a milestone for his third consecutive win and for being the first cinematographer to do so. The film was shot entirely in the wilderness during a cold season, minimizing the amount of CGI and using only natural lighting. It was an extremely difficult process that required a limited amount of time to shoot each scene, which delayed the production, causing budget overruns and changes of locations for proper settings. However, The Revenant earned over $500 million at the box office and received critical acclaim, with much praise for the film's atmospheric tone and realism.
Lubezki won the Royal Photographic Society Lumière Award for major achievement in cinematography, video or animation in 2016.
Filmography
Short film
Feature film
Television
TV shorts
Other credits
Short film
Documentary short
Film producer
Camino largo a Tijuana (1988)
El ingeniero (2012) (Documentary film)
Awards and nominations
See also
Cinema of Mexico
References
External links
Emmanuel Lubezki at IMDb
Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers
International Cinematographers Guild interview |
Speedcubing | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedcubing | [
467
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedcubing"
] | Speedcubing, also referred to as speedsolving, is a competitive mind sport centered around the rapid solving of various combination puzzles. The most prominent puzzle in this category is the 3×3×3 puzzle, commonly known as the Rubik's Cube. Participants in this sport are called "speedcubers" (or simply "cubers"), who focus specifically on solving these puzzles at high speeds to get low clock times. The essential aspect of solving these puzzles typically involves executing a series of predefined algorithms in a particular sequence with eidetic prediction and finger tricks.
Competitive speedcubing is predominantly overseen by the World Cube Association (WCA), which officially recognizes 17 distinct speedcubing events. These events encompass a range of puzzles, including N×N×N puzzles of sizes ranging from 2×2×2 to 7×7×7 and other puzzle forms such as the Pyraminx, Megaminx, Skewb, Square-1, and Rubik's Clock. Additionally, specialized formats such as 3×3, 4×4, and 5×5 blindfolded, 3×3 one-handed, 3×3 Fewest Moves Challenge, and 3×3 multi-blind are also regulated and hosted in competitions.
As of July 2023, the world record for the fastest single solve of a Rubik's cube in a competitive setting stands at 3.13 seconds. This record was achieved by Max Park at the Pride in Long Beach 2023 event on June 11, 2023. Additionally, Yiheng Wang set the record for the average time of five solves in the 3×3×3 category with 4.09 seconds at Xuzhou Open 2024 on September 21, 2024. Speedcubing participants are predominantly under the age of 20, and numerous countries organize international competitions throughout the year. The widespread popularity of the Rubik's Cube has led to an abundance of online resources, including guides and techniques, aimed at assisting individuals in solving the puzzle.
History
The Rubik's Cube was invented on May 19, 1974, by Hungarian professor of architecture Ernő Rubik (born July 13, 1944). In 1979, Rubik partnered with Ideal Toy Company to garner widespread international interest in the cube. On June 5, 1982, the first world championship of speedcubing was held in Budapest, Hungary. Nineteen people competed in the event, and the American Minh Thai won with a single solve time of 22.95 seconds, which was, at the time, the fastest Rubik's Cube solve ever recorded. Other attendees include Jessica Fridrich and Lars Petrus, both of whom later contributed to the development of new solving methods and of the speedcubing community. The Rubik's Cube waned in popularity after 1983, as there were no official competitions held, but with the advent of the Internet, online websites began to surface to discuss the cube. With these websites facilitating the renewed popularity of the cube, a new generation of speedcubers arose.
Those prominent in the online speedsolving community, such as Ron van Bruchem, Tyson Mao, Chris Hardwick, and Ton Dennenbroek, eventually wanted to create an organization where cubers from around the world could meet and compete. In 2003, they organized a championship in Toronto, Ontario, followed by another competition in the Netherlands later that same year. This revival of competition sparked a new wave of organized speedcubing events, which included regular national and international competitions. There were twelve competitions in 2004, 58 more from 2005 to 2006, over 100 in 2008, and over 1150 in 2018. Since Budapest's 1982 competition, there have been nine further World Championships traditionally held every other year. This new wave of speedcubing competitions has been and still is organized by the World Cube Association (WCA).
Since the rise of speedcubing's popularity, numerous entrepreneurial ventures have been founded specializing in making or selling speedcubes, creating competition between these brands and Rubik's. Dozens of cube manufacturers, such as GANCube, MoYu, YJ, and QiYi, have begun improving the cube's technology to allow for smoother turning and faster solving. This has helped to facilitate the eventual rise of the Rubik's Cube as not just a toy, but also a lucrative business.
World Cube Association
The World Cube Association (WCA) is an organisation which organises speedcubing competitions and ratifies results.
Methods
3×3×3
The standard 3x3x3 can be solved using several methods, not all of which are intended for or suited to speedcubing. The most commonly used methods for speedcubing are CFOP, Roux, and ZZ, which are generally considered to achieve the fastest times. The CFOP method is used by the majority of cubers and employs a layer-by-layer system with numerous algorithms for solving the final layer. Roux, the second most popular method, starts by forming a 3x2x1 block on either side of the cube and solves the middle layer last, using fewer algorithms. ZZ uses a unique step called Edge Orientation to improve the ergonomics of turning. Other notable methods include Petrus, which has been popular at times in the past; however, it is now considered sub-optimal to CFOP and Roux and was abandoned due to its unfavorable fingertricks.
Solving larger cubes, such as 4x4x4 and 5x5x5, is most often done by reducing them to 3x3x3 and solving them like so, while 2x2x2 can be solved with the same or similar methods as 3x3x3. However, specialized 2x2x2 methods are quicker, and are regarded as superior to 3x3x3 methods. These methods include Ortega, CLL, and the EG method (which can allow users to plan the entire solution during inspection).
CFOP
The CFOP (abbreviation for Cross-F2L-OLL – PLL) method, also known as the Fridrich method after one of its inventors, Jessica Fridrich, who finished second in the 2003 Rubik's Cube World Championships, is the most commonly used method in speedcubing today. Its origins are credited to David Singmaster, who was one of the first to publish a layer-by-layer method of solving in 1980, and Guus Razoux Schultz, who built upon this and developed a more efficient system for the first two layers (F2L). Jessica Fridrich then finished developing the method and published it online in 1997, an event that was very influential in the revival of competitive speedcubing. The first step of the method is to solve a cross of edge pieces on the first layer. The remainder of the first layer and all of the second layer are then solved together in what is referred to as "corner-edge pairs," or slots. Finally, the last layer is solved in two steps – first, all of the pieces in the layer are oriented to form a solid color (but without the individual pieces always being in their correct places on the cube). This step is referred to as orientation and is usually performed with a single set of algorithms known as OLL (Orientation of the Last Layer). Then, all of those pieces are permuted to their correct spots. This is also usually performed as a single set of PLL (Permutation of the Last Layer) algorithms. OLL and PLL use 57 and 21 algorithms, respectively.
The CFOP method can be used as a less advanced method by dividing the steps into more steps, reducing the number of algorithms that need to be learned but sacrificing time. It is usually known as the beginner method or layer by layer (LBL). Most people start learning CFOP with 4LLL (Four-Look Last Layer), which is the less advanced, slower, and algorithm-reducing (from 78 algorithms to 16) way to learn CFOP. The 4 steps are divided into edge orientation, corner orientation, corner permutation, and edge permutation (which can be called EO, CO, CP, and EP). Later on, full OLL, which has 57 algorithms, and full PLL, which has 21 algorithms, can be learned. An average CFOP user that solves with full OLL and PLL, along with an efficient cross (which takes 8 moves at maximum) and efficient F2L (which takes almost 30 moves), consists of 55-60 moves, which means that it has a higher move count than Roux and ZZ. However, finger tricks and algorithms are more researched with CFOP than any other method, which explains why the majority of the fastest speedcubers use CFOP as their main speedcubing method.
The CFOP method is the most widely used speed-solving method. It is a more efficient version of the Layer-By-Layer method (also known as the beginner's method). It is very popular due to the vast amount of resources that teach and improve upon the CFOP method. Many top speedcubers, including two-time World Champion Feliks Zemdegs and world record holder Max Park, learn additional sets of algorithms for the last slot and layer, such as Corners of Last Layer (COLL), which orients and permutes the corners when the edges are oriented, or Winter Variation (also known as Valk Last Slot, or VLS), which finishes OLL while inserting the last pair, and ZBLL, which combines the solving processes of OLL corner orientation and PLL in only one algorithm, provided the last-layer edges are oriented.
Pseudoslotting is a technique that allows advanced CFOP solvers to be more creative with efficient solutions. It is an alternative method to F2L, where instead of creating and inserting pairs with matching colors, the bottom layer is intentionally misaligned to allow different pieces to be paired together. This provides more freedom while pairing pieces during F2L. Pseudoslotting is similar to another technique called keyhole in which the bottom layer is misaligned to allow a piece to be inserted independently of its solved counterpart. It is widely believed that Tymon Kolasiński (who holds the European record for a 3x3x3 single with 3.66 seconds) is the best speedcuber who uses pseudoslotting.
Roux
The Roux method was invented by French speedcuber Gilles Roux. The first step of the Roux method is to form a 3×2×1 block, usually placed in the lower portion of the left layer. The second step is creating another 3×2×1 on the opposite side, so each block shares a bottom color. The creation of these blocks is commonly known as "block-building". The remaining four corners are then solved using a set of algorithms known as CMLL (Corners of the Last Layer, without regard to the M-slice), which leaves six edges and four centers that are solved in the last step, L6E or LSE (Last Six Edges).
This method is not as dependent on algorithm memorization as the CFOP method since all but the third step is done with intuition as opposed to predefined sets of algorithms. Because of the frequent use of M moves, the Roux method can be performed without any rotations (unlike the CFOP method), which means it is easier to look ahead (solving pieces while at the same time looking for the solution to the next step) while solving. It is also considered one of the most efficient speedsolving methods, with its average move count being between 45 and 50 moves for experienced solvers. However, the Roux method of speedcubing has been criticized over the years because, unlike CFOP, ZZ, or Petrus, Roux requires M (middle layer) slices to solve LSE. Using M slice moves makes it harder to achieve higher TPS (turns per second) because the finger tricks are almost always flicks, but high TPS is achievable through training.
One of the users of this method, Kian Mansour, broke the one-handed (OH) world record average with a time of 9.54 seconds. Sean Patrick Villanueva is the first Roux user to achieve a sub-6 average of five in competition and is currently ranked twenty-sixth in the world by 3x3 average. He also podiumed in 3x3 at the WCA World Championship 2019 (2nd Place). On May 25, 2024, he broke the OH WR average with the largest margin in nearly 10 years, bringing it down from 8.62 to 8.09 seconds. As he also broke the WR single with a 6.05 second solve just a few weeks later, he currently holds both one-handed world records.
ZZ
The ZZ method (short for "Zbigniew Zborowski") is a modern speedcubing method originally proposed by Zbigniew Zborowski in 2006, and built upon since. The method was designed specifically to achieve high turning speeds by focusing on movement ergonomics and is a combination of a block-building method and a layer-by-layer method. The initial pre-planned step is called EOCross and is the most distinctive hallmark of the ZZ method. It involves orienting all edges while placing the cross pieces. It is also common to build an EOLine, mainly used for one-handed solving, where all edges are oriented and only the front and back cross edges are placed. The next step solves the remaining first two layers using only left, right, top, and bottom face turns, one of the advantages of ZZ. On completion of the first two layers, the last layer's edges are all correctly oriented because of edge pre-orientation during EO. The last layer may be completed using a number of techniques, including those used in the CFOP method. An expert variant of this method, ZBLL (Zborowski-Bruchem Last Layer), allows the last layer to be completed in a single step with an average of just over 12 moves but requires a total of 493 algorithms to be learned. Due to the ergonomics of ZZ, rotating when solving will never be needed, unlike in the CFOP method. The ZZ method has fewer moves than CFOP, with ZZ averaging 53.5 compared to CFOP's 55–60 moves. Because ZZ uses EO, it is very move-efficient, and these techniques are sometimes used in FMC (Fewest Moves Challenge).
Corners-first methods
Corners-first methods involve solving the corners and then finishing the edges with slice turns. Corner-first solutions were common in the 1980s. It was used by the 1982 world champion Minh Thai. Currently, corner-first solutions are rarely used among speedsolvers. Dutch cuber Marc Waterman created a corners-first method in the cube craze and averaged 18 seconds in the mid-late 1980s.
Fewest Moves Challenge
At the highest level, there is typically not a standard method used for Fewest Moves solving. Rather, competitors attempt to solve the cube intuitively using solving techniques such as blockbuilding, Normal-Inverse-Scramble-Switch (NISS), commutator insertions, and Domino Reduction after its rise to popularity in 2019. Most solves use multiple of these techniques in order to generate a solution.
Blindfolded
In 2003, when the first blindfolded competitions were organized, world record solvers would use the 3OP (3-Cycle Orientation Permutation) Method, which orients and then permutes pieces using 3 cycles. As of today, methods such as 3-Style and M2 are among the fastest and most popular blind-solving methods. The Old Pochmann Method, which is a method that solves one piece at a time, is a method typically used by beginner blindsolvers. Blindfolded solvers use letter patterns to help memorize sequences of moves in order to solve the cube.
The lettering scheme that blindfolded solvers use is called the Speffz lettering scheme, and each sticker or individual color is given a letter. The letters are assigned starting with the top edge of the top face, going clockwise, and beginning with A. The top edge of the top face is A, the right edge is B, the bottom edge is C, and the left edge is D. The same process is done on the other sides in the order top, left, front, right, back, and bottom to get every edge lettered from A to X. The same process is applied to all of the corners, starting with the top left corner and going clockwise in the same face order. A cycle of piece swaps is then used with the letter E being used as a buffer location for corners and D commonly being used for edges in the Old Pochmann method. The current 3x3 average and single blindfolded world record holder is Tommy Cherry, from the United States.
Competitions
Speedcubing competitions have been held every year since 2003. The WCA was formed in 2004 to govern all official competitions. For a competition to be official, it must be approved by the WCA and follow the WCA regulations. Included in the regulations is the necessity of having one or more WCA delegate in attendance. A delegate's main role is to ensure all regulations are followed during the competition. Once the competition is finished, results are uploaded to the WCA website. Judges oversee the round. Delegates help the judge. Runners give the scrambled or solved cube to the competitor. A scrambler scrambles the cube.
Format
The majority of puzzle competitions are held using a trimmed mean of five. This involves the competitor executing five solves in the round in question, after which the fastest and slowest solves are disregarded and the mean of the remaining three is used. The 6×6×6 and 7×7×7 events are ranked by a straight mean of three—only three solves, none of which are disregarded. In 3×3×3 blindfolded and 3×3×3 fewest moves challenges, either a straight mean of 3 or the best of 3 is used, while 4×4×4 blindfolded, 5×5×5 blindfolded, and multiple blindfolded challenges are ranked using the best of 1, 2 or 3, depending on the competition.
When a round begins, competitors turn in the puzzle they will use. Puzzles are scrambled using a computer-generated scramble. In each round, five, three, or one (depending on the format mentioned above) scrambles are used. Every competitor in the round will receive each scramble once. Before starting a solution, a competitor has up to 15 seconds to inspect the puzzle (inspection is removed for blindfolded events). This is monitored by a judge with a stopwatch. Once the solution is complete, the judge records the time on the competitor's scorecard, which is signed by both. If the puzzle is unsolved and the timer is stopped, the time is recorded as "DNF" (Did Not Finish). There are also numerous reasons why the solver can receive a two-second addition to the solve time, such as a face being more than 45 degrees off or the competitor going over the allowed inspection time. A competitor can also receive an extra solution to replace the one just completed, for example in the case of a timer malfunction or a duplicate scramble.
The official timer used in competitions is the StackMat Gen 4 or Gen 5 timer, which was originally designed for sport stacking. This device has touch-sensitive pads that are triggered by the user lifting one or both of their hands to start the time and placing both their hands back on the pads after releasing the puzzle to stop the timer.
Only two WCA recognised events are not "speedsolving" events (i.e. are scored by means other than time taken for solves), these being: Fewest Moves Competition, or FMC, which is scored using the amount of moves for a competitor's solution, with a lower number of moves being better, and multiple blindfold solving, or "multi-blind", where a competitor's score is calculated by subtracting the number of unsolved cubes from the number of solved cubes.
Official competitions are currently being held in several categories.
Competitions will often include events for speedsolving other puzzles as well, such as:
Pyraminx, a pyramid-shaped puzzle.
Megaminx, a twelve-sided dodecahedral puzzle solved similarly to a 3x3x3.
Skewb, a cube-shaped puzzle added in 2014 as an official WCA event due to its growing popularity and the ease of its regulations.
Square-1, a cubed puzzle that changes shape as it is solved
Rubik's Clock, a double-sided circle-shaped puzzle with 9 clock faces on it that is considered solved when all clock hands are in the 12 o'clock position.
The following are no longer official events:
3x3x3 with Feet, 3x3x3 with Feet was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2020.
Rubik's Magic, a folding puzzle with 8 connected tiles, Rubik's Magic was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2012.
Rubik's Master Magic, a folding puzzle with 12 connected tiles, Rubik's Master Magic was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2012.
Rainbow Cube, a cuboctahedron-shaped puzzle, the Rainbow Cube was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2007.
Siamese Cube, two connected 3x3s, the Siamese Cube was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2007.
3x3 with No Inspection, 3x3 with No Inspection was removed from the list of official WCA events in 2006.
World Rubik's Cube Championships
The WCA organizes the Rubik's Cube World Championship as the main international competition once every two years. The latest championship was held in Incheon, South Korea from August 12 to 15 August 2023.
World Records
Speedcubing world records ratified by the WCA.
Note: For averages of 5 solves, the best time and the worst time are dropped, and the mean of the remaining 3 solves is taken. For events where only 3 solves are done, the mean of all 3 is taken.
See also
Rubik's Revenge
Professor's Cube
Magic Cube
Notes
References
External links
Speedsolving.com
Speedsolving.com Wiki
Fridrich Method
Roux Method
ZZ Method
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Glastonbury_Festival | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival | [
468
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival"
] | The Glastonbury Festival (formally the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most summers. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.
Glastonbury takes place on 1500 acres of farmland and is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure. While the number of attendees is sometimes swollen by gatecrashers, a record of 300,000 people was set at the 1994 festival, headlined by the Levellers, who performed on the Pyramid Stage. Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.
Regarded as a major event in contemporary British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. Vestiges of these traditions are retained in the Green Fields area, which includes sections known as the Green Futures, the Stone Circle and Healing Field. Michael Eavis hosted the first festival, then called the Pilton Festival, after seeing an open-air Led Zeppelin concert in 1970 at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.
The festival was held intermittently from 1970 until 1981 and has been held most years since, except for "fallow years" taken mostly at five-year intervals, intended to give the land, local population, and organisers a break. 2018 was a "fallow year", and the 2019 festival took place from 26 to 30 June. There were then two consecutive "fallow years" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned for 22–26 June 2022 with the headliners Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar. The next festival took place between 21 and 25 June 2023, headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Elton John in his final UK performance.
History
1970
The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, hosted by Michael Eavis on Saturday 19 September 1970, and attended by 1,500 people. There had been a commercial UK festival tradition which included the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival. Eavis decided to host the first festival after seeing an open-air concert headlined by Led Zeppelin at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music at the nearby Bath and West Showground in 1970.
The original headline acts were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but these acts were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex, later known as T. Rex. Tickets were £1 (equivalent to £20 in 2023). Other billed acts of note were Steamhammer, Quintessence, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Pink Fairies and Keith Christmas.
1971
The "Glastonbury Fair" of 1971 was instigated by Andrew Kerr after being found and introduced to Michael Eavis by David Trippas and organised with help from Arabella Churchill, Jean Bradbery, Kikan Eriksdotter, John Massara, Jeff Dexter, Thomas Crimble, Bill Harkin, Gilberto Gil, Mark Irons, John Coleman, and Jytte Klamer. The 1971 festival featured the first incarnation of the "Pyramid Stage". Conceived by Bill Harkin the stage was a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting and positioned over a "blind spring", a term used to describe a hypothetical underground body of water in the pseudoscientific practice of dowsing.
Performers included Family, David Bowie, Mighty Baby, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Gong, Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, Skin Alley, The Worthy Farm Windfuckers and Melanie. It was paid for by its supporters and advocates of its ideal, and embraced a mediaeval tradition of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights, and spontaneous entertainment. The 1971 festival was filmed by Nicolas Roeg and David Puttnam with Eavis and Kerr's Glastonbury Fair changed to Glastonbury Fayre, and a triple album of the same name was released (no connection with the film).
1979
There was a small unplanned event in 1978, when the convoy of vehicles from the Stonehenge festival was directed by police to Worthy Farm; the festival was then revived the following year (1979) by Churchill, Crimble, Kerr and Eavis, in an event for the Year of the Child, which lost money.
1980s
The 1980s saw the festival become an annual fixture, barring periodic fallow years. In 1981, Michael Eavis took back sole control of the festival, and it was organised in conjunction with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). That year a new Pyramid Stage was constructed from telegraph poles and metal sheeting (repurposed from materials of the Ministry of Defence), a permanent structure which doubled as a hay barn and cowshed during the winter.
In the 1980s, the children's area of the festival (which had been organised by Arabella Churchill and others) became the starting point for a new children's charity called Children's World. 1981 was the first year that the festival made profits, and Eavis donated £20,000 of them to CND (equivalent to £96,828 in 2023). In the following years, donations were made to a number of organisations, and since the end of the Cold War the main beneficiaries have been Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid, who all contribute towards the festival by providing features and volunteers, who work at the festival in exchange for free entry.
It also saw the first TV coverage, with ITV broadcasting recorded highlights in the weeks after the festival.
Since 1983, large festivals have required licences from local authorities. This led to certain restrictions being placed on the festival, including a crowd limit and specified times during which the stages could operate. The crowd limit was initially set at 30,000 but has grown every year to over 100,000. 1984 saw the stage invaded by fans during The Smiths' set. Weather Report played the main stage, and Elvis Costello headlined the last night for almost three hours. In 1985, the festival grew too large for Worthy Farm, but neighbouring Cockmill Farm was purchased. That year saw a wet festival with considerable rain; Worthy Farm is a dairy farm and what washed down into the low areas was a mixture of mud and liquefied cow dung. This did not prevent festival goers from enjoying the knee-deep slurry in front of the Pyramid Stage.
1989 was the first year that impromptu, unofficial sound systems sprang up around the festival site – a portent of things to come. These sound systems would play loud, electronic acid house music around the clock, with the largest, the Hypnosis sound system, rivalling the volume of some of the official stages and running non-stop throughout the festival.
1990s
Following the 1990 festival, violence flared between security guards and new age travellers in what became known as "The Battle of Yeoman's Bridge". Eavis was also facing increasing battles from locals over the festival, with no festival taking place in 1991. Both pressures are captured in the 1992 Channel 4 documentary Showdown at Glastonbury.
An expanded festival returned in 1992, and this proved a great success. 1992 was the first year that the new age travellers were not initially allowed onto the site free, and a sturdier fence was designed. This success was carried through to 1993 which, like 1992, was hot and dry.
In 1994, the Pyramid Stage burned down just over a week before the festival; a temporary main stage was erected in time for the festival. The 1994 festival also introduced a 150 kW wind turbine which provided some of the festival power. Headliners Levellers set another record when they played to a crowd of as many as 300,000 people on their Friday performance, Glastonbury's biggest ever crowd as of 2010.
This was the year the festival was first televised live by Channel 4; the coverage concentrated on the main two music stages and providing a glimpse of the festival for those who knew little of it. Channel 4's 4 Goes to Glastonbury brought widely expanded televised coverage of the festival for the first time in 1994 and also the following year.
The TV broadcast in 1994 was a crucial factor in ensuring that Orbital's performance at the festival achieved legendary status. As a result, living rooms across the country were able to experience what a rave might look like, and suddenly dance music, which had been ignored by the establishment and mainstream press for years, did not seem so dangerous and which would be a turning point for the music at Glastonbury. Speaking to The Guardian in 2013 about the Orbital gig, Michael Eavis noted that it marked dance music's appearance on the mainstream agenda. "What was previously underground made it on to one of the big stages, and there was no going back from there. As the police and the council made me very well aware, the buzz had been around the raves and the market sound systems and in the travellers' fields for years. But it needed a showcase to make it legal." The gig opened the way for others such as the Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Underworld, who all played high-profile stages in the following years – developments that led to the launch of the festival's Dance Village in 1997.
1995 saw the attendance rise drastically due to the security fence being breached on the Friday of the festival. Estimates suggest there may have been enough fence-jumpers to double the size of the festival. This aside, 1995 proved to be a highly successful year with memorable performances from Oasis, Elastica, Pulp, PJ Harvey, Jeff Buckley, Jamiroquai and The Cure. This was also the first year of the festival having a dance tent to cater for the rising popularity of dance music, following the success of Orbital's headline appearance the previous year. The dance acts of 1995 were led by Massive Attack on the Friday and Carl Cox on the Saturday. The festival took a year off in 1996 to allow the land to recover and give the organisers a break. 1996 also saw the release of Glastonbury the Movie which was filmed at the 1993 and 1994 festivals.
The festival returned in 1997. This time there was major sponsorship from The Guardian and the BBC, who had taken over televising the event from Channel 4. This was also the year of the mud, with the site suffering severe rainfalls which turned the entire site into a muddy bog. However, those who stayed for the festival were treated to many memorable performances, including Radiohead's headlining Pyramid Stage set on the Saturday which is said to be one of the greatest ever Glastonbury performances. The live recording of "Paranoid Android" from this performance, as well as others such as "The Day Before Yesterday's Man" by The Supernaturals, were released on a BBC CD entitled Mud For It.
In 1998 the festival was once again struck with severe floods and storms, and again some festival goers departed early – but those who stayed were treated to performances from acts such as Pulp, Robbie Williams and Blur. Tony Bennett, however, overcame the messy environment in an immaculate white suit and tie. 1998 was also the first year that attendance officially broke the 100,000 mark.
Another hot dry year was recorded in 1999, much to the relief of organisers and festival goers. The festival was again overcrowded due to fence-jumpers, but this would not prove to be a major problem until the following year, when an additional 100,000 people gatecrashed the site, increasing the attendance to an estimated 250,000 people total. The 1999 festival is also remembered for the Manic Street Preachers requesting and being given their own backstage toilets; however, it was revealed by the band that this was a joke – the "reserved" sign on the toilet was not at the authorisation of the management.
Speaking to the BBC in 2024, Michael Eavis' daughter Emily explained that her parents always planned to close the festival when they reached retirement age, with many of the festivals in the 1990s being "the last one". The death of Michael Eavis' wife Jean in 1999 persuaded him to continue organising the festival.
2000s
2000 saw a new Pyramid Stage introduced as well as new features such as The Glade and The Left Field. The festival was headlined by Chemical Brothers, Travis and David Bowie, who played thirty years after his first appearance. The Pyramid Stage also hosted an unusual event on the Saturday morning, with the wedding of two festivalgoers, who had written to the organisers asking for permission to get married there, taking place and conducted by actor Keith Allen in front of a small group of friends and any other festivalgoers who still happened to be awake. This year also saw an estimated 250,000 people attend the festival (only 100,000 tickets were sold) due to gatecrashers. This led to public safety concerns and the local District Council refused any further licences until the problem was solved.
The organisers took 2001 off to devise anti-gatecrashing measures and secure the future of the festival, after the Roskilde Festival 2000 accident (though this was also a scheduled break, one which took place every five years from 1991, the year after the battle of Yeoman's Bridge, until the 2012 Olympics extended the five-year sequence from the planned 2011 rest year). It was at this point that the Mean Fiddler Organisation was invited to help.
In 2002, the festival returned after its planned fallow year, with the controversial Mean Fiddler now handling the logistics and security – especially installing a substantial surrounding fence (dubbed the "superfence") that reduced numbers to the levels of a decade earlier. 2002 also saw Coldplay headline the Pyramid Stage for the first time while the show was closed by a set from Rod Stewart on the Sunday night.
There were some criticisms of the 2002 festival that it lacked atmosphere, because of the reduced number of people, which reflected the smaller numbers jumping the fence. The number of tickets was increased to 150,000 for 2003 which sold out within one day of going on sale, in marked contrast to the two months it took to sell 140,000 in 2002. It was also the first year that tickets sold out before the full line-up was announced. This was also the year Radiohead returned to headline the Pyramid Stage. Revenue raised for good causes from ticket and commercial licence sales topped £1 million, half of which went to Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid.
In 2004, tickets sold out within 24 hours amid much controversy over the ticket ordering process, which left potential festival goers trying for hours to connect to the overloaded telephone and internet sites. The website got two million attempted connections within the first five minutes of the tickets going on sale and an average of 2,500 people on the phone lines every minute. The festival was not hit by extreme weather, but high winds on the Wednesday delayed entry, and steady rain throughout Saturday turned some areas of the site to mud. The festival ended with Muse headlining the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, after Oasis had headlined on Friday. Franz Ferdinand and Sir Paul McCartney also performed. In the British press publications appeared about the use of psychedelic drugs by festival visitors. The magazine NME pronounced that 2004 would be "the third summer of love" due to the resurgence of the "shroom" that was praised as a natural alternative to ecstasy, which was said to be declining in popularity (LSD fuelled the first summer of love in 1967; ecstasy and LSD the second in 1988).
After the 2004 festival, Michael Eavis commented that 2006 would be a year off – in keeping with the previous history of taking one "fallow year" in every five to give the villagers and surrounding areas a rest from the yearly disruption. This was confirmed after the licence for 2005 was granted.
In 2005 the 112,500 ticket quota sold out rapidly – in this case in 3 hours 20 minutes. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km2), had over 385 live performances, and was attended by around 150,000 people. The Sunday headliner was originally scheduled to be Kylie Minogue, but she had to pull out in May after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Basement Jaxx were announced as a replacement on 6 June. Both Coldplay and Basement Jaxx performed a cover of Kylie's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" during their concert. 2005 saw a big increase in the number of dance music attractions, with the multiple tents of the Dance Village replacing the solitary dance tent of previous years. This new area contained the East and West dance tents, the Dance Lounge, Roots Stage, and Pussy Parlour, as well as a relocated G Stage, formerly situated in the Glade. The introduction of the silent disco by festival organiser Emily Eavis allowed revellers to party into the early hours without disturbing the locals – a requirement of the festival's licensing. Following the death of DJ John Peel in the autumn of 2004, the New Tent was renamed the John Peel Tent, in homage to his encouragement and love of new bands at Glastonbury. The opening day of the 2005 festival was delayed by heavy rain and thunderstorms: Several stages, including the Acoustic Tent (and one of the bars), were struck by lightning, and the valley was hit with flash floods that left some areas of the site under more than four feet of water. The severity of the weather flooded several campsites, the worst affected being the base of Pennard Hill, and seriously disrupted site services. However, Mendip District Council's review of the festival called it one of the "safest ever" and gives the festival a glowing report in how it dealt with the floods.
There was no festival in 2006. Instead, a documentary film directed by Julien Temple was released to make up for the lack of a festival. The film consists of specially shot footage by Temple at the festival, as well as footage sent in by fans and archive footage. Glastonbury was released in the UK on 14 April 2006.
Glastonbury 2007 (20–24 June) was headlined by Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, and The Who on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Dame Shirley Bassey was also featured. In 2007, over 700 acts played on more than 80 stages and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000. This was the first year that "The Park" area opened. Designed by Emily Eavis, its main stage featured extra sets by several artists playing on the main stages including Spinal Tap, Pete Doherty and Gruff Rhys, whilst the BBC launched their new "Introducing" stage in the area. The festival had the largest attendance since the construction of the security fence, and the largest legitimate attendance to date: ticket allocation was raised by 27,500 to 137,500, which were charged at £145 and sold out in 1 hour 45 minutes. As an extra precaution against touts (scalpers), purchasers had to pre-register, including submission of a passport photo which was security printed into the ticket. Continued periods of rain throughout much of the festival caused muddy conditions, though without the flooding of 2005, in part due to the new £750,000 flood defences. However, this constant rain made the general conditions within the site worse than 2 years before and more like the mud plains of 1998. It was difficult to find anywhere to sit down that had not turned to mud and key choke points, such as the thoroughfare at the front right of the Pyramid Stage, turned into a quagmire. Muddy conditions on the temporary roads on the periphery of the site led to delays for people leaving the site.
On 25 June, when the vast majority of festival goers were attempting to leave the festival, cars in the western car parks took more than nine hours to exit the site. There was no stewarding provision in these areas, no information was disseminated regarding the delays, no organised marshalling of traffic was undertaken by the festival organisers, and no provision of drinking water was made to people stranded in their vehicles. Verbal and physical violence was witnessed between festival goers. When cars were finally allowed to leave the site the surrounding roads were found to be clear. Reported crime was down from 2005 but the number of arrests were "well up", after a proactive operation of the police and security on site. There were 236 reported crimes, down from 267 in 2005; of these, 158 were drug related (183 in 2005). 1,200 people required medical aid with 32 hospitalised, most of which were accidents caused by the mud. There was one fatality: a West Midlands man found unconscious early on the Saturday morning died in Yeovil District Hospital of a suspected drugs overdose.
On 20 December 2007, Arabella Churchill, an instrumental figure in the conception of the 1971 festival and since the 1980s area coordinator of the Theatre Field, died at St Edmund's Cottages, Bove Town, Glastonbury at the age of 58. She had suffered a short illness due to pancreatic cancer, for which she had refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was a convert to Buddhism, and arrangements following her death respected her belief. Michael Eavis, paying tribute to her after her death, said "Her vitality and great sense of morality and social responsibility have given her a place in our festival history second to none".
The Glastonbury Festival 2008 was held on 27, 28 and 29 June, headlined by Kings of Leon, Jay-Z and The Verve on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively, with other notable acts including Neil Diamond, Shakin' Stevens, Levellers, and Stackridge, who opened the first festival in 1970. Continuing the procedure introduced in 2007, ticket buyers had to pre-register and submit a passport photo between 1 February and 14 March to buy tickets which went on sale at 9 am on Sunday 6 April. Following 40,000 tickets not being sold, the pre-registration process was reopened on 8 April. Several reasons have been cited for this, including the poor weather of the previous four years and the controversial choice of featuring the hip hop artist, Jay-Z, as a headlining act. A day before the festival began, Michael Eavis announced that there were still around 3,000 tickets remaining, making it possible that it would be the first festival in 15 years not to sell out in advance. It had also been announced that any remaining tickets would be sold from major branches of HMV.
2008 saw the introduction of a new field adjacent to the Sacred space and Park Stage. Not named by the organisers, the festival goers themselves called it "Flagtopia" in reference to the flags located there. After the huge number of tents left behind in 2007 and when one of Michael Eavis's cows died after ingesting a metal tent-peg left in the soil, the Festival devised its Love the Farm, Leave No Trace campaign which gently pushed revellers to respect the environment and clear up after themselves. The Festival had always pushed a green agenda and new initiatives in 2008 included biodegradable tent pegs handed out free to all campers and biotractors running on waste vegetable oil. These new efforts were rewarded with The Greener Festival Award for 2008 alongside a number of other festivals also committed to environmentally friendly music festivals. The 2008 festival was reported to have cost £22 million to produce.
The Glastonbury Festival 2009 took place between 24 and 28 June 2009. In marked contrast with previous years, the 137,500 tickets went on sale on 5 October 2008, earlier than ever before, with pre-registered customers able either to pay in full, or place a £50 reserve deposit to be paid by 1 February. Tickets for the festival sold out. The full line up was released on 25 May 2009 and included headliners Blur, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young on the Pyramid Stage. The Other stage was headlined by The Prodigy, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand. Other notable performers included Jarvis Cocker, Fairport Convention (who played at the first Glastonbury Festival), Tom Jones, Steel Pulse, Doves, Lady Gaga, Jason Mraz, Nick Cave, Pete Doherty, Hugh Cornwell, Status Quo, The Gaslight Anthem (in which Springsteen appeared on stage during their song "The '59 Sound"), Madness, Dizzee Rascal, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Lily Allen, Kasabian and Florence and the Machine.
2010s
The Glastonbury Festival 2010 took place between 23 and 28 June. On the last night, Michael Eavis appeared on the main stage with headline artist Stevie Wonder to sing the chorus of the latter's "Happy Birthday", marking the festival's 40th year. Tickets went on sale on 4 October 2009, using the same £50 deposit scheme introduced the previous year; unlike the previous two years, and more in common with earlier festivals, the tickets for the 2010 edition sold out in less than 24 hours. U2 were due to headline the Pyramid Stage on Friday night at Glastonbury 2010, but due to frontman Bono sustaining a back injury they were forced to pull out. According to the media, Bono was "gutted", even having written a song especially for the festival. Damon Albarn's Gorillaz replaced U2, and joined Muse and Stevie Wonder for the Saturday and Sunday headline slots respectively. It was Albarn's second headlining act in two years. Pet Shop Boys returned after 10 years to headline the Other Stage on the Saturday Night. The entire stage set from their Pandemonium Tour was brought in for the performance which was extremely well received. Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood made a surprise appearance with a nine-song set. The weather at the festival was among some of the best ever, the festival-goers enjoying 3 days of abundant sunshine and very warm to hot temperatures, which reached close to 30 degrees on the Sunday; it was the first rain-free festival since 2002 and the hottest since the festival began.
During 2010 Michael Eavis received a donation from British Waterways of timber from the old gates at Caen Hill Locks in Wiltshire. This was used to construct a new bridge which was dedicated to the memory of Arabella Churchill. The following year more of the redundant lock gates were used to build the Campo Pequeno amphitheatre.
The Glastonbury Festival 2011 took place from Wednesday 22 until Sunday 26 June 2011. The tickets were sold out within 4 hours of going on sale on Sunday 3 October 2010. Headline acts for 2011 were U2 on the Friday night, Coldplay on the Saturday and Beyoncé on Sunday. This made Beyoncé the first woman to headline at the festival since 1999.
The festival was not held in 2012, giving the site and organisers a "fallow year" which originally would have been in 2011, in keeping with the tradition of taking a break every fifth year. Michael Eavis cited the shortage and likely cost of portable toilets and policing, due to the needs of the 2012 Summer Olympics, as being amongst the reasons. The decision to move the fallow year to 2012 also proved to be a fortunate one, as Somerset experienced spells of persistent heavy rain in the period up to and including the week that the festival would normally have been held. Indeed, Emily Eavis suggested that the festival itself might have been called off, such was the severity of the weather. Registration for tickets to the 2013 festival began in June 2011 and ticket booking opened at 9 am on Sunday 7 October 2012, with 135,000 selling out in a record time of one hour and forty minutes. To mark the 2012 Glastonbury weekend, Eavis was invited to guest edit the local paper, the Western Daily Press, on Saturday 23 June.
During the 2014 festival, a 26-year-old Berkshire man suffered from a suspected reaction to Ketamine and later died in Bristol Royal Infirmary. Despite this, police reported that crime was down 30% from last year but reminded festival goers to look after their possessions. In 2014 Mendip District Council issued a licence for 10 years up until 2024.
A few weeks before the 2015 festival Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl fell off a stage during a show in Gothenburg and broke his leg, forcing their late withdrawal from the line-up. Florence and the Machine were moved from second-top on the bill to Friday's headliner, while Florence's vacant gap was filled by Reading & Leeds headliners The Libertines, and their performance was well received. Kanye West and The Who were the headliners for the Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Other notable acts who performed included Motörhead (their final festival appearance in the UK before Lemmy's death), the Moody Blues, Pharrell Williams, Deadmau5, Patti Smith, the Strypes, Lionel Richie, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Enter Shikari, the Chemical Brothers, Thee Faction, Alt-J, Paloma Faith, Mary J. Blige and Paul Weller, as well as an appearance by the 14th Dalai Lama. On 28 August 2015 it was announced that hundreds of pairs of discarded wellington boots from the 2015 festival were donated to the migrant camp at Calais.
On 3 April 2017, it was announced the BBC had renewed its exclusive national rights to broadcast the event until 2022. On 24 June 2017 reggae group Toots and the Maytals were slotted for 17:30, with BBC Four scheduled to show highlights from their set. When they did not show it was suspected they missed their time slot, and BBC broadcaster Mark Radcliffe apologised on their behalf stating, "If you were expecting Toots and the Maytals – and, frankly, we all were – it seems like they were on Jamaican time or something because they didn't make it to the site on time." The group credited with coining the term "reggae" in song was subsequently rescheduled by the Glastonbury Festival organisers giving Toots and the Maytals the midnight slot, with all other acts being shifted by one hour.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was invited to speak on the Pyramid Stage at the 2017 festival.
In February 2018, festival organiser Emily Eavis confirmed in a BBC interview that a plastic bottle ban could be enforced at the 2019 event for environmental reasons. Water kiosks, where festival-goers could get any type of bottle refilled, had been introduced in 2014. In February 2019, organisers confirmed the bottle ban would begin at that year's festival, encompassing all bars, traders and backstage areas.
The festival had a "fallow year" in 2018 to allow the ground to recover. It returned in 2019. Glastonbury 2019 featured new stages, art installations and areas, including a giant crane purchased from Avonmouth Docks. The Pyramid Stage was headlined by Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure, with Miley Cyrus, Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, Wu-Tang Clan, The Chemical Brothers, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican and Fatboy Slim also performing.
2020s
The 2020 and 2021 festivals were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, for what would have been the festival's 50th anniversary, the BBC broadcast a variety of acclaimed sets during the weekend of the cancelled festival, with performances by acts including Taylor Swift, Florence and the Machine, Adele, R.E.M., Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Jay-Z and Billie Eilish.
In 2021, Glastonbury produced a film recorded on the Glastonbury site, Live at Worthy Farm, with performances by acts including Coldplay, Haim, and Damon Albarn. Live at Worthy Farm also saw the debut of The Smile, a new band featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. The film was streamed on the Glastonbury website on 22 May and broadcast on BBC Two on 27 June 2021.
The event returned in June 2022. Billie Eilish headlined the Friday night, making her the youngest Glastonbury headline act to date. Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar were headline acts for Saturday night (with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds) and Sunday night respectively. Other acts included Diana Ross, Charli XCX, Foals, HAIM, Idles, Little Simz, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion, Pet Shop Boys, Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Fender, Sugababes, Wolf Alice and Years & Years.
Tickets for Glastonbury 2023 sold out in one hour. Elton John, Guns N' Roses and Arctic Monkeys were announced as the headliners at the Pyramid Stage for Glastonbury 2023, amongst criticism of the "all-male headliners" at the festival.
It was announced in March 2023 that the John Peel Stage would be renamed to Woodsies.
Arctic Monkeys returned to headline Glastonbury (Friday night) for the third time, having previously done so in 2007 and 2013. Other notable artists playing the Friday included Royal Blood, Fred Again, Young Fathers, Fever Ray, Carl Cox and Faithless. The mystery band listed as 'The Churn Ups' was revealed to be surprise guests the Foo Fighters. Guns N' Roses headlined the Saturday. Other artists playing Saturday included Lana Del Ray, Loyle Carner, Fatboy Slim and Christine and the Queens. The afternoon 'TBA' slot at the Woodsies was revealed as Rick Astley and Blossoms, playing The Smiths. The Sunday 'legends' spot was filled by Yusuf/Cat Stevens. Elton John headlined the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, a show which he billed as his last ever UK performance.
Organisation
Since 1981, the festival has been organised by local farmer and site owner Michael Eavis (through his company Glastonbury Festivals Ltd). Eavis ran the festival with his wife Jean until her death in 1999, before co-organising the event with his daughter Emily Eavis. As of 2024, Michael is still involved in the running of the festival; however, the majority of the organisation is run by Emily Eavis and her husband. In 2002, Festival Republic (a company consisting of both Live Nation and MCD) took on the job of managing the logistics and security of the festival through a 40% stake in the festival management company. This relationship ended in 2012 and Glastonbury festival is now independent. Glastonbury Festivals Ltd donates most of its profits to charities, including donations to local charity and community groups and paying for the purchase and restoration of the Tithe Barn in Pilton.
Several stages and areas are managed independently, such as The Left Field which is managed by a cooperative owned by Battersea and Wandsworth TUC, Worthy FM and a field run by Greenpeace.
With the exception of technical and security staff, the festival is mainly run by volunteers. Some 2,000 stewards are organised by the aid charity Oxfam. In return for their work at the festival, Oxfam receive a donation, which in 2005 was £200,000. Medical facilities are provided by Festival Medical Services who have done so since 1979. The bars are organised by the Workers Beer Company, sponsored by Carlsberg (previously Budweiser), who recruit teams of volunteer staff from small charities and campaign groups. In return for their help, typically around 18 hours over the festival, volunteers are paid in free entry, transport and food, while their charities receive the wages the volunteers earn over the event.
Catering, and some retail services, are provided by various small companies, typically mobile catering vans, with over 400 food stalls on site in 2010. The camping retail chain Millets, and independent shops, set up makeshift outlets at the festival. Additionally charities and organisations run promotional or educational stalls, such as the Hare Krishna tent which provide free vegetarian food. Network Recycling manage refuse on the site, and in 2004 recycled 300 tonnes and composted 110 tonnes of waste from the site.
The Pyramid Stage is 25 metres tall. The stage has 292 audio speakers. There are 8.5 km of cables for video and audio. On stage there are 354 microphones and 3743 light bulbs. The sound systems on site have a total power of 650,000 watts, with the main stage having 250 speakers. Aggreko provide over 27 megawatts of electricity to the site with bio-diesel generators. There are over 4,000 toilets, 2,000 long-drop and 1,300 compost, with water supplies including two reservoirs holding 2,000,000 L (440,000 imp gal) of water.
Transport
Significant logistical operations take place to bring people into the festival by public transport each year. Additional festival trains are provided to Castle Cary railway station, mostly from London Paddington. The station operates as a mini hub with waiting shuttle buses transferring passengers from Castle Cary to the festival site as required. This is an intensive operation on the Wednesday and Thursday each year with local bus and coach operators providing these buses over the two days. Additional extra buses normally provided by Go South Coast run from Bristol to the festival. On the Monday, passengers are transferred back in just one day with additional buses provided to meet the increased requirement. National Express provide extra coaches direct to the festival site from major UK towns and much of this work is subcontracted to smaller coach operators to provide the capacity required.
Location
The festival takes place in South West England at Worthy Farm between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle in Somerset, six miles east of Glastonbury, overlooked by the Glastonbury Tor in the "Vale of Avalon". The area has a number of legends and spiritual traditions, and is a "New Age" site of interest: ley lines are considered to converge on the Tor. The nearest town to the festival site is Shepton Mallet, three miles (5 km) north east, but there continues to be interaction between the people espousing alternative lifestyles living in Glastonbury and the festival. The farm is situated between the A361 and A37 roads.
Worthy Farm is situated at grid reference ST 590 397 in a valley at the head of the Whitelake River, between two low limestone ridges, part of the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. On the site is a confluence of the two small streams that make the Whitelake River. In the past the site has experienced problems with flooding, though after the floods that occurred during the 1997 and 1998 festival, drainage was improved. This did not prevent flooding during the 2005 festival, but allowed the flood water to dissipate within hours. The Highbridge branch of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway ran through the farm on an embankment, but was dismantled in 1966 and now forms a main thoroughfare across the site. Another prominent feature is the high-voltage electricity line which crosses the site east–west. There are several public rights of way bordering the festival site.
In recent years the site has been organised around a restricted backstage compound, with the Pyramid Stage on the north, and Other stage on the south of the compound. Attractions on the east of the site include the acoustic tent, comedy tent and circus. To the south are the green fields, which include displays of traditional and environmentally friendly crafts. In King's Meadow, the hill at the far south of the site, is a modern small megalith circle which, like Stonehenge, is coordinated with the summer solstice, and since 1990 represents a stone circle.
Lineups
Acts in bold indicate the performer played in the Sunday Legends slot.
Notes
Accommodation
Most people who stay at Glastonbury Festival camp in a tent. There are different camping areas, each with its own atmosphere. Limekilns and Hitchin Hill Ground are quieter camping areas, whereas Pennard Hill Ground is a lively campsite. Cockmill Meadow is a family campsite and Wicket Ground was introduced in 2011 as a second family-only campsite. An accessible campsite is also available in Spring Ground. Campsite accommodation is provided in the cost of a standard entry ticket but festival-goers must bring their own tents. Tipis have been at the festival for many years. A limited number of fixed tipis are available for hire at the tipi field near the stone circle. Up to six adults can stay in each tipi and each one comes with a groundsheet and raincatcher. Internal bedding and camping equipment is not provided. Tipi Park also offers solar showers and a log-fired yurt sauna.
Campervans, caravans and trailer tents are not allowed into the main festival site. However, the purchase of a campervan ticket in addition to the main ticket allows access to fields just outside the boundary fence; and the cost includes access for the campervan or towing vehicle and the caravan; the car, or other vehicle used to tow the caravan, may be parked alongside it but sleeping is only authorised in the campervan/caravan and connected awning, not in the accompanying vehicle. One additional tent may accompany the caravan/campervan if space within the plot allows. Some people choose to bring or hire a motorhome, though drivers of larger vehicles or motorhomes may have to purchase a second campervan ticket if they cannot fit within the defined plot. The 2009 festival saw changes to the campervan fields; commercial vehicles were no longer classed as "campervans", all campervans had to have a fitted sleeping area and either washing or cooking facilities, and caravans and trailer tents were allowed back at the festival. Prior to this only campervans were allowed on site, caravans and trailers being banned in the early 1990s after a number were stuck in the mud and abandoned.
Festival-goers can stay at local B&B accommodation. There are several independent Glastonbury accommodation providers close to the main site, which include smaller campsites for tents, gypsy caravans, geo-domes, private cottages and more – some festival goers choose to be ferried between the festival and their accommodation by quad-bike or even private helicopter.
Cultural references
It has been noted that Saint Dunstan, the Patron Saint of Music, was the Abbot of Glastonbury in 943. Various artists have written songs entitled Glastonbury or about the festival including Nizlopi, The Waterboys and Scouting for Girls. Cosmic Rough Riders included "Glastonbury Revisited" on their album Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine (Poptones) in 2000. Amy Macdonald, in her song "Let's Start a Band" referenced Glastonbury: "Give me a festival and I'll be your Glastonbury star." Robbie Williams, in his song "The 90s", refers to his surprise appearance on stage with Oasis in 1995, which ultimately led to him leaving Take That. Joe Strummer wrote the song "Coma Girl" about his experiences at Glastonbury, – in a BBC interview Bruce Springsteen cited the song as inspiring him to play the 2009 festival.
U2 wrote a song titled "Glastonbury" that was supposed to premier with their appearance at the festival, but an injury to Bono forced them to cancel. They instead premiered it in a concert in Turin on their 360° Tour. Marcus Brigstocke's comic creation Giles Wemmbley Hogg had a special mock-documentary made about him going to Glastonbury as part of the Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off radio series. Deborah Crombie's novel A Finer End takes place in Glastonbury with references to a fictional account of an original 1914 Glastonbury Fayre as well as the contemporary festival. Glastonbury is also a setting in John Osborne's 2014 Radio 4 show The New Blur Album. Roxy Music did a song and album called "Avalon", which is the ancient name for Glastonbury (Isle of Avalon).
The 2013 advertisement of the Indonesian cigarette brand owned by the Wismilak Group, Diplomat Mild (see also Cigarette advertising in Indonesia), made reference to the festival: "One day, I would perform at Glastonbury".
Not all references are positive. Punk rock pioneers The Damned refer to "Glastonbury hippies" as one of the things requiring smashing in their 1979 single "Smash It Up".
Awards and nominations
DJ Magazine
NME Awards
See also
Glastonbury Anthems
Glastonbury Festival line-ups
Glastonbury (film)
Glastonbury the Movie
List of music festivals in the United Kingdom
Worthy FM (formerly Radio Avalon)
References
Further reading
McKay, George (2000). Glastonbury: A Very English Fair. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 978-0-575-06807-0.
McKay, George (1996). "Chapter 1: The free festivals and fairs of Albion". Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-028-3.
Naylor, Royston (2002). Stone Free: A Photographic Trip Through 10 Years of Glastonbury Festival. Southgate publishers. ISBN 978-1-85741-145-4.
Shearlaw, John; Aubrey, Crispen (2005). Glastonbury Festival Tales. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-189763-5.
Rob Young (2010). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-86547-856-5.
Thorogood, Tim (2014). Facing the Music: Life, Loss and Glastonbury. Matador. ISBN 978-1-78306-430-4. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
External links
The official site of Glastonbury Festival
BBC Glastonbury site – exclusive rights to show performances online
Glastonbury Festival: 50 years of memories (BBC)
A brief history of Glastonbury Festival's troubles from 1970–2010 at Daily Music Guide
Interactive 360º Virtual Tour of Glastonbury Festival 2015 |
South_Korea_at_the_2006_Winter_Olympics | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea_at_the_2006_Winter_Olympics | [
469
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea_at_the_2006_Winter_Olympics"
] | South Korea competed as Republic of Korea at the 2006 Winter Olympics, while North Korea competed as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. At the opening ceremony, the athletes of both North and South Korea entered the stadium together behind the Korean Unification Flag.
Medalists
In terms of medal count, South Korea is the only Asian country in the top ten.
Ten of the eleven medals were won in short track speed skating. Short track speedskaters Jin Sun-yu and Ahn Hyun-soo were the second and third people to win three gold medals each in Turin. Ahn also won a bronze.
Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Distance
Sprint
Freestyle skiing
Luge
Short track speed skating
Men
Women
Skeleton
Ski jumping
Speed skating
Men
Women
References
Yahoo! Sports – 2006 Winter Olympics – South Korea at the Wayback Machine (archive index) |
South_Korea_at_the_2002_Winter_Olympics | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea_at_the_2002_Winter_Olympics | [
469
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea_at_the_2002_Winter_Olympics"
] | South Korea, as Republic of Korea, competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States.
Medalists
Alpine skiing
Men
Women
Biathlon
Men
Women
Cross-country skiing
Men
Women
Figure skating
Men
Women
Mixed
Luge
Men
Short track speed skating
Men
Women
Skeleton
Men
Ski jumping
Men
Speed skating
Men
Women
References
Official Olympic Reports Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
International Olympic Committee results database |
Tennis_at_the_1988_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_singles | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_at_the_1988_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_singles | [
470
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_at_the_1988_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_singles"
] | West Germany's Steffi Graf defeated Argentina's Gabriela Sabatini in the final, 6–3, 6–3 to win the gold medal in Women's Singles tennis at the 1988 Summer Olympics. With the win, Graf completed the Golden Slam, having also won all four majors earlier in 1988. The final was a rematch of the
U.S. Open final earlier that year, where Graf also prevailed to complete the Grand Slam. The United States' Zina Garrison and Bulgaria's Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière won the bronze medals. It was the first medal in the event for West Germany, Argentina, and Bulgaria (each making their debut in the event), while the United States had previously earned medals in both of its prior appearances in 1900 and 1924.
The tournament was held from 23 September to 1 October at the Seoul Olympic Park Tennis Center. There were 48 competitors from 26 nations. Each nation had only one pair. There was no bronze-medal match.
Background
This was the sixth appearance of the women's singles tennis. A women's event was held only once during the first three Games (only men's tennis was played in 1896 and 1904), but has been held at every Olympics for which there was a tennis tournament since 1908. Tennis was not a medal sport from 1928 to 1984, though there were demonstration events in 1968 and 1984.
West Germany's Steffi Graf had just become the fifth person to win the Grand Slam and was also the unofficial defending Olympic champion, having won the 1984 demonstration event (the official reigning gold medalist from 1924, Helen Wills, had retired from tennis 50 years earlier).
Of the 26 competing nations, 18 made their debut in the event. France and Great Britain each made their fifth appearance, tied for most among nations to that point.
Competition format
The competition was a single-elimination tournament. Unlike previous Olympic tournaments, no bronze-medal match was held. All matches were best-of-three sets. The 12-point tie-breaker, common by 1988, was used in the Olympics for the first time.
Schedule
All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)
Seeds
All seeds received a bye to the second round.
Draw
Key
Finals
Top half
Section 1
Section 2
Bottom half
Section 3
Section 4
References
ITF 1988 Summer Olympics Women's Draws |
Murder_trial_of_O._J._Simpson | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_trial_of_O._J._Simpson | [
471
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_trial_of_O._J._Simpson"
] | The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, in which former NFL player and actor O. J. Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, who were stabbed to death outside Brown's condominium in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994. The trial spanned eight months, from January 24 to October 3, 1995.
Though prosecutors argued that Simpson was implicated by a significant amount of forensic evidence, he was acquitted of both murders on October 3. Commentators agree that to convince the jury to acquit Simpson, the defense capitalized on anger among the city's African-American community toward the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which had a history of racial bias and had inflamed racial tensions in the beating of Rodney King and subsequent riots two years prior. The trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity and has been described as the "most publicized" criminal trial in history. Simpson was formally charged with the murders on June 17; when he did not turn himself in at the agreed time, he became the subject of a police pursuit. TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast live coverage of the pursuit, which was watched by around 95 million people. The pursuit and Simpson's arrest were among the most widely publicized events in history.
Simpson was represented by a high-profile defense team, referred to as the "Dream Team", initially led by Robert Shapiro and subsequently directed by Johnnie Cochran. The team included F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Shawn Holley, Carl E. Douglas, and Gerald Uelmen. Simpson was also instrumental in his own defense.
While Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden believed they had a strong case, the defense team persuaded the jury there was reasonable doubt concerning the DNA evidence. They contended the blood sample had been mishandled by lab scientists and that the case had been tainted by LAPD misconduct related to racism and incompetence. The use of DNA evidence in trials was relatively new, and many laypersons did not understand how to evaluate it.
The trial was considered significant for the wide division in reaction to the verdict. Observers' opinions of the verdict were largely related to their ethnicity; the media dubbed this the "racial gap". A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed most African Americans thought the "not guilty" verdict was justified while most whites thought it was a racially motivated jury nullification by the mostly African-American jury. Polling in later years showed the gap had narrowed since the trial; more than half of polled Black respondents expressed the belief that Simpson was guilty. In 2017, three jurors who acquitted Simpson said they would still vote to acquit, while one said he would convict.
After the trial, Goldman's father filed a civil suit against Simpson. In 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for the deaths of Goldman and Brown. The Goldman family was awarded damages totaling $34 million ($64 million adjusted for inflation), but as of 2024 have received a small portion of that.
Background
Simpson–Brown marriage
Brown met Simpson in 1977 when he was 30 and she was 18, working as a waitress at the Daisy (a Beverly Hills private club). They began dating although Simpson was married; he filed for divorce from his first wife in March 1979.
Simpson and Brown married on February 2, 1985. They had two children together, daughter Sydney (b. 1985) and son Justin (b. 1988). Brown signed a prenuptial agreement that prohibited her from working while married.
According to psychologist Lenore E. Walker, the Simpson–Brown marriage was a "textbook example of domestic abuse".
In letters and other documents, Brown wrote that Simpson had beaten her in public, during sex, and even in front of family and friends. She described an incident in which Simpson broke her arm during a fight; to prevent him from being arrested, she told emergency room staff that she had fallen off her bike. Brown wrote that she felt conflicted about notifying police of the abuse because she was financially dependent on Simpson. Of the 62 incidents of abuse, the police were notified eight times, and Simpson was arrested once. On February 25, 1992, Brown filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences".
Brown said that Simpson stalked and harassed her after they divorced – an intimidation tactic meant to force the victim to return to the abuser. She said he had spied on her having sex with her new boyfriend and that she felt her life was in danger because Simpson had threatened to kill her if he ever found her with another man. She drafted a will. On June 8, 1994, a woman named Nicole (presumed to be Brown) telephoned Sojourn House, a women's shelter. She was considering staying at the shelter because she was afraid of what Simpson might do to her, as she was refusing his pleas to reconcile their marriage.
Frogmen
A few months before the killings, Simpson finished filming a pilot for Frogmen, an adventure series comparable to The A-Team. Simpson played the primary character, "Bullfrog" Burke, who led a gang of former US Navy SEALs. He underwent "a fair amount of" military training for Frogmen, including the use of a knife, and in one scene, he holds a knife to the throat of a woman playing his daughter. Investigators discovered a 25-minute tape of the pilot, which did not feature the knife scene, and viewed it on Simpson's television while searching his home. The defense attempted to prevent its use on these grounds, but Judge Ito permitted it to be shown. "Bullfrog" Burke was skilled at night killings, and the "silent kill" technique of slashing the throat. SEALs also regularly wear knit "watch caps" like the one found at the scene.
Murders
On the evening of June 12, 1994, Brown and Simpson both attended their daughter Sydney's dance recital at Paul Revere Middle School. Afterward, Brown and her family went to eat at Mezzaluna restaurant. One of the waiters at the restaurant was Ron Goldman, who had become close friends with Brown in recent weeks, but was not assigned to the Brown family's table.
Brown and her children went to Ben & Jerry's before returning to her condominium on Bundy Drive, Brentwood. The manager of Mezzaluna recounted that Brown's mother telephoned the restaurant at 9:37 pm asking about a pair of lost eyeglasses. The manager found the glasses and put them in a white envelope, which Goldman took with him as he left the restaurant at the end of his shift at 9:50 pm; he intended to drop them off at Brown's place.
Meanwhile, Simpson ate takeout food from McDonald's with Kato Kaelin, a bit-part actor and family friend who had been given the use of a guest house on Simpson's estate. Rumors circulated that Simpson had been on drugs at the time of the murder (later dismissed as blood tests were negative for Simpson, Brown, and Goldman), and the New York Post's Cindy Adams reported that the pair had gone to a local Burger King, where a prominent drug dealer known only as "J. R." later said he had sold them crystal meth.
Brown's neighbors testified that they heard profuse barking coming from outside throughout the night, beginning around 10:15 pm. Around 10:55 pm., a dogwalker who lived a few blocks away from Brown came across Brown's Akita dog barking in the street outside her home. The Akita, whose legs were covered in blood, followed the man home; he tried to walk the dog back to where he found it, but the dog resisted. Later, he left the Akita with a neighboring couple who offered to keep the dog overnight; as the dog was agitated, the couple decided to walk it back to where it had been found. Around midnight, as they reached the area where the Akita had been found, the dog stopped outside Brown's home and the couple saw Brown's body lying outside the house. Police were called to the scene and found Goldman's body near Brown's.
The front door to Brown's condominium was open when the bodies were found, but there were no signs that anyone had entered the building, by breaking in or otherwise. Brown's body was lying face down and barefoot at the bottom of the stairs leading to the door. The walkway leading to the stairs was covered in blood, but the soles of Brown's feet were clean; based on this evidence, investigators concluded that she was the first person to be attacked and the intended target. She had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck, but there were few defensive wounds on her hands, implying a short struggle to investigators. The final wound inflicted ran deep into her neck, severing her carotid artery. A large bruise in the center of her upper back with a corresponding foot print on her clothing indicated to investigators that, after killing Goldman, the assailant returned to Brown who was on the ground, pulled her head back by the hair and slit her throat. Her larynx could be seen through the gaping wound in her neck, and vertebra C3 was incised; Brown's head barely remained attached to her body.
Goldman's body lay nearby, close to a tree and the fence. He had been stabbed multiple times in the body and neck, but there were relatively few defensive wounds on his hands, signifying a short struggle to investigators. Forensic evidence from the Los Angeles County coroner alleged that the assailant stabbed Goldman with one hand while holding him in a chokehold. Near Goldman's body were a blue knit cap; a left-hand, extra-large Aris Isotoner light leather glove; and the envelope containing the glasses that he was returning. Detectives determined that Goldman came to Brown's house during her murder and that the assailant killed him to remove any witnesses. A trail of the assailant's bloody shoe prints ran through the back gate. To the left of some of the prints were drops of blood from the killer, who was apparently bleeding from the left hand. Measuring the distance between the prints indicated that the assailant walked – rather than ran – away from the scene.
Flight to Chicago
On the night of June 12, Simpson was scheduled to board a red-eye flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Chicago, where he was due to play golf the following day at a convention with representatives of The Hertz Corporation, for whom he was a spokesman. The flight was due to leave at 11:45 pm. Limousine driver Allan Park arrived early at Simpson's Rockingham estate to pick him up at around 10:25 pm. Park drove around the estate to make sure he could navigate the area with the stretch limousine properly and to see which driveway would have the best access for the car. He began to buzz the intercom at 10:40, but got no response. He noted the house was dark, and nobody appeared to be home as he smoked a cigarette and made several calls to his boss to get Simpson's home phone number. He testified that he saw a "shadowy african american figure", the same size as Simpson, enter the front door from where the driveway starts, before the lights came on; he did not see what direction the figure came from. He testified that he saw Simpson's house number on the curb outside the estate, but no car was parked outside. The prosecution presented exhibits showing the position next to the house number on the curb in which Simpson's Ford Bronco was found the next morning, implying that Park would surely have noticed the Bronco if it had been there when he arrived to pick up Simpson.
Around the time Park saw the "shadowy figure" arive at Simpson's home, Kaelin was having a telephone conversation with a friend. At approximately 10:40, something crashed into the wall of the guest house Kaelin was staying in, which he described as three "thumps" and which he feared was an earthquake. Kaelin hung up the phone and ventured outside to investigate the noises, but did not go directly down the dark south pathway from which the thumps had originated. Instead, he walked to the front of the property, where he saw the limousine parked outside. Kaelin let the limousine in, and Simpson finally came out through the front door a few minutes later, claiming he had overslept. Both Park and Kaelin would later testify that Simpson seemed agitated that night.
Park noted that on the way to the airport, Simpson complained about how hot it was, and was sweating and rolled down the window, despite it not being a warm night. Park also testified that he loaded four luggage bags into the car that night, one of them being a knapsack that Simpson would not let him touch, insisting he load it himself. A porter at the airport testified that Simpson checked only three bags that night, and the police determined that the missing luggage was the same knapsack the limousine driver had mentioned earlier. Another witness not heard at the trial claimed he saw Simpson at the airport discarding items from a bag into a trash can. Detectives Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter believe this is how the murder weapon, shoes and clothes that Simpson wore during the murder were disposed.
Simpson was running late but caught his flight. A passenger on the plane and the pilot testified that they did not notice any cuts or wounds on Simpson's hands. A broken glass, a note with a telephone number on it, and bedsheets with blood on them were all recovered from Simpson's room at the O'Hare Plaza Hotel. The manager of the hotel recalled Simpson asking for a Band-Aid for his finger at the front desk, because he had "cut it on pieces of note paper".
Initial investigation and arrest
After learning that Brown was the female victim, LAPD commander Keith Bushey ordered detectives Tom Lange, Philip Vannatter, Ron Phillips, and Mark Fuhrman to notify Simpson of her death and to escort him to the police station to pick up the former couple's children, who were asleep in Brown's condominium at the time of the murders. The detectives buzzed the intercom at Simpson's estate for over 30 minutes but received no response. They noted that Simpson's car was parked at an awkward angle, with its back end out more than the front, and that there was blood on the door, which they feared meant someone inside might be hurt. Vannatter instructed Fuhrman to scale the wall and unlock the gate to allow the other three detectives to enter. The detectives would argue they entered without a search warrant because of exigent circumstances – specifically out of fear that someone inside might be injured. Fuhrman briefly interviewed Kaelin, who told the detective that the car belonged to Simpson and that earlier that night he had heard thumps on his wall. In a walk around the premises to inspect what may have caused the thumps, Fuhrman discovered a blood-stained right-hand glove, which was determined to be the mate of the left-hand glove found next to the body of Goldman. This evidence along with the presence of blood in the driveway of the Rockingham estate and on Simpson's vehicle constituted probable cause and a search warrant for the location was applied for and granted.
Phillips testified that when he called Simpson in Chicago to tell him of Brown's murder, Simpson sounded "very upset" but was oddly unconcerned about the circumstances of her death. Simpson only asked if the children had seen the murder or Brown's body, but was not concerned about whether the assailant(s) had harmed the children either. The police contacted Simpson at his home on June 13 and took him to Parker Center for questioning. Lange noticed that Simpson had a cut on a finger on his left hand that was consistent with where the killer was bleeding from, and asked Simpson how he got the cut. At first, Simpson claimed he cut his finger accidentally while in Chicago after learning of Brown's death. Lange then informed Simpson that blood was found inside his car; at this point, Simpson admitted that he had cut his finger on June 12, but said he did not remember how. He voluntarily gave some of his own blood for comparison with evidence collected at the crime scene and was released. On June 14, Simpson hired lawyer Robert Shapiro, who began assembling Simpson's team of lawyers (referred to as the "Dream Team"). Shapiro noted that an increasingly distraught Simpson had begun treatment for depression. The following days, preliminary results from DNA testing came back with matches to Simpson but the District Attorney delayed filing charges until all the results had come back. Simpson spent the night between June 16 and 17 at the San Fernando Valley home of friend Robert Kardashian; Shapiro asked several doctors to attend to Simpson's purported fragile mental state.
On June 17, detectives recommended that Simpson be charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstance of multiple killings after the final DNA results came back and an arrest warrant was subsequently issued. The LAPD notified Shapiro at 8:30 am that Simpson would have to turn himself in that day. At 9:30 am, Shapiro went to Kardashian's home to tell Simpson that he would have to turn himself in by 11:00 am, an hour after the murder charges were filed. Simpson told Shapiro that he wanted to turn himself in, to which the police agreed, believing that someone as famous as Simpson would not attempt to flee. The police agreed to delay Simpson's surrender until noon to allow him to be seen by a mental health specialist, as he was showing signs of suicidal depression – he had updated his will, called his mother and children, and written three sealed letters: one to his children, one to his mother, and one to the public. More than 1,000 reporters waited for Simpson's perp walk at the police station, but he did not arrive as stipulated. The LAPD then notified Shapiro that Simpson would be arrested at Kardashian's home. Kardashian and Shapiro told Simpson this but when the police arrived an hour later, Simpson and Al Cowlings had disappeared. The three sealed letters Simpson had written were left behind. At 1:50 pm, Commander Dave Gascon, LAPD's chief spokesman, publicly declared Simpson a fugitive; the police issued an all-points bulletin for him and an arrest warrant for Cowlings.
"Suicide note"
At 5 pm, Kardashian and one of his defense lawyers read Simpson's public letter. In the letter, Simpson sent greetings to 24 friends and wrote, "First everyone understand I had nothing to do with Nicole's murder". He described the fights with Brown and their decision not to reconcile their relationship, and asked the media "as a last wish" not to bother his children. He wrote to his former girlfriend Paula Barbieri, who had broken up with him hours before the double murder, "I'm sorry ... we're not going to have, our chance ... [sic] As I leave, you'll be in my thoughts". It also included "I can't go on" and an apology to the Goldman family. The letter concluded, "Don't feel sorry for me. I have had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O. J. and not this lost person". Most interpreted this as a suicide note; Simpson's mother collapsed after hearing it, and reporters joined the search for Simpson. At Kardashian's press conference, Shapiro said that he and Simpson's psychiatrists agreed with the suicide note interpretation. Through television, Shapiro appealed to Simpson to surrender.
Bronco chase
News helicopters searched the Los Angeles highway system for Al Cowlings's automobile, a white 1993 Ford Bronco. At 5:51 pm, Simpson reportedly called 9-1-1; the call was traced to the Santa Ana Freeway, near Lake Forest. At around 6:20 pm, a motorist in Orange County notified California Highway Patrol after seeing someone believed to be Simpson in a Bronco on the I-5 freeway heading north. The police tracked calls placed by Simpson on his cell phone. At 6:45 pm, police officer Ruth Dixon saw the Bronco heading north on Interstate 405; when she caught up to it, Cowlings yelled out that Simpson was in the back seat of the vehicle and was pointing a gun at his own head. The officer backed off, but followed the vehicle at 35 miles per hour (56 km/h), with up to 20 police cars following her in the chase. Zoey Tur of KCBS-TV was the first to find Simpson from a news helicopter, after colleagues heard that the FBI's mobile phone tracking had located Simpson at the El Toro Y. More than nine news helicopters eventually joined the pursuit; Tur compared the fleet to Apocalypse Now, and the high degree of media participation caused camera signals to appear on incorrect television channels. The chase was so long that one helicopter ran out of fuel, forcing its station to ask another for a camera feed.
Knowing that Cowlings was listening to KNX-AM, sports announcer Pete Arbogast called Simpson's former USC football coach John McKay and connected him to Simpson. As both men wept, Simpson told McKay, "OK, Coach, I won't do anything stupid. I promise" off the air. "There is no doubt in my mind that McKay stopped O.J. from killing himself in the back of that Bronco", Arbogast said. McKay, Walter Payton, Vince Evans, and others from around the country pleaded with Simpson over radio to surrender.
At Parker Center, officials discussed how to persuade Simpson to surrender peacefully. Lange, who had interviewed Simpson about the murders on June 13, realized he had Simpson's cell phone number and called him repeatedly. A colleague hooked a tape recorder up to Lange's phone and captured a conversation between Lange and Simpson, in which Lange repeatedly pleaded with Simpson to "throw the gun out [of] the window" for the sake of his mother and children. Simpson apologized for not turning himself in earlier that day, and responded he was "the only one who deserved to get hurt" and was "just gonna go with Nicole". Simpson asked Lange to "just let me get to the house" and said "I need [the gun] for me". Cowlings's voice is overheard in the recording (after the Bronco had arrived at Simpson's home surrounded by police) pleading with Simpson to surrender and end the chase peacefully. NBC Sports broadcaster Bob Costas, who had worked with Simpson on the network's NFL studio show, said that during the chase that Simpson had called 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City asking to speak to Costas, but Costas was several blocks away at Madison Square Garden covering Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals.
Los Angeles streets emptied and drink orders stopped at bars as people watched on television. Every television network showed the chase; ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and local news outlets interrupted regularly scheduled programming to cover the incident, watched by an estimated 95 million viewers nationwide; only 90 million had watched that year's Super Bowl. While NBC continued to air NBA Finals coverage, Bob Costas acted as a go-between for Marv Albert, who was calling the game, and Tom Brokaw, who reported on the chase. Both events were carried in a split screen. The chase was covered live by ABC anchors Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters on behalf of the network's five news magazines, which achieved some of their highest-ever ratings that week. The chase was also broadcast internationally, including in France and China.
Thousands of spectators and onlookers packed overpasses along the route of the chase, waiting for Simpson. In a festival-like atmosphere, many held signs urging Simpson to flee, with slogans such as "Go O.J." and "Save the Juice". Encouraging Simpson's actions outraged Jim Hill, who was among those broadcasting pleas to their friend to surrender. As people watched and wondered what would happen to Simpson, one author wrote, "the shared adventure gave millions of viewers a vested interest, a sense of participation, a feeling of being on the inside of a national drama in the making".
Simpson reportedly demanded that he be allowed to speak to his mother before he would surrender. The chase ended at 8:00 pm at his Brentwood estate, where his son, Jason, ran out of the house, and 27 SWAT officers awaited. After remaining in the Bronco for about 45 minutes, Simpson exited at 8:50 pm and went inside for about an hour; a police spokesman stated that during this time Simpson talked to his mother on the phone. Shapiro then arrived, and Simpson surrendered to authorities a few minutes later. In the Bronco, police found "$8,000 in cash, a change of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a United States passport, family pictures, and a disguise kit with a fake goatee and mustache". Simpson was booked at Parker Center and taken to Men's Central Jail; Cowlings was booked on suspicion of harboring a fugitive and held on $250,000 bail.
The Bronco chase, the suicide note, and the items found in the Bronco were not presented as evidence in the criminal trial. Marcia Clark conceded that such evidence did imply guilt yet defended her decision, citing the public reaction to the chase and suicide note as proof the trial had been compromised by Simpson's celebrity status. Most of the public, including Simpson's friend Al Michaels, interpreted his actions as an admission of guilt yet thousands of spectators were seen expressing sympathy for Simpson and encouraging him to flee from the police.
Preliminary hearing
On June 20, Simpson was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to both murders and was held without bail. The following day, a grand jury was called to determine whether to indict him for the two murders but was dismissed on June 23, as a result of excessive media coverage that could have influenced its neutrality. Instead, authorities held a probable cause hearing to determine whether to bring Simpson to trial. California Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruled on July 7 that there was sufficient evidence to bring Simpson to trial for the murders. At his second arraignment on July 22, when asked how he pleaded to the murders, Simpson firmly stated: "Absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty."
Jill Shively testified to the grand jury that soon after the time of the murders she saw a white Ford Bronco speeding away from Bundy Drive in such a hurry that it almost collided with a Nissan at the intersection of Bundy and San Vicente Boulevard, and that she recognized Simpson's voice. She talked to the television show Hard Copy for $5,000, after which prosecutors declined to use her testimony at trial. In 1995, Shively had falsely claimed actor Brian Patrick Clarke had assaulted and stalked her.
Jose Camacho of Ross Cutlery provided store receipts showing Simpson had purchased a 12-inch (305 mm) stiletto knife six weeks before the murders. The knife was recovered and determined to be similar to the one the coroner said caused the stab wounds. The prosecution did not present this evidence at trial, after Camacho sold his story to the National Enquirer for $12,500. Tests on the knife determined that an oil used on new cutlery was still present on the knife, indicating it had never been used.
Former NFL player and pastor Rosey Grier visited Simpson on November 13 at the Los Angeles County Jail. A jailhouse guard, Jeff Stuart, testified to Judge Ito that at one point Simpson yelled to Grier that he "didn't mean to do it", after which Grier had urged Simpson to come clean. Ito ruled that the evidence was inadmissible as being protected because of clergy-penitent privilege.
At first, Simpson's defense sought to show that one or more hitmen hired by drug dealers had murdered Brown and Goldman – giving Brown a "Colombian necktie" – because they were looking for Brown's friend, Faye Resnick, a known cocaine user who had failed to pay for her drugs. She had stayed for several days at Brown's condo until entering rehab four days before the killings. Ito ruled that the drug killer theory was "highly speculative" with no evidence to support it. Consequently, Ito barred the jury from hearing it and prohibited Christian Reichardt from testifying about his former girlfriend Resnick's drug problems.
Rose Lopez, a neighbor's Spanish-speaking housekeeper, stated on August 18 that she saw Simpson's Bronco parked outside his house at the time of the murders, supporting his claim he was home that night. During cross-examination by Clark, Lopez admitted she was not sure what time she saw Simpson's Bronco but the defense still intended to call her. However, a taped July 29 statement by Lopez did not mention seeing the Bronco but did mention another housekeeper was also there that night, Sylvia Guerra. Prosecutors then spoke with Guerra, who said Lopez was lying and claimed the defense offered both housekeepers $5,000 to say they saw the Bronco that night. When Ito warned the defense that Guerra's claim as well as the earlier statement not mentioning the Bronco and the tape where Clark claims "that [Lopez] is clearly being coached on what to say" would be shown to the jury if Lopez testified, they dropped her from the witness list.
Media coverage
When the trial began, all of the networks were getting these hate-mail letters because people's soap operas were being interrupted for the Simpson trial. But then what happened was the people who liked soap operas got addicted to the Simpson trial. And they got really upset when the Simpson trial was over, and people would come up to me on the street and say, 'God, I loved your show.'
The murders and trial – "the biggest story I have ever seen", said a producer of NBC's Today – received extensive media coverage from the very beginning; at least one instant book was proposed two hours after the bodies were found, and scheduled to publish only a few weeks later. The case was a seminal event in the history of reality television, helping to revive the genre of court shows like Judge Judy. The Los Angeles Times covered the case on its front page for more than 300 days after the murders. The nightly news broadcasts from the Big Three television networks gave more air time to the case than to the Bosnian War and the Oklahoma City bombing combined. They served an enthusiastic audience; one company put the loss of national productivity from employees following the case instead of working at $40 billion. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno aired many skits on the trial, and the Dancing Itos – a troupe of dancers dressed as the judge – was a popular recurring segment. According to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, the acquittal was "the most dramatic courtroom verdict in the history of Western civilization".
Participants in the case received much media coverage. Limo driver Park said the media offered him $100,000 but refused, as he would be removed as a witness. Fans approached Clark in public, and when she got a new hairstyle during the trial, the prosecutor received a standing ovation on the courthouse steps; People approved of the change, but advised her to wear "more fitted suits and tailored skirts". While Cochran, Bailey, and Dershowitz were already well-known, others like Kaelin became celebrities, and Paula Barbieri appeared in Playboy. Those involved in the trial followed their own media coverage. Interest in the case was worldwide; Russian president Boris Yeltsin's first question to President Clinton when they met in 1995 was, "Do you think O.J. did it?"
The issue of whether to allow any video cameras into the courtroom was among the first issues Judge Ito had to decide, ultimately ruling that live camera coverage was warranted. Ito was later criticized for this decision by other legal professionals. Dershowitz said that he believed that Ito, along with others related to the case such as Clark, Fuhrman and Kaelin, was influenced to some degree by the media presence and related publicity. The trial was covered in 2,237 news segments from 1994 through 1997. Ito was also criticized for allowing the trial to become a media circus and not doing enough to regulate the court proceedings.
Among the reporters who covered the trial daily from the courtroom, and a media-area that was dubbed "Camp O. J.", were Steve Futterman of CBS News, Linda Deutsch and Michael Fleeman of the Associated Press, Dan Whitcomb of Reuters, Janet Gilmore of the Los Angeles Daily News, Andrea Ford of the Los Angeles Times, Michelle Caruso of the New York Daily News, Dan Abrams of Court TV, Harvey Levin of KCBS, and David Margolick of The New York Times. Writers Dominick Dunne, Joe McGinniss, and Joseph Bosco also had full-time seats in the courtroom.
On June 27, 1994, Time published a cover story, "An American Tragedy", with a photo of Simpson on the cover. Time's cover image was darker than a typical magazine cover and darker than the original photo, as shown on a Newsweek cover released at the same time. Time consequently became the subject of a media scandal. Commentators found that its staff had used photo manipulation to darken the photo, and they speculated it was to make Simpson appear more menacing. After the publication of the photo drew widespread criticism of racist editorializing and yellow journalism, Time publicly apologized.
Charles Ogletree, a criminal defense attorney and law professor, said in a 2005 interview that the best investigative reporting regarding the murder and trial was by the National Enquirer.
Trial
Simpson wanted a speedy trial, and the defense and prosecuting attorneys worked around the clock for several months to prepare their cases. The trial began on January 24, 1995, seven months after the murders, and was televised by closed-circuit TV camera via Court TV, and in part by other cable and network news outlets, for 134 days. Judge Lance Ito presided over the trial in the C.S. Foltz Criminal Courts Building.
Jury
District Attorney Gil Garcetti elected to file charges in downtown Los Angeles, as opposed to Santa Monica, in which jurisdiction the crimes took place. The Los Angeles Superior Court then decided to hold the trial in Downtown Los Angeles instead of Santa Monica due to safety issues at the Santa Monica Court house owing to the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The decision may have impacted the trials outcome as it resulted in a jury pool that mainly consisted of African Americans. Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant noted that African Americans were far more likely than other minorities to be receptive to claims of racially motivated fraud by the police and were less likely to be familiar with and thus accept DNA evidence.
In October 1994, Judge Lance Ito started interviewing 304 prospective jurors, each of whom had to fill out a 75-page questionnaire. On November 3, twelve jurors were seated with twelve alternates. Over the course of the trial, ten were dismissed for a wide variety of reasons. Only four of the original jurors remained on the final panel.
According to media reports, Clark believed women, regardless of race, would sympathize with the domestic violence aspect of the case and connect with Brown personally. On the other hand, the defense's research suggested that black women would not be sympathetic to Brown, who was white, because of tensions about interracial marriages. Both sides accepted a disproportionate number of female jurors. From an original jury pool of 40 percent white, 28 percent black, 17 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent Asian, the final jury for the trial had ten women and two men, of whom nine were black, two white, and one Hispanic.
On April 5, 1995, juror Jeanette Harris was dismissed when Judge Ito learned she had failed to disclose an incident of domestic abuse. Afterwards, Harris gave an interview and accused the deputies of racism and claimed the jurors were dividing themselves along racial lines. Ito then met with the jurors, who all denied Harris's allegations of racial tension among themselves. The following day, Ito dismissed the three deputies anyway, which upset the jurors that did not complain because the dismissal appeared to lend credence to Harris's allegations, which they all denied. On April 21, thirteen of the eighteen jurors refused to come to court until they spoke with Ito about it. Ito then ordered them to court and the 13 protesters responded by wearing all black and refusing to come out to the jury box upon arrival. The media described this incident as a "Jury Revolt" and the protesters wearing all black as resembling a "funeral procession".
Prosecution case
The two lead prosecutors were Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark and William Hodgman, who was replaced as lead prosecutor by Christopher Darden. Clark was designated as the lead prosecutor and Darden became Clark's co-counsel. Prosecutors Hank Goldberg and Hodgman, who had successfully prosecuted high-profile cases in the past, assisted Clark and Darden. Two prosecutors who were DNA experts, Rockne Harmon and George "Woody" Clarke, were brought in to present the DNA evidence in the case and were assisted by Prosecutor Lisa Kahn.
Theory
The prosecution argued that the domestic violence within the Simpson-Brown marriage culminated in her murder. Simpson's history of abusing Brown resulted in their divorce and his pleading guilty to one count of domestic violence in 1989. On the night of the murders, Simpson attended a dance recital for his daughter and was reportedly angry with Brown because of a black dress that she wore, which he said was "tight". Simpson's then girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, wanted to attend the recital with Simpson but he did not invite her. After the recital, Simpson returned home to a voicemail from Barbieri ending their relationship.
According to the prosecution, Simpson then drove over to Brown's home in his Ford Bronco to reconcile their relationship as a result and when Brown refused, Simpson killed her in a "final act of control". Goldman then came upon the scene and was murdered in order to silence him and remove any witnesses. Afterwards, Simpson drove home in his Bronco, and he went into his house. There, he took off his bloodstained clothes, put them in the knapsack (except his socks and the glove), put clean ones on, and left towards the limousine. At the airport, Simpson opened the knapsack, removed the clothes, Bruno Magli shoes, and the murder weapon, and threw them in the trash, before putting the knapsack in one of his suitcases and heading towards his flight.
Domestic violence
The prosecution opened its case by calling LAPD 911 dispatcher Sharon Gilbert and playing a 9-1-1 call from Brown on January 1, 1989, in which she expressed fear that Simpson would physically harm her; Simpson himself is even heard in the background yelling at her and possibly hitting her as well. The officer who responded to that call, Detective John Edwards, testified next that when he arrived, a severely beaten Brown ran from the bushes where she was hiding and to the detective screaming "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me", referring to Simpson. Pictures of Brown's face from that night were then shown to the jury to confirm his testimony. That incident led to Simpson's arrest and eventual pleading of no contest to one count of domestic violence for which he received probation for one year.
LAPD officer and long time friend of both Simpson and Brown, Ron Shipp, testified on February 1, 1995, that Simpson told him the day after the murders that he did not want to take a polygraph test offered to him by the police, because "I've had a lot of dreams about killing her. I really don't know about taking that thing". The jury dismissed Shipp's claims after defense attorney Carl E. Douglas accused him of being an alcoholic, and testifying against Simpson to promote his acting career.
The prosecution then called Brown's sister, Denise Brown, to the witness stand. She testified to many episodes of domestic violence in the 1980s, when she saw Simpson physically abuse Brown and throw her out of their house during an argument. She said that Simpson was agitated with Brown on June 12. Although a home videotape taken immediately after the dance recital showed a cheerful Simpson being given a kiss by Denise Brown, Kato Kaelin corroborated the claim that Simpson was "upset" with Brown because of the black dress she wore, which he said was "tight".
The prosecution planned to present 62 separate incidents of domestic violence, including three previously unknown incidents Brown had documented in several letters she had written and placed in a bank safety deposit box. Judge Ito denied the defense's motion to suppress the incidents of domestic violence, but only allowed witnessed accounts to be presented to the jury because of Simpson's Sixth Amendment rights. Brown's statements to friends and family were ruled inadmissible as hearsay because Brown was dead and unable to be cross-examined. Despite this, the prosecution had witnesses for 44 separate incidents they planned to present to the jury.
However, the prosecution dropped the domestic violence portion of their case on June 20, 1995. Marcia Clark stated it was because they believed the DNA evidence against Simpson was insurmountable, but the media speculated it was because of the comments made by dismissed juror Jeanette Harris. Christopher Darden later confirmed that to be true. Harris was dismissed on April 6 because she failed to disclose that she was a victim of domestic violence from her ex-husband. Afterwards, she gave an interview in which she said the evidence of Simpson's abuse of Brown "doesn't mean he is guilty of murder". This dismissal of Simpson's abusive behavior from a female juror, who was also a victim of such abuse by her own husband, convinced the prosecution that the jury was not receptive to the domestic violence argument. After the verdict, the jurors called the domestic violence portion of the case a "waste of time". Shapiro, Dershowitz, and Uelmen later admitted they believe that race played a factor in the jurors' dismissal of Brown's abuse by Simpson.
The defense retained renowned advocate for victims of domestic abuse Lenore E. Walker. Cochran said that she would testify that Simpson does not fit the profile of an abuser that would murder his spouse. Walker's colleagues were appalled by her decision to defend Simpson and accused her of betraying her advocacy for a $250,000 retainer. Walker was dropped from the witness list for "tactical reasons" after she submitted her report on the case. In it, she opines that the statistic from Dershowitz that of the two million incidents of abuse per year, only 2,000 victims are actually murdered by their spouses as being misleading because Brown was already dead. The relevant statistic was "of the murdered spouses who were also victims of abuse, what percentage of them were murdered by their current or ex-husband?" When she reported that number was 80.3 percent, they dropped her from the witness list.
The revelation of Simpson's abuse of Brown is credited with turning public opinion against him. The public shock at the reason why Walker was dropped from the defense witness list is credited with transforming public opinion on spousal abuse from a private familial matter to a serious public health issue.
Timeline
Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran testified on June 14, 1995, that Brown's time of death was estimated as between 10:00 pm and 10:30 pm. Kato Kaelin testified on March 22, 1995, that he last saw Simpson at 9:36 pm that evening. A phone call was made from Simpson's Bronco to Paula Barbieri at 10:02 pm. Simpson was not seen again until 10:54 pm when he answered the intercom at the front door for the limousine driver, Allan Park. Simpson had no alibi for approximately one hour and 18 minutes during which time the murders took place. Allan Park testified on March 28 that he arrived at Simpson's home at 10:25 pm and stopped at the Rockingham entrance; Simpson's Bronco was not there. He then drove over to the Ashford entrance and rang the intercom three times, getting no answer, starting at 10:40 pm. Then he saw someone arrive at Simpson's home through the front door, the lights then turned on and Simpson answered the intercom.
Park's testimony was significant because it explained the location of the glove found at Simpson's home. The blood trail from the Bronco to the front door was easily understood but the glove was found on the other side of the house. Park said the "shadowy figure" initially approached the front door before heading down the southern walkway which leads to where the glove was found by Fuhrman. The prosecution believed that Simpson had driven his Bronco to and from Brown's home to commit the murders, saw that Park was there and aborted his attempt to enter through the front door, entering through the back instead. He panicked and made the sounds that Kaelin heard when he realized that the security system would not let him enter through the rear entrance. He then discarded the glove, came back and went through the front door. During cross examination, Park conceded that he could not identify the figure but said he saw that person enter the front door and afterwards Simpson answered and said he was home alone. Park conceded that he did not notice any cuts on Simpson's left hand but added "I shook his right hand, not his left".
DNA evidence and blood trail
The prosecution presented a total of 108 exhibits, including 61 drops of blood, of DNA evidence to link Simpson to the murders. With no witnesses to the crime, the prosecution was dependent on DNA as the only physical evidence linking Simpson to the crime. The volume of DNA evidence in this case was unique and the prosecution believed they could reconstruct how the crime was committed with enough accuracy to resemble an eyewitness account. Marcia Clark stated in her opening statements that there was a "trail of blood from the Bundy Crime scene through Simpson's Ford Bronco to his bedroom at Rockingham".
Simpson's DNA found on blood drops next to the bloody footprints near the victims at the Bundy crime scene. The prosecution stated that the probability of error was 1-in-9.7 billion.
Simpson's DNA found on a trail of blood drops leading away from the victims, towards and on the back gate at Bundy. The prosecution stated that the probability of error was 1-in-200.
Simpson, Goldman, and Brown's DNA found on blood on the outside of the door and inside Simpson's Bronco. The prosecution stated that the probability of error was 1-in-21 billion.
Simpson's DNA found on blood drops leading from the area where his Bronco was parked at Simpson's Rockingham home to the front door entrance.
Simpson, Brown, and Goldman's DNA on a bloody glove found behind his home.
Simpson and Brown's DNA found on blood on a pair of socks in Simpson's bedroom. The prosecution stated that the probability of error was 1-in-6.8 billion.
Hair and fiber evidence
LAPD criminalist and hair fiber expert Susan Brockbank testified on June 27, 1995, and FBI Special Agent and fiber expert Doug Deedrick testified on June 29, 1995, to the following findings:
The fibers from the glove found at Simpson's home were microscopically similar to the one found at the crime scene.
Both of the victims, the two gloves, and the blue knit cap worn by the killer had hair consistent with Simpson. The hair in the blue knit cap worn by the killer was embedded in the seams, indicating it was there from being worn repeatedly.
Dark blue cotton clothing fibers were found on both victims. The video from the dance recital that Simpson attended earlier that night shows him wearing a similarly colored shirt. Kato Kaelin testified that Simpson was still wearing that shirt when they got home from McDonald's but not anymore when he answered the door for the limousine driver. The police searched his home but the shirt was never found.
Hair consistent with Goldman was found on Brown and clothing fibers consistent with Brown was found on Goldman. This supported the prosecution's theory that the assailant killed Brown first, then Goldman, and afterwards returned to Brown to cut her throat. The hair consistent with Brown that was found on the Rockingham glove was torn which also supports the prosecution claim that the killer grabbed Brown by her hair to cut her throat.
Fibers that were only used in the 1993-1994 model year Ford Bronco, the same car that Simpson owns, were found on both victims, the knit cap and on both gloves.
The glove found at Simpson's home that belonged to the murderer had hair and clothing fibers consistent with Simpson, Brown and Goldman as well as fibers from a 1993–1994 Ford Bronco and Brown's Akita dog.
Shoeprint analysis
In June, FBI shoeprint expert William J. Bodziak testified that the bloody shoeprints found at the crime scene and inside Simpson's Bronco were made from a rare and expensive pair of Bruno Magli Italian shoes. He determined the shoes were a size 12, the same size that Simpson wore, and are only sold at Bloomingdales. Only 299 pairs of that size were sold in the US and one of them was sold at the same store that Simpson often buys his shoes from. Bodziak also testified that, despite two sets of footprints at the crime scene, only one attacker was present because they were all made by the same shoes. During cross-examination Bailey suggested the murderer deliberately wore shoes that were the wrong size, which Bodziak dismissed as "ridiculous".
Simpson denied ever owning a pair of the shoes; there was only circumstantial evidence he did. Bloomingdales employee Samuel Poser testified he remembered showing Simpson those shoes, but there was no store record of him purchasing them. Although the prosecution could not prove that Simpson owned a pair of those shoes, Bodziak testified that a similar bloody shoeprint was left on the floor inside Simpson's Bronco. Scheck suggested that Fuhrman broke into the Bronco and left the footprint there; he produced a photo of Fuhrman walking through a puddle of blood. Bodziak admitted that he was not able to confirm that the shoeprint in the car definitely came from a Bruno Magli shoe, but dismissed Scheck's claim because none of the shoeprints at the crime scene were made by Fuhrman's shoes, making it unlikely he could have made a bloody shoeprint in the Bronco.
Defense case
Simpson hired a team of high-profile defense lawyers, initially led by Robert Shapiro, who was previously a civil lawyer known for settling, and then subsequently by Johnnie Cochran, who at that point was known for police brutality and civil rights cases. The team included noted defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, Robert Kardashian, Harvard appeals lawyer Alan Dershowitz, his student Robert Blasier, and Dean of Santa Clara University School of Law Gerald Uelmen. Assisting Cochran were Carl E. Douglas and Shawn Holley. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld were also hired; they headed the Innocence Project and specialized in DNA evidence. Simpson's defense was said to have cost between US$3-6 million; the media dubbed the talented attorneys the Dream Team, while the taxpayer cost of prosecution was over US$9 million.
Postulate
The defense team's reasonable doubt angle was summarized as "compromised, contaminated, corrupted" in opening statements. They argued the DNA evidence against Simpson was compromised by mishandling by Dennis Fung and Andrea Mazzola during the collection phase of evidence gathering, and that 100% of the DNA of the real killer(s) had vanished from the evidence samples. The defense argued that evidence was then contaminated in the LAPD crime lab by criminalist Collin Yamauchi and that Simpson's DNA from his reference vial was transferred to all but three exhibits. The remaining three exhibits were planted by the police and thus corrupted by police fraud. The defense also questioned the timeline, claiming the murders happened around 11:00 pm that night when Simpson has an alibi.
Timeline
The physician Robert Huizenga testified in July 1995 that Simpson was not physically capable of carrying out the murders due to chronic arthritis and old football injuries. During cross-examination, the prosecution produced an exercise video that Simpson had made a few weeks before the murders titled O.J. Simpson Minimum Maintenance: Fitness for Men, which demonstrated that Simpson was anything but frail. Huizenga admitted afterwards that Simpson could have committed the murders if he was in "the throes of an adrenaline-rush".
Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist, testified that the murders happened closer to 11:00 pm. He stated that Brown was still conscious, standing, and took a step after her throat was cut and that after Goldman's jugular vein was lacerated he continued to stand and fight his assailant for ten minutes.
After the trial, Baden admitted his claim of Goldman's long struggle was inaccurate and that testifying for Simpson was a mistake. Critics claimed that Baden knowingly gave false testimony in order to collect a $100,000 retainer because the week before he testified, John Gerdes admitted that Goldman's blood was found in Simpson's Bronco despite Goldman never having an opportunity within his lifetime to be in the Bronco.
Nicole's mother, Juditha, told police and investigators in a sworn statement that she was speaking with her daughter on the telephone at 11:00pm that evening. Those phone records were sealed. A vat of ice cream was still partially frozen sitting on the downstairs bannister when police searched the open-door house around 12:30am June 13. The local weather was reported to be around 60° F that night, implying that by that time, the ice cream should have been near-completely thawed.
Compromised and contaminated
Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld argued that the results from the DNA testing were not reliable because the police were "sloppy" in collecting and preserving it from the crime scene. Fung and Mazzola did admit to making several mistakes during evidence collection, which included not always changing gloves between handling evidence items, packaging and storing the evidence items using plastic bags rather than paper bags as recommended, and storing evidence in the police van, which was not refrigerated, for up to seven hours after collection. This, the defense argued, would allow bacteria to degrade the DNA and thus make the samples more susceptible to cross-contamination in the LAPD crime lab.
The prosecution denied that the mistakes made by Fung and Mazzola changed the validity of the results. They noted that all of the evidence samples were testable and that most of the DNA testing was done at the two consulting labs, not the LAPD crime lab where contamination supposedly happened. Since all of the samples the consulting labs received were testable, while Scheck and Neufeld's theory predicted that they should have been inconclusive after being "100% degraded", the claim that all the DNA was lost to bacterial degradation was not credible. The prosecution also denied that contamination happened in the LAPD crime lab because the result would have been a mixture of Simpson's DNA and the DNA of the "real killer(s)", but the results showed that only Simpson's DNA was present. The prosecution also noted the defense declined to challenge any of those results by testing the evidence themselves. Marcia Clark called Scheck and Neufeld's claims a "smoke-screen".
The contamination claim was made by microbiologist John Gerdes. He testified in August 1995 that Forensic PCR DNA matching is not reliable and that the LAPD crime lab has a "chronic", "substantial contamination problem". Gerdes testified that because of the LAPD's past history of contamination, he would not consider any of the PCR DNA matches in this case reliable. He also claimed that the consulting labs' PCR DNA matches were not reliable, as the evidence they tested went "through the LAPD" for packaging and shipping. Gerdes believed only three of the DNA matches to have been valid, which were the same three the defense alleged were planted by the police.
During cross-examination, Gerdes admitted there was no evidence that cross-contamination had occurred and that he was only testifying to "what might occur and not what actually did occur". He accepted that the victims' blood was in the Bronco and Simpson's blood was at the crime scene and neither was due to contamination. He also conceded that nothing happened during "packaging and shipping" that would affect the validity of the results at the two consulting labs. The prosecution implied that Gerdes was not a credible witness: he had no forensic experience, had only testified for criminal defendants in the past, and always said the DNA evidence against them was not reliable due to contamination. Clark also implied that it was not a coincidence that the three evidence items he initially said were valid were the same three the defense claimed were planted while the other 58 were all false positives and the 47 substrate controls, which are used to determine if contamination occurred, were all false negatives. Defense forensic DNA expert Henry Lee, testifying in August 1995, admitted that Gerdes's claim was "highly improbable".
Barry Scheck's eight-day cross-examination of Dennis Fung was lauded in the media. However, Howard Coleman, president of Seattle-based forensic DNA laboratory GeneLex, criticized Scheck's cross-examination as "smoke and mirrors", stating: "Everything we get in the lab is contaminated to some degree. What contamination and degradation will lead you to is an inconclusive result. It doesn't lead you to a false positive".
Police conspiracy allegation
The defense initially only claimed that three exhibits were planted by the police but eventually argued that virtually all of the blood evidence against Simpson was planted in a police conspiracy. They accused prison nurse Thano Peratis, criminalists Dennis Fung, Andrea Mazzola, and Colin Yamauchi, and Vannatter and Fuhrman, of participating in a plot to frame Simpson. In closing arguments, Cochran called Fuhrman and Vannatter "twins of deception", Vannatter "the man who carried the blood" and Fuhrman "the man who found the glove".
EDTA
The only physical evidence offered by the defense that the police tried to frame Simpson was the allegation that two of the 108 DNA evidence samples tested in the case contained the preservative Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). However, it was the prosecution who asked to have the samples tested for the preservative, not the defense. The defense alleged that the drop of blood on the back gate at the Bundy crime scene, which matched Simpson, and the blood found on a pair of socks in Simpson's bedroom, which matched Brown, were planted by the police. In order to support this claim, the defense pointed to the presence in the blood samples of EDTA, a preservative found in the purple-topped collection tubes used for police reference vials. In July 1995, Fredric Rieders, a forensic toxicologist who had analysed the FBI's results, testified that the level of EDTA in the evidence samples was higher than that which is normally found in blood: this appeared to support the defense's claim that the blood came from the reference vials. During cross-examination, Clark asked Rieders to read out loud the portion of the EPA article that stated what the normal levels of EDTA in blood are, which he had referenced during his testimony. This demonstrated that he had misread the article and that the levels found in the evidence samples were consistent with those found in blood that was not preserved in a police reference vial. Rieders then claimed it was a "typo", but the prosecution produced a direct copy from the EPA confirming the normal amounts of EDTA found in unpreserved blood. The prosecution also had Rieders admit that EDTA is found in food and specifically the ingredients used in the McDonald's Big Mac and french fries that Simpson had eaten earlier that night.
FBI special agent Roger Martz was called by the defense in July 1995 to testify that EDTA was present in the evidence samples. Instead, he said he did not identify it in the blood, contradicting Rieders' testimony. Initially he conceded the blood samples were "consistent with the presence of EDTA", but he later clarified his response after hearing that "everyone is saying that I found EDTA", which he denied. The defense accused him of changing his demeanor to favor the prosecution, and he replied: "I cannot be entirely truthful by only giving 'yes' and 'no' answers". Martz stated that it was impossible to ascertain with certainty the presence of EDTA, as while the presumptive test for it was positive, the identification test for it was inconclusive. He also tested his own unpreserved blood and got the same results for EDTA levels as the evidence samples, which he said conclusively disproved the claim that the evidence blood came from the reference vials. He contended that the defense had jumped to conclusions from the presumptive test results, while his tests had in fact shown that "those bloodstains did not come from preserved blood".
Back gate
The defense alleged that Simpson's blood on the back gate at the Bundy crime scene was planted by the police. The blood on the back gate was collected on July 3, 1994, rather than June 13. The volume of DNA in that blood was significantly higher than the other blood evidence collected on June 13. The volume of DNA was so high that the defense conceded that it could not be explained by contamination in the lab. However, they noted that it was unusual for that blood to have more DNA in it than the other samples collected at the crime scene, especially since it had been left exposed to the elements for several weeks and was collected after the crime scene had supposedly been washed over. In March 1995, Vannatter testified that he instructed Fung to collect the blood on the gate on June 13 and Fung admitted he had not done so. The defense suggested the reason why Fung did not collect the blood is because it was not there that day; when shown a blown-up photograph taken of the back gate on June 13, he admitted he could not see the blood.
The prosecution responded that a different photograph showed the blood was present on the back gate on June 13, before any blood had been taken from Simpson's arm. Robert Riske was the first officer at the crime scene and the one who pointed out the blood on the back gate to Fuhrman, who documented it in his notes that night. Multiple other officers testified that the blood was present on the back gate the night of the murders. The prosecution also pointed out that the media cameras present proved that Vannatter never returned to the crime scene (Brown's home) that evening, where Simpson's blood was allegedly planted.
Bronco
Barry Scheck alleged the police had twice planted the victims' blood inside Simpson's Bronco. An initial collection was made on June 13; the defense accused Vannatter of planting the victims' blood in the Bronco when he returned to Simpson's home later that evening. The prosecution responded that the Bronco had already been impounded by the time Vannatter returned and was not even at Rockingham.
Socks
The defense alleged that the police had planted Brown's blood on the socks found in Simpson's bedroom. The socks were collected on June 13 and had blood from both Simpson and Brown, but her blood on the socks was not identified until August 4. The socks were found by Fuhrman, but the defense suggested Vannatter planted the blood. He had received both blood reference vials from the victims earlier that day from the coroner and booked them immediately into evidence. Vannatter then drove back to Rockingham later that evening to hand-deliver the reference vial for Simpson to Fung, which the defense alleged gave him opportunity to plant the blood. Fung testified he could not see blood on the socks he collected from Simpson's bedroom, and the prosecution later demonstrated that those blood stains were only visible underneath a microscope.
Vannatter denied planting Brown's blood on the socks. The video from Willie Ford indicated that the socks had already been collected and stored in the evidence van before Vannatter arrived and footage from the media cameras present appeared to prove that he never went inside the evidence van after he arrived at Rockingham.
Glove
The last exhibit allegedly planted was the bloody glove found at Simpson's property by Fuhrman. Unlike the sock and the back gate, the defense provided no physical or eyewitness evidence to support their claim that the prosecution could then refute. The New Yorker published an article months before the trial began which cited a source in Simpson's defense team as saying that they intended to accuse Fuhrman of planting the glove, with the motive being racism. Robert Shapiro later admitted he was the magazine's source.
Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey suggested that Fuhrman found the glove at the crime scene, picked it up with a stick, placed it in a plastic bag, and concealed it in his sock when he drove to Simpson's home with Lange, Vannatter, and Phillips. Bailey suggested that Fuhrman then planted the glove to frame Simpson, with the motive being either racism or a desire to become the hero in a high-profile case. Scheck suggested that Fuhrman broke into the Bronco and used the glove to plant blood onto and inside the Bronco.
The prosecution denied that Fuhrman planted the glove. They noted that several officers had already combed over the crime scene for almost two hours before Fuhrman arrived and none had noticed a second glove. Lange testified that 14 other officers were there when Fuhrman arrived and all said there was only one glove at the scene. Lt. Frank Spangler also testified that he was with Fuhrman for the duration of his time there, saying he would have seen Fuhrman steal the glove. Clark added that Fuhrman did not know whether Simpson had an alibi, if there were any witnesses to the murders, whose blood was on the glove, that the Bronco belonged to Simpson, or whether Kaelin had already searched the area where the glove was found.
During cross-examination by Bailey, Fuhrman denied that he had used the word "nigger" to describe African Americans in the ten years prior to his testimony. A few months later, the defense presented audiotapes of Fuhrman repeatedly using the word eight years before the murders. The Fuhrman tapes became the cornerstone of the defense's case that his testimony lacked credibility. Clark called the tapes "the biggest red herring" ever.
After screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny handed over the tapes to the defense, Fuhrman says he asked the prosecution for a redirect to explain the context of those tapes but the prosecution and fellow officers abandoned him after Ito played the audiotapes in open court. The public reaction was explosive, comparable to the reaction to the video of the King beating. After the trial, Fuhrman said that he was not a racist and apologized for his language, claiming he was play-acting for a screenplay when he made the tapes and had been asked to be as dramatic as possible. Many of his minority former coworkers expressed support for him.
On September 6, 1995, Fuhrman was called back to the stand by the defense after the prosecution refused to redirect him. The jury was absent but the exchange was televised. Fuhrman, facing a possible prosecution for perjury, was instructed by his attorney to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination to two consecutive questions he was asked. Defense attorney Uelmen asked Fuhrman if it was his intention to plead the Fifth to all questions, and Fuhrman's attorney instructed him to reply "yes". Uelmen spoke with other members of the defense and then said he had just one more question: "Did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?" Following his attorney's instruction, Fuhrman again invoked the Fifth.
Cochran responded to Fuhrman's pleading the Fifth by accusing the other officers of conspiring to protect Fuhrman; he asked Judge Ito to suppress all of the evidence that Fuhrman found. Ito denied the request, stating that pleading the Fifth does not imply guilt and that there was no evidence of fraud. Cochran asked that the jury be allowed to hear Fuhrman taking the Fifth, and again Ito denied his request. Ito criticized the defense's theory of how Fuhrman allegedly planted the glove, stating it was illogical.
On June 15, 1995, Darden surprised Clark by asking Simpson to try on the gloves found at the crime scene and his home. The prosecution had earlier decided against asking Simpson to try them on because the gloves had been soaked in blood from Simpson, Brown, and Goldman, and frozen and unfrozen several times. Instead they presented a witness who testified that Brown had purchased a pair of those gloves in the same size in 1990 at Bloomingdales for Simpson, along with a receipt and a photo of Simpson earlier wearing the same type of gloves.
The leather gloves appeared too tight for Simpson to put on easily, especially over the latex gloves he wore underneath. Clark claimed that Simpson was acting when he appeared to be struggling to put on the gloves. Cochran replied, "I don't think he could act the size of his hands". Darden then told Ito of his concerns that Simpson "has arthritis and we looked at the medication he takes and some of it is anti-inflammatory and we are told he has not taken the stuff for a day and it caused swelling in the joints and inflammation in his hands". Cochran informed Ito the next day that Shawn Chapman contacted the Los Angeles County Jail doctor, who confirmed Simpson was taking his arthritis medication every day, and that the jail's medical records verified this.
In a June 28, 1995, memo to Cochran, Uelmen came up with—and Cochran later repeated—a quip he used in his closing arguments: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit". In his memo to Cochran, Uelmen noted that the phrase not only applied to the gloves but to the evidence presented by the prosecutors:
What the memo really tries to do is play off the jury instructions... I thought that instruction on circumstantial evidence [CALJIC 2.01] was just incredibly good for us, so when we knew that instruction was going to be given, it just popped out at me. It says if it doesn't fit, you must acquit. What I was trying to do is not just remind the jury of that moment in the trial of trying on the glove, but the whole concept of did the evidence really fit the story that the prosecution was trying to present.
The prosecution stated they believed the gloves shrank from having been soaked in the blood of the victims. This model of gloves was made out of leather, which, as confirmed by Richard Rubin, can shrink up to 15% after being exposed to moisture and can never return to its original size. Darden produced a new pair of the same type of gloves, which fit Simpson when he tried them on. Rubin was a former vice president of Aris Isotoner Inc., which makes the gloves in question. On September 12, 1995, Rubin testified he was "100 certain" that the gloves at the murder scene—and also the style of gloves which Simpson was seen wearing in photographs and football broadcasts between 1990 and 1994—were of the company's rare Aris Light model and that they appeared to have shrunk. Rubin also noted that another pair of similar gloves which Simpson could be seen wearing during a football broadcast were noticeably absorbing rain water.
After the trial, Cochran revealed that Bailey had goaded Darden into asking Simpson to try on the gloves and that Shapiro had told Simpson in advance that they would not fit.
Summation
In closing arguments, Darden ridiculed the notion that police officers might have wanted to frame Simpson. He questioned why, if the LAPD was against Simpson, they went to his house eight times on domestic violence calls against Brown between 1986 and 1988 but did not arrest him; they only arrested him on charges of abuse in January 1989. Darden noted the police did not arrest Simpson for five days after the 1994 murders. During the prosecution's closing argument, Cochran and Scheck very notably objected seventy-one times in order to lessen its effect on the jury, and though Ito overruled sixty-nine of them, he did not once admonish Cochran or Scheck or threaten them with contempt of court for their behavior.
During his closing argument, Cochran pointed out the many flaws of the LAPD, particularly Fuhrman, Lange, and Vannatter. He emphasized that Fuhrman was proved to have repeatedly referred to black people as "niggers" and also to have boasted of beating young black men in his role as a police officer. Cochran compared Fuhrman to Adolf Hitler and referred to him as "the personification of evil", and claimed that Fuhrman had planted the glove in an attempt to frame Simpson for the murders, based on his dislike of interracial couples. Cochran also presented a piece of paper named "Vannatter's Big Lies", claiming Vannatter had returned to the crime scene with Simpson's blood to plant it there, despite Vannatter having previously testified that he had given it to Dennis Fung in order to avoid the exhibits from getting mixed up. Cochran referred to Fuhrman and Vannatter as the "two devils of deception", and implored the jurors to "stop this cover-up" and "acquit Simpson and send the police a message", which was interpreted by many as an appeal for a jury nullification.
Following his summation, Cochran received numerous death threats, and hired bodyguards from Louis Farrakhan. In response, Fred Goldman, who was himself Jewish, referred to Cochran himself as a racist and a "sick man" for comparing Fuhrman to Hitler while associating himself with Farrakhan, who was widely considered a black supremacist and anti-Semite. Robert Shapiro, also Jewish, said he was offended by Cochran comparing Fuhrman's claims to the Holocaust. In an interview regarding Vincent Bugliosi's analysis on the case, Vannatter claimed that he was so infuriated at Cochran's claims about him that he felt a desire to strangle him in the courtroom.
Verdict
Fears grew that race riots, similar to the riots in 1992, would erupt across Los Angeles and the rest of the country if Simpson were convicted of the murders. As a result, all Los Angeles police officers were put on 12-hour shifts. The police arranged for more than 100 police officers on horseback to surround the Los Angeles County courthouse on the day the verdict was announced, in case of rioting by the crowd. President Bill Clinton was briefed on security measures if rioting were to occur nationwide.
The only testimony that the jury reviewed was that of limo driver Park. At 10:07 a.m. on October 3, 1995, Simpson was acquitted on both counts of murder. The jury arrived at the verdict by 3:00 pm on October 2, after four hours of deliberation, but it postponed the announcement. After the verdict was read, juror number nine, 44-year-old Lionel Cryer, gave Simpson a Black Power raised fist salute. The New York Times reported that Cryer was a former member of the revolutionary nationalist Black Panther Party that prosecutors had "inexplicably left on the panel".
An estimated 100 million people worldwide watched or listened to the verdict's announcement. Long-distance telephone call volume declined by 58 percent, and trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange decreased by 41 percent. Water usage decreased as people avoided using bathrooms. So much work stopped that the verdict resulted in an estimated $480 million in lost production. The US Supreme Court received a message on the verdict during oral arguments, with the justices quietly passing the note to each other while listening to the attorney's presentation. Congressmen canceled press conferences, with Joe Lieberman telling reporters, "Not only would you not be here, but I wouldn't be here, either".
Acquittal and aftermath
African-American LAPD Police Chief Willie Williams indicated that he had no plans to reopen the investigation, saying of the acquittals, "It doesn't mean there's another murderer". The LAPD has also declined to reexamine the evidence with modern methods in recent years because Simpson could not be tried for the same crime again under the Fifth Amendment.
Fate of the Broncos
Simpson's 1993 Ford Bronco was never returned to him and was destroyed by the LAPD shortly after the trial ended.
Cowlings's 1993 Ford Bronco from the low-speed chase was purchased in 1994 by Simpson's former sports agent Mike Gilbert and two other men, then ended up sitting in a parking garage for the next 17 years (1995–2012), where it was rarely used. As of 2017, the vehicle was on loan to the Alcatraz East Crime Museum, where it was put on display as part of an exhibit on the murder trial.
Legislative changes
The strong public reaction to Brown's letters and statements describing her abuse spurred passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, which Clark and Douglas referred to as the "O.J. rule". After the trial, researchers reported increased reporting, arrests, and harsher sentences for those convicted of domestic violence.
Analysis of polling data
After the verdict, polling showed that 75 percent of White Americans thought Simpson was guilty while 70 percent of Black Americans thought he was innocent. An NBC poll taken in 2004 reported 87 percent of Whites believed Simpson was guilty, compared to only 27 percent of Black respondents. In the 2010s, polling showed the gap had narrowed, with a majority of both now believing he was guilty: 83 percent of White and 57 percent of Black Americans.
Political impact and civil rights
Scholarly consensus is that the trial damaged race relations in America and point to polling which shows that belief in Simpson's guilt depended on the race of the individual and not on the evidence against him. Analysis of the "racial gap" in polling shows that it did not cross the political spectrum. Conservatives regardless of race or gender thought Simpson was guilty. Where the gap emerged was among liberals – with black liberals believing Simpson was innocent, while white liberals thought he was guilty. Stanford University Law Professor Richard Thompson Ford wrote that this made the verdict a wedge issue that divided liberals along racial lines as white liberals felt the verdict was a racially motivated jury nullification and resented the images of African Americans celebrating the verdict. Led by Ward Connerly, opponents of affirmative action, seized upon the division and rebranded as advocating race neutrality, which appealed to white liberals now due to their perceived unjustness of the verdict and in 1996 voters in California passed Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action programs in the state. A historic drop in diversity at the University of California system followed which resulted in a similar drop in diversity that still remains in the state's white-collar job market, especially in the high-tech hub of Silicon Valley. A further initiative rejected by voters, Proposition 54 in 2003, would have further increased the impact of Prop 209 by abolishing racial classifications so the drop in diversity couldn't be quantified. The murder of George Floyd revived empathy for racial injustice among white liberals but the unsuccessful attempt to repeal Proposition 209 in 2020 was credited to the trial's legacy of undermining race relations.
Polling shows that racial and ethnic minority groups were divided by the verdict as well. Latinos and African Americans both believed that fraud was taking place in the LAPD but disagreed on the cause. Simpson said he felt vindicated by the Rampart Scandal which proved that fraud was happening in the C.R.A.S.H anti-gang unit. However, this fraud was not racially motivated: all the officers involved were minorities themselves and were actually found to be affiliated with one of the gangs they were supposed to be policing.
Publications
Several jurors together published Madame Foreman in 1995 to respond to allegations the verdict was racially motivated. They concluded that Simpson probably was guilty but the prosecution failed to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
In 1996, Cochran published Journey to Justice, in which he denied playing the "race card" and maintained that the LAPD tried to frame Simpson.
Shapiro published The Search for Justice in 1996 about the case. He concluded there was reasonable doubt but criticized Bailey and Cochran for bringing race into the trial. In comparison to Cochran's book, he wrote: "I never believed that Simpson was being victimized by a racist police organization because he was black…or that he was seen as a black hero".
In 1998, Clark published Without a Doubt, in which she opined that the acquittal demonstrated the legal system is still compromised by race and celebrity because the prosecution's physical evidence should have easily convicted Simpson.
Darden published In Contempt in 1998 about the trial. He attributed the acquittal to poor stewardship by a "starstruck" Judge Ito and a "dysfunctional and uneducated" jury.
Vincent Bugliosi published Outrage: The Five Reasons why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder in 1997. Bugliosi blamed the verdict on an incompetent jury, prosecution, and judge. He wrote: "Other than when a killer is apprehended in the act, I have never seen a more obvious case of guilt. All of the evidence—not some or most of it—points irresistibly to Simpson's guilt and his guilt alone".
Henry Lee published Blood Evidence: How DNA Is Revolutionizing The Way We Solve Crimes in 2003, in which he noted that both the defense's forensic DNA experts had rejected Scheck's contamination claim.
Fuhrman published Murder in Brentwood in 1998, defending himself against fraud claims. He wrote that his taking the Fifth was to avoid prosecution for perjury.
In 1997, Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter published Evidence Dismissed: The Inside Story of the Police Investigation of O.J. Simpson, in which they defended themselves against allegations of corruption and incompetence.
Daniel M. Petrocelli published Triumph of Justice: The Final Judgement of the Simpson Saga in 1998, comparing the criminal and civil trials. He attributed the acquittal to bad rulings by Judge Ito, unethical behavior by the defense, and unreliable testimony from Gerdes, Rieders, Lee, and Baden.
In 1999, sociologist Darnell Hunt published O.J. Simpson Facts and Fictions: News Rituals in the Construction of Reality. Hunt argued that the racial gap in polling was a manufactured product of selective reporting of facts by the media due to their treatment of the trial as a form of entertainment rather than a legal proceeding.
If I Did It
In 2006, ReganBooks announced a book ghostwritten by Pablo Fenjves based on interviews with Simpson titled If I Did It, an account which the publisher said was a hypothetical confession. The book's release was planned to coincide with a Fox interview featuring Simpson. The project was cancelled due to public criticism. Later, the Goldman family was awarded the rights to the book and published it under the title If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. In 2018, Fox broadcast Simpson's previously unaired interview in a special titled O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession? The interview was widely interpreted as being a form of implied confession because Simpson used first person language ("Obviously I must have [removed the glove]") in explaining how he would have committed the murders.
Post-trial interviews
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Shapiro said he was offended by Cochran comparing Fuhrman to Adolf Hitler, and said he would never work with Bailey or Cochran again. He also said the defense played the "race card". Robert Kardashian admitted that, prior to the jurors visiting Simpson's home, the defense team had switched out his photos of white women for photos of his children and switched out a picture of a nude Paula Barbieri (Simpson's white then-girlfriend) for a Norman Rockwell painting from Cochran's office.
Simpson gave two high-profile interviews regarding the case – in 1996 with Ross Becker and in 2004 with Katie Couric. In the February 1998 issue of Esquire, Simpson was quoted as saying, "Let's say I committed this crime ...even if I did this, it would have to have been because I loved her very much, right?" In 1998, during an interview with Ruby Wax, Simpson pretended to stab her with a banana in an apparent joke. In 2008, Mike Gilbert released his book How I Helped O.J. Get Away with Murder, which quotes Simpson allegedly saying: "If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive."
In the documentary O.J.: Made in America, juror Carrie Bess said she believed "90% of the jury actually decided to acquit Simpson as payback for Rodney King". Juror Lionel Cryer, who notably gave Simpson a Black Power salute, stated in 2017 that in retrospect he would render a guilty verdict. Juror Anise Aschenbach, who initially voted guilty before changing her vote, stated in 2008 that she regrets the decision and believes Simpson is guilty because he is not looking for the "real killer" like he promised he would.
“On the evidence that they gave me to evaluate, it was crooked by the cops," juror David Aldana said in an interview. “The evidence given to me to look at, I could not convict. Did he do it? Maybe, maybe not." Juror Sheila Woods denied the jury’s decision was based on race in an interview with Vulture. When asked if she believed Simpson was framed, Woods stated, “I don’t know if he was necessarily framed. I think O.J. may know something about what happened, but I just don’t think he did it. I think it was more than one person, just because of the way she was killed. I don’t know how he could have just left that bloody scene — because it was bloody — and got back into his Bronco and not have it filled with blood. And then go back home and go in the front door, up the stairs to his bedroom … That carpet was snow white in his house. He should have blood all over him or bruises because Ron Goldman was definitely fighting for his life. He had defensive cuts on his shoes and on his hands. O.J. only had that little cut on his finger. If Goldman was kicking to death, you would think that the killer would have gotten some bruises on his body. They showed us photos of O.J. with just his underwear just two days after, and he had no bruises or anything on his body.” In an interview with CNN following Simpson’s death, juror Yolanda Adams said she was still comfortable with her decision to render a not guilty verdict and denied the verdict was based on payback for Rodney King, citing the reasonable doubt in the case presented by the defense and the actions of the police officers involved in the case like Mark Fuhrman pleading the fifth when he was asked if he planted or manufactured any evidence against Simpson.
In 2018, Fox aired an interview Simpson gave in 2006 with publisher Judith Regan, titled O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?, where he gave "hypothetical" details about his role in the murders.
Civil trial
In 1996, Fred Goldman and Sharon Rufo, the parents of Ron Goldman, and Lou Brown, father of Nicole Brown filed a civil suit against Simpson for wrongful death. The plaintiffs were represented by Daniel Petrocelli and Simpson by Robert Baker. Presiding Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki did not allow the trial to be televised, did not sequester the jury, and prohibited the defense from alleging racism by the LAPD and from condemning the crime lab. The physical evidence did not change but additional evidence of domestic violence was presented as well as 31 pre-1994 photos of Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes, including one that was published 6 months before the murders, proving it could not be a forgery. Results from a polygraph test that Simpson denied taking showed "extreme deception" when he denied committing the murders. Fuhrman did not testify but Simpson did on his own behalf and lied several times.
One significant difference between the two trials was the admission of Nicole Brown's diary entries in the civil case. Lead counsel Daniel Petrocelli explained, "The least explored aspect of the case is Simpson's motive. You cannot just say this murder was a culmination of domestic-violence incidents. You need to tell the jury a story. This was about a stormy relationship." Time magazine reported, "That strategy made the difference in understanding Simpson... Nicole's diary showed that she and Simpson were having fights in those last weeks. Their hostilities had taken a cruel turn. Simpson sent Nicole a letter that was a thinly veiled threat to report her to the IRS for failing to pay capital-gains taxes. Infuriated, she started to deny him access to the children.... She began to treat him like a stranger. That, Petrocelli said, is when three weeks of retaliation began In that period, the lawyer argued, Simpson grew angrier and more obsessed with his ex-wife, developing a rage that resulted in death for her and Ron Goldman."
The civil judge found the diary entries were admissible because they were pertinent to Nicole's state of mind, which in turn was relevant to Simpson's motive—reversing a crucial ruling from the criminal case that excluded the diary as "inadmissible hearsay." The civil court's ruling was upheld on appeal. The Los Angeles Times wrote that this evidence "helped the plaintiffs tell their story of domestic violence" and show that when Nicole "rejected [Simpson] for good in the spring of 1994 ... he erupted in the same uncontrollable rage that had caused him to lash out at her in the past—only this time, he was brandishing a knife.
The jury found Simpson liable for the murders and awarded the victims' families $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The civil verdict "very nearly upstaged the president of the United States on the occasion of his State of the Union address," ending the case that "riveted America for two and a half years[.]" Simpson filed for bankruptcy afterwards and relocated to Florida to protect his pension from seizure. His remaining assets were seized and auctioned off with most being purchased by critics of the verdict of the criminal trial to help the plaintiffs recoup the costs of litigation. Simpson's Heisman Trophy was sold for $255,500 to an undisclosed buyer. All the proceeds went to the Goldman family, who said they have received only one percent of the money that Simpson owes from the wrongful death suit.
Following Simpson's death in 2024, Simpson estate lawyer Malcolm LeVergne pledged to prevent the Brown and Goldman families from obtaining the money which was promised in the civil trial judgement, but later reversed course.
Alternate theories and suspects
While Bailey and several members of Simpson's family still advocated for Simpson's innocence, such theories have been rejected by prosecutors, witnesses and the families of Brown and Goldman, who have expressed the belief that Simpson committed the murders and was the sole perpetrator, with Hunt opining that these claims were attempts to tap into the public interest in the case and were never meant to be taken seriously.
Alternative theories have been suggested, such as that Simpson may have had accomplices in the murders, or that he was not involved at all and was framed. Several speculate that the murders were related to the Los Angeles drug trade and the murders of Michael Nigg and Brett Cantor.
The 2000 BBC TV documentary O.J.: The True Untold Story, primarily rehashes the contamination and blood planting claims from the trial and asserted that Simpson's elder son Jason is a possible suspect, due to - among other reasons - Simpson hiring defense attorneys for his children first before himself, pictures of Jason's descriptive wool cap, and an alleged prior arrangement to meet with Nicole that evening. William Dear published his findings in the book O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It.
The 2012 documentary film My Brother the Serial Killer alleged that convicted murderer Glen Edward Rogers confessed to being involved in the murders and that he had been hired by Simpson.
In popular culture
Media adaptations
The Fox television movie The O. J. Simpson Story (1995) depicts Simpson and Brown's relationship, up to his arrest for the murders.
The CBS TV film American Tragedy (2000) follows the trial from the perspective of Simpson's defense team.
In 2014, ID premiered the documentary OJ: Trial of the Century, which begins on the day of the murders, ends on the reading of the verdict, and comprises actual media footage of events and reactions as they unfolded. The same year, ID premiered O.J. Simpson Trial: The Real Story, which entirely comprises archival news footage of the case.
The first season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story, The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016), was adapted from the book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson (1997) by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. It received critical acclaim and several Emmy Awards.
In 2016, ESPN premiered O.J.: Made in America, a five-part, eight-hour documentary by Ezra Edelman on the trial. The documentary received widespread acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson (2019) depicts a version of events involving Glen Edward Rogers.
In 2020, Court TV premiered OJ25, a 25-part series documenting each week of the trial, hosted by former Los Angeles prosecutor and legal analyst Roger Cossack.
The upcoming film The Juice (2025) explores conspiracy theories purporting to exonerate Simpson of the murders.
Film
Lost Highway was partially inspired by the case. In the film, a man is imprisoned for his wife's murder, which he does not remember, and is released after he transforms into a different man. Director David Lynch found it remarkable that Simpson, who he believed committed the murders, could continue a casual lifestyle afterward.
Lethal Weapon 4, which was released about two and a half years after the case, makes a reference to the success of Simpson's defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, after the character of detective Lee Butters apprehends a fleeing suspect and reads him his Miranda rights as follows: "If you can't afford an attorney, we'll provide you with the dumbest fucking lawyer on earth. If you get Johnnie Cochran, I'll kill ya!"
Shrek 2 references the Bronco chase, when Donkey is turned into a white horse by the Fairy Godmother, and he and other characters are pursued by knights.
TV
Episodes of sitcoms such as The Simpsons, South Park, Roseanne, New Girl, Family Guy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Seinfeld have mocked the case, or more specifically, Simpson himself. Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host Norm Macdonald frequently made jokes about O. J. Simpson's trial, such as the iconic line "Well, it is finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California" after Simpson's acquittal. It is rumored that the constant Simpson jokes were the cause for then NBC President Don Ohlmeyer to remove Macdonald from the Weekend Update segment and eventually from the show altogether.
Cowlings' white Ford Bronco was featured in the reality TV show Pawn Stars. The then-owner of the vehicle estimated its value in excess of $1,000,000.
Music
The heavy-metal band Body Count recorded the song "I Used to Love Her", sung from the perspective of O. J. Simpson murdering his wife, on their 1997 album Violent Demise: The Last Days. A 2021 article in Metal Hammer described the song as "jaw-droppingly offensive". In Good Charlotte's song, "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", they reference the case in the second verse: "Well did you know when you were famous you could kill you wife And there's no such thing as 25 to life As long as you've got the cash, to pay for Cochran."
R&B group H-Town dedicated their album Ladies Edition, Woman's World (1997) to Brown, to help victims of domestic violence. Electronic musician James Ferraro referenced the police chase in the song "White Bronco" on his 2015 album Skid Row.
Hip hop artist Magneto Dayo released a 2013 "diss track" song titled "OJ Simpson" in which he insults his ex-girlfriend/artist V-Nasty by referencing the Simpson murder case. Rapper Jay-Z's song "The Story of O.J." references the trial. Kendrick Lamar included Simpson in the music video for "The Heart Part 5", using Deepfake technology. The infamous glove also appears on the single's cover. Rapper Eminem references the murder case in his song "Role Model", where he claims to have done the murder with Marcus Allen.
Video games
Duke Nukem 3D has several allusions to the Simpson trial, including a television playing the Bronco chase.
Exhibits
The suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted was donated by Simpson's former agent Mike Gilbert to the Newseum in 2010. The Newseum has multiple trial-related items in their collection, including press passes, newspapers and the mute button that Superior Court Judge Lance Ito used when he wanted to shut off the live microphone in court so lawyers could talk privately during the trial. The museum's acquisition of the suit ended the legal battle between Gilbert and Fred Goldman, both of whom claimed the right to the clothing.
Cowlings's Bronco is on display at the Alcatraz East crime museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
In 2017, Adam Papagan curated a pop-up museum showcasing artifacts and ephemera from the trial at Coagula Curatorial gallery in Los Angeles.
See also
Chewbacca defense
List of homicides in California
Murder of Brett Cantor, unsolved killing (in 1993) with possible connection to Simpson murder case
Murder of Michael Nigg, unsolved killing (in 1995) of Goldman's friend and fellow Mezzaluna waiter
List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
Trial of Yolanda Saldívar – the "Hispanic O.J. Simpson trial"
Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley
Lizzie Borden
References
Bibliography
Bailey, F. Lee; Rabe, Jean (2008). When the Husband is the Suspect. New York: Forge. ISBN 978-0765355232.
Bugliosi, Vincent (1997) [1996]. Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away with Murder. New York: Dell Publishing. ISBN 978-0440223825.
Clark, Marica (1998). Without a Doubt. New York: Penguin Publishing. ISBN 978-0140259773.
Cochran, Johnnie L Jr. (1997). Journey to Justice. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0345413673.
Cooley, Amanda; Bess, Carrie; Rubin-Jackson, Marsha; Byrnes, Tom (1996). Walker, Mike (ed.). Madam Foreman: A Rush to Judgement?. Dove Books. ISBN 978-0787109189.
Darden, Christopher A. (1996). In Contempt. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060391836.
Dear, William C. (2012). O.J. is Innocent and I Can Prove It: The Shocking Truth about the Murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1616086206.
Dershowitz, Alan M. (2004). America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles that Transformed our Nation. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446520584.
Goldberg, Hank M. (1996). The Prosecution Responds: An O.J. Simpson Trial Prosecutor Reveals What Really Happened. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1559723619.
Lange, Tom; Vannatter, Philip; Moldea, Dan E. (1997). Evidence Dismissed: The Inside Story of the Police Investigation of O.J. Simpson. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0671009595.
Schiller, Lawrence; Willwerth, James (1996). American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0679456827.
Schuetz, Janice E.; Lilley, Lin S., eds. (1999). The O.J. Simpson Trials: Rhetoric, Media, and the Law. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809322817.
Shapiro, Robert L.; Warren, Larkin (1996). The Search for Justice: A Defense Attorney's Brief on the O.J. Simpson Case. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446520812.
Taylor Gibbs, Jewelle (1996). Race and Justice: Rodney King and O.J. Simpson in a House Divided. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 978-0787902643.
Toobin, Jeffrey (1997). The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Touchstone Books. ISBN 978-0684842783.
Further reading
Cotterill, Janet (2002). Language and Power in Court: A Linguistic Analysis of the O.J. Simpson Trial. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0333969014.
Dear, William C. (2000). O.J. Is Guilty But Not of Murder. Dear Overseas Production. ISBN 978-0970205803.
Dershowitz, Alan M. (1997). Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case. New York: Touchstone Books. ISBN 978-0684832647.
Felman, Shoshana (2002). The Juridical Unconscious: Trials and Traumas in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674009318.
Fuhrman, Mark (1997). Murder in Brentwood. New York: Zebra. ISBN 978-0821758557.
Garner, Joe (2002). Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0740726934.
Hunt, Darnell M. (1999). O.J. Simpson Facts and Fictions: News Rituals in the Construction of Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521624565.
Linedecker, Clifford L. (1995). O.J. A to Z: The Complete Handbook to the Trial of the Century. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312142131.
External links
Famous American Trials: O. J. Simpson at the Wayback Machine (archived February 5, 2006)
OJ Simpson Criminal Trial Uncut Start-to-Finish (1995) CONUS Archive.
The trial transcripts, CNN
Philip Vannatter: Evidence Missed (January 31, 1997) on Charlie Rose
O.J. Simpson verdict ten years later (PBS Frontline streaming video) |
1995_World_Series | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_World_Series | [
471
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_World_Series"
] | The 1995 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1995 season. The 91st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the American League (AL) champion Cleveland Indians. It was the first World Series after the previous year's Series was canceled due to a players' strike. The Braves won in six games to capture their third World Series championship in franchise history (along with 1914 in Boston and 1957 in Milwaukee), making them the first team to win in three different cities. This was also Cleveland's first Series appearance in 41 years.
The Series was also remarkable in that five of the six games were won by one run, including the clinching sixth game, a 1–0 combined one-hitter by Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers.
This was the first time since the LCS changed to a best-of-seven format that a winner of a LCS via a sweep has gone on to win the World Series. It has since been repeated in 2019 by the Washington Nationals, and in 2022 by the Houston Astros.
This World Series, despite being in an odd-numbered year, opened in the NL home because of the omission of the 1994 World Series. Until 2003, the World Series would begin in the AL home in even-numbered years.
Background
Atlanta Braves
After losing the World Series in 1991 to the Minnesota Twins and in 1992 to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves were making their third attempt in four years (not counting the 1994 strike) to capture Atlanta's first title.
The Braves overcame some early inconsistency to win their division by 21 games. In the playoffs, which featured a new first round, the Braves overwhelmed the third-year Colorado Rockies, then swept the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS (spoiling an all-Ohio World Series in the process; notably, prior to their World Series appearance in 1948, the Indians had spoiled an all-Boston World Series by beating the Red Sox in a one-game playoff). The team relied on clutch hitting and its powerful pitching rotation, which was made up of perennial Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery.
As the NL champion, they opened this World Series at home because there was no 1994 World Series.
Cleveland Indians
After decades of futility, the city of Cleveland finally had a winner in town. The Indians dominated the American League in 1995, winning 100 of their 144 games (their 100–44 record yielded a very high 0.694 winning percentage, which was, at the time, the highest regular season winning percentage in Major League Baseball since 1954, and is, as of 2015, the 12th highest regular season winning percentage in Major League Baseball history since 1900). Furthermore, in just 144 games, they won the AL Central by 30 games, and they performed the difficult feat of leading their league in both team batting average (0.291) and ERA (3.81). Thanks to their hitting and bullpen, this Indians team became known around the league for their ability to come back from many deficits, often in dramatic fashion; of their 100 regular season victories, 48 were come-back victories, 27 came in their last at-bat, eight came by way of "walk off" home runs, and 13 were extra-inning victories (they were 13–0 in extra-inning games). After this dominance of the AL in the regular season, the Indians, in the playoffs, swept the Boston Red Sox in the opening round, then held off Ken Griffey Jr. and the red hot Seattle Mariners in the ALCS, before heading into the Series against the Braves.
The 1995 Cleveland Indians featured a very impressive batting line-up; one that hit for high average, good power, and had good speed. In addition to leading the AL in batting average (0.291), the Indians in 1995 also led the American League in runs scored (840; 5.83 runs per game), home runs (207), and stolen bases (132). Led by speedsters Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel, along with Carlos Baerga at the top of the order, the Indians offense was powered in the middle of the order by Albert Belle, Eddie Murray, Manny Ramírez, and Jim Thome; at the bottom of the line-up could be found Paul Sorrento (or Herbert Perry) and Sandy Alomar Jr. (or Tony Peña). Thus, this Indians line-up had six everyday players who finished the season with a batting average of at least 0.300; and, with Herbert Perry and Tony Peña frequently filling in for Paul Sorrento and Sandy Alomar Jr., respectively, it was not uncommon for the Tribe to field a line-up with as many as eight players who finished the season with a batting average of at least 0.300. In terms of power, though the '95 season was shortened, nevertheless, the Indians' line-up still featured two players with at least 30 HR, five players with at least 20 HR, and seven with at least 10 HR. While this line-up was filled with star players (four, in fact, were named to the 1995 AL All-Star team, namely, Lofton, Baerga, Belle, and Ramirez), Albert Belle stood out among all of them in 1995. Powered by a very strong second half of the season, Belle, the Indians' clean-up hitter in 1995, finished 1995 with a 0.317 batting average, 126 RBI, and 50 home runs. Further to be noted is the fact that, in hitting 50 HR and 52 doubles in 1995, Belle became the first Major League player to hit at least 50 home runs and at least 50 doubles in the same season (an accomplishment which, again, is even more remarkable considering that he did this in a shortened, 144-game season).
The Indians also led the 1995 AL in ERA (3.81). While their starting pitching—led by veterans Dennis Martínez and Orel Hershiser—was respectable, it was their bullpen which gave real strength to their pitching staff. Key members of their bullpen staff included veteran right-hander Eric Plunk (6–2, 2.67 ERA), veteran left-hander Paul Assenmacher (6–2, 2.82), the young right-handed set-up man, Julián Tavárez (10–1, 2.44 ERA), and right-handed closer, José Mesa (3–0, 1.12 ERA, 46 SV). Mesa, in his first year as closer, posted a league-leading 46 saves in 1995, and set a then-Major League record of 38 consecutive saves without a blown save. Two of the members of the 1995 Indians' pitching staff—Dennis Martínez (the team's ace) and José Mesa—were named to the 1995 AL All-Star team.
Series build-up
Thus it was that this Series presented an entertaining match-up of baseball's two best teams, each with reasons to be confident going into the Series. The Atlanta Braves were veterans to the post-season in the 1990s, having won both the 1991 and 1992 NL pennants (not to mention the 1993 NL Western Division title, having won 104 games in 1993), and they were the best team in the NL in the 1995 regular season (having posted a very solid 90–54 record). The Cleveland Indians, on the other hand, newcomers to the post-season (having not been in the post-season since 1954), in posting their 100–44 regular season mark, were the team which had posted not only the best regular season record in the AL, but had completed one of the best regular seasons in all of Major League Baseball history. Further, though the Braves' line-up was not very threatening in 1995 (their .250 team batting average was the second lowest in the NL), still, the Braves could be confident with their star-studded pitching staff—especially their starting staff—headed by the likes of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery. On the other hand, though the Indians could not boast of having as nearly a strong starting rotation as the Braves, nevertheless, they could lay claim to a very solid bullpen and one of the greatest batting line-ups that baseball has ever seen.
It might also be noted that, though this was the first time that a team from Cleveland and one from Atlanta faced each other in the World Series, there were years, prior to the Braves being in Atlanta, in which the Braves faced a Cleveland team for baseball's crown. In 1948, the Boston Braves faced the Cleveland Indians (with the Indians winning that Series in six games). Even before that, in 1892, the Boston Beaneaters, a forerunner of the Braves, were also National League Champions in 1892, and faced the Cleveland Spiders for the championship. The Beaneaters beat the Spiders that year to win that baseball championship.
The 1995 World Series was also noted for large-scale protests by Native American activists in response to the controversy surrounding both clubs' usage of Native American-themed nicknames, logos and mascots, as well as the use of the tomahawk chop by Braves fans.
Broadcasting
NBC was originally scheduled to televise the entire World Series; however, due to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series (which had been slated for ABC, who last televised a World Series in 1989), coverage ended up being split between NBC and ABC. Game 5 would be the last Major League Baseball game to be telecast by ABC (had there been a Game 7, ABC would have televised it) for 25 years. ABC was scheduled to televise up to four wild card games in the 2020 MLB Postseason.
This was the only World Series to be produced under The Baseball Network umbrella (a revenue sharing joint venture between Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC). In July 1995, NBC and ABC announced that they would be pulling out of what was supposed to be a six-year-long venture. NBC would next cover the 1997 (NBC's first entirely since 1988) and 1999 World Series over the course of a five-year-long contract, in which Fox would cover the World Series in even numbered years (1996, 1998 and 2000).
Also during the World Series in 1995, NBC's Hannah Storm not only became the first woman to serve as solo pre-game host of a World Series (CBS' Andrea Joyce co-hosted with Pat O'Brien in 1993) but also became the first woman to preside over a World Series Trophy presentation. Storm was infamously the recipient of a profane outburst from Albert Belle in his team's dugout. Later, Belle was unrepentant: "The Indians wanted me to issue a statement of regret when the fine was announced, but I told them to take it out. I apologize for nothing." John Saunders served as pre-game host for ABC's coverage. Serving as field reporters for the series were Lesley Visser (ABC) and Jim Gray (NBC).
The six games averaged a national Nielsen rating of 19.5 and a share of 33. Through 2016, this remains the highest-rated World Series of the post-strike era.
On the radio side, CBS was the national broadcaster with Vin Scully and Jeff Torborg on the call. Locally, WKNR aired the series in Cleveland with Herb Score and Tom Hamilton announcing, while WSB broadcast the series in Atlanta with Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton, and Joe Simpson announcing.
International
Summary
NL Atlanta Braves (4) vs. AL Cleveland Indians (2)
Matchups
Game 1
Atlanta ace Greg Maddux pitched a two-hit complete game victory in his first World Series appearance (and just the 15th two-hitter in Series history).
The Indians scored in the first inning when Kenny Lofton reached on an error, stole second and third, and scored on an RBI groundout by Carlos Baerga. In the bottom of the second, Fred McGriff launched a tape measure home run on his first ever World Series pitch off Cleveland starter Orel Hershiser to even the score at 1–1. Both starters settled down until the seventh, when Hershiser and the Cleveland bullpen walked the first three Braves to open the inning. The Braves would take a 3–1 lead after Luis Polonia hit into a run-scoring force play and Rafael Belliard bunted a perfect suicide squeeze. Lofton scored the Indians another run in the ninth to cut the Braves lead to a single run, (both Cleveland runs resulted from errors and were thus, unearned) but Baerga lifted a pop fly that third baseman Chipper Jones grabbed near the visiting dugout to end the game.
Game 2
Atlanta No. 2 starter Tom Glavine got the win in Game 2, aided by a big sixth-inning home run by catcher Javy López, who also picked Manny Ramirez off first base at a crucial moment in the eighth inning to erase a potential game-tying baserunner. The Indians had taken an early 2–0 lead on an Eddie Murray two-run home run after Albert Belle got on base, but the Braves evened the score in the third with a sac fly by Chipper Jones and an RBI single by David Justice. Lopez launched his home run in the sixth inning from Cleveland starter Dennis Martínez. The Atlanta bullpen held off the Indians in the later innings despite allowing a run in the seventh, and Mark Wohlers earned the save, giving the Braves a 2–0 series lead.
Game 3
With the World Series moving to smaller, raucous Jacobs Field in Cleveland, the Indians got their first win. The Indians offense got back on track off Atlanta starter John Smoltz. With the Tribe already down 1–0 in the bottom of the first, Kenny Lofton singled to center and scored on Omar Vizquel's triple into the right field corner. Omar then scored the go-ahead run when Carlos Baerga grounded out. In the third, the Tribe were back at it again when Lofton opened the inning by ripping a double into the right-center field gap. Omar then got a bunt single and Baerga singled to left to drive in Lofton. Albert Belle then rolled a grounder up the middle to score Vizquel to make it 4–1. This was Smoltz's only early exit and only poor start in eight career World Series appearances. The Braves got a boost, however, when reliever Brad Clontz induced a double play groundout by Manny Ramírez to escape further damage. Home runs by Fred McGriff and Ryan Klesko brought the Braves closer at 4–3. Cleveland added a run in the seventh on another RBI hit by Baerga scoring Lofton (who would reach base in all six of his plate appearances). With a 5–3 lead going into the eighth, trouble brewed for Cleveland when Charles Nagy and the bullpen gave up the lead. Marquis Grissom led off with a double off the wall. Polonia singled through the right side to drive in Grissom, sending Nagy to the showers. Chipper Jones walked, McGriff hit a deep fly moving the runners up a base, and David Justice reached when Baerga booted his groundball, subsequently allowing Polonia to score the tying run. The inning was capped off by Mike Devereaux's RBI single giving the Braves a 6–5 lead. The Braves couldn't hold on to their slim lead either as Sandy Alomar Jr. laced a game-tying double inside the line at first in the bottom of the eighth. The two closers, Mark Wohlers and José Mesa then matched zeros for the next two innings. In the 11th, the Braves went to Alejandro Peña. Baerga immediately smashed a double and after an intentional walk to Belle, veteran Eddie Murray singled to center, scoring pinch runner Álvaro Espinoza and cutting Atlanta's World Series lead in half.
A record 18 pitchers were used between the Braves and Indians in Games 2 and 3.
Game 4
Braves manager Bobby Cox controversially decided to start left-handed pitcher Steve Avery in the critical Game 4 instead of coming back with Greg Maddux. Despite Avery's uncharacteristically poor regular season showing (7-13, 4.67 ERA), Cox felt he deserved a chance after having won the NLCS clincher against Cincinnati throwing six shutout innings. Young Braves outfielder Ryan Klesko hit a sixth-inning home run to give Atlanta the lead. This would be the last time a player would hit home runs in back-to-back World Series games until 2016. Avery again delivered six effective innings, only giving up a sixth-inning home run to Cleveland slugger Albert Belle. A controversial play happened when Eddie Murray hit a pitch over third base; left-field umpire Jim McKean called it foul while third-base umpire Harry Wendelstedt looked at Jim McKean to make the call. Murray eventually walked and reached second on a balk by Avery, but Herbert Perry struck out to end the inning. The Braves promptly broke the tie with a three-run seventh, with David Justice batting in two of the runs with a single. An RBI double by Javy López gave the Braves an insurance run, making it 5–1. Reliever Pedro Borbón Jr. saved the 5–2 win after Mark Wohlers ran into trouble, and the Braves were one victory away from a title.
Game 5
It seemed the perfect situation for Atlanta with Greg Maddux pitching Game 5 with a chance to clinch the title, but Albert Belle slugged a two-run homer in the first inning, and the Braves lineup was held in check by Cleveland veteran Orel Hershiser who went eight innings, only surrendering two runs. Luis Polonia hit a solo home run into the fourth and Atlanta actually tied the game at 2–2 with a run-scoring infield single by Marquis Grissom in the fifth, but Cleveland got two more runs from Maddux making it 4–2. Jim Thome hit an insurance home run in the eighth, which proved necessary as Ryan Klesko homered in his third consecutive game, reducing the gap to 5–4. Klesko became the first person ever to homer in three consecutive World Series road games, by belting homers in Games 3, 4, and 5. The win sent the Series back to Atlanta.
As previously mentioned, this game was the most recent baseball game that ABC televised until the 2020 postseason.
Game 6
Controversy struck on the morning of Game 6 when Atlanta newspapers printed stories that right fielder David Justice had ripped the city's fans for not matching their motivation of past seasons. Justice, who had been struggling in the postseason, was vilified before the game, but when his sixth-inning home run off a 1–1 pitch by Jim Poole broke a scoreless tie, he became a hero. Tom Glavine pitched eight innings of one-hit ball (and five innings of no hit ball) and allowed just three walks (two to Albert Belle, who was caught stealing second in the second inning to keep a runner from advancing into scoring position) to help earn him the Series MVP. Only one Indian advanced into scoring position in the entire game when Kenny Lofton stole second, but no one could get him in. Cleveland starter Dennis Martínez lasted just 42⁄3 innings due to allowing four hits and five walks, but no Braves scored. After Justice's home run, the Braves managed just one hit. The lone hit for the Indians was a bloop-single by catcher Tony Peña in the sixth, breaking up Glavine's bid to become the first pitcher since Don Larsen in 1956 to throw a no-hitter in the World Series. Closer Mark Wohlers pitched the ninth inning, preserving the 1–0 shutout and Atlanta's coveted title when Carlos Baerga's fly ball landed in center fielder Marquis Grissom's glove, giving the Braves their first title in Atlanta and their first since 1957 when they were still in Milwaukee. Carlos Baerga was responsible for making the last out in three of the four Cleveland losses; Games 1, 2 and 6. To date, this is the last 1–0 World Series game won by the home team. Moments after the final out was recorded, a fan in the stands was shown holding a placard that simply said "...Finally!" due to the Atlanta Braves finally winning the World Series on their third try.
In 1995, the Cleveland Indians batted .291 as a team, led the league in runs scored, hits, and stolen bases, and had eight .300 hitters in their starting lineup. However, the Tribe was held to a .179 batting average in the World Series.
Then-Executive Committee Chairman Bud Selig presided over the Commissioner's Trophy presentation for the first time. In the previous two World Series (1992 and 1993), American League president Dr. Bobby Brown presided over the trophy presentation. Selig would become Commissioner of Baseball in 1998.
Composite line score
1995 World Series (4–2): Atlanta Braves (N.L.) over Cleveland Indians (A.L.)
Aftermath
The 1995 Braves were in the midst of a streak of 14 consecutive division titles from 1991 through 2005 (excluding the 1994 season, which ended early due to a players strike), however this was the only World Series the Braves would win. Atlanta returned to the Series the following year, but lost to the New York Yankees in six games. The Braves of this era made one more trip to the Series in 1999, but lost to the Yankees in a four-game sweep. This was Atlanta's first championship in any of the four major professional sports, and the last for the city and for the Braves until 2021.
The Indians would go on to win the AL Central five of the following six years and return to the World Series in 1997, where they lost to the Florida Marlins in seven games. The core of the 1990s Indians teams would break up in the early 2000s. Albert Belle signed with the Chicago White Sox in free agency in the winter of 1996, while Kenny Lofton was traded to the Braves before the start of the 1997 season (he returned in 1998 to play three years with the team only to leave and return again for his final season in 2007); after the turn of the century, Manny Ramirez joined the Boston Red Sox in 2001 and Jim Thome joined the Philadelphia Phillies in 2003. The 1995 and 1997 Indians failed to end the Cleveland sports curse, which stood at 31 and 33 years, respectively, since the 1964 Cleveland Browns won the city's most recent championship. The Curse would eventually end in 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title, giving the city its first major sports title in 52 years.
Quotes
Left center field, Grissom on the run. The team of the 90s has its world championship.
See also
1995 Japan Series
Notes
External links
1995 World Series at WorldSeries.com via MLB.com
1995 World Series at Baseball Almanac
1995 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com
The 1995 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet
History of the World Series - 1995 at The Sporting News. Archived from the original in May 2006.
1995 Atlanta Braves
1995 Cleveland Indians
Brave Hearts Archived October 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
Tavarez relishes postseason |
Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Hiyō | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Hiyō | [
472
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Hiyō"
] | Hiyō (Japanese: 飛鷹, "Flying Hawk") was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Originally planned as the ocean liner Izumo Maru (出雲丸) in 1939, she was purchased by the Navy Ministry in 1941 for conversion to an aircraft carrier. Completed shortly after the Battle of Midway in June 1942, she participated in the Guadalcanal campaign, but missed the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October because of an electrical generator fire.
The carrier's aircraft were disembarked several times and used from land bases in battles in the South West Pacific. Hiyō was torpedoed in mid-1943 and spent three months under repair. She spent most of the next six months training and ferrying aircraft before returning to combat. She was sunk by a gasoline-vapour explosion caused by an American torpedo hit during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 20 June 1944 with the loss of 247 officers and ratings, about a fifth of her complement.
Design and description
The ship was ordered as the fast luxury passenger liner Izumo Maru by Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Company) in late 1938. In exchange for a Navy Ministry subsidy of 60% of her building costs, she was designed to be converted to an aircraft carrier in the event of war. The designs of Izumo Maru and her sister ship Kashiwara Maru were based on the German ocean liner SS Bremen, although they were only about half that ship's size at 27,700 gross register tons (GRT). If completed as designed, they would have been the largest ocean liners in Japan. The ships were designed to carry a total of 890 passengers; 220 first class, 120 second class and 550 third class.
After her conversion, Hiyō had a length of 220 metres (721 ft 9 in) overall. She had a beam of 26.7 metres (87 ft 7 in) and a draught of 8.15 metres (26 ft 9 in). She displaced 24,150 tonnes (23,770 long tons) at standard load. Her crew ranged from 1,187 to 1,224 officers and ratings.
The ship was fitted with a pair of Mitsubishi-Curtis geared steam turbine sets with a total of 56,250 shaft horsepower (41,950 kW), each driving one propeller, using steam provided by six Kawasaki-LaMont boilers. Hiyō had a designed speed of 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph) and slightly exceeded that during sea trials. The ship carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of 11,700 nautical miles (21,700 km; 13,500 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Flight deck arrangements
Hiyō's flight deck was 210.3 metres (690 ft) long and had a maximum width of 27.3 metres (89 ft 7 in). The ship was designed with two superimposed hangars, each approximately 153 metres (502 ft) long, 15 metres (49 ft) wide and 5 metres (16 ft) high. Each hangar could be subdivided by four fire curtains and they had fire fighting foam dispensers on each side. The hangars were served by two aircraft lifts.
Her air group was initially intended to consist of 12 Mitsubishi A5M "Claude" fighters, plus four in storage, 18 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers, plus two in storage, and 18 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers. This was revised to substitute a dozen Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters and three in storage for the A5Ms by the time the ship was commissioned in 1942. As a result of the lessons learnt from the Battle of Midway in June, the fighter complement was increased to 21 Zeros and the B5Ns were reduced to 9. By the end of the year, 6 more Zeros replaced an equal number of D3As, giving totals of 27 A6Ms, 12 D3As and 9 B5Ns. Although it was possible to fit all these aircraft into the hangars, 8 or 9 were usually stored on the flight deck to reduce congestion below decks.
Armour, armament and sensors
As a conversion from an ocean liner, it was not possible to add much armour, although the ship had a double hull. Two plates of Ducol steel, each 25 millimetres (1 in) thick, protected the sides of the ship's machinery spaces. The ship's aviation gasoline tanks and magazines were protected by one layer of Ducol steel. Her machinery spaces were further subdivided by transverse and longitudinal bulkheads to limit any flooding.
The ship's primary armament consisted of a dozen 12.7-centimetre (5 in) Type 89 dual-purpose guns in twin mounts on sponsons along the sides of the hull. Hiyō was also initially equipped with eight triple mounts for 2.5 cm Type 96 light AA guns alongside the flight deck. This was the standard Japanese light AA gun during World War II, but it suffered from severe design shortcomings which rendered it a largely ineffective weapon. According to historian Mark Stille, the twin and triple mounts "lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessive vibration; the magazine was too small, and, finally, the gun produced excessive muzzle blast". In early 1943, four more triple mounts were added, and another four triple mounts were added late in the year. Two of these last four mounts were mounted on the stern and the others were placed in front of and behind the island. A dozen single mounts were also added, some of which were portable and could be mounted on tie-down points on the flight deck.
Two Type 94 high-angle fire-control directors, one on each side of the ship, were fitted to control the Type 89 guns. Four Type 95 directors controlled the 2.5 cm guns, and another pair were added in early 1943. Early warning was provided by two Type 2, Mark 2, Model 1 early-warning radars. The first of these was mounted on the top of the island shortly before she was completed in July 1942 and the other was added later in the year. This latter system was fitted on the port side of the hull, outboard of the aft lift. A smaller Type 3, Mark 1, Model 3 early-warning radar was added in 1944.
Construction and career
Hiyō was laid down on 30 November 1939 by Kawasaki on Slipway No. 4 at their shipyard in Kobe. She was yard number 660 and had the name Izumo Maru. The ship was purchased on 10 February 1941 by the Navy Ministry, and she was temporarily referred to as No. 1002 Ship (Dai 1002 bankan) to keep her conversion secret. She was launched on 24 June 1941 and commissioned on 31 July 1942 with Captain Akitomo Beppu in command.
The ship was assigned to the Second Carrier Division of the 1st Air Fleet after commissioning and became flagship of Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta on 12 August. After spending the next few months working up, Hiyō arrived at Truk, together with her sister Jun'yō, on 9 October, to begin operations against American forces in the Guadalcanal area as part of the 3rd Fleet. On the night of 16 October, the two carriers were ordered to attack the American transports off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, and they moved south to their launching point 180 nautical miles (330 km; 210 mi) north of Lunga. At 05:15 local each ship launched nine A6M Zeros and nine B5Ns. One of Jun'yō's B5Ns was forced to turn back with mechanical problems; the rest reached their objective and discovered two destroyers bombarding Japanese supply dumps on Guadalcanal around 07:20. Hiyō's aircraft attacked USS Aaron Ward seven minutes later without effect, and the American ship shot down one B5N and damaged another which was forced to make a crash landing. Jun'yō's eight B5Ns engaged USS Lardner and also failed to hit their target, not least because they were attacked by Marine Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters at 07:32. The Marine pilots shot down three B5Ns on their first pass and severely damaged another pair which were also forced to crash-land. The US fighters then shot down the three remaining bombers after they missed Lardner. The defending Zeros were able to shoot down only one Wildcat at the cost of one of Hiyō's fighters forced to crash land, although they claimed to have shot down thirteen Marine fighters.
A fire in the ship's generator room occurred on 21 October and reduced her top speed to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), so Kakuta transferred his flag to Jun'yō while Hiyō returned to Truk for repairs. Three Zeros, one D3A and five B5Ns were also transferred to Jun'yō before she left. The remaining aircraft of her air group (16 Zeros and 17 D3As) were flown off for Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, on 23 October, from where the fighters escorted bombers attacking Guadalcanal the following day. A detachment from the air group was transferred to Buin, New Guinea, on 1 November and attacked American ships off Lunga Point on 11 November. Escorted by 18 Zeros from Hiyō and the 204th Naval Air Group, 9 D3As slightly damaged three cargo ships in exchange for 4 dive bombers shot down and another forced to crash land. The Zeros were able to ambush six Wildcats in the heavy cloud and shot down four while losing two of their own. That same day, those aircraft that remained at Rabaul flew back to Truk, but the Buin detachment remained there until 14 December when they were ferried back to Japan. Captain Michio Sumikawa relieved Beppu on 30 November.
Hiyō spent November in Truk before returning in early December to Japan, where she was rejoined by the rest of her air group. Aside from a brief refit at Kure from 26 February to 4 March 1943 that saw her anti-aircraft armament augmented and an additional radar installed, the ship was training in the Inland Sea until she sailed for Truk on 22 March. Her air group consisted of 27 Zeros and 12 D3As, and they were detached from Hiyō in early April to participate in Operation I-Go, a land-based aerial offensive against Allied bases in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. On 7 April her aircraft formed most of the third wave of attacks on Guadalcanal. Escorted by 24 Zeros from Hiyō and another 6 from the light carrier Zuihō, the D3As attacked shipping in the Sealark Channel. The escorts claimed to have shot down three American aircraft for the loss of one Zero and three dive bombers. Allied naval losses during the entire day included Aaron Ward, the oil tanker Kanawha, the minesweeper HMNZS Moa and damage to a transport and another tanker, although it is uncertain which aircraft sank or damaged each ship.
A second series of attacks was made against Oro Bay, New Guinea, on 11 April. Jun'yō's 9 Zeros, together with Hiyō's 21 fighters, escorted the latter's D3As. One defending fighter was claimed for the loss of a single dive bomber. The following day, 17 of Hiyō's Zeros provided top cover for several waves of attacks on Port Moresby, New Guinea, her pilots claiming nine victories without losing any of their own. On 14 April, the Japanese attacked Milne Bay, New Guinea, with a large force escorted by 75 Zeros contributed by all the carriers involved. Hiyō's fighter pilots claimed to have shot down three Allied aircraft without loss, and the bombers sank two transports. Her air group returned to Truk by 18 April to rejoin the ship.
In response to the invasion of Attu Island on 11 May, the Second Carrier Division departed Truk, accompanied by three battleships and two heavy cruisers, and reached Japan on 25 May. The Americans recaptured Attu before the fleet could depart to counter-attack. Now the flagship of the Second Carrier Division under Rear Admiral Munetaka Sakamaki, Hiyō departed Yokosuka on 7 June with Junyō en route for Truk. Later that evening, the ship was torpedoed by the submarine USS Trigger off Miyakejima. Hits in the starboard bow and boiler room knocked out all power but she managed to return to Japan the following day after restoring power. Hiyō's fighters were flown to Truk by 15 July and assigned to the light carrier Ryūhō, as were Sakamaki and his staff. While being repaired at Yokosuka until 15 September, more 2.5 cm Type 96 AA guns were installed, and Sumikawa was relieved by Captain Tamotsu Furukawa on 1 September. Two months later, Hiyō's air group was reconstituted in Singapore with 24 Zeros, 18 D3As and 9 B5Ns; the ship departed Japan for Singapore on 24 November. She arrived on 3 December, loaded her air group and was almost immediately assigned duties as an aircraft ferry. On 9 December, Hiyō left Singapore en route for Truk with several deliveries on the way. The ship arrived there on 22 December and disembarked her aircraft before proceeding to Saipan to deliver more aircraft. The air group was transferred to Kavieng and later Rabaul to provide air cover for Japanese operations there, in which the fighters claimed 80 victories in exchange for 12 losses.
Hiyō returned to Japan on 1 January 1944, and Furukawa was relieved by Captain Toshiyuki Yokoi on 15 February. Her air group was reassigned to her on 2 March, albeit without aircraft. The Japanese Navy had restructured its carrier air groups so that one air group was assigned to one carrier division and the 652nd Naval Air Group was assigned to the Second Carrier Division with Hiyō, Jun'yō and Ryūhō. The air group was the last to be rebuilt; it had only 30 Model 21 Zeros, 13 Model 52 Zeros and four D3As on hand on 1 April of its authorised 81 fighters, 36 dive bombers and 27 torpedo bombers. The ship conducted training for her aircraft in the Inland Sea until 11 May when she sailed for Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines. The new base was closer to the oil wells in Borneo on which the Navy relied for fuel and also to the Palau and western Caroline Islands, where the Japanese expected the next American attack. The location lacked an airfield on which to train the green pilots, and American submarines were very active in the vicinity which restricted the ships to the anchorage.
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Japanese fleet was en route to Guimaras Island in the central Philippines on 13 June 1944 where it intended to practice carrier operations in an area better protected from submarines, when Vice-Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa learnt of the American attack on the Mariana Islands the previous day. Upon reaching Guimaras, the fleet refuelled and sortied into the Philippine Sea where it spotted Task Force 58 on 18 June. The Americans failed to detect the Japanese ships that day. Ozawa decided to launch his air strikes early the following morning, so the Japanese turned south to maintain a constant distance between them and the American carriers. The 652nd Naval Air Group had 81 Zeros, 27 D3As, 9 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers and 18 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers, roughly evenly divided among the three carriers under his command. The carriers began launching their first air strike of 26 bomb-carrying A6M2 Zeros, 7 B6Ns and 16 A6M5 Zeros as escorts around 09:30. Most of these aircraft were misdirected and failed to find any American ships, although a dozen persisted in their search and found one of the American task groups. A B6N, 5 bomb-carrying Zeros and an escort Zero were shot down by the defending fighters, and no damage was inflicted on the American ships.
A second air strike of 27 D3As, 9 D4Ys, 2 B6Ns and 26 escorting Zeros was launched around 11:00, accompanied by at least 18 A6Ms and B6Ns from the carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku. They had also been given an erroneous spot report and were unable to find any American ships. Some of the aircraft headed for airfields at Rota and Guam to refuel while the remainder headed back to the carriers. A pair of Zeros and six D4Ys bound for Rota spotted the carriers Wasp and Bunker Hill en route, but failed to inflict any damage on them while losing five D4Ys to anti-aircraft fire. Radar had spotted those aircraft headed for Guam, and they were intercepted by 41 Grumman F6F Hellcats. Only an A6M5, a D4Y and seven D3As of the 49 Japanese aircraft survived the encounter and landed.
At dusk, the Japanese turned away to the north west to regroup and to refuel, and the Americans turned west to close the distance. They discovered the retiring Japanese fleet during the afternoon of the following day, and Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered an air strike. Hiyō was struck by two bombs, one of which detonated above the bridge and killed or wounded virtually everyone there. More seriously, the ship was struck by one torpedo dropped by a Grumman TBF Avenger from the light carrier Belleau Wood. The torpedo knocked out the starboard engine room and started fires but Hiyō was able to continue, at reduced speed. Two hours later, a large explosion occurred when leaking gasoline vapour ignited and knocked out all power on the ship. The fires raged out of control and Hiyō sank stern first shortly afterwards at 16°20′N 132°32′E. Roughly 1,200 men were rescued by her escorting destroyers, but 247 officers and ratings died aboard the carrier.
Footnotes
References
Brown, J. D. (2009). Carrier Operations in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-108-2.
Hata, Ikuhiko; Izawa, Yasuho & Shores, Christopher (2011). Japanese Naval Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces 1932–1945. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-906502-84-3.
Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
Lengerer, Hans & Rehm-Takahara, Tomoko (1985). "The Japanese Aircraft Carriers Junyo and Hiyo". In Lambert, Andrew (ed.). Warship IX. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 9–19, 105–114, 188–193. ISBN 978-0-85177-403-9.
Lundstrom, John B. (2005). The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-472-8.
Polmar, Norman & Genda, Minoru (2006). Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events: 1909–1945. Vol. I. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-57488-663-4.
Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
Stille, Mark (2005). Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921–1945. New Vanguard. Vol. CIX. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84176-853-3.
Tully, Anthony P. & Casse, Gilbert (2013). "IJN Hiyo: Tabular Record of Movement". Kido Butai. Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
External links
Hiyo in the World War II Database |
Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea | [
472,
788
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea"
] | The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a major naval battle of World War II on 19–20 June 1944 that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons. This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history, involving 24 aircraft carriers, deploying roughly 1,350 carrier-based aircraft.
The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners. During a debriefing after the first two air battles, a pilot from USS Lexington remarked "Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!" The outcome is generally attributed to a wealth of highly trained American pilots with superior tactics and numerical superiority, and new anti-aircraft ship defensive technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), versus the Japanese use of replacement pilots with not enough flight hours in training and little or no combat experience. Furthermore the Japanese defensive plans were directly obtained by the Allies from the plane wreckage of the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, Admiral Mineichi Koga, in March 1944.
During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle. The American carriers launched a protracted strike, sinking one light carrier and damaging other ships, but most of the American aircraft returning to their carriers ran low on fuel as night fell. Eighty American planes were lost. Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover. This battle, along with the Battle of Leyte Gulf four months later, marked the end of Japanese aircraft carrier operations. The few surviving carriers remained mostly in port thereafter.
Background
Japanese plan for a decisive battle
From the very start of the conflict in December 1941, the Japanese war plan had been to inflict such severe and painful losses on the US military that its public would become war weary and the American government would be convinced to sue for peace and allow Japan to keep its conquests.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had grown wary of this strategy, but he was killed in Operation Vengeance on 18 April 1943. The following day, Admiral Mineichi Koga succeeded Yamamoto as commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, and Koga wanted the Imperial Japanese Navy to engage the American fleet in the "single decisive battle" in early 1944. On 31 March 1944 Koga was killed when his aircraft (a Kawanishi H8K) flew into a typhoon and crashed. Koga's chief of staff, Vice Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, was flying in an accompanying plane and carrying the Z Plan documents, and also crashed. Fukudome survived, but the Z Plan briefcase did not sink with the destroyed aircraft and was recovered by Filipino guerillas who over the next few weeks transported the documents to General Douglas MacArthur's Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in Brisbane, Australia. MIS forwarded the translated Z Plan to Admiral Chester Nimitz in Honolulu, and the Japanese plans were quickly dispatched to the fleet commanders in the Philippine Sea in June. A new commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Soemu Toyoda, was appointed, and he finalized the Japanese plans known as Plan A-Go or Operation A-Go. Operation A-go did not change much from the Z Plan, so the U.S. Navy knew exactly what was going to happen during the upcoming naval battle. The plan was adopted in early June 1944. Within weeks, an opportunity arose to engage the American fleet now detected heading for Saipan.
The Japanese had some advantages they hoped would turn the battle in their favor. Though outnumbered in ships and aircraft, they planned to supplement their carrier airpower with land-based aircraft.
Advantages for the Americans
Meanwhile, IJN aircrew losses, suffered during earlier carrier battles at Coral Sea, Midway, and the long Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–43, had greatly weakened the Japanese Navy's ability to project force with its carriers. Losses suffered in the Solomons drastically reduced the number of skilled carrier pilots available to fill the carrier air groups. It took nearly a year for the Japanese to reconstitute their groups following the Solomons campaign.
Japan no longer had enough oil tankers to transport the required volume of petroleum from the Dutch East Indies to Japanese refineries. Without adequate supplies of refined residual fuel oil, Japanese aircraft carriers refueled with unrefined Tarakan petroleum in June 1944. This undesalted petroleum damaged boiler tubes, and the unremoved naphtha fraction volatilized the fuel to form explosive atmospheres incompatible with aircraft carrier damage control procedures.
In early 1944 the U.S. fleet continued its advance in a steady progression across the islands of the central Pacific. While U.S. commanders, particularly Admiral Spruance, were concerned about the Japanese trying to attack U.S. transports and newly landed forces, the Japanese objective was actually to engage and defeat the Fast Carrier Task Force in a decisive battle.
Initial stages
On 12 June 1944 U.S. carriers made air strikes on the Marianas, convincing Admiral Soemu Toyoda that the U.S. was preparing to invade. This move came as a surprise; the Japanese had expected the next U.S. target to be farther to the south, either the Carolines or the Palaus, and had protected the Marianas with only 50 land-based aircraft. On 13–15 June, American carriers made additional airstrikes while surface forces bombarded the Marianas. On June 15, the first American troops went ashore on Saipan.
Since control of the Marianas would bring American strategic bombers within range of the Japanese home islands, the IJN decided it was time for the long-awaited Kantai Kessen (decisive battle). Toyoda immediately ordered a fleet-based counterattack, committing nearly all of the Japanese navy's serviceable ships.
The main portions of the fleet rendezvoused on 16 June in the western part of the Philippine Sea and completed refueling on 17 June. Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa commanded this force from his newly commissioned flagship, Taihō. In addition to extensive command facilities, reinforced torpedo blisters and a large air group, Taihō was the first Japanese carrier with an armor-plated flight deck, designed to withstand bomb hits with minimal damage.
At 18:35 on 15 June the submarine USS Flying Fish sighted a Japanese carrier and battleship force coming out of San Bernardino Strait. An hour later USS Seahorse spotted a battleship and cruiser force steaming up from the south, 200 miles (320 km) east of Mindanao. The submarines were under orders to report sightings before attempting to attack, so Flying Fish waited until nightfall, then surfaced to radio in its report. Fifth Fleet commander Spruance was convinced that a major battle was at hand. After consulting with Nimitz at Pacific Fleet Headquarters in Hawaii, he ordered Rear Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force (Task Force 58), who had sent two carrier task groups north to intercept aircraft reinforcements from Japan, to reform and move west of Saipan into the Philippine Sea. TF 52's battleships, cruisers and escort carrier groups were ordered to remain near Saipan to protect the invasion fleet and provide air support for the landings.
Shortly before midnight on 18 June Nimitz radioed Spruance that a Japanese vessel had broken radio silence. The message intercepted was an apparent dispatch from Ozawa to his land-based air forces on Guam. Radio direction-finding placed the sender approximately 355 miles (571 km) west-southwest of TF 58. Mitscher considered whether the radio messages were a Japanese deception, as the Japanese were known to send a single vessel off to break radio silence, to mislead their adversaries about the actual location of the main force.
Mitscher realized that there was a chance of a night surface encounter with Ozawa's forces. Arleigh Burke, Mitscher's chief of staff (a former destroyer squadron commander who had won several night battles in the Solomons), assumed that battle line commander Willis Lee would welcome the opportunity. But Lee strongly opposed such an encounter. Having personally experienced a confused night action off Guadalcanal, Lee was not enthusiastic about a night engagement with Japanese surface forces, believing that his crews were not adequately trained for it. Shortly after learning Lee's opinion, Mitscher requested permission from Spruance to move TF 58 west during the night, to reach a launch position at dawn that would allow for a maximum aerial assault on the enemy force. Spruance considered for an hour, then refused Mitscher's request. Mitscher's staff was disappointed with Spruance's decision. Burke later commented: "We knew we were going to have hell slugged out of us in the morning. We knew we couldn't reach them. We knew they could reach us."
Spruance's decision was influenced by his orders from Nimitz, who had made it clear that the protection of the invasion fleet was the primary mission of TF 58. Spruance had concerns that the Japanese would attempt to draw his main fleet away from the Marianas with a diversionary force while slipping an attack force in to destroy the landing fleet. Locating and destroying the Japanese fleet was not his primary objective, and he was unwilling to allow the main strike force of the Pacific Fleet to be drawn westward, away from the amphibious forces. Mitscher accepted the decision without comment. Spruance's decision in this matter, although subsequently criticized, was certainly justified; by this point in the war, it was well known that Japanese operational plans frequently relied on the use of decoys and diversionary forces. Spruance, as it turned out, was acting appropriately to the Japanese plans that called for a diversion to draw the fleet far away so there would be a great opportunity for land-based Japanese planes to also augment the carrier aircraft to attack Spruance's fleet.
Before daybreak, Spruance suggested that if the daybreak searches revealed no targets, the bombers could be sent to crater the airfields on Rota and Guam. However, the fleet's contact-fused bombs had been largely used up in the earlier strikes, and Mitscher was left with only the armor-piercing bombs needed to combat the Japanese fleet, so he informed Spruance he could not launch such strikes. As the morning broke, TF 58 launched search aircraft, combat air patrols (CAP) and anti-submarine patrols and then turned the fleet west to gain maneuvering room from the islands. The U.S. Navy had developed a sophisticated air control system, which vectored CAP fighters by radar to intercept enemy bombers well before they reached the fleet. Any attackers that got through the CAP would then face a "gun line" of screening battleships and cruisers that would put up devastating barrages of VT-fuzed anti-aircraft fire before the attackers reached the aircraft carriers.
Battle
Early actions
The Japanese had already launched their morning search patrols, using some of the 50 aircraft stationed on Guam, and at 05:50 one of these, a Mitsubishi A6M Zero, found TF-58. After radioing his sighting of U.S. ships, the bomb-carrying Zero attacked picket destroyer Stockham but was shot down by the destroyer Yarnall.
Alerted, the Japanese began launching their Guam-based aircraft for an attack. These were spotted on radar by U.S. ships. A group of thirty Grumman F6F Hellcats were dispatched from USS Belleau Wood to deal with the threat. The Hellcats arrived while aircraft were still launching from Orote Field. Minutes later, additional radar contacts were seen, which were later discovered to be the additional forces being sent north from the other islands. A battle broke out in which 35 Japanese aircraft were shot down for the loss of a single Hellcat. It was a pattern that would be repeated throughout the day. At 09:57 large numbers of Japanese aircraft were picked up approaching the fleet. Mitscher said to Burke, "Get those fighters back from Guam." The call "Hey, Rube!" was sent out. The fleet held steady until 10:23, when Mitscher ordered TF 58 to turn into the wind on course east-southeast, and ordered all fighter aircraft aloft, deployed in several layers of CAP to await the Japanese. He then sent his bomber aircraft aloft to orbit open waters to the east rather than leaving them in a hangar deck full of aircraft vulnerable to a Japanese bomb attack.
Japanese raids
The recall had been ordered after several ships in TF 58 picked up radar contacts 150 miles (240 km) to the west around 10:00. This was the first of the raids from the Japanese carrier forces, with 68 aircraft. TF 58 started launching every fighter it could; by the time they were in the air the Japanese had closed to 70 miles (110 km). However, the Japanese began circling to regroup their formations for the attack. This 10-minute delay proved critical, and the first group of Hellcats met the raid, still at 70 miles (110 km), at 10:36. They were quickly joined by additional groups. Within minutes, 25 Japanese aircraft had been shot down, against the loss of only one U.S. aircraft.
The Japanese aircraft that survived were met by other fighters, and 16 more were shot down. Of the 27 aircraft which remained, some made attacks on the picket destroyers USS Yarnall and Stockham but caused no damage. Between three and six bombers broke through to Lee's battleship group and attacked; one bomb hit the main deck of USS South Dakota, killing or injuring over 50 men but failing to disable her. South Dakota was the only American ship damaged in this attack. No aircraft of Ozawa's first wave got through to the American carriers.
At 11:07, radar detected another, larger attack. This second wave consisted of 107 aircraft. They were met while still 60 miles (97 km) out, and at least 70 of these aircraft were shot down before reaching the ships. Six attacked Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's group, nearly hitting two of the carriers and causing casualties on each. Four of the six were shot down. A small group of torpedo aircraft attacked Enterprise, with one torpedo exploding in the wake of the ship. Three other torpedo aircraft attacked the light carrier Princeton and were shot down. In all, 97 of the 107 attacking aircraft were destroyed.
A third raid, consisting of 47 aircraft, came in from the north. It was intercepted by 40 fighters at 13:00, while 50 miles (80 km) out from the task force. Seven Japanese aircraft were shot down. A few broke through and made an ineffective attack on the Enterprise group. Many others did not press home their attacks. This raid therefore suffered less than the others, and 40 of its aircraft managed to return to their carriers.
A fourth Japanese raid was launched between 11:00 and 11:30, but pilots had been given an incorrect position for the U.S. fleet and could not locate it. They broke into two loose groups and turned for Guam and Rota to refuel. One group flying toward Rota stumbled upon Montgomery's task group. Eighteen aircraft joined battle with American fighters and lost half their number. A smaller group of nine Japanese dive bombers of this force evaded U.S. aircraft and attacked Wasp and Bunker Hill but scored no hits; eight were shot down. The larger group of Japanese aircraft had flown to Guam and were intercepted over Orote Field by 27 Hellcats while landing. Thirty of the forty-nine Japanese aircraft were shot down, and the rest were damaged beyond repair. Aboard the Lexington afterward, a pilot was heard to remark "Hell, this is like an old-time turkey shoot!"
Including the continued aerial slaughter over Orote Field, Japanese losses exceeded 350 planes on the first day of battle. About 30 American planes were lost, and there was little damage to American ships; even the damaged South Dakota was able to remain in formation to continue her anti-aircraft duties.
Submarine attacks
Throughout the day, American scout aircraft had been unable to locate the Japanese fleet. However, two American submarines had already spotted Ozawa's carriers early that morning and were about to provide important assistance to the Fast Carrier Task Force.
At 08:16 the submarine USS Albacore, which had sighted Ozawa's carrier group, had maneuvered into an ideal attack position; Lieutenant Commander James W. Blanchard selected the closest carrier as his target, which happened to be Taihō, the largest and newest carrier in the Japanese fleet and Ozawa's flagship. As Albacore was about to fire, however, her fire-control computer failed, and the torpedoes had to be fired "by eye". Determined to go ahead with the attack, Blanchard ordered all six torpedoes to be fired in a single spread to increase the chances of a hit.
Taihō had just launched 42 aircraft as a part of the second raid when Albacore fired the torpedo spread. Of the six torpedoes fired, four veered off-target. Japanese pilot Sakio Komatsu had recently launched and from his aircraft sighted one of the two torpedoes which were heading for Taihō. Komatsu dived into the path of the torpedo which then detonated. The sixth torpedo struck the carrier on her starboard side and ruptured two aviation fuel tanks. The carrier's escorting destroyers made depth charge attacks but caused only minor damage to Albacore. Initially, the damage to Taihō seemed minor; the flooding was quickly contained and the carrier's propulsion and navigation were unaffected. Taihō quickly resumed regular operations, but gasoline vapor from the ruptured fuel tanks began to fill the hangar decks, creating an increasingly dangerous situation on board.
Another submarine, USS Cavalla, was able to maneuver to an attack position on the 25,675-ton carrier Shōkaku by about noon. The submarine fired a spread of six torpedoes, three of which struck Shōkaku on her starboard side. Badly damaged, the carrier came to a halt. One torpedo had hit the forward aviation fuel tanks near the main hangar, and aircraft that had just landed and were being refueled exploded into flames. Ammunition and exploding bombs added to the conflagration, as did burning fuel spewing from shattered fuel pipes. With her bows subsiding into the sea and fires out of control, the captain gave orders to abandon ship. Within minutes, there was a catastrophic explosion of aviation fuel vapor which had built up between decks, which blew the ship apart. The carrier rolled over and sank about 140 miles (230 km) north of the island of Yap. 887 crew and 376 men of the 601st Naval Air Group, 1,263 men in all, were killed. There were 570 survivors, including the carrier's commanding officer, Captain Hiroshi Matsubara. Destroyer Urakaze attacked the submarine, but Cavalla escaped with relatively minor damage despite near misses from depth charges.
Meanwhile, Taihō was falling victim to poor damage control. Hoping to clear the explosive fumes, an inexperienced damage-control officer ordered her ventilation system to operate at full blast. This action instead spread the vapors throughout Taihō, putting the entire vessel at risk. At approximately 14:30, a spark from an electric generator on the hangar deck ignited the accumulated fumes, triggering a series of catastrophic explosions. After the first explosions, it was clear that Taihō was doomed, and Ozawa and his staff transferred to the nearby destroyer Wakatsuki. Soon thereafter, Taihō suffered a second series of explosions and sank. From a crew of 2,150, 1,650 officers and men were lost.
U.S. counterattack
TF 58 sailed west during the night to attack the Japanese at dawn. Search patrols were put up at first light.
Ozawa had transferred to the destroyer Wakatsuki, but the radio gear on board was incapable of sending the number of messages needed, so he transferred again, to the carrier Zuikaku, at 13:00. He then learned of the disastrous results of the previous day and that he had about 150 aircraft left. Nevertheless, he decided to continue the attacks, thinking there were still hundreds of aircraft on Guam and Rota and started planning new raids for 21 June.
The main problem for TF 58 was locating the enemy, who had been operating at a great distance. Early-morning American searches on 20 June found nothing. An extra mid-day search by Hellcat fighter pilots was also unsuccessful. Finally at 15:12 a garbled message from an Enterprise search plane indicated a sighting. At 15:40 the sighting was verified, along with distance, course, and speed. The Japanese fleet was 275 miles (443 km) out, moving due west at a speed of 20 knots. The Japanese were at the limit of TF 58's strike range, and daylight was slipping away. Mitscher decided to launch an all-out strike. After the first attack group had launched, a third message arrived, indicating the Japanese fleet were 60 miles (97 km) farther out than previously indicated. The first launch would be at their limits of fuel and would have to attempt landing at night. Mitscher canceled the second launch of aircraft but chose not to recall the first launch. Of the 240 planes that were launched for the strike, 14 aborted for various reasons and returned to their ships. The 226 planes that continued consisted of 95 Hellcat fighters (some carrying 500-pound bombs), 54 Avenger torpedo bombers (only a few carrying torpedoes, the rest four 500-pound bombs) and 77 dive bombers (51 Helldivers and 26 Dauntlesses). The TF 58 aircraft arrived over the Japanese fleet just before sunset.
The 35 or so fighters Ozawa was able to put up were overwhelmed by the 226 incoming aircraft of Mitscher's attack. While the few Japanese aircraft were often skillfully handled and the Japanese anti-aircraft fire was intense, the U.S. planes were able to press in on the attack.
The first ships sighted by the U.S. strike were oilers, 30 miles (48 km) before the carrier groups. The strike group from Wasp, more concerned with their low fuel levels than with finding the more important Japanese carriers and battleships, dived on the tankers. Two of these were damaged so severely that they were later scuttled, while a third was able to put out fires and get underway. The carrier Hiyō was attacked and hit by bombs and aerial torpedoes from four Grumman TBF Avengers from Belleau Wood. Hiyō was set afire after a tremendous blast from leaking aviation fuel. Dead in the water, she sank stern first, with the loss of 250 officers and men. The rest of her crew, about one thousand, were rescued by Japanese destroyers.
The carriers Zuikaku, Junyō and Chiyoda were damaged by bombs. Returning American strike pilots generally assessed these carriers as more crippled than they actually were, mistaking for devastating direct hits what Japanese post-war records revealed to have actually been huge geysers caused by near misses. The battleship Haruna was also hit by two bombs, including one directly on a main battery turret. Damage was contained, and she was able to keep station because her captain promptly called to flood the turret's magazine to avoid the possibility of an explosion.
Twenty American aircraft in the strike were destroyed by Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft fire that made up for a relative lack of accuracy with high volume of fire. After the protracted strike, it became clear that most of the aircraft returning to their carriers were running dangerously low on fuel, and to worsen matters, night had fallen. At 20:45, the first returning U.S. aircraft reached TF 58. Knowing his aviators would have difficulty finding their carriers, Admiral Joseph J. Clark of Hornet decided to illuminate his carrier, shining searchlights directly up into the night, despite the risk of attack from Japanese submarines and night-flying aircraft. Mitscher backed up the decision, and soon every ship in Task Force 58 was lit up, in spite of the risks involved. Picket destroyers fired starshells to help the aircraft find the task groups.
Planes were given clearance to land on any available flight deck (not just their home carriers, as usual), and many did land on other carriers. Despite this, 80 of the returning aircraft were lost. Some crashed on flight decks, but the majority ditched into the sea. Some pilots intentionally went down in groups to facilitate rescue, and more ditched individually either in a controlled landing with a few gallons of fuel left or in a crash after their engines ran dry. Approximately three-quarters of the crews were rescued from the sea, either that night from crash locations within the task forces, or over the next few days for those further out, as search planes and destroyers criss-crossed the ocean looking for them.
Aftermath
Japanese
That night, Toyoda ordered Ozawa to withdraw from the Philippine Sea. U.S. forces gave chase, but the battle was over. The four Japanese air strikes involved 373 carrier aircraft, of which 243 were lost and 130 returned to the carriers; many of them were subsequently lost when Taiho and Shōkaku were sunk. After the second day of the battle, losses totaled three carriers, more than 350 carrier aircraft, and around 200 land-based aircraft.
In the five major "carrier-on-carrier" battles, from the Battle of the Coral Sea to the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the IJN had lost nine carriers, while the USN had lost four. The aircraft and trained pilots lost at Philippine Sea were an irreplaceable blow to the already outnumbered Japanese fleet air arm. The Japanese had spent the better part of a year (following the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands) reconstituting their depleted carrier air groups, and the American Fast Carrier Task Force had destroyed 90% of it in two days. The Japanese had only enough pilots left to form the air group for one of their light carriers. As a consequence, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf four months later, they sent out a decoy carrier group with only 108 aircraft, across six carriers (two were hybrid-carriers), that was sacrificed in an attempt to draw the American fleet away from protecting the troops and supplies being landed for the Battle of Leyte.
The Japanese military, which had hidden the extent of their previous losses from the Japanese public, continued this policy. Though the occurrence of the simultaneous Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Saipan were made known to the public, the extent of the disasters was withheld.
American
Losses on the U.S. side on the first day were 23 aircraft. The second day's airstrike against the Japanese fleet saw most of the aircraft losses for the U.S.; of the 226 aircraft launched on the strike, 115 returned; 20 were lost to enemy action in the attack, and 80 were lost when they ran out of fuel returning to their carriers and had to ditch into the sea, or crashed attempting to land at night.
Spruance's conservative battle plan for TF 58, while sinking just one light carrier, severely weakened the Japanese naval aviation forces by killing most of the remaining trained pilots and destroying their operational reserves of naval aircraft, a blow that effectively shattered the Japanese naval air arm, from which it never recovered. Without the time or resources to build sufficient aircraft and train new pilots, the surviving Japanese carriers were almost useless in an offensive role, a fact the Japanese acknowledged by using them as sacrificial decoys at Leyte Gulf. With the effective crippling of her best striking arm, Japan chose to rely increasingly on land-based kamikaze suicide aircraft in a last-ditch effort to make the war so costly that the U.S. would offer peace terms better than unconditional surrender.
Spruance was heavily criticized after the battle by many officers, particularly the aviators, for his decision to fight the battle cautiously rather than exploiting his superior forces and intelligence data with a more aggressive posture. By failing to close on the enemy earlier and more forcefully, his critics argue, he squandered an opportunity to destroy the entire Japanese Mobile Fleet. "This is what comes of placing a non-aviator in command over carriers" was the common refrain. Admiral John Towers, a naval aviation pioneer and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet, demanded that Spruance be relieved. The request was denied by Nimitz. Moreover, Spruance was supported in his decision by Admiral Kelly Turner and Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations.
Spruance's caution (in particular, his suspicion of a diversionary force) can be compared with Admiral William Halsey's headlong pursuit of an actual diversionary force at Leyte Gulf four months later. Halsey left the American invasion fleet weakly protected during the Battle off Samar, nearly resulting in a devastating attack on the landing force by Japanese heavy surface units. It was prevented only by the heroic and desperate attack of 5 small American surface ships, which put up such an intense fight that the 23-ship-strong Japanese fleet thought they were engaging a much larger force and withdrew. In addition, by focusing on defense first, the carrier forces under Spruance at Philippine Sea suffered no significant harm. This was in contrast to Leyte Gulf when Halsey's carriers were trying to neutralize the enemy airfields and attack the enemy fleet simultaneously, such that a Japanese bomber managed to evade the Combat Air Patrols to fatally cripple the light carrier USS Princeton. Likewise, during the carrier-based air raids, U.S. carriers were in a vulnerable position, and the low visibility coupled with radar confusion let a Japanese bomber slip through and severely damage USS Franklin.
Although the American carrier aircraft strikes caused less destruction to enemy naval vessels than earlier battles, American submarines made up for it by sinking two of the three Japanese fleet carriers, which left Zuikaku as the only remaining operational IJN fleet carrier.
The American F6F Hellcat fighter proved its worth, as its powerful engine generated superior speed, while its heavier armor and firepower made it rugged and deadly. The Japanese on the other hand were still flying the A6M Zero which, though highly maneuverable and revolutionary during the early stages of the Pacific War, was now underpowered, fragile and essentially obsolete by 1944. In addition, the D4Y "Judy", though fast, was also fragile and easily set on fire. The Japanese naval airmen were also inadequately trained. The Japanese training programs could not replace the quality aviators lost during the past two years of the Pacific Campaign. Flying against the well-trained and often veteran U.S. aviators, it was a one-sided contest. The Americans lost fewer than two dozen Hellcats in air-to-air combat. Naval aviation and anti-aircraft fire shot down nearly 480 Japanese aircraft, 346 of those carrier aircraft on 19 June alone.
A very fortunate result of the Battle of the Philippine Sea for the Allies was it greatly benefited General MacArthur's invasion of Biak in Dutch New Guinea which started weeks before the Mariana Islands operations started. The Japanese military had designated Biak as its most important island of defense in the Southwest Pacific theater. 13 June was the original starting date of a massive operation, spearheaded by the battleships Yamato and Musashi, to challenge MacArthur's paltry naval forces, which had no aircraft carriers or battleships and consisted of only a few cruisers and destroyers. On that very same day Yamato and Musashi and their supporting ships received new orders to head north to screen aircraft carriers that were about to begin Operation A-Go. The battleships didn't take part in the Marianas operations other than anti-aircraft duty.
See also
United States Navy in World War II
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
Z Plan (Japan)
Naval Air Base Saipan
WWII carrier-versus-carrier engagements between Allied and Japanese naval forces:
Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle of Midway
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
Battle off Cape Engaño
Footnotes
Notes
References
Crowl, Philip A. (1995), The Pacific War: Campaign in the Marianas, United States Army in World War II, United States Army, ISBN 978-0-16-089915-7, LCCN 60-60000, archived from the original on 21 July 2022, retrieved 10 February 2017
Hoyt, Edwin Palmer (1986), Japan's War: the Great Pacific Conflict, 1853 to 1952, New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-030612-5
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1953), New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944 – August 1944, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. VIII
Polmar, Norman (2008), Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events, 1946–2006, vol. II, Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, pp. 377–400, ISBN 978-1-57488-665-8, archived from the original on 21 July 2022, retrieved 1 June 2014
Potter, E. B. (1990), Admiral Arleigh Burke, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 978-1-59114-692-6
Roscoe, T. (1949). Pig Boats. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-13040-4.
Shaw, Henry I. Jr.; Nalty, Bernard C.; Turnbladh, Edwin T. (1966). "Strategic Victory in the Marianas Liberation of Guam; Capture of Saipan and Tinian". Central Pacific Drive (PDF). History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. Vol. III. Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
Shores, Christopher (1985), Duel for the Sky: Ten Crucial Battles of World War II, London: Grub Street, ISBN 978-0-7137-1601-6
Taylor, Theodore (1991) [1954], The Magnificent Mitscher, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-800-3
Tillman, Barrett (2006), Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II, Penguin Group, ISBN 978-0-451-21956-5
Willmott, H. P. (1984), June 1944, New York: Blandford Press, ISBN 0-7137-1446-8
Wolborsky, Stephen L. (1994). Choke Hold: The Attack on Japanese Oil in World War II (PDF) (Thesis). Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Air University Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
Y'Blood, William T. (1981), Red Sun Setting: The Battle of the Philippine Sea, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-59114-994-0
Further reading
Bryan, J. III; Reed, Philip G. (1945). Mission Beyond Darkness: The story of USS Lexington's Air Group 16 June 20, 1944 attack on the Japanese carrier fleet as told by the men who flew that day. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. OCLC 899039875.
Buell, Thomas B. (1974). The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 0-316-11470-7. OCLC 1036813407. OL 5041914M. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. New York: Devin-Adair. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
Hornfischer, James D. (2016). The Fleet at Flood Tide: The U.S. at Total War in the Pacific, 1944–1945. Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-54872-6.
Lacroix, Eric; Wells, Linton (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
Smith, Douglas V. (2006). Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-794-8.
Toll, Ian W. (2015). The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944. New York: W. W. Norton.
External links
Battle for the Mariana Islands on YouTube
Order of battle
WW2DB: The Marianas and the Great Turkey Shoot
Battle of the Philippine Sea at Combinedfleet.com
Animated History of The Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Controversy over Spruance's Decision
Air Group 31's participation in the Battle of the Philippine Sea
A Brief Account of the Battle |
Philippine_Sea_order_of_battle | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Sea_order_of_battle | [
472
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Sea_order_of_battle"
] | The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought 19–20 June 1944 in the waters west of the Mariana Islands by elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet and of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. The battle resulted from the Japanese reaction to the American invasion of the island of Saipan. Instead of attacking the troop transports off Saipan, Admiral Toyoda chose to engage the American carrier forces in what he intended to be the long-awaited “decisive battle” that would crush U.S. naval power.
The outcome was a disaster for the Japanese Navy. The battle exacted a terrible toll from the Japanese naval air arm, costing them most of their few remaining experienced pilots. The Combined Fleet was no longer capable of serious offensive operations after this engagement. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison characterized it this way:
This was the greatest carrier battle of the war. The forces engaged were three to four times those in preceding actions like Midway, and victory was so complete that the Japanese could never again engage on such a scale. ... above all the skill, initiative, and intrepid courage of the young aviators made this day one of the high points in the history of the American spirit.
Since the Japanese assumed the tactical offensive, their forces are listed first.
Forces deployed
Losses in parentheses
Japanese order of battle
Mobile Fleet
Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa in Taihō
"A" Force
Sortied 13 June from Tawi Tawi anchorage off NE Borneo
Vice Admiral Ozawa
Carrier Division 1 (Vice Adm. Ozawa)
3 fleet carriers
Taihō (sunk by submarine 19 June)
Shōkaku (sunk by submarine 19 June)
Zuikaku
Air Unit
79 Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters
70 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers
7 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers
51 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers
Cruiser Division 5 (Rear Adm. Shintaro Hashimoto)
2 heavy cruisers: Myōkō, Haguro
Screen (Rear Adm. Susumu Kimura in Yahagi)
1 light cruiser: Yahagi
9 destroyers
1 Asashio-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Asagumo
3 Kagerō-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Isokaze, Tanikaze (sunk by submarine 9 June), Urakaze
4 Akizuki-class (8 × 3.9 in. main battery): Akizuki, Hatsuzuki, Wakatsuki, Shimotsuki
1 Mutsuki-class (4 × 4.7 in. main battery): Minazuki (sunk by submarine 6 June)
"B" Force
Sortied 13 June from Tawi Tawi anchorage off NE Borneo
Vice Admiral Kakuji Kakuta in Jun'yo
Carrier Division 2 (Vice Admiral Kakuta)
2 converted carriers
Jun'yō
Hiyō (sunk by air attack 19 June)
1 light carrier
Ryūhō
Air Unit
81 Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters
27 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers
9 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers
18 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers
1 old battleship: Nagato
1 heavy cruiser: Mogami
Screen
10 destroyers
2 Asashio-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Michishio, Yamagumo
2 Kagerō-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Nowaki, Hamakaze
2 Yūgumo-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Hayashimo, Akishimo
4 Shiratsuyu-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Shiratsuyu (sunk following collision with Seiyo Maru 14 June), Shigure, Samidare, Harusame (sunk by air attack 8 June)
Van Force
Sortied 12 June from Batjan anchorage off SW Halmahera Island
Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita in heavy cruiser Atago
Carrier Division 3 (Rear Adm. Sueo Obayashi)
3 light carriers
Chitose
Chiyoda
Zuihō
Air Unit
62 Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters
17 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers
9 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers
Battleship Division 1 (Vice Adm. Matome Ugaki)
2 super battleships: Yamato, Musashi
Battleship Division 3 (Vice Adm. Yoshio Suzuki)
2 old battleships: Kongō, Haruna
Cruiser Division 4 (Vice Adm. Kurita)
4 heavy cruisers: Atago, Chōkai, Maya, Takao
Cruiser Division 7(Vice Adm.Kazutaka Shiraishi)
4 heavy cruisers: Kumano, Suzuya, Chikuma, Tone
Screen (Rear Adm.l Mikio Hayakawa in Noshiro)
1 light cruiser: Noshiro
1 super destroyer (41 knots, 15 torpedo tubes): Shimakaze
8 destroyers:
7 Yūgumo-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Kishinami, Okinami, Naganami, Asashimo, Tamanami, Hayanami (sunk by submarine 7 June), Fujinami
Supply Forces
Sortied with Ozawa's carrier forces 13 June from Tawi Tawi anchorage off NE Borneo
1st Supply Force
4 oilers
Hayasui, Nichiei Maru, Kokuyo Maru, Seiyo Maru (sunk 20 June)
4 destroyers
1 Fubuki class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Hibiki
1 Hatsuharu class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Hatsushimo
1 Kamikaze class (4 × 4.7 in. main battery): Yūnagi
1 Momi class (3 × 4.7 in. main battery): Tsuga
2nd Supply Force
2 oilers
Genyo Maru (sunk 20 June), Azusa Maru
2 destroyers
1 Kagerō-class (6 × 5 in. main battery): Yukikaze
1 Mutsuki-class (4 × 4.7 in. main battery): Uzuki
Submarine Forces
Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi at Saipan
7 1st-class submarines
I-5 (sunk by depth charges 19 July), I-10 (sunk by depth charges 4 July), I-38, I-41, I-53, I-184 (sunk by aircraft 19 June), I-185 (sunk by depth charges 22 June)
Deployed in two parallel rows SW to NE north of the Admiralties and Bismarcks
17 2nd-class submarines
Ro-36 (sunk by depth charges 13 June), Ro-41, Ro-42 (sunk by depth charges 10 June), Ro-43, Ro-44 (sunk by depth charges 16 June), Ro-47, Ro-68, Ro-104 (sunk by depth charges 23 May), Ro-105 (sunk by depth charges 31 May), Ro-106 (sunk by depth charges 22 May), Ro-108 (sunk by depth charges 26 May), Ro-112, Ro-113, Ro-114 (sunk by depth charges 17 June), Ro-115, Ro-116 (sunk by depth charges 23 May), Ro-117 (sunk by depth charges 17 June)
American order of battle
US Fifth Fleet
Admiral Raymond A. Spruance in heavy cruiser Indianapolis
Task Force 58 – Fast Carrier Forces
Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher in fleet carrier Lexington
Task Group 58.1
Carrier Division 13
Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark
2 fleet carriers
Hornet (Capt. William D. Sample)
Air Group 2 (Cmdr. Jackson D. Arnold)
36 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. W.A. Dean)
33 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. G.B. Campbell)
18 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. L.M.D. Ford)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters (Lt. R.L. Reiserer)
Yorktown (Capt. Ralph E. Jennings)
Air Group 1 (Cmdr. J.M. Peters)
41 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. B.M. Strean)
40 SB2C Helldiver,4 SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.W. Runyan, USNR)
17 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. W.F. Henry)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters (Lt. A.C. Benjes)
2 light carriers
Belleau Wood (Capt. John Perry)
Air Group 24 (Cmdr. E.M. Link)
26 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Link)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. R.M. Swensson)
Bataan (Capt. Valentine H. Schaeffer)
Air Group 50 (Lt. Cmdr. J.C. Strange, USNR)
24 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Strange)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. L.V. Swanson)
Cruiser Division 10 (Rear Admiral Leo H. Thebaud)
3 heavy cruisers
Baltimore (Capt. W.C. Calhoun)
Boston (Capt. E.E. Herrmann)
Canberra (Capt. A.R. Early)
Screen
2 anti-aircraft light cruisers (Rear Admiral Thebaud)
San Juan (Capt. Guy W. Clark)
Oakland (Capt. William K. Phillips)
14 destroyers (Capt. Clark)
9 Fletcher-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Bell, Boyd, Bradford, Brown, Burns, Charrette, Conner, Cowell, Izard
4 Gridley-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Craven, Gridley, Maury, McCall
1 Bagley-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Helm
Task Group 58.2
Carrier Division 3
Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery
2 fleet carriers
Bunker Hill (Capt. T.P. Jeter)
Air Group 8 (Cmdr. R.L. Shifley)
37 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. W.M. Collins)
33 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Arbes)
18 TBF Avenger, torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. K.F. Musick)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters (Lt. Cmdr. E.P. Aurand)
Wasp (Capt. Clifton Sprague)
Air Group 14 (Cmdr. W.C. Wingard)
34 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. E.W. Biros, USNR)
32 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Blitch)
18 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. H.S. Roberts, USNR)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters (Lt. J.H. Boyum)
2 light carriers
Cabot (Capt. S.J. Michael)
Air Group 31 (Lt. Cmdr. R.A. Winston)
24 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Winston)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. E.E. Wood, USNR)
Monterey (Capt. Stuart H. Ingersoll)
Air Group 28 (Lt. Cmdr. R.W. Mehle, USNR)
21 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Mehle)
8 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. R.P. Gift, USNR)
1 heavy cruiser
Minneapolis (Capt. Harry Slocum)
Cruiser Division 13 (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose)
3 light cruisers
Santa Fe (Capt. Jerauld Wright)
Mobile (Capt. Charles J. Wheeler)
Biloxi (Capt. Daniel M. McGurl)
Screen
12 destroyers
9 Fletcher-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Hickox, Hunt, Lewis Hancock, Marshall, Miller, Owen, Stephen Potter, The Sullivans, Tingey
3 Farragut-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Dewey, Hull, MacDonough
Task Group 58.3
Carrier Division 2
Rear Admiral John W. Reeves
2 fleet carriers
Enterprise (Capt. Matthias B. Gardner)
Air Group 10 (Cmdr. W.R. Kane)
31 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. R.W. Schumann)
21 SBD Dauntless dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. James D. Ramage)
14 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. W.I. Martin)
3 F4U Corsair night fighters (Lt. Cmdr. R.E. Harmer)
Lexington (Capt. E.W. Litch)
Air Group 16 (Cmdr. E.M. Snowden)
37 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Ralph Weymouth)
34 SBD Dauntless dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. Weymouth)
18 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. N.A. Sterrie, USNR)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat fighters (Lt. W.H. Abercrombie, USNR)
2 light carriers
San Jacinto (Capt. Harold M. Martin)
Air Group 51 (Lt. Cmdr. C.L. Moore)
24 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Moore)
8 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. D.J. Melvin)
Princeton (Capt. W.H. Buracker)
Air Group 27 (Lt. Cmdr. E.W. Wood – KIA)
24 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Wood)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. S.M. Haley, USNR)
1 heavy cruiser
Indianapolis (Capt. E.R. Johnson)
Cruiser Division 12 (Rear Admiral Robert W. Hayler)
3 light cruisers
Montpelier (Capt. H.D. Hoffman)
Cleveland (Capt. A.G. Shepard)
Birmingham (Capt. Thomas B. Inglis)
Screen
1 anti-aircraft light cruiser
Reno (Capt. R.C. Alexander)
13 destroyers
All Fletcher-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Anthony, Braine, Caperton, Clarence K. Bronson, Cogswell, Cotten, Dortch, Gatling, Healy, Ingersoll, Knapp, Terry, Wadsworth
Task Group 58.4
Carrier Division 12
Rear Admiral William K. Harrill
1 fleet carrier
Essex (Capt. Ralph A. Ofstie)
Air Group 15 (Cmdr. David McCampbell)
38 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. C.W. Brewer -- KIA)
36 SB2C Helldiver dive bombers (Lt. Cmdr. J.H. Mini)
20 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. Cmdr. V.G. Lambert)
4 F6F-xN Hellcat night fighters (Lt. R.M. Freeman)
2 light carriers
Langley (Capt. W.M. Dillon)
Air Group 32 (Lt. Cmdr. E.C. Outlaw)
23 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Outlaw)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. D.A. Marks)
Cowpens (Capt. H.W. Taylor)
Air Group 25 (Lt. Cmdr. R.H. Price)
23 F6F Hellcat fighters (Lt. Cmdr. Price)
9 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers (Lt. R.B. Cottingham, USNR)
Cruiser Division 14 (Rear admiral Wilder D. Baker)
3 light cruisers
Vincennes (Capt. A.D. Brown)
Houston (Capt. W.W. Behrens)
Miami (Capt. J.G. Crawford)
Screen
1 anti-aircraft light cruiser
San Diego (Capt. L.J. Hudson)
14 destroyers
6 Fletcher-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Charles Ausburne, Stanly, Dyson, Converse, Spence, Thatcher
1 Mahan-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Case
3 Gleaves-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Lansdowne, Lardner, McCalla
4 Benham-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Lang, Sterett, Wilson, Ellet
Task Group 58.7
Commander, Battleships, Pacific Fleet
Vice Admiral Willis Augustus Lee
Battleship Division 6 (Vice Admiral Lee)
2 North Carolina class
North Carolina (Capt. Frank P. Thomas)
Washington (Capt. Thomas R. Cooley)
Battleship Division 7 (Rear Admiral Olaf M. Hustvedt)
2 Iowa class
Iowa (Capt. John L. McCrea)
New Jersey (Capt. Carl F. Holden)
Battleship Division 8 (Rear Admiral Glenn B. Davis)
1 South Dakota class
Indiana (Capt. Thomas J. Keliher Jr.)
Battleship Division 9 (Rear Admiral Edward Hanson)
2 South Dakota class
South Dakota (Capt. Ralph S. Riggs)
Alabama (Capt. Fred D. Kirtland)
Cruiser Division 6 (Rear Admiral C. Turner Joy)
3 heavy cruisers
Wichita (Capt. J.J. Mahoney)
New Orleans (Capt. J.E. Hurff)
San Francisco (Capt. Harvey Overesch)
Screen
14 destroyers
1 Porter-class (8 × 5 in. main battery): Selfridge
9 Fletcher-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Halford, Guest, Bennett, Fullam, Hudson, Yarnall, Twining, Stockham, Monssen
3 Bagley-class (4 × 5 in. main battery): Bagley, Mugford, Patterson
1 Mahan-class (5 × 5 in. main battery): Conyngham
Seventh Fleet Submarines
Rear Admiral Ralph W. Christie (HQ at Fremantle)
Southeast of Mindanao
3 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Hake, Bashaw, Paddle
IJN anchorage at Tawi Tawi
3 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Harder, Haddo, Redfin
Off Luzon
2 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Bluefish, Jack, Flier
Task Force 17
Patrol Submarines
Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood (HQ at Pearl Harbor)
At the Bonins
2 Balao-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Archerfish, Plaice
1 Gar-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Gar
1 Sargo-class (8 tubes: 4 forward, 4 aft): Swordfish
1 Porpoise-class (6 tubes: 4 forward, 2 aft): Plunger
Southeast of Formosa and eastward
2 Balao-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Pintado, Pilotfish
1 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Tunny
East and Southeast of the Marianas
2 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Albacore, Finback
1 Balao-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Bang
1 Salmon-class (8 tubes: 4 forward, 4 aft): Stingray
1 Sargo-class (8 tubes: 4 forward, 4 aft): Seawolf
Ulithi and the Philippines
3 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Flying Fish, Muskallunge, Cavalla
2 Balao-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Seahorse, Pipefish
Off Surigao Strait
1 Gato-class (10 tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft): Growler
Notes
References
== Bibliography == |
William_Conan_Davis | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Conan_Davis | [
473
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Conan_Davis"
] | William Conan Davis (August 22, 1926 - March 16, 2022) was a professor emeritus and was chair of natural sciences at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas. The William C. Davis Science Building is named in his honor.
He is best known for his research in food chemistry. He discovered arabinogalactan and used it to create instant mashed potatoes. His discoveries also improved potato chips and soft serve ice cream. He developed an organic glue for use in particle board. More recently, he co-developed the formula for Dasani water.
In addition to his scientific work, he was a Lutheran lay minister, served during the Korean War, and received the Purple Heart.
Education
William Conan Davis was born on August 22, 1926, in Waycross, Georgia to Kince Charles Davis and his wife Laura Jane (née Cooper; July 9, 1898 – June 6, 2004). Kince Davis' family self-identified as being of Ethiopian Jewish descent, and he read Hebrew but not English.
Kince Davis was employed as a railway construction engineer and crew boss, a position that brought him threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
He later started a herbal medicine business, the only source of medical care accessible to many black people in Georgia. William Davis spent time during the summers with his maternal grandfather Jonnas Franklin, who identified as a Sioux Indian and who farmed and hunted near the Okefenokee Swamp.
William Davis attended Magnolia Grammar School and Dasher High School in Valdosta, Georgia. He received a high school diploma from Dasher in 1944.
His family was active in civil rights and supportive of their children's education. On one occasion Kince Davis drove his sons William and Kenneth to Tuskegee Institute (a distance of 300 miles in a Tin Lizzie) to attend a workshop with George Washington Carver and Henry Ford. This experience fueled William's interest in becoming a chemist.
Dasher High School did not teach at a college preparatory level, leaving William at a disadvantage in science and mathematics. To prepare him for college, William's family sent him to New York City in 1944. He lived with his older brother, actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis. He attended Dwight High School, taking preparatory classes in science and graduating in 1945.
William Davis briefly attended the City College of New York, but was advised to transfer to Talladega College in Alabama where he could get more individual support in calculus.
Davis was enrolled in the U.S. Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
During his first year at Talladega, he was drafted to serve in the Korean War. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He served in Germany and was awarded a Purple Heart in 1953.
On his return, Davis completed his B.S. degree in chemistry at Talladega College, graduating in 1956.
He was one of three students chosen for a George Washington Carver research fellowship to attend Tuskegee Institute in 1956. At the time, it was almost impossible for a black scientist to train for a professional career in research in the United States. Even at Tuskegee, the usual career track was to train as a teacher, with a specialization in one's area of interest. Davis was determined to do research. He worked with Clarence T. Mason of Tuskegee and studied the hydrolysis rate of compounds in jet fuel. This research enabled him to meet Wernher Von Braun of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Davis received his Master of Science degree in organic chemistry from Tuskegee in 1958.
Doctoral research
It was extremely difficult for a black student to find support for a Ph.D. program in research. The University of Idaho was the only university willing to accept Davis as a research-track graduate student. Davis and his wife Ocia moved to Moscow, Idaho. Perhaps not surprisingly, given this location, his thesis research involved potatoes. Davis studied the process of sloughing, by which plant materials break down. This has important applications in food chemistry. Soup manufacturers want potatoes that tend to stay firm, not sloughing. Makers of mashed potatoes want potato flakes to break down rapidly and reform with a uniform, soft consistency.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Research department at nearby Washington State University advertised for summer researchers to study the buildup of particles on saw blades in lumber mills. Davis applied and was able to identify the source of the problem. He isolated and extracted a dry, crystal-like powder, arabinogalactan, that produced a sticky paste when water was added to it. This water-soluble polysaccharide is found in Western Larch trees (Larix occidentalis) and other plants and is believed to have health benefits. At the time, no one had any idea of how to make use of the substance Davis had identified.
Back at the University of Idaho, Davis studied potato chips and what caused them to blister when fried. He was able to isolate the substance that caused the blistering, but when it was removed from the potatoes they disintegrated. Frustrated by the apparent stalemate in both lines of research, Davis tried adding arabinogalactans to his potato mixtures. The water was absorbed, and the potatoes fluffed up. Davis' approach improved the sloughing properties of the potatoes and created instant mashed potatoes with a more desirable texture and consistency.
While completing his doctorate, Davis worked with scientists at Washington State University in a variety of fields, including clinical research with Mark Adams.
Davis did further research into the extraction of arabinogalactan from larch trees. He identified a sugar that makes frozen desserts smoother and is used to make soft-serve ice cream.
He also helped to discover a wood sugar that is used in industrial glue to make compressed wood. These discoveries were not patented, and most were further developed by others.
Davis received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Idaho in 1965.
His Ph.D. thesis was A Study of Sloughing in the Potato Tuber (1965).
He was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho.
Further career
After graduation, Davis accepted a position as a researcher with the Division of Industrial Research at Washington State University, researching antigens for hay fever.
Davis worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Rosalyn Yalow at the Bronx Veteran's Affairs Hospital, where he learned radioimmunoassay techniques for use with diabetic patients. Using his knowledge of radioimmunoassay techniques Davis developed standardized tests for the detection of thyroxin in the blood stream. He also developed standardized blood tests for insulin and growth hormones.
Davis was recruited as a health physicist and became head of the radioactivity department at United Medical Laboratories in Portland, Oregon.
Following certification as a medial technologist, Davis became director of the laboratory.
He spent nearly fifteen years as Director of United Medical Laboratories.
[At United Medical Laboratories] we provided analyses for doctors all over the world, and devised methods for reducing the time and cost of conducting clinical assays to develop detect concentrations of hormones and steroids in the blood such as aldosterone, estrogen, and testosterone ... We made exotic procedures routine and brought their price down. Using autoanalyzers when they had just come out, we could perform tests more quickly than they could be done locally.
Concerned about the lack of medical facilities available to African Americans in the Portland area, Davis worked with Kent Ford of the Portland Black Panther Party and others to establish the Fred Hampton Memorial Clinic in 1970. The clinic offered free medical services to both blacks and whites in the Albina neighborhood. Davis was one of the few black professionals to volunteer at the clinic: its doctors were predominantly white. He was strongly involved in its sickle-cell anemia initiatives. The clinic emphasized screening, education and counseling about the genetic disorder which disproportionately affects African Americans.
In 1972, Davis helped put on the Black Community Survival Conference, a protest against the expansion of the Emanuel Hospital. The expansion was planned without community input and largely destroyed the commercial center of a historically black neighborhood.
From 1974 to 1975, Davis was a visiting scientist at the George Hyman Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
From 1979 to 1982, Davis was a research associate in Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. He worked with Maharaj K. Ticku to study the effects of picrotoxin, benzodiazepines, pentobarbital, ethanol, and other psychoactive substances on receptor binding sites.
In 1983, Davis was hired as an instructor in the chemistry department at St. Philip's College, giving him more opportunity for teaching as well as research. He became a full professor of chemistry in 1995. He became the chair of the Natural Sciences Department in 1996. He was also the director of Renewable Energy at St. Philip's College.
I tell my students to be curious about everything — and ask, 'How can I improve this? How can I be of service?'
While at St. Philip's College, one of Davis' focuses of study was water. Davis worked with United Beverage company to study the behavioral properties of Penta Water, which he nicknamed "kinetic water". The company promoted their product as having uniquely distinct chemical properties due to its purification process. Davis studied characteristics such as boiling point, pH, polarity and surface tension. With Lanier Byrd, Davis co-created the formula that gives a characteristic taste to Dasani water, a product of The Coca-Cola Company. In addition to hydrology, Davis was interested in recombinant DNA and fuel cell technologies for renewable energy.
Davis retired in 2009, becoming a professor emeritus of St. Philip's College. At that time, it was decided to rename the natural sciences building in his honor to acknowledge his contributions. Funds were raised to renovate the building, and it was reopened and dedicated as the William C. Davis Science Building in 2012.
A portrait of William Davis, commissioned from Howard Rhoder, hangs in the science building.
'Observe!' I have instructed my students to do thousands of times. We can take two or more existing things, analyze them for what they are, and then synthesize something entirely new that did not exist before. This is the heartbeat of scientific research and discovery.
Davis was also active in preserving the history of science. He helped to establish the Ernest Stevenson Collection of scientific books and artifacts, to be housed at the Sutton Learning Center at St. Philip's College.: 53 Before his death, he was working on his memoirs with the support of historian Jeanette Nyda Mendelssohn Passty.
Awards
1953, Purple Heart Medal, U.S. Armed Forces
1956, George Washington Carver Fellowship, Tuskegee Institute
2000, Texas Hall of Fame; one of 16 charter members
2010, Honorary associate degree, St. Philip's College
2020, Genius Award, Liberty Science Center
Memberships
American Chemical Society
Health Physics Society
Society of Nuclear Medicine
American Association for the Advancement of Science
== References == |
St._Philip%27s_College_(United_States) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Philip%27s_College_(United_States) | [
473
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Philip%27s_College_(United_States)"
] | St. Philip's College is a public historically black community college in San Antonio, Texas. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and part of the Alamo Colleges District. The college currently serves more than 11,000 students in over 70 different academic and technical disciplines. It is the westernmost historically black college or university in the United States and is located in the East Side, the historic home of the city's African American community.
History
James Steptoe Johnston, the Second Bishop of West Texas for the Episcopal Church, founded St. Philip’s Normal and Industrial School to educate and train the daughters and granddaughters of emancipated slaves. Opening March 1, 1898, the school began as a weekend sewing class for six black girls, taught by Miss Alice G. Cowan, a missionary with the Episcopal Church.
In 1900, Mrs. Mary E. E. (Snowden) Walker, the daughter of John Baptist Snowden, came from Baltimore to serve as the school administrator. She left after two years.
In 1902, Artemisia Bowden, daughter of a former slave, joined the school as administrator and teacher. Miss Bowden served St. Philip’s for 52 years. Under her supervision, the school grew from an industrial school for girls into a high school and later, a junior college.
In 1942, the school, retaining the St. Philip’s Junior College name, affiliated with San Antonio College and the San Antonio Independent School District, marking the end of the college’s era as a private institution. This union resulted in what is known today as Alamo Colleges District.
In December 2023, the college was approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to offer its first bachelor's degree, the Bachelor of Applied Technology Degree in Cybersecurity (BAT).
Campus
St. Philip's College operates two major campuses and several subsidiary locations. The main campus is located on the east side of San Antonio, three miles from Downtown. The Southwest Campus, formerly part of Kelly Air Force Base, is located on the southwest side of San Antonio and serves as a hub for technical training programs. Courses are also conducted at local military installations, hospitals, and high schools.
During the last 30 years, multimillion-dollar capital expansions added a state-of-the-art theater, an on-site cyber range, and a health sciences building to the main campus. The Southwest Campus recently added the Welding and Auto Collision Center, which resulted in a major expansion of program offerings.
The opening of the Northeast Learning Center (Converse, Texas) in 1996 resulted in the establishment of Northeast Lakeview College, a sister institution, and one of five colleges that make up the Alamo Colleges District. The Learning and Leadership Development Center, built in 1997 in collaboration with the City of San Antonio is undergoing renovations and will reopen in 2024. In 2009, SPC expanded to include a new multipurpose facility, library, and welcome center, and in 2018, the Good Samaritan Veterans Outreach and Transition Center, formerly an old hospital, opened on the same day as the renovated E.L. Turbon Student Center.
In 2022, the college opened four buildings during a one-day event—Saint Artemisia Bowden Center of Excellence; Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts Center of Excellence; Clarence Windzell Norris Building; and William Allen Hudgins Health and Wellness Building.
Academics
St. Philip’s College offers open admission. Admission requires completion of a student data form and submission of high school graduation transcript or GED certificate.
The college's academics are divided into three divisions: Arts and Sciences, Applied Science and Technology, and Health Professions. Students may earn an Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, or Associate of Applied Science degree.
References
External links
Official website
St. Philip's College at The Handbook of Texas Online |
Alamo_Colleges_District | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Colleges_District | [
473
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Colleges_District"
] | The Alamo Colleges District (previously the Alamo Community College District, or ACCD, and The Alamo Colleges) is a network of five community colleges in San Antonio and Universal City, Texas, and serving the Greater San Antonio metropolitan area. The district was founded in 1945 as the San Antonio Union Junior College District before adopting the Alamo name in 1982.
Colleges in the district
The five colleges in the district operate with a high degree of autonomy, though the colleges' accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, placed three in a year-long warning period from January 2017 over issues of institutional autonomy. The board of trustees for the district voted to rename the district in January 2017 to reflect issues pertaining to accreditation.
San Antonio College (founded 1925)
St. Philip's College (founded 1898)
Palo Alto College (founded 1983)
Northwest Vista College (founded 1995)
Northeast Lakeview College (founded 2007)
All of the colleges are within San Antonio city limits except Northeast Lakeview, which is within the town limits of Universal City and Live Oak, just to the northeast of the City of San Antonio. The Alamo Colleges District Main Office is located at 2222 N. Alamo St. and was previously located in multiple offices throughout the city and in a portion of Universal City.
Education and programs
The district serves more than 100,000 students in academic and continuing-education programs and employs more than 6,000 faculty and staff. It had a budget of $503 million for the 2023 academic year.
The district offers over 300 degree and certificate programs. Most courses taken within the district are meant to apply to AA, AS, AAS, AAA, and AAT degrees, which help students apply for jobs or can be transferred to four-year institutions.
Service area
As defined by the Texas Legislature, the official service area of the Alamo Colleges District is:
all of Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Kendall, Kerr and Wilson Counties
all of Atascosa County excluding the portion included within the Pleasanton Independent School District
all of Guadalupe County excluding the portion of the county included within the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District
References
External links
Official website |
Phil_Quartararo | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Quartararo | [
474
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Quartararo#Warner_Bros._Records"
] | Philip Michael Quartararo (January 7, 1956 – November 22, 2023) was an American music industry executive. He was the president and chairman of The Hello Group, and held positions as CEO at Virgin Records, Warner Bros. Records, and EMI, and was involved in the careers of recording artists such as Linkin Park, Josh Groban, Spice Girls, U2, and Yoshiki. Quartararo was known as a defender of artist rights. He spoke out on the fight against music piracy and restoring the value of music. Quartararo was regarded as one of the most promotion-minded executives in the music business and was regarded as a thought leader on the subject of partnership between brands and artists.
Biography
Early life
Philip Michael Quartararo was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 7, 1956. His work in the music business began at an early age, booking music acts out of his bedroom while he was still in high school. He attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, where he booked the sockhop bands. He attended Syracuse University where his college roommates were John Sykes and Rob Light. Sykes went on to become co-founder of MTV and VH1 cable networks, as well as hold senior positions at record labels and radio broadcast networks. Light went on to become managing partner and head of music for CAA. Quartararo graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1977.
Quartararo began his career in the record industry as a local radio promotion manager for A&M Records from 1977 to 1981. He moved on to become a regional promotion manager for RCA Records from 1981 to 1983. His executive breakthrough came when he was hired as senior vice-president of promotion and marketing for Island Records from 1982 to 1986, where he was instrumental in introducing U2 in America.
Virgin Records America
In 1986, Quartararo was recruited by Richard Branson as part of the team to launch Virgin Records America, along with executives Jordan Harris and Jeff Ayeroff. In 1992, he became president and CEO of Virgin Records America. At Virgin he was influential in the recording careers of Smashing Pumpkins, Lenny Kravitz, Paula Abdul, After 7, Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, and Ben Harper. He is credited with the marketing blitz that launched the Spice Girls in the U.S., the success of which brought him the attention of Warner Bros. Records.
Warner Bros. Records
In 1997, Quartararo was recruited as president of Warner Bros. Records, which was ranked #1 out of world's largest record companies. At Warner Bros., he worked with artists including Linkin Park, Josh Groban, Madonna, Stevie Nicks, Cher, Wilco, Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith Hill, Goo Goo Dolls, and Green Day.
EMI Music
In 2002, Quartararo was hired to become executive vice-president of EMI Music and president of EMI marketing. Quartararo reorganized EMI, shifting its focus from sales and distribution to marketing. He directed the marketing and launch of recordings of Coldplay, Norah Jones, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, RBD, and Beach Boys, as well as marketing the estate catalogs of Frank Sinatra, Beatles, Les Paul, and Dean Martin.
Other endeavors
In late 2007, Quartararo left EMI to work with start-up companies focused on digital music distribution. In 2009, he started his own firm, Tripod Partners, which has worked with various music industry companies such as Beta Records TV, global online talent search Avon Voices, the Shazam music discovery app, and the Guvera music streaming service. He was associated with the talent management firm The Collective, and was a principal at the consultancy QP2 Group. Quartararo also managed Yoshiki, singer-songwriter Brandon Howard, and heavy metal group XJapan. Quartararo was executive producer of the eight-hour PBS miniseries The Soundtrack of Our Lives. He also served as executive producer of the double Grammy Award-winning album, Les Paul And Friends: A Tribute To A Legend. At the 2013 Midem conference, Quartararo was referenced by industry media for his observation, "The old record business didn't get killed. It committed suicide. The industry didn't listen to its consumers."
Philanthropy
Quartararo sat on the boards of the Grammy Foundation, City of Hope, Cedar Sinai, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), T J Martell Foundation, Pacific Science Center, State of California Board for Engineers and Surveyors, and Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Quartararo was recognized for his philanthropic contributions with awards that included City of Hope's "Spirit of Life" Award, Russell Simmons Award for Diversity and Equality, the Vincent Testaverde Award for Spinal Injury, Sons of Italy Award, and Syracuse University's 40 at 40 Award.
Illness and death
Phil Quartararo died from pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on November 22, 2023, at the age of 67.
Music industry honors
Quartararo was named by Billboard magazine as Music Executive of the Year (2001), and received the NARAS Governors Award.
References
External links
Phil Quartararo discography at Discogs
Phil Quartararo at IMDb |
Ray_Charles_discography | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles_discography | [
474
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles_discography"
] | This is a discography of American musician Ray Charles.
Overview
Ray Charles first appeared on a Billboard chart in 1949, when — as part of the Maxin Trio with G.D. McKee and Milton Garred — he charted his first single with "Confession Blues." It reached No. 2 on the R&B chart, then called the Most-Played Juke Box Race Records. In 1952, Charles signed with Atlantic Records and went on to top Billboard's pop, country, R&B, jazz, and dance charts.
In the early 1960s, after leaving Atlantic Records to sign with ABC–Paramount, he negotiated for ownership of his own master recordings. He also established his own labels. Tangerine came first, which evolved into CrossOver Records. As a songwriter, Charles penned nearly 200 songs. He also operated his own publishing companies, Tangerine Music and Racer Music.
On the Billboard Hot 100, Charles had 80 hits between 1958 (the year the chart began) and 1990, when "I'll Be Good to You" became his last Hot 100 single, reaching No. 18. His biggest hit, "I Can't Stop Loving You", spent five weeks at No. 1 in 1962. He also topped the Hot 100 with the singles "Hit the Road Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind". Among all acts, he charted the third-most singles on the Hot 100; only Elvis Presley (with 108) and James Brown (91) had more.
On Billboard's R&B chart, Charles had 86 hits, including 11 chart-toppers such as "I've Got a Woman", "What'd I Say (Part 1)", "Hit the Road Jack", and "You Are My Sunshine."
Charles also reached No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1985 with "Seven Spanish Angels", a duet with Willie Nelson. The single appears on Charles' duets album, Friendship, which reached No. 1 on Top Country Albums. His 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, became his first album to top the Billboard 200.
In 1990, Charles had a No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart with "I'll Be Good to You", a collaboration with Quincy Jones and Chaka Khan.
Albums
The Atlantic years
The ABC years
1973–2004
Posthumous albums
Compilations
Hundreds of Ray Charles compilations and "Greatest Hits/Best Of" albums have been released and continue to be produced and released by various labels around the world. Some of the more notable compilations include:
Singles
Down Beat, Swing Beat, Swing Time releases
1949: The McSon Trio (a.k.a. Maxin Trio and Maxim Trio):
"I Love You, I Love You (I Will Never Let You Go)" / "Confession Blues"
"Confession Blues" reached No. 2 on the U.S. R&B charts.
"Blues Before Sunrise" / "How Long Blues"
"A Sentimental Blues" / "You'll Never Miss the Water (Until the Well's Gone Dry)"
"Alone in the City" / "Can Anyone Ask for More?"
"Rockin' Chair Blues" / "Let's Have a Ball" (a.k.a. "Here I Am")
"If I Give You My Love" / "This Love of Mine" (a.k.a. "The Honey Bee")
"Ain't That Fine" / "Don't Put All Your Dreams in One Basket"
1949–1953: Ray Charles, The Ray Charles Trio:
"I've Had My Fun (Going Down Slow)" / "Sitting on Top of the World (Now She's Gone)" (1949)
"See See Rider" / "What Have I Done?" (1950)
"She's on the Ball" / "Honey, Honey" (1950)
"Th' Ego Song" ("Sweet as Can Be") / "Late in the Evening" (1950)
"Some Day" (a.k.a. "Worried Life Blues"/"Someday Baby") / "I'll Do Anything but Work" (1950)
"I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" / "All to Myself" (1951)
"Lonely Boy" / "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951)
"Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" reached No. 5 on the U.S. R&B charts.
"I'm Glad for Your Sake" / "Kissa Me Baby" (1952)
"Kissa Me Baby" reached No. 8 on the U.S. R&B charts.
"Baby Won't You Please Come Home" / "Hey Now" (1952)
"Baby Let Me Hear You Call My Name" / "Guitar Blues" (B-side by Rufus Beacham Orchestra) (1952)
"I Can't Do No More" / "Roly Poly" (a.k.a. "Back Home") (B-side by Rufus Beacham Orchestra) (1952)
"Walkin' and Talkin' to Myself" / "I'm Wonderin' and Wonderin'" (1952)
"Misery in My Heart" / "The Snow Is Falling (Snowfall)" (1953)
Atlantic releases
The list of singles below are songs Ray Charles released while on the Atlantic label between 1952 and 1980.
ABC releases
This list below is of songs Ray Charles released on the ABC-Paramount, ABC, and subsidiary Impulse and Tangerine/TRC labels from 1960 to 1973.
A^ Through a period between November 1963 and January 1965, Billboard Magazine did not publish an R&B singles chart. Positions shown are from the Cashbox RnB Charts during this period.
CrossOver releases
This list below is of songs Ray Charles released while on the CrossOver label from 1973 to 1976.
Columbia releases (all country music)
Listed below are songs Ray Charles released during his Columbia Records tenure which was spent on the country singles chart.
Other releases
Listed below are songs Ray Charles issued on various labels where the pop and R&B charts are concerned.
Billboard Year-end performances
Video performances
References
External links
Album Discography at RayCharles.com
Ray Charles Discography at AllMusic.
Robert Christgau reviews of several Charles albums
Ray Charles lyrics at Yahoo! Music
Atlantic Records discography at jazzdisco.org
ABC-Paramount Records discography at bsnpubs.com
Ray Charles discography at Discogs
Ray Charles discography at MusicBrainz |
Strong_Love_Affair | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Love_Affair | [
474
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Love_Affair#Track_listing"
] | Strong Love Affair is a 1996 album by Ray Charles released on Warner Bros. Records.
Track listing
"All She Wants to Do Is Love Me" – 4:15
"Say No More" – 4:19
"No Time to Waste Time" – 3:38
"Angelina" – 4:06
"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do" (Ray Charles) – 5:21
"Strong Love Affair" – 4:08
"Everybody's Handsome Child" – 3:56
"Out of My Life" – 4:25
"The Fever" – 3:46
"Separate Ways" – 4:07
"I Need a Good Woman Bad" – 4:59
"If You Give Me Your Heart" – 4:27
== References == |
Hannah_Arendt | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt | [
475
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt"
] | Hannah Arendt (, US also ; German: [ˌhana ˈaːʁənt] ; born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of wealth, power and evil, as well as politics, direct democracy, authority, tradition and totalitarianism. She is also remembered for the controversy surrounding the trial of Adolf Eichmann, for her attempt to explain how ordinary people become actors in totalitarian systems, which was considered by some an apologia, and for the phrase "the banality of evil." Her name appears in the names of journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks, and streets; appears on stamps and monuments; and is attached to other cultural and institutional markers that commemorate her thought.
Hannah Arendt was born to a Jewish family in Linden (now a district of Hanover, Germany) in 1906. When she was three, her family moved to the East Prussian capital of Königsberg for her father's health care. Paul Arendt had contracted syphilis in his youth but was thought to be in remission when Arendt was born. He died when she was seven. Arendt was raised in a politically progressive, secular family, her mother being an ardent Social Democrat. After completing secondary education in Berlin, Arendt studied at the University of Marburg under Martin Heidegger, with whom she engaged in a romantic affair that began while she was his student. She obtained her doctorate in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg in 1929. Her dissertation was titled Love and Saint Augustine, and her supervisor was the existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers.
Hannah Arendt married Günther Stern in 1929 but soon began to encounter increasing antisemitism in the 1930s Nazi Germany. In 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, Arendt was arrested and briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo for performing illegal research into antisemitism. On release, she fled Germany, living in Czechoslovakia and Switzerland before settling in Paris. There she worked for Youth Aliyah, assisting young Jews to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine. She was stripped of her German citizenship in 1937. Divorcing Stern that year, she then married Heinrich Blücher in 1940. When Germany invaded France that year she was detained by the French as an alien. She escaped and made her way to the United States in 1941 via Portugal. She settled in New York, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life. She became a writer and editor and worked for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, becoming an American citizen in 1950. With the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, her reputation as a thinker and writer was established, and a series of works followed. These included the books The Human Condition in 1958, as well as Eichmann in Jerusalem and On Revolution in 1963. She taught at many American universities while declining tenure-track appointments. She died suddenly of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 69, leaving her last work, The Life of the Mind, unfinished.
Early life and education (1906–1929)
Family
Hannah Arendt was born Johanna Arendt in 1906, in the Wilhelmine period. Her secular and educated Jewish family lived comfortably in Linden, Prussia (now a part of Hanover). They were merchants of Russian extraction from Königsberg. Her grandparents were members of the Reform Jewish community. Her paternal grandfather, Max Arendt, was a prominent businessman, local politician, and leader of the Königsberg Jewish community, a member of the Central Organization for German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens). Like other members of the Centralverein he primarily saw himself as German, disapproving of Zionist activities including Kurt Blumenfeld, a frequent visitor and later one of Hannah's mentors. Her lifelong best-friend, Anne Mendehlsohn, was likewise connected to a dynasty of philosophers and musicians. Of Max Arendt's children, Paul Arendt was an engineer and Henriette Arendt a policewoman and social worker.
Hannah was the only child of Paul and Martha Arendt (née Cohn), who were married on 11 April 1902. She was named after her paternal grandmother. The Cohns had originally come to Königsberg from nearby Russian territory of Lithuania in 1852, as refugees from antisemitism, and made their living as tea importers, J. N. Cohn & Company being the largest business in the city. The Arendts reached Germany from Russia a century earlier. Hannah's extended family contained many more women, who shared the loss of husbands and children. Hannah's parents were more educated and politically more to the left than her grandparents. The young couple were Social Democrats, rather than the German Democrats that most of their contemporaries supported. Paul Arendt was educated at the Albertina (University of Königsberg). Though he worked as an engineer, he prided himself on his love of Classics, with a large library that Hannah immersed herself in. Martha Cohn, a musician, had studied for three years in Paris.
In the first four years of their marriage, the Arendts lived in Berlin, and were supporters of the socialist journal Socialist Monthly Bulletins (Sozialistische Monatshefte). At the time of Hannah's birth, Paul Arendt was employed by an electrical engineering firm in Linden, and they lived in a frame house on the market square (Marktplatz). They moved back to Königsberg in 1909 because of Paul's deteriorating health. He suffered from chronic syphilis and was institutionalized in the Königsberg psychiatric hospital in 1911. For years afterward, Hannah had to have annual WR tests for congenital syphilis. He died on 30 October 1913, when Hannah was seven, leaving her mother to raise her. They lived at Hannah's grandfather's house at Tiergartenstraße 6, a leafy residential street adjacent to the Königsberg Tiergarten, in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Hufen. Although Hannah's parents were non-religious, they were happy to allow Max Arendt to take Hannah to the Reform synagogue. She also received religious instruction from the rabbi, Hermann Vogelstein, who would come to her school for that purpose. Her family moved in circles that included many intellectuals and professionals. It was a social circle of high standards and ideals. As she recalled it:
My early intellectual formation occurred in an atmosphere where nobody paid much attention to moral questions; we were brought up under the assumption: Das Moralische versteht sich von selbst, moral conduct is a matter of course.
This time was a particularly favorable period for the Jewish community in Königsberg, an important center of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment). Arendt's family was thoroughly assimilated ("Germanized") and she later remembered: "With us from Germany, the word 'assimilation' received a 'deep' philosophical meaning. You can hardly realize how serious we were about it." Despite these conditions, the Jewish population lacked full citizenship rights, and although antisemitism was not overt, it was not absent. Arendt came to define her Jewish identity negatively after encountering overt antisemitism as an adult. She came to greatly identify with Rahel Varnhagen, the Prussian socialite who desperately wanted to assimilate into German culture, only to be rejected because she was born Jewish. Arendt later said of Varnhagen that she was "my very closest woman friend, unfortunately dead a hundred years now."
In the last two years of the First World War, Hannah's mother organized social democratic discussion groups and became a follower of Rosa Luxemburg as socialist uprisings broke out across Germany. Luxemburg's writings would later influence Hannah's political thinking. In 1920, Martha Cohn married Martin Beerwald, an ironmonger and widower of four years, and they moved to his home, two blocks away, at Busoldstrasse 6, providing Hannah with improved social and financial security. Hannah was 14 at the time and acquired two older stepsisters, Clara and Eva.
Education
Early education
Hannah Arendt's mother, who considered herself progressive, brought her daughter up on strict Goethean lines. Among other things this involved the reading of Goethe's complete works, summed up as Was aber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages (And just what is your duty? The demands of the day). Goethe, was then considered the essential mentor of Bildung (education), the conscious formation of mind, body and spirit. The key elements were considered to be self-discipline, constructive channeling of passion, renunciation and responsibility for others. Hannah's developmental progress (Entwicklung) was carefully documented by her mother in a book, she called Unser Kind (Our Child), measuring her against the benchmark of what was then considered normale Entwicklung ("normal development").
Arendt attended kindergarten from 1910 where her precocity impressed her teachers and enrolled in the Szittnich School, Königsberg (Hufen-Oberlyzeum), on Bahnstraße in August 1913, but her studies there were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, forcing the family to temporarily flee to Berlin on 23 August 1914, in the face of the advancing Russian army. There they stayed with her mother's younger sister, Margarethe Fürst, and her three children, while Hannah attended a girl's Lyzeum school in Berlin-Charlottenburg. After ten weeks, when Königsberg appeared to be no longer threatened, the Arendts were able to return, where they spent the remaining war years at her grandfather's house. Arendt's precocity continued, learning ancient Greek as a child, writing poetry in her teenage years, and starting both a Graecae (reading group for studying classical literature) and philosophy club at her school. She was fiercely independent in her schooling and a voracious reader, absorbing French and German literature and poetry (committing large amounts to heart) and philosophy. By the age of 14, she had read Kierkegaard, Jaspers' Psychologie der Weltanschauungen and Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason). Kant, whose hometown was also Königsberg, was an important influence on her thinking, and it was Kant who had written about Königsberg that "such a town is the right place for gaining knowledge concerning men and the world even without travelling".
Arendt attended the Königin-Luise-Schule for her secondary education, a girls' Gymnasium on Landhofmeisterstraße. Most of her friends, while at school, were gifted children of Jewish professional families, generally older than her, and went on to university education. Among them was Ernst Grumach, who introduced her to his girlfriend, Anne Mendelssohn, who would become a lifelong friend. When Anne moved away, Ernst became Arendt's first romantic relationship.
Higher education (1922–1929)
Berlin (1922–1924)
Arendt was expelled from the Luise-Schule in 1922, at the age of 15, for leading a boycott of a teacher who insulted her. Her mother sent her to Berlin to Social Democrat family friends. She lived in a student residence and audited courses at the University of Berlin (1922–1923), including classics and Christian theology under Romano Guardini. She successfully sat the entrance examination (Abitur) for the University of Marburg, where Ernst Grumach had studied with Martin Heidegger (appointed as a professor in 1923). Her mother had engaged a private tutor, and her aunt Frieda Arendt, a teacher, also helped, while Frieda's husband Ernst Aron provided financial tuition assistance.
Marburg (1924–1926)
In Berlin, Guardini had introduced her to Kierkegaard, and she resolved to make theology her major field. At Marburg (1924–1926) she studied classical languages, German literature, Protestant theology with Rudolf Bultmann and philosophy with Nicolai Hartmann and Heidegger. She arrived in the fall in the middle of an intellectual revolution led by the young Heidegger, of whom she was in awe, describing him as "the hidden king [who] reigned in the realm of thinking".
Heidegger had broken away from the intellectual movement started by Edmund Husserl, whose assistant he had been at University of Freiburg before coming to Marburg. This was a period when Heidegger was preparing his lectures on Kant, which he would develop in the second part of his Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) in 1927 and Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik (1929). In his classes, he and his students struggled with the meaning of "Being" as they studied Aristotle's and Plato's Sophist concept of truth, to which Heidegger opposed the pre-Socratic term ἀλήθεια. Many years later Arendt would describe these classes, how people came to Marburg to hear him, and how, above all he imparted the idea of Denken ("thinking") as activity, which she qualified as "passionate thinking".
Arendt was restless, finding her studies neither emotionally nor intellectually satisfying. She was ready for passion, finishing her poem Trost (Consolation, 1923) with the lines:
Die Stunden verrinnen,Die Tage vergehen,Es bleibt ein GewinnenDas bloße Bestehen.
(The hours run down.The days pass on.One achievement remains:merely being alive.)
Her encounter with Heidegger represented a dramatic departure from the past. He was handsome, a genius, romantic, and taught that thinking and "aliveness" were but one. The 18-year-old Arendt then began a long romantic relationship with the 35-year-old Heidegger, who was married with two young sons. Arendt later faced criticism for this because of Heidegger's support for the Nazi Party after his election as rector at Freiburg University in 1933. Nevertheless, he remained one of the most profound influences on her thinking, and he would later relate that she had been the inspiration for his work on passionate thinking in those days. They agreed to keep the details of the relationship a secret while preserving their letters. The relationship was unknown until Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's biography of Arendt appeared in 1982. At the time of publishing, Arendt and Heidegger were deceased but Heidegger's wife, Elfride, was still alive. The affair was not well known until 1995, when Elzbieta Ettinger gained access to the sealed correspondence and published a controversial account that was used by Arendt's detractors to cast doubt on her integrity. That account, which caused a scandal, was subsequently refuted.
At Marburg, Arendt lived at Lutherstraße 4. Among her friends was Hans Jonas, a Jewish classmate. Another fellow student of Heidegger's was Jonas' friend, the Jewish philosopher Günther Siegmund Stern, who would later become her first husband. Stern had completed his doctoral dissertation with Edmund Husserl at Freiburg, and was now working on his Habilitation thesis with Heidegger, but Arendt, involved with Heidegger, took little notice of him at the time.
Die Schatten (1925)
In the summer of 1925, while home at Königsberg, Arendt composed her sole autobiographical piece, Die Schatten (The Shadows), a "description of herself" addressed to Heidegger. In this essay, full of anguish and Heideggerian language, she reveals her insecurities relating to her femininity and Jewishness, writing abstractly in the third person. She describes a state of "Fremdheit" (alienation), on the one hand an abrupt loss of youth and innocence, on the other an "Absonderlichkeit" (strangeness), the finding of the remarkable in the banal. In her detailing of the pain of her childhood and longing for protection she shows her vulnerabilities and how her love for Heidegger had released her and once again filled her world with color and mystery. She refers to her relationship with Heidegger as "Eine starre Hingegebenheit an ein Einziges" ("an unbending devotion to a unique man"). This period of intense introspection was also one of the most productive of her poetic output, such as In sich versunken (Lost in Self-Contemplation).
Freiburg and Heidelberg (1926–1929)
After a year at Marburg, Arendt spent a semester at Freiburg, attending the lectures of Husserl. In 1926 she moved to the University of Heidelberg, completing her dissertation in 1929 under Karl Jaspers. Jaspers, a friend of Heidegger, was the other leading figure of the then-new and revolutionary Existenzphilosophie. Her thesis was titled Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin: Versuch einer philosophischen Interpretation (On the concept of love in the thought of Saint Augustine: Attempt at a philosophical interpretation). She remained a lifelong friend of Jaspers and his wife, Gertrud Mayer, developing a deep intellectual relationship with him. At Heidelberg, her circle of friends included Hans Jonas, who had also moved from Marburg to study Augustine, working on his Augustin und das paulinische Freiheitsproblem. Ein philosophischer Beitrag zur Genesis der christlich-abendländischen Freiheitsidee (1930), and also a group of three young philosophers: Karl Frankenstein, Erich Neumann and Erwin Loewenson. Other friends and students of Jaspers were the linguists Benno von Wiese and Hugo Friedrich (seen with Hannah, below), with whom she attended lectures by Friedrich Gundolf at Jaspers' suggestion and who kindled in her an interest in German Romanticism. She also became reacquainted, at a lecture, with Kurt Blumenfeld, who introduced her to Jewish politics. At Heidelberg, she lived in the old town (Altstadt) near the castle, at Schlossberg 16. The house was demolished in the 1960s, but the one remaining wall bears a plaque commemorating her time there.
On completing her dissertation, Arendt turned to her Habilitationsschrift, initially on German Romanticism, and thereafter an academic teaching career. However 1929 was also the year of the Depression and the end of the golden years (Goldene Zwanziger) of the Weimar Republic, which was to become increasingly unstable over its remaining four years. Arendt, as a Jew, had little if any chance of obtaining an academic appointment in Germany. Nevertheless, she completed most of the work before she was forced to leave Germany.
Career
Germany (1929–1933)
Berlin-Potsdam (1929)
In 1929, Arendt met Günther Stern again, this time in Berlin at a New Year's masked ball, and began a relationship with him. Within a month she had moved in with him in a one-room studio, shared with a dancing school in Berlin-Halensee. Then they moved to Merkurstraße 3, Nowawes, in Potsdam and were married there on 26 September. They had much in common and the marriage was welcomed by both sets of parents. In the summer, Hannah Arendt successfully applied to the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft for a grant to support her Habilitation, which was supported by Heidegger and Jaspers among others, and in the meantime, with Günther's help was working on revisions to get her dissertation published.
Wanderjahre (1929–1931)
After Arendt and Stern were married, they began two years of what Christian Dries refers to as the Wanderjahre (years of wandering) with the ultimately fruitless aim of having Stern accepted for an academic appointment. They lived for a while in Drewitz, a southern neighborhood of Potsdam, before moving to Heidelberg, where they lived with the Jaspers. After Heidelberg, where Stern completed the first draft of his Habilitation thesis, the two then moved to Frankfurt where Stern hoped to finish his writing. There, Arendt participated in the university's intellectual life, attending lectures by Karl Mannheim and Paul Tillich, among others. The couple collaborated intellectually, writing an article together on Rilke's Duino Elegies (1923) and both reviewing Mannheim's Ideologie und Utopie (1929). The latter was Arendt's sole contribution to sociology. In both her treatment of Mannheim and Rilke, Arendt found love to be a transcendent principle "Because there is no true transcendence in this ordered world, one also cannot exceed the world, but only succeed to higher ranks". In Rilke she saw a latter day secular Augustine, describing the Elegies as the letzten literarischen Form religiösen Dokumentes (ultimate form of religious document). Later, she would discover the limitations of transcendent love in explaining the historical events that pushed her into political action. Another theme from Rilke that she would develop was the despair of not being heard. Reflecting on Rilke's opening lines, which she placed as an epigram at the beginning of their essay
Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?
(Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic orders?)
Arendt and Stern begin by stating:
The paradoxical, ambiguous, and desperate situation from which standpoint the Duino Elegies may alone be understood has two characteristics: the absence of an echo and the knowledge of futility. The conscious renunciation of the demand to be heard, the despair at not being able to be heard, and finally the need to speak even without an answer–these are the real reasons for the darkness, asperity, and tension of the style in which poetry indicates its own possibilities and its will to form
Arendt also published an article on Augustine (354–430) in the Frankfurter Zeitung to mark the 1500th anniversary of his death. She saw this article as forming a bridge between her treatment of Augustine in her dissertation and her subsequent work on Romanticism. When it became evident Stern would not succeed in obtaining an appointment, the Sterns returned to Berlin in 1931.
Return to Berlin (1931–1933)
In Berlin, where the couple initially lived in the predominantly Jewish area of Bayerisches Viertel (Bavarian Quarter or "Jewish Switzerland") in Schöneberg, Stern obtained a position as a staff-writer for the cultural supplement of the Berliner Börsen-Courier, edited by Herbert Ihering, with the help of Bertold Brecht. There he started writing using the pen name Günther Anders, i.e. "Günther Other". Arendt assisted Günther with his work, but the shadow of Heidegger hung over their relationship. While Günther was working on his Habilitationsschrift, Arendt had abandoned the original subject of German Romanticism for her thesis in 1930, and turned instead to Rahel Varnhagen and the question of assimilation. Anne Mendelssohn had accidentally acquired a copy of Varnhagen's correspondence and excitedly introduced her to Arendt, donating her collection to her. A little later, Arendt's work on Romanticism led her to a study of Jewish salons and eventually to those of Varnhagen. In Rahel, she found qualities she felt reflected her own, particularly those of sensibility and vulnerability. Rahel, like Hannah, found her destiny in her Jewishness. Hannah Arendt would come to call Rahel Varnhagen's discovery of living with her destiny as being a "conscious pariah". This was a personal trait that Arendt had recognized in herself, although she did not embrace the term until later.
Back in Berlin, Arendt found herself becoming more involved in politics and started studying political theory, and reading Marx and Trotsky, while developing contacts at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik. Despite the political leanings of her mother and husband she never saw herself as a political leftist, justifying her activism as being through her Jewishness. Her increasing interest in Jewish politics and her examination of assimilation in her study of Varnhagen led her to publish her first article on Judaism, Aufklärung und Judenfrage ("The Enlightenment and the Jewish Question", 1932). Blumenfeld had introduced her to the "Jewish question", which would be his lifelong concern. Meanwhile, her views on German Romanticism were evolving. She wrote a review of Hans Weil's Die Entstehung des deutschen Bildungsprinzips (The Origin of German Educational Principle, 1930), which dealt with the emergence of Bildungselite (educational elite) in the time of Rahel Varnhagen. At the same time she began to be occupied by Max Weber's description of the status of Jewish people within a state as Pariavolk (pariah people) in his Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (1922), while borrowing Bernard Lazare's term paria conscient (conscious pariah) with which she identified. In both these articles she advanced the views of Johann Herder. Another interest of hers at the time was the status of women, resulting in her 1932 review of Alice Rühle-Gerstel's book Das Frauenproblem in der Gegenwart. Eine psychologische Bilanz (Contemporary Women's Issues: A psychological balance sheet). Although not a supporter of the women's movement, the review was sympathetic. At least in terms of the status of women at that time, she was skeptical of the movement's ability to achieve political change. She was also critical of the movement, because it was a women's movement, rather than contributing with men to a political movement, and abstract rather than striving for concrete goals. In this manner she echoed Rosa Luxemburg. Like Luxemburg, she would later criticize Jewish movements for the same reason. Arendt consistently prioritized political over social questions.
By 1932, faced with a deteriorating political situation, Arendt was deeply troubled by reports that Heidegger was speaking at National Socialist meetings. She wrote, asking him to deny that he was attracted to National Socialism. Heidegger replied that he did not seek to deny the rumors (which were true), and merely assured her that his feelings for her were unchanged. As a Jew in Nazi Germany, Arendt was prevented from making a living and discriminated against and confided to Anne Mendelssohn that emigration was probably inevitable. Jaspers had tried to persuade her to consider herself as a German first, a position she distanced herself from, pointing out that she was a Jew and that "Für mich ist Deutschland die Muttersprache, die Philosophie und die Dichtung" (For me, Germany is the mother tongue, philosophy and poetry), rather than her identity. This position puzzled Jaspers, replying "It is strange to me that as a Jew you want to be different from the Germans".
By 1933, life for the Jewish population in Germany was becoming precarious. Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler (Chancellor) in January, and the Reichstag was burned down (Reichstagsbrand) the following month. This led to the suspension of civil liberties, with attacks on the left, and, in particular, members of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (German Communist Party: KPD). Stern, who had communist associations, fled to Paris, but Arendt stayed on to become an activist. Knowing her time was limited, she used the apartment at Opitzstraße 6 in Berlin-Steglitz that she had occupied with Stern since 1932 as an underground railway way-station for fugitives. Her rescue operation there is now recognized with a plaque on the wall.
Arendt had already positioned herself as a critic of the rising Nazi Party in 1932 by publishing "Adam-Müller-Renaissance?" a critique of the appropriation of the life of Adam Müller to support right wing ideology. The beginnings of anti-Jewish laws and boycott came in the spring of 1933. Confronted with systemic antisemitism, Arendt adopted the motiv "If one is attacked as a Jew one must defend oneself as a Jew. Not as a German, not as a world citizen, not as an upholder of the Rights of Man." This was Arendt's introduction of the concept of Jew as Pariah that would occupy her for the rest of her life in her Jewish writings. She took a public position by publishing part of her largely completed biography of Rahel Varnhagen as "Originale Assimilation: Ein Nachwort zu Rahel Varnhagen 100 Todestag" ("Original Assimilation: An Epilogue to the One Hundredth Anniversary of Rahel Varnhagen's Death") in the Kölnische Zeitung on 7 March 1933 and a little later also in Jüdische Rundschau. In the article she argues that the age of assimilation that began with Varnhagen's generation had come to an end with an official state policy of antisemitism. She opened with the declaration:
Today in Germany it seems Jewish assimilation must declare its bankruptcy. The general social antisemitism and its official legitimation affects in the first instance assimilated Jews, who can no longer protect themselves through baptism or by emphasizing their differences from Eastern Judaism.
As a Jew, Arendt was anxious to inform the world of what was happening to her people in 1930–1933. She surrounded herself with Zionist activists, including Kurt Blumenfeld, Martin Buber and Salman Schocken, and started to research antisemitism. Arendt had access to the Prussian State Library for her work on Varnhagen. Blumenfeld's Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland (Zionist Federation of Germany) persuaded her to use this access to obtain evidence of the extent of antisemitism, for a planned speech to the Zionist Congress in Prague. This research was illegal at the time. Her actions led to her being denounced by a librarian for anti-state propaganda, resulting in the arrest of both Arendt and her mother by the Gestapo. They served eight days in prison but her notebooks were in code and could not be deciphered, and she was released by a young, sympathetic arresting officer to await trial.
Exile: France (1933–1941)
Paris (1933–1940)
On release, realizing the danger she was now in, Arendt and her mother fled Germany following the established escape route over the Ore Mountains by night into Czechoslovakia and on to Prague and then by train to Geneva. In Geneva, she made a conscious decision to commit herself to "the Jewish cause". She obtained work with a friend of her mother's at the League of Nations' Jewish Agency for Palestine, distributing visas and writing speeches.
From Geneva the Arendts traveled to Paris in the autumn, where she was reunited with Stern, joining a stream of refugees. While Arendt had left Germany without papers, her mother had travel documents and returned to Königsberg and her husband. In Paris, she befriended Stern's cousin, the Marxist literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin and also the Jewish French philosopher Raymond Aron.
Arendt was now an émigrée, an exile, stateless, without papers, and had turned her back on the Germany and Germans of the Nazizeit. Her legal status was precarious and she was coping with a foreign language and culture, all of which took its toll on her mentally and physically. In 1934 she started working for the Zionist-funded outreach program Agriculture et Artisanat, giving lectures and organizing clothing, documents, medications and education for Jewish youth seeking to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine, mainly as agricultural workers. Initially she was employed as a secretary, and then office manager. To improve her skills she studied French, Hebrew and Yiddish. In this way she was able to support herself and her husband. When the organization closed in 1935, her work for Blumenfeld and the Zionists in Germany brought her into contact with the wealthy philanthropist Baroness Germaine Alice de Rothschild (born Halphen, 1884–1975), wife of Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild, becoming her assistant. In this position she oversaw the baroness' contributions to Jewish charities through the Paris Consistoire, although she had little time for the family as a whole.
Later in 1935, Arendt joined Youth Aliyah (Youth immigration), an organization similar to Agriculture et Artisanat that was founded in Berlin on the day Hitler seized power. It was affiliated with Hadassah, which later saved many from the Holocaust, and there Arendt eventually became Secretary-General (1935–1939). Her work with Youth Aliyah also involved finding food, clothing, social workers and lawyers, but above all, fund raising. She made her first visit to British Mandate of Palestine in 1935, accompanying one of these groups and meeting with her cousin Ernst Fürst there. With the Nazi annexation of Austria and invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Paris was flooded with refugees, and she became the special agent for the rescue of the children from those countries. In 1938, Arendt completed her biography of Rahel Varnhagen, although this was not published until 1957. In April 1939, following the devastating Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938, Martha Beerwald realized her daughter would not return and made the decision to leave her husband and join Arendt in Paris. One stepdaughter had died and the other had moved to England, Martin Beerwald would not leave and she no longer had any close ties to Königsberg.
Heinrich Blücher
In 1936, Arendt met the self-educated Berlin poet and Marxist philosopher Heinrich Blücher in Paris. Blücher had been a Spartacist and then a founding member of the KPD, but had been expelled due to his work in the Versöhnler (Conciliator faction). Although Arendt had rejoined Stern in 1933, their marriage existed in name only, with their having separated in Berlin. She fulfilled her social obligations and used the name Hannah Stern, but the relationship effectively ended when Stern, perhaps recognizing the danger better than she, emigrated to America with his parents in 1936. In 1937, Arendt was stripped of her German citizenship and she and Stern divorced. She had begun seeing more of Blücher, and eventually they began living together. It was Blücher's long political activism that began to move Arendt's thinking towards political action. Arendt and Blücher married on 16 January 1940, shortly after their divorces were finalized.
Internment and escape (1940–1941)
On 5 May 1940, in anticipation of the German invasion of France and the Low Countries that month, the military governor of Paris issued a proclamation ordering all "enemy aliens" between 17 and 55 who had come from Germany (predominantly Jews) to report separately for internment. The women were gathered together in the Vélodrome d'Hiver on 15 May, so Hannah Arendt's mother, being over 55, was allowed to stay in Paris. Arendt described the process of making refugees as "the new type of human being created by contemporary history ... put into concentration camps by their foes and into internment camps by their friends". The men, including Blücher, were sent to Camp Vernet in southern France, close to the Spanish border. Arendt and the other women were sent to Camp Gurs, to the west of Gurs, a week later. The camp had earlier been set up to accommodate refugees from Spain. On 22 June, France capitulated and signed the Compiègne armistice, dividing the country. Gurs was in the southern Vichy controlled section. Arendt describes how, "in the resulting chaos we succeeded in getting hold of liberation papers with which we were able to leave the camp", which she did with about 200 of the 7,000 women held there, about four weeks later. There was no Résistance then, but she managed to walk and hitchhike north to Montauban, near Toulouse where she knew she would find help.
Montauban had become an unofficial capital for former detainees, and Arendt's friend Lotta Sempell Klembort was staying there. Blücher's camp had been evacuated in the wake of the German advance, and he managed to escape from a forced march, making his way to Montauban, where the two of them led a fugitive life. Soon they were joined by Anne Mendelssohn and Arendt's mother. Escape from France was extremely difficult without official papers; their friend Walter Benjamin had taken his own life after being apprehended trying to escape to Spain. One of the best-known illegal routes operated out of Marseilles, where Varian Fry, an American journalist, worked to raise funds, forge papers and bribe officials with Hiram Bingham, the American vice-consul there.
Fry and Bingham secured exit papers and American visas for thousands, and with help from Günther Stern, Arendt, her husband, and her mother managed to secure the requisite permits to travel by train in January 1941 through Spain to Lisbon, Portugal, where they rented a flat at Rua da Sociedade Farmacêutica, 6b. They eventually secured passage to New York in May on the Companhia Colonial de Navegação's S/S Guiné II. A few months later, Fry's operations were shut down and the borders sealed.
New York (1941–1975)
World War II (1941–1945)
Upon arriving in New York City on 22 May 1941 with very little, Hannah's family received assistance from the Zionist Organization of America and the local German immigrant population, including Paul Tillich and neighbors from Königsberg. They rented rooms at 317 West 95th Street and Martha Arendt joined them there in June. There was an urgent need to acquire English, and it was decided that Hannah Arendt should spend two months with an American family in Winchester, Massachusetts, through Self-Help for Refugees, in July. She found the experience difficult but formulated her early appraisal of American life, Der Grundwiderspruch des Landes ist politische Freiheit bei gesellschaftlicher Knechtschaft (The fundamental contradiction of the country is political freedom coupled with social slavery).
On returning to New York, Arendt was anxious to resume writing and became active in the German-Jewish community, publishing her first article, "From the Dreyfus Affair to France Today" (in translation from her German) in July 1941. While she was working on this article, she was looking for employment and in November 1941 was hired by the New York German-language Jewish newspaper Aufbau and from 1941 to 1945, she wrote a political column for it, covering antisemitism, refugees and the need for a Jewish army. She also contributed to the Menorah Journal, a Jewish-American magazine, and other German émigré publications.
Arendt's first full-time salaried job came in 1944, when she became the director of research and executive director for the newly emerging Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, a project of the Conference on Jewish Relations. She was recruited "because of her great interest in the Commission's activities, her previous experience as an administrator, and her connections with Germany". There she compiled lists of Jewish cultural assets in Germany and Nazi occupied Europe, to aid in their recovery after the war. Together with her husband, she lived at 370 Riverside Drive in New York City and at Kingston, New York, where Blücher taught at nearby Bard College for many years.
Post-war (1945–1975)
In July 1946, Arendt left her position at the Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction to become an editor at Schocken Books, which later published some of her works. In 1948, she became engaged with the campaign of Judah Magnes for a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She famously opposed the establishment of a Jewish nation-state in Palestine and initially also opposed the establishment of a binational Arab-Jewish state. Instead, she advocated for the inclusion of Palestine into a multi-ethnic federation. Only in 1948 in an effort to forestall partition did she support a binational one-state solution. She returned to the Commission in August 1949. In her capacity as executive secretary, she traveled to Europe, where she worked in Germany, Britain and France (December 1949 to March 1950) to negotiate the return of archival material from German institutions, an experience she found frustrating, but provided regular field reports. In January 1952, she became secretary to the Board, although the work of the organization was winding down and she was simultaneously pursuing her own intellectual activities; she retained this position until her death. Arendt's work on cultural restitution provided further material for her study of totalitarianism.
In the 1950s Arendt wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), The Human Condition (1958) followed by On Revolution (1963). Arendt began corresponding with the American author Mary McCarthy, six years her junior, in 1950 and they soon became lifelong friends. In 1950, Arendt also became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The same year, she started seeing Martin Heidegger again, and had what the American writer Adam Kirsch called a "quasi-romance", lasting for two years, with the man who had previously been her mentor, teacher, and lover. During this time, Arendt defended him against critics who noted his enthusiastic membership in the Nazi Party. She portrayed Heidegger as a naïve man swept up by forces beyond his control, and pointed out that Heidegger's philosophy had nothing to do with National Socialism. She suspected that loyal followers of Horkheimer and Adorno in Frankfurt were plotting against Heidegger. For Adorno she had a real aversion: "Half a Jew and one of the most repugnant men I know". According to Arendt, the Frankfurt School was willing, and quite capable of doing so, to destroy Heidegger: "For years they have branded anti-Semitism on anyone in Germany who opposes them, or have threatened to raise such an accusation".
In 1961 she traveled to Jerusalem to report on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker. This report strongly influenced her popular recognition, and raised much controversy (see below). Her work was recognized by many awards, including the Danish Sonning Prize in 1975 for Contributions to European Civilization.
A few years later she spoke in New York City on the legitimacy of violence as a political act: "Generally speaking, violence always rises out of impotence. It is the hope of those who have no power to find a substitute for it and this hope, I think, is in vain. Violence can destroy power, but it can never replace it."
Teaching
Arendt taught at many institutions of higher learning from 1951 onwards, but, preserving her independence, consistently refused tenure-track positions. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University (where she was the first woman to be appointed a full professor in 1959) and Northwestern University. She also taught at the University of Chicago from 1963 to 1967, where she was a member of the Committee on Social Thought, Yale University, where she was a fellow and the Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University (1961–62, 1962–63). From 1967 she was a professor at the New School for Social research in Manhattan, New York City.
She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962 and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1964. In 1974, Arendt was instrumental in the creation of Structured Liberal Education (SLE) at Stanford University. She wrote a letter to the president of Stanford to persuade the university to enact Stanford history professor Mark Mancall's vision of a residentially-based humanities program. At the time of her death, she was University Professor of Political Philosophy at The New School.
Relationships
In addition to her affair with Heidegger, and her two marriages, Arendt had close friendships. Since her death, her correspondence with many of them has been published, revealing much information about her thinking. To her friends she was both loyal and generous, dedicating several of her works to them. Freundschaft (friendship) she described as being one of "tätigen Modi des Lebendigseins" (the active modes of being alive), and, to her, friendship was central both to her life and to the concept of politics. Hans Jonas described her as having a "genius for friendship", and, in her own words, "der Eros der Freundschaft" (love of friendship).
Her philosophy-based friendships were male and European, while her later American friendships were more diverse, literary, and political. Although she became an American citizen in 1950, her cultural roots remained European, and her language remained her German "Muttersprache" (mother tongue). She surrounded herself with German-speaking émigrés, sometimes referred to as "The Tribe". To her, wirkliche Menschen (real people) were "pariahs", not in the sense of outcasts, but in the sense of outsiders, unassimilated, with the virtue of "social nonconformism ... the sine qua non of intellectual achievement", a sentiment she shared with Jaspers.
Arendt always had a beste Freundin (best friend [female]). In her teens she had formed a lifelong relationship with her Jugendfreundin, Anne Mendelssohn Weil ("Ännchen"). After she emigrated to America, Hilde Fränkel, Paul Tillich's secretary and mistress, filled that role until the latter died in 1950. After the war, Arendt was able to return to Germany and renew her relationship with Weil, who made several visits to New York, especially after Blücher's death in 1970. Their last meeting was in Tegna, Switzerland in 1975, shortly before Arendt's death. With Fränkel's death, Mary McCarthy became Arendt's closest friend and confidante.
Final illness and death
Heinrich Blücher had survived a cerebral aneurysm in 1961 and remained unwell after 1963, sustaining a series of heart attacks. On 31 October 1970, he died of a massive heart attack. A devastated Arendt had previously told Mary McCarthy, "Life without him would be unthinkable". Arendt was also a heavy smoker and was frequently depicted with a cigarette in her hand. She sustained a near-fatal heart attack while lecturing in Scotland in May 1974, and although she recovered, she remained in poor health afterward and continued to smoke. On the evening of 4 December 1975, shortly after her 69th birthday, she had a further heart attack in her apartment while entertaining friends, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her ashes were buried alongside those of Blücher at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in May 1976.
After Arendt's death the title page of the final part of The Life of the Mind ("Judging") was found in her typewriter, which she had just started, consisting of the title and two epigraphs. This has subsequently been reproduced in the edited version of her Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy.(see image).
Work
Arendt wrote works on intellectual history as a political theorist, using events and actions to develop insights into contemporary totalitarian movements and the threat to human freedom presented by scientific abstraction and bourgeois morality. Intellectually, she was an independent thinker, a loner, not a "joiner," separating herself from schools of thought or ideology. In addition to her major texts she published anthologies, including Between Past and Future (1961), Men in Dark Times (1968) and Crises of the Republic (1972). She also contributed to many publications, including The New York Review of Books, Commonweal, Dissent and The New Yorker. She is perhaps best known for her accounts of Adolf Eichmann and his trial, because of the intense controversy that it generated.
Political theory and philosophical system
While Arendt never developed a systematic political theory and her writing does not easily lend itself to categorization, the tradition of thought most closely identified with Arendt is that of civic republicanism, from Aristotle to Tocqueville. Her political concept is centered around active citizenship that emphasizes civic engagement and collective deliberation. She believed that no matter how bad, government could never succeed in extinguishing human freedom, despite holding that modern societies frequently retreat from democratic freedom with its inherent disorder for the relative comfort of administrative bureaucracy. Some have claimed her political legacy is her strong defence of freedom in the face of an increasingly less than free world. She does not adhere to a single systematic philosophy, but rather spans a range of subjects covering totalitarianism, revolution, the nature of freedom and the faculties of thought and judgment.
While she is best known for her work on "dark times", the nature of totalitarianism and evil, she imbued this with a spark of hope and confidence in the nature of mankind:
That even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination might well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given to them. Men in Dark Times (1968)
Love and Saint Augustine (1929)
Arendt's doctoral thesis, Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin. Versuch einer philosophischen Interpretation (Love and Saint Augustine. Towards a philosophical interpretation), was published in 1929 and attracted critical interest, although an English translation did not appear until 1996. In this work she combined approaches of both Heidegger and Jaspers. Arendt's interpretation of love in the work of Augustine deals with three concepts, love as craving or desire (Amor qua appetitus), love in the relationship between man (creatura) and creator (Creator – Creatura), and neighborly love (Dilectio proximi). Love as craving anticipates the future, while love for the Creator deals with the remembered past. Of the three, dilectio proximi or caritas is perceived as the most fundamental, to which the first two are oriented, which she treats as vita socialis (social life) – the second of the Great Commandments (or Golden Rule) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" uniting and transcending the former. Augustine's influence (and Jaspers' views on his work) persisted in Arendt's writings for the rest of her life.
Some of the leitmotifs of her canon were apparent, introducing the concept of Natalität (Natality) as a key condition of human existence and its role in the development of the individual, developing this further in The Human Condition (1958). She explained that the construct of natality was implied in her discussion of new beginnings and man's elation to the Creator as nova creatura. The centrality of the theme of birth and renewal is apparent in the constant reference to Augustinian thought, and specifically the innovative nature of birth, from this, her first work, to her last, The Life of the Mind.
Love is another connecting theme. In addition to the Augustinian loves expostulated in her dissertation, the phrase amor mundi (love of the world) is one often associated with Arendt and both permeates her work and was an absorbing passion throughout her work. She took the phrase from Augustine's homily on the first epistle of St John, "If love of the world dwell in us". Amor mundi was her original title for The Human Condition (1958), the subtitle of Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's biography (1982), the title of a collection of writing on faith in her work and is the newsletter of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College.
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Arendt's first major book, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), examined the roots of Stalinism and Nazism, structured as three essays, "Antisemitism", "Imperialism" and "Totalitarianism". Arendt argues that totalitarianism was a "novel form of government," that "differs essentially from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship" in that it applied terror to subjugate mass populations rather than just political adversaries. Arendt also maintained that Jewry was not the operative factor in the Holocaust, but merely a convenient proxy because Nazism was about terror and consistency, not merely eradicating Jews. Arendt explained the tyranny using Kant's phrase "radical evil", by which their victims became "superfluous people". In later editions she enlarged the text to include her work on "Ideology and Terror: A novel form of government" and the Hungarian Revolution, but then published the latter separately.
Criticism of Origins has often focused on its portrayal of the two movements, Hitlerism and Stalinism, as equally tyrannical.
Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess (1957)
Arendt's Habilitationsschrift on Rahel Varnhagen was completed while she was living in exile in Paris in 1938, but not published till 1957, in the United Kingdom by East and West Library, part of the Leo Baeck Institute. This biography of a 19th-century Jewish socialite, formed an important step in her analysis of Jewish history and the subjects of assimilation and emancipation, and introduced her treatment of the Jewish diaspora as either pariah or parvenu. In addition it represents an early version of her concept of history. The book is dedicated to Anne Mendelssohn, who first drew her attention to Varnhagen. Arendt's relation to Varnhagen permeates her subsequent work. Her account of Varnhagen's life was perceived during a time of the destruction of German-Jewish culture. It partially reflects Arendt's own view of herself as a German-Jewish woman driven out of her own culture into a stateless existence, leading to the description "biography as autobiography".
The Human Condition (1958)
In what is arguably her most influential work, The Human Condition (1958), Arendt differentiates political and social concepts, labor and work, and various forms of actions; she then explores the implications of those distinctions. Her theory of political action, corresponding to the existence of a public realm, is extensively developed in this work. Arendt argues that, while human life always evolves within societies, the social part of human nature, political life, has been intentionally realized in only a few societies as a space for individuals to achieve freedom. Conceptual categories, which attempt to bridge the gap between ontological and sociological structures, are sharply delineated. While Arendt relegates labor and work to the realm of the social, she favors the human condition of action as that which is both existential and aesthetic. Of human actions, Arendt identifies two that she considers essential. These are forgiving past wrong (or unfixing the fixed past) and promising future benefit (or fixing the unfixed future).
Arendt had first introduced the concept of "natality" in her Love and Saint Augustine (1929) and in The Human Condition starts to develop this further. In this, she departs from Heidegger's emphasis on mortality. Arendt's positive message is one of the "miracle of beginning", the continual arrival of the new to create action, that is to alter the state of affairs brought about by previous actions. "Men", she wrote "though they must die, are not born in order to die but in order to begin". She defined her use of "natality" as:
The miracle that saves the world, the realm of human affairs, from its normal, "natural" ruin is ultimately the fact of natality, in which the faculty of action is ontologically rooted. It is, in other words, the birth of new men and the new beginning, the action they are capable of by virtue of being born.
Natality would go on to become a central concept of her political theory, and also what Karin Fry considers its most optimistic one.
Between Past and Future (1954...1968)
Between Past and Future is an anthology of eight essays written between 1954 and 1968, dealing with a variety of different but connected philosophical subjects. These essays share the central idea that humans live between the past and the uncertain future. Man must permanently think to exist, but must learn thinking. Humans have resorted to tradition, but are abandoning respect for this tradition and culture. Arendt tries to find solutions to help humans think again, since modern philosophy has not succeeded in helping humans to live correctly.
On Revolution (1963)
Arendt's book On Revolution presents a comparison of two of the main revolutions of the 18th century, the American and French Revolutions. She goes against a common impression of both Marxist and leftist views when she argues that France, while well-studied and often emulated, was a disaster and that the largely ignored American Revolution was a success. The turning point in the French Revolution occurred when the leaders rejected their goals of freedom to focus on compassion for the masses. In the United States, the founders never betray the goal of Constitutio Libertatis. Arendt believes the revolutionary spirit of those men had been lost, however, and advocates a "council system" as an appropriate institution to regain that spirit.
Men in Dark Times (1968)
The anthology of essays Men in Dark Times presents intellectual biographies of some creative and moral figures of the 20th century, such as Walter Benjamin, Karl Jaspers, Rosa Luxemburg, Hermann Broch, Pope John XXIII, and Isak Dinesen.
Crises of the Republic (1972)
Crises of the Republic was the third of Arendt's anthologies, consisting of four essays. These related essays deal with contemporary American politics and the crises it faced in the 1960s and 1970s. "Lying in Politics" looks for an explanation behind the administration's deception regarding the Vietnam War, as revealed in the Pentagon Papers. "Civil Disobedience" examines the opposition movements, while the final "Thoughts on Politics and Revolution" is a commentary, in the form of an interview on the third essay, "On Violence". In "On Violence" Arendt substantiates that violence presupposes power which she understands as a property of groups. Thus, she breaks with the predominant conception of power as derived from violence.
The Life of the Mind (1978)
Arendt's last major work, The Life of the Mind remained incomplete at the time of her death in 1975, but marked a return to moral philosophy. The outline of the book was based on her graduate level political philosophy class, Philosophy of the Mind, and her Gifford Lectures in Scotland. She conceived of the work as a trilogy based on the mental activities of thinking, willing, and judging. Her most recent work had focused on the first two, but went beyond this in terms of vita activa. Her discussion of thinking was based on Socrates and his notion of thinking as a solitary dialogue between oneself, leading her to novel concepts of conscience.
Arendt died suddenly five days after completing the second part, with the first page of Judging still in her typewriter, and McCarthy then edited the first two parts and provided some indication of the direction of the third. Arendt's exact intentions for the third part are unknown but she left several manuscripts (such as Thinking and Moral Considerations, Some Questions on Moral Philosophy and Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy) relating to her thoughts on the mental faculty of Judging. These have since been published separately.
Collected works
After Arendt died in 1975, her essays and notes have continued to be collected, edited and published posthumously by friends and colleagues, mainly under the editorship of Jerome Kohn, including those that give some insight into the unfinished third part of The Life of the Mind. Some dealt with her Jewish identity. The Jew as Pariah: Jewish Identity and Politics in the Modern Age (1978), is a collection of 15 essays and letters from the period 1943–1966 on the situation of Jews in modern times, to try and throw some light on her views on the Jewish world, following the backlash to Eichmann, but proved to be equally polarizing. A further collection of her writings on being Jewish was published as The Jewish Writings (2007). Her work on moral philosophy appeared as Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy (1982) and Responsibility and Judgment (2003), and her literary works as Reflections on Literature and Culture (2007).
Other work includes the collection of forty, largely fugitive, essays, addresses, and reviews covering the period 1930–1954, titled Essays in Understanding 1930–1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism (1994). These presaged her monumental The Origins of Totalitarianism, in particular On the Nature of Totalitarianism (1953) and The Concern with Politics in Contemporary European Philosophical Thought (1954). However these attracted little attention. However after a new version of Origins of Totalitarianism appeared in 2004 followed by The Promise of Politics in 2005 there appeared a new interest in Arendtiana. This led to a second series of her remaining essays, Thinking Without a Banister: Essays in Understanding, 1953–1975, published in 2018. Her notebooks which form a series of memoirs, were published as Denktagebuch in 2002.
Correspondence
Some further insight into her thinking is provided in the continuing posthumous publication of her correspondence with many of the important figures in her life, including Karl Jaspers (1992), Mary McCarthy (1995), Heinrich Blücher (1996), Martin Heidegger (2004), Alfred Kazin (2005), Walter Benjamin (2006), Gershom Scholem (2011) and Günther Stern (2016). Other correspondences that have been published include those with women friends such as Hilde Fränkel and Anne Mendelssohnn Weil (see Relationships).
Arendt and the Eichmann trial (1961–1963)
In 1960, on hearing of Adolf Eichmann's capture and plans for his trial, Hannah Arendt contacted The New Yorker and offered to travel to Israel to cover it when it opened on 11 April 1961. Arendt was anxious to test her theories, developed in The Origins of Totalitarianism, and see how justice would be administered to the sort of man she had written about. Also she had witnessed "little of the Nazi regime directly" and this was an opportunity to witness an agent of totalitarianism first hand. The offer was accepted and she attended six weeks of the five-month trial with her young Israeli cousin, Edna Brocke. On arrival she was treated as a celebrity, meeting with the trial chief judge, Moshe Landau, and the foreign minister, Golda Meir. In her subsequent 1963 report, based on her observations and transcripts, and which evolved into the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe the Eichmann phenomenon. She, like others, was struck by his very ordinariness and the demeanor he exhibited of a small, slightly balding, bland bureaucrat, in contrast to the horrific crimes he stood accused of. He was, she wrote, "terribly and terrifyingly normal." She examined the question of whether evil is radical or simply a function of thoughtlessness, a tendency of ordinary people to obey orders and conform to mass opinion without a critical evaluation of the consequences of their actions. Arendt's argument was that Eichmann was not a monster, contrasting the immensity of his actions with the very ordinariness of the man himself. Eichmann, she stated, not only called himself a Zionist, having initially opposed the Jewish persecution, but also expected his captors to understand him. She pointed out that his actions were not driven by malice, but rather blind dedication to the regime and his need to belong, to be a "joiner."
On this, Arendt would later state "Going along with the rest and wanting to say 'we' were quite enough to make the greatest of all crimes possible". What Arendt observed during the trial was a bourgeois sales clerk who found a meaningful role for himself and a sense of importance in the Nazi movement. She noted that his addiction to clichés and use of bureaucratic morality clouded his ability to question his actions, "to think". This led her to set out her most debated dictum: "the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us – the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil." By stating that Eichmann did not think, she did not imply lack of conscious awareness of his actions, but by "thinking" she implied reflective rationality, that was lacking.
Arendt was critical of the way the trial was conducted by the Israelis as a "show trial" with ulterior motives other than simply trying evidence and administering justice. Arendt was also critical of the way Israel depicted Eichmann's crimes as crimes against a nation-state, rather than against humanity itself. She objected to the idea that a strong Israel was necessary to protect world Jewry being again placed where "they'll let themselves be slaughtered like sheep," recalling the biblical phrase. She portrayed the prosecutor, Attorney General Gideon Hausner, as employing hyperbolic rhetoric in the pursuit of Prime Minister Ben-Gurion's political agenda. Arendt, who believed she could maintain her focus on moral principles in the face of outrage, became increasingly frustrated with Hausner, describing his parade of survivors as having "no apparent bearing on the case". She was particularly concerned that Hausner repeatedly asked "why did you not rebel?" rather than question the role of the Jewish leaders. On this point, Arendt argued that during the Holocaust some of them cooperated with Eichmann "almost without exception" in the destruction of their own people. These leaders, notably M. C. Rumkowski, constituted the Jewish Councils (Judenräte). She had expressed concerns on this point prior to the trial. She described this as a moral catastrophe. While her argument was not to allocate blame, rather she mourned what she considered a moral failure of compromising the imperative that it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. She describes the cooperation of the Jewish leaders in terms of a disintegration of Jewish morality: "This role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter in the whole dark story". Widely misunderstood, this caused an even greater controversy and particularly animosity toward her in the Jewish community and in Israel. For Arendt, the Eichmann trial marked a turning point in her thinking in the final decade of her life, becoming increasingly preoccupied with moral philosophy.
Reception
Arendt's five-part series "Eichmann in Jerusalem" appeared in The New Yorker in February 1963 some nine months after Eichmann was hanged on 31 May 1962. By this time his trial was largely forgotten in the popular mind, superseded by intervening world events. However, no other account of either Eichmann or National Socialism has aroused so much controversy. Before its publication, Arendt was considered a brilliant humanistic original political thinker. Her mentor, Karl Jaspers, however, had warned her about a possible adverse outcome, "The Eichmann trial will be no pleasure for you. I'm afraid it cannot go well". On publication, three controversies immediately occupied public attention: the concept of Eichmann as banal, her criticism of the role of Israel and her description of the role played by the Jewish people themselves.
Arendt was profoundly shocked by the response, writing to Karl Jaspers "People are resorting to any means to destroy my reputation ... They have spent weeks trying to find something in my past that they can hang on me". Now she was being called arrogant, heartless and ill-informed. She was accused of being duped by Eichmann, of being a "self-hating Jewess", and even an enemy of Israel. Her critics included The Anti-Defamation League and many other Jewish groups, editors of publications she was a contributor to, faculty at the universities she taught at and friends from all parts of her life. Her friend Gershom Scholem, a major scholar of Jewish mysticism, broke off relations with her, publishing their correspondence without her permission. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust. Because of this lingering criticism neither this book nor any of her other works were translated into Hebrew until 1999. Arendt responded to the controversies in the book's Postscript.
Although Arendt complained that she was being criticized for telling the truth – "what a risky business to tell the truth on a factual level without theoretical and scholarly embroidery" – the criticism was largely directed to her theorizing on the nature of mankind and evil and that ordinary people were driven to commit the inexplicable not so much by hatred and ideology as ambition, and inability to empathize. Equally problematic was the suggestion that the victims deceived themselves and complied in their own destruction. Prior to Arendt's depiction of Eichmann, his popular image had been, as The New York Times put it "the most evil monster of humanity" and as a representative of "an atrocious crime, unparalleled in history", "the extermination of European Jews". As it turned out Arendt and others were correct in pointing out that Eichmann's characterization by the prosecution as the architect and chief technician of the Holocaust was not entirely credible.
While much has been made of Arendt's treatment of Eichmann, Ada Ushpiz, in her 2015 documentary Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt, placed it in a much broader context of the use of rationality to explain seemingly irrational historical events.
Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen
In an interview with Joachim Fest in 1964, Arendt was asked about Eichmann's defense that he had made Kant's principle of the duty of obedience his guiding principle all his life. Arendt replied that that was outrageous and that Eichmann was misusing Kant, by not considering the element of judgement required in assessing one's own actions – "Kein Mensch hat bei Kant das Recht zu gehorchen" (No man has, according to Kant, the right to obey), she stated, paraphrasing Kant. The reference was to Kant's Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft (Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason 1793) in which he states:
Der Satz 'man muß Gott mehr gehorchen, als den Menschen' bedeutet nur, daß, wenn die letzten etwas gebieten, was an sich böse (dem Sittengesetz unmittelbar zuwider) ist, ihnen nicht gehorcht werden darf und soll (The saying, "We must hearken to God, rather than to man," signifies no more than this, viz. that should any earthly legislation enjoin something immediately contradictory of the moral law, obedience is not to be rendered)
Kant clearly defines a higher moral duty than rendering merely unto Caesar. Arendt herself had written in her book "This was outrageous, on the face of it, and also incomprehensible, since Kant's moral philosophy is so closely bound up with man's faculty of judgment, which rules out blind obedience." Arendt's reply to Fest was subsequently corrupted to read Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen (No one has the right to obey), which has been widely reproduced, although it does encapsulate an aspect of her moral philosophy.
The phrase Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen has become one of her iconic images, appearing on the wall of the house in which she was born (see Commemorations), among other places. A fascist bas-relief on the Palazzo degli Uffici Finanziari (1942), in the Piazza del Tribunale, Bolzano, Italy celebrating Mussolini, read Credere, Obbedire, Combattere (Believe, Obey, Combat). In 2017 it was altered to read Hannah Arendt's original words on obedience in the three official languages of the region.
The phrase has been appearing in other artistic work featuring political messages, such as the 2015 installation by Wilfried Gerstel, which has evoked the concept of resistance to dictatorship, as expressed in her essay "Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship" (1964).
List of selected publications
Views
In 1961, while covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt wrote a letter to Karl Jaspers that Adam Kirsch described as reflecting "pure racism" toward Sephardic Jews from the Middle East and Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe. She wrote:
Fortunately, Eichmann's three judges were of German origin, indeed the best of German Jewry. [Attorney General Gideon] Hausner is a typical Galician Jew, still European, very unsympathetic... boring... constantly making mistakes. Probably one of those people who don't know any language. Everything is organized by a police force which gives me the creeps, speaks only Hebrew, and looks Arabic. Some downright brutal types among them. They would obey any order. And outside the doors, the oriental mob, as if one were in Istanbul or some other half-Asiatic country.
Although Arendt remained a Zionist both during and after World War II, she made it clear that she favored the creation of a Jewish-Arab federated state in British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel and the Palestinian territories), rather than a purely Jewish state. She believed that this was a way to address Jewish statelessness and to avoid the pitfalls of nationalism.
Accusations of racism
It was not just Arendt's analysis of the Eichmann trial that drew accusations of racism. In her 1958 essay in Dissent titled Reflections on Little Rock she expressed opposition to desegregation following the 1957 Little Rock Integration Crisis in Arkansas. As she explains in the preface, for a long time the magazine was reluctant to print her contribution, so far did it appear to differ from the publication's liberal values. Eventually it was printed alongside critical responses. Later The New Yorker would express similar hesitancy over the Eichmann papers. So vehement was the response that Arendt felt obliged to defend herself in a sequel. The debate over this essay has continued since. William Simmons devotes a whole section of his 2011 text on human rights (Human Rights Law and the Marginalized Other) to a critique of Arendt's position and in particular on Little Rock. While many critics feel she was fundamentally racist, many of those who have defended Arendt's position have pointed out that her concerns were for the welfare of the children, a position she maintained throughout her life. She felt that white children were being thrown into a racially disharmonious "jungle" to serve a broader political strategy of forcible integration.
While over time Arendt conceded some ground to her critics, namely that she argued as an outsider, she remained committed to her central critique that children should not be thrust into the front-lines of geopolitical conflict.
Feminism
Embraced by feminists as a pioneer in a world dominated by men up to her time, Arendt did not call herself a feminist and would be very surprised to hear herself described as a feminist, remaining opposed to the social dimensions of Women's Liberation, urging independence, but always keeping in mind Vive la petite différence! On becoming the first woman to be appointed a professor at Princeton in 1953, the media were much engaged in this exceptional achievement, but she never wanted to be seen as an exception, either as a woman (an "exception woman") or a Jew, stating emphatically "I am not disturbed at all about being a woman professor, because I am quite used to being a woman". In 1972, discussing women's liberation, she observed "the real question to ask is, what will we lose if we win?". She rather enjoyed what she saw as the privileges of being feminine as opposed to feminist, "Intensely feminine and therefore no feminist", stated Hans Jonas. Arendt considered some professions and positions unsuitable for women, particularly those involving leadership, telling Günter Gaus "It just doesn't look good when a woman gives orders". Despite these views, and having been labelled "anti-feminist", much space has been devoted to examining Arendt's place in relation to feminism. In the last years of her life, Virginia Held noted that Arendt's views evolved with the emergence of a new feminism in America in the 1970s to recognize the importance of the women's movement.
Critique of human rights
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt devotes a lengthy chapter (The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man) to a critical analysis of human rights, in what has been described as "the most widely read essay on refugees ever published". Arendt is not skeptical of the notion of political rights in general, but instead defends a national or civil conception of rights. Human rights, or the Rights of Man as they were commonly called, are universal, inalienable, and possessed simply by virtue of being human. In contrast, civil rights are possessed by virtue of belonging to a political community, most commonly by being a citizen. Arendt's primary criticism of human rights is that they are ineffectual and illusory because their enforcement is in tension with national sovereignty. She argued that since there is no political authority above that of sovereign nations, state governments have little incentive to respect human rights when such policies conflict with national interests. This can be seen most clearly by examining the treatment of refugees and other stateless people. Since the refugee has no state to secure their civil rights, the only rights they have to fall back on are human rights. In this way Arendt uses the refugee as a test case for examining human rights in isolation from civil rights.
Arendt's analysis draws on the refugee upheavals in the first half of the 20th century along with her own experience as a refugee fleeing Nazi Germany. She argued that as state governments began to emphasize national identity as a prerequisite for full legal status, the number of minority resident aliens increased along with the number of stateless persons whom no state was willing to recognize legally. The two potential solutions to the refugee problem, repatriation and naturalization, both proved incapable of solving the crisis. Arendt argued that repatriation failed to solve the refugee crisis because no government was willing to take them in and claim them as their own. When refugees were forcibly deported to neighboring countries, such immigration was deemed illegal by the receiving country, and so failed to change the fundamental status of the migrants as stateless. Attempts at naturalizing and assimilating refugees also had little success. This failure was primarily the result of resistance from both state governments and the majority of citizens, since both tended to see the refugees as undesirables who threatened their national identity. Resistance to naturalization also came from the refugees themselves who resisted assimilation and attempted to maintain their own ethnic and national identities. Arendt contends that neither naturalization nor the tradition of asylum was capable of handling the sheer number of refugees. Instead of accepting some refugees with legal status, the state often responded by denaturalizing minorities who shared national or ethnic ties with stateless refugees.
Arendt argues that the consistent mistreatment of refugees, most of whom were placed in internment camps, is evidence against the existence of human rights. If the notion of human rights as universal and inalienable is to be taken seriously, the rights must be realizable given the features of the modern liberal state. She concluded "The Rights of Man, supposedly inalienable, proved to be unenforceable–even in countries whose constitutions were based upon them–whenever people appeared who were no longer citizens of any sovereign state". Arendt contends that they are not realizable because they are in tension with at least one feature of the liberal state—national sovereignty. One of the primary ways in which a nation exercises sovereignty is through control over national borders. State governments consistently grant their citizens free movement to traverse national borders. In contrast, the movement of refugees is often restricted in the name of national interests. This restriction presents a dilemma for liberalism because liberal theorists typically are committed to both human rights and the existence of sovereign nations.
In one of her most quoted passages, she puts forward the concept that human rights are little more than an abstraction:
The conception of human rights based upon the assumed existence of a human being as such broke down at the very moment when those who professed to believe in it were for the first time confronted with people who had indeed lost all other qualities and specific relationships – except that they were still human. The world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.
In popular culture
Several authors have written biographies that focus on the relationship between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. In 1999, the French feminist philosopher Catherine Clément wrote a novel, Martin and Hannah, speculating on the triangular relationship between Heidegger and the two women in his life, Arendt and Heidegger's wife Elfriede Petri. In addition to the relationships, the novel is a serious exploration of philosophical ideas, that centers on Arendt's last meeting with Heidegger in Freiburg in 1975. The scene is based on Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's description in Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (1982), but reaches back to their childhoods, and Heidegger's role in encouraging the relationship between the two women. The novel explores Heidegger's embrace of Nazism as a proxy for that of Germany and, as in Arendt's treatment of Eichmann, the difficult relationship between collective guilt and personal responsibility. Clément also brings Hannah's other mentor and confidante, Karl Jaspers, into the matrix of relationships.
In 2012 the German film, Hannah Arendt, directed by Margarethe von Trotta was released. The film, with Barbara Sukowa in the title role, depicted the controversy over Arendt's coverage of the Eichmann trial in The New Yorker and her subsequent book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, in which she was widely misunderstood as defending Eichmann and blaming Jewish leaders for the Holocaust. In 2015, the filmmaker Ada Ushpiz produced a documentary on Hannah Arendt, Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt. In the 2023 TV series Transatlantic, Arendt is portrayed by Alexa Karolinski.
Legacy
Hannah Arendt is considered one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century. In 1998 Walter Laqueur stated "No twentieth-century philosopher and political thinker has at the present time as wide an echo", as philosopher, historian, sociologist and also journalist. Arendt's legacy has been described as a cult. In a 2016 review of a documentary about Arendt, the journalist A. O. Scott describes Hannah Arendt as "of unmatched range and rigor" as a thinker, although she is primarily known for the series of articles known as Eichmann in Jerusalem that she wrote for The New Yorker, and in particular for the one phrase "the banality of evil".
She shunned publicity, never expecting, as she explained to Karl Jaspers in 1951, to see herself as a "cover girl" on the newsstands. In Germany, there are tours available of sites associated with her life.
The study of the life and work of Hannah Arendt, and of her political and philosophical theory is described as Arendtian. In her will she established the Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust as the custodian of her writings and photographs. Her personal library was deposited at Bard College at the Stevenson Library in 1976, and includes approximately 4,000 books, ephemera, and pamphlets from Arendt's last apartment as well as her desk (in McCarthy House). The college has begun archiving some of the collection digitally, which is available at The Hannah Arendt Collection. Most of her papers were deposited at the Library of Congress and her correspondence with her German friends and mentors, such as Heidegger, Blumenfeld and Jaspers, at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach. The Library of Congress listed more than 50 books written about her in 1998, and that number has continued to grow, as have the number of scholarly articles, estimated as 1000 at that time.
Her life and work is recognized by the institutions most closely associated with her teaching, by the creation of Hannah Arendt Centers at both Bard (Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities) and The New School, both in New York State. In Germany, her contributions to understanding authoritarianism is recognised by the Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung (Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research on Totalitarianism) in Dresden. There are Hannah Arendt Associations (Hannah Arendt Verein) such as the Hannah Arendt Verein für politisches Denken in Bremen that awards the annual Hannah-Arendt-Preis für politisches Denken (Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thinking) established in 1995. In Oldenburg, the Hannah Arendt Center at Carl von Ossietzky University was established in 1999, and holds a large collection of her work (Hannah Arendt Archiv), and administers the internet portal HannahArendt.net (A Journal for Political Thinking) as well as a monograph series, the Hannah Arendt-Studien. In Italy, the Hannah Arendt Center for Political Studies is situated at the University of Verona for Arendtian studies.
In 2017 a journal, Arendt Studies, was launched to publish articles related to the study of the life, work, and legacy of Hannah Arendt. Many places associated with her, have memorabilia of her on display, such as her student card at the University of Heidelberg (see image). 2006, the centennial of her birth, saw commemorations of her work in conferences and celebrations around the world.
Of the many photographic portraits of Arendt, that taken in 1944 by Fred Stein (see image), whose work she greatly admired, has become iconic, and has been described as better known than the photographer himself, having appeared on a German postage stamp.(see image) Among organizations that have recognized Arendt's contributions to civilization and human rights, is the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Contemporary interest
The rise of nativism, such as the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and concerns regarding an increasingly authoritarian style of governance has led to a surge of interest in Arendt and her writings, including radio broadcasts and writers, including Jeremy Adelman and Zoe Williams, to revisit Arendt's ideas to seek the extent to which they inform our understanding of such movements, which are being described as "Dark Times". At the same time Amazon reported that it had sold out of copies of The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). Michiko Kakutani has addressed what she refers to as "the death of truth". In her 2018 book, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, she argues that the rise of totalitarianism has been founded on the violation of truth. She begins her book with an extensive quote from The Origins of Totalitarianism:
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.
Kakutani and others believed that Arendt's words speak not just events of a previous century but apply equally to the contemporary cultural landscape populated with fake news and lies. She also draws on Arendt's essay "Lying in Politics" from Crises in the Republic pointing to the lines:
The historian knows how vulnerable is the whole texture of facts in which we spend our daily life; it is always in danger of being perforated by single lies or torn to shreds by the organized lying of groups, nations, or classes, or denied and distorted, often carefully covered up by reams of falsehoods or simply allowed to fall into oblivion. Facts need testimony to be remembered and trustworthy witnesses to be established in order to find a secure dwelling place in the domain of human affairs
Arendt drew attention to the critical role that propaganda plays in gaslighting populations, Kakutani observes, citing the passage:
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true . ... The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness
Arendt took a broader perspective on history than merely totalitarianism in the early 20th century, stating "the deliberate falsehood and the outright lie have been used as legitimate means to achieve political ends since the beginning of recorded history." Contemporary relevance is also reflected in the increasing use of the phrase, attributed to her, "No one has the right to obey" to reflect that actions result from choices, and hence judgement, and that we cannot disclaim responsibility for that which we have the power to act upon. In addition those centers established to promote Arendtian studies continue to seek solutions to a wide range of contemporary issues in her writing.
Arendt's teachings on obedience have also been linked to the controversial psychology experiments by Stanley Milgram, that implied that ordinary people can easily be induced to commit atrocities. Milgram himself drew attention to this in 1974, stating that he was testing the theory that Eichmann like others would merely follow orders, but unlike Milgram she argued that actions involve responsibility.
Arendt's theories on the political consequences of how nations deal with refugees have remained relevant and compelling. Arendt had observed first hand the displacement of large stateless and rightsless populations, treated not so much as people in need than as problems to solve, and in many cases, resist. She wrote about this in her 1943 essay "We refugees". Another Arendtian theme that finds an echo in contemporary society is her observation, inspired by Rilke, of the despair of not being heard, the futility of tragedy that finds no listener that can bring comfort, assurance and intervention. An example of this being gun violence in America and the resulting political inaction.
In Search of the Last Agora, an illustrated documentary film by Lebanese director Rayyan Dabbous about Hannah Arendt's 1958 work The Human Condition, was released in 2018 to mark the book's 50th anniversary. Screened at Bard College, the experimental film is described as finding "new meaning in the political theorist's conceptions of politics, technology and society in the 1950s", particularly in her prediction of abuses of phenomena unknown in Arendt's time, including social media, intense globalization, and obsessive celebrity culture.
Commemorations
Hannah Arendt's life and work continue to be commemorated in many different ways, including plaques (Gedenktafeln) indicating places she has lived. Public places and institutions bear her name, including schools. There is also a Hannah Arendt Day (Hannah Arendt Tag) in her birthplace. Objects named after her vary from asteroids to trains and she has been commemorated in stamps. Museums and foundations include her name.
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
Hannah Arendt: "Zur Person". Full Interview (with English subtitles) (in German). Stack Altoids. 28 October 1964. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021 – via YouTube.
"Hannah Arendt Contributions". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 11 August 2018. |
Bard_College | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard_College | [
475
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard_College"
] | Bard College is a private liberal arts college in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, in the town of Red Hook, in New York State. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, the institution consists of a liberal arts college and a conservatory, as well as eight graduate programs offering over 20 graduate degrees in the arts and sciences. The college has a network of over 35 affiliated programs, institutes, and centers, spanning twelve cities, five states, seven countries, and four continents.
History
Origins and early years
During much of the nineteenth century, the land since owned by Bard was mainly composed of several country estates. These estates were called Blithewood, Bartlett, Sands, Cruger's Island, and Ward Manor/Almont.
In 1853, John Bard and Margaret Bard purchased a part of the Blithewood estate and renamed it Annandale. John Bard was the grandson of Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor, a founder of Columbia University's medical school, and physician to George Washington. John Bard was also the nephew of John McVickar, a professor at Columbia University. The family had strong connections with the Episcopal Church and Columbia.
The following year, in 1854, John and Margaret established a parish school on their estate in order to educate the area's children. A wood-frame cottage, known today as Bard Hall, served as a school on weekdays and a chapel on weekends. In 1857, the Bards expanded the parish by building the Chapel of the Holy Innocents next to Bard Hall. During this time, John Bard remained in close contact with the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church. The church suggested that he found a theological college.
With the promise of outside financial support, John Bard donated the unfinished chapel, and the surrounding 18 acres (7.3 ha), to the diocese in November 1858. In March 1860, St. Stephen's College was founded. In 1861, construction began on the first St. Stephen's College building, a stone collegiate gothic dormitory called Aspinwall, after early trustee John Lloyd Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall. During its initial years, the college relied on wealthy benefactors, like trustee Cornelius Vanderbilt, for funding.
The college began taking shape within four decades. In 1866, Ludlow Hall, an administrative building, was erected. Preston Hall was built in 1873 and used as a refectory. A set of four dormitories, collectively known as Stone Row, were completed in 1891. And in 1895, the Greek revival Hoffman Memorial Library was built. The school officially changed its name to Bard College in 1934 in honor of its founder.
Growth and secularization
In the 20th century, social and cultural changes amongst New York's high society would bring about the demise of the great estates. In 1914, Louis Hamersley purchased the fire-damaged Ward Manor/Almont estate and erected a Tudor style mansion and gatehouse, or what is today known as Ward Manor. Hamersley expanded his estate in 1926 by acquiring the abandoned Cruger's Island estate. That same year, after Hamersley's combined estate was purchased by William Ward, it was donated to charity and served as a retirement home for almost four decades.
By the mid-1900s, Bard's campus significantly expanded. The Blithewood estate was donated to the college in 1951, and in 1963, Bard purchased 90 acres (36 ha) of the Ward Manor estate, including the main manor house. The rest of the Ward Manor estate became the 900-acre (360 ha) Tivoli Bays nature preserve.
In 1919, Bernard Iddings Bell became Bard's youngest president at the age of 34. His adherence to classical education, decorum, and dress eventually clashed with the school's push towards Deweyism and secularization, and he resigned in 1933.
In 1928, Bard merged with Columbia University, serving as an undergraduate school similar to Barnard College. Under the agreement, Bard remained affiliated with the Episcopal Church and retained control of its finances. The merger raised Bard's prestige; however, it failed to provide financial support to the college during the Great Depression. So dire was Bard's financial situation that in 1932, then-Governor of New York and College trustee Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a telegram to the likes of John D. Rockefeller Jr., George Eastman and Frederick William Vanderbilt requesting donations for the college.
On May 26, 1933, Donald Tewksbury, a Columbia professor, was appointed dean of the college. Although dean for only four years, Tewksbury had a lasting impact on the school. Tewksbury, an educational philosopher, had extensive ideas regarding higher education. While he was dean, Tewksbury steered the college into a more secular direction and changed its name from St. Stephen's to Bard. He also placed a heavy academic emphasis on the arts, something atypical of colleges at the time, and set the foundations for Bard's Moderation and Senior Project requirement. While Tewksbury never characterized Bard's curriculum as "progressive," the school would later be considered an early adopter of progressive education. In his 1943 study of early progressive colleges, titled General Education in the Progressive College, Louis T. Benezet used Bard as one of his three case studies.
During the 1940s, Bard provided a haven for intellectual refugees fleeing Europe. These included Hannah Arendt, the political theorist, Stefan Hirsch, the precisionist painter; Felix Hirsch, the political editor of the Berliner Tageblatt; the violinist Emil Hauser; the linguist Hans Marchand; the noted psychologist Werner Wolff; and the philosopher Heinrich Blücher.
Arendt is buried at Bard, alongside her husband Heinrich Blücher, as is eminent novelist Philip Roth.
In 1944, as a result of World War II, enrollment significantly dropped putting financial stress on the college. In order to increase enrollment, the college became co-educational, thereby severing all ties with Columbia. The college became an independent, secular, institution in 1944. Thus enrollment more than doubled, from 137 students in 1944, to 293 in 1947. In the 1950s, with the addition of the Blithewood estate and Tewksbury Hall, the college would increase its enrollment by 150 students.
Late twentieth and early twenty-first century
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's experiences at Bard prompted them to write the 1973 song "My Old School" for their rock group, Steely Dan. The song was motivated by the 1969 drug bust at Bard in which the college administration colluded. The DA involved was G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate notoriety. Fagen wrote another Steely Dan song, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", about novelist, artist and former Bard faculty spouse Rikki Ducornet.
In 2020, Bard College and Central European University became the founding members of the Open Society University Network, a collaborative global education initiative endowed with US$1 billion. As part of this new initiative, the college received a US$100 million gift from the Open Society Foundations which ranks among the largest financial contributions to a U.S. institution in recent history. In 2021, philanthropist George Soros made a $500 million endowment pledge to Bard College. It is one of the largest pledges of money ever made to higher education in the United States.
In June 2021, Bard College was declared an "undesirable institution" in Russia, becoming the first international higher education organization to be branded with this designation. Bard president Botstein hypothesized that this tag was due their association with and funding from the Open Society Foundations which was also classified as undesirable in Russia and related conspiracy theories about George Soros.
College leaders
At various times, the leaders of the college have been titled president, warden or dean. They are listed below:
George Franklin Seymour (1860–1861)
Thomas Richey (1861–1863)
Robert Brinckerhoff Fairbairn (1863–1898)
Lawrence T. Cole (1899–1903)
Thomas R. Harris (1904–1907)
William Cunningham Rodgers (1909–1919)
Bernard Iddings Bell (1919–1933)
Donald George Tewksbury (1933–1937)
Harold Mestre (1938–1939)
Charles Harold Gray (1940–1946)
Edward C. Fuller (1946–1950)
James Herbert Case Jr. (1950–1960)
Reamer Kline (1960–1974)
Leon Botstein (1975–Present)
Campus
The campus of Bard College is in Annandale-on-Hudson, a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States, in the town of Red Hook. It contains more than 70 buildings with a total gross building space of 1,167,090 sq ft (108,426 m2) and was listed as a census-designated place in 2020. Campus buildings represent varied architectural styles, but the campus remains heavily influenced by the Collegiate Gothic and Postmodern styles.
Bard's historic buildings are associated with the early development of the college and the history of the Hudson River estates (see Bard College History). During a late twentieth-century building boom, the college embraced a trend of building signature buildings designed by prominent architects like Venturi, Gehry, and Viñoly.
In January 2016, Bard purchased Montgomery Place, a 380-acre (150 ha) estate adjacent to the Bard campus, with significant historic and cultural assets. The estate consists of a historic mansion, a farm, and some 20 smaller buildings. The college purchased the property from Historic Hudson Valley, the historical preservation organization that had owned Montgomery Place since the late 1980s. The addition of this property brings Bard's total campus size to nearly 1,000 acres (400 ha) along the Hudson River in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
In late 2023, Bard purchased 260 acres of land adjacent to the Montgomery Place campus in Barrytown, which used to be the campus of the Unification Theological Seminary. The property, originally owned by the Livingston and later Aspinwall families, features a mansion designed by William Appleton Potter. It was acquired by the De La Salle Brothers in 1928, who completed a large seminary and normal institute there in 1931. In turn, the property was sold in 1974 to the Unification Church. Bard intends to use the space to provide new studios for the Center for Human Rights and the Arts and administrative offices for the Open Society University Network (OSUN), of which Bard is a founding member. The purchase of the property brings Bard's total acreage to 1260 acres (510 ha).
The area around the campus first appeared as a census-designated place (CDP) in the 2020 Census, with a population of 358.
The college has an amount of housing for faculty members. School-age dependents in this faculty housing are in the Red Hook Central School District (the CDP is within this school district).
Academics
Rankings and awards
In its 2022-2023 edition of college rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Bard 60th overall, 5th in "Most Innovative Schools", tied at 38th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied at #70 in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", tied at #19 in "First-Year Experiences", and 19th for "Best Value" out of 210 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" in the United States.
Bard's Master of Fine Arts program was ranked one of ten most influential Master of Fine Arts programs in the world by Artspace Magazine in 2023.
Bard has been named a top producer of U.S. Fulbright Scholars. Many Bard alumni have also been named Watson Fellows, Critical Language Scholarship recipients, Davis Projects for Peace winners, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, and Peace Corps fellows, among other postgraduate awards.
Undergraduate programs
In the undergraduate college, Bard offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. There are 23 academic departments that offer over 40 major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary concentrations. The college was the first in the nation to offer a human rights major. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:
Social Sciences (140)
Fine/Studio Arts (106)
English Language and Literature/Letters (81)
Biological and Physical Sciences (80)
In the three weeks preceding their first semester, first-year students attend the Language and Thinking (L&T) program, an intensive, writing-centered introduction to the liberal arts. The interdisciplinary program, established in 1981, aims to "cultivate habits of thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration." The program covers philosophy, history, science, poetry, fiction, and religion. In 2011, the core readings included works by Hannah Arendt, Franz Kafka, Frans de Waal, Stephen Jay Gould, Clifford Geertz, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Sophocles.
The capstone of the Bard undergraduate experience is the Senior Project, commonly referred to as SPROJ amongst its students. As with moderation, this project takes different forms in different departments. Many students write a paper of around eighty pages, which is then, as with work for moderation, critiqued by a board of three professors. Arts students must organize a series of concerts, recitals, or shows, or produce substantial creative work; math and science students, as well as some social science students, undertake research projects.
Undergraduate admissions
For the academic year 2022-2023, Bard's acceptance rate stands at 46%. Out of the total 6,482 students who applied, 2,982 were admitted to the school. For the 2022-2023 academic year 447 students enrolled representing a yield rate of 15%. Admission trends note a 25% increase in applications in the 2022-2023 academic year. Bard does not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores in order to apply. As an alternative, applicants may take an examination composed of 19 essay questions in four categories: Social Studies; Languages and Literature; Arts; and Science, Mathematics, and Computing, with applicants required to complete three 2,500-word essays covering three of the four categories. For admitted students who submitted test scores, 50% had an SAT score between 1296 and 1468 or an ACT score between 28 and 33, with a reported average GPA of 3.79. Admissions officials consider a student's GPA a very important academic factor. Honors, AP, and IB classes are important, an applicant's high school class rank is considered, and letters of recommendation are considered very important for admissions officials at Bard.
Graduate programs
Bard College offers a range of postgraduate degree programs, including the Bard MFA, Bard Graduate Center, Center for Curatorial Studies, Center for Human Rights and the Arts, Center for Environmental Policy, Bard MBA in Sustainability, Levy Economics Institute, and the Master of Arts in Teaching.
Bard MFA
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a nontraditional graduate school for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. The program takes place over two years and two months, with students residing on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus. Notable artists and writers that have been affiliated with the Bard MFA as faculty and visiting artists include Marina Abramovic, Eileen Myles, Paul Chan, Robert Kelly, Tony Conrad, Okkyung Lee, Yto Barrada, Carolee Schneemann, Lynne Tillman, and Ben Lerner.
Bard Graduate Center
The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. Established in 1993, the institute offers a two-year MA program and a PhD program that began in 1998. The institute's facilities include a gallery space at 18 West 86th Street and an academic building with a library at 38 West 86th Street.
Center for Curatorial Studies
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) established in 1990, is a museum and research center dedicated to the study of contemporary art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. In 1994, CCS Bard launched its (MA) Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies program. The center also hosts public events throughout the year including lectures and panel discussions on topics in contemporary art.
The museum, spanning an area of 55,000 square feet, offers a variety of exhibitions accessible to the general public throughout the year. It houses two distinct collections, the CCS Bard Collection and the Marieluise Hessel collection, which has been loaned to CCS Bard on a permanent basis. Artists such as Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Wolfgang Tillmans, Stephen Shore, and Cindy Sherman, among numerous others, are featured within these collections.
The CCS Bard Library is a research collection for contemporary art with a focus on post-1960s contemporary art, curatorial practice, exhibition histories, theory, and criticism. in 2023 historian Robert Storr donated over 25,000 volumes to the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, nearly doubling the total collection size to 63,000 volumes. Other noteworthy contributors include Louise Bourgeois, Yto Barrada, Leon Golub, Jenny Holzer, Gerhard Richter, and Rachel Whiteread.
In 2022 CCS Bard received $50 million from a $25 million donation from the Gochman Family Foundation to form a Center for American and Indigenous Studies at CCS Bard and a matching donation of $25 million from George Soros. This followed two 2021 gifts of $25 million, one from Marieluise Hessel and a matching donation from Soros.
Center for Human Rights & the Arts
The Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and human rights. The center is affiliated with the Open Society University Network (OSUN). The center's flagship initiative is the Master of Arts program in Human Rights & the Arts. The center includes initiatives such as resident research fellowships, research grants, artist commissions, public talks, accessible publications, and a biennial arts festival organized in partnership with the Fisher Center at Bard and other OSUN institutions and art venues worldwide.
Center for Environmental Policy
The Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) at Bard College is a research institution offering a range of graduate degree programs focused on environmental policy, climate science, and environmental education. The CEP offers a series of graduate degrees including the Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Master of Education. In addition to these individual degree programs, CEP offers dual-degree options that allow students to combine their environmental studies with programs in law or business.
Levy Economics Institute
Levy Economics Institute is a public policy think tank focused on generating public policy responses to economic problems. Through research, analysis, and informed debate, the institute aims to enable scholars and leaders from business, labor, and government to collaborate on common interest issues. The institute's findings are disseminated globally through various channels, including publications, conferences, seminars, congressional testimony, and partnerships with other nonprofits. Its research encompasses a wide range of topics, including stock-flow consistent macro modeling, fiscal policy, monetary policy and financial structure, financial instability, income and wealth distribution, financial regulation and governance, gender equality and time poverty, and immigration/ethnicity and social structure. The Levy Economics Institute is particularly known for its research in heterodox economics, with a focus on Post-Keynesian and Marxian economics. It is additionally recognized as the leading research center for the study of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Notable individuals that have been affiliated with the Levy Economics Institute as professors, directors, and economists include Joseph Stiglitz, Hyman Minsky, William Julius Wilson, L. Randall Wray, Jan Kregel, Bruce C. Greenwald, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Lakshman Achuthan, Warren Mosler, Stephanie Kelton, Bill Mitchell, and Pavlina R. Tcherneva.
Endowment
Bard has access to multiple, distinct endowments. Bard, along with Central European University, is a founding member of the Open Society University Network, endowed with $1 billion from philanthropist George Soros, which is a network of universities to operate throughout the world to better prepare students for current and future global challenges through integrated teaching and research. Bard maintains its own endowment of approximately $412 million. In July 2020, Bard received a gift of $100 million from the Open Society Foundations, which will dispense $10 million yearly over a period of ten years. In April 2021, Bard received a $500 million endowment challenge grant from George Soros. Once matched, on a five-year timeline, Bard will have an endowment of more than $1 billion.
Programs, centers, and associated institutes
Bard has developed several innovative graduate programs and research institutes, including the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, the Levy Economics Institute which began offering a Masters of Science in Economic Theory and Policy in 2014, the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies in Manhattan, the Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT), the Bard College Clemente Program, and the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan.
In 1990, Bard College acquired, on permanent loan, art collector Marieluise Hessel's substantial collection of important contemporary artwork. In 2006, Hessel contributed another $8 million (USD) for the construction of a 17,000-square-foot addition to Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies building, in which the collection is exhibited.
The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) provides a liberal arts degree to incarcerated individuals (prison education) in five prisons in New York State, and enrolls nearly 200 students. Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1994, BPI is one of only a small number of programs of its kind in the country.
Bard awards the Bard Fiction Prize annually to "a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application". The prize is $30,000 and an appointment as writer-in-residence at the college.
The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities is located at Bard College. The center hosts an annual public conference, offers courses, runs various related academic programs, and houses research fellows.
In February 2009, Bard announced the first dual degree program between a Palestinian university and an American institution of higher education. The college entered into a collaboration with Al-Quds University involving an honors college, a master's program in teaching and a model high school.
In accordance with AlQuds-Bard requirements, students are not allowed to decide their major during the first year of their studies; instead, as a liberal arts college, students are advised to diverge in different classes that would allow them to decide what program they would like to take interest in as in the following year. Students are encouraged to look upon different classes to help them decide the subject they would mostly enjoy studying. Bard gives students the opportunity to dissect different programs before committing to a specific major. As a policy, throughout a student's undergraduate years, they must distribute their credits among different courses so that they can liberally experience the different courses Bard has to offer.
In June 2011, Bard officially acquired the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in November 2011, Bard took ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin, Germany, to become Bard College Berlin.
In 2013, Bard entered into a comprehensive agreement with Soochow University in Suzhou, China, that will include a joint program between the Soochow University School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, exploration leading to the establishment of The Bard College Liberal Arts Academy at Soochow University, and student exchange.
In 2020, Bard announced that through the new Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Advanced Achievement Scholars program the college will offer admission to high school juniors within 120 miles from the college based on an essay process based on the popular Bard Entrance Exam, first launched in 2013.
Student life
Over 120 student clubs are financed through Bard's Convocation Fund, which is distributed once a semester by an elected student body and ratified during a public forum. Bard College has one print newspaper, the Bard Free Press, which was awarded a Best in Show title by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2013. In 2003, the Bard Free Press won Best Campus Publication in SPIN Magazine's first annual Campus Awards. Student-run literary magazines include the semiannual Lux, The Moderator, and Sui Generis, a journal of translations and of original poetry in languages other than English. The Draft, a human rights journal, the Bard Journal of the Social Sciences, Bard Science Journal, and Qualia, a philosophy journal, are also student-published. Bard Papers is a privately funded literary magazine operated jointly between faculty and students.
Other prominent student groups include: the International Students Organization (ISO), Afropulse, Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Caribbean Student Association (CSA), Asian Student Organization (ASO), Bard Musical Theatre Company (BMTC), Black Student Organization (BSO), Anti-Capitalism Feminist Coalition, Body Image Discussion Group, Self-Injury Support and Discussion, Bard Film Committee, Queer Student Association, Trans Life Collective, The Scale Project, Student Labor Dialogue, Bard Debate Union, Bard Model UN, Surrealist Training Circus, Bard Bike Co-Op, Bard Bars, Bard POC Theater Ensemble, and college radio station WXBC. WXBC was founded in 1947. In 2006, WXBC was nominated for "Station of the Year" and "Biggest Improvement" in the CMJ College Radio Awards.
Bard has a strong independent music scene considering its isolation and size. The college's Old Gym was once a popular location for concerts and parties in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2004, the Old Gym was shut down and in spring 2006 transformed into a student-run theater by students Brel Froebe, Julie Rossman, and Kell Condon. Many activities that once took place there, occur in the smaller SMOG building. SMOG is primarily used as a music venue featuring student-run bands.
Athletics
Bard College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Raptors are a member of the Liberty League. Prior conference affiliations include the Skyline Conference and the former Hudson Valley Athletic Conference. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball and squash. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, squash, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.
One of the more popular club sports on campus is rugby. Bard College Rugby Football Club fields men's and women's teams that compete in the Tristate Conference, affiliated with National Collegiate Rugby. Additional club sports include: ultimate frisbee, fencing, and equestrian.
Alumni and faculty
Notable alumni
Notable alumni of Bard include fraternal songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, comedian and actor Chevy Chase (1968); Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan (1969); actors Blythe Danner (1965), Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann,, Mia Farrow (did not graduate) Jonah Hill (did not graduate), Ezra Miller (did not graduate), Griffin Gluck (Did Not Graduate) and Larry Hagman (did not graduate); filmmakers Gia Coppola, Todd Haynes (MFA), Sadie Bennings (MFA), and Lana Wachowski (did not graduate); photographer Herb Ritts; actor and director Christopher Guest; songwriter Billy Steinberg; theater director Anne Bogart; screenwriter Howard E. Koch; writer David Cote; comedians Adam Conoverand Raphael Bob-Waksberg; fashion designer Tom Ford (did not graduate), classical composer Bruce Wolosoff; journalist Ronan Farrow; writer and social theorist Albert Jay Nock; Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys (did not graduate); and artists Tschabalala Self, and Frances Bean Cobain (did not graduate).
Notable faculty
Among the college's most well-known former faculty are Toni Morrison, Heinrich Blücher, Hannah Arendt, Roy Lichtenstein, Mary McCarthy,. Arthur Penn,, Nathan Thrall, Vik Muniz, Mitch Epstein, Larry Fink, John Ashbery, Richard Teitelbaum, Mary Lee Settle (part time),, Andre Aciman, Orhan Pamuk, Chinua Achebe, Charles Burnett, Bill T. Jones., and Alexander Soros. Notable current faculty, as of 2024, include Stephen Shore, An-My Lê, Neil Gaiman, Jeffrey Gibson Gilles Peress, John Ryle, Tan Dun, Walid Raad, Daniel Mendelsohn,Thomas Chatterton Williams, Hua Hsu, Kobena Mercer, Joseph O’Neill, Ian Buruma, Judy Pfaff, Joan Tower, Walter Russell Mead, Nayland Blake, Nuruddin Farah, Mona Simpson,Sky Hopinka (MFA Faculty), Masha Gessen (visiting writer), Kelly Reichardt (artist in residence), Francine Prose (writer in residence), Susan Weber, Lauren Cornell, Ann Lauterbach, Valeria Luiselli, and Tschabalala Self (visiting artist in residence).
References
External links
Official website
Official athletics website |
Miller_Williams | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Williams | [
476
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Williams"
] | Stanley Miller Williams (April 8, 1930 – January 1, 2015) was an American contemporary poet, as well as a university professor, translator and editor. He produced over 25 books and won several awards for his poetry. His accomplishments were chronicled in Arkansas Biography. Williams was chosen to read a poem at the second inauguration of Bill Clinton. One of his best-known poems is "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina."
He was the father of American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.
Early life
Williams was born in Hoxie, Arkansas, to Ernest Burdette and Ann Jeanette Miller Williams. He was educated in Arkansas, first enrolling at Hendrix College in Conway and eventually transferring to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where he published his first collection of poems, Et Cetera, while getting his bachelor's degree in biology. He went on to get a masters in zoology at the University of Arkansas in 1952.
Career
He taught in several universities in various capacities, first as a professor of biology and then of English literature, and in 1970 returned to the University of Arkansas as a member of the English Department and the creative writing program. In 1980 he helped found the University of Arkansas Press, where he served as director for nearly 20 years. At the time of his death, he was a professor emeritus of literature at the University of Arkansas.
Poetry
Miller received the 1963–64 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, and he won the 1991 Poets' Prize for his collection Living on the Surface.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton selected Williams to read his poem "Of History and Hope" at Clinton's second inauguration, instantly bringing Williams to national attention. In addition, President Clinton presented Williams with the National Arts Award for his lifelong contribution to the arts.
Personal life
Miller had spina bifida. He died on January 1, 2015, of Alzheimer's disease. In February, 2016, his daughter Lucinda Williams released a song entitled "If My Love Could Kill," as a testament to her father's suffering from this disability.
Williams lived in Fayetteville with his second wife, Jordan, who had been his student. Williams and his first wife, Lucille Fern Day, had three children together: Lucinda Williams, a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, another daughter, Karyn, who graduated from the School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, and a son, Robert. Williams also had three grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
Awards
During his lifetime, Williams received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including:
Henry Bellman Award (1957)
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellowship in Poetry (1961)
Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship (1963–1964)
Fulbright Professorship, National University of Mexico (1970)
New York Arts Fund Award (1970)
Prix de Rome in Poetry (1976)
Poets' Prize for Living on the Surface (1990)
John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence (1993–1994)
National Arts Award (1997)
The Porter Fund Literary Prize Lifetime Achievement Award (2009)
Books
A Circle of Stone, 1965
So Long at the Fair, 1968
Halfway from Hoxie, 1973
Why God Permits Evil, 1977, Louisiana State University Press
The Boys on Their Bony Mules, 1983, Louisiana State University Press
Patterns of Poetry, 1986, Louisiana State University Press
Living on the Surface, 1989
Adjusting to the Light, 1992, University of Missouri Press
Points of Departure, 1994
The Ways We Touch: Poems, 1997, University of Illinois Press
Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems, 1999, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 978-0-252-06774-7
Making a Poem: Some Thoughts About Poetry and the People Who Write It, 2006, Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 978-0-8071-3132-9
Time and the Tilting Earth: Poems, 2008, Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 978-0-8071-3353-8
References
Sources
Farnsworth, Elizabeth. Jan. 16, 1996. Interview with Miller Williams. American Poetry/PBS Online Newshour [1]
Rosenthal, Harry. Jan 20, 1997. "Poet Addresses Inaugural Event." Washington Post. [2]
"Miller Williams." 2003. Entry in Contemporary Authors Online. Gale.
Gatewood, Willard B. October 28, 2009. "Miller Williams." Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
Williams, Lucinda. 2023. Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I told you. New York: Crown.[3]
Miller Williams (1930–2015). Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) [4]
Further reading
Burns, Michael (ed.) 1991. Miller Williams and the Poetry of the Particular. Columbia, Mo: University of Missouri Press.
Williams, Lucinda 2023. Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I told you. New York: Crown.
Correspondence and other materials. Miller Williams Collection, 1950–1995. Fayetteville, Ar: University of Arkansas Libraries, Special Collections Division, Manuscript Collection 1387. http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/findingaids/todd.html |
Hoxie,_Arkansas | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxie,_Arkansas | [
476
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxie,_Arkansas"
] | Hoxie is a city in Lawrence County, Arkansas, United States. It lies immediately south of Walnut Ridge. The population was 2,780 at the 2010 census.
History
The third Arkansas school to integrate
Prior to 1955, Hoxie maintained a dual system of education for younger students, one for white students and another one for black students. Rather than maintain two high schools, white high school students were educated locally, while black high school students were bused to a black school in Jonesboro. The negro school for grades 1-8 had only one teacher. On June 25, 1955, in response to the recent Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Hoxie's superintendent, Kunkel Edward Vance, spearheaded plans to integrate the schools, and he received the unanimous support of Hoxie's school board. On July 11, 1955, Hoxie schools recommenced and allowed African American students to attend. In order to do "what was morally right in the sight of God" and to "uphold the law of the land", Vance insisted that all facilities, including restrooms and cafeterias, be integrated.
Although there were many nervous parents, the schools opening on July 11 went smoothly. The teachers and children got along fine, but unlike the two other school districts in Arkansas (Charleston and Fayetteville) that implemented partial integration, Hoxie attracted national attention. A team of photographers from Life Magazine was on hand to document the event. After the publication of the Life article, segregationists from outside the area converged on Hoxie in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the school board decision. Handbills were printed making wild assertions including allegations of a plot between negroes, Communists, and Jews, and advocating for the death of "Race Mixers". A group of local citizens, led by soybean farmer Herbert Brewer, confronted the school board in an unproductive meeting. After the meeting, Brewer organized a White Citizen's Council, which called for students, both black and white to boycott the schools. Approximately one third of the white students refused to attend the schools beginning on August 4, 1955.
A lawyer, Amis Guthridge, the leader of White America, inc., attempted to draw more outside influence into the fray, inflaming passions with statements such as calling school integration a "plan that was founded in Moscow in 1924 to mongrelize the white race in America" and claimed that "white Methodist women" wanted integration so they could get negro men into their bedroom. Johnson, Guthridge and others fanned the flames, and were joined by Orval Faubus in trying to invoke fears of miscegenation in white husbands and parents. In one rally, a speaker shouted "they do not want equality, you know they don't want equality"..."They want what you've got, they want your women!"
The Hoxie School Board filed suit against the segregationist leaders from Hoxie and elsewhere in the state and charged them with trespassing on school property, threatening picket lines, organizing boycotts, and intimidating school officials. In November 1955, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas Thomas C. Trimble ruled that pro-segregationists had "planned and conspired" to prevent integration in Hoxie. In December 1955, he issued a permanent injunction and restraining order against the segregationists. Their appeal in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals was opposed by United States Attorney General Herbert Brownell and the U.S. Department of Justice. This marked the first intervention by the attorney general in support of any school district attempting to comply with the Brown decision. On October 25, 1956, the court ruled in favor of the Hoxie School Board.
U.S. Attorney Osro Cobb recalls that the situation at Hoxie
had reached the point of possible bloodshed. Guns were being carried; threats were being made, and violence could have erupted at any moment. Notwithstanding, a conference exploring the situation and its possible effects on the community with the individuals at the core of the problem had worked a minor miracle. It demonstrated that while passions and prejudice in race relations often hurl reason aside, reason can be restored at the conference table where there is dedication by the parties to the public interest. That is the lesson to be learned from Hoxie.
In 2003, David Appleby produced a documentary entitled Hoxie - The First Stand detailing the events of school integration in Hoxie. The film later received the Peabody Award and the Du Pont Award for Broadcast Journalism.
Train crash
On August 17, 2014, at 2:30 AM, two Union Pacific freight trains collided in Hoxie, killing two people and causing the evacuation of about 500 people within a 1.5 square mile radius. U.S. 67 was closed for approximately one week for cleanup and repair.
Geography
Hoxie is located at 36°2′55″N 90°58′38″W (36.048616, -90.977296).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.0 square miles (10 km2), all land.
List of highways
U.S. 63
U.S. 67
U.S. 63 Business
Highway 367
U.S. Highways 63 and 67 intersect and cross each other in Hoxie. U.S. 63 enters Arkansas at the Missouri line at Thayer, Missouri, and Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, two contiguous cities. U.S. 63 then goes southeastward to connect with Interstate 55 near Turrell, in Crittenden County. It runs contiguous with I-55 and I-40 for a ways. Both those interstates cross the Mississippi River into Memphis, Tennessee. U.S. 63 is then contiguous with a number of other routes southward in Arkansas, leaving Arkansas for Louisiana at Junction City, in Union County. U.S. 67 is a southwest—northeast bisector of Arkansas.
Two railroads, the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and the Union Pacific, have mainline tracks that cross each other at Hoxie—the BNSF in a generally northwest-southeast direction, and the UP in a generally north and south direction. This same situation also occurs in Jonesboro, in Craighead County.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,598 people, 1,186 households, and 616 families residing in the city.
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 2,780 people, 1,108 households, and 797 families residing in the city. The population density was 707.5 inhabitants per square mile (273.2/km2). There were 1,241 housing units at an average density of 311.7 per square mile (120.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 98.15% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 0.39% Native American, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0.28% from other races, and 0.64% from two or more races. 1.49% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 1,108 households, out of which 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.6% were married couples living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.0% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.9% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $24,726, and the median income for a family was $30,085. Males had a median income of $26,583 versus $18,418 for females. The per capita income for the city was $12,190. About 20.7% of families and 24.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.3% of those under age 18 and 28.0% of those age 65 or over.
Education
Public education for elementary and secondary school students is provided by the Hoxie School District, which leads to graduation from Hoxie High School. The school mascot and athletic emblem is the Mustang with green and white serving as the school colors.
Notable people
Billy Taylor, All-American football player
Miller Williams, poet
Raven Gates Gottschalk, reality show contestant
References
External links
Hoxie Public Schools
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Hoxie (Lawrence County) |
Plains_zebra | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_zebra | [
477
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_zebra"
] | The plains zebra (Equus quagga, formerly Equus burchellii) is the most common and geographically widespread species of zebra. Its range is fragmented, but spans much of southern and eastern Africa south of the Sahara. Six or seven subspecies have been recognised, including the extinct quagga which was thought to be a separate species. More recent research supports variations in zebra populations being clines rather than subspecies.
Plains zebras are intermediate in size between the larger Grévy's zebra and the smaller mountain zebra and tend to have broader stripes than both. Great variation in coat patterns exists between clines and individuals. The plains zebra's habitat is generally, but not exclusively, treeless grasslands and savanna woodlands, both tropical and temperate. They generally avoid desert, dense rainforest and permanent wetlands. Zebras are preyed upon by lions and spotted hyenas, Nile crocodiles and, to a lesser extent, leopards, cheetahs and African wild dogs.
Plains zebras are a highly social species, forming harems with a single stallion, several mares and their recent offspring; bachelor groups also form. Groups may come together to form herds. The animals keep watch for predators; they bark or snort when they see a predator and the harem stallion attacks predators to defend his harem.
The plains zebra remains common in game reserves, but is threatened by human activities such as hunting for its meat and hide, as well as competition with livestock and encroachment by farming on much of its habitat, and is listed as near threatened by the IUCN as of 2016. The species population is stable and not endangered, though populations in most countries have declined sharply.
Taxonomy
The plains zebra was formally classified by British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1824 as Equus burchellii. After the quagga, described by Pieter Boddaert in 1785, was found to be the same species in the 21st century, the plains zebra was reclassified as Equus quagga due to the principle of priority. The plains zebra and mountain zebra were traditionally placed in the subgenus Hippotigris, in contrast to Grévy's zebra, which was considered the sole species of the subgenus Dolichohippus; however, recent (2013) phylogenetic evidence finds that plains zebras are more closely related to Grévy's zebras than mountain zebras. Groves and Bell (2004) place all three species in the subgenus Hippotigris, and zebras appear to be a monophyletic lineage. In areas where plains zebras are sympatric with Grévy's zebras, finding them in the same herds is not unusual, and fertile hybrids occur.
Subspecies
In their 2004 study of cranial and pelage differences between specimens, Groves and Bell found support for the division of the plains zebra into six subspecies:
*Sometimes a seventh subspecies is recognised.
Burchell's zebra was thought to have been hunted to extinction. However, Groves and Bell concluded that "the extinct true Burchell's zebra is a phantom". Careful study of the original zebra populations in Zululand and Eswatini and of skins harvested on game farms in Zululand and Natal has revealed that a certain small proportion shows similarity to what now is regarded as typical burchellii. The type localities of the subspecies Equus quagga burchellii and Equus quagga antiquorum are so close to each other that the two are in fact one and that, therefore, the older of the two names should take precedence over the younger. They suggested that the correct name for the subspecies must be burchellii, not antiquorum.
A 2005 genetic study confirmed the quagga being the same species as the plains zebra. It showed that the quagga had little genetic diversity and that it diverged from the other plains zebra subspecies only 120,000–290,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene and, possibly, the penultimate glacial maximum. Its distinct coat pattern may have evolved rapidly because of geographical isolation and/or adaptation to a drier environment. In addition, plains zebra subspecies tend to have less striping the further south they live, and the quagga was the most southern-living of them all.
The simplified cladogram below is based on the 2005 analysis (some taxa shared haplotypes and could therefore not be differentiated):
A 2018 DNA study found no evidence for a subspecies structure in plains zebras but, instead, observed a north–south genetic continuum. Modern plains zebra populations appear to have originated from Southern Africa around 370,000 years ago with plains zebras in Uganda, the most northern population, being the most distinct.
Physical description
The plains zebra stands at a height of 127–140 cm (50–55 in) with a head-body length of 217–246 cm (85–97 in) and a tail length of 47–56.5 cm (18.5–22.2 in). Males weigh 220–322 kg (485–710 lb) while females weigh 175–250 kg (386–551 lb). The species is intermediate in size between the larger Grévy's zebra and the smaller mountain zebra. It is dumpy bodied with relatively short legs and a skull with a convex forehead and a somewhat concave nose profile. The neck is thicker in males than in females. The ears are upright and have rounded tips. They are shorter than in the mountain zebra and narrower than in Grévy's zebra. As with all wild equids, the plains zebra has an erect mane along the neck and a tuft of hair at the end of the tail. The body hair of a zebra is 9.4 ± 4 mm (0.37 ± 0.16 in), shorter than in other African ungulates.
Like all zebras, they are boldly striped in black and white and no two individuals look exactly alike. Compared to other species, the plains zebra has broader stripes. The stripes are vertical on the fore part of the body, and tend towards the horizontal on the hindquarters. Northern zebra populations have narrower and more defined striping; southern populations have varied but lesser amounts of striping on the under parts, the legs and the hindquarters. Southern populations also have brown "shadow" stripes between the black and white colouring. These are absent or poorly expressed in northern zebras. The natal coat of a foal is brown and white and the brown darkens with age.
Various abnormalities of the patterns have been documented in plains zebras. Melanistic zebras have high concentrations of dark stripes on the torso but low concentrations on the legs. "Spotted" individuals display interruptions in black striping patterns. There have even been morphs with white spots on dark backgrounds. Striping abnormalities have been linked to inbreeding. Albino zebras have been recorded in the forests of Mount Kenya, with the dark stripes being blonde. The quagga had brown and white stripes on the head and neck, brown upper parts and a white belly, tail and legs.
Ecology
Range and habitat
The plains zebra's range stops short of the Sahara from South Sudan and southern Ethiopia extending south along eastern Africa, as far as Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi, before spreading into most southern African countries. They may have lived in Algeria in the Neolithic era. Plains zebras generally live in treeless grasslands and savanna woodlands, but can be found in a variety of habitats, both tropical and temperate. However, they are generally absent from deserts, dense rainforests, and permanent wetlands. They generally prefer Acacieae woodlands over Commiphora. They are water-dependent and live in more mesic environments than other African equids. They seldom wander 10–12 km (6.2–7.5 mi) from a water source. Zebras also live in elevations from sea level to 4,300 ft on Mount Kenya.
Depending on the population, zebra herds may be sedentary, being highly dense with small ranges, or migratory, being less populated with separate, extensive dry and wet home ranges. When migrating, zebras appear to rely on some memory of the locations where foraging conditions were best and may predict conditions months before their arrival.
Diet and predation
Plains zebras primarily feed on grass; preferred species being Themeda triandra, Cynodon dactylon, Eragrostis superba and Cenchrus ciliaris. Zebra sometimes browse or dig for corms and rhizomes during the dry season. They appear to partial to eating scorched Colophospermum mopane and Pterocarpus rotundifolius, consuming both the leaves and twigs.
Plains zebras are adapted for grazing on both long, tough grass stems and newly emerging short grass. In some areas, it rarely feeds below 100–150 mm (3.9–5.9 in) to ground level. It ranges more widely than many other species, even into woodlands, and it is often the first grazing species to appear in a well-vegetated area. The flexible upper lip allows them to push plant material between the incisors to cut. Zebras have a less efficient digestive system than ruminants but food passage is twice as fast. Thus, zebras are less selective in foraging, but they do spend much time eating. The zebra is a pioneer grazer and prepares the way for more specialised grazers such as blue wildebeests and Thomson's gazelles.
The plains zebra's major predators are lions and spotted hyenas. Lions are most successful when targeting lone individuals, usually an old male while hyenas chase and isolate an individual from the group, usually a female or foal. Nile crocodiles also prey on zebras when they are near water. Less common predators include leopards, cheetahs and African wild dogs, which mostly hunt foals. When in the presence of a lion, zebras remain alert and stand in a semi-circle at as much as 100 m (330 ft) and no less than 50 m (160 ft). Stallions sometimes try to drive lions away with bluff charges. By contrast, zebras may approach cheetahs and wild dogs and a single hyena is allowed to come within a few metres. To escape from predators, an adult zebra can run at 60–70 km/h (37–43 mph). When being hunted by hyenas or wild dogs, a zebra harem stays close together and cooperates to protect threatened members, particularly the young. The harem stallion goes on the offensive and attacks the dogs or hyenas.
Behaviour
Plains zebras are nomadic and non-territorial, home ranges vary from 30 km2 (12 sq mi) to 600 km2 (230 sq mi), depending on the area and if the population is migratory. They are more active during the day and spend most of their time feeding. Other activities include dust bathing, rubbing, drinking and intermittent resting which is very brief. At night, zebra activity is subdued except when threatened by predators. They may rest or sleep laying down, while one individual keeps guard.
Social structure
The plains zebra is highly social and usually forms small family groups called harems, which consist of a single stallion, several mares and their recent offspring. The adult membership of a harem is highly stable, typically remaining together for months to years. Groups of all-male "bachelors" also exist. These are stable groups of up to 15 males with an age-based hierarchy, led by a young male. These males stay in their groups until they are ready to start a harem. The bachelors prepare for their adult roles with play fights and greeting/challenge rituals, which take up most of their activities.
Multiple harems and bachelor groups come together to form larger herds of hundreds of animals, especially during migrations. Plains zebras are unusual among harem-holding species in forming these groups. In addition, pairs of harems may create temporarily stable subgroups within a herd, allowing individuals to interact with those outside their group. Among harem-holding species, this has only been observed in primates such as the gelada and the hamadryas baboon. Bachelor groups tend to be at the periphery of herds and when the herd moves, the bachelors trail behind.
Stallions form and expand their harems by abducting young mares from their natal harems. When a mare reaches sexual maturity and has her first oestrous cycle, she attracts the attention of nearby stallions, both bachelors and harem leaders. Her family stallion (likely her father) chases off or fights stallions attempting to abduct her. Even after a young mare is isolated from her natal harem, the fight over her continues until her oestrous cycle is over and it starts again with the next oestrous cycle. It is rare that the mare's original abductor keeps her for long. When the mare finally ovulates, the male that impregnates her keeps her for good. Thus, the mare becomes a permanent member of a new harem. Oestrus in a female becomes less noticeable to outside males as she gets older, hence competition for older females is virtually nonexistent.
Mares exist in a hierarchy, with the alpha female being the first to mate with the harem stallion and being the one to lead the group. When new mares are added to the group, they are met with hostility by the other mares. Thus, the harem stallion must shield the new mares until the aggression subsides. The most recently added females rank lowest. Females that become unfit or weak may drop in their rank, though. The female membership of a harem stays intact, even if a new stallion takes over. During herd gatherings, family stallions may be cordial towards each other, while the mares are less tolerant.
A stallion defends his harem from other males. When challenged, the stallion issues a warning to the invader by rubbing nose or shoulder with him. If the warning is not heeded, a fight breaks out. Zebra fights often become very violent, with the animals biting at each other's necks, heads, or legs, wrestling to the ground and occasional kicking. Sometimes, a stallion lies still on the ground as if surrendering, but once the other male lets up, he strikes and continues the fight. Most fighting occurs over young mares in oestrus and as long as a harem stallion is healthy, he usually is not challenged. Only unhealthy stallions have their harems taken over and even then, the new stallion gradually takes over, pushing the old one out without a fight.
Communication
At least six different calls have been documented for the plains zebra. One is its distinctive, high-pitched, contact call (commonly called "barking") heard as "a-ha, a-ha, a-ha" or "kwa-ha, kaw-ha, ha, ha" also transcribed as "kwahaah", or "oug-ga". The species name quagga is derived from the Khoikhoi word for "zebra" and is onomatopoeic for its call. When a predator is sighted, a zebra makes a two-syllable alarm call. A loud snort is made when moving in cover of potential danger. When in contentment, a zebra makes a more drawn-out snort. Males make a short, high-pitched squeal when hurt, and foals emit a drawn-out wail when in distress.
Two main facial expressions are made by zebras; the greeting and threat. In both cases, the lips are pulled back and chewing motions are made. Greeting involves the ears sticking up and directing forward; while the threat involves the ears down. Zebras strengthen their social bonds with grooming. Members of a harem nip and scrape along the neck, withers, and back with their teeth and lips. Mothers and foals groom the most often, followed by siblings. Grooming shows social status and eases aggressive behaviour.
Reproduction and parenting
The stallion mates with all his mares. Males exhibit the flehmen response to test for female receptivity, which involves the upper lip curling back to smell for urine (via the vomeronasal organ). The female signals her readiness for copulation by straddling her legs and raising her tail. The gestation period lasts around a year, and a single young is produced. Mares may give birth to one foal every twelve months. The birthing peak is during the rainy season. A mare gives birth within the vicinity of her group and while lying down on her side. The newborn foal weighs 30–35 kg (66–77 lb) and the afterbirth is rarely consumed.
A newborn is capable of standing almost immediately and starts to eat grass within a week. Early on, a mother zebra keeps any other zebra away from her foal, including the stallion, the other mares, and even her previous offspring. Later, though, they all bond. Within the group, a foal has the same rank as its mother. The stallion is generally intolerant of foals that are not his, and zebras may practice infanticide and feticide.
Mortality for foals is high in their first year of life and is usually caused by predation. However, zebra young are afforded more protection than those of species like wildebeest and hartebeest. A foal is usually weaned at around eleven months, but may suckle for longer. Females reach puberty before three years, and males after five or six. Young male zebras eventually leave their family groups as the relationship with their mothers fades after the birth of a sibling. The young stallion then seeks out other young stallions for company. Young females may stay in the harem until they are abducted by another stallion. Plains zebras have an average lifespan of 25 years in the wild.
Human interactions
Conservation
In 2016, the plains zebra was classified as near threatened by the IUCN. As of that year, the total population is estimated to be around 500,000 individuals. The species remains common throughout its range but has experienced population declines in 10 of the 17 countries where it is native. They are stable in Ethiopia, Malawi, and South Africa and possibly Angola; stable or increasing in Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini; and decreasing in Botswana, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They are extinct in Burundi, Lesotho and possibly Somalia.
Zebras are threatened by hunting for their hide and meat, and habitat change from farming. They also compete with livestock for food, and fencing blocks migration routes. Civil wars in some countries have also caused declines in zebra populations. The zebra can be found in numerous protected areas across its range, including the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Tsavo and Masai Mara in Kenya, Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, Etosha National Park in Namibia, and Kruger National Park in South Africa. Some stable populations live in unprotected areas.
The quagga was hunted by early Dutch settlers and later by Afrikaners to provide meat or for their skins. The skins were traded or used locally. The quagga was probably vulnerable to extinction due to its limited distribution, and it may have competed with domestic livestock for forage. The last known wild quagga died in 1878. The last captive quagga, a female in Amsterdam's Natura Artis Magistra zoo, lived there from 9 May 1867 until it died on 12 August 1883, but its origin and cause of death are unclear. In 1984, the quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate the phenotype of hair coat pattern and related characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell's zebras.
In popular culture
Zebras have been featured in African art and culture for millennia. They have been depicted in rock art in Southern Africa (modern Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) dating from 20,000–28,000 years ago, though not as commonly as antelope species like eland. How the zebra got its stripes has been the subject of folk tales, some of which involve it being scorched by fire. The San people associated zebra stripes with water, rain and lighting due to its dazzling pattern.
The plains zebra is the national animal of the Republic of Botswana and its stripes are depicted on the country's flag. The flag stripes also represent racial harmony in the country. The zebra has also been associated with beauty and the women of various societies would paint much of their bodies in stripes. For the Shona people of Zimbabwe, the zebra is a totem animal, along with the eland, buffalo, lion and monkey. The zebra is praised in a poem as an "iridescent and glittering creature". Its stripes have symbolised the joining of male and female and at Great Zimbabwe, zebra stripes decorate what is believed to be a domba, a premarital school meant to initiate women into adulthood. In the Shona language, the name "madhuve" means "woman/women of the zebra totem" and is a given name for girls in Zimbabwe.
Zebras have also been represented in Western culture. They have been thought of as a more exotic alternative to horse; the comic book character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is depicted riding a zebra. The film Racing Stripes features a captive zebra ostracised from the horses and end up being ridden by a rebellious girl. In the film Fantasia, two centaurs are depicted being half human and half zebra, instead of the typical half human and half horse. Zebras have been featured as characters in other animated films like Khumba, The Lion King and the Madagascar films.
References
== External links == |
Giraffe | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe | [
477
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe"
] | The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes have been thought of as one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. Most recently, researchers proposed dividing them into four extant species due to new research into their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, and individual species can be distinguished by their fur coat patterns. Seven other extinct species of Giraffa are known from the fossil record.
The giraffe's distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, horn-like ossicones, and spotted coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other ground-based herbivores cannot reach.
Lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and African wild dogs may prey upon giraffes. Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males but are gregarious and may gather in large groups. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking", combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, which bear sole responsibility for rearing the young.
The giraffe has intrigued various ancient and modern cultures for its peculiar appearance and has often been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. It is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction. It has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. Giraffes are still found in many national parks and game reserves, but estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. More than 1,600 were kept in zoos in 2010.
Etymology
The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarāfah (زرافة), ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا (zurnā, "flute, zurna") and پَا (pā, "leg"). In early Modern English the spellings jarraf and ziraph were used, probably directly from the Arabic, and in Middle English jarraf and ziraph, gerfauntz. The Italian form giraffa arose in the 1590s. The modern English form developed around 1600 from the French girafe.
"Camelopard" is an archaic English name for the giraffe; it derives from the Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis), from κάμηλος (kámēlos), "camel", and πάρδαλις (párdalis), "leopard", referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like colouration.
Taxonomy
Evolution
The giraffe is one of only two living genera of the family Giraffidae in the order Artiodactyla, the other being the okapi. They are ruminants of the clade Pecora, along with Antilocapridae (pronghorns), Cervidae (deer), Bovidae (cattle, antelope, goats and sheep) and Moschidae (musk deer). A 2019 genome study (cladogram below) finds that Giraffidae are a sister taxon to Antilocapridae, with an estimated split of over 20 million years ago.
The family Giraffidae was once much more extensive, with over 10 fossil genera described. The elongation of the neck appears to have started early in the giraffe lineage. Comparisons between giraffes and their ancient relatives suggest vertebrae close to the skull lengthened earlier, followed by lengthening of vertebrae further down. One early giraffid ancestor was Canthumeryx, which has been dated variously to have lived 25 to 20 million years ago, 17–15 mya or 18–14.3 mya and whose deposits have been found in Libya. This animal resembled an antelope and had a medium-sized, lightly built body. Giraffokeryx appeared 15–12 mya on the Indian subcontinent and resembled an okapi or a small giraffe, and had a longer neck and similar ossicones. Giraffokeryx may have shared a clade with more massively built giraffids like Sivatherium and Bramatherium.
Giraffids like Palaeotragus, Shansitherium and Samotherium appeared 14 mya and lived throughout Africa and Eurasia. These animals had broader skulls with reduced frontal cavities. Paleotragus resembled the okapi and may have been its ancestor. Others find that the okapi lineage diverged earlier, before Giraffokeryx. Samotherium was a particularly important transitional fossil in the giraffe lineage, as the length and structure of its cervical vertebrae were between those of a modern giraffe and an okapi, and its neck posture was likely similar to the former's. Bohlinia, which first appeared in southeastern Europe and lived 9–7 mya, was likely a direct ancestor of the giraffe. Bohlinia closely resembled modern giraffes, having a long neck and legs and similar ossicones and dentition.
Bohlinia colonised China and northern India and produced the Giraffa, which, around 7 million years ago, reached Africa. Climate changes led to the extinction of the Asian giraffes, while the African giraffes survived and radiated into new species. Living giraffes appear to have arisen around 1 million years ago in eastern Africa during the Pleistocene. Some biologists suggest the modern giraffes descended from G. jumae; others find G. gracilis a more likely candidate. G. jumae was larger and more robust, while G. gracilis was smaller and more slender.
The changes from extensive forests to more open habitats, which began 8 mya, are believed to be the main driver for the evolution of giraffes. During this time, tropical plants disappeared and were replaced by arid C4 plants, and a dry savannah emerged across eastern and northern Africa and western India. Some researchers have hypothesised that this new habitat, coupled with a different diet, including acacia species, may have exposed giraffe ancestors to toxins that caused higher mutation rates and a higher rate of evolution. The coat patterns of modern giraffes may also have coincided with these habitat changes. Asian giraffes are hypothesised to have had more okapi-like colourations.
The giraffe genome is around 2.9 billion base pairs in length, compared to the 3.3 billion base pairs of the okapi. Of the proteins in giraffe and okapi genes, 19.4% are identical. The divergence of giraffe and okapi lineages dates to around 11.5 mya. A small group of regulatory genes in the giraffe appears responsible for the animal's height and associated circulatory adaptations.
Species and subspecies
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently recognises only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies.
Carl Linnaeus originally classified living giraffes as one species in 1758. He gave it the binomial name Cervus camelopardalis. Mathurin Jacques Brisson coined the generic name Giraffa in 1762. During the 1900s, various taxonomies with two or three species were proposed. A 2007 study on the genetics of giraffes using mitochondrial DNA suggested at least six lineages could be recognised as species. A 2011 study using detailed analyses of the morphology of giraffes, and application of the phylogenetic species concept, described eight species of living giraffes. A 2016 study also concluded that living giraffes consist of multiple species. The researchers suggested the existence of four species, which have not exchanged genetic information between each other for 1 to 2 million years.
A 2020 study showed that depending on the method chosen, different taxonomic hypotheses recognizing from two to six species can be considered for the genus Giraffa. That study also found that multi-species coalescent methods can lead to taxonomic over-splitting, as those methods delimit geographic structures rather than species. The three-species hypothesis, which recognises G. camelopardalis, G. giraffa, and G. tippelskirchi, is highly supported by phylogenetic analyses and also corroborated by most population genetic and multi-species coalescent analyses. A 2021 whole genome sequencing study suggests the existence of four distinct species and seven subspecies. A 2024 study found a higher amount of ancient gene flow than expected between populations.
The cladogram below shows the phylogenetic relationship between the four proposed species and seven subspecies based on a 2021 genome analysis. The eight lineages correspond to eight traditional subspecies in the one-species hypothesis. The Rothschild giraffe is subsumed into G. camelopardalis camelopardalis.
The following table compares the different hypotheses for giraffe species. The description column shows the traditional nine subspecies in the one-species hypothesis.
The first extinct species to be described was Giraffa sivalensis Falconer and Cautley 1843, a reevaluation of a vertebra that was initially described as a fossil of the living giraffe. While taxonomic opinion may be lacking on some names, the extinct species that have been published include:
Giraffa gracilis
Giraffa jumae
Giraffa pomeli
Giraffa priscilla
Giraffa punjabiensis
Giraffa pygmaea
Giraffa sivalensis
Giraffa stillei
Anatomy
Fully grown giraffes stand 4.3–5.7 m (14–19 ft) tall, with males taller than females. The average weight is 1,192 kg (2,628 lb) for an adult male and 828 kg (1,825 lb) for an adult female. Despite its long neck and legs, its body is relatively short.: 66 The skin is mostly gray or tan, and can reach a thickness of 20 mm (0.79 in).: 87 The 80–100 cm (31–39 in) long tail ends in a long, dark tuft of hair and is used as a defense against insects.: 94
The coat has dark blotches or patches, which can be orange, chestnut, brown, or nearly black, surrounded by light hair, usually white or cream coloured. Male giraffes become darker as they grow old. The coat pattern has been claimed to serve as camouflage in the light and shade patterns of savannah woodlands. When standing among trees and bushes, they are hard to see at even a few metres distance. However, adult giraffes move about to gain the best view of an approaching predator, relying on their size and ability to defend themselves rather than on camouflage, which may be more important for calves. Each giraffe has a unique coat pattern. Calves inherit some coat pattern traits from their mothers, and variation in some spot traits is correlated with calf survival. The skin under the blotches may regulate the animal's body temperature, being sites for complex blood vessel systems and large sweat glands. Spotless or solid-color giraffes are very rare, but have been observed.
The fur may give the animal chemical defense, as its parasite repellents give it a characteristic scent. At least 11 main aromatic chemicals are in the fur, although indole and 3-methylindole are responsible for most of the smell. Because males have a stronger odour than females, it may also have a sexual function.
Head
Both sexes have prominent horn-like structures called ossicones, which can reach 13.5 cm (5.3 in). They are formed from ossified cartilage, covered in skin, and fused to the skull at the parietal bones.: 95–97 Being vascularised, the ossicones may have a role in thermoregulation, and are used in combat between males. Appearance is a reliable guide to the sex or age of a giraffe: the ossicones of females and young are thin and display tufts of hair on top, whereas those of adult males tend to be bald and knobbed on top. A lump, which is more prominent in males, emerges in the middle of the skull. Males develop calcium deposits that form bumps on their skulls as they age. Multiple sinuses lighten a giraffe's skull.: 103 However, as males age, their skulls become heavier and more club-like, helping them become more dominant in combat. The occipital condyles at the bottom of the skull allow the animal to tip its head over 90 degrees and grab food on the branches directly above them with the tongue.: 103, 110
With eyes located on the sides of the head, the giraffe has a broad visual field from its great height.: 85, 102 Compared to other ungulates, giraffe vision is more binocular and the eyes are larger with a greater retinal surface area. Giraffes may see in colour,: 85 and their senses of hearing and smell are sharp. The ears are movable.: 95 The nostrils are slit-shaped, possibly to withstand blowing sand. The giraffe's tongue is about 45 cm (18 in) long. It is black, perhaps to protect against sunburn, and can grasp foliage and delicately pick off leaves.: 109–110 The upper lip is flexible and hairy to protect against sharp prickles. The upper jaw has a hard palate instead of front teeth. The molars and premolars are wide with low crowns on the surface.: 106
Neck
The giraffe has an extremely elongated neck, which can be up to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) in length. Along the neck is a mane made of short, erect hairs. The neck typically rests at an angle of 50–60 degrees, though juveniles are closer to 70 degrees.: 72–73 The long neck results from a disproportionate lengthening of the cervical vertebrae, not from the addition of more vertebrae. Each cervical vertebra is over 28 cm (11 in) long.: 71 They comprise 52–54 per cent of the length of the giraffe's vertebral column, compared with the 27–33 percent typical of similar large ungulates, including the giraffe's closest living relative, the okapi. This elongation largely takes place after birth, perhaps because giraffe mothers would have a difficult time giving birth to young with the same neck proportions as adults. The giraffe's head and neck are held up by large muscles and a nuchal ligament, which are anchored by long thoracic vertebrae spines, giving them a hump.
The giraffe's neck vertebrae have ball and socket joints.: 71 The point of articulation between the cervical and thoracic vertebrae of giraffes is shifted to lie between the first and second thoracic vertebrae (T1 and T2), unlike in most other ruminants, where the articulation is between the seventh cervical vertebra (C7) and T1. This allows C7 to contribute directly to increased neck length and has given rise to the suggestion that T1 is actually C8, and that giraffes have added an extra cervical vertebra. However, this proposition is not generally accepted, as T1 has other morphological features, such as an articulating rib, deemed diagnostic of thoracic vertebrae, and because exceptions to the mammalian limit of seven cervical vertebrae are generally characterised by increased neurological anomalies and maladies.
There are several hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origin and maintenance of elongation in giraffe necks. Charles Darwin originally suggested the "competing browsers hypothesis", which has been challenged only recently. It suggests that competitive pressure from smaller browsers, like kudu, steenbok and impala, encouraged the elongation of the neck, as it enabled giraffes to reach food that competitors could not. This advantage is real, as giraffes can and do feed up to 4.5 m (15 ft) high, while even quite large competitors, such as kudu, can feed up to only about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high. There is also research suggesting that browsing competition is intense at lower levels, and giraffes feed more efficiently (gaining more leaf biomass with each mouthful) high in the canopy. However, scientists disagree about just how much time giraffes spend feeding at levels beyond the reach of other browsers, and a 2010 study found that adult giraffes with longer necks actually suffered higher mortality rates under drought conditions than their shorter-necked counterparts. This study suggests that maintaining a longer neck requires more nutrients, which puts longer-necked giraffes at risk during a food shortage.
Another theory, the sexual selection hypothesis, proposes that long necks evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic, giving males an advantage in "necking" contests (see below) to establish dominance and obtain access to sexually receptive females. In support of this theory, some studies have stated that necks are longer and heavier for males than females of the same age, and that males do not employ other forms of combat. However, a 2024 study found that, while males have thicker necks, females actually have proportionally longer ones, which is likely because of their greater need to find more food to sustain themselves and their dependent young. It has also been proposed that the neck serves to give the animal greater vigilance.
Legs, locomotion and posture
The front legs tend to be longer than the hind legs,: 109 and males have proportionally longer front legs than females, which gives them better support when swinging their necks during fights. The leg bones lack first, second and fifth metapodials.: 109 It appears that a suspensory ligament allows the lanky legs to support the animal's great weight. The hooves of large male giraffes reach 31 cm × 23 cm (12.2 in × 9.1 in) in diameter.: 98 The fetlock of the leg is low to the ground, allowing the hoof to better support the animal's weight. Giraffes lack dewclaws and interdigital glands. While the pelvis is relatively short, the ilium has stretched-out crests.
A giraffe has only two gaits: walking and galloping. Walking is done by moving the legs on one side of the body, then doing the same on the other side. When galloping, the hind legs move around the front legs before the latter move forward, and the tail will curl up. The movements of the head and neck provide balance and control momentum while galloping.: 327–29 The giraffe can reach a sprint speed of up to 60 km/h (37 mph), and can sustain 50 km/h (31 mph) for several kilometres. Giraffes would probably not be competent swimmers as their long legs would be highly cumbersome in the water, although they might be able to float. When swimming, the thorax would be weighed down by the front legs, making it difficult for the animal to move its neck and legs in harmony or keep its head above the water's surface.
A giraffe rests by lying with its body on top of its folded legs.: 329 To lie down, the animal kneels on its front legs and then lowers the rest of its body. To get back up, it first gets on its front knees and positions its backside on top of its hindlegs. It then pulls the backside upwards, and the front legs stand straight up again. At each stage, the animal swings its head for balance.: 67 If the giraffe wants to reach down to drink, it either spreads its front legs or bends its knees. Studies in captivity found the giraffe sleeps intermittently around 4.6 hours per day, mostly at night. It usually sleeps lying down; however, standing sleeps have been recorded, particularly in older individuals. Intermittent short "deep sleep" phases while lying are characterised by the giraffe bending its neck backwards and resting its head on the hip or thigh, a position believed to indicate paradoxical sleep.
Internal systems
In mammals, the left recurrent laryngeal nerve is longer than the right; in the giraffe, it is over 30 cm (12 in) longer. These nerves are longer in the giraffe than in any other living animal; the left nerve is over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) long. Each nerve cell in this path begins in the brainstem and passes down the neck along the vagus nerve, then branches off into the recurrent laryngeal nerve which passes back up the neck to the larynx. Thus, these nerve cells have a length of nearly 5 m (16 ft) in the largest giraffes. Despite its long neck and large skull, the brain of the giraffe is typical for an ungulate. Evaporative heat loss in the nasal passages keep the giraffe's brain cool. The shape of the skeleton gives the giraffe a small lung volume relative to its mass. Its long neck gives it a large amount of dead space, in spite of its narrow windpipe. The giraffe also has a high tidal volume, so the balance of dead space and tidal volume is much the same as other mammals. The animal can still provide enough oxygen for its tissues, and it can increase its respiratory rate and oxygen diffusion when running.
The giraffe's circulatory system has several adaptations to compensate for its great height. Its 11 kg (25 lb) and 60 cm (2 ft) heart must generate approximately double the blood pressure required for a human to maintain blood flow to the brain. As such, the wall of the heart can be as thick as 7.5 cm (3.0 in). Giraffes have relatively high heart rates for their size, at 150 beats per minute.: 76 When the animal lowers its head, the blood rushes down fairly unopposed and a rete mirabile in the upper neck, with its large cross-sectional area, prevents excess blood flow to the brain. When it raises again, the blood vessels constrict and push blood into the brain so the animal does not faint. The jugular veins contain several (most commonly seven) valves to prevent blood flowing back into the head from the inferior vena cava and right atrium while the head is lowered. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them. To solve this problem, the skin of the lower legs is thick and tight, preventing too much blood from pouring into them.
Giraffes have oesophageal muscles that are strong enough to allow regurgitation of food from the stomach up the neck and into the mouth for rumination.: 78 They have four-chambered stomachs, which are adapted to their specialized diet. The intestines of an adult giraffe measure more than 70 m (230 ft) in length and have a relatively small ratio of small to large intestine. The giraffe has a small, compact liver.: 76 In fetuses there may be a small gallbladder that vanishes before birth.
Behaviour and ecology
Habitat and feeding
Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and open woodlands. They prefer areas dominated by Acacieae, Commiphora, Combretum and Terminalia tree over Brachystegia which are more densely spaced.: 322 The Angolan giraffe can be found in desert environments. Giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, preferring those of the subfamily Acacieae and the genera Commiphora and Terminalia, which are important sources of calcium and protein to sustain the giraffe's growth rate. They also feed on shrubs, grass and fruit.: 324 A giraffe eats around 34 kg (75 lb) of plant matter daily. When stressed, giraffes may chew on large branches, stripping them of bark.: 325 Giraffes are also recorded to chew old bones.: 102
During the wet season, food is abundant and giraffes are more spread out, while during the dry season, they gather around the remaining evergreen trees and bushes. Mothers tend to feed in open areas, presumably to make it easier to detect predators, although this may reduce their feeding efficiency. As a ruminant, the giraffe first chews its food, then swallows it for processing and then visibly passes the half-digested cud up the neck and back into the mouth to chew again.: 78–79 The giraffe requires less food than many other herbivores because the foliage it eats has more concentrated nutrients and it has a more efficient digestive system. The animal's faeces come in the form of small pellets. When it has access to water, a giraffe will go no more than three days without drinking.
Giraffes have a great effect on the trees that they feed on, delaying the growth of young trees for some years and giving "waistlines" to too tall trees. Feeding is at its highest during the first and last hours of daytime. Between these hours, giraffes mostly stand and ruminate. Rumination is the dominant activity during the night, when it is mostly done lying down.
Social life
Giraffes usually form groups that vary in size and composition according to ecological, anthropogenic, temporal, and social factors. Traditionally, the composition of these groups had been described as open and ever-changing. For research purposes, a "group" has been defined as "a collection of individuals that are less than a kilometre apart and moving in the same general direction". More recent studies have found that giraffes have long-lasting social groups or cliques based on kinship, sex or other factors, and these groups regularly associate with other groups in larger communities or sub-communities within a fission–fusion society. Proximity to humans can disrupt social arrangements. Masai giraffes in Tanzania sort themselves into different subpopulations of 60–90 adult females with overlapping ranges, each of which differ in reproductive rates and calf mortality. Dispersal is male biased, and can include spatial and/or social dispersal. Adult female subpopulations are connected by males into supercommunities of around 300 animals.
The number of giraffes in a group can range from one up to 66 individuals. Giraffe groups tend to be sex-segregated although mixed-sex groups made of adult females and young males also occur. Female groups may be matrilineally related. Generally, females are more selective than males when deciding which individuals of the same sex they associate with. Particularly stable giraffe groups are those made of mothers and their young, which can last weeks or months. Young males also form groups and will engage in playfights. However, as they get older, males become more solitary but may also associate in pairs or with female groups. Giraffes are not territorial, but they have home ranges that vary according to rainfall and proximity to human settlements. Male giraffes occasionally roam far from areas that they normally frequent.: 329
Early biologists suggested giraffes were mute and unable to create enough air flow to vibrate their vocal folds. This has been proved to the contrary; they have been recorded to communicate using snorts, sneezes, coughs, snores, hisses, bursts, moans, grunts, growls and flute-like sounds. During courtship, males emit loud coughs. Females call their young by bellowing. Calves will emit bleats, mooing and mewing sounds. Snorting and hissing is associated with vigilance. During nighttime, giraffes appear to hum to each other. There is some evidence that giraffes use Helmholtz resonance to create infrasound. They also communicate with body language. Dominant males display to other males with an erect posture; holding the chin and head up while walking stiffly and displaying their side. The less dominant show submissiveness by dropping the head and ears, lowering the chin and fleeing.
Reproduction and parental care
Reproduction in giraffes is broadly polygamous: a few older males mate with the fertile females. Females can reproduce throughout the year and experience oestrus cycling approximately every 15 days. Female giraffes in oestrus are dispersed over space and time, so reproductive adult males adopt a strategy of roaming among female groups to seek mating opportunities, with periodic hormone-induced rutting behaviour approximately every two weeks. Males prefer young adult females over juveniles and older adults.
Male giraffes assess female fertility by tasting the female's urine to detect oestrus, in a multi-step process known as the flehmen response. Once an oestrous female is detected, the male will attempt to court her. When courting, dominant males will keep subordinate ones at bay. A courting male may lick a female's tail, lay his head and neck on her body or nudge her with his ossicones. During copulation, the male stands on his hind legs with his head held up and his front legs resting on the female's sides.
Giraffe gestation lasts 400–460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins occur on rare occasions. The mother gives birth standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. A newborn giraffe is 1.7–2 m (5 ft 7 in – 6 ft 7 in) tall. Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. However, for the first one to three weeks, it spends most of its time hiding, its coat pattern providing camouflage. The ossicones, which have lain flat in the womb, raise up in a few days.
Mothers with calves will gather in nursery herds, moving or browsing together. Mothers in such a group may sometimes leave their calves with one female while they forage and drink elsewhere. This is known as a "calving pool". Calves are at risk of predation, and a mother giraffe will stand over them and kick at an approaching predator. Females watching calving pools will only alert their own young if they detect a disturbance, although the others will take notice and follow. Allo-sucking, where a calf will suckle a female other than its mother, has been recorded in both wild and captive giraffes. Calves first ruminate at four to six months and stop nursing at six to eight months. Young may not reach independence until they are 14 months old.: 49 Females are able to reproduce at four years of age, while spermatogenesis in males begins at three to four years of age. Males must wait until they are at least seven years old to gain the opportunity to mate.
Necking
Male giraffes use their necks as weapons in combat, a behaviour known as "necking". Necking is used to establish dominance, and males that win necking bouts have greater reproductive success. This behaviour occurs at low or high intensity. In low-intensity necking, the combatants rub and lean on each other. The male that can keep itself more upright wins the bout. In high-intensity necking, the combatants will spread their front legs and swing their necks at each other, attempting to land blows with their ossicones. The contestants will try to dodge each other's blows and then prepare to counter. The power of a blow depends on the weight of the skull and the arc of the swing. A necking duel can last more than half an hour, depending on how well matched the combatants are.: 331 Although most fights do not lead to serious injury, there have been records of broken jaws, broken necks, and even deaths.
After a duel, it is common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other. Such interactions between males have been found to be more frequent than heterosexual coupling. In one study, up to 94 percent of observed mounting incidents took place between males. The proportion of same-sex activities varied from 30 to 75 percent. Only one percent of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females.
Mortality and health
Giraffes have high adult survival probability, and an unusually long lifespan compared to other ruminants, up to 38 years. Adult female survival is significantly correlated with the number of social associations. Because of their size, eyesight and powerful kicks, adult giraffes are mostly safe from predation, with lions being their only major threats.: 55 Calves are much more vulnerable than adults and are also preyed on by leopards, spotted hyenas and wild dogs. A quarter to a half of giraffe calves reach adulthood. Calf survival varies according to the season of birth, with calves born during the dry season having higher survival rates.
The local, seasonal presence of large herds of migratory wildebeests and zebras reduces predation pressure on giraffe calves and increases their survival probability. In turn, it has been suggested that other ungulates may benefit from associating with giraffes, as their height allows them to spot predators from further away. Zebras were found to assess predation risk by watching giraffes and spend less time looking around when giraffes are present.
Some parasites feed on giraffes. They are often hosts for ticks, especially in the area around the genitals, which have thinner skin than other areas. Tick species that commonly feed on giraffes are those of genera Hyalomma, Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus. Giraffes may rely on red-billed and yellow-billed oxpeckers to clean them of ticks and alert them to danger. Giraffes host numerous species of internal parasites and are susceptible to various diseases. They were victims of the (now eradicated) viral illness rinderpest. Giraffes can also suffer from a skin disorder, which comes in the form of wrinkles, lesions or raw fissures. As much as 79% of giraffes have symptoms of the disease in Ruaha National Park, but it did not cause mortality in Tarangire and is less prevalent in areas with fertile soils.
Human relations
Cultural significance
With its lanky build and spotted coat, the giraffe has been a source of fascination throughout human history, and its image is widespread in culture. It has represented flexibility, far-sightedness, femininity, fragility, passivity, grace, beauty and the continent of Africa itself.: 7, 116
Giraffes were depicted in art throughout the African continent, including that of the Kiffians, Egyptians, and Kushites.: 45–47 The Kiffians were responsible for a life-size rock engraving of two giraffes, dated 8,000 years ago, that has been called the "world's largest rock art petroglyph".: 45 How the giraffe got its height has been the subject of various African folktales. The Tugen people of modern Kenya used the giraffe to depict their god Mda. The Egyptians gave the giraffe its own hieroglyph; 'sr' in Old Egyptian and 'mmy' in later periods.: 49
Giraffes have a presence in modern Western culture. Salvador Dalí depicted them with burning manes in some surrealist paintings. Dali considered the giraffe to be a masculine symbol. A flaming giraffe was meant to be a "masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster".: 123 Several children's books feature the giraffe, including David A. Ufer's The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights, Giles Andreae's Giraffes Can't Dance and Roald Dahl's The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Giraffes have appeared in animated films as minor characters in Disney's Dumbo and The Lion King, and in more prominent roles in The Wild and the Madagascar films. Sophie the Giraffe has been a popular teether since 1961. Another famous fictional giraffe is the Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe.: 127
The giraffe has also been used for some scientific experiments and discoveries. Scientists have used the properties of giraffe skin as a model for astronaut and fighter pilot suits because the people in these professions are in danger of passing out if blood rushes to their legs.: 76 Computer scientists have modeled the coat patterns of several subspecies using reaction–diffusion mechanisms. The constellation of Camelopardalis, introduced in the 17th century, depicts a giraffe.: 119–20 The Tswana people of Botswana traditionally see the constellation Crux as two giraffes—Acrux and Mimosa forming a male, and Gacrux and Delta Crucis forming the female.
Captivity
The Egyptians were among the earliest people to keep giraffes in captivity and shipped them around the Mediterranean.: 48–49 The giraffe was among the many animals collected and displayed by the Romans. The first one in Rome was brought in by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.: 52 With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the housing of giraffes in Europe declined.: 54 During the Middle Ages, giraffes were known to Europeans through contact with the Arabs, who revered the giraffe for its peculiar appearance.
Individual captive giraffes were given celebrity status throughout history. In 1414, a giraffe from Malindi was taken to China by explorer Zheng He and placed in a Ming dynasty zoo. The animal was a source of fascination for the Chinese people, who associated it with the mythical Qilin.: 56 The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence. Zarafa, another famous giraffe, was brought from Egypt to Paris in the early 19th century as a gift for Charles X of France. A sensation, the giraffe was the subject of numerous memorabilia or "giraffanalia".: 81
Giraffes have become popular attractions in modern zoos, though keeping them healthy is difficult as they require vast areas and need to eat large amounts of browse. Captive giraffes in North America and Europe appear to have a higher mortality rate than in the wild, the most common causes being poor husbandry, nutrition, and management.: 153 Giraffes in zoos display stereotypical behaviours, particularly the licking of inanimate objects and pacing.: 164 Zookeepers may offer various activities to stimulate giraffes, including training them to take food from visitors.: 167, 176 Stables for giraffes are built particularly high to accommodate their height.: 183
Exploitation
Giraffes were probably common targets for hunters throughout Africa.: 337 Different parts of their bodies were used for different purposes. Their meat was used for food. The tail hairs were flyswatters, bracelets, necklaces, and threads. Shields, sandals, and drums were made using the skin, and the strings of musical instruments were from the tendons.: 337 In Buganda, the smoke of burning giraffe skin was traditionally used to treat nosebleeds.: 337 The Humr people of Kordofan consume the drink Umm Nyolokh, which is prepared from the liver and bone marrow of giraffes. Richard Rudgley hypothesised that Umm Nyolokh might contain DMT. The drink is said to cause hallucinations of giraffes, believed to be the giraffes' ghosts, by the Humr.
Conservation status
In 2016, giraffes were assessed as Vulnerable from a conservation perspective by the IUCN. In 1985, it was estimated there were 155,000 giraffes in the wild. This declined to over 140,000 in 1999. Estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. The Masai and reticulated subspecies are endangered, and the Rothschild subspecies is near threatened. The Nubian subspecies is critically endangered.
The primary causes for giraffe population declines are habitat loss and direct killing for bushmeat markets. Giraffes have been extirpated from much of their historic range, including Eritrea, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. They may also have disappeared from Angola, Mali, and Nigeria, but have been introduced to Rwanda and Eswatini. As of 2010, there were more than 1,600 in captivity at Species360-registered zoos. Habitat destruction has hurt the giraffe. In the Sahel, the need for firewood and grazing room for livestock has led to deforestation. Normally, giraffes can coexist with livestock, since they avoid direct competition by feeding above them. In 2017, severe droughts in northern Kenya led to increased tensions over land and the killing of wildlife by herders, with giraffe populations being particularly hit.
Protected areas like national parks provide important habitat and anti-poaching protection to giraffe populations. Community-based conservation efforts outside national parks are also effective at protecting giraffes and their habitats. Private game reserves have contributed to the preservation of giraffe populations in eastern and southern Africa. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. It is the national animal of Tanzania, and is protected by law, and unauthorised killing can result in imprisonment. The UN backed Convention of Migratory Species selected giraffes for protection in 2017. In 2019, giraffes were listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means international trade including in parts/derivatives is regulated.
Translocations are sometimes used to augment or re-establish diminished or extirpated populations, but these activities are risky and difficult to undertake using the best practices of extensive pre- and post-translocation studies and ensuring a viable founding population. Aerial survey is the most common method of monitoring giraffe population trends in the vast roadless tracts of African landscapes, but aerial methods are known to undercount giraffes. Ground-based survey methods are more accurate and can be used in conjunction with aerial surveys to make accurate estimates of population sizes and trends.
See also
Fauna of Africa
Giraffe Centre
Giraffe Manor - hotel in Nairobi with giraffes
References
External links
Official website of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation |
Hippopotamus | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus | [
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] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus"
] | The hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) (; pl.: hippopotamuses; also shortened to hippo (pl.: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis). Its name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (ἱπποπόταμος).
After elephants and rhinoceroses, the hippopotamus is the next largest land mammal. It is also the largest extant land artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the hippopotamids are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc.), from which they diverged about 55 million years ago. Hippos are recognisable for their barrel-shaped torsos, wide-opening mouths with large canine tusks, nearly hairless bodies, pillar-like legs, and large size: adults average 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) for bulls (males) and 1,300 kg (2,900 lb) for cows (females). Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it is capable of running 30 km/h (19 mph) over short distances.
Hippos inhabit rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps. Territorial bulls each preside over a stretch of water and a group of five to thirty cows and calves. Mating and birth both occur in the water. During the day, hippos remain cool by staying in water or mud, emerging at dusk to graze on grasses. While hippos rest near each other in the water, grazing is a solitary activity and hippos typically do not display territorial behaviour on land. Hippos are among the most dangerous animals in the world due to their aggressive and unpredictable nature. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory (canine teeth).
Etymology
The Latin word hippopotamus is derived from the ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos) 'horse' and ποταμός (potamós) 'river', together meaning 'horse of the river'. In English, the plural is "hippopotamuses".
Taxonomy and origins
Classification
The modern hippopotamus and the pygmy hippopotamus are the only living members of the family Hippopotamidae. Some taxonomists place hippos and anthracotheres in the superfamily Anthracotheroidea. Hippopotamidae are classified along with other even-toed ungulates in the order Artiodactyla.: 39–40
Five subspecies of hippos have been described based on morphological differences in their skulls as well as differences in geographical range:: 3
H. a. amphibius – (the nominate subspecies) ranges from Gambia east to Ethiopia and then south to Mozambique and historically ranged as far north as Egypt; its skull is distinguished by a moderately reduced preorbital region, a bulging dorsal surface, elongated mandibular symphysis and larger chewing teeth.
H. a. kiboko – found in Kenya and Somalia; was noted to be smaller and more lightly coloured than other hippos with wider nostrils, somewhat longer snout and more rounded and relatively raised orbits with the space between them being incurved.
H. a. capensis – found in Zambia and South Africa; distinguished by wider orbits.
H. a. tschadensis – ranges between Chad and Niger; featured a slightly shorter but broader face, and pronounced, forward-facing orbits.
H. a. constrictus – ranged from the southern Democratic Republic of Congo to Angola and Namibia; skull characterised by a thicker preorbital region, shorter snout, flatter dorsal surface, reduced mandibular symphysis and smaller chewing teeth.
The suggested subspecies above were never widely used or validated by field biologists; the described morphological differences were small enough that they could have resulted from simple variation in nonrepresentative samples.: 2 A study examining mitochondrial DNA from skin biopsies taken from 13 sampling locations found "low, but significant, genetic differentiation" among H. a. amphibius, H. a. capensis, and H. a. kiboko. Neither H. a. tschadensis nor H. a. constrictus have been tested.
Evolution
Until 1909, naturalists classified hippos together with pigs based on molar patterns. Several lines of evidence, first from blood proteins, then from molecular systematics, DNA and the fossil record, show their closest living relatives are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). The common ancestor of hippos and whales branched off from Ruminantia and the rest of the even-toed ungulates; the cetacean and hippo lineages split soon afterwards.
The most recent theory of the origins of Hippopotamidae suggests hippos and whales shared a common semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from other artiodactyls around 60 million years ago. This hypothesised ancestral group likely split into two branches again around 54 million years ago.
One branch would evolve into cetaceans, possibly beginning about 52 million years ago, with the protowhale Pakicetus and other early whale ancestors collectively known as Archaeoceti. This group eventually underwent aquatic adaptation into the completely aquatic cetaceans. The other branch became the anthracotheres, a large family of four-legged beasts, the earliest of which in the late Eocene would have resembled skinny hippos with comparatively smaller, narrower heads. All branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae, became extinct during the Pliocene, leaving no descendants.
A rough evolutionary lineage of the hippo can thus be traced from Eocene and Oligocene species: from Anthracotherium and Elomeryx to the Miocene species Merycopotamus and Libycosaurus and finally the very latest anthracotheres in the Pliocene. These groups lived across Eurasia and Africa. The discovery of Epirigenys in East Africa, which was likely a descent of Asian anthracotheres and a sister taxon to Hippopotamidae, suggests that hippo ancestors entered Africa from Asia around 35 million years ago. An early hippopotamid is the genus Kenyapotamus, which lived in Africa from 15 to 9 million years ago. Hippopotamid species would spread across Africa and Eurasia, including the modern pygmy hippo. From 7.5 to 1.8 million years ago, a possible ancestor to the modern hippo, Archaeopotamus, lived in Africa and the Middle East. The oldest records of the genus Hippopotamus date to the Pliocene (5.3-2.6 million years ago). The oldest unambiguous records of the modern H. amphibius date to the Middle Pleistocene, though there are possible Early Pleistocene records.
Extinct species
Three species of Malagasy hippopotamus became extinct during the Holocene on Madagascar, the last of them within the past 1,000 years. The Malagasy hippos were smaller than the modern hippo, a likely result of the process of insular dwarfism. Fossil evidence indicates many Malagasy hippos were hunted by humans, a factor in their eventual extinction. Isolated individual Malagasy hippos may have survived in remote pockets; in 1976, villagers described a living animal called the kilopilopitsofy, which may have been a Malagasy hippo.
Hippopotamus gorgops from the Early Pleistocene-early Middle Pleistocene of Africa and West Asia grew considerably larger than the living hippopotamus, with an estimated body mass of over 4,000 kg (8,800 lb). Hippopotamus antiquus ranged throughout Europe, extending as far north as Britain during the Early and Middle Pleistocene epochs, before being replaced by the modern H. amphibius in Europe during the latter part of the Middle Pleistocene. The Pleistocene also saw a number of dwarf species evolve on several Mediterranean islands, including Crete (Hippopotamus creutzburgi), Cyprus (the Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus, Hippopotamus minor), Malta (Hippopotamus melitensis), and Sicily (Hippopotamus pentlandi). Of these, the Cyprus dwarf hippo survived until the end of the Pleistocene or early Holocene. Evidence from the archaeological site Aetokremnos continues to cause debate on whether or not the species was driven to extinction or even encountered by human.
Characteristics
The hippopotamus is a megaherbivore and is exceeded in size among land animals only by elephants and some rhinoceros species. The mean adult weight is around 1,480 kg (3,260 lb) for bulls and 1,365 kg (3,009 lb) for cows. Exceptionally large males have been recorded reaching 2,660 kg (5,860 lb). Male hippos appear to continue growing throughout their lives, while females reach maximum weight at around age 25. It is 2.90 to 5.05 m (9 ft 6 in to 16 ft 7 in) long, including a tail of about 35 to 56 cm (14 to 22 in) in length and 1.30 to 1.65 m (4 ft 3 in to 5 ft 5 in) tall at the shoulder, with males and females ranging 1.40 to 1.65 m (4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 5 in) and 1.30 to 1.45 m (4 ft 3 in to 4 ft 9 in) tall at the shoulder respectively. The species has a typical head-body length of 3.3–3.45 m (10.8–11.3 ft) and an average standing height of 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) at the shoulder.
Hippos have barrel-shaped bodies with short tails and legs, and an hourglass-shaped skull with a long snout.: 3, 19 Their skeletal structures are graviportal, adapted to carrying their enormous weight,: 8 and their dense bones and low centre of gravity allows them to sink and move along the bottom of the water. Hippopotamuses have small legs (relative to other megafauna) because the water in which they live reduces the weight burden. The toes are webbed and the pelvis rests at an angle of 45 degrees.: 3, 9 Though chubby-looking, hippos have little fat.: 3 The eyes, ears, and nostrils of hippos are placed high on the roof of their skulls. This allows these organs to remain above the surface while the rest of the body is submerged.: 259 The nostrils and ears can close when underwater while nictitating membranes cover the eyes.: 4, 116 The vocal folds of the hippo are more horizontally positioned, much like cetaceans. Underneath are throat tissues, where vibrations are transmitted to produce underwater calls.
The hippo's jaw is powered by huge masseter and digastric muscles which give them large, droopy cheeks.: 259 The jaw hinge allows the animal to open its mouth at almost 180°.: 17 A folded orbicularis oris muscle allows the hippo to attain an extreme gape without tearing any tissue. On the lower jaw, the incisors and canines grow continuously, the former reaching 40 cm (16 in), while the latter can grow to up to 50 cm (20 in). The lower canines are sharpened through contact with the smaller upper canines. The canines and incisors are used mainly for combat instead of feeding. Hippos rely on their flattened, horny lips to grasp and pull grasses which are then ground by the molars.: 259, 263 The hippo is considered to be a pseudoruminant; it has a complex three-chambered stomach, but does not "chew cud".: 22
Hippo skin is 6 cm (2.4 in) thick across much of its body with little hair.: 260 The animal is mostly purplish-grey or blue-black, but brownish-pink on the underside and around the eyes and ears.: 260 Their skin secretes a natural, red-coloured sunscreen substance that is sometimes referred to as "blood sweat" but is neither blood nor sweat. This secretion is initially colourless and turns red-orange within minutes, eventually becoming brown. Two highly acidic pigments have been identified in the secretions; one red hipposudoric acid and one orange norhipposudoric acid, which inhibit the growth of disease-causing bacteria and their light-absorption profile peaks in the ultraviolet range, creating a sunscreen effect. Regardless of diet, all hippos secrete these pigments so food does not appear to be their source; rather, they may be synthesised from precursors such as the amino acid tyrosine. This natural sunscreen cannot prevent the animal's skin from cracking if it stays out of water too long.
The testes of the males do not fully descend and a scrotum is not present. In addition, the penis retracts into the body when not erect. The genitals of the female hippos are unusual in that the vagina is ridged and the vulval vestibule has two large, protruding diverticula. Both of these have an unknown function.: 28–29
A hippo's lifespan is typically 40 to 50 years.: 277 Donna the Hippo was one of the oldest living hippos in captivity. She lived at the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana, in the US until her death in 2012 at the age of 61. The oldest hippo ever recorded was called Bertha; she had lived in the Manila Zoo in the Philippines since it first opened in 1959. When she died in 2017, her age was estimated to be 65. The oldest living hippopotamus in captivity is Lu the Hippo, from the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. As of 2024, he is 64 years old.
Distribution and status
Hippopotamus amphibius arrived in Europe around 560-460,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene. The distribution of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe during the Pleistocene was largely confined to Southern Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and Greece, but extended into northwestern Europe, including Great Britain (as far north as North Yorkshire), the Netherlands, and western Germany during interglacial periods, such as the Last Interglacial (130–115,000 years ago). The youngest records of the species in Europe are from the Late Pleistocene of Greece, dating to around 40-30,000 years ago.
Archaeological evidence exists of its presence in the Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago. The species was common in Egypt's Nile region during antiquity, but it has since been driven out. According to Pliny the Elder, in his time, the best location in Egypt for capturing this animal was in the Saite nome; the animal could still be found along the Damietta branch of the Nile after the Arab Conquest in 639. Reports of the slaughter of the last hippo in Natal Province were made at the end of the 19th century. Hippos are still found in the rivers and lakes of the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, north through to Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, west to The Gambia, and south to South Africa.
Genetic evidence suggests common hippos in Africa experienced a marked population expansion during or after the Pleistocene, attributed to an increase in water bodies at the end of the era. These findings have important conservation implications, as hippo populations across the continent are currently threatened by loss of access to fresh water. Hippos are also subject to unregulated hunting and poaching. The species is included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning international export/import (including in parts and derivatives) requires CITES documentation to be obtained and presented to border authorities.
As of 2017, the IUCN Red List drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as vulnerable, with a stable population estimated between 115,000 and 130,000 animals. The hippo population has declined most dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By 2005, the population in Virunga National Park had dropped to 800 or 900 from around 29,000 in the mid-1970s. This decline is attributed to the disruptions caused by the Second Congo War. The poachers are believed to be Mai-Mai rebels, underpaid Congolese soldiers, and local militia groups. Reasons for poaching include the belief hippos are harmful to society, as well as financial gain. As of 2016, the Virunga hippo population appears to have increased again, possibly due to better protection from park rangers, who have worked with local fishermen. The sale of hippo meat is illegal, but black-market sales are difficult for Virunga National Park officers to track. Hippo meat is highly valued in some areas of central Africa and the teeth may be used as a replacement for elephant ivory.
A population of hippos exists in Colombia, descended from captive individuals that escaped from Pablo Escobar's estate after his death in 1993. Their numbers grew to 100 by the 2020s and ecologists believe the population should be eradicated, as they are breeding rapidly and are an increasing menace to humans and the environment. Attempts to control them include sterilisation and culling.
Behaviour and ecology
Hippos are semiaquatic and require enough water to immerse in, while being close to grass. They mostly live in freshwater habitat, but can be found in estuaries. They prefer relatively still waters with gently sloping shores, though male hippos may also be found in very small numbers in more rapid waters with rocky slopes.: 264 Like most herbivores, hippos will consume a variety of plants if presented with them in captivity, but their diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass, with only minimal consumption of aquatic plants. Hippos spend most of the day in water to stay cool and hydrated. Just before night begins, they leave the water to forage on land. A hippo will travel 3–5 km (1.9–3.1 mi) per night, eating around 40 kg (88 lb) of grass. By dawn, they are back in the water.
Despite being semiaquatic, an adult hippo is not a particularly good swimmer, nor can it float. It rarely enters deep water; when it does, the animal moves by bouncing off the bottom. An adult hippo surfaces every four to six minutes, while young need to breathe every two to three minutes.: 3–4 Hippos move on land by trotting, and limb movements do not change between speeds. They can reach an airborne stage (a stage when all limb are off the ground) when they move fast enough. Hippos are reported to reach 30 km/h (19 mph) but this has not been confirmed. They are incapable of jumping but can walk up steep banks. The hippopotamus sleeps with both hemispheres of the brain resting, as in all land mammals, and usually sleeps on land or in water with the nostrils exposed. Despite this, it may be capable of sleeping while submerged, intermittently surfacing to breathe without waking. They appear to transition between different phases of sleep more quickly than other mammals.
Because of their size and their habit of taking the same paths to feed, hippos can have a significant impact on the land across which they walk, keeping the land clear of vegetation and depressing the ground. Over prolonged periods, hippos can divert the paths of swamps and channels. By defecating in the water, the animals also appear to pass on microbes from their gut, affecting the biogeochemical cycle. On occasion, hippos have been filmed eating carrion, usually near the water. There are other reports of meat-eating and even cannibalism and predation. Hippos' stomach anatomy lacks adaptions to carnivory and meat-eating is likely caused by lack of nutrients or just an abnormal behaviour.: 82–84
Social life
It is challenging to study the interaction of bulls and cows because hippos are not sexually dimorphic, so cows and young bulls are almost indistinguishable in the field. Hippo pods fluctuate but can contain over 100 hippos. Although they lie close together, adults develop almost no social bonds. Males establish territories in water but not land, and these may range 250–500 m (820–1,640 ft) in lakes and 50–100 m (160–330 ft) in rivers. Territories are abandoned when the water dries up. The bull has breeding access to all the cows in his territory. Younger bachelors are allowed to stay as long as they defer to him. A younger male may challenge the old bull for control of the territory. Within the pods, the hippos tend to segregate by sex and status. Bachelor males lounge near other bachelors, females with other females, and the territorial male is on his own. When hippos emerge from the water to graze, they do so individually.: 4–5, 49–50
Hippos engage in "muck-spreading" which involves defecating while spinning their tails to distribute the faeces over a greater area. Muck-spreading occurs both on land and in water and its function is not well understood. It is unlikely to serve a territorial function, as the animals only establish territories in the water. They may be used as trails between the water and grazing areas.: 5, 51–52 "Yawning" serves as a threat display. When fighting, bulls use their incisors to block each other's attacks and their large canines as offensive weapons.: 259–260 When hippos become over-populated or a habitat shrinks, bulls sometimes attempt infanticide, but this behaviour is not common under normal conditions.
The most common hippo vocalisation is the "wheeze honk", which can travel over long distances in air. This call starts as a high-pitched squeal followed by a deeper, resonant call.: 5 The animals can recognise the calls of other individuals. Hippos are more likely to react to the wheeze honks of strangers than to those they are more familiar with. When threatened or alarmed, they produce exhalations, and fighting bulls will bellow loudly.: 5 Hippos are recorded to produce clicks underwater which may have echolocative properties. They have the unique ability to hold their heads partially above the water and send out a cry that travels through both water and air; individuals respond both above and below water.
Reproduction
Cows reach sexual maturity at five to six years of age and have a gestation period of eight months. A study of endocrine systems revealed cows may begin puberty at as early as three or four years. Bulls reach maturity at around 7.5 years. Both conceptions and births are highest during the wet season. Male hippos always have mobile spermatozoa and can breed year-round.: 59–61, 66 After becoming pregnant, a female hippo will typically not begin ovulation again for 17 months. Hippos mate in the water, with the cow remaining under the surface,: 63 her head emerging periodically to draw breath. Cows give birth in seclusion and return within 10 to 14 days. Calves are born on land or shallow water weighing on average 50 kg (110 lb) and at an average length of around 127 cm (50 in). The female lies on her side when nursing, which can occur underwater or on land. The young are carried on their mothers' backs in deep water.: 4, 64
Mother hippos are very protective of their young, not allowing others to get too close. One cow was recorded protecting a calf's carcass after it had died. Calves may be temporarily kept in nurseries, guarded by one or more adults, and will play amongst themselves. Like many other large mammals, hippos are described as K-strategists, in this case typically producing just one large, well-developed infant every couple of years (rather than many small, poorly developed young several times per year, as is common among small mammals such as rodents). Calves no longer need to suckle when they are a year old.: 64
Interspecies interactions
Hippos coexist alongside a variety of large predators in their habitats. Nile crocodiles, lions, and spotted hyenas are known to prey on young hippos. Beyond these, adult hippos are not usually preyed upon by other animals due to their aggression and size. Cases where large lion prides have successfully preyed on adult hippos have been reported, but it is generally rare. Lions occasionally prey on adults at Gorongosa National Park and calves are sometimes taken at Virunga. Crocodiles are frequent targets of hippo aggression, probably because they often inhabit the same riparian habitats; crocodiles may be either aggressively displaced or killed by hippos. In turn, very large Nile crocodiles have been observed preying occasionally on calves, "half-grown" hippos, and possibly also adult female hippos. Groups of crocodiles have also been observed finishing off still-living male hippos that were previously injured in mating battles with other males.
Hippos occasionally visit cleaning stations in order to be cleaned of parasites by certain species of fishes. They signal their readiness for this service by opening their mouths wide. This is an example of mutualism, in which the hippo benefits from the cleaning while the fish receive food. Hippo defecation creates allochthonous deposits of organic matter along the river beds. These deposits have an unclear ecological function. A 2015 study concluded hippo dung provides nutrients from terrestrial material for fish and aquatic invertebrates, while a 2018 study found that their dung can be toxic to aquatic life in large quantities, due to absorption of dissolved oxygen in water bodies.
The parasitic monogenean flatworm Oculotrema hippopotami infests hippopotamus eyes, mainly the nictitating membrane. It is the only monogenean species (which normally live on fish) documented to live on a mammal.
Hippos and humans
Cut marks on bones of H. amphibius found at Bolomor Cave, a site in Spain preserving fossils dating from 230,000 to 120,000 years ago, provides evidence for Neanderthal butchery of hippopotamuses. The earliest evidence of modern human interaction with hippos comes from butchery cut marks on hippo bones found at the Bouri Formation and dated to around 160,000 years ago. 4,000–5,000 year art showing hippos being hunted have been found in the Tassili n'Ajjer Mountains of the central Sahara near Djanet.: 1 The ancient Egyptians recognised the hippo as ferocious, and representations on the tombs of nobles show humans hunting them.
The hippo was also known to the Greeks and Romans. The Greek historian Herodotus described the hippo in The Histories (written circa 440 BC) and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote about the hippo in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia (written circa 77 AD). The Yoruba people called the hippo erinmi, which means "elephant of the water". Some individual hippos have achieved international fame. Huberta became a celebrity during the Great Depression for trekking a great distance across South Africa.: 111–112
Attacks on humans
The hippo is considered to be extremely aggressive and has frequently been reported charging and attacking boats. Small boats can easily be capsized by hippos and passengers can be injured or killed by the animals, or drown in the water. In one 2014 case in Niger, a boat was capsized by a hippo and 13 people were killed. Hippos will often raid farm crops if the opportunity arises, and humans may come into conflict with them on these occasions. These encounters can be fatal to either humans or hippos.
According to the Ptolemaic historian Manetho, the pharaoh Menes was carried off and then killed by a hippopotamus.
In zoos
Hippos have long been popular zoo animals. The first record of hippos taken into captivity for display is dated to 3500 BC in Hierakonpolis, Egypt. The first zoo hippo in modern history was Obaysch, who arrived at the London Zoo on 25 May 1850, where he attracted up to 10,000 visitors a day and inspired a popular song, the "Hippopotamus Polka".
Hippos generally breed well in captivity; birth rates are lower than in the wild, but this can be attributed to zoos' desire to limit births, since hippos are relatively expensive to maintain. Starting in 2015, the Cincinnati Zoo built a US$73 million exhibit to house three adult hippos, featuring a 250,000 L (55,000 imp gal; 66,000 US gal) tank. Modern hippo enclosures also have a complex filtration system for the animal's waste, an underwater viewing area for the visitors, and glass that may be up to 9 cm (3.5 in) thick and capable of holding water under pressures of 31 kPa (4.5 psi).: 158–159
Cultural significance
In Egyptian mythology, the god Set takes the form of a red hippopotamus and fights Horus for control of the land, but is defeated. The goddess Tawaret is depicted as a pregnant woman with a hippo head, representing fierce maternal love. The Ijaw people of the Niger Delta wore masks of aquatic animals like the hippo when practising their water spirit cults, and hippo ivory was used in the divination rituals of the Yoruba. Hippo masks were also used in Nyau funerary rituals of the Chewa of Southern Africa.: 120 According to Robert Baden-Powell, Zulu warriors referred to hippos in war chants. The Behemoth from the Book of Job, 40:15–24 is thought to be based on the hippo.
Hippos have been the subjects of various African folktales. According to a San story, when the Creator assigned each animal its place in nature, the hippos wanted to live in the water, but were refused out of fear they might eat all the fish. After begging and pleading, the hippos were finally allowed to live in the water on the condition they would eat grass instead of fish, and fling their dung so it can be inspected for fish bones. In a Ndebele tale, the hippo originally had long, beautiful hair, but it was set on fire by a jealous hare and the hippo had to jump into a nearby pool. The hippo lost most of his hair and was too embarrassed to leave the water.
Hippopotamuses were rarely depicted in European art during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, due to less access to specimens by Europeans. One notable exception is Peter Paul Rubens' The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt (1615–1616).: 122–123 Ever since Obaysch inspired the "Hippopotamus Polka", hippos have been popular animals in Western culture for their rotund appearance, which many consider comical. The Disney film Fantasia featured a ballerina hippo dancing to the opera La Gioconda. The film Hugo the Hippo is set in Tanzania and involves the title character trying to escape being slaughtered with the help of local children. The Madagascar films feature a hippo named Gloria.: 128–129 Hippos even inspired a popular board game, Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Among the most famous poems about the hippo is "The Hippopotamus" by T. S. Eliot, where he uses the animal to represent the Catholic Church. Hippos are mentioned in the novelty Christmas song "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" that became a hit for child star Gayla Peevey in 1953. They also featured in the popular "The Hippopotamous Song" by Flanders and Swann.: 128, 136
See also
American Hippo bill - 1910 bill that proposed the introduction of hippos into Louisiana
Armley Hippo fossil H. amphibius specimen from England
Allenton hippopotamus fossil H. amphibius specimen from England
Owen and Mzee - hippo and tortoise who bonded
Fiona - hippo born 6 weeks early at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
References
External links
"Hippos: Wildlife summary". African Wildlife Foundation. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010.
"Hippo Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union". International Union for Conservation of Nature. Archived from the original on 22 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
"11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt: King Tut may have been killed by a hippopotamus". History. 12 November 2012. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. |
Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system | [
478
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system"
] | The Fulton surface-to-air recovery system (STARS), also known as Skyhook, is a system used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States Air Force, and United States Navy for retrieving individuals on the ground using aircraft such as the MC-130E Combat Talon I and B-17 Flying Fortress. It involves using an overall-type harness and a self-inflating balloon with an attached lift line. An MC-130E engages the line with its V-shaped yoke and the person is reeled on board. Red flags on the lift line guide the pilot during daylight recoveries; lights on the lift line are used for night recoveries. Recovery kits were designed for one- and two-man retrievals.
This system was developed by inventor Robert Edison Fulton, Jr., for the CIA in the early 1950s. It was an evolution from a glider snatch pick-up, a similar system that was used during World War II by American and British forces to retrieve both personnel and downed assault gliders following airborne operations. Snatch pick-up did not use a balloon, but a line stretched between a pair of poles set in the ground on either side of the person or glider to be retrieved. An aircraft, usually a C-47 Skytrain, trailed a grappling hook that engaged the line, which was attached to the intended cargo.
Development of the recovery system
Experiments with the recovery system began in 1950 by the CIA and Air Force. Using a weather balloon, nylon line, and weights of 10 to 15 pounds (4.5 to 6.8 kg), Fulton made numerous pickup attempts as he sought to develop a reliable procedure. Successful at last, Fulton took photographs and sent them to Admiral Luis de Florez, who had become the director of technical research at the CIA. Believing that the program could best be handled by the military, de Florez put Fulton in touch with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), where he obtained a development contract from ONR's Air Programs Division.
Over the next few years, Fulton refined the air and ground equipment for the pickup system. Based at El Centro, California, he conducted numerous flights over the Colorado Desert using a Navy P-2V Neptune. He gradually increased the weight of the pickup until the line began to break. A braided nylon line with a test strength of 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) solved the problem. A major problem was the design of the locking device, or sky anchor, that secured the line to the aircraft. Fulton considered the solution of this issue the most demanding part of the entire developmental process.
Further tests were conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, from 1 August 1959, using RB-69A, 54-4307, a CIA P2V-7U, according to an agency document.
After experiments with instrumented dummies, Fulton continued to experiment with live pigs, as pigs have a nervous system close to humans. Lifted off the ground, the pig began to spin as it flew through the air at 125 miles per hour (200 km/h). It arrived on board uninjured, but in a disoriented state. When it recovered, it attacked the crew.
By 1958, the Fulton aerial retrieval system, or "Skyhook", was finished. The ground system could be dropped from an aircraft and contained the necessary equipment for a pickup, including a harness, for cargo or a person, attached to 500 feet (150 m) of high-strength, braided nylon line and a dirigible-shaped balloon inflated by a helium bottle.
The pickup aircraft was equipped with two tubular steel "horns", 30 feet (9 m) long and spread at a 70° angle from its nose. The aircraft flew into the line, aiming at a bright mylar marker placed at the 425 foot (130 m) level. As the line was caught between the forks on the nose of the aircraft, the balloon was released and a spring-loaded trigger mechanism (sky anchor) secured the line to the aircraft. After the initial pickup, the line was snared by the pickup crew using a J-hook and attached to a powered winch and the person or cargo pulled on board. To prevent the pickup line from interfering with the aircraft's propellers in the case of an unsuccessful catch, the aircraft had deflector cables strung from the nose to the wingtips.
Later the US Navy tested the Fulton system fitted to modified S-2 Tracker carrier-based antisubmarine patrol aircraft for use in rescuing downed pilots. It is unknown whether a Fulton equipped S-2 was ever used on a combat mission.
First human pickups
The CIA had secretly trained Special Activities Division paramilitary officers to use a predecessor system for human pickups as early as 1952. The first human recovery mission authorized for operational use of this "all American system" took place in Manchuria on 29 November 1952. CIA C-47 pilots Norman Schwartz and Robert Snoddy were trained in the aerial pickup technique towards the end of 1952. CIA paramilitary officers John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau, themselves hurriedly trained in the procedure during the week of 24 November, were to recover a courier who was in contact with anti-communist sympathizers in the area. The mission failed when Chinese forces downed the aircraft with small arms fire, capturing survivors Downey and Fecteau. The British allegedly also used the American system for personnel.
The first human pickup using Fulton's STARS took place on 12 August 1958, when Staff Sergeant Levi W. Woods of the U.S. Marine Corps was winched on board the Neptune. Because of the geometry involved, the person being picked up experienced less of a shock than during a parachute opening. After the initial contact, which was described by one individual as similar to "a kick in the pants", the person rose vertically at a slow rate to about 100 ft (30 m), then began to streamline behind the aircraft. Extension of arms and legs prevented spinning as the individual was winched on board. The process took about six minutes.
In August 1960, Capt. Edward A. Rodgers, commander of the Naval Air Development Unit, flew a Skyhook-equipped P2V to Point Barrow, Alaska, to conduct pickup tests under the direction of Dr. Max Brewer, head of the Navy's Arctic Research Laboratory. With Fulton on board to monitor the equipment, the Neptune picked up mail from Floating Ice Island T-3, also known as Fletcher's Ice Island, retrieved artifacts, including mastodon tusks, from an archaeological party on the tundra, and secured geological samples from Peters Lake Camp. The high point of the trials came when the P2V dropped a rescue package near the icebreaker USS Burton Island. Retrieved by a ship's boat, the package was brought on deck, the balloon inflated, and the pickup accomplished.
In July 1967, two MACV-SOG operators were retrieved by an MC-130E using the Fulton Skyhook system while operating in Vietnam.
Project Coldfeet
The first operational use of Skyhook was Project Coldfeet, an examination of the Soviet drift station NP-8, abandoned on 19 March 1962. Two agents parachuted to station NP 8 on 28 May 1962. After 72 hours at the site, on 1 June 1962, a pick-up was made of the Soviet equipment and both men. The mission yielded information on the Soviet Union's Arctic research activities, including evidence of advanced research on acoustical systems to detect under-ice submarines and efforts to develop Arctic anti-submarine warfare techniques.
Later use
The Fulton system was used from 1965 to 1996 on several variants of the C-130 Hercules including the MC-130s and HC-130s. It was also used on the C-123 Provider.
Despite the apparent high-risk nature of the system, only one fatal accident occurred in 17 years of use. On 26 April 1982, SFC Clifford Wilson Strickland was picked up by a Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talon of the 7th Special Operations Squadron at CFB Lahr, Germany, during Flintlock 82 exercise, using the Fulton STARS recovery system, but fell to his death due to a failed bushing at the top of the left yoke pivot bolt.
The increased availability of long-range helicopters such as the MH-53 Pave Low, HH-60 Pave Hawk, and MH-47 Chinook, and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, all with aerial refueling capability, caused this system to be used less often. In September 1996, the Air Force Special Operations Command ceased maintaining the capability to deploy this system.
In popular culture
The Skyhook has been featured in a number of films and video games. It was seen in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, where James Bond and his companion Domino Derval are rescued at sea by a modified Boeing B-17 equipped with the Fulton system at the end of the movie. In 1968, it was used in the John Wayne movie The Green Berets to spirit a VC officer to South Vietnam.
The Skyhook system was also featured in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. First mentioned by Lucius Fox as a means of re-boarding an aircraft without its landing, the system is attached to a Lockheed L-100 Hercules.
In video games, a heavily fictionalized interpretation of the Skyhook forms a core gameplay mechanic in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. More realistic depictions can be found in PUBG: Battlegrounds, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and its sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
See also
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group
Mid-air retrieval
Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction
United States Air Force § Personnel Recovery
Glider snatch pick-up
References
External links
Fact Sheet: Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 February 2008)
GlobalSecurity.org article
High-resolution photo of HC-130 fitted for system, on www.airliners.net
Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73 — Central Intelligence Agency
Fulton Skyhook System Live Recovery (1962), footage of live pick-ups conducted by the United States Army, Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Lockheed ER-4112 Fulton Skyhook Aerial Recovery System manual |
Avatar_(2009_film) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film) | [
479
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)"
] | Avatar is a 2009 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, written, and directed by James Cameron. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is the first installment in the Avatar film series. It is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium, the room-temperature superconductor mineral. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi, a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Development of Avatar began in 1994, when James Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999; however, according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film. Work on the language of the Na'vi began in 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million, due to the groundbreaking array of new visual effects Cameron achieved in cooperation with Weta Digital in Wellington. Other estimates put the cost at between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion. The film made extensive use of new motion capture filming techniques and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and 4D experiences (in selected South Korean theaters). The series also featured Cameron reunite with his Titanic co-producer Jon Landau, who would he later credit for having a prominent role in the film's production.
Avatar premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on December 10, 2009, and was released in the United States on December 18. The film received positive reviews from critics, who highly praised its groundbreaking visual effects, though the story received some criticism for being derivative. During its theatrical run, the film broke several box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. In July 2019, this position was overtaken by Avengers: Endgame, but with subsequent re-releases, beginning with China in March 2021, it returned to becoming the highest-grossing film since then. Adjusted for inflation, Avatar is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, only behind Gone with the Wind, with a total of a little more than $3.5 billion. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion and the best-selling video title of 2010 in the United States. Avatar was nominated for nine awards at the 82nd Academy Awards, winning three, and received numerous other accolades. The success of the film also led to electronics manufacturers releasing 3D televisions and caused 3D films to increase in popularity. Its success led to the Avatar franchise, which includes the sequels Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), Avatar 4 (2029), and Avatar 5 (2031).
Plot
In 2154, Earth suffers from resource exhaustion and ecological collapse. The Resources Development Administration (RDA) mines the valuable mineral unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon orbiting a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora, whose atmosphere is inhospitable to humans, is inhabited by the Na'vi, 10-foot-tall (3.0 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids that live in harmony with nature.
To explore Pandora, genetically matched human scientists control Na'vi-human hybrids called "avatars". Paraplegic former Marine Jake Sully is recruited by the RDA to replace his deceased identical twin, who had signed up to be an operator. Avatar Program head Dr. Grace Augustine considers Jake inadequate, but accepts him as an operator. While escorting the avatars of Grace and Dr. Norm Spellman, Jake's avatar is attacked by Pandoran wildlife and flees into the forest, where he is rescued by the Na'vi princess Neytiri. Suspicious of Jake, she takes him to her clan. Neytiri's mother, Mo'at, the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society.
Colonel Miles Quaritch, head of RDA's security force, promises Jake that the company will restore the use of his legs if he provides information about the Na'vi and their gathering place, the giant Hometree, under which is a rich deposit of unobtanium. Learning of this, Grace transfers herself, Jake, and Norm to an outpost. Jake and Neytiri fall in love as Jake is initiated into the tribe, and they choose each other as mates. When Jake attempts to disable a bulldozer threatening a sacred Na'vi site, Administrator Parker Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed.
Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree would damage the biological neural network that encompasses all Pandoran life, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate. Jake confesses that he was a spy and the Na'vi take him and Grace captive. Quaritch's soldiers destroy Hometree, killing many, including Neytiri's father, the clan chief. Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritch's forces. Pilot Trudy Chacón, disgusted by Quaritch's brutality, airlifts Jake, Grace, and Norm to Grace's outpost, but during the escape Grace is shot and fatally wounded.
Jake regains the Na'vi's trust by connecting his mind to that of the Toruk, a dragon-like creature feared and revered by the Na'vi. Supported by Neytiri and the new chief Tsu'tey, Jake unites the clan, telling them to gather all the clans to battle the RDA. Quaritch organizes a strike against the Tree of Souls to demoralize the Na'vi. Before the battle, Jake prays to the Na'vi deity Eywa via a neural connection with the Tree of Souls.
Tsu'tey and Trudy are among the battle's heavy casualties. The Na'vi are rescued when Pandoran wildlife unexpectedly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. Quaritch, in an AMP suit, escapes his crashed aircraft and breaks open the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. As Quaritch prepares to kill Jake's avatar, he is killed by Neytiri, who saves Jake from suffocation, seeing his human form for the first time.
The RDA are expelled from Pandora; only some humans are chosen to stay. Jake is permanently transferred into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls.
Cast
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully: A disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed. His military background helps the Na'vi warriors relate to him. Cameron cast the Australian actor after a worldwide search for promising young actors, preferring relative unknowns to keep the budget down. In the beginning, Cameron offered the role to Matt Damon, with a 10% stake in the film's profits, but Damon turned the film down because of his commitment to The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Other notable actors who auditioned for the part include Chris Pratt and Chris Pine with the studio pushing Jake Gyllenhaal to play the role, but Gyllenhaal turned the film down because he wished to focus on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) instead Ultimately, the three finalists for the role were Channing Tatum, Chris Evans, and Worthington, with Cameron ultimately going with Worthington. Worthington, who was living in his car at the time, auditioned twice early in development, and he has signed on for possible sequels. Cameron felt that because Worthington had not done a major film, he would give the character "a quality that is really real". Cameron said he "has that quality of being a guy you'd want to have a beer with, and he ultimately becomes a leader who transforms the world".
Worthington also briefly appears as Jake's deceased identical twin, Dr. Tom "Tommy" Sully.
Zoe Saldana, as Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite: The daughter of the leader of the Omaticaya (the Na'vi clan central to the story), She is heir to the spiritual leader of the clan. She is attracted to Jake because of his bravery, though frustrated with him for what she sees as his naiveté and stupidity. She serves as Jake's love interest. In earlier drafts of the screenplay, this character was known as "Zuleika Te Kaha Polenoma". When the film began to be developed, Charisma Carpenter was set to play the role. But by the time the film had been greenlit in 2006, Carpenter had become too old for the role and was thus not cast. Cameron then began a worldwide search for actresses to play the role, with Q'orianka Kilcher being considered and Emily Blunt auditioning for the role. Eventually, Cameron cast Saldana in the role. Since she was cast early in production, Saldana helped screen-test actors auditioning for the part of Jake Sully, including eventual co-star Worthington. The character, like all the Na'vi, was created using performance capture, and its visual aspect is entirely computer generated. Saldaña signed on for potential sequels.
Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch: The head of the mining operation's security detail. Fiercely consistent in his disregard for any life not recognized as human, he has a profound disregard for Pandora's inhabitants that is evident in both his actions and his language. Lang had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in Cameron's Aliens (1986), but the director remembered Lang and sought him for Avatar. Michael Biehn, who had worked with Cameron in Aliens, The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), was briefly considered for the role. He read the script and watched some of the 3-D footage with Cameron but was ultimately not cast.
Michelle Rodriguez as Captain Trudy Chacón: A combat pilot assigned to support the Avatar Program who is sympathetic to the Na'vi. Cameron had wanted to work with Rodriguez since seeing her in Girlfight (2000).
Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge: The corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation. While he is at first willing to destroy the Na'vi civilization to preserve the company's bottom line, he is reluctant to authorize the attacks on the Na'vi and taint his image, doing so only after Quaritch persuades him that it is necessary and that the attacks will be humane. When the attacks are broadcast to the base, Selfridge displays discomfort at the violence.
Joel David Moore as Dr. Norm Spellman: A xenoanthropologist who studies plant and animal life as part of the Avatar Program. He arrives on Pandora at the same time as Jake and operates an avatar. Although he is expected to lead the diplomatic contact with the Na'vi, it turns out that Jake has the personality better suited to win the natives' respect.
Moore also portrays Norm's Na'vi avatar.
CCH Pounder as Mo'at: The spiritual leader of the Omaticaya. She is the mother of Neytiri and mate to Eytukan, the clan's leader.
Wes Studi as Eytukan te Tskaha Kamun'itan: The clan chief of the Omaticaya. He is the mate of Mo'at and father of Neytiri.
Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey te Rongloa Ateyitan: The finest warrior of the Omaticaya. He is heir to the chieftainship of the tribe. At the beginning of the film's story, he is betrothed to Neytiri.
Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine: An exobiologist and head of the Avatar Program. She is also Jake's mentor and an advocate of peaceful relations with the Na'vi, having set up a school to teach them English. Weaver dyed her hair red for the part. Her character was named "Shipley" at one point. The character reminded Weaver of Cameron, being "very driven and very idealistic".
Weaver also portrays Grace's Na'vi avatar.
Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel: A scientist who works in the Avatar Program and comes to support Jake's rebellion against the RDA
Matt Gerald as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet: A mercenary who works for the RDA as Quaritch's right-hand man.
Additionally, Alicia Vela-Bailey appears, uncredited, as Ikeyni, the leader of the Tayrangi clan, Saeyla, one of the young Na'vi hunters who accompany Jake during his Iknimaya and a harassed blonde woman in a bar that Jake defends. Vela-Bailey served as the stunt double for Zoe Saldana and would later portray Zdinarsk in Avatar: The Way of Water. Terry Notary, who performed stunts as well, plays the Banshees via motion capture.
Production
Origins
In 1994, director James Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for Avatar, drawing inspiration from science fiction books he had read in his childhood, as well as from adventure novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard. Parts of the movie also came to him in a dream when he was 19 years old. He dreamed about a bioluminescent forest with fiber-optic trees, fan lizards, a river with bioluminescent particles and a purple moss that lit up when stepped on. When he woke up, he made a drawing of the scene and later used it in the movie. In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of synthetic, or computer-generated, actors. The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles "who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world". Visual effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which was supposed to begin production in mid-1997 for a 1999 release. However, Cameron felt that the technology had not caught up with the story and vision that he intended to tell. He decided to concentrate on making documentaries and refining the technology for the next few years. It was revealed in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover story that 20th Century Fox had fronted $10 million to Cameron to film a proof-of-concept clip for Avatar, which he showed to Fox executives in October 2005.
In February 2006, Cameron revealed that his film Project 880 was "a retooled version of Avatar", a film that he had tried to make years earlier, citing the technological advances in the creation of the computer-generated characters Gollum, King Kong, and Davy Jones. Cameron had chosen Avatar over his project Battle Angel after completing a five-day camera test in the previous year.
Development
From January to April 2006, Cameron worked on the script and developed a culture for the Na'vi, the film's aliens. The Na'vi language was created by Paul Frommer, a linguist at USC. The Na'vi language has a lexicon of about 1000 words, with some 30 added by Cameron. The tongue's phonemes include ejective consonants (such as the "kx" in "skxawng") that are found in Amharic, and the initial "ng" that Cameron may have taken from Te Reo Māori. Actress Sigourney Weaver and the film's set designers met with Jodie S. Holt, professor of plant physiology at University of California, Riverside, to learn about the methods used by botanists to study and sample plants, and to discuss ways to explain the communication between Pandora's organisms depicted in the film.
From 2005 to 2007, Cameron worked with a handful of designers, including famed fantasy illustrator Wayne Barlowe and renowned concept artist Jordu Schell, to shape the design of the Na'vi with paintings and physical sculptures when Cameron felt that 3D brush renderings were not capturing his vision, often working together in the kitchen of Cameron's Malibu home. In July 2006, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a mid-2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007. The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar. Stan Winston, who had collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Avatar to help with the film's designs. Production design for the film took several years. The film had two different production designers, and two separate art departments, one of which focused on the flora and fauna of Pandora, and another that created human machines and human factors. In September 2006, Cameron was announced to be using his own Reality Camera System to film in 3D. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception.
While these preparations were underway, Fox wavered in its commitment to Avatar because of cost overruns and delays on Cameron's previous picture, Titanic. During the production of Titanic, Cameron rewrote the script to streamline the plot by combining several characters' roles and offered to cut his fee if the film were a commercial disappointment. Cameron installed a traffic light with the amber signal lit outside of co-producer Jon Landau's office to represent the film's uncertain future. Landau, who previously worked with Cameron as co-producer of Titanic, first met Cameron in 1993 when they were involved in the production of True Lies. Following True Lies, Landau would leave his role as a Fox executive to work in Cameron's production company Lightstorm. After Landau's death in July 2024, Cameron credited him for having a vital role in the production of Avatar.
In mid-2006, Fox decisively declined to produce the film, so Cameron began shopping it around to other studios. He approached Walt Disney Studios, showing his proof of concept to then-chairman Dick Cook. However, when Disney attempted to take over, Fox exercised its right of first refusal. In October 2006, Fox finally committed to making Avatar after Ingenious Media agreed to back the film, reducing Fox's financial exposure to less than half of the film's official $237 million budget. After Fox accepted Avatar, one skeptical Fox executive told Cameron and Landau, "I don't know if we're crazier for letting you do this, or if you're crazier for thinking you can do this ..."
In December 2006, Cameron described Avatar as "a futuristic tale set on a planet 200 years hence ... an old-fashioned jungle adventure with an environmental conscience [that] aspires to a mythic level of storytelling". The January 2007 press release described the film as "an emotional journey of redemption and revolution" and said the story is of "a wounded former Marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in biodiversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival". The story would be of an entire world complete with an ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and native people with a rich culture and language.
Estimates put the cost of the film at about $280–310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing, noting that about $30 million in tax credits would lessen the financial impact on the studio and its financiers. A studio spokesperson said that the budget was "$237 million, with $150 million for promotion, end of story."
Filming
Principal photography for Avatar began in April 2007 in Los Angeles and Wellington. Cameron described the film as a hybrid with a full live-action shoot in combination with computer-generated characters and live environments. "Ideally at the end of the day the audience has no idea which they're looking at," Cameron said. The director indicated that he had already worked four months on nonprincipal scenes for the film. The live action was shot with a modified version of the proprietary digital 3D Fusion Camera System, developed by Cameron and Vince Pace. In January 2007, Fox had announced that 3D filming for Avatar would be done at 24 frames per second, despite Cameron's strong opinion that a 3D film requires a higher frame rate to make strobing less noticeable. According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures.
Motion-capture photography lasted 31 days at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista, Los Angeles. Live action photography began in October 2007 at Stone Street Studios in Wellington and was scheduled to last 31 days. More than a thousand people worked on the production. In preparation of the filming sequences, all of the actors underwent professional training specific to their characters such as archery, horseback riding, firearm use, and hand-to-hand combat. They received language and dialect training in the Na'vi language created for the film. Before shooting the film, Cameron also sent the cast to the Hawaiian tropical rainforests to get a feel for a rainforest setting before shooting on the soundstage.
During filming, Cameron made use of his virtual camera system, a new way of directing motion-capture filmmaking. The system shows the actors' virtual counterparts in their digital surroundings in real time, allowing the director to adjust and direct scenes just as if shooting live action. According to Cameron, "It's like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50-to-1 scale." Using conventional techniques, the complete virtual world cannot be seen until the motion-capture of the actors is complete. Cameron said this process does not diminish the value or importance of acting. On the contrary, because there is no need for repeated camera and lighting setups, costume fittings and make-up touch-ups, scenes do not need to be interrupted repeatedly. Cameron described the system as a "form of pure creation where if you want to move a tree or a mountain or the sky or change the time of day, you have complete control over the elements".
Cameron gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology. Spielberg said, "I like to think of it as digital makeup, not augmented animation ... Motion capture brings the director back to a kind of intimacy that actors and directors only know when they're working in live theater." Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.
To film the shots where CGI interacts with live action, a unique camera referred to as a "simulcam" was used, a merger of the 3D fusion camera and the virtual camera systems. While filming live action in real time with the simulcam, the CGI images captured with the virtual camera or designed from scratch, are superimposed over the live action images as in augmented reality and shown on a small monitor, making it possible for the director to instruct the actors how to relate to the virtual material in the scene.
Due to Cameron's personal convictions about climate change, he allowed only plant-based (vegan) food to be served on set.
Eventually, Cameron stated that it was Jon Landau who was "the heart of the Avatar family" and "the center of gravity of our little bubble universe."
Visual effects
A number of innovative visual effects techniques were used during production. According to Cameron, work on the film had been delayed since the 1990s to allow the techniques to reach the necessary degree of advancement to adequately portray his vision of the film. The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006.
Innovations include a new system for lighting massive areas like Pandora's jungle, a motion-capture stage or "volume" six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. To achieve the face capturing, actors wore individually made skull caps fitted with a tiny camera positioned in front of the actors' faces; the information collected about their facial expressions and eyes is then transmitted to computers. According to Cameron, the method allows the filmmakers to transfer 100% of the actors' physical performances to their digital counterparts.
Besides the performance capture data which were transferred directly to the computers, numerous reference cameras gave the digital artists multiple angles of each performance. A technically challenging scene was near the end of the film when the computer-generated Neytiri held the live action Jake in human form, and attention was given to the details of the shadows and reflected light between them.
The lead visual effects company was Weta Digital in Wellington, at one point employing 900 people to work on the film. Because of the huge amount of data which needed to be stored, cataloged and available for everybody involved, even on the other side of the world, a new cloud computing and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system named Gaia was created by Microsoft especially for Avatar, which allowed the crews to keep track of and coordinate all stages in the digital processing. To render Avatar, Weta used a 930 m2 (10,000 sq ft) server farm making use of 4,000 Hewlett-Packard servers with 35,000 processor cores with 104 terabytes of RAM and three petabytes of network area storage running Ubuntu Linux, Grid Engine cluster manager, and 2 of the animation software and managers, Pixar's RenderMan and Pixar's Alfred queue management system. The render farm occupies the 193rd to 197th spots in the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. A new texturing and paint software system, called Mari, was developed by The Foundry in cooperation with Weta. Creating the Na'vi characters and the virtual world of Pandora required over a petabyte of digital storage, and each minute of the final footage for Avatar occupies 17.28 gigabytes of storage. It would often take the computer several hours to render a single frame of the film. To help finish preparing the special effects sequences on time, a number of other companies were brought on board, including Industrial Light & Magic, which worked alongside Weta Digital to create the battle sequences. ILM was responsible for the visual effects for many of the film's specialized vehicles and devised a new way to make CGI explosions. Joe Letteri was the film's visual effects general supervisor.
Music and soundtrack
Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic. Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008.
He also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.
The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in early 2009. During production, Horner promised Cameron that he would not work on any other project except for Avatar and reportedly worked on the score from four in the morning until ten at night throughout the process. He stated in an interview, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken." Horner composed the score as two different scores merged into one. He first created a score that reflected the Na'vi way of sound and then combined it with a separate "traditional" score to drive the film.
British singer Leona Lewis was chosen to sing the theme song for the film, called "I See You". An accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, premiered December 15, 2009, on MySpace.
Themes and inspirations
Avatar is primarily an action-adventure journey of self-discovery, in the context of imperialism, and deep ecology.
Cameron said his inspiration was "every single science fiction book I read as a kid" and that he wanted to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series. He acknowledged that Avatar shares themes with the films At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Emerald Forest, and Princess Mononoke, which feature clashes between cultures and civilizations, and with Dances with Wolves, where a battered soldier finds himself drawn to the culture he was initially fighting against. He also cited Hayao Miyazaki's anime films such as Princess Mononoke as an influence on the ecosystem of Pandora.
In 2012, Cameron filed a 45-page legal declaration that intended to "describe in great detail the
genesis of the ideas, themes, storylines, and images that came to be Avatar." In addition to historical events (such as European colonization of the Americas), his life experiences and several of his unproduced projects, Cameron drew connections between Avatar and his previous films. He cited his script and concept art for Xenogenesis, partially produced as a short film, as being the basis for many of the ideas and visual designs in Avatar. He stated that Avatar's "concepts of a world mind, intelligence within nature, the idea of projecting force or consciousness using an avatar, colonization of alien planets, greedy corporate interests backed up by military force, the story of a seemingly weaker group prevailing over a technologically superior force, and the good scientist were all established and recurrent themes" from his earlier films including Aliens, The Abyss, Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He specifically mentioned the "water tentacle" in The Abyss as an example of an "avatar" that "takes on the appearance of...an alien life form...in order to bridge the cultural gap and build trust."
Cameron also cited a number of works by other creators as "reference points and sources of inspiration" for Avatar. These include two of his "favorite" films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, where mankind experiences an evolution after meeting alien life, and Lawrence of Arabia, where "an outsider...encounters and immerses into a foreign culture and then ultimately joins that group to fight other outsiders." Cameron said he became familiar with the concept of a human operating a "synthetic avatar" inside another world from George Henry Smith's short story "In the Imagicon" and Arthur C. Clarke's novel The City and the Stars. He said he learned of the term "avatar" by reading the cyberpunk novels Neuromancer by William Gibson and Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. The idea of a "world mind" originated in the novel Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Cameron mentioned several other films about people interacting with "indigenous cultures" as inspiring him, including Dances with Wolves, The Man Who Would Be King, The Mission, The Emerald Forest, Medicine Man, The Jungle Book and FernGully. He also cited as inspiration the John Carter and Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and other adventure stories by Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard.
In a 2007 interview with Time magazine, Cameron was asked about the meaning of the term Avatar, to which he replied, "It's an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form. In this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body." Cameron also cited the Japanese cyberpunk manga and anime Ghost in the Shell, in terms of how humans can remotely control, and transfer their personalities into, alien bodies.
The look of the Na'vi – the humanoids indigenous to Pandora — was inspired by a dream that Cameron's mother had, long before he started work on Avatar. In her dream, she saw a blue-skinned woman 12 feet (4 m) tall, which he thought was "kind of a cool image". Also he said, "I just like blue. It's a good color ... plus, there's a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually." He included similar creatures in his first screenplay (written in 1976 or 1977), which featured a planet with a native population of "gorgeous" tall blue aliens. The Na'vi were based on them.
For the love story between characters Jake and Neytiri, Cameron applied a star-crossed love theme, which he said was in the tradition of Romeo and Juliet. He acknowledged its similarity to the pairing of Jack and Rose from his film Titanic. An interviewer stated: "Both couples come from radically different cultures that are contemptuous of their relationship and are forced to choose sides between the competing communities." Cameron described Neytiri as his "Pocahontas", saying that his plotline followed the historical story of a "white outsider [who] falls in love with the chief's daughter, who becomes his guide to the tribe and to their special bond with nature." Cameron felt that whether or not the Jake and Neytiri love story would be perceived as believable partially hinged on the physical attractiveness of Neytiri's alien appearance, which was developed by considering her appeal to the all-male crew of artists. Although Cameron felt Jake and Neytiri do not fall in love right away, their portrayers (Worthington and Saldana) felt the characters did. Cameron said the two actors "had a great chemistry" during filming.
For the film's floating "Hallelujah Mountains", the designers drew inspiration from "many different types of mountains, but mainly the karst limestone formations in China." According to production designer Dylan Cole, the fictional floating rocks were inspired by Huangshan (also known as Yellow Mountain), Guilin, Zhangjiajie, among others around the world. Cameron had noted the influence of the Chinese peaks on the design of the floating mountains.
To create the interiors of the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers visited the Noble Clyde Boudreaux oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico during June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the platform, which was later replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI during post-production.
Cameron said that he wanted to make "something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that" but also have a conscience "that maybe in the enjoying of it makes you think a little bit about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man". He added that "the Na'vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are" and that even though there are good humans within the film, the humans "represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future".
Cameron acknowledges that Avatar implicitly criticizes the United States' role in the Iraq War and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general. In reference to the use of the term "shock and awe" in the film, Cameron said: "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America." He said in later interviews, "... I think it's very patriotic to question a system that needs to be corralled ..." and, "The film is definitely not anti-American."
A scene in the film portrays the violent destruction of the towering Na'vi Hometree, which collapses in flames after a missile attack, coating the landscape with ash and floating embers. Asked about the scene's resemblance to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Cameron said he had been "surprised at how much it did look like September 11".
In July 2024, Cameron stated the film "resembled the Manhattan Project... making up new physics as we went along. Mastering a brand new methodology to tell stories." Cameron also acknowledged that it was actually film co-producer Jon Landau who was "the heart of the Avatar family."
Marketing
Promotions
The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009, and Empire released exclusive images from the film in its October issue. Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel, moderated by Tom Rothman, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23. Twenty-five minutes of footage was screened in Dolby 3D.
Weaver and Cameron appeared at additional panels to promote the film, speaking on the 23rd and 24th respectively. James Cameron announced at the Comic-Con Avatar Panel that August 21 will be "Avatar Day". On this day, the trailer was released in all theatrical formats. The official game trailer and toy line of the film were also unveiled on this day.
The 129-second trailer was released online on August 20, 2009.
The new 210-second trailer was premiered in theaters on October 23, 2009, then soon after premiered online on Yahoo! on October 29, 2009, to positive reviews.
An extended version in IMAX 3D received overwhelmingly positive reviews. The Hollywood Reporter said that audience expectations were colored by "the [same] establishment skepticism that preceded Titanic" and suggested the showing reflected the desire for original storytelling. The teaser has been among the most viewed trailers in the history of film marketing, reaching the first place of all trailers viewed on Apple.com with 4 million views.
On October 30, to celebrate the opening of the first 3-D cinema in Vietnam, Fox allowed Megastar Cinema to screen exclusive 16 minutes of Avatar to a number of press. The three-and-a-half-minute trailer of the film premiered live on November 1, 2009, during a Dallas Cowboys football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on the Diamond Vision screen, one of the world's largest video displays, and to TV audiences viewing the game on Fox. It is said to be the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.
The Coca-Cola Company collaborated with Fox to launch a worldwide marketing campaign to promote the film. The highlight of the campaign was the website AVTR.com. Specially marked bottles and cans of Coca-Cola Zero, when held in front of a webcam, enabled users to interact with the website's 3-D features using augmented reality (AR) technology. The film was heavily promoted in an episode of the Fox series Bones in the episode "The Gamer In The Grease" (Season 5, Episode 9). Avatar star Joel David Moore has a recurring role on the program, and is seen in the episode anxiously awaiting the release of the film. A week prior to the American release, Zoe Saldana promoted the film on Adult Swim, when she was interviewed by an animated Space Ghost. McDonald's had a promotion mentioned in television commercials in Europe called "Avatarize yourself", which encouraged people to go to the website set up by Oddcast, and use a photograph of themselves to change into a Na'vi.
Books
Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, a 224-page book in the form of a field guide to the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora, was released by Harper Entertainment on November 24, 2009.
It is presented as a compilation of data collected by the humans about Pandora and the life on it, written by Maria Wilhelm and Dirk Mathison. HarperFestival also released Wilhelm's 48-page James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Scrapbook for children. The Art of Avatar was released on November 30, 2009, by Abrams Books. The book features detailed production artwork from the film, including production sketches, illustrations by Lisa Fitzpatrick, and film stills. Producer Jon Landau wrote the foreword, Cameron wrote the epilogue, and director Peter Jackson wrote the preface. In October 2010, Abrams Books also released The Making of Avatar, a 272-page book that detailed the film's production process and contains over 500 color photographs and illustrations.
In a 2009 interview, Cameron said that he planned to write a novel version of Avatar after the film was released. In February 2010, producer Jon Landau stated that Cameron plans a prequel novel for Avatar that will "lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with", saying that "Jim wants to write a novel that is a big, epic story that fills in a lot of things". In August 2013, it was announced that Cameron hired Steven Gould to pen four standalone novels to expand the Avatar universe.
Video game
Cameron chose Ubisoft Montreal to create an Avatar game for the film in 2007. The filmmakers and game developers collaborated heavily, and Cameron decided to include some of Ubisoft's vehicle and creature designs in the film. Avatar: The Game was released on December 1, 2009, for most home video game consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone) and Microsoft Windows, and December 8 for PlayStation Portable. A second game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, was released on December 7, 2023.
Action figures and postage stamps
Mattel Toys announced in December 2009 that it would be introducing a line of Avatar action figures. Each action figure will be made with a 3-D web tag, called an i-TAG, that consumers can scan using a web cam, revealing unique on-screen content that is exclusive to each specific action figure. A series of toys representing six different characters from the film were also distributed globally in McDonald's Happy Meals.
In December 2009, France Post released a special limited edition stamp based on Avatar, coinciding with the film's worldwide release.
Releases
Theatrical
Initial screening
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16 to 18. The film was originally set for release on May 22, 2009, during filming, but was pushed back to allow more post-production time — the last shots were delivered in November — and give more time for theaters worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron stated that the film's aspect ratio would be 1.78:1 for 3D screenings and that a 2.39:1 image would be extracted for 2D screenings. However, a 3D 2.39:1 extract was approved for use with constant-image-height screens, i.e., screens that increase in width to display 2.39:1 films. During a 3D preview showing in Germany on December 16, the movie's DRM "protection" system malfunctioned, and some copies delivered weren't watched at all in the theaters. The problems were fixed in time for the public premiere.
Avatar was released in a total of 3,457 theaters in the United States, of which 2,032 theaters showed it in 3D. In total, 90% of all advance ticket sales for Avatar were for 3D screenings.
Internationally, Avatar opened on a total of 14,604 screens in 106 territories, of which 3,671 were showing the film in 3D, producing 56% of the first weekend gross. The film was simultaneously presented in IMAX 3D format, opening in 178 theaters in the United States on December 18. The international IMAX release included 58 theaters beginning on December 16, and 25 more theaters were to be added in the coming weeks. The IMAX release was the company's widest to date, a total of 261 theaters worldwide. The previous IMAX record opening was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened in 161 IMAX theaters in the US, and about 70 international. 20th Century Fox Korea adapted and later released Avatar in 4D version, which included "moving seats, smells of explosives, sprinkling water, laser lights and wind".
Post-original release
In July 2010, Cameron confirmed that there would be an extended theatrical rerelease of the film on August 27, 2010, exclusively in 3D theaters and IMAX 3D. Avatar: Special Edition includes an additional nine minutes of footage, all of which is CG, including an extension of the sex scene and various other scenes that were cut from the original theatrical film. This extended re-release resulted in the film's run time approaching the then-current IMAX platter maximum of 170 minutes, thereby leaving less time for the end credits. Cameron stated that the nine minutes of added scenes cost more than $1 million a minute to produce and finish. During its 12-week re-release, Avatar: Special Edition grossed an additional $10.74 million in North America and $22.46 million overseas for a worldwide total of $33.2 million. The film was later re-released in China in March 2021, allowing it to surpass Avengers: Endgame to become the highest-grossing film of all time.
Avatar was rereleased in theaters on September 23, 2022, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures for a limited two-week engagement, with the film being remastered in 4K high-dynamic range, with select scenes at a high frame rate of 48 fps. The reissue was prior to the December 2022 premiere of its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. Prior to this, Cameron previously teased a re-release of the film back in 2017 when promoting the Dolby Cinema re-release of Titanic, stating that there were plans in the works to remaster the film with Dolby Vision and re-release it in Dolby Cinema.
Home media
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on April 22, 2010, and in the United Kingdom on April 26. The United States release was not on a Tuesday as is the norm, but was done to coincide with Earth Day. The first DVD and Blu-ray release does not contain any supplemental features other than the theatrical film and the disc menu in favor of and to make space for optimal picture and sound. The release also preserves the film's 1.78:1 (16:9) format over the 2.39:1 (21:9) scope version, as Cameron felt that was the best format to watch the film. The Blu-ray disc contains DRM (BD+ 5) which some Blu-ray players might not support without a firmware update.
Avatar set a first-day launch record in the United States for Blu-ray sales at 1.5 million units sold, breaking the record previously held by The Dark Knight (600,000 units sold). First-day DVD and Blu-ray sales combined were over four million units sold. In its first four days of release, sales of Avatar on Blu-ray reached 2.7 million in the United States and Canada – overtaking The Dark Knight to become the best ever selling Blu-ray release in the region. The release later broke the Blu-ray sales record in the United Kingdom the following week. In its first three weeks of release, the film sold a total of 19.7 million DVD and Blu-ray discs combined, a new record for sales in that period. As of July 18, 2012, DVD sales (not including Blu-ray) totaled over 10.5 million units sold with $190,806,055 in revenue. Avatar retained its record as the top-selling Blu-ray in the US market until January 2015, when it was surpassed by Disney's Frozen.
The Avatar three-disc Extended Collector's Edition on DVD and Blu-ray was released on November 16, 2010. Three different versions of the film are present on the discs: the original theatrical cut (162 minutes), the special edition cut (170 minutes), and a collector's extended cut (178 minutes). The DVD set spreads the film across two discs, while the Blu-ray set presents it on a single disc. The collector's extended cut contains eight more minutes of footage, thus making it 16 minutes longer than the original theatrical cut. Cameron mentioned, "you can sit down, and in a continuous screening of the film, watch it with the Earth opening". He stated the "Earth opening" is an additional 4+1⁄2 minutes of scenes that were in the film for much of its production but were ultimately cut before the film's theatrical release. The release also includes an additional 45 minutes of deleted scenes and other extras.
Cameron initially stated that Avatar would be released in 3D around November 2010, but the studio issued a correction: "3-D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November." In May 2010, Fox stated that the 3D version would be released some time in 2011. It was later revealed that Fox had given Panasonic an exclusive license for the 3D Blu-ray version and only with the purchase of a Panasonic 3DTV. The length of Panasonic's exclusivity period is stated to last until February 2012. In October 2010 Cameron stated that the standalone 3D Blu-ray would be the final version of the film's home release and that it was "maybe one, two years out". On Christmas Eve 2010, Avatar had its 3D television world premiere on Sky.
On August 13, 2012, Cameron announced on Facebook that Avatar would be released globally on Blu-ray 3D. The Blu-ray 3D version was finally released on October 16, 2012.
On February 2, 2024, the film became available to stream in variable high frame rate in 3D 4K Dolby Vision on the Disney+ app for the Apple Vision Pro.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 337 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking." On Metacritic—which assigns a weighted mean score—the film has a score of 83 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Every demographic surveyed was reported to give this rating. These polls also indicated that the main draw of the film was its use of 3D.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "extraordinary", and gave it four stars out of four. "Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977," he said, adding that like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the film "employs a new generation of special effects" and it "is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message".
A. O. Scott of At The Movies also compared his viewing of the film to the first time he viewed Star Wars and he said "although the script is a little bit ... obvious," it was "part of what made it work". Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film, saying: "The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in Avatar, and it's very much a place worth visiting." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review. "The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-'em-ups you care to mention," he stated. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded Avatar a three-and-a-half out of four star rating, and wrote in his print review: "It extends the possibilities of what movies can do. Cameron's talent may just be as big as his dreams." Richard Corliss of Time thought that the film was "the most vivid and convincing creation of a fantasy world ever seen in the history of moving pictures." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times thought the film has "powerful" visual accomplishments but "flat dialogue" and "obvious characterization". James Berardinelli of ReelViews praised the film and its story, giving it four out of four stars. He wrote: "In 3-D, it's immersive — but the traditional film elements — story, character, editing, theme, emotional resonance, etc. — are presented with sufficient expertise to make even the 2-D version an engrossing 2+1⁄2-hour experience."
Avatar's underlying social and political themes attracted attention. Armond White of the New York Press wrote that Cameron used "villainous American characters" to "misrepresent facets of militarism, capitalism, and imperialism". Russell D. Moore of The Christian Post concluded that "propaganda exists in the film" and stated "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war, then you've got some amazing special effects." Adam Cohen of The New York Times was more positive about the film, calling its anti-imperialist message "a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit". Ross Douthat of The New York Times opined that the film is "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism [...] Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now", while Saritha Prabhu of The Tennessean called the film a "misportrayal of pantheism and Eastern spirituality in general", and Maxim Osipov of The Hindustan Times, on the contrary, commended the film's message for its overall consistency with the teachings of Hinduism in the Bhagavad Gita. Annalee Newitz of io9 concluded that Avatar is another film that has the recurring "fantasy about race" whereby "some white guy" becomes the "most awesome" member of a non-white culture. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called Avatar "the season's ideological Rorschach blot", while Miranda Devine of The Sydney Morning Herald thought that "It [was] impossible to watch Avatar without being banged over the head with the director's ideological hammer." Nidesh Lawtoo believed that an essential, yet less visible social theme that contributed to Avatar's success concerns contemporary fascinations with virtual avatars and "the transition from the world of reality to that of virtual reality".
Critics and audiences have cited similarities with other films, literature or media, describing the perceived connections in ways ranging from simple "borrowing" to outright plagiarism. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe called it "the same movie" as Dances with Wolves. Like Dances with Wolves, Avatar has been characterized as being a "white savior" movie, in which a "backwards" native people is impotent without the leadership of a member of the invading white culture. Parallels to the concept and use of an avatar are in Poul Anderson's 1957 novelette "Call Me Joe", in which a paralyzed man uses his mind from orbit to control an artificial body on Jupiter. Cinema audiences in Russia have noted that Avatar has elements in common with the 1960s Noon Universe novels by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which are set in the 22nd century on a forested world called Pandora with a sentient indigenous species called the Nave. Various reviews have compared Avatar to the films FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Pocahontas and The Last Samurai. NPR's Morning Edition has compared the film to a montage of tropes, with one commentator stating that Avatar was made by "mixing a bunch of film scripts in a blender". Gary Westfahl wrote that "the science fiction story that most closely resembles Avatar has to be Ursula Le Guin's novella The Word for World Is Forest (1972), another epic about a benevolent race of alien beings who happily inhabit dense forests while living in harmony with nature until they are attacked and slaughtered by invading human soldiers who believe that the only good gook is a dead gook". The science fiction writer and editor Gardner Dozois said that along with the Anderson and Le Guin stories, the "mash-up" included Alan Dean Foster's 1975 novel, Midworld. Some sources saw similarities to the artwork of Roger Dean, which features fantastic images of dragons and floating rock formations. In 2013, Dean sued Cameron and Fox, claiming that Pandora was inspired by 14 of his images. Dean sought damages of $50m. Dean's case was dismissed in 2014, and The Hollywood Reporter noted that Cameron had won multiple Avatar idea theft cases.
Avatar received compliments from filmmakers, with Steven Spielberg praising it as "the most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since Star Wars" and others calling it "audacious and awe inspiring", "master class", and "brilliant". Noted art director-turned-filmmaker Roger Christian is also a noted fan of the film. On the other hand, Duncan Jones said: "It's not in my top three James Cameron films. ... [A]t what point in the film did you have any doubt what was going to happen next?". For French filmmaker Luc Besson, Avatar opened the doors for him to now create an adaptation of the graphic novel series Valérian and Laureline that technologically supports the scope of its source material, with Besson even throwing his original script in the trash and redoing it after seeing the film. TIME ranked Avatar number 3 in their list of "The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)" also earning it a spot on the magazine's All-Time 100 list, and IGN listed Avatar as number 22 on their list of the top 25 Sci-Fi movies of all time.
Box office
General
Avatar was released internationally on more than 14,000 screens. It grossed $3,537,000 from midnight screenings in the United States and Canada, with the initial 3D release limited to 2,200 screens. The film grossed $26,752,099 on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend, making it the second-largest December opening ever behind I Am Legend, the largest domestic opening weekend for a film not based on a franchise (topping The Incredibles), the highest opening weekend for a film entirely in 3D (breaking Up's record), the highest opening weekend for an environmentalist film (breaking The Day After Tomorrow's record), and the 40th-largest opening weekend in North America, despite a blizzard that blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend results. The film also set an IMAX opening weekend record, with 178 theaters generating approximately $9.5 million, 12% of the film's $77 million (at the time) North American gross on less than 3% of the screens.
International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were for Russia ($19.7 million), France ($17.4 million), the UK ($13.8 million), Germany ($13.3 million), South Korea ($11.7 million), Australia ($11.5 million), and Spain ($11.0 million). Avatar's worldwide gross was US$241.6 million after five days, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film. 58 international IMAX screens generated an estimated $4.1 million during the opening weekend.
Revenues in the film's second weekend decreased by only 1.8% in domestic markets, marking a rare occurrence, grossing $75,617,183, to remain in first place at the box office and recording what was then the biggest second weekend of all time. The film experienced another marginal decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 9.4% to $68,490,688 domestically, remaining in first place at the box office, to set a third-weekend record.
Avatar crossed the $1 billion mark on the 19th day of its international release, making it the first film to reach this mark in only 19 days. It became the fifth film grossing more than $1 billion worldwide, and the only film of 2009 to do so. In its fourth weekend, Avatar continued to lead the box office domestically, setting a new all-time fourth-weekend record of $50,306,217, and becoming the highest-grossing 2009 release in the United States, beating Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In the film's fifth weekend, it set the Martin Luther King Day weekend record, grossing $54,401,446, and set a fifth-weekend record with a take of $42,785,612. It held the top spot to set the sixth and seventh weekend records grossing $34,944,081 and $31,280,029 respectively. It was the fastest film to gross $600 million domestically, on its 47th day in theaters.
On January 31 it became the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide, and it became the first film to gross over $700 million in the United States and Canada, on February 27, after 72 days of release. It remained at number one at the domestic box office for seven consecutive weeks – the most consecutive No. 1 weekends since Titanic spent 15 weekends at No.1 in 1997 and 1998 – and also spent 11 consecutive weekends at the top of the box office outside the United States and Canada, breaking the record of nine consecutive weekends set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. By the end of its first theatrical release Avatar had grossed $749,766,139 in the U.S. and Canada, and $1,999,298,189 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2,749,064,328.
Including the revenue from a re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, Avatar grossed $785,221,649 in the U.S. and Canada, and $2,137,696,265 in other countries for a worldwide total of $2,922,917,914. Avatar has set a number of box office records during its release: on January 25, 2010, it surpassed Titanic's worldwide gross to become the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide 41 days after its international release, just two days after taking the foreign box office record. On February 2, 47 days after its domestic release, Avatar surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing film of all time in Canada and the United States. It became the highest-grossing film of all time in at least 30 other countries and is the first film to gross over $2 billion in foreign box office receipts.
IMAX ticket sales account for $243.3 million of its worldwide gross, more than double the previous record. By 2022, this figure rose to $268.6 million.
Box Office Mojo estimates that after adjusting for the rise in average ticket prices, Avatar would be the 14th-highest-grossing film of all time in North America. Box Office Mojo also observes that the higher ticket prices for 3D and IMAX screenings have had a significant impact on Avatar's gross; it estimated, on April 21, 2010, that Avatar had sold approximately 75 million tickets in North American theaters, more than any other film since 1999's Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. On a worldwide basis, when Avatar's gross stood at $2 billion just 35 days into its run, The Daily Telegraph estimated its gross was surpassed by only Gone with the Wind ($3.0 billion), Titanic ($2.9 billion), and Star Wars ($2.2 billion) after adjusting for inflation to 2010 prices, with Avatar ultimately winding up with $2.92 billion after subsequent re-releases. Reuters even placed it ahead of Titanic after adjusting the global total for inflation. The 2015 edition of Guinness World Records lists Avatar only behind Gone with the Wind in terms of adjusted grosses worldwide.
Commercial analysis
Before its release, various film critics and fan communities predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, in line with predictions made for Cameron's previous blockbuster Titanic. This criticism ranged from Avatar's film budget, to its concept and use of 3-D "blue cat people". Slate magazine's Daniel Engber complimented the 3D effects but criticized them for reminding him of certain CGI characters from the Star Wars prequel films and for having the "uncanny valley" effect. The New York Times noted that 20th Century Fox executives had decided to release Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel alongside Avatar, calling it a "secret weapon" to cover any unforeseeable losses at the box office.
Box office analysts, on the other hand, estimated that the film would be a box office success. "The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived," said an analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "This is why all these 3-D venues were built: for Avatar. This is the one. The behemoth." The "cautionary estimate" was that Avatar would bring in around $60 million in its opening weekend. Others guessed higher. There were also analysts who believed that the film's three-dimensionality would help its box office performance, given that recent 3D films had been successful.
Cameron said he felt the pressure of the predictions, but that pressure is good for film-makers. "It makes us think about our audiences and what the audience wants," he stated. "We owe them a good time. We owe them a piece of good entertainment." Although he felt Avatar would appeal to everyone and that the film could not afford to have a target demographic, he especially wanted hard-core science-fiction fans to see it: "If I can just get 'em in the damn theater, the film will act on them in the way it's supposed to, in terms of taking them on an amazing journey and giving them this rich emotional experience." Cameron was aware of the sentiment that Avatar would need significant "repeat business" just to make up for its budget and achieve box office success, and believed Avatar could inspire the same "sharing" reaction as Titanic. He said that film worked because, "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it. They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life."
After the film's release and unusually strong box office performance over its first two weeks, it was debated as the one film capable of surpassing Titanic's worldwide gross, and its continued strength perplexed box office analysts. Other films in recent years had been cited as contenders for surpassing Titanic, such as 2008's The Dark Knight, but Avatar was considered the first film with a genuine chance to do so, and its numbers being aided by higher ticket prices for 3D screenings did not fully explain its success to box office analysts. "Most films are considered to be healthy if they manage anything less than a 50% drop from their first weekend to their second. Dipping just 11% from the first to the third is unheard of," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office analysis for Hollywood.com. "This is just unprecedented. I had to do a double take. I thought it was a miscalculation." Analysts predicted second place for the film's worldwide gross, but most were uncertain about it surpassing Titanic because "Today's films flame out much faster than they did when Titanic was released." Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, believed in the film's chances of becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, though he also believed it was too early to surmise because it had only played during the holidays. He said, "While Avatar may beat Titanic's record, it will be tough, and the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s." Cameron said he did not think it was realistic to "try to topple Titanic off its perch" because it "just struck some kind of chord" and there had been other good films in recent years. He changed his prediction by mid-January. "It's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time," he said.
Although analysts have been unable to agree that Avatar's success is attributable to one primary factor, several explanations have been advanced. First, January is historically "the dumping ground for the year's weakest films", and this also applied to 2010.
Cameron himself said he decided to open the film in December so that it would have less competition from then to January. Titanic capitalized on the same January predictability, and earned most of its gross in 1998. Additionally, Avatar established itself as a "must-see" event. Gray said, "At this point, people who are going to see Avatar are going to see Avatar and would even if the slate was strong." Marketing the film as a "novelty factor" also helped. Fox positioned the film as a cinematic event that should be seen in the theaters. "It's really hard to sell the idea that you can have the same experience at home," stated David Mumpower, an analyst at BoxOfficeProphets.com. The "Oscar buzz" surrounding the film and international viewings helped. "Two-thirds of Titanic's haul was earned overseas, and Avatar [tracked] similarly ...Avatar opened in 106 markets globally and was No. 1 in all of them", and the markets "such as Russia, where Titanic saw modest receipts in 1997 and 1998, are white-hot today" with "more screens and moviegoers" than before.
According to Variety, films in 3D accumulated $1.3 billion in 2009, "a threefold increase over 2008 and more than 10% of the total 2009 box-office gross". The increased ticket price – an average of $2 to $3 per ticket in most markets – helped the film. Likewise, Entertainment Weekly attributed the film's success to 3D glasses but also to its "astronomic word-of-mouth". Not only do some theaters charge up to $18.50 for IMAX tickets, but "the buzz" created by the new technology was the possible cause for sold-out screenings. Gray said Avatar having no basis in previously established material makes its performance remarkable and even more impressive. "The movie might be derivative of many movies in its story and themes," he said, "but it had no direct antecedent like the other top-grossing films: Titanic (historical events), the Star Wars movies (an established film franchise), or The Lord of the Rings (literature). It was a tougher sell ..." The Hollywood Reporter estimated that after a combined production and promotion cost of between $387 million and $437 million, the film turned a net profit of $1.2 billion.
Accolades
Avatar won the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine, including Best Picture and Best Director. Avatar also won the 67th Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, and was nominated for two others. At the 36th Saturn Awards, Avatar won all ten awards it was nominated for: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Music, Best Production Design and Best Special Effects.
The New York Film Critics Online honored the film with its Best Picture award. The film also won the Critics' Choice Awards of the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Action Film and several technical categories, out of nine nominations. It won two of the St. Louis Film Critics awards: Best Visual Effects and Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film. The film also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Production Design and Special Visual Effects, and was nominated for six others, including Best Film and Director. The film has received numerous other major awards, nominations and honors.
Legacy
Despite the film's financial and critical success, some journalists have questioned Avatar's cultural impact. In 2014, Scott Mendelson of Forbes said the film had been "all but forgotten", citing the lack of merchandising, a fandom for the film, or any long-enduring media franchise, and further stated that he believed most general audiences could not remember any of the film's details, such as the names of its characters or actors in the cast. Mendelson argued Avatar's only achievement of note to be its popularization of 3D cinema. Despite this, he still felt it was a quality film, saying, "A great blockbuster movie can just be a great blockbuster movie without capturing the lunchbox market." He further reflected and reversed his stance in 2022 after the box office success of the re-release, saying, "The very things that made Avatar sometimes feel like a 'forgotten blockbuster' have inspired a skewed renewed nostalgia for its singular existence. It was just a movie, an original auteur-specific movie that prioritized top-shelf filmmaking and clockwork plotting over quotable dialogue and memes."
Some have questioned if there is an audience for the film's planned sequels, believing there to be a lack of interest in the face of the multiple delays of their release dates. Writing for The Escapist, Darren Mooney acknowledged that the film had not been broadly remembered in the pop cultural subconscious and had not found a fandom in the same sense as many other popular media, but argued that this was not a negative point, saying, "its defining legacy is the insistence that it lacks a legacy."
In 2022, in response to the trailer for Avatar's upcoming sequel and the film's re-release, journalists again questioned the cultural relevance of the film, particularly Patrick Ryan of USA Today, who said the film had "curiously left almost no pop-culture footprint". In contrast, Bilge Ebiri of Vulture called others' opinions that the film had left no cultural impact "narrow-minded" and said that the film still held up well. A detailed overview of the Avatar franchise was reported in The New York Times in December of that year.
Sequels
Avatar's success led to two sequels; this number was subsequently expanded to four. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) grossed over $2.3 billion, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2022, and received a similarly positive critical and audience response. It will be followed by Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). The fourth and fifth Avatar films are scheduled to be released in 2029 and 2031.
Related media
Stage adaptation
Toruk – The First Flight is an original stage production by the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil which ran between December 2015 and June 2019. Inspired by Avatar, the story is set in Pandora's past, involving a prophecy concerning a threat to the Tree of Souls and a quest for totems from different tribes. Audience members could download an app in order to participate in show effects. On January 18, 2016, it was announced via the Toruk Facebook page that filming for a DVD release had been completed and was undergoing editing.
Theme park attraction
In 2011, Cameron, Lightstorm, and Fox entered an exclusive licensing agreement with the Walt Disney Company to feature Avatar-themed attractions at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide, including a themed land for Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The area, known as Pandora – The World of Avatar, opened on May 27, 2017.
Novels
Following the release of Avatar, Cameron planned to write a novel based on the film, "telling the story of the movie, but [going] into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with." In 2013, this plan was superseded by the announcement of four novels set within the "Avatar expanded universe", to be written by Steven Gould. The books were due to be published by Penguin Random House, although since 2017, there has been no update on the planned book series.
See also
List of films featuring extraterrestrials
List of films featuring powered exoskeletons
Red Scorpion
Run of the Arrow
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Official website
Official shooting script
Avatar at IMDb |
European_Convention_on_Human_Rights | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights | [
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] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights"
] | The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. All Council of Europe member states are party to the convention and new members are expected to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity.
The convention established the European Court of Human Rights (generally referred to by the initials ECtHR). Any person who feels their rights have been violated under the convention by a state party can take a case to the court. Judgments finding violations are binding on the states concerned and they are obliged to execute them. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the execution of judgments, particularly to ensure payments awarded by the court appropriately compensate applicants for the damage they have sustained.
The convention has sixteen protocols, which amend the convention framework.
The convention has had a significant influence on the law in Council of Europe member countries and is widely considered the most effective international treaty for human rights protection.
History
The European Convention on Human Rights has played an important role in the development and awareness of human rights in Europe. The development of a regional system of human rights protections operating across Europe can be seen as a direct response to twin concerns. First, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the convention, drawing on the inspiration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, can be seen as part of a wider response from the Allied powers in delivering a human rights agenda to prevent the most serious human rights violations which had occurred during the Second World War from happening again.
Second, the convention was a response to the growth of Stalinism in Central and Eastern Europe and was designed to protect the member states of the Council of Europe from communist subversion. This, in part, explains the constant references to values and principles that are "necessary in a democratic society" throughout the convention, despite the fact that such principles are not in any way defined within the convention itself. Consequently the convention was principally conceived, at the time of its creation, as an "anti-totalitarian" measure to help stabilise social democracies in Western Europe, rather than as a specific reaction to the legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust. This approach was a continuation of Atlanticist beliefs from World War II and the early Cold War which called for the defence of democracy against all forms of authoritarianism.
From 7 to 10 May 1948, politicians including Winston Churchill, François Mitterrand, and Konrad Adenauer, as well as civil society representatives, academics, business leaders, trade unionists, and religious leaders convened the Congress of Europe in The Hague. At the end of the Congress, a declaration and following pledge to create the convention was issued. The second and third articles of the pledge state: "We desire a Charter of Human Rights guaranteeing liberty of thought, assembly and expression as well as right to form a political opposition. We desire a Court of Justice with adequate sanctions for the implementation of this Charter."
The convention was drafted by the Council of Europe after the Second World War and Hague Congress. Over 100 parliamentarians from the twelve member states of the Council of Europe gathered in Strasbourg in the summer of 1949 for the first-ever meeting of the Council's Consultative Assembly to draft a "charter of human rights" and to establish a court to enforce it. British MP and lawyer Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the chair of the Assembly's Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions, was one of its leading members and guided the drafting of the convention, based on an earlier draft produced by the European Movement. As a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, he had seen first-hand of a binding international court.
French former minister and French Resistance fighter Pierre-Henri Teitgen submitted a report to the Assembly proposing a list of rights to be protected, selecting a number from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that had recently been agreed to in New York, and defining how the enforcing judicial mechanism might operate. After extensive debates, the Assembly sent its final proposal to the Council's Committee of Ministers, which convened a group of experts to draft the convention itself.
The convention was designed to incorporate a traditional civil liberties approach to securing "effective political democracy", from the strongest traditions in the United Kingdom, France and other member states of the fledgling Council of Europe, as said by Guido Raimondi, President of the European Court of Human Rights:
The European system of protection of human rights with its Court would be inconceivable untied from democracy. In fact, we have a bond that is not only regional or geographic: a State cannot be party to the European Convention on Human Rights if it is not a member of the Council of Europe; it cannot be a member State of the Council of Europe if it does not respect pluralist democracy, the rule of law and human rights. So a non-democratic State could not participate in the ECHR system: the protection of democracy goes hand in hand with the protection of rights.
The convention was opened for signature on 4 November 1950 in Rome. It was ratified and entered into force on 3 September 1953. It is overseen and enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and the Council of Europe. Until procedural reforms in the late 1990s, the convention was also overseen by a European Commission on Human Rights.
Proposals for reform of the convention have been put forward, for example by former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and other UK politicians. Conservative politicians have proposed reform or withdrawal from the convention during the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election.
Drafting
The convention is drafted in broad terms, in a similar (albeit more modern) manner to the 1689 Scottish Claim of Right Act 1689, to the 1689 English Bill of Rights, the 1791 U.S. Bill of Rights, the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, or the first part of the German Basic Law. Statements of principle are, from a juridical point of view, not determinative and require and have given occasion to extensive interpretation by courts to bring out meaning in particular factual situations,
Convention articles
As amended by Protocol 11, the convention consists of three parts. The main rights and freedoms are contained in Section I, which consists of Articles 2 to 18. Section II (Articles 19 to 51) sets up the court and its rules of operation. Section III contains various concluding provisions.
Before the entry into force of Protocol 11, Section II (Article 19) set up the Commission and the court, Sections III (Articles 20 to 37) and IV (Articles 38 to 59) included the high-level machinery for the operation of, respectively, the Commission and the court, and Section V contained various concluding provisions.
Many of the articles in Section I are structured in two paragraphs: the first sets out a basic right or freedom (such as Article 2(1) – the right to life) but the second contains various exclusions, exceptions or limitations on the basic right (such as Article 2(2) – which excepts certain uses of force leading to death).
Article 1 – respecting rights
Article 1 simply binds the signatory parties to secure the rights under the other articles of the convention "within their jurisdiction". In exceptional cases, "jurisdiction" may not be confined to a contracting state's own national territory; the obligation to secure convention rights then also extends to foreign territories, such as occupied land in which the state exercises effective control.
In Loizidou v Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that jurisdiction of member states to the convention extended to areas under that state's effective control as a result of military action.
Article 2 – life
Article 2 protects the right of every person to their life. The right to life extends only to human beings, not to animals, nor to "legal persons" such as corporations. In Evans v United Kingdom, the court ruled that the question of whether the right to life extends to a human embryo fell within a state's margin of appreciation. In Vo v France, the court declined to extend the right to life to an unborn child, while stating that "it is neither desirable, nor even possible as matters stand, to answer in the abstract the question whether the unborn child is a person for the purposes of Article 2 of the Convention".
The court has ruled that states have three main duties under Article 2:
a duty to refrain from unlawful killing,
a duty to investigate suspicious deaths, and
in certain circumstances, a positive duty to prevent foreseeable loss of life.
The first paragraph of the article contains an exception for lawful executions, although this exception has largely been superseded by Protocols 6 and 13. Protocol 6 prohibits the imposition of the death penalty in peacetime, while Protocol 13 extends the prohibition to all circumstances. (For more on Protocols 6 and 13, see below).
The second paragraph of Article 2 provides that death resulting from defending oneself or others, arresting a suspect or fugitive, or suppressing riots or insurrections, will not contravene the Article when the use of force involved is "no more than absolutely necessary".
Signatory states to the convention can only derogate from the rights contained in Article 2 for deaths which result from lawful acts of war.
The European Court of Human Rights did not rule upon the right to life until 1995, when in McCann and Others v United Kingdom it ruled that the exception contained in the second paragraph does not constitute situations when it is permitted to kill, but situations where it is permitted to use force which might result in the deprivation of life.
Article 3 – torture
Article 3 prohibits torture and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". There are no exceptions or limitations on this right. This provision usually applies, apart from torture, to cases of severe police violence and poor conditions in detention.
The court has emphasised the fundamental nature of Article 3 in holding that the prohibition is made in "absolute terms ... irrespective of the victim's conduct". The court has also held that states cannot deport or extradite individuals who might be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in the recipient state.
The first case to examine Article 3 was the Greek case, which set an influential precedent. In Ireland v. United Kingdom (1979–1980) the court ruled that the five techniques developed by the United Kingdom (wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink), as used against fourteen detainees in Northern Ireland by the United Kingdom were "inhuman and degrading" and breached the European Convention on Human Rights, but did not amount to "torture".
In Aksoy v. Turkey (1997) the court found Turkey guilty of torture in 1996 in the case of a detainee who was suspended by his arms while his hands were tied behind his back.
Selmouni v. France (2000) the court has appeared to be more open to finding states guilty of torture ruling that since the convention is a "living instrument", treatment which it had previously characterized as inhuman or degrading treatment might in future be regarded as torture.
In 2014, after new information was uncovered that showed the decision to use the five techniques in Northern Ireland in 1971–1972 had been taken by British ministers, the Irish Government asked the European Court of Human Rights to review its judgement. In 2018, by six votes to one, the court declined.
Article 4 – servitude
Article 4 prohibits slavery, servitude and forced labour but exempts labour:
done as a normal part of imprisonment,
in the form of compulsory military service or work done as an alternative by conscientious objectors,
required to be done during a state of emergency, and
considered to be a part of a person's normal "civic obligations".
Article 5 – liberty and security
Article 5 provides that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. Liberty and security of the person are taken as a "compound" concept – security of the person has not been subject to separate interpretation by the court.
Article 5 provides the right to liberty, subject only to lawful arrest or detention under certain other circumstances, such as arrest on reasonable suspicion of a crime or imprisonment in fulfilment of a sentence. The article also provides those arrested with the right to be informed, in a language they understand, of the reasons for the arrest and any charge they face, the right of prompt access to judicial proceedings to determine the legality of the arrest or detention, to trial within a reasonable time or release pending trial, and the right to compensation in the case of arrest or detention in violation of this article.
Assanidze v. Georgia, App. No. 71503/01 (Eur. Ct. H.R. 8 April 2004)
Article 6 – fair trial
Article 6 provides a detailed right to a fair trial, including the right to a public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the presumption of innocence, and other minimum rights for those charged with a criminal offence (adequate time and facilities to prepare their defence, access to legal representation, right to examine witnesses against them or have them examined, right to the free assistance of an interpreter).
The majority of convention violations that the court finds today are excessive delays, in violation of the "reasonable time" requirement, in civil and criminal proceedings before national courts, mostly in Italy and France. Under the "independent tribunal" requirement, the court has ruled that military judges in Turkish state security courts are incompatible with Article 6. In compliance with this Article, Turkey has now adopted a law abolishing these courts.
Another significant set of violations concerns the "confrontation clause" of Article 6 (i.e. the right to examine witnesses or have them examined). In this respect, problems of compliance with Article 6 may arise when national laws allow the use in evidence of the testimonies of absent, anonymous and vulnerable witnesses.
Steel v. United Kingdom (1998) 28 EHRR 603
Assanidze v. Georgia [2004] ECHR 140
Othman (Abu Qatada) v. United Kingdom (2012) – Abu Qatada could not be deported to Jordan as that would be a violation of Article 6 "given the real risk of the admission of evidence obtained by torture". This was the first time the court ruled that such an expulsion would be a violation of Article 6.
Article 7 – retroactivity
Article 7 prohibits the retroactive criminalisation of acts and omissions. No person may be punished for an act that was not a criminal offence at the time of its commission. The article states that a criminal offence is one under either national or international law, which would permit a party to prosecute someone for a crime which was not illegal under domestic law at the time, so long as it was prohibited by international law. The Article also prohibits a heavier penalty being imposed than was applicable at the time when the criminal act was committed.
Article 7 incorporates the legal principle nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege (no crime, no penalty without law) into the convention.
Relevant cases are:
Kokkinakis v. Greece [1993] ECHR 20
S.A.S. v. France [2014] ECHR 69
Article 8 – privacy
Article 8 provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to restrictions that are "in accordance with law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others". This article clearly provides a right to be free of unlawful searches, but the court has given the protection for "private and family life" that this article provides a broad interpretation, taking for instance that prohibition of private consensual homosexual acts violates this article. There have been cases discussing consensual familial sexual relationships, and how the criminalisation of this may violate this article. However, the ECHR still allows such familial sexual acts to be criminal.
This may be compared to the jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court, which has also adopted a somewhat broad interpretation of the right to privacy. Furthermore, Article 8 sometimes comprises positive obligations: whereas classical human rights are formulated as prohibiting a state from interfering with rights, and thus not to do something (e.g. not to separate a family under family life protection), the effective enjoyment of such rights may also include an obligation for the state to become active, and to do something (e.g. to enforce access for a divorced parent to his/her child).
Notable cases:
Zakharov v. Russia [2015] EHCR 47143/06
Malone v. United Kingdom [1984] ECHR 10, (1984) 7 EHRR 14
Oliari and Others v. Italy (2015)
Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic (ECtHR April 8, 2021), holding that the nation of the Czech Republic did not violate the Convention by imposing a vaccination mandate on children in that country
Article 9 – conscience and religion
Article 9 provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes the freedom to change a religion or belief, and to manifest a religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance, subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society".
Relevant cases are:
Kokkinakis v. Greece [1993] ECHR 20
Universelles Leben e.V. v. Germany [1996] (app. no. 29745/96)
Buscarini and Others v. San Marino [1999] ECHR 7
Pichon and Sajous v. France [2001] ECHR 898
Leyla Şahin v. Turkey [2004] ECHR 299
Leela Förderkreis E.V. and Others v. Germany [2008] ECHR
Lautsi v. Italy [2011] ECHR 2412
S.A.S. v. France [2014] ECHR 695
Eweida v. United Kingdom [2013] ECHR 2013
Article 10 – expression
Article 10 provides the right to freedom of expression, subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society". This right includes the freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information and ideas, but allows restrictions for:
interests of national security
territorial integrity or public safety
prevention of disorder or crime
protection of health or morals
protection of the reputation or the rights of others
preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence
maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary
Relevant cases are:
Lingens v. Austria (1986) 8 EHRR 407
The Observer and The Guardian v. United Kingdom (1991) 14 EHRR 153, the "Spycatcher" case.
Bowman v. United Kingdom [1998] ECHR 4, (1998) 26 EHRR 1, distributing vast quantities of anti-abortion material in contravention of election spending laws
Communist Party v. Turkey (1998) 26 EHRR 1211
Appleby v. United Kingdom (2003) 37 EHRR 38, protests in a private shopping centre
TV Vest and Rogaland Pensioners Party v. Norway (2008)
Article 11 – association
Article 11 protects the right to freedom of assembly and association, including the right to form trade unions, subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society".
Vogt v. Germany (1995)
Yazar, Karatas, Aksoy and Hep v. Turkey (2003) 36 EHRR 59
Bączkowski v. Poland (2005)
Article 12 – marriage
Article 12 provides a right for women and men of marriageable age to marry and establish a family.
Despite a number of invitations, the court has so far refused to apply the protections of this article to same-sex marriage. The court has defended this on the grounds that the article was intended to apply only to different-sex marriage, and that a wide margin of appreciation must be granted to parties in this area.
In Goodwin v. United Kingdom the court ruled that a law which still classified post-operative transsexual people under their pre-operative sex violated article 12 as it meant that transsexual people were unable to marry individuals of their post-operative opposite sex. This reversed an earlier ruling in Rees v. United Kingdom. This did not, however, alter the Court's understanding that Article 12 protects only different-sex couples.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Schalk and Kopf v. Austria that countries are not required to provide marriage licenses for same-sex couples; however, if a country allows same-sex couple marriage it must be done under the same conditions that opposite-sex couples marriage face, in order to prevent a breach of article 14 – the prohibition of discrimination. Additionally, the court ruled in the 2015 case of Oliari and Others v. Italy that states have a positive obligation to ensure there is a specific legal framework for the recognition and protection of same-sex couples.
Article 13 – effective remedy
Article 13 provides for the right for an effective remedy before national authorities for violations of rights under the convention. The inability to obtain a remedy before a national court for an infringement of a Convention right is thus a free-standing and separately actionable infringement of the convention.
Article 14 – discrimination
Article 14 contains a prohibition of discrimination. This prohibition is broad in some ways and narrow in others. It is broad in that it prohibits discrimination under a potentially unlimited number of grounds. While the article specifically prohibits discrimination based on "sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status", the last of these allows the court to extend to Article 14 protection to other grounds not specifically mentioned such as has been done regarding discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation.
At the same time, the article's protection is limited in that it only prohibits discrimination with respect to rights under the convention. Thus, an applicant must prove discrimination in the enjoyment of a specific right that is guaranteed elsewhere in the convention (e.g. discrimination based on sex – Article 14 – in the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression – Article 10).
Protocol 12 extends this prohibition to cover discrimination in any legal right, even when that legal right is not protected under the convention, so long as it is provided for in national law.
Article 15 – derogations
Article 15 allows contracting states to derogate from certain rights guaranteed by the convention in a time of "war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation". Permissible derogations under article 15 must meet three substantive conditions:
there must be a public emergency threatening the life of the nation;
any measures taken in response must be "strictly required by the exigencies of the situation"; and
the measures taken in response to it must be in compliance with a state's other obligations under international law.
In addition to these substantive requirements, the derogation must be procedurally sound. There must be some formal announcement of the derogation and notice of the derogation and any measures adopted under it, and the ending of the derogation must be communicated to the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
As of 2016, only eight member states had ever invoked derogations. The court is quite permissive in accepting a state's derogations from the convention but applies a higher degree of scrutiny in deciding whether measures taken by states under a derogation are, in the words of Article 15, "strictly required by the exigencies of the situation". Thus in A v United Kingdom, the court dismissed a claim that a derogation lodged by the British government in response to the September 11 attacks was invalid, but went on to find that measures taken by the United Kingdom under that derogation were disproportionate.
Examples of such derogations include:
In the 1969 Greek case, the European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the derogation was invalid because the alleged Communist subversion did not pose a sufficient threat. This is the only time to date that the convention system has rejected an attempted derogation.
Operation Demetrius—Internees arrested without trial pursuant to "Operation Demetrius" could not complain to the European Commission of Human Rights about breaches of Article 5 because on 27 June 1957, the UK lodged a notice with the Council of Europe declaring that there was a "public emergency within the meaning of Article 15(1) of the Convention".
Article 16 – foreign parties
Article 16 allows states to restrict the political activity of foreigners. The court has ruled that European Union member states cannot consider the nationals of other member states to be aliens.
Article 17 – abuse of rights
Article 17 provides that no one may use the rights guaranteed by the convention to seek the abolition or limitation of rights guaranteed in the convention. This addresses instances where states seek to restrict a human right in the name of another human right, or where individuals rely on a human right to undermine other human rights (for example where an individual issues a death threat).
Communist Party of Germany v. the Federal Republic of Germany (1957), the Commission refused to consider the appeal by the Communist Party of Germany, stating that the communist doctrine advocated by them is incompatible with the convention, citing article 17's limitations on the rights to the extent necessarily to prevent their subversion by adherents of a totalitarian doctrine.
Article 18 – permitted restrictions
Article 18 provides that any limitations on the rights provided for in the convention may be used only for the purpose for which they are provided. For example, Article 5, which guarantees the right to personal freedom, may be explicitly limited in order to bring a suspect before a judge. To use pre-trial detention as a means of intimidation of a person under a false pretext is, therefore, a limitation of right (to freedom) which does not serve an explicitly provided purpose (to be brought before a judge), and is therefore contrary to Article 18.
Convention protocols
As of January 2010, fifteen protocols to the convention have been opened for signature. These can be divided into two main groups: those amending the framework of the convention system, and those expanding the rights that can be protected. The former require unanimous ratification by member states before coming into force, while the latter require a certain number of states to sign before coming into force.
Protocol 1
This Protocol contains three different rights which the signatories could not agree to place in the convention itself. Monaco and Switzerland have signed but never ratified Protocol 1.
Article 1 – property
Article 1 ("A1P1") provides that "every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions". The European Court of Human Rights acknowledged a violation of the fair balance between the demands of the general interest of the community and the requirements of the protection of the individual's fundamental rights, also, in the uncertainty – for the owner – about the future of the property, and in the absence of an allowance.
In the case of Mifsud and others v Malta (38770/17) the Maltese state was found to have violated Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the convention. The case involved a plot of land owned by the Mifsud family and their heirs which was expropriated twice (in 1984 and in 2012). The court, in its judgment, stated that "the (Maltese) Constitutional Court had no basis on which to ground its finding. The Court is disconcerted by the circumstances of the present case which led to an expropriation of property being endorsed without anyone being able to assert the reasons behind such an expropriation."
Article 2 – education
Article 2 provides for the right not to be denied an education and the right for parents to have their children educated in accordance with their religious and other views. It does not however guarantee any particular level of education of any particular quality.
Although phrased in the Protocol as a negative right, in Şahin v. Turkey the court ruled that:
it would be hard to imagine that institutions of higher education existing at a given time do not come within the scope of the first sentence of Article 2 of Protocol No 1. Although that Article does not impose a duty on the Contracting States to set up institutions of higher education, any State doing so will be under an obligation to afford an effective right of access to them. In a democratic society, the right to education, which is indispensable to the furtherance of human rights, plays such a fundamental role that a restrictive interpretation of the first sentence of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 would not be consistent with the aim or purpose of that provision.
Article 3 – elections
Article 3 provides for the right to elections performed by secret ballot, that are also free and that occur at regular intervals.
Matthews v. United Kingdom (1999) 28 EHRR 361
Protocol 4 – civil imprisonment, free movement, expulsion
Article 1 prohibits the imprisonment of people for inability to fulfil a contract. Article 2 provides for a right to freely move within a country once lawfully there and for a right to leave any country. Article 3 prohibits the expulsion of nationals and provides for the right of an individual to enter a country of their nationality. Article 4 prohibits the collective expulsion of foreigners.
Turkey and the United Kingdom have signed but never ratified Protocol 4. Greece and Switzerland have neither signed nor ratified this protocol.
The United Kingdom's failure to ratify this protocol is due to concerns over the interaction of Article 2 and Article 3 with British nationality law. Specifically, several classes of "British national" (such as British National (Overseas)) do not have the right of abode in the United Kingdom and are subject to immigration control there. In 2009, the UK government stated that it had no plans to ratify Protocol 4 because of concerns that those articles could be taken as conferring that right.
Protocol 6 – restriction of death penalty
Requires parties to restrict the application of the death penalty except for "acts committed in time of war" or of "imminent threat of war".
Every Council of Europe member state has signed and ratified Protocol 6.
Protocol 7 – crime and family
Article 1 provides for a right to fair procedures for lawfully resident foreigners facing expulsion.
Article 2 provides for the right to appeal in criminal matters.
Article 3 provides for compensation for the victims of miscarriages of justice.
Article 4 prohibits the re-trial of anyone who has already been finally acquitted or convicted of a particular offence (double jeopardy).
Article 5 provides for equality between spouses.
Despite having signed the protocol more than thirty years ago Germany and the Netherlands have never ratified it. Turkey, which signed the protocol in 1985, ratified it in 2016, becoming the latest member state to do so. The United Kingdom has neither signed nor ratified the protocol.
Protocol 12 – discrimination
Protocol 12 applies the current expansive and indefinite grounds of prohibited discrimination in Article 14 to the exercise of any legal right and to the actions (including the obligations) of public authorities.
The Protocol entered into force on 1 April 2005 and has (as of March 2018) been ratified by 20 member states. Several member states—Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Lithuania, Monaco, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—have not signed the protocol.
The United Kingdom government has declined to sign Protocol 12 on the basis that they believe the wording of protocol is too wide and would result in a flood of new cases testing the extent of the new provision. They believe that the phrase "rights set forth by law" might include international conventions to which the UK is not a party, and would result in incorporation of these instruments by stealth.
It has been suggested that the protocol is therefore in a catch-22, since the UK will decline to either sign or ratify the protocol until the European Court of Human Rights has addressed the meaning of the provision, while the court is hindered in doing so by the lack of applications to the court concerning the protocol caused by the decisions of Europe's most populous states—including the UK—not to ratify the protocol. The UK government, nevertheless, stated in 2004 that it "agrees in principle that the ECHR should contain a provision against discrimination that is free-standing and not parasitic on the other Convention rights". The first judgment that found a violation of Protocol No. 12, Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, was delivered in 2009.
Protocol 13 – complete abolition of death penalty
Protocol 13 provides for the total abolition of the death penalty. Currently all Council of Europe member states but Azerbaijan have ratified Protocol 13.
Procedural and institutional protocols
The Convention's provisions affecting institutional and procedural matters have been altered several times by means of protocols. These amendments have, with the exception of Protocol 2, amended the text of the convention. Protocol 2 did not amend the text of the convention as such but stipulated that it was to be treated as an integral part of the text. All of these protocols have required the unanimous ratification of all the member states of the Council of Europe to enter into force.
Protocol 11
Protocols 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10 have now been superseded by Protocol 11 which entered into force on 1 November 1998. It established a fundamental change in the machinery of the convention. It abolished the Commission, allowing individuals to apply directly to the court, which was given compulsory jurisdiction and altered the latter's structure. Previously states could ratify the convention without accepting the jurisdiction of the Court of Human Rights. The protocol also abolished the judicial functions of the Committee of Ministers.
Protocol 14
Protocol 14 follows on from Protocol 11 in proposing to further improve the efficiency of the court. It seeks to "filter" out cases that have less chance of succeeding along with those that are broadly similar to cases brought previously against the same member state. Furthermore, a case will not be considered admissible where an applicant has not suffered a "significant disadvantage". This latter ground can only be used when an examination of the application on the merits is not considered necessary and where the subject-matter of the application had already been considered by a national court.
A new mechanism was introduced by Protocol 14 to assist enforcement of judgements by the Committee of Ministers. The committee can ask the court for an interpretation of a judgement and can even bring a member state before the court for non-compliance of a previous judgement against that state. Protocol 14 also allows for European Union accession to the convention. The protocol has been ratified by every Council of Europe member state, Russia being last in February 2010. It entered into force on 1 June 2010.
A provisional Protocol 14bis had been opened for signature in 2009. Pending the ratification of Protocol 14 itself, 14bis was devised to allow the court to implement revised procedures in respect of the states which have ratified it. It allowed single judges to reject manifestly inadmissible applications made against the states that have ratified the protocol. It also extended the competence of three-judge chambers to declare applications made against those states admissible and to decide on their merits where there already is a well-established case law of the court. Now that all Council of Europe member states have ratified Protocol 14, Protocol 14bis has lost its raison d'être and according to its own terms ceased to have any effect when Protocol 14 entered into force on 1 June 2010.
See also
Strasbourg Observers
Capital punishment in Europe
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
European Social Charter
Human Rights Act 1998 for how the convention has been incorporated into the law of the United Kingdom.
Human rights in Europe
Territorial scope of European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 Irish Act similar to the British Human Rights Act 1998.
International Institute of Human Rights
United Kingdom constitutional law
Notes
Further reading
Greer, Steven (2006). The European Convention on Human Rights: Achievements, Problems and Prospects. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-60859-6.
Mowbray, Alastair (2012). Cases, Materials, and Commentary on the European Convention on Human Rights. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957736-1.
Ovey, Clare; White, Robin C. A. (2006). Jacobs & White: The European Convention on Human Rights (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928810-6.
Schabas, William A. (2015). The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-106676-4.
Xenos, Dimitris (2012). The Positive Obligations of the State under the European Convention of Human Rights. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-66812-5.
Kälin W., Künzli J. (2019). The Law of International Human Rights Protection. ISBN 978-0-19-882568-5.
David Harris, Michael O'Boyle, Ed Bates, and Carla M. Buckley (2023). Harris, O'Boyle, and Warbrick: Law of the European Convention on Human Rights. Fifth edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198862000.
External links
Official text of the European Convention on Human Rights
Protocols to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
Database of European Human Rights Court (Strasbourg) judgments
European Convention of Human Rights official website |
List_of_micronations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations | [
481
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations"
] | Micronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are small, self-proclaimed entities that assert their sovereignty as independent states but which are not acknowledged as such by any of the recognised sovereign states, or by any supranational organization. They should not be confused with microstates, which are recognised independent states of a small size, nor should they be confused with unrecognised states, which are of more geopolitical significance because they exercise clear control of actual territory to the exclusion of widely recognized countries.
Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity.: 4
The following is a list of notable micronations.
Current
Former
Proposed
See also
Flags of micronations
How to Start Your Own Country
Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations
References
Notes
=== Citations === |
1967_Formula_One_season | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Formula_One_season | [
481
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Formula_One_season#Teams_and_drivers"
] | The 1967 Formula One season was the 21st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 18th World Championship of Drivers, the 10th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, and six non-championship races open to Formula One cars. The World Championship was contested over eleven races between 2 January and 22 October 1967.
Denny Hulme won the Drivers' Championship in a Brabham-Repco. Brabham was also awarded the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. As of 2023, this is the only championship won by a New Zealand driver. Hulme also became the first driver in World Championship history to win the title without having scored a pole position during the season.
Lorenzo Bandini crashed during the Monaco Grand Prix. Losing an early lead of the race and trying to get back to the front, the Ferrari driver clipped the chicane at the harbour front and then hit a hidden mooring. The car turned over and exploded in flames. It took marshals several minutes to extricate Bandini from the burning wreck and three days later, the Italian died. British driver Bob Anderson died during a test at Silverstone. His Brabham slid off the track in wet conditions and hit a marshals post, suffering serious chest and neck injuries and later dying in hospital.
Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1967 FIA World Championship. A pink background denotes additional Formula 2 entrants to the German Grand Prix on the very long Nürburgring track.
Team and driver changes
After his success in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, Chris Amon was offered a seat at the Ferrari F1 team. It would be the New Zealander's first full-time F1 drive since 1964.
Pedro Rodríguez was signed by Cooper, after 1964 champion John Surtees moved to Honda. Honda's 1966 drivers Richie Ginther and Ronnie Bucknum left the sport.
1962 champion Graham Hill moved from BRM to Lotus, replacing Peter Arundell. Mike Spence was hired as his replacement at BRM, having gained experience with their V8 engine at Reg Parnell's privateer team.
Mid-season changes
Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini suffered a fatal crash during the Monaco Grand Prix. The team brought back last year's drivers Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti for two races and then reduced their operations to just one car for Chris Amon.
Bruce McLaren had switched from Ford to BRM engines over the winter. He was supposed to get V12 engines for the McLaren M5A, but when those were delayed, he had to start the season in a modified Formula Two car powered by a BRM V8.
After having worked with engine suppliers Climax and BRM since 1966, Lotus switched to newly developed Cosworth DFV's from the third race of this year. The project was funded by the Ford Motor Company.
Pedro Rodríguez suffered a crash in the 1967 Mediterranean Grand Prix, a Formula Two race at Autodromo di Pergusa, and took about two months to recover. Richard Attwood and Jacky Ickx fell in for him at Cooper. It was Ickx's F1 debut, while he would go on to win the F2 championship that year as well.
Matra introduced their first Formula One chassis, the MS7, in the last two races of the season, with their Formula Two driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise granted the drive.
Calendar
Calendar changes
The South African Grand Prix returned to the calendar but it was held at the Kyalami Circuit instead of the Prince George Circuit.
The Dutch Grand Prix was brought forward from mid July to early June, ahead of the Belgian and French Grand Prix.
The French Grand Prix was moved to the Bugatti version of the Circuit de la Sarthe, replacing Reims-Gueux.
The British Grand Prix was moved from Brands Hatch to Silverstone, in keeping with the event-sharing arrangement between the two circuits.
The Canadian Grand Prix was hosted for the first time, at Mosport Park near Toronto.
Regulation changes
After Lorenzo Bandini's fatal accident, the FIA banned circuit organisers from using straw bales along the track and TV crews from flying their helicopters too low, as both had contributed to the fire flaring up.
Championship report
Rounds 1 to 4
Coming down from his third World Championship in 1966, Jack Brabham started this year off as well, with a pole position at the South African Grand Prix. Teammate Denny Hulme started second and two-time World Champion Jim Clark lined up in third in his Lotus. Hulme took the lead at the start, while Clark fell back to sixth. In a race of attrition, the crowd saw Rhodesian driver John Love take the lead. When he had to stop for extra fuel, however, it was Pedro Rodríguez who won in his Cooper. Love finished second, ahead of John Surtees in a Honda. Hulme and Brabham finished several laps down but still in the points, since there were just six classified finishers in total.
From 1967 to 1969, there was four months between the first and second race of the championship, and most teams would usually run the first race with old designs, or not even participate. This year, Ferrari, McLaren and Matra started their year with the Monaco Grand Prix. Lotus had planned to run revolutionary new Cosworths, but they were not ready in time. Jack Brabham scored pole position like in South Africa, but again lost the lead at the start, this time to long-time Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini. Before long, Hulme took over at the front and increased his lead to 15 seconds. Desperately trying to get closer, Bandini struck the barrier in the chicane at the harbour front and mounted the straw bales. The car landed upside down and exploded in flames. Bandini would succumbed to his injuries three days later. Hulme won the race, one lap ahead of Graham Hill (Lotus) and two ahead of Chris Amon (Ferrari). Like in the first race, there were just six finishers.
When Lotus could finally run the new Cosworth engines in the Dutch Grand Prix, their pace was significantly better than before and Hill snatched pole position. A surprising Dan Gurney in the Eagle started second, reigning champion Brabham in third. After drivers had to avoid a wandering marshal on the grid, the positions at the front remained rather the same, until Gurney made a pit stop. Hill's engine suddenly seized on lap 11, but teammate Clark was charging, getting up to second on lap 15 and taking the lead from Brabham on the next lap. He kept increasing his lead with a second per lap and easily won, ahead of the teammates Brabham and Hulme. Behind them finished the three Ferraris.
Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix ended up with quite the same drivers at the front, except Brabham could only manage seventh. Clark, Gurney and Hill occupied the front row. Clark was the only one of the three with a good start, however. During the first lap, Mike Parkes crashed his Ferrari and was thrown out. He broke a leg and wrist and would not return to Formula One. At the front of the field, Clark was followed by Stewart (BRM) and Amon (Ferrari), before Amon fell back and Gurney took third. Then, Clark had to pit to change a spark plug and Stewart ran into trouble with his gearbox, and Gurney took the lead. After setting a new lap record, the American driver won, over a minute ahead of Stewart and Amon.
Four different winners led to a close fight at the top of the Drivers' Championship. Denny Hulme (Brabham) was first with 16 points, ahead of Pedro Rodríguez (Cooper) and Chris Amon (Ferrari) with 11. In the battle for the Manufacturers' Cup, Brabham had scored 18 points, ahead of Cooper (14) and Ferrari (11).
Rounds 5 to 7
For the French Grand Prix, the front row consisted of 1962 champion Graham Hill (Lotus), triple World Champion Jack Brabham (Brabham) and winner of the last race, Dan Gurney (Eagle). But after just 5 laps, it was fourth-starting Jim Clark who led the field. Before the race reached half distance, however, both Lotuses had retired. The Cosworth engines deemed fast but unreliable. After Gurney retired as well with a fuel leak, which left Brabham and his teammate Hulme to finish first and second. Jackie Stewart finished third in his BRM, a lap down on the leader. For the third time this year, there were just six classified finishers.
The British Grand Prix was run at Silverstone and saw the green-and-yellow Lotuses (Clark ahead of Hill) qualifying in front of the green-and-gold Brabhams (Brabham ahead of Hulme). The Lotus duo gained a big lead over the rest, before Hill took the lead on lap 26. When a screw in his suspension failed, however, he had to pit on lap 55, and his engine seized ten laps later. Clark took a comfortable win, ahead of Hulme and Amon, the Ferrari driver having passed Brabham four laps from the end.
During practice for the German Grand Prix, Hill crashed and wrote off his Lotus, while escaping uninjured. Clark clinched pole position, ahead of Hulme and Formula Two driver Jacky Ickx. (Traditionally, the F2 race would be run at the same time as the Grand Prix. F2 drivers would not be eligible to score points for the F1 championship.) At the start, Clark and Hulme led away, with Bruce McLaren stealing third. On lap 3, Clark's right-rear wheel was deflating slowly and he had to back off. Dan Gurney inherited the lead after McLaren retired with an oil leak. The American set a new lap record, despite an extra chicane having been added to the circuit, and increased his lead over Hulme to over 40 seconds. On lap 13, however, his Eagle's drive shaft broke and cut through an oil pipe, handing Hulme a lucky victory, ahead of teammate Brabham and Ferrari driver Amon.
In the Drivers' Championship, Denny Hulme (Brabham) was leading with 37 points, ahead of Jack Brabham (Brabham) with 25 points and Jim Clark (Lotus) and Chris Amon (Ferrari) in a shared third place with 19 points. Brabham was leading the championship for the Manufacturers' Cup with 42 points, ahead of Coopper with 21 and Lotus and Ferrari in a shared third place with 19 points.
Rounds 8 to 11
The Canadian Grand Prix was on the championship calendar for the first time and was supposed to be a one-off in celebration of Canada's 100 years of independence, but the popularity of the event would result in F1 returning to Mosport Park seven more years and the Canadian GP still being featured on the calendar today. Jim Clark (Lotus) qualified on pole position, ahead of teammate Graham Hill and championship leader Denny Hulme (Brabham). It had been a rainy night, but a clear morning, which led to most of the Goodyear runners starting on intermediate tyres, while most of the Firestone started on dries. During the warm-up lap, the rain returned and it caused a treacherous first lap, with the Goodyear times at an advantage. Hulme took the lead off of Clark, and Bruce McLaren got by the pole-sitter into second place. The track was now drying and around a quarter of the race, the dry-runners regained their advantage. Clark retook second place and began to catch Hulme at over a second a lap. On lap 58, he was there and immediately went by into the lead, but right at that moment, the rain returned. Clark's engine got soaked and cut out, while Hulme desperatly needed clean goggles so chose to pit. This left Jack Brabham, second in the championship, free to win the race, over a minute ahead of teammate Hulme and at least a lap ahead of the race. Dan Gurney finished third in the Eagle.
Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was disrupted by rain, but the result was not surprising: Clark scored his fifth pole position of the year, ahead of Brabham and McLaren. Hulme started in sixth. The marshal starting the race used a different procedure to what the drivers were used to, which led to half of the grid essentially doing a false start, but no penalties were issued. Brabham took the lead before Gurney grabbed it later in the lap, while Hill and Clark followed them. On lap 3, Clark was already back in the lead, but then suffered a slow puncture. With the pole-sitter in the pits and Gurney's engine having broken, as it had done so many times, it was Hulme who took over the lead. Brabham and Hill formed a close trio with him and the lead swapped hands a couple of times. Clark had a lost a full lap with his pit stop, but managed to unlap himself with two thirds of the race still to go, and quickly set a new lap record. Hulme retired with an overheating engine and Hill took advantage from Clark's slipstream to open up the gap to Brabham at two seconds per lap, until on lap 58, his engine exploded. His rivals' retirements, topped with his maniacal pace, brought Clark up to second place, with leader Brabham in his sights and Honda driver John Surtees in third place, the 1964 champion this time being the one to benefit from Clark's tow. On lap 60, Clark grabbed the lead and gained a three-second advantage, until he dramatically ran out of fuel. Surtees took the lead and was side-by-side with Brabham going into the last corner. Brabham dove to the inside but slid wide. Surtees crossed back and took the flag with a margin of just 0.2 seconds. It would be Honda's last win until 2006. Clark coasted over the line in third place.
The Brabham duo (Hulme and Brabham) were leading the championship but the Lotus duo (Hill and Clark) that occupied the first row for the United States Grand Prix. Gurney had started beside them, took second place at the start and even started pressuring the leader. After just 24 laps, however, the home hero retired with a broken suspension, but the Lotuses were showing better pace anyway. Clark took over the lead when Hill suffered issues with his clutch. This gave Ferrari driver Chris Amon a chance for second place, but his engine ran out of oil with 12 laps to go. Clark would take a comfortable victory, but two laps from the end, his right-rear suspension broke. By slowing down and managing to keep the car on track, Hill could not catch up in time, and Clark took the chequered flag. One could say it was the summary of the season: the Lotuses were unreliable and finished less than half of the races, but if they did, they were so fast that they lapped the rest of the field. This time, it was Hulme who finished in third, a lap down.
Going into the final race, the Mexican Grand Prix, Hulme had a lead of five points in the standings, so if Brabham wanted to do anything about it, he needed to win and for his teammate to finish fifth or lower. Clark started again on pole position, with Brabham and Hulme down in fifth and sixth, respectively. Hill shortly took the lead, but Clark grabbed it back and grew his advantage to seven seconds. Hulme was comfortably hanging back six seconds behind Brabham. Hill retired when his drive shaft broke and had damaged his engine, and the race settled down. Clark set a new lap record and lapped everyone but Brabham in second. Hulme finished third, enough to win the title.
Denny Hulme (Brabham, 51 points) won his first and only championship, ahead of teammate Jack Brabham (46) and Jim Clark (Lotus, 41). Hulme is the only champion to date from New Zealand, and the first of two drivers to win the title without achieving a pole position in the season. Only Niki Lauda would repeat this feat in 1984. The Brabham team (63 points) also won the Manufacturers' Cup, ahead of Lotus (44) and Cooper (28).
Results and standings
Grands Prix
Scoring system
Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. Formula 2 cars were not eligible for Championship points. The International Cup for F1 Manufacturers only counted the points of the highest-finishing driver for each race. For both the Championship and the Cup, the best five results from rounds 1-6 and the best four results from rounds 7-11 were counted.
Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system:
World Drivers' Championship standings
1 – Ineligible for Formula One points, because they drove with Formula Two cars.
International Cup for F1 Manufacturers standings
Bold results counted to championship totals.
Non-championship races
Other Formula One races held in 1967, which did not count towards the World Championship.
Notes and references
External links
Results and images from the 1967 World Championship at f1-facts.com
Official Program covers from the 1967 World Championship at www.f1-geschiedenis.be |
Ministry_of_Digital_Affairs | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Digital_Affairs | [
482
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Digital_Affairs"
] | The Ministry of Digital Affairs (Polish: Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji) is a ministry of the Polish government founded in December 2015, dissolved in October 2020 and founded again in May 2023. Split from the Ministry of Administration and Digitization, the Ministry is responsible for matters regarding development in the cyber sphere for Poland. The first Minister of Digital Affairs was Anna Streżyńska. After she was recalled on 9 January 2018, the Ministry was under personal supervision of the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki until 17 April 2018 when Marek Zagórski was appointed the Minister of Digital Affairs. The ministry was made defunct in 2020 following a Council of Ministers decree. The Ministry is functioning again since 1 May 2023 following a Council of Ministers decree.
The current minister is Krzysztof Gawkowski, serving since 13 December 2023, serving concurrently as a Deputy Prime Minister, under Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Responsibilities
The Ministry of Digital Affairs is to develop infrastructure related to broadband, to support the creation of web content in Poland and electronic services. It is also promoting digital awareness among Polish citizens.
The Ministry is responsible for 8 departments and 4 bureaux.
Departments
Minister's Office provides parliamentary, governmental and protocol support for the minister and other members of leadership within the Ministry. The Office is also responsible for co-ordinating international trips and visits and helps to organise European and international events relating to Digital Affairs. It is also liaising with other EU institutions and international organisations. The Office also providing analytical and communications to support other departments in the Ministry. It is also was responsible for all co-ordination of internet and social media communications with the public.
Department of Telecommunication is responsible for legal matters relating to telecommunication and the development of networks and services. It is also responsible for the execution and implementation of the Polish National Broadband Plan.
Department of Data Management
Department of Cyber Security
Department of Projects and Strategy
Department of Digital Transformation
Department of Innovation and Technology
Center for Digital Skills Development
Communications Bureau
Administration Bureau
Financial-Budget Bureau
== References == |
Anna_Stre%C5%BCy%C5%84ska | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Stre%C5%BCy%C5%84ska | [
482
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Stre%C5%BCy%C5%84ska"
] | Anna Maria Streżyńska (née Bajorek) (born 11 May 1967 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish politician. She was the Polish Minister of Digital Affairs between 16 November 2015 and 9 January 2018. Prior to becoming a government member, she was a senior adviser in the Ministry.
Streżyńska worked as a civil servant in telecoms and competition policy for much of her career. In 2017, she refused Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education Jarosław Gowin’s offer to join a newly formed “Christian Democratic” party titled “Porozumienie.”
On 9 January 2018 Streżyńska was recalled from the office of the Minister of Digital Affairs.
== References == |
Ministry_of_Administration_and_Digitization_(Poland) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Administration_and_Digitization_(Poland) | [
482
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Administration_and_Digitization_(Poland)"
] | The Ministry of Administration and Digitization (Polish: Ministerstwo Administracji i Cyfryzacji) was formed on 21 November 2011, from a reorganisation of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
The Ministry was disbanded on 16 November 2015 based on the regulation of the Council of Ministers, and partially superseded by the Ministry of Digital Affairs.
The ministry was concerned with various aspects of administration, Internet and telecommunication in Poland.
The last minister was Andrzej Halicki.
The Ministry used to oversee:
the Office of Electronic Communication (Urząd Komunikacji Elektronicznej)
Chief Country Geodesist (Główny Geodeta Kraju)
Ministers (2011–2015)
External links
Official website of Ministry of Administration and Digitization |
95th_Academy_Awards | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_Academy_Awards | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_Academy_Awards#Awards"
] | The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories honoring films released in 2022. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, with Weiss also serving as director. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the third time, following the 89th ceremony in 2017 and the 90th ceremony in 2018.
In related events, the Academy held its 13th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California, on November 19, 2022. The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Simu Liu on February 24, 2023, in a ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included All Quiet on the Western Front with four awards, The Whale with two, and Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, The Elephant Whisperers, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, An Irish Goodbye, Navalny, RRR, Top Gun: Maverick, and Women Talking with one. The telecast drew 18.75 million viewers in the United States.
Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on January 24, 2023, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, by actors Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams. Everything Everywhere All at Once led all nominees with eleven nominations; All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin tied for second with nine nominations each.
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 12, 2023. Everything Everywhere All at Once became the first science fiction film to win Best Picture, and became the third film, alongside A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Network (1976), to win three acting awards. Best Director winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert became the third pair of directors to win for the same film. For the first time since the 7th ceremony in 1935, all five Best Actor nominees were first-time nominees. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian winner for Best Actress and the second woman of color overall after Halle Berry, who won for her performance in Monster's Ball (2001). Furthermore, she became the first woman to identify as Asian to be nominated in that category. Ke Huy Quan became the first Vietnamese person to win an Oscar and the second Asian winner for Best Supporting Actor after Haing S. Ngor, who won for his role in The Killing Fields (1984).
The 42-year span between Judd Hirsch's first nomination, for his supporting role in Ordinary People (1980), and his second, for The Fabelmans, set the record for the longest gap between Oscar nominations. At age 90, Best Original Score nominee John Williams became the oldest person nominated competitively in Oscars history. Best Costume Design winner Ruth E. Carter became the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
Awards
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
Governors Awards
The Academy held its 13th annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 19, 2022, during which the following awards were presented:
Academy Honorary Awards
Euzhan Palcy – "A masterful filmmaker who broke ground for Black women directors and inspired storytellers of all kinds across the globe."
Diane Warren – "For her genius, generosity and passionate commitment to the power of song in film."
Peter Weir – "A fearless and consummate filmmaker who has illuminated the human experience with his unique and expansive body of work."
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Michael J. Fox – "For his tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson's disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions."
Films with multiple nominations and awards
Presenters and performers
The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers:
Ceremony information
In September 2022, the Academy hired television producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner to oversee production of the 2023 ceremony. AMPAS president Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer remarked that they looked "to deliver an exciting and energized show" with Weiss and Kirshner. Two months later, comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was announced as host of the gala. "Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap," Kimmel stated in a press release regarding his selection. "Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no", he concluded. Furthermore, AMPAS announced that all 23 categories would be presented live during the gala. The announcement came in response to an internal survey which indicated negative feedback regarding the previous year's decision to present eight below-the-line categories prior to the live portion of last year's gala.
In light of the Chris Rock–Will Smith slapping incident during the previous year's telecast, AMPAS announced that the organization hired a "crisis team" in the event a similar altercation or if an unexpected fiasco arose. In an interview published by Time magazine, Kramer explained: "We have a whole crisis team, something we've never had before, and many plans in place. We've run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we're planning for just in case it does happen."
Several others participated in the production of the ceremony and related events. Rickey Minor served as musical director for the ceremony. Production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley, who were the first women-led design team for an Oscars telecast, designed a new stage for the show. According to Buckley and Billingsley, the stage was designed to resemble Art Deco movie places from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Additionally, the set utilized several LED panels that were used to display the category names, winners' names, or images from the nominated films. Notably, the arrivals area along Hollywood Boulevard outside the Dolby Theatre was lined with a champagne-colored carpet, marking the first time since the 32nd ceremony in 1960 that a non-red colored carpet was utilized for the gala. According to red carpet consultant Lisa Love, the production team chose a lighter shade of carpet color in order to not clash with a sienna-colored tent erected to shield attendees from the sun or potential rain. She also added that the shades of color for both the carpet and tent were inspired by "watching the sunset on a white-sand beach at the 'golden hour' with a glass of champagne in hand, evoking calm and peacefulness".
Lady Gaga was initially not scheduled to perform her nominated song "Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick due to prior commitments involving her role in Joker: Folie à Deux. On the morning of the ceremony, however, it was reported that Gaga would perform at the ceremony. Meanwhile, actress Glenn Close, who was originally scheduled as a presenter during the gala, canceled her appearance due to a positive COVID-19 test.
Box office performance of Best Picture nominees
When the nominations were announced, nine of the ten films nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined gross of $1.57 billion at the American and Canadian box offices at the time. Top Gun: Maverick was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $718.7 million in domestic box office receipts. Avatar: The Way of Water came in second with $598.4 million; this was followed by Elvis ($151 million), Everything Everywhere All at Once ($70 million), The Fabelmans ($15 million), The Banshees of Inisherin ($9 million), Tar ($5.6 million), Triangle of Sadness ($4.2 million), and Women Talking ($1.1 million). The box office figures for All Quiet on the Western Front were unavailable due to their distributor Netflix's policy of refusing to release such figures. Furthermore, by virtue of Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick's Best Picture nominations, it marked the first time since the 55th ceremony in 1983 that the two highest grossing films of the year were both nominated in the aforementioned category.
Andrea Riseborough's nomination and controversy
Andrea Riseborough's Best Actress nomination for To Leslie was controversial amongst critics and pundits, as Momentum Pictures, the film's distributor, did not fund a conventional advertising-driven awards campaign for the film. Instead, director Michael Morris and his wife, actress Mary McCormack, organized a "celeb-backed campaign" to get Riseborough nominated. They contacted friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry, asking them to view the film and share it with others if they enjoyed it. Morris and Riseborough also hired publicists to coordinate the efforts. While not initially regarded as a serious contender, the campaign raised Riseborough's profile; dozens of celebrities praised her performance on social media, and some hosted screenings of the film during voting for the Academy Award nominations in January 2023. Riseborough's nomination was announced on January 24, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the most shocking nominations in Oscar history".
After her nomination was announced, speculation arose that the tactics might have violated AMPAS rules against directly lobbying voters. A post on the film's Instagram account was noted by several AMPAS members for possibly violating a rule prohibiting "[singling] out 'the competition' by name" by featuring a quote from film critic Richard Roeper, who praised Riseborough's performance as better than Cate Blanchett's in Tár, a fellow nominee for Best Actress. On January 27, the Academy announced a review of the year's campaigns "to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication".
The Academy has rescinded nominations for nominees who participated in unsanctioned campaigning. However, there were no reports that Riseborough had been involved in such, or that any Academy members had lodged formal complaints about the campaign's behavior. On January 31, the Academy concluded its review by pledging to address "social media and outreach campaigning tactics" which they said caused "concern", but confirming that Riseborough's nomination would be retained. Following the controversy, the Academy introduced new campaigning rules and clarifications in May 2023.
Critical reviews
Variety columnist Owen Gleiberman wrote: "It didn't rock the boat, it didn't overstay its welcome, and it left you feeling that the world's preeminent awards show, all doom-saying punditry to the contrary, is still, on balance, a very good thing." He also added that the wins received by Everything Everywhere All at Once "lent the evening a rare emotional unity". Television critic Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter similarly praised the show's emotional beats and found its flaws "were mitigated more gracefully than just about any Oscars telecast" he could recall. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle commended Kimmel's stint as host stating: "He was establishing that 2023 would not be a repeat of 2022 — and it wasn't. It was such a relief to see something, anything, actually get better."
Mike Hale of The New York Times remarked on "the ordinariness and sameness of the ABC broadcast" compared to the prior year, while USA Today's Kelly Lawler criticized it as "terribly fake" and felt that Kimmel's role "felt phoned in, or at least maybe monitored by corporate overlords looking to avoid controversy" despite some of his jokes tackling controversial subjects such as the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Tom Cruise's Scientology advocacy. Hale added that "the modern Oscars have become something more to be endured than enjoyed".
Ratings and reception
The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 18.75 million people over its length, which was a 13% increase from the previous year's ceremony and marked the first time that the Academy Awards experienced consecutive years of viewership increase since the 86th Academy Awards in 2014. The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 9.9% of households watching the ceremony. In addition, it garnered a higher 18–49 demo rating with a 4.03 rating among viewers in that demographic. It was the most-watched prime time entertainment broadcast of 2023 in the United States. In July 2023, the broadcast was nominated for three awards at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, but failed to win any of its nominations.
"In Memoriam"
The annual "In Memoriam" segment was introduced by John Travolta. Singer Lenny Kravitz performed his song "Calling All Angels" during the tribute.
See also
List of submissions to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
Notes
References
External links
Academy Awards official website
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences official website
Oscars Channel Archived February 26, 2019, at the Wayback Machine at YouTube (run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
Other resources
The Oscars (2023) at IMDb |
Brendan_Fraser | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Fraser | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Fraser"
] | Brendan James Fraser ( FRAY-zər; born December 3, 1968) is an American-Canadian actor. Fraser had his breakthrough in 1992 with the comedy Encino Man and the drama School Ties. He gained further prominence for his starring roles in the comedies With Honors (1994) and George of the Jungle (1997) and emerged as a star playing Rick O'Connell in The Mummy trilogy (1999–2008). He took on dramatic roles in Gods and Monsters (1998), The Quiet American (2002), and Crash (2004), and further fantasy roles in Bedazzled (2000) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008).
Fraser's film work slowed from the late 2000s to mid-2010s due to poor box office performances, and various health and personal issues, including the fallout from a sexual assault committed against him in 2003 by Philip Berk, the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In addition of films, Fraser branched into television with roles in the Showtime drama The Affair (2016–2017), the FX series Trust (2018), and the Max series Doom Patrol (2019–2023).
His film career was revitalized by roles in Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move (2021) and Darren Aronofsky's The Whale (2022). Fraser's starring role as an obese gay man in the latter earned him critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, the first Canadian to do so.
Early life and education
Fraser was born on December 3, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Canadian parents Carol Mary (née Généreux; 1937–2016) and Peter Fraser. He is the youngest of four siblings; his brothers are Kevin, Sean, and Regan. His mother was a sales counselor, and his father was a former journalist who worked as a Canadian foreign service officer for the Government Office of Tourism. His maternal uncle, George Genereux, was the only Canadian to win a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics, at the Olympic Trap. Fraser and his three older brothers have Irish, Scottish, German, Czech, and French-Canadian ancestry. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship.
Fraser's family moved often during his childhood, living in Eureka, California; Seattle, Washington; Ottawa, Ontario; the Netherlands; and Switzerland. His earlier years were spent attending a Montessori school in Detroit and the Sacred Heart School in Bellevue, Washington. He then attended Upper Canada College, a private boarding school in Toronto, from which he graduated in 1987.
While on vacation in London, England, in the 1970s, he attended his first professional theatre show, Oliver!, in the West End, which began his interest in acting. He also joined the chorus of a high-school musical production of Oklahoma!.
Fraser graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts in 1990. He began acting at a small acting college in New York City. Fraser planned on studying toward a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Southern Methodist University, but stopped in Hollywood on the way and decided to remain there to work in film.
Career
1991–1996: Rise to prominence
In 1991, Fraser made his film debut with a small role as a seaman headed to Vietnam in Dogfight. He got his first leading film role alongside Sean Astin and Pauly Shore in the 1992 comedy film Encino Man, where he played a frozen pre-historic caveman who is thawed out in the present day. The film was a moderate box office success and has gained a cult following. That same year he starred in School Ties with fellow rising actors Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O'Donnell as a Jewish star quarterback confronting embedded anti-semitism in private prep school society.
Between 1994 and 1996, he starred in several box office failures such as With Honors (1994) with Joe Pesci, Airheads (1994) with Steve Buscemi & Adam Sandler, The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995), Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) and The Twilight of the Golds (1997). He also had a small part in the 1995 film Now and Then. He made cameo appearances in the Pauly Shore films Son in Law (1993) and In the Army Now (1994), reprising his Encino Man role.
Fraser performed at his first theatre production in 1995 at the Geffen Playhouse, taking on the role of Victor in John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs and a Bone.
1997–2001: International stardom
He had his first major box office success with the 1997 comedy film George of the Jungle which was based on the animated series of the same title created by Jay Ward. He received critical acclaim for his dramatic role in 1998's Gods and Monsters, which was based on the life of James Whale (Ian McKellen), who directed Frankenstein. The film was written and directed by Bill Condon, and follows the loss of creativity, ambiguous sexuality and the bond between a heterosexual gardener (played by Fraser) and a homosexual, tortured and ailing filmmaker (played by McKellen).
He achieved his biggest commercial success when he portrayed the lead adventurer Rick O'Connell in the fantasy adventure film The Mummy (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001). The Mummy established him as one of the biggest film stars of 1990s. In between these successes, he also starred in the box office bombs Dudley Do-Right (1999) (which was based on another Jay Ward animated series) and the stop-motion/live-action fantasy comedy Monkeybone (2001); though he did have moderate success with the romantic comedy Blast from the Past (1999) and the fantasy comedy Bedazzled (2000), a remake of the 1967 British film of the same name. He lent his voice for the unreleased animated film Big Bug Man, with Marlon Brando.
In 2001, Fraser was part of the cast of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams at the Lyric Theatre, London.
2001–2008: Dramatic and comedic roles
Fraser starred as "Brick" in the West End production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in September 2001, directed by Anthony Page. Castmates included Ned Beatty, Frances O'Connor and Gemma Jones. The show closed on January 12, 2002, with Fraser garnering many excellent reviews. In 2002, he starred alongside Michael Caine in the political drama The Quiet American which was well received by critics. The following year, he starred in the live-action/animated film Looney Tunes: Back in Action as its human lead, D.J. Drake (he also voiced the Tasmanian Devil). In 2004, he appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the Academy Award-winning film Crash where he played the husband to Sandra Bullock's character as the District Attorney of Los Angeles.
He has also made guest appearances on the television shows Scrubs, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons. In March 2006, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, the first American-born actor to receive the honor. However, as of 2022, he does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After a six-year hiatus in the franchise, Fraser returned for the second sequel to The Mummy released in August 2008 and titled The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Filming started in Montreal on July 27, 2007, and the film also starred Jet Li as Emperor Han. That same year, he starred in the 3D film adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth and the fantasy film Inkheart (chosen personally for the lead role by the novel's author Cornelia Funke).
2009–2020: Career fluctuations
In 2010, Fraser returned to Broadway in the production of Elling, but the play closed after one week, due to lackluster reviews. After appearing in the critically panned Furry Vengeance in 2010, Fraser moved from being represented by William Morris Endeavor to the Creative Artists Agency. In 2010, he starred in Whole Lotta Sole directed by Terry George and in 2011, he was set to play William Tell in The Legend of William Tell: 3D, directed by Eric Brevig, with whom Fraser had also worked in Journey to the Center of the Earth. Filming was delayed and late in 2011, Fraser sued the producer Todd Moyer for promised wages. Moyer later countersued for assault, which Fraser dismissed as [Moyer's] desperate attempt to avoid paying his debt. In 2013, he played an Elvis Presley impersonator in the ensemble black comedy Pawn Shop Chronicles.
In 2016, Fraser replaced Ray Liotta in the Bollywood thriller Line of Descent. Fraser later joined the recurring cast of the television drama series The Affair during season 3 where he portrayed the misery-minded prison guard Gunther. He portrayed Getty family fixer James Fletcher Chace in the FX anthology series Trust, which premiered on March 25, 2018. Fraser portrayed Clifford "Cliff" Steele / Robotman in the Titans TV series, with Jake Michaels physically portraying Robotman. He reprised the role in the spin-off series Doom Patrol, where he voices the character and appears as Steele in flashbacks; Riley Shanahan – replacing Jake Michaels in Titans – physically portrays Robotman.
His comeback after a period of relative inactivity was dubbed "The Brennaissance" by fans. In an interview on The Graham Norton Show, Fraser acknowledged the portmanteau.
2021–present: Career resurgence and critical acclaim
In September 2020, Fraser was cast as gangster Doug Jones in Steven Soderbergh's period crime film No Sudden Move, which was released in 2021. In January 2021, Fraser was announced as the lead in Darren Aronofsky's film The Whale. Aronofsky stated he had looked for the lead role in the movie for a decade, and decided to cast Fraser after seeing him in the trailer of the low-budget Brazilian film Journey to the End of the Night. "A light bulb went off, and I was like, 'Oh, that guy can do it'", he said.
The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2022. Fraser spoke on preparing for the role with The New York Times stating, "The Obesity Action Coalition gave me access to many people, so I could ask them their story on Zoom calls. I talked to maybe eight or 10 people — some bedridden, some perfectly mobile." Fraser's performance was highly praised and the film received a six-minute standing ovation at the festival and subsequently won him an Oscar for Best Actor. He became the first Canadian to win the best actor award.
In August of the same year, Fraser was announced as part of the cast of Martin Scorsese's film Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as Max Barbakow's upcoming comedy film Brothers. In October 2021, Fraser was cast to portray the villain Firefly in the superhero film Batgirl, set in the DC Extended Universe; the release of the film was canceled in August 2022 after a change in Warner Bros. studio priorities.
Fraser lent his voice to the audiodrama The Downloaded, written by Robert J. Sawyer, which was released in Autumn of 2023 as an Audible-exclusive audiobook. In December 2023, Fraser was a guest narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World.
Personal life
Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, Fraser met actress Afton Smith while attending a barbecue at Winona Ryder's house on July 4, 1993. Smith also appeared as a minor cast member in Fraser's George of the Jungle film. They married on September 27, 1998, and had three sons together before separating in 2007.
His three sons are named Griffin Arthur Fraser, born 2002, Holden Fletcher Fraser, born 2004, and Leland Francis Fraser, born 2006. Holden and Leland are both fashion models signed with Marilyn Agency. In a 2018 interview with GQ, Fraser revealed that his oldest son is on the autism spectrum.
When their home in Beverly Hills, California sold in April 2007 for $3 million, Fraser's publicist announced in December 2007 that the couple had decided to divorce. Fraser was ordered to pay a monthly alimony sum of $50,000 for a period of ten years or until remarriage of Smith, whichever occurred first, in addition to the $25,000 monthly payment for child support. In early 2011, Fraser petitioned the courts for a reduction of his alimony payments, asserting that he was unable to meet the annual obligation of $600,000; he did not contest the child support payments. In late 2011, Smith accused Fraser of fraud by hiding financial assets and not disclosing film contracts for Extraordinary Measures and Furry Vengeance. In 2014, the court ruled against Fraser's request for a reduction in alimony and against Smith's allegation of fraud. Both parents were credited for being actively engaged in the lives of their sons. Smith has since made the transition from acting to writing books and real estate.
Fraser has been in a relationship with makeup artist Jeanne Moore since September 2022. The couple made their red carpet debut at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, and Fraser thanked Moore during his acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best Actor during the 95th Academy Awards.
As of February 2018, Fraser lives in Bedford, New York.
Fraser speaks French and serves on the board of directors for FilmAid International. He is an accomplished amateur photographer and has used several instant cameras in movies and on TV shows, most notably on his guest roles on Scrubs. In his first appearance, he used a Polaroid pack film, and on his second appearance, he used a Holga with a Polaroid back, a Japanese-only model. The book Collector's Guide to Instant Cameras has a dedication to Fraser. He is also an accomplished amateur archer.
Health
In 2018, Fraser revealed the physical demands of the stunts and maneuvers he performed in his action and comedy roles eventually required him to undergo several surgeries over a period of seven years, including a partial knee replacement, a laminectomy, and vocal cord surgery.
Sexual assault allegation against Philip Berk
In 2018, Fraser said that he had been sexually assaulted by Philip Berk, the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the nonprofit organization that votes for the Golden Globe Awards, at a luncheon in 2003. Berk has described Fraser's account as a "total fabrication", but in his 2014 memoir, he admitted to having groped Fraser "in jest". The alleged assault, his subsequent divorce, and the death of his mother launched Fraser into a depression that, combined with his health problems, led to a break in his career.
Several publications and social media users interpreted that Fraser was blacklisted from Hollywood because of his accusation against Berk. In the 2018 GQ piece where Fraser first publicly made the allegation, he said "The phone does stop ringing in your career, and you start asking yourself why. There's many reasons, but was [this incident] one of them? I think it was." In contrast, Fraser also clarified in his 2019 appearance on the radio show Sway in the Morning, "I don't think the HFPA really wield that much power." In 2022, Fraser told GQ that if he received a nomination by the HFPA at that year's Golden Globes for his latest film The Whale, he would "not participate" because of the "history" he has with the organization.
Philanthropy
Since 2018, Fraser has been a celebrity judge on the Dancing Stars of Greenwich annual charity gala which raises money for the non-profit organization Abilis, a local charity which supports more than 800 individuals and their families with disabilities in Fairfield County, Connecticut. His former wife, Afton Smith, also takes part in the dance competition. In 2022, Smith and Fraser received the Heart of Abilis Award for their support and fundraising work for the charity.
References
External links
Brendan Fraser – official site
Brendan Fraser at IMDb
Brendan Fraser at AllMovie
Brendan Fraser best movies – blog (archive) |
Austin_Butler | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Butler | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Butler"
] | Austin Robert Butler (born August 17, 1991) is an American actor. Butler began his career on television, first in roles on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, most notably on Zoey 101 (2007–2008), and later on teen dramas, including recurring parts on The CW's Life Unexpected (2010–2011) and Switched at Birth (2011–2012). He gained recognition for starring in The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) and The Shannara Chronicles (2016–2017). Butler made his Broadway debut in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh and portrayed Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Butler gained wider prominence for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023. He has since starred as Gale Cleven in the war drama miniseries Masters of the Air (2024) and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in the science fiction film Dune: Part Two (2024).
Early life
Butler was born on August 17, 1991, in Anaheim, California, the son of Lori Anne (née Howell), an anaesthetist, and David Butler. The two divorced when he was seven. He has an older sister, Ashley (born in 1986), who worked as a background actress alongside him on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. His maternal great-great-grandparents, Matti Matinpoika Sillanpää and Liisa Jaakontytär Järvelä, were Finnish immigrants from Ostrobothnia, Finland, who settled in Wisconsin.
When Butler was thirteen, he was approached by a representative from a background acting management company at the Orange County Fair who helped him get started in the entertainment industry. He found that he enjoyed it and soon began taking acting classes. Butler attended public school until the seventh grade, when he left to be homeschooled to better accommodate his work schedule. He continued his homeschooling until the tenth grade and later passed the CHSPE, the state's high school equivalency diploma exam.
Career
2005–2011: Early career in teen sitcoms
In 2005, after working as an extra on several television series, including Unfabulous and Drake & Josh, Butler landed his first regular job as a background actor playing the role of Zippy Brewster for two seasons on Nickelodeon's Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. His friend on the show, Lindsey Shaw, introduced him to her manager, Pat Cutler, who signed him and launched his career. From that point on, Butler began taking acting seriously as a career. In May 2007, Butler landed a guest starring role on the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana playing the role of Derek Hanson opposite actress Miley Cyrus, and in September of that same year, he portrayed Jake Krandle in the episode "iLike Jake" on the Nickelodeon series iCarly.
In February 2008, Butler landed a main role on another Nickelodeon series, Zoey 101, playing James Garrett, the love interest of Jamie Lynn Spears's title character Zoey in the fourth season; previously, he guest starred on the same show playing the role of Danifer on the third-season episode "Quarantine". In March of that year, he appeared in an episode on the short-lived Cartoon Network sitcom, Out of Jimmy's Head, playing the role of Lance in the episode titled "Princess".
In July 2009, Butler starred in 20th Century Fox's family adventure film Aliens in the Attic portraying Jake Pearson, alongside Ashley Tisdale, Carter Jenkins, Robert Hoffman, Kevin Nealon and Doris Roberts. In the film, his character, along with his family, battles to save their vacation home and the world from an alien invasion. That same summer, Butler appeared in the starring role of Jordan Gallagher on the popular, but short-lived ABC Family series Ruby & the Rockits, alongside David Cassidy, Patrick Cassidy and his good friend, Alexa Vega.
In February 2010, Butler landed a recurring role as Jones on the CW series Life Unexpected, Later that year, he guest-starred in episodes of the Disney Channel sitcoms Wizards of Waverly Place and Jonas as well as on CSI: Miami and The Defenders. Also in 2010, Butler's Aliens in the Attic co-star Ashley Tisdale invited him to audition for a lead role in the film Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, a spin-off of Disney's High School Musical franchise that followed the adventures of Sharpay Evans after high school as she tries to get her big break on Broadway. In the film, Butler plays Peyton Leverette, the love interest of Sharpay. Regarding his casting, Butler told Week In Rewind, "I had worked with Ashley once, and then I heard about the movie, because she called me and said, 'Austin, I want you to come and read for the director for this—I think you'd be perfect.' So, I went and met with the director, and it went really well, and I ended up doing the movie." The film was released direct to DVD on April 19, 2011.
In 2011, he booked the recurring role of Wilke on the ABC Family series Switched at Birth, debuting on June 27, 2011. In the same year, he signed on to play the lead role of Zack Garvey in the Lifetime television film The Bling Ring, made by Dick Clark Productions and directed by Michael Lembeck, based on the burglary group of the same name who targeted the homes of Hollywood's celebrities. The film was released on September 26, 2011. In January 2012, Butler guest-starred on the NBC comedy Are You There, Chelsea?
2012–2018: Leading roles in television and expansion into film
In his early twenties, Butler continued to act in teen-oriented television series, but gained greater recognition for his starring roles in The Carrie Diaries and later The Shannara Chronicles; he also branched out into new stage and film projects. In March 2012, Butler was cast in The CW's Sex and the City prequel series The Carrie Diaries to play Sebastian Kydd, a brooding heartthrob attending the same high school as Carrie Bradshaw, played by AnnaSophia Robb. The Carrie Diaries is based on Candace Bushnell's novel by the same name and follows Bradshaw's life in the 1980s as a teenager in New York City. The show was cancelled after two seasons.
In April 2014, it was announced that Butler had joined the cast of the play Death of the Author at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. He played the role of Bradley, a pre-law student with a double major in political science and math, and is set to graduate from a wealthy university. The play is directed by Bart DeLorenzo and written by Steven Drukman. Following previews on May 20, 2014, the play ran from May 28 to June 29.
Butler then joined the cast of Arrow in the recurring role of Chase. His character was a DJ and a love interest of Willa Holland's character Thea Queen. He co-starred with Miranda Cosgrove and Tom Sizemore in the 2015 thriller film The Intruders, and appeared in Kevin Smith's 2016 horror-comedy film Yoga Hosers about 15-year-old yoga nuts Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie. The films also stars Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp, Harley Quinn Smith and Haley Joel Osment. In 2016, he began playing the role of Wil Ohmsford in The Shannara Chronicles, MTV's television adaptation of the Terry Brooks novel The Elfstones of Shannara. The series was cancelled after two seasons.
2019–present: Breakthrough and Elvis
Butler made his Broadway debut playing Don Parritt, the "lost boy" in The Iceman Cometh, which starred Denzel Washington and David Morse. Previews for the limited run began in March 2018, and the play closed in July 2018. Per Hilton Als's review of the play in The New Yorker: "Although there are many performers in George C. Wolfe's staging of Eugene O'Neill's phenomenal [...] drama, The Iceman Cometh, [...] there is only one actor, and his name is Austin Butler."
In 2019, Butler appeared in the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as a fictional version of Manson Family member Tex Watson. Though he had limited screen time, his performance has been described as "intense" and "brooding". He received numerous nominations as a member of the film's ensemble cast, including the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In that same year, Butler was cast as Elvis Presley in the biopic Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann. The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Butler's performance received critical acclaim, as well as praise from the Presley family. He described the part as "the most intimidating thing I've ever done. I honestly didn't sleep for about two years." The role earned him several nominations for Best Actor awards, including the Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Awards, winning the BAFTA and Golden Globe. Butler hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live later that year.
In June 2023, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor. The 50th Telluride Film Festival marked the premiere of Jeff Nichols's 1960s-set drama The Bikeriders, in which he played a member of a motorcycle club. The following year, he portrayed Gale Cleven in the war drama miniseries Masters of the Air. He next played the villainous Feyd-Rautha in Denis Villeneuve's science fiction epic Dune: Part Two (2024). Butler received praise for his commitment to the role, physical transformation, and complex character work.
Butler will next star in Ari Aster's Western film Eddington, and in Darren Aronofsky's crime thriller Caught Stealing.
Personal life
Butler enjoys creating and recording music. He taught himself to play guitar at the age of thirteen and piano at sixteen.
In 2014, his mother died of duodenal cancer, which briefly made him consider retiring. From 2011 to 2019, Butler dated actress Vanessa Hudgens. In December 2021, he began dating actress and model Kaia Gerber.
Filmography
Film
Television
Theater
Discography
Elvis (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2022)
Awards and nominations
See also
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of Golden Globe winners
References
External links
Austin Butler at IMDb
Austin Butler at AllMovie
Austin Butler at Rotten Tomatoes
Austin Butler on Instagram |
Colin_Farrell | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Farrell | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Farrell"
] | Colin James Farrell (; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in blockbusters and independent films since the 2000s, he has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards and a nomination for an Academy Award. The Irish Times named him Ireland's fifth-greatest film actor in 2020, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.
Farrell began acting in the BBC drama series Ballykissangel (1998) and made his film debut in the drama The War Zone (1999). His first lead film role was in the war drama Tigerland (2000), and he made his breakthrough in Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Minority Report (2002). He took on high-profile roles such as Bullseye in Daredevil (2003) and as Alexander the Great in Alexander (2004), with further starring roles in Michael Mann's Miami Vice (2006) and Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007).
Farrell earned acclaim for playing a rookie hitman in Martin McDonagh's comedy In Bruges (2008), winning a Golden Globe Award. He went on to play a variety of leading and character roles in the comedy Horrible Bosses (2011), the science fiction film Total Recall (2012), the drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013), the dark comedies Seven Psychopaths (2012), The Lobster (2015) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), the thrillers The Beguiled (2017) and Widows (2018), and the fantasy films Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Dumbo (2019). He also starred in the second season of HBO's thriller series True Detective (2015).
Farrell played Oz Cobb / Penguin in the superhero film The Batman (2022) and the HBO series The Penguin (2024). In 2022, he gained acclaim for his roles in the science fiction drama After Yang, the survival film Thirteen Lives, and McDonagh's drama The Banshees of Inisherin. For playing a naïve Irishman in the lattermost, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and another Golden Globe, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Early life
Colin James Farrell was born in Castleknock, a western suburb of Dublin on 31 May 1976, to Rita (née Monaghan) and Eamon Farrell. His father played football for Shamrock Rovers FC and ran a health food shop. Colin played for Castleknock Celtic FC, and the team was managed by his father. Colin's uncle, Tommy Farrell, also played for Shamrock Rovers. Colin has an older brother named Eamon Jr. and two sisters named Claudine (who now works as his personal assistant) and Catherine. Colin grew up Catholic and went to St. Brigid's National School, Castleknock, followed by the exclusive all-boys private school Castleknock College, and then Gormanston College in Gormanston Castle in County Meath. He unsuccessfully auditioned for the boy band Boyzone around that time.
Colin Farrell was inspired to try acting when Henry Thomas' performance in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) moved him to tears. With his brother's encouragement, he attended the Gaiety School of Acting, but dropped out when he was cast as Danny Byrne in the BBC drama Ballykissangel. While traveling in Sydney at the age of 18, Farrell became a suspect in an attempted murder case. The police sketch looked remarkably like him and he had even described blacking out during the night in question; his only alibi was that a friend journaled that the two had been taking MDMA on the other side of town that night.
Career
1998–2003: Early career and breakthrough
Farrell had roles in television shows and films, including Ballykissangel and Falling for a Dancer in 1998 and 1999. He made his feature film debut in English actor Tim Roth's directorial debut, The War Zone, a drama about child sexual abuse, starring Ray Winstone and Tilda Swinton as parents of a girl Farrell's character (Nick) dates. Farrell appeared in Ordinary Decent Criminal with Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino, a film loosely based on the life of Martin Cahill. In 2000, Farrell was cast in the lead role of Private Roland Bozz in Tigerland, directed by Joel Schumacher. Farrell reportedly got the part on the basis of his charm. Emanuel Levy of Variety said that Farrell "shines as the subversive yet basically decent lad whose cynicism may be the only sane reaction to a situation". Michael Holden of The Guardian wrote that Farrell was "too much the hero" to fit the classic rebel archetype properly, but he still delivered a good performance. Tigerland earned $139,500.
Farrell's next American films, American Outlaws (2001) and Hart's War (2002), were not commercially successful. His 2002–2003 films, including Phone Booth, The Recruit and S.W.A.T. (all thrillers, with the former two his first starring roles), were well received by critics and successful at the box office. Of Phone Booth, Roger Ebert wrote that it is "Farrell's to win or lose, since he's onscreen most of the time, and he shows energy and intensity". Philip French of The Guardian praised Farrell's performance. In S.W.A.T., Farrell starred in an ensemble cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, Olivier Martinez and Jeremy Renner; Renner became a friend. Alan Morrison of Empire wrote, "Farrell can usually be relied upon to bring a spark to the bonfire. That's also true of [this movie]." Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times criticised Farrell's accent, writing that he "employ[ed] a wobbly American accent that makes him sound like an international criminal a step ahead of the authorities". Ebert and The New York Times' A.O. Scott disagreed on Farrell's effectiveness in The Recruit; Ebert noted Farrell's likability, but Scott felt that Farrell "spends his time in a caffeinated frenzy, trying to maintain his leading-man sang-froid while registering panic, stress and confusion". Phone Booth earned $46.6 million, S.W.A.T. $116.9 million and The Recruit $52.8 million at the box office.
Farrell's supporting roles include an ambitious Justice Department agent opposite Tom Cruise as a "potential criminal" in Minority Report (2002), and Bullseye, the villain in Daredevil (2003). Matt Damon was originally offered the Minority Report role, turning it down to appear in Ocean's Eleven. Farrell said "he had no problem" being the producer's fallback after Damon declined. Farrell was signed to the role in December 2001, although he was considered for the lead role of Matt Murdock (Daredevil) until Ben Affleck signed. Farrell was encouraged to keep his Irish accent, since this version of Bullseye is from Ireland. He read Frank Miller's Daredevil comics to understand Bullseye "because the expression on the character's faces in the comic books, and just the way they move sometimes, and the exaggerations of the character I'm playing... he's so over-the-top that you do draw from that. But it's not exactly a character you can do method acting for...you know, running around New York killing people with paper clips". In 2003, he was voted sixth World's "Sexiest Man" by Company magazine.
2003–2008: Career progression
In late 2003 Farrell starred as a criminal who plots a bank robbery with Cillian Murphy in the dark comedy Intermission, which held the record for highest-grossing Irish independent film in Irish box-office history for three years. In 2004, he appeared in several other independent films receiving limited theatrical release in most countries, including A Home at the End of the World (adapted from Michael Cunningham's novel of the same name). Roger Ebert praised Farrell, saying that he was "astonishing in the movie, not least because the character is such a departure from everything he has done before". Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle differed, saying that Farrell "is keen on making good...The effort is there, but it's a performance you end up rooting for rather than enjoying, because there's no way to just relax and watch".
Farrell played the title role of Alexander the Great in Oliver Stone's 2004 biographical film Alexander, which, while receiving some favourable reviews internationally, was poorly received in the United States. Its portrayal of the conqueror as bisexual was controversial; the film was criticised by some historians for its treatment of the ancient Persians, although others praised it for its accuracy. An ancient history scholar at the University of Nebraska wrote:
I would compare [Alexander] to Lawrence of Arabia, in terms of sheer scope, pacing, and its unrelenting focus on a single individual... In many ways, this is a movie for Greek and Alexander 'geeks.' The more one knows, the more one will recognise—the historical accuracy of sets is better than I've seen in some documentaries.
The film grossed $167 million worldwide, just exceeding its budget of $155 million.
Farrell's next film was 2005's Academy Award-nominated The New World, his second historical epic. He played the lead role of Captain John Smith, the founder of 17th-century colonial Jamestown, Virginia who falls in love with the Native American princess Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher). Director Terrence Malick went out of his way to keep Farrell and Kilcher apart until they were filmed together. Although it was released in only 811 theatres worldwide and had a relatively low box-office gross, the film received a large number of positive reviews. In one of four reviews in The Guardian, John Patterson described it as a "bottomless movie, almost unspeakably beautiful and formally harmonious". The New World was followed by Ask the Dust, a period romance set in Los Angeles based on a John Fante novel and co-starring Salma Hayek. Reviews were mixed; Manohla Dargis of The New York Times favourably described Farrell's work, but Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian found "something a little forced in both lead performances". With a limited theatrical release, it was not a financial success.
Farrell was more successful in 2006 with his role opposite Jamie Foxx in Michael Mann's action crime drama, Miami Vice. The film grossed $164 million worldwide on a budget of $135 million, and TimeOut New York ranked it among the top 50 movies of the decade. (The DVD, released the same year, also managed to sell over a million copies (equivalent to $7.91 million in pirated versions) in its first week alone., and, as of 11 February 2007, had grossed over $36.45 million in rentals. A. O. Scott criticised Farrell's work: "When he's not on screen, you don't miss him, and when he is, you find yourself, before long, looking at someone or something else." Conversely, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was enthusiastic. Farrell also reportedly took a slight pay cut to make friend and recent Oscar winner Jamie Foxx happy; his salary was initially larger than Foxx's.
Farrell appeared in Woody Allen's drama Cassandra's Dream, which premiered in 2007 and was distributed in the US in early 2008. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Farrell: "Allen is notorious for not giving his actors explicit instructions, and yet somehow this worked wonders for Farrell, who has never seemed so naked, so clear, and so unencumbered as he does here." Manohla Dargis concurred in the New York Times, adding that she thought Farrell was well-matched with co-star Ewan McGregor.
Farrell's next film, Martin McDonagh's first full-length feature, In Bruges, opened the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. While The New Yorker and TimeOut London's film critics found co-star Brendan Gleeson's performance the stronger of the two, Bradshaw of The Guardian found Farrell (as hitman Ray) to be "absolutely superb: moody and funny, lethally sexy, sometimes heartbreakingly sad and vulnerable like a little boy". Farrell won his first Golden Globe Award for his performance in the film.
Shortly thereafter, he appeared in Kicking It, a documentary following six homeless men from Kenya, Russia, Afghanistan, Ireland, Spain, and the US as they attempt to qualify for the Homeless World Cup. Farrell appeared on screen and provided the narration, donating his earnings to a homeless shelter in Ireland. The film was released simultaneously in theatres and on television, airing on ESPN2 in a very short window before its DVD release. Farrell received positive reviews for his involvement in the true story.
Later in 2008, Farrell starred opposite Edward Norton in Pride and Glory, a police drama directed by Gavin O'Connor. Roger Ebert disliked the film and A. O. Scott said that Farrell "once again indulges his blustery mixture of menace and charm, overdoing both," but Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly liked Farrell's work.
2009–2021: Established actor
On 11 January 2009, Farrell won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for In Bruges, in which he co-starred with Brendan Gleeson. In the same year, he also appeared in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, starring Christopher Plummer and Andrew Garfield. Farrell was one of three actors (with Johnny Depp and Jude Law), who helped to complete Heath Ledger's role when Ledger died before filming ended. They played "Imaginarium" versions of Ledger's character Tony, donating their earnings to Ledger's daughter Matilda. Farrell also starred that year in Triage, directed by Oscar-winning Bosnian screenwriter and director Danis Tanović, about the life of a war correspondent. He lost 30 pounds for the role. Farrell's work was described as "dedicated" by Variety's Todd McCarthy, and Julian Sancton of Vanity Fair wrote that the film was "a hell of a lot more insightful than other movies that deal with a similar topic". However, Triage was not widely distributed due to the marketing challenges posed by its difficult topics (including PTSD). That year, Farrell played a supporting role (as Tommy Sweet) in Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges.
Another 2009 release was Ondine, a fantasy-drama directed by Neil Jordan starring Farrell as a fisherman with a disabled daughter. Shot in the village of Castletownbere on Ireland's southwest coast, it featured cinematography by longtime Wong Kar-wai collaborator Christopher Doyle. Mary Pols of Time called the role "tailor-made for Farrell", saying that Farrell gave a "beautifully confident performance". Todd McCarthy of Variety singled Farrell out, noting that he worked well as an ensemble actor "graciously allowing [child star Alison Barry] to steal every scene she's in".
The next year, Farrell starred with Keira Knightley in the crime romance London Boulevard. The film, American William Monahan's debut as director after writing screenplays for The Departed and Body of Lies, was panned by critics. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian wrote that the film "uses up all its energy, wit and ideas in the first 20 or so minutes, before collapsing into a flurry of boring violence". Leslie Felperin of Variety described it as "like a fancy, retro-styled pocket watch that someone accidentally broke and tried to reassemble with only a vague idea of clockwork". Felperin thought the stars' work was frail, with Farrell "mostly taciturn and vacuous."
Farrell starred in the 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses, directed by Seth Gordon with Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, and his Miami Vice co-star Jamie Foxx also in the cast. The film focuses on a trio of employees who plot to murder their tyrannical bosses. The Guardian's Mark Kermode wrote that although the film would have benefited from a tighter script, Farrell and Foxx had juicy roles which they "riff with panache". Michael Phillips of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Farrell brought "massive, slobby relish" to his role as Sudeikis' cocaine-fiend boss.
Later that year, Farrell played the main antagonist in the Fright Night remake, joining Anton Yelchin, David Tennant and Toni Collette in the story of a charismatic vampire who moves next door to a high-school student and his single mother. The film was released by DreamWorks, with Craig Gillespie (of Lars and the Real Girl) directing a script by Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Marti Noxon. Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph wrote that Farrell "proves his comedy credentials once more....utterly seductive as the plushly eyebrowed carpenter-cum-bloodsucker", while The New York Times' A.O. Scott thought that Farrell played his role with "a wink and a snarl and a feline purr". Logan Hill of New York magazine, on the other hand, was confused by Farrell's performance: "Sure, [it] may not make much sense, but neither do centuries-old vampires living in Nevadan subdivisions. So he goes for it."
Farrell starred with Kate Beckinsale in Columbia Pictures' Total Recall, a 2012 remake of the 1990 film, playing the role originally played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was filmed from May to September 2011 in Toronto and directed by Len Wiseman. Co-star Jessica Biel appreciated Farrell's skills, calling him "surprising and exciting. He just has the ability to be trying different things all the time." Roger Ebert and The New York Times said that although they believed Farrell the better actor, Schwarzenegger in the original was "more of a movie presence and better suited for the role".
Farrell's second film with Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in October 2012. He starred as creatively blocked writer Marty in a black comedy with Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, and Christopher Walken. The film broke even at the box office, with generally good reviews, including David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter writing that Farrell "serves as an excellent foil for Rockwell" and he "is in subdued mode... his performance largely defined by the endless expressivity of his eyebrows." That month, Farrell appeared on the cover of the magazine Details.
In March 2013, Farrell starred in Dead Man Down, a thriller directed by Niels Arden Oplev, appearing alongside Terrence Howard for the first time since Hart's War 10 years earlier. Noomi Rapace, star of Oplev's The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, starred as a facially scarred woman who blackmails Farrell's character into killing the man who disfigured her in a car crash. Reviews were mixed, with Empire magazine calling the film "a pleasingly intricate double (or is it triple?) revenge plot anchored by excellent acting" and The Hollywood Reporter saying that "[J.H.] Wyman's script and the measured pace don't lend themselves to the necessary escalating tension that would have resulted in a more rewarding climax." The New York Times' Manohla Dargis called the film a failure, but said of Farrell that "his sensitive, hardworking eyebrows help keep it from becoming a full-bore lampoon." Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News also disliked the film, writing that it contained "a lot to roll your eyes over" and that Farrell was "as stoic as a statue".
In 2014, Farrell starred in a film adaptation of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. The film was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman and based on Helprin's 1983 novel, and co-starred Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly, Russell Crowe, and Will Smith. Farrell won the lead role over younger actors Garrett Hedlund, Tom Hiddleston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Although the film generally received negative reviews, writers such as The Village Voice's Stephanie Zacharek had nothing but praise for Farrell. She described him as "an extraordinary appealing actor" who "has always made a terrific bad boy, but ... seems to be settling into some very serious, responsible-adult roles." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle agreed, writing that Farrell "holds the movie together" and is part of "the most beautiful [love scene] so far of 2014."
His role as P. L. Travers' alcoholic father in Saving Mr. Banks received contrasting reviews, with Scott Foundras of Variety calling it "excellent" and Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter deeming it "his best work in some time"; conversely, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described his performance as "bland" and "uninspired", while Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph found Farrell miscast in the role.
Farrell starred in Liv Ullmann's adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie opposite Jessica Chastain and Samantha Morton. His turn as John, the serving man to Chastain's character's father, was described by Stephen Holden of The New York Times as the "strongest" of the three performances, though Ullmann's direction was deemed too flat by most reviewers. Farrell starred in the second season of the TV series True Detective as Ray Velcoro, alongside Vince Vaughn, Taylor Kitsch, and Rachel McAdams. The first two episodes were directed by Justin Lin. He worked with a dialect coach to adopt a nonstandard Californian accent for his character, which he found challenging.
Farrell starred in The Lobster, a romantic science fiction thriller which was released in 2015 and directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos in his English-language debut. Its script was awarded the ARTE International Prize for Best CineMart 2013 Project at the 42nd Rotterdam International Film Festival. Set in a dystopian near-future in which finding a partner is a matter of life and death, the film tells an unconventional love story. The film also stars Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, Olivia Colman, Léa Seydoux, and John C. Reilly.
In 2016, Farrell starred in the Harry Potter spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; a traced version of a licensed promotional photo of Farrell from the film was subsequently used for the character Nefarian Serpine on the tenth anniversary cover of 2007's Skulduggery Pleasant, the first book in the series of the same name. In 2017, he had leading roles in the films The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Roman J. Israel, Esq. In 2018, he co-starred in Steve McQueen's thriller Widows, and then starred in Tim Burton's 2019 live-action fantasy Dumbo.
2022–present
In 2022, Farrell co-starred in the film Thirteen Lives, which chronicles the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue of a Thai boys' soccer team that was trapped 2.5 miles inside the cave for eighteen days as a result of a flash-flood. The British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen participated in the rescue operation and retrieved the boys. During this production, Farrell and the other cast members did their own stunts and diving. In an interview about the film, Farrell admitted to suffering significant anxiety from the underwater work. He portrayed Oswald "Oz" Cobb / Penguin in Matt Reeves' 2022 film The Batman and continued to portray the character in a spin-off solo series on HBO.
In the same year, Farrell reunited with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisherin, which earned Farrell a Volpi Cup for Best Actor from the 79th Venice Film Festival and a Golden Globe, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In February 2024, it was reported that Farrell would star alongside Margot Robbie in Kogonada's film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Filming began in April that year.
Charity work
In 2007, Farrell joined other celebrities as a spokesperson for the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai. He also lent his support to the anti-bullying campaign Stand Up! organised by the Irish LGBT youth organisation BeLonG To in March 2012. Farrell, whose brother, Eamonn, is gay, had appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show two years earlier to increase awareness of the subject.
In 2015, Colin Farrell became an official Ambassador of the Homeless World Cup, which uses street football to inspire homeless people to change their lives. On August 7, 2024 he announced that he will be starting the Colin Farrell Foundation in dedication to his son James, who has Angelman syndrome. The organization provides support to adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. "This is the first time I’ve spoken about it," he said, "and obviously the only reason I’m speaking is I can’t ask James if he wants to do this."
Personal life
Farrell owns homes in Dublin and Los Angeles. In 2013, he revealed that he suffers from insomnia and has suffered from occasional bouts of depression and dark thoughts.
Relationships and children
Farrell met English actress and singer Amelia Warner at the premiere of Quills in 2000. They dated from July to November 2001. There was unproven speculation that they married. Farrell said of the relationship that they were "too fast, too young". He has had relationships with American model Nicole Narain, and actresses Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Taylor, Maeve Quinlan, and Demi Moore.
He has a son, James Padraig Farrell, born on 12 September 2003, with American model Kim Bordenave. In October 2007, he said that his son has Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterised by intellectual and developmental delay, lack of speech, and an excitable demeanour.
From 2007 to 2008, Farrell dated Irish medical student Muireann McDonnell. Farrell and British-American writer Emma Forrest dated for over a year, an experience she discussed in depth in her memoir Your Voice in My Head (which mostly focused on her relationship with her therapist, who died unexpectedly). According to Forrest, she and Farrell planned to have a child together before he ended the relationship.
On October 7, 2009, Farrell's second son, Henry Tadeusz Farrell, was born to Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curuś (his Ondine co-star). Farrell and Bachleda-Curuś split in 2010.
Drug addiction and sobriety
Farrell said in an interview that "[He'd] been drunk or high since [he] was 14." In December 2005, he checked into a rehabilitation centre for addictions to recreational drugs and painkillers. He commented on the topic during an interview on Late Show with David Letterman after leaving rehab, and continued later to talk about it. He said, "There was an energy that was created, a character that was created, that no doubt benefited me... then there was a stage where it all began to crumble around me."
Farrell has been sober since leaving the rehab centre in 2006, and has credited his sobriety to his elder son James. In 2018, he voluntarily checked himself into rehab, as a "preemptive measure", in order to maintain his sobriety.
Sex tape
In January 2006, Farrell filed a lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend, American model Nicole Narain, and the Internet Commerce Group (ICG) for the unauthorised public distribution of a 13-minute sex tape they had made in 2003. He was offered $5 million for its rights. While ICG tried to release it, Narain said that she would work with Farrell to ensure that the tape remained private. Farrell said she tried to release it to damage his acting career and "make money out of it", which Narain denied. On 16 April 2006, they reached a confidential settlement; Farrell's lawsuit against ICG continued with a trial date of 21 July 2006, and was eventually settled amicably.
Acting credits and awards
References
External links
Colin Farrell at IMDb
Colin Farrell at AllMovie
Homeless World Cup Ambassador Profile
Colin reads his thoughts on gay bullying on Ellen
New Yorker caricatures of Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in In Bruges |
Paul_Mescal | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mescal | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mescal"
] | Paul Colm Michael Mescal ( MESS-kəl; born 2 February 1996) is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Mescal expanded to films, with roles in the psychological dramas The Lost Daughter (2021) and God's Creatures (2022). His leading role as a troubled father in Aftersun (2022) earned him nominations for an Academy Award and BAFTA Film Award. Mescal won a Laurence Olivier Award for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in a 2022 revival of the play A Streetcar Named Desire. The following year, he starred in the drama All of Us Strangers, for which he received his second BAFTA Film Award nomination.
Early life and education
Paul Colm Michael Mescal was born on 2 February 1996 in Maynooth, County Kildare, to Dearbhla, a Garda, and Paul, a schoolteacher who acted semi-professionally as well. The eldest of three children, he has a brother and a sister.
He attended Maynooth Post Primary School. Mescal was a minor and under-21 Gaelic football player for Kildare and a member of the Maynooth GAA club. Gaelic footballer Brian Lacey praised Mescal's skills as a defender, while physical trainer Cian O'Neill described him as "mature beyond his years ... very developed and very strong". He gave up the sport after a jaw injury.
Mescal performed on stage for the first time at age 16, portraying the titular Phantom in the musical The Phantom of the Opera, after which he auditioned and gained admission to The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2017. He secured agents for his acting career prior to his graduation.
Career
Theatre and television roles (2017–2020)
Upon obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree, Mescal was offered roles in two theatre productions, Angela's Ashes and The Great Gatsby; he took on the latter and starred as the titular Jay Gatsby at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The Irish Times Peter Crawley highlighted his work as a "butterfly of self-creation among an ensemble in constant motion and fluttering improvisation". He also portrayed the Prince in a contemporary retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes at the same theatre that year. Mescal appeared in the world premiere of the 2018 play Asking for It by Louise O'Neill at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; Steve Cummins of The Times commended his distinctive performance. The same year, he made his London stage debut in The Plough and the Stars at the Lyric Hammersmith and starred in the Rough Magic Theatre Company's productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for the Dublin Theatre Festival. In 2020, he performed in the play The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre.
Mescal starred in his first television role in the drama miniseries Normal People, an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Sally Rooney. It premiered in the UK on BBC Three and in the US on Hulu in 2020. He played student Connell Waldron; he viewed the role as different from himself in the way Waldron's traits include hesitance and emotional unavailability. Like the actor did in real life, the character plays Gaelic football and attends Trinity College. The role propelled Mescal to fame. He earned acclaim as well as the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his performance. In their respective reviews for Variety and Slate, Caroline Framke called Mescal's navigation through the character's emotional collapse "breathtaking", while Willa Paskin noted his concurrent embodiment of "intelligence, insecurity and quiet confidence". He also received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries.
Mescal starred in Drifting, a short film, which was screened at the 2020 Galway Film Fleadh. He played a firefighter in the Channel 5 miniseries The Deceived and appeared in the music video for the song "Scarlet" by The Rolling Stones in August. Reviewing The Deceived, The Independent critic Ed Power highlighted Mescal's effortless "sleepy-eyed charm" and "flawless" Donegal accent.
Film breakthrough (2021–present)
Mescal made his feature film debut with a supporting role in The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in her directorial debut. Released in 2021, the psychological drama garnered favourable reviews. The following year, Mescal starred as a man accused of sexual assault in the psychological drama God's Creatures and as a troubled young father in the drama Aftersun, both of which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The two films received positive reviews, with Mescal's performances gaining praise. IndieWire critic Kate Erbland found Mescal's work in God's Creatures "powerful" and "quietly chilling". Reviewing Aftersun, Peter Travers of ABC News highlighted his "disarming charm and elemental power" in his portrayal of a "complex role". He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the latter.
Mescal starred in Carmen, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in 2023. IndieWire's David Ehrlich stated that Mescal asserts his "gravitas" and "poise" in his role as a veteran of the US military. Mescal began portraying Stanley Kowalski in a revival of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at the Almeida Theatre in December 2022. The production garnered acclaim and transferred to the West End in March 2023. The Times's Dominic Maxwell found him "tremendous" and opined that he "makes the latent violence of Stanley Kowalski into something easy, tangible, vibrant yet unactorly". Mescal won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the portrayal.
In 2023, Mescal starred alongside Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers, a loose adaptation of the novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. He pursued the project as he was keen to play a "vivacious" and "front-footed" character for the first time in his career. It premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney commended the "warm, sexy chemistry" between Mescal and Scott. For his role, Mescal received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He also starred opposite Saoirse Ronan in Foe, an adaptation of Iain Reid's science fiction novel of the same name; the film was not well-received by critics. In 2024, Mescal was honoured by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with the Vantage Award, for emerging artists.
Mescal will next star in Gladiator II, Ridley Scott's sequel to the 2000 historical drama, and in The History of Sound, a romantic drama opposite Josh O'Connor. He will portray William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao's period drama Hamnet, based on the novel of the same name. Mescal replaced Blake Jenner in the lead role of composer Franklin Shepard in Richard Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along, a film adaptation of the 1981 musical of the same name, which is set to be filmed over 20 years.
Personal life
Mescal speaks English and Irish. He moved from his native Ireland to London in 2020. He said in 2022 that he had purchased a property in Ireland, with the intention of spending time there when he is not working.
Mescal was in a relationship with American singer Phoebe Bridgers for up to two years, until December 2022. He appeared in Bridgers' music video for the song "Savior Complex", directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Mescal is open about seeing a therapist, which he says is "to keep sane". He has said that fans should not feel entitled to know about his personal life.
Mescal plays the piano, and has performed covers of songs with his sister, singer Nell Mescal. He has also provided background vocals on Bridgers' song "So Much Wine", with its proceeds going to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. In July 2020, he performed spoken word and sang with singer Dermot Kennedy at the Natural History Museum in London. He participated in a virtual stage reading of the play This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan as part of a series to benefit the Actors Fund of America charity in October of the same year.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Music videos
Theatre
Discography
Soundtrack
Accolades
References
External links
Paul Mescal at IMDb |
Bill_Nighy | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nighy | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nighy"
] | William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is a British actor. Known for his work in numerous stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and also has had nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
He started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with The Illuminatus! in 1977. He gained acclaim for his roles in David Hare's Pravda in 1985, Harold Pinter's Betrayal in 1991, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 1993, and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1994. He received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor nomination for his role in Blue/Orange in 2001. He acted on Broadway in the David Hare plays The Vertical Hour (2006) and Skylight (2015), earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for the latter.
Nighy's early film roles include the comedies Still Crazy (1998), Guest House Paradiso (1999) and Blow Dry (2001). He rose to international stardom with his role in Love Actually (2003), which earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to portray Viktor in the Underworld film series (2003–2009) and Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2006–2007). His other films include Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Constant Gardener (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Hot Fuzz (2007), Valkyrie (2008), Wild Target (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), About Time (2013), Emma (2020), and Living (2022), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Nighy has gained acclaim for his roles in television, earning a BAFTA Award for his role in BBC One series State of Play (2003), and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the BBC film Gideon's Daughter (2007). He is also known for his roles in The Girl in the Café (2006) and the BBC's Worricker trilogy which include Page Eight (2012), Turks & Caicos (2014), and Salting the Battlefield (2014), and the BBC's Ordeal by Innocence (2018).
Early life and education
William Francis Nighy was born on 12 December 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, the son of Alfred Martin Nighy (1913–1976) and Catherine Josephine, (née Whittaker) (1915–2003). His father managed a car garage after working in the family chimney sweeping business; his mother was a psychiatric nurse of Irish descent born in Glasgow, Scotland.
Nighy was brought up as a Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy; however, he gave up "being a practising Catholic" as a teenager. He has two elder siblings, Martin and Anna. He attended the John Fisher School, a Roman Catholic grammar school in Purley, where he was nicknamed "Knucks" because of his hands, and was a member of the theatre group.
As a child he was known by many to be insecure and shy; as a teenager he became an avid reader, particularly enjoying the works of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He left school at the age of 15, without qualifications, and later with a friend travelled to Paris hoping and failing "to write a novel".
He worked variously in a local employment office and as a messenger for The Croydon Advertiser and The Field. He then applied for a place at RADA, but was rejected and instead enrolled at the Guildford School of Dance and Drama to train for the stage.
Career
1969–1984: Early roles
After working in various regional theatre productions during his early twenties in theatres such as the Cambridge Arts Theatre and Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, a friend of Nighy's suggested that he audition for the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. During his audition he asked to start again about five times, according to fellow actor Jonathan Pryce, who said that "either he was a very good actor, or a madman". During his time at the Everyman he worked alongside fellow actors Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite, and writers Ken Campbell and Willy Russell. He was also a member of the travelling theatre group Van Load, which included one of Nighy's most frequent collaborators, writer and director David Hare.
Nighy made his London stage debut at the National Theatre in an epic staging of Ken Campbell and Chris Langham's Illuminatus!, after he met Campbell at a bar in London. When Nighy told him that he was an actor, Campbell hired him on the spot. It opened the new Cottesloe Theatre on 4 March 1977. He was cast in two David Hare premieres, A Map of The World and Pravda, also at the National. Nighy starred in three episodes of the British anthology series Play For Today from 1978 to 1982. He played Samwise Gamgee in the 1981 BBC Radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings (credited as William Nighy), and was heard in the 1980s BBC Radio version of Yes Minister.
1985–1999: National Theatre and acclaim
After Nighy made his debut, he steadily gained acclaim with his performances in David Hare's Pravda in 1985, William Shakespeare's King Lear in 1986 and Anton Chekov's The Seagull in 1994. At the National Theatre, he acted in productions alongside Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Harriet Walter, Rufus Sewell and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Nighy's most acclaimed stage performances were in National Theatre productions. As Bernard Nightingale, an unscrupulous university don, in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993), he engaged in witty exchanges with Felicity Kendal, who played Hannah Jarvis, an author.
Nighy played Jerry in Harold Pinter's Betrayal in 1991 at the Almeida Theatre. He played a consultant psychiatrist in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange (2000), for which he received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor. It transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. In 1997, he starred as restaurant entrepreneur Tom Sergeant in David Hare's Skylight, which had premiered in 1995 and was moved to the Vaudeville Theatre. He played a libidinous young disc jockey, Vincent Fish, in the 1980 comedy series Agony, where he was the occasional lover of the lead character, played by Maureen Lipman. He also starred in two episodes of the BBC series Performance in 1991 and 1993.
One of Nighy's early major screen appearances was the BBC serial The Men's Room (1991). He claimed that the serial, an Ann Oakley novel adapted by Laura Lamson, was the job that launched his career. He received some recognition by American audiences for his acclaimed character portrayal of fifty-year-old rock star Ray Simms in the 1998 film Still Crazy. In 1999 he gained further prominence in the UK with the starring role in "The Photographer", an episode of the award-winning BBC-TV mockumentary comedy series People Like Us, playing Will Rushmore, a middle aged man who has abandoned his career and family in the deluded belief that he can achieve success as a commercial photographer. Since 1999, Nighy has played Simon Brett's fictional amateur sleuth Charles Paris at least 17 times on BBC Radio 4.
2000–2009: Career expansion
In 2003, Nighy played the role of the Vampire Elder Viktor in the American production Underworld. (He returned to that role in the sequel Underworld: Evolution in 2006, and again in the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans in 2009.) In the same year he portrayed Billy Mack, an irreverent rock'n'roll legend, in the British ensemble romantic comedy film Love Actually, for which he was awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. At the BAFTA Television Awards in April 2004, he won the Best Actor award for State of Play. He also appeared in the comedy Shaun of the Dead. In early 2004, The Sunday Times reported that Nighy was on the shortlist for the role of the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 revival of the BBC television series Doctor Who. Christopher Eccleston ultimately filled the role. In 2005, he appeared as Slartibartfast in the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
In 2005, he acted in the Fernando Meirelles-directed drama The Constant Gardener alongside Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. He also starred in the one-off BBC One comedy-drama The Girl in the Café alongside Kelly MacDonald for which he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. In February 2006, he appeared in scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff's one-off drama Gideon's Daughter. Nighy played the lead character, Gideon, a successful events organiser who begins to lose touch with the world around him. This performance won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or TV Film in January 2007. Also in 2006, Nighy made his Broadway debut alongside Julianne Moore in the David Hare play The Vertical Hour, directed by Sam Mendes at the Music Box Theatre. David Rooney of Variety gave the production a mixed review, writing that "Stuffed with stimulating insights, it's never dull but ultimately feels as messy and unresolved as the conflict behind its central debate. Sam Mendes' production does have one reason for unstinting recommendation, however, in Bill Nighy's fascinatingly eccentric performance."
In 2006, Nighy played the principal villain, Davy Jones, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with his face entirely obscured by computer-generated makeup. He voiced the character with a Scots accent. He reprised the role in the 2007 sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, in which his real face was briefly revealed in one scene. He also provided the narration for the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. In 2006 he played the role of Richard Hart in the Richard Eyre-directed drama Notes on a Scandal, alongside Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. For the role he was nominated for a London Film Critics' Circle award. Nighy also appeared as General Friedrich Olbricht, one of the principal conspirators, in the 2008 film Valkyrie. He had played an SS officer in the 1985 Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil. He starred in the film Wild Target in 2010. In July 2009, he announced that he would play Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. Nighy had already worked with director David Yates twice, and with the majority of the Harry Potter cast in previous films. He has said of his role as Rufus Scrimgeour that it meant he was no longer the only English actor not to be in Harry Potter.
2010–2019: Established actor
In 2010, he made a small cameo in Doctor Who, in the episode titled "Vincent and the Doctor". Nighy voiced Grandsanta in the 2011 animated film Arthur Christmas. In 2012, he starred in the British romantic comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel acting opposite Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, and Maggie Smith. Nighy along with the ensemble received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. That same year he acted in the action films Wrath of the Titans starring Sam Worthington and Ralph Fiennes and the remake of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell. In 2013, he played a role in Darkside, Tom Stoppard's radio drama based on Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon. In 2014 he acted in the historical comedy-drama film Pride and the science-fiction fantasy film I, Frankenstein.
During this time Nighy played MI5 agent Johnny Worricker in a trilogy of films written and directed by David Hare; Page Eight (2011), Turks & Caicos (2014), and Salting the Battlefield (2014). Nighy acted in these films alongside Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, and Michael Gambon. For his performance in Page Eight he received nominations for the British Academy Television Award for Best Single Drama and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. In 2014, he starred with Carey Mulligan in a revival of David Hare's Skylight at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. It had a large international audience via broadcast in the National Theatre Live series. Nighy returned to Broadway starring in the transfer in Skylight alongside Mulligan where they both received nominations for the Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play and Best Actress in a Play respectively. That same year he starred in the sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, titled The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).
The following year he acted in the war film Their Finest (2016) where it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised Nighy, describing him as "a colossally proportioned scene-stealer". In that year he was in several films, including the British war comedy Dad's Army, the animated feature Norm of the North and the horror-mystery The Limehouse Golem. In 2017, acting alongside Emily Mortimer, he starred in the drama The Bookshop, based on the 1978 novel of the same title by Penelope Fitzgerald. That same year he was in the short film Red Nose Day Actually, reprising his role of Billy Mack from Love Actually (2003). Most of the actors from the original film appeared, including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Keira Knightley. The film aired on BBC One as part of the Red Nose Day 2017 fundraising event. In 2018 he starred in the three-episode BBC One series Ordeal by Innocence, an adaptation of the 1958 detective novel of the same name by Agatha Christie.
2020–present
In 2020, he appeared as Mr Woodhouse, Emma's father, in Autumn de Wilde's Emma (2020) starring alongside Anya Taylor-Joy. The film received near-universal acclaim. Variety film critic Andrew Barker praised the casting of Nighy as Emma's father, writing that the decision was an "uncontested layup of casting". In October 2020, it was announced that Nighy would play the leading role in Living, an English-language adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 Japanese drama Ikiru, to be directed by Oliver Hermanus from a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro. Shooting began in spring 2021 in locations across the UK, including London and Worthing. The film premiered at Sundance in January 2022, where Nighy's performance in particular received high praise. For his performance he went on to receive nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor.
In the 2022 TV series The Man Who Fell to Earth Nighy played the brilliant Thomas Newton, the first alien resident of Earth, who arrived over 40 years ago. This role originally was played by David Bowie in the 1976 film adaptation. Nighy is also the narrator of the Channel 5 travel show The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys, a programme that began its fifth series in autumn 2021 with episodes featuring train journeys across Australia and the Welsh borders. In 2022, Nighy became a DJ on BBC 6 Music when he stood in for Guy Garvey on the regular Sunday afternoon programme Guy Garvey's Finest Hour, with Nighy deputising for the Elbow frontman again at the beginning of 2023. He later deputised for Iggy Pop on his show Iggy Confidential from March to April 2023, and again in December 2023.
Personal life
Beginning in 1982, Nighy was in a relationship with English actress Diana Quick, after they both played in David Hare's A Map of The World. They have a daughter, actress and filmmaker Mary Nighy, born in 1984, and two grandchildren. The pair separated in 2008.
He has Dupuytren's contracture. The condition can, depending on its severity, cause contractures of the fingers, most commonly the ring and little fingers.
Nighy is a supporter of Crystal Palace F.C. He is a patron of the CPSCC (Crystal Palace Children's Charity) and of the Ann Craft Trust. He is also an honorary patron of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.
He is a patron of the Milton Rooms, a new arts centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Imelda Staunton, Jools Holland and Kathy Burke.
Nighy is a supporter of the Robin Hood tax campaign, and starred in a video in support of it.
Nighy supports "total gender equality", noting in an interview he gave during the 2016 DIFF film festival that the highlighting of gender inequality problems in the film industry had influenced his choice of film roles. He has also spoken of his role in Pride, a film extolling the mutual support between the National Union of Miners and gay rights groups in the UK in the 1980s, as one of his most cherished.
In 2004, Nighy was a guest on Desert Island Discs, presented by Sue Lawley. One of his chosen discs was "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who, so that he could practise his hobby of air guitar while marooned. As his luxury, he chose a boxed set of blues harp harmonicas and instruction book.
Nighy is noted for his bespoke navy suits. He was listed as one of the 50 best-dressed over-50s by The Guardian in March 2013 and one of GQ's 50 best-dressed British men in 2015.
He became a fan of the Pokémon franchise during the production of Detective Pikachu, in which he played Howard Clifford. He has said that Mew is his favourite Pokémon.
For many years, Nighy struggled with substance issues, particularly alcoholism, a topic he rarely discusses, and has been a "sober alcoholic" since 17 May 1992. He gave up smoking in 2003.
During his twenties Nighy was in a band called the Love Ponies, and subsequently recorded a few songs.
Nighy resides in Pimlico, London.
Acting credits and accolades
References
External links
Bill Nighy at IMDb
Bill Nighy: A Life in Pictures Interview at BAFTA
Bill Nighy at the BFI's Screenonline
Bill Nighy at British Comedy Guide
Silk Sound Books Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine |
Michelle_Yeoh | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Yeoh | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Yeoh"
] | Yeoh Choo Kheng (Chinese: 杨紫琼; born 6 August 1962), better known by the stage name Michelle Yeoh, is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films in Hong Kong, she rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s after starring in Hong Kong action films where she performed her own stunts. These roles included Yes, Madam (1985), Magnificent Warriors (1987), Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992), The Heroic Trio, Tai Chi Master (both 1993), and Wing Chun (1994).
After moving to the United States, Yeoh gained international recognition for starring in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Ang Lee's martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the latter for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her Hollywood career progressed with roles in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Sunshine (2007), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), Reign of Assassins (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), and The Lady (2011), in which she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yeoh played supporting roles in the romantic comedies Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Last Christmas (2019), as well as in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and the television series Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2020). For her starring role as Evelyn Quan Wang, an overwhelmed matriarch navigating the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian to win the category, and the first Malaysian to win an Academy Award.
The film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008. In 1997, she was chosen by People as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", and in 2009 the same magazine listed her as one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties". In 2022, Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people on its annual listicle and its Icon of the Year. In 2024, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early life and education
Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak, to Janet Yeoh and Yeoh Kian-teik. Her father was elected as a Senator of Malaysia from 1959 to 1969 (representing Perak's Malaysian Chinese Association), the Chairman of the Perak Bar Association, and the founder of "Sri Maju" in 1975, a major intercity coach service in Malaysia and Singapore. Though of Hokkien and Cantonese ancestry, she grew up speaking English to her father and could understand some Malaysian Cantonese from her maternal grandmother who lived with them. She learned to speak Cantonese fluently in the 1980s and some Mandarin in the 2000s. Despite that, she never learned to read or write Chinese, which she has said was her greatest regret.
Yeoh was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at age four. She studied at Main Convent Ipoh, an all-girls secondary school, as a primary student. At age 15, she moved with her parents to the United Kingdom. There, she was enrolled in The Hammond School, Chester, where she started to train as a ballet dancer. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she shifted her attention to choreography and other arts. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1983.
Career
Early career and first retirement (1983–1991)
In 1983, twenty-year-old Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World contest. She was Malaysia's representative at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London, where she placed eighteenth. Later that year, she traveled to Australia where she won the 1984 Miss Moomba International pageant. Her first acting work was in a television commercial for Guy Laroche watches with Jackie Chan. This caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films. Although she had a passive understanding of the Ipoh Cantonese spoken in her hometown, she could not speak it. During a phone call in Cantonese, she was offered to co-star in a television commercial with a Sing Long, and only realized that was Jackie Chan's Cantonese name when she arrived in the studio. She learned to speak Cantonese as she began her career in Hong Kong.
Yeoh began her acting career in action and martial arts films, in which she performed her own stunts. Yeoh's first lead role came in her third film, Yes, Madam (1985). Yeoh initially used the pseudonym Michelle Khan, a stage name selected by D&B Films for its potential appeal to international and Western audiences. In 1987, Yeoh married her first husband Dickson Poon, a co-founder of D&B Films, and decided to retire from acting.
Return as an action star (1992–2001)
After five years of marriage, Yeoh divorced Poon and returned to acting with Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992). She appeared in The Heroic Trio (1993), and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
She changed her stage name back to Michelle Yeoh when she started her Hollywood career with Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997. In the 1997 James Bond film, she played Wai Lin opposite star Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work." He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. Yeoh wanted to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous. Nevertheless, she performed all of her own fighting scenes.
In 1997, Yeoh played Soong Ai-ling in the award-winning The Soong Sisters. Yeoh was approached by director Ang Lee to star as Yu Shu Lien in her first Mandarin-language martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). She did not speak Mandarin until the 2000s, and she had to learn the Mandarin lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically. The film was an international success, and earned Yeoh a BAFTA 2000 nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Career fluctuations (2002–2016)
In 2002, Yeoh produced her first English film, The Touch, through her own production company Mythical Films. In 2004, Yeoh met Jean Todt, a French motor racing executive, in Shanghai during a publicity event for Ferrari. They became engaged later that same year.
In 2005, Yeoh starred as Mameha in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and she continued her English-language work in 2007 with Sunshine. In 2008, Yeoh starred in the fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li. In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson's The Lady. Yeoh was blacklisted by the Burmese government allegedly because of her participation in The Lady; she was refused entry to Myanmar on 22 June 2011 and was deported on the same day.
In October 2011, Yeoh was chosen by Guerlain to be its skincare ambassador. Yeoh's role was to help strengthen the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia.
Yeoh did not branch out into television until 2015, with her first role playing Mei Foster, wife to the British Ambassador to Thailand, who is secretly a North Korean spy named Li-Na, on the fifth season of the Cinemax/Sky series Strike Back.
Supporting roles (2017–2020)
In 2016, Yeoh was cast as Starfleet Captain Philippa Georgiou of the starship USS Shenzhou in the series Star Trek: Discovery, and recurs as Georgiou's "mirror" doppelganger later in the series. Yeoh went on to play the role for three seasons, garnering critical acclaim and becoming a fan favourite. Following the success of Star Trek: Discovery, a spinoff series with Yeoh in the leading role, was commissioned in 2019. The series, which would centre on Yeoh's character, Emperor Georgiou working as a member of Section 31, a secret intergalactic spy organisation, was still "in development" as of January 2023, but in April, Paramount+ announced it had ordered a Star Trek: Section 31 feature film starring Yeoh, rather than a series.
In 2018, Yeoh played family matriarch Eleanor Young in Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians, a film adaptation of Kevin Kwan's book of the same name, opposite Constance Wu and Henry Golding. Carlos Aguilar of TheWrap described her performance as "convincingly subdued". In 2019, she played Christmas themed-store owner "Santa" in Last Christmas, opposite Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke. The film was released on 8 November 2019, and was a box office success grossing over $121 million worldwide.
Yeoh played Ying Nan in Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The film was released in theaters on 3 September 2021. It was announced at The Game Awards 2020 that Yeoh would star in Ark: The Animated Series, a series based on the video game Ark: Survival Evolved by Studio Wildcard, in which she plays the role of Meiyin Li, a 3rd-century Chinese rebel leader, known as the Beast Queen.
Award success (2021–present)
In 2022, Yeoh starred in the science fiction surreal comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once from filmmaking duo Daniels, released in March 2022 to widespread critical acclaim. In the film, she played struggling laundromat owner Evelyn Quan Wang, a role that was widely praised by critics, with David Ehrlich of IndieWire claiming it the "greatest performance that Michelle Yeoh has ever given". It was for this role that Yeoh earned her first Golden Globe win (becoming the first Malaysian actor to win Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes), her first Independent Spirit nomination and win, her first Oscar nomination and win, her second BAFTA nomination, and her first Critics' Choice Awards nomination. Additionally, she became the first Asian woman to win any individual lead film category in the Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. She also became the first Malaysian to be nominated for and win an Academy Award, and the first Asian and second "woman of color" to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Yeoh appeared in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, based on the book of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. In June 2022, it was announced that she would star in the eight-part action/comedy-drama series The Brothers Sun for Netflix, which was released on 4 January 2024, to generally positive reviews. She starred as a psychic medium alongside Kenneth Branagh in A Haunting in Venice, released on 15 September 2023. In the same year, Yeoh became an International Olympic Committee member, and delivered a speech at Harvard Law School's 2023 class day.
She is set to star as Madame Morrible in the two-part film adaptation of the musical Wicked directed by Jon M. Chu, with Part One releasing on 22 November 2024, and Part Two slated for November 26, 2025. In May 2024, Yeoh was cast in a lead role as a replicant alongside Hunter Schafer in the Amazon science-fiction television series Blade Runner 2099. She will also star as human scientist Dr. Karina Mogue in Avatar 4, set to release on 21 December 2029.
Activism
Michelle Yeoh devotes a large part of her time to charitable and social endeavors, including disaster relief, HIV/AIDS, poverty reduction, animal conservation, gender equality and road safety. She has been an ambassador and leading campaigner for FIA's Make Roads Safe campaign to be recognized as a global public health and development priority since 2008. Among many activities on behalf of the campaign, she promoted safer road design at the events around the world, spoke at the United Nations General Assembly, Asia Development Bank, World Bank, walked to promote traffic safety at the Formula One race, and launched the Call for a Decade of Action for Road Safety at an event in Vietnam organized by the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation. She also filmed a documentary on global road safety, Turning Point, a version of which was shown on BBC World News.
Devoted to an array of conservation issues, Michelle Yeoh has donated her time as a WildAid ambassador for endangered animals and is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the Sustainable Development Goals initiative since 2016. Yeoh is a patron of the Save China's Tigers project committed to protecting the endangered South China tiger. She also joined UNDP's first-ever animal ambassadors, two panda cubs, to kick off the Pandas for the Global Goals campaign. She didn't stop there, in order to raise awareness about wildlife conservation and climate change, she collaborated with National Geographic to produce the documentary Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh, while emphasizing the importance of responsible consumerism, sustainable fashion, and ethical business practices. In 2013, she changed to the role of executive producer for the project Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey. The film recorded a journey of 700 people, led by the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, to the perilous Himalayan mountain range. They traveled 450 miles, planted 50.000 trees, and educated the villagers on environmental responsibility.
Yeoh's activism extends to health and well-being issues, ranging from patrons to ambassadors, through organizations including AIDS Concern, Hong Kong Cancer Fund, amfAR, Live To Love, and Paris Brain Institute. She also joined UNAIDS's commissioner team, and serves on the board of directors of the Suu Foundation, a non-political charity established to support the health, education, human rights, and development of the people of Myanmar. As one of the survivors of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, after evacuation, she returned to the disaster-hit country to help rehabilitate affected people and donate 100.000 euros for victims.
Throughout her career, Yeoh has always portrayed strong roles and defiant in working against stereotypes. After Tomorrow Never Dies, she didn't work for almost two years due to all the stereotypical roles offered to her in America. She told People: "At that point (1990s), people in the industry couldn’t really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese, Japanese, Korean or if I even spoke English. They would talk very loudly and very slowly". She has long spoken out about racism in Hollywood, typically in her awards acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. The day after her history-making Oscar win, she published an opinion essay in The New York Times calling for true gender equality.
Personal life
Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon, known for his ownership of businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan, from 1988 to 1992. From 1998 to 2000, Yeoh dated and was eventually engaged to Alan Heldman, an American cardiologist.
In 2004, she started dating Jean Todt, then the general manager and CEO of Scuderia Ferrari and later the president of the FIA. On 26 July 2004, the couple got engaged. As of 2019, she lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with Todt. In an Instagram post, former Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa said that Yeoh and Todt were married on 27 July 2023 in Geneva.
Yeoh does not have any children, and has cited her inability to have children as the reason for ending her first marriage.
Yeoh is Buddhist and an activist. Yeoh expressed her support for Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak and the coalition Barisan Nasional ahead of the 2013 Malaysian general election. In 2022, she told Vanity Fair that Shakespeare and Stephen King were her favorite authors and that Tarzan was her favorite fictional hero.
Filmography
Accolades
In 1999, she was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. On 19 April 2001, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), which carries the title Dato', by Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, her home state, in recognition of the fame she brought to the state. On 25 November 2002, Yeoh was honoured as The Outstanding Young People of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International). On 23 April 2007, French President Jacques Chirac conferred upon Yeoh the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour (French: Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur). The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007. She was promoted to Officer of the same French order (Officier de la Légion d'honneur) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 14 March 2012 at a ceremony held at the president's residence, the Élysée Palace, on that day, and promoted to Commander (Commandeur), the highest honour available to non-French citizens, by François Hollande at the official residence of the French ambassador in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.
On 22 May 2012, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak (SPMP) which carries the title Dato' Seri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah's birthday. Yeoh received the Excellence in Asian Cinema award during the 7th Asian Film Awards in March 2013 in Hong Kong. On 1 June 2013, Yeoh was awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) which carries the title Tan Sri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the birthday of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah. On 30 November 2013, Yeoh presided as the Chief Guest at the International Film Festival of India.
On 12 February 2016, Yeoh was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, becoming the first Malaysian citizen to receive that honour. Yeoh was included in the BBC's 100 Women list of 2020. She was placed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. On 13 August 2022, Yeoh received an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree from the American Film Institute for her contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image. She became the first Asian artist to receive the honour. On 9 December 2022, Yeoh received the Kirk Douglas Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
On 3 May 2024, the White House announced Yeoh would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour. Yeoh was cited for continuing "to shatter stereotypes and enrich American culture."
In 2024, Yeoh was awarded the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for her role as a cultural leader and for her contributions to society as an exceptional artist.
Honours
Honours of Malaysia
Malaysia :
Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (PSM) – Tan Sri (2013)
Perak :
Knight Commander of the Order of the Perak State Crown (DPMP) – Dato' (2001)
Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Perak State Crown (SPMP) – Dato' Seri (2012)
Foreign honours
France :
Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2007)
Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2012)
Officier of the National Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2016)
Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2017)
United States :
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2024)
See also
List of Academy Award winners and nominees of Asian descent
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
Kho Tong Guan: "Yeoh Chu Kheng, Michelle". In: Leo Sury, Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary. Chinese Heritage Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012, ISBN 9789814345217, pp. 1347–1350
Ken E. Hall: "Michelle Yeoh". In: Garry Bettinson: Directory of World Cinema: CHINA 2. Intellect Books, 2015 ISBN 9781783204007, pp. 71–73
Lisa Funnell: Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star. Suny Press, 2014, ISBN 9781438452494, pp. 31–57 (chapter "Transnational Chinese Mothers: The Heroic Identities of Michelle Yeoh and Pei Pei Cheng")
Rikke Schubart: Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. McFarland, 2012 ISBN 9780786482849, pp. 123–143 (chapter "Beautiful Vase Made of Iron and Steel Michelle Yeoh")
External links
Michelle Yeoh on Instagram
Michelle Yeoh at IMDb |
Cate_Blanchett | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Blanchett | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Blanchett"
] | Catherine Élise Blanchett ( BLAN-chit; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor and film producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognized for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and the stage. Blanchett has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award.
A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Blanchett began her career on the Australian stage. Making her feature film debut in 1997, she came to international prominence for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the period drama Elizabeth (1998), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. Her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in the biopic The Aviator (2004) won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a neurotic former socialite in the comedy-drama Blue Jasmine (2013). Blanchett's other Oscar-nominated roles were in Notes on a Scandal (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Carol (2015), and Tár (2022), making her the most-nominated Australian. Her biggest commercial successes include The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Cinderella (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Ocean's 8 (2018), and Don't Look Up (2021).
Blanchett has performed in over twenty stage productions. She and her husband, Andrew Upton, were the artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013. Some of her stage roles during this period were in acclaimed revivals of A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, Big and Little and The Maids. She made her Broadway debut in 2017 in The Present, for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations for producing and starring as Phyllis Schlafly in the period drama miniseries Mrs. America (2020).
Blanchett is the recipient of several honorary awards. The Australian government awarded her the Centenary Medal in 2001, and she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2017. In 2012, she was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. In 2015, she was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship. Blanchett has received honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney and Macquarie University. Time named her one of its 100 most influential people in the world in 2007. In 2018, she was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses.
Early life and education
Catherine Élise Blanchett was born on 14 May 1969 in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe. Her Australian mother, June (née Gamble), was a property developer and teacher; and her American father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett Jr., a Texas native, was a United States Navy Chief Petty Officer who became an advertising executive. They met when Robert's ship broke down in Melbourne. When Blanchett was ten, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to raise the family. Blanchett is the second of three children, with an older brother and younger sister. Her ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and remote French roots.
Blanchett has described herself as a "part extrovert, part wallflower" child. During her teenage years she had a penchant for dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases, at one point shaving her head. She attended primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School; for her secondary education, she attended Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for the performing arts. In her late teens and early twenties, she worked at a nursing home in Victoria. After high school, she began a Bachelor of business administration at the University of Melbourne. While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to be an extra as an American cheerleader in the Egyptian boxing film Kaboria (1990); in need of money, she accepted the job. On returning to Australia, she moved to Sydney and enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Career
1992–2000: Early work and international breakthrough
Blanchett's first stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the 1992 David Mamet play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company. That year, she was also cast as Clytemnestra in a production of Sophocles' Electra. A couple of weeks after rehearsals, the actress playing the title role pulled out, and director Lindy Davies cast Blanchett in the role. Her performance as Electra became one of her most acclaimed at NIDA. In 1993, Blanchett was awarded the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award for her performance in Timothy Daly's Kafka Dances and won Best Actress for her performance in Mamet's Oleanna, making her the first actor to win both categories in the same year. Blanchett played the role of Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–1995 Company B production of Hamlet directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh, and was nominated for a Green Room Award.
Her first screen appearance was in the 1994 TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, and she went on to appear in the miniseries Bordertown (1995) with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 50-minute drama short film Parklands (1996), which received an Australian Film Institute (AFI) nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Blanchett made her feature film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during World War II, in Bruce Beresford's film Paradise Road (1997), which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. The film made just over $2 million at the box office on a budget of $19 million and received mixed reviews from critics. Her first leading role came later that year as eccentric heiress Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrong's romantic drama Oscar and Lucinda (1997), opposite Ralph Fiennes. Blanchett received wide acclaim for her performance, with Emanuel Levy of Variety declaring, "luminous newcomer Blanchett, in a role originally intended for Judy Davis, is bound to become a major star". She earned her first AFI Award nomination as Best Leading Actress for Oscar and Lucinda. She won the AFI Best Actress Award in the same year for her starring role as Lizzie in the romantic comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997), co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor.
Blanchett's played a young Elizabeth I in the critically acclaimed historical drama Elizabeth (1998), directed by Shekhar Kapur. The film catapulted her to international prominence, earning her the Golden Globe Award and British Academy Award (BAFTA), and her first Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In his review for Variety, critic David Rooney wrote of her performance, "Blanchett conveys with grace, poise and intelligence that Elizabeth was a wily, decisive, advanced thinker, far too aware of her own exceptional nature to bow to any man. [She] builds the juicy character almost imperceptibly from a smart but wary young woman who may be in over her head into a powerful creature of her own invention." Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that Blanchett's performance "brings spirit, beauty and substance to what otherwise might have been turned into a vacuous role", and Alicia Potter writing for the Boston Phoenix stated that, "In the end, Kapur's crown jewel is a tale of twin transformations, that of Elizabeth into one of history's most enigmatic and powerful women, and that of Blanchett into, well, a bona fide screen queen."
The following year, Blanchett appeared in Bangers (1999), an Australian short film and part of Stories of Lost Souls, a compilation of thematically related short stories. The short was written and directed by her husband, Andrew Upton, and produced by Blanchett and Upton. She also appeared in the Mike Newell comedy Pushing Tin (1999), with her performance singled out by critics, and the critically acclaimed and financially successful film The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. She received her second BAFTA nomination for her performance as Meredith Logue in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
2001–2007: The Lord of the Rings and established actor
Blanchett appeared in Peter Jackson's blockbuster trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, playing the role of elf leader Galadriel in all three films. The trilogy was a major critical and financial success, earning $2.981 billion at the box office worldwide, and all three films were later ranked within the top 10 greatest fantasy movies of all time in a poll conducted by American magazine Wired in 2012. In addition to The Lord of the Rings, 2001 also saw Blanchett diversify her portfolio with a range of roles in the dramas Charlotte Gray and The Shipping News and the American crime-comedy Bandits, for which she earned a second Golden Globe and SAG Award nomination. Bandits marked Blanchett's first notable foray into the comedy genre, with Ben Falk of the BBC declaring her and co-star Billy Bob Thornton "a real find as comedians" and calling her performance as an unsatisfied housewife caught between two escaped convicts, "unhinged, though undeniably sexy".
In 2002, Blanchett starred opposite Giovanni Ribisi in Tom Tykwer-directed Heaven, the first film in an unfinished trilogy by acclaimed writer-director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Her performance in the film as a grieving woman who commits a desperate act of terrorism was highly praised, with Stephen Holden of The New York Times calling it, "the most compelling screen performance of her career" and going on to state, "Although Ms. Blanchett's face has always registered emotion with a mercurial fluidity, the immediacy of feeling she conveys in "Heaven" is astonishing." 2003 saw Blanchett again playing a wide range of roles: Galadriel in the third and final instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture); the Ron Howard-directed western thriller The Missing; Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes, playing two roles (both against herself), for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female nomination; and the biographical Veronica Guerin, which earned her a Golden Globe Best Actress Drama nomination. In 2004, Blanchett portrayed a pregnant journalist chronicling an underwater voyage by an eccentric oceanographer in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Blanchett won her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2005, for her highly acclaimed portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004). This made Blanchett the first actor in history to win an Academy Award for portraying another Academy Award-winning actor. She lent her Oscar statuette to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote that Blanchett portrayed Hepburn with "lip-smacking vivacity", and Roger Ebert lauded the performance, describing it as "delightful and yet touching; mannered and tomboyish". During her preparation for the role, and at the request of Scorsese, Blanchett reviewed 35-millimetre prints of all of Hepburn's first 15 screen performances to study and memorise her poise, mannerisms and speech pattern. Blanchett spoke of the responsibility of portraying such an iconic star, stating, "Representing Kate in the same medium, film, in which she existed was very daunting. But because she was so private and few people really knew her, we basically know Hepburn through her films. So of course you have to give a nod to her screen persona when playing her." That year, Blanchett also won the Australian Film Institute Best Actress Award for her performance as Tracy Heart, a former heroin addict, in the Australian film Little Fish (2005), co-produced by her and her husband's production company, Dirty Films. Though lesser known globally than some of her other films, the sober and sensitive Little Fish received great critical acclaim in Blanchett's native Australia and was nominated for 13 Australian Film Institute awards.
In 2006, Blanchett portrayed Hedda Gabler at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Hedda Gabler, directed by Robyn Nevin. She then starred opposite Brad Pitt in Alejandro González Iñárritu's multi-lingual, multi-narrative drama Babel, as one half of a grieving couple who get caught up in an international incident in Morocco. Babel received seven Academy Award nominations. She also co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's World War II-era drama The Good German with George Clooney, and the acclaimed psychological thriller Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Blanchett received a third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the latter film, where she portrays a lonely teacher who embarks on an affair with a 15-year-old student and becomes the object of obsession for an older woman played by Dench. Both Blanchett's and Dench's performances were highly acclaimed, with Peter Bradshaw writing in The Guardian, "Director Richard Eyre, with unshowy authority, gets the best out of Dench and Blanchett and, with great shrewdness, elicits from these two actors all the little tensions and exasperations - as well as the genuine tenderness - in their tragically fraught relationship."
In 2007, Blanchett was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World, and appeared on Forbes' Celebrity 100 list. She made a cameo as Janine, forensic scientist and ex-girlfriend of Simon Pegg's character, in Edgar Wright's action comedy film Hot Fuzz (2007). The cameo was uncredited and she gave her fee to charity. She reprised her role as Queen Elizabeth I in the 2007 sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age directed by Shekhar Kapur, and portrayed Jude Quinn, one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' experimental film I'm Not There. She won the Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Jude Quinn. At the 80th Academy Awards, Blanchett received two nominations – Best Actress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There – becoming the first actress to receive a second nomination with the reprisal of a role. Of her achievement that year, Roger Ebert said, "That Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto International Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting."
2008–2011: Directing the Sydney Theatre Company
Blanchett next appeared in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as the villainous KGB agent Col. Dr. Irina Spalko. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences but was a major box office success, grossing over $790 million worldwide. In David Fincher's Oscar-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, she co-starred with Brad Pitt for a second time, playing the title character's love interest, Daisy Fuller. In the same year, Blanchett voiced the character of Granmamare for the English language version of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, released in July 2008.
Also in 2008, Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton became co-CEOs and artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company. Blanchett returned to acting in the theatre in 2009 with the Sydney Theatre Company production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann. She starred as Blanche DuBois alongside Joel Edgerton as Stanley Kowalski. Ullmann and Blanchett had been meaning to collaborate on a project since Ullman's intended film adaption of A Doll's House fell by the wayside. Blanchett proposed embarking on Streetcar to Ullmann, who jumped at the opportunity after initial discussion.
A Streetcar Named Desire production travelled from Sydney to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It was a critical and commercial success and Blanchett received acclaim for her performance as Blanche DuBois. The New York Times critic Ben Brantley said, "Ms. Ullmann and Ms. Blanchett have performed the play as if it had never been staged before, with the result that, as a friend of mine put it, 'you feel like you're hearing words you thought you knew pronounced correctly for the first time.'" John Lahr of The New Yorker wrote of her portrayal, "with her alert mind, her informed heart, and her lithe, patrician silhouette, [Blanchett] gets it right from the first beat ... I don't expect to see a better performance of this role in my lifetime." Jane Fonda, who attended a New York show, deemed it "perhaps the greatest stage performance I have ever seen", and Meryl Streep declared, "That performance was as naked, as raw and extraordinary and astonishing and surprising and scary as anything I've ever seen ... I thought I'd seen that play, I thought I knew all the lines by heart, because I've seen it so many times, but I'd never seen the play until I saw that performance." Blanchett won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The production and Blanchett received Helen Hayes Awards, for Outstanding Non-Resident Production and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production award, respectively.
In 2010, Blanchett starred as Lady Marion opposite Russell Crowe's titular hero in Ridley Scott's epic Robin Hood. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a financial success, earning $321 million at the worldwide box office. In 2011, she played the antagonist CIA agent Marissa Wiegler in Joe Wright's action thriller film Hanna, co-starring with Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana.
In 2011, Blanchett took part in two Sydney Theatre Company productions. She played Lotte Kotte in a new translation of Botho Strauß's 1978 play Groß und klein (Big and Small) from Martin Crimp, directed by Benedict Andrews. After its Sydney run, the production travelled to London, Paris, the Vienna Festival and Ruhrfestspiele. Blanchett and the production received wide acclaim. Blanchett was nominated for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Actress, and won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Helpmann Award for Best Actress. She then played Yelena, opposite Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh, in Andrew Upton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, which travelled to the Kennedy Center and the New York City Center as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. The production and Blanchett received critical acclaim, with The New York Times' Ben Brantley declaring, "I consider the three hours I spent on Saturday night watching [the characters] complain about how bored they are among the happiest of my theatregoing life ... This Uncle Vanya gets under your skin like no other I have seen ... [Blanchett] confirms her status as one of the best and bravest actresses on the planet." The Washington Post's Peter Marks dubbed the production Washington, D.C.'s top theatrical event of 2011. Blanchett received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production, and the Helpmann Award for Best Actress.
2012–2016: Blue Jasmine and resurgence in Hollywood
Blanchett reprised her role as Galadriel in Peter Jackson's adaptations of The Hobbit (2012–2014), prequel to The Lord of the Rings series, filmed in New Zealand. While less critically acclaimed than The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy was nonetheless a major box office success, earning nearly $3 billion worldwide. The character of Galadriel does not appear in J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel, but the story was amended by co-writer Guillermo del Toro and director Peter Jackson so that Blanchett could appear in the film trilogy. She voiced the role of "Penelope" in the Family Guy episode "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie", which aired on 29 April 2012, and Queen Elizabeth II in the episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail 2". Blanchett returned to Australian film with her appearance in The Turning (2013), an anthology film based on a collection of short stories by Tim Winton. She was head of jury of the 2012 and 2013 Dubai International Film Festival. The Sydney Theatre Company's 2013 season was Blanchett's final one as co-CEO and artistic director.
In 2013, Blanchett played Jasmine Francis, the lead role in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, co-starring Alec Baldwin and Sally Hawkins. Her performance garnered widespread acclaim, with some critics considering it to be the finest of her career to that point (surpassing her acclaimed performance in Elizabeth). In his review for The Guardian, Mark Kermode proclaimed, "Blanchett takes on the challenge like a peak-fitness runner facing a marathon, ploughing her way through 26 miles of emotional road pounding, with all the ups and downs, strains and tears, stomach turns and heartburns that that entails, a feat that occasionally leaves her (and us) gasping for breath." Peter Travers, reviewing the film for Rolling Stone, called Blanchett's performance, "miraculous", and went on to write, "The sight of Jasmine – lost, alone and unable to conjure magic out of unyielding reality – is devastating. This is Blanchett triumphant, and not to be missed." The performance won her more than 40 industry and critics' awards, including the LAFCA Award, NYFCC Award, NSFC Award, Critics' Choice Award, Santa Barbara International Film Festival Outstanding Performance of the Year Award, SAG Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Independent Film Spirit Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress. Blanchett's win made her just the sixth actress to win an Oscar in both of the acting categories, the third to win Best Actress after Best Supporting Actress, and the first Australian to win more than one acting Oscar.
Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has since criticised Blanchett and other actresses for working with Allen. Blanchett responded, "It's obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some resolution and peace." On the subject of the Me Too movement, Blanchett said she thinks that "social media is fantastic about raising awareness about issues, but it's not the judge and jury" and the cases "need to go into court, so if these abuses have happened, the person is prosecuted, so someone, who is not in the shiny industry that I am, can use that legal precedent to protect themselves. Always, in my industry or any other industry, they're preyed upon because they're vulnerable."
In 2014, Blanchett co-starred with Matt Damon and George Clooney in the latter's ensemble film, The Monuments Men, based on the true story of a crew of art historians and museum curators who recover renowned works of art stolen by Nazis. The French heroine Rose Valland was an inspiration for Blanchett's character of Claire Simone. The Monuments Men received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $155 million at the worldwide box office. That year, Blanchett also voiced the part of Valka in the DreamWorks Animation film How to Train Your Dragon 2. The film received critical acclaim and was a box office success. It went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Blanchett guest starred on the Australian show Rake, as the onscreen female version of Richard Roxburgh's rogue protagonist, Cleaver. On 29 January 2015, she co-hosted the 4th AACTA Awards with Deborah Mailman.
In 2015, Blanchett starred in five films. She portrayed Nancy in Terrence Malick's Knight Of Cups, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. IndieWire named Blanchett's performance in Knight of Cups one of the 15 best performances in Terrence Malick films. She starred as the villainous Lady Tremaine in Disney's Kenneth Branagh-directed live-action adaptation of Cinderella, to critical acclaim. Writing for Time magazine, Richard Corliss declared that "Blanchett [earns top billing], radiating a hauteur that chills as it amuses; the performance is grand without skirting parody." She then starred opposite Rooney Mara in Carol, the highly acclaimed film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, reuniting her with director Todd Haynes. Blanchett, who also served as an executive producer of the film, drew rave reviews for her performance as the titular character, which was widely cited as one of the best of her career, alongside Elizabeth and Blue Jasmine. Justin Chang of Variety proclaimed, "As a study in the way beautiful surfaces can simultaneously conceal and expose deeper meanings, [Blanchett's] performance represents an all-too-fitting centerpiece for this magnificently realized movie." For Carol, Blanchett received again Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award nominations.
Blanchett portrayed Mary Mapes opposite Robert Redford's Dan Rather in Truth (2015), a film about the Killian documents controversy. Blanchett's production company was a producing partner for the film. She then starred in Manifesto, Julian Rosefeldt's multi-screen video installation, in which 12 artist manifestos are depicted by 13 different characters all played by Blanchett. The project, and Blanchett, received critical acclaim, with Roberta Smith of The New York Times stating: "If the art world gave out Oscars, Cate Blanchett should win for her tour de force of starring roles in 'Manifesto'". In 2016, Blanchett narrated one of two versions of Terence Malick's documentary on Earth and the universe, Voyage of Time, which had its world premiere at the 73rd Venice Film Festival.
2017–2020: Broadway debut and television success
Blanchett starred in the Sydney Theatre Company play The Present, Andrew Upton's adaption of Anton Chekhov's play Platonov, directed by John Crowley. The production debuted in Sydney in 2015, to critical acclaim, and transferred to Broadway in 2017, marking Blanchett's Broadway debut. Blanchett's performance during the play's Broadway run received acclaim. Ben Brantley of The New York Times remarked that "Blanchett knows how to hold a stage and, if necessary, hijack it ... Such commanding, try-anything charisma is useful if you're attempting to hold together a badly assembled party or, for that matter, play." For her work, Blanchett received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play, a Drama Desk Award nomination, and a Drama League Award nomination for the Distinguished Performance Award. In 2017, Blanchett also appeared in Terrence Malick's Song to Song, shot back-to-back with Knight of Cups in 2012, and portrayed the goddess of death Hela in the Marvel Studios film Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi. Thor: Ragnarok was both a critical and financial success, earning $854 million at the worldwide box office.
In 2018, Blanchett starred in Ocean's 8, the all-female spin-off of the Ocean's Eleven franchise, directed by Gary Ross, opposite Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and Awkwafina. The film garnered mainly mixed reviews but was a box office success, earning over $297 million worldwide. She also portrayed Florence Zimmerman in the film adaptation of The House with a Clock in Its Walls directed by Eli Roth and narrated Shannon Ashlyn's award-winning Australian historical fantasy film Sweet Tooth. Blanchett was appointed the president of the jury of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, which took place in May 2018. That year, Forbes listed her as one of world's highest-paid actresses with annual earnings of $12.5 million.
Blanchett portrayed a female version of the python Kaa in Andy Serkis' adaptation of The Jungle Book titled Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018). Serkis utilised a mixture of motion capture, CG animation and live-action in the film, and the role of Kaa was written to be much closer to the original character in the short stories by the author Rudyard Kipling, which is as a mentor-like figure for Mowgli. The film was released on Netflix in 2019. In the same year, Blanchett starred in Where'd You Go, Bernadette, an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name, which was directed by Richard Linklater. The film received mostly mixed reviews and made $10.4 million at the box office against a budget of $18 million, but Blanchett's performance as the titular character received praise, with Pete Hammond writing in his review for Deadline, "[The film] doesn't quite measure up to expectations, despite a game performance from the incandescent Cate Blanchett, who clearly is the best reason to see this movie." She received her tenth Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the film. Also that year, she reprised her role as Valka in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.
In 2020, Blanchett's Dirty Films production company was signed with New Republic Pictures for feature films and FX Networks for television. Blanchett returned to television by starring in two miniseries. She played a supporting role in the Australian drama series Stateless, inspired by the controversial mandatory detention case of Cornelia Rau. Stateless was funded by Screen Australia and Blanchett also served as co-creator and executive producer for the series. It aired on the Australian public broadcaster ABC, and premiered internationally on Netflix. Blanchett won two awards at the 10th AACTA Awards for Stateless: Best Guest or Supporting Actress for her performance, and Best Mini-Series for her role as executive producer.
Blanchett also headlined and produced the FX/Hulu historical drama miniseries Mrs. America (2020), starring as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. The nine-part series aired to widespread critical acclaim, with James Poniewozik writing in his review for The New York Times, "Her final scene, wordless and devastating, might as well end with Blanchett being handed an Emmy onscreen"; and Michael Idato for The Sydney Morning Herald proclaiming, "Blanchett's track record speaks for itself, but here something else is happening. Every time Blanchett's Schlafly glides perfectly into the frame, there is simply nowhere else to look." At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, she received nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Limited Series, as well as nominations for the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award (both for her performance), and the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Blanchett also served as an executive producer on the Greek film Apples (2020), directed by Christos Nikou. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to critical praise, and was selected to be the country's submission to the Academy Awards as their Best Foreign Language Film.
2021–present: Tár and further acclaim
In 2021, Blanchett starred alongside Bradley Cooper in Guillermo del Toro's film adaptation of the novel Nightmare Alley, which was released to positive reviews and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. She also appeared alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio in Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, an apocalyptic political satire black comedy film for Netflix, which also received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. With Nightmare Alley and Don't Look Up's Best Picture Oscar nominations, Blanchett broke the record held by actress Olivia de Havilland of being the female actor with the most credited roles in Best Picture nominees.
Blanchett then starred in the 2022 film Tár, directed by Todd Field. Her performance as Lydia Tár, a fictional renowned conductor, received widespread critical acclaim. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney wrote that Blanchett gives an "astonishing performance — flinty, commandingly self-possessed and ever so slowly splintering under pressure", adding that it "marks yet another career peak for Blanchett – many are likely to argue her greatest". For her performance, she won her second Volpi Cup for Best Actress, fourth Golden Globe Award, and fourth BAFTA Award. She also swept the major critics awards trifecta (NYFCC, LAFCA, NSFC) for the second time and went on to receive her eighth Oscar nomination, tying for the fourth most Oscar-nominated actress. That year, Blanchett also voiced Spazzatura in the Netflix film adaptation Pinocchio, reuniting her with del Toro.
In 2023, Blanchett co-starred in the Australian drama film The New Boy, and reprised the role of Hela in the season two episode "What If... Hela Found the Ten Rings?" of the Marvel series What If...?. She also co-produced the Apple TV+ science fiction romantic drama film Fingernails.
Blanchett will next star alongside Kevin Kline in the Apple TV+ thriller series Disclaimer, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. She will also portray Lilith in Borderlands, a live action adaptation of the video game of the same name, reuniting her with Eli Roth. Blanchett will also produce and star in A Manual for Cleaning Women, based on Lucia Berlin's 43-part collection of short stories.
Reception
Blanchett is regarded as one of the finest and most versatile actors of her generation. She is noted for her ability to play characters from many different walks of life, and for headlining and being an ensemble player in a wide range of film genres and production scales, from low-budget independent films to high-profile blockbusters. She has also been praised for her mastery over a wide array of diverse accents, including English, Irish, French, and various regional American accents. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, Blanchett was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.
Commenting on her appeal as a screen actor in Vulture, Will Leitch and Tim Grierson stated that her greatest skill was "her ability to combine relatability and elusiveness: She is always completely present and yet just out of grasp. She has been forever daring, uncompromising and perpetually, resolutely, herself." Blanchett's performance in the film Carol was ranked as the 2nd best movie performance of the decade by IndieWire in 2019. Writing of her performance in the film, Christian Zilko states, "The greatest performance in a career where almost every role feels like a legitimate contender, Cate Blanchett's take on Carol Aird is a veritable symphony of repressive silence."
Blanchett has been cited in the press as being a style icon and has frequently topped lists of the best dressed women in the world. In 2004, Blanchett was named the third most naturally beautiful woman of all time by a panel of beauty and fashion editors, make-up artists, model agencies and photographers, behind Audrey Hepburn and Liv Tyler. She was in Empire's list of the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars of All-Time" in 2007 and 2013. In 2022, she was named in The Hollywood Reporter's listing of "Women in Entertainment Power 100".
In 2006, a portrait of Blanchett and her family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archibald Prize. Another portrait of Blanchett was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2014. Blanchett appeared in a series of commemorative postage stamps called Australian Legends in 2009, in recognition of the outstanding contribution made to Australian entertainment and culture. In 2015, Madame Tussauds Hollywood unveiled a wax statue of Blanchett draped in a recreation of the yellow Valentino dress she wore to the 77th Academy Awards in 2005. In 2019, Blanchett was among the "10 inspirational women honored with a larger-than-life bronze sculpture" as part of the Statues for Equality project, which "aims to balance gender representation in public art and honor women's contributions to society". The bronze statues were unveiled on Women's Equality Day: 26 August 2019 on Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Blanchett's statue is "a creation based on a single image from the 2003 photoshoot by Matt Jones for Movieline's Hollywood Life magazine."
Activism
Environmental
Blanchett has been a long term proponent of individual and collective action on climate change and other environmental issues. In 2006, she joined former US Vice-president Al Gore's Climate Project. In 2007, Blanchett became the ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation. She was made an honorary life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2012, in recognition of her support for environmental issues. At the beginning of 2011, Blanchett lent her support for a carbon tax. She received some criticism for this, particularly from conservatives. Blanchett is a patron of the international development charity SolarAid, which works to create a sustainable market for solar lights in Africa.
From 2008 to 2011, the Sydney Theatre Company under the leadership of Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton, initiated a comprehensive large scale environmental program called Greening the Wharf, which invested in solar energy, rainwater harvesting, energy efficiency measures and best practice waste management. The program won a Green Globe Award which was accepted by Blanchett and Upton.
In January 2014, Blanchett took part in the Green Carpet Challenge, an initiative to raise the public profile of sustainable fashion, founded by Livia Firth of Eco-Age. In September 2020, as part of her role as Jury President of the 77th Venice International Film Festival, Blanchett vowed that during the festival she would only wear outfits that she had previously worn at public events in an effort to highlight the issue of sustainability in the fashion industry. In October of the same year, Blanchett was appointed by Prince William as a council member for the Earthshot Prize, which provides 50 environmental pioneers with the funds needed to further their work in tackling major problems impacting the environment. In 2022, Blanchett launched the Climate of Change podcast on Audible together with Danny Kennedy to discuss climate change and the importance of preserving the environment.
The ecohouse that Blanchett and Upton are having built in Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, on the site of a stone cottage they bought for £1.6 million and then demolished, has been the subject of controversy, as the noise from its construction is alleged to have "destroyed the family holidays" of a number of people in 2023. The couple's application to build an extension and space for parking had been described by a local resident as a "blatant attempt to erode an environmentally important piece of land by stealth and incorporate it". The architects developing the site denied that anyone has been inconvenienced by the noise.
Humanitarian
Blanchett has been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2015. In May 2016, the UNHCR announced her appointment as a global Goodwill Ambassador. Blanchett, along with other celebrities, featured in a video from the UNHCR to help raise awareness to the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's "WithRefugees" campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.
Blanchett has undertaken missions with the UNHCR to Jordan in 2015, Lebanon in 2016 and Bangladesh in 2018 to meet with and highlight the issues faced by both Syrian and Rohingya refugees in those areas. In January 2018, she was awarded the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum to honour her advocacy for refugees and displaced people around the world, and in August 2018, she addressed the United Nations Security Council about the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
In July 2020, the Australian miniseries Stateless, which was co-created and produced by Blanchett (and originally aired on the ABC network in Australia), premiered on Netflix. The series was inspired by Blanchett's work with the UNHCR and focuses on four strangers whose lives collide at an immigration detention centre in Australia. In Blanchett's words, the show's aim is to "build empathy and understanding for refugees, particularly those who have been and still are in detention."
As an esteemed member of the performing arts community that was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a person concerned about environmental and humanitarian issues, Blanchett contributed an essay to Upturn: A Better Normal After COVID-19, a book published in 2020 about what could be done to improve society after the pandemic in her native Australia. Blanchett said:We engage with the performance of the gesture and the whole of it is greater than the sum of its parts. I think this need to gather is fundamental to who we are, and it has been stymied by Covid-19 but also underlined by it, and that need in us for community addresses the difficult lesson we have to learn: business is not government and government is not a business.
In May 2020, Blanchett was among the celebrities who read an installment of Roald Dahl's children's fantasy novel James and the Giant Peach in aid of the global-non profit charity Partners In Health, co-founded by Dahl's daughter Ophelia, which had been fighting COVID-19 in vulnerable areas.
In September 2020, Blanchett, Helen Mirren, Eddie Redmayne, Salman Rushdie and other figures of British cultural life support the protests of University for Theater and Film Arts (SZFE) students in Budapest against changes ushered Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government that forced a transfer of control of the public institution to a private foundation and a new structure to guide key decisions at the storied SZFE.
In October 2023, Blanchett signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter calling for a ceasefire during the Israel-Hamas war.
Personal life
Blanchett is married to playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton. They met in Australia in the mid-1990s and married on 29 December 1997. They have three sons, and a daughter, who was adopted in 2015. Blanchett said that she and her husband had wanted to adopt since the birth of their first son.
After making Brighton, England, their main family home for nearly 10 years, she and her husband returned to their native Australia in 2006. In November 2006, Blanchett attributed the move to their desire to select a permanent home for her children, to be closer to her family, and to have a sense of belonging to the Australian theatrical community. She and her family lived in the Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill, extensively renovating their home in 2007 to be more eco-friendly. Following its sale in 2015, she and Upton purchased a house in Crowborough, East Sussex, in early 2016.
Blanchett has spoken about feminism and politics, telling Sky News in 2013 that she was concerned that "a wave of conservatism sweeping the globe" was threatening women's role in society. She has also commented on the pressures women in Hollywood face now: "Honestly, I think about my appearance less than I did ten years ago. People talk about the golden age of Hollywood because of how women were lit then. You could be Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and work well into your 50s, because you were lit and made into a goddess. Now, with everything being sort of gritty, women have this sense of their use-by date."
Blanchett was the first ambassador and has been a patron of the Australian Film Institute and its academy, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, since 2001. She is also a patron of the Sydney Film Festival. Blanchett is a patron of the new Australian Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, and spoke at its opening at the Venice Giardini in May 2015. Blanchett spoke at former Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam's state funeral in 2014, and at the Margaret Whitlam dinner and fundraiser event hosted by politician Tanya Plibersek in June 2015.
Blanchett became a spokeswoman for and the face of SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble, in 2005, and brand ambassador for Giorgio Armani fragrances for women in 2013, being paid $10 million for the latter. In 2018 Armani announced Blanchett would become the first beauty ambassador for the company, representing the company globally by absorbing responsibilities for skincare and make-up, in addition to her previous 2013 commitments to fragrances. In 2022, Louis Vuitton announced Blanchett as its new house ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
Blanchett has appeared in over 70 films and over 20 theatre productions. As of 2019, Blanchett's films have grossed over $9.8 billion at the worldwide box office. Her highest-grossing films include The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Cinderella (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Ocean's 8 (2018).
Among her numerous accolades for her acting work, Blanchett has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her performance as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator made her the only actor to win an Academy Award for portraying an Academy Award-winning actor. Blanchett is one of only four actresses to win the Academy Award for Best Actress after winning Best Supporting Actress. She is the only actress (and one of only six actors) in Oscar history to be nominated twice for playing the same role in two films (Elizabeth I for Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age), and the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year. She is also the only Australian to win two acting Oscars. Blanchett was also the first, and remains the only, woman born in Australia to win an acting Oscar.
Blanchett has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:
71st Academy Awards (1998): Best Actress, nomination, Elizabeth
77th Academy Awards (2004): Best Supporting Actress, win, The Aviator
79th Academy Awards (2006): Best Supporting Actress, nomination, Notes on a Scandal
80th Academy Awards (2007): Best Actress, nomination, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
80th Academy Awards (2007): Best Supporting Actress, nomination, I'm Not There
86th Academy Awards (2013): Best Actress, win, Blue Jasmine
88th Academy Awards (2015): Best Actress, nomination, Carol
95th Academy Awards (2022): Best Actress, nomination, Tár
Blanchett received Premiere magazine's Icon Award in 2006. In 2008, she received the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Modern Master Award in recognition of her accomplishments in the film industry. That year, she received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard outside Grauman's Egyptian Theater. She received Women in Film and Television International's Crystal Award for excellence in the entertainment industry in 2014. In 2015, Blanchett was honoured at the Museum of Modern Art's Film Benefit for her outstanding contributions to the industry. She received the British Film Institute Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film, presented to her by fellow actor Ian McKellen. Blanchett was also the recipient of the AACTA Longford Lyell Award in 2015, for her "outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Australia's screen environment and culture." In 2016, she received the Costume Designers Guild Lacoste Spotlight Award, in honour of an "enduring commitment to excellence" and her "appreciation for the artistry of costume design and collaboration with the Costume Designers."
Blanchett was awarded the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society by the Australian government. In 2012, she was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture, in recognition of her significant contributions to the arts. In 2017, Blanchett was made a Companion of the Order of Australia by the Queen for "eminent service to the performing arts as an international stage and screen actor, through seminal contributions as director of artistic organisations, as a role model for women and young performers, and as a supporter of humanitarian and environmental causes." She has been presented with honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University in recognition of her contribution to the arts, philanthropy and the community. In 2022, she received the Honorary César award from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma for her "absolutely remarkable career and personality".
At the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, she was named the recipient of the Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award, which is presented to women who have made a positive difference in improving conditions for women in the film industry.
See also
List of Academy Award records
List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories
List of actors with three or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
List of Australian Academy Award winners and nominees
Notes
References
Further reading
Blass, Sandra; Weber, Reinhard (2006). Cate Blanchett (in German). Weber, Fachverlag für Filmliteratur. ISBN 3-9809390-1-4.
Eidson, Thomas (2003). The Missing: A Novel (Reprint ed.). Random House Trade Paperbacks. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 0812972384.
Elliott, Peter; Manning, Ned; Saltau, Margaret; Surbey, Elizabeth (2011). "The Dramatic Life: Cate Blanchett". Drama Reloaded. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173, 185–186. ISBN 978-0521183123.
Ford, Elizabeth; Mitchell, Deborah (2009). Royal Portraits in Hollywood: Filming the Lives of Queens. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813125435.
Moran, Albert; Vieth, Errol (2005). Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 53, 71–72, 414. ISBN 0-8108-5459-7.
Pendergast, Tom; Pendergast, Sara, eds. (2000). International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Actors and Actresses. St. James Press. pp. xvi, 1613. ISBN 9781558624528.
Pomerance, Murray, ed. (2011). "Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett – The Performance Is the Star". Shining in Shadows: Movie Stars of the 2000s. Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema. Rutgers University Press. pp. 10, 182–199. ISBN 978-0813551487.
Riggs, Thomas (2007). Contemporary Theatre, Film and television. Vol. 77. Cengage Gale. ISBN 9780787690502.
Schafer, Elizabeth; Smith, Susan Bradley (2003). Playing Australia: Australian Theatre and the International Stage. Rodopi. pp. 212–218. ISBN 9789042008175. ISSN 0921-2531.
Tulloch, John (2009). Shakespeare and Chekhov in Production and Reception: Theatrical Events and Their Audiences. University of Iowa Press. pp. 160, 171, 175–179, 183. ISBN 978-0877459262.
Weniger, Kay (2001). Das grosse Personenlexikon des Films. Erster Band, A-C (in German). Vol. 1. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. ISBN 3896023403.
External links
Cate Blanchett at IMDb
Cate Blanchett at the Internet Broadway Database
Cate Blanchett at Playbill Vault
Cate Blanchett at AllMovie
Cate Blanchett at the TCM Movie Database
Cate Blanchett at TV Guide
Cate Blanchett at UK Theatre Web
Cate Blanchett: A Life in Pictures, BAFTA webcast
Blanchett, Catherine (Cate) Elise at The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia |
Ana_de_Armas | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_de_Armas | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_de_Armas"
] | Ana Celia de Armas Caso (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈana ˈselja ðe ˈaɾmas ˈkaso]; born 30 April 1988) is a Cuban and Spanish actress. She began her career in Cuba with a leading role in the romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006). At the age of 18, she moved to Madrid, Spain, and starred in the popular drama El Internado for six seasons from 2007 to 2010.
After moving to Los Angeles, de Armas had English-speaking roles in the psychological thriller Knock Knock (2015) and the comedy-crime film War Dogs (2016). She rose to prominence with her role as the holographic AI projection Joi in the science fiction film Blade Runner 2049 (2017). For her performance as nurse Marta Cabrera in the mystery film Knives Out (2019), she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She subsequently portrayed the Bond girl Paloma in the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021) and Norma Jeane in the biographical drama Blonde (2022). For the latter, de Armas became the first Cuban to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Early life
De Armas was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in the small city of Santa Cruz del Norte. Her maternal grandparents were Spanish migrants to Cuba from the regions of Leon and Palencia, both in the north of Spain. Her father Ramón worked in various jobs, including a bank manager, teacher, school principal and deputy mayor of a town. He previously studied philosophy at a Soviet university. Her mother Ana worked in the human resources section of the Ministry of Education. De Armas has one older brother, Javier, a New York City–based photographer who, in 2020, was questioned by Cuban police due to his critical stance on Decree 349 and his links to artists under government surveillance. While de Armas grew up with food rationing, fuel shortages and electricity blackouts during Cuba's Special Period, she has described her early life as happy.
During her childhood and adolescence, de Armas had no Internet access and had limited knowledge of popular culture beyond Cuba. She was allowed to watch "20 minutes of cartoons on Saturday and the Sunday movie matinee." Her family did not own a video or DVD player, and she watched Hollywood movies in her neighbor's apartment. She memorized and practiced monologues in front of a mirror, and decided to become an actress when she was 12. In 2002, aged 14, she successfully auditioned to join Havana's National Theatre of Cuba. She sometimes hitchhiked to attend the "rigorous" course. While a student, she filmed three movies. She left the four-year drama course shortly before presenting her final thesis because Cuban graduates are forbidden from leaving the country without first completing three years of mandatory service to the community. At age 18, with Spanish citizenship through her maternal grandparents, she moved to Madrid to pursue an acting career.
Career
Career beginnings in Spanish cinema (2006–2013)
In her native Cuba, de Armas had a starring role opposite Álex González in Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006). Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría suggested that the director consider de Armas for the role, after meeting her while attending a birthday party with his daughters. The director visited de Armas's drama school and interrupted the sixteen-year-old during her audition to inform her that the role was hers. She travelled to Spain as part of a promotional tour for the film and was introduced to Juan Lanja, who would later become her Spanish agent. She then starred in the movie El edén perdido (2007) and had a supporting role in Fernando Pérez's Madrigal (2007), filmed at night without the permission of her drama school tutors.
At age 18, de Armas moved to Madrid. Within two weeks of arriving, she met with casting director Luis San Narciso, who had seen her in Una rosa de Francia. Two months later, he cast her as Carolina in the drama El Internado, in which she starred for six seasons from 2007 to 2010. The television show, set in a boarding school, became popular with viewers and made de Armas a celebrity figure in Spain. In a break from filming, she starred in the successful coming-of-age comedy Mentiras y Gordas (2009). Despite the popularity of El Internado, de Armas felt typecast and was mainly offered roles as youngsters. She asked to be written out of the show in its second to last season.
After spending a few months living in New York City to learn English, de Armas was persuaded to return to Spain to star in seventeen episodes of the historical drama Hispania (2010–2011). She then starred in Antonio Trashorras's horror films El callejón (2011) and Anabel (2015), and in the drama Por un puñado de besos (2014). During a long period without acting work, de Armas participated in workshops at Tomaz Pandur's Madrid theatre company and felt "very anxious" about the lack of momentum in her career.
Transition to Hollywood and breakthrough (2014–2020)
With encouragement from her newly hired Hollywood agent, she decided to move to Los Angeles. When de Armas first arrived in Los Angeles in 2014, she had to start her career again "from scratch." She spoke very little English and, during early auditions, she often "didn't even know what [she] was saying." She spent four months in full-time education to learn English, not wanting to be confined to playing characters written specifically for Latina actresses. She starred opposite Keanu Reeves in her first Hollywood release—Eli Roth's erotic thriller Knock Knock (2015)—and learned her lines phonetically. Despite giving a positive review of the film, Randy Cordova of the Arizona Republic found de Armas to be "unconvincing" in her role. Reeves then telephoned de Armas to invite her to star in a Spanish-language role in the thriller Daughter of God which he acted in and produced. Producer Mark Downie hoped the film would be a star vehicle for de Armas, but due to executive meddling Daughter of God was severely edited with de Armas' former starring role reduced. The film was ultimately released as Exposed in 2016. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter noted that while she was "appealing" in her part, de Armas was unable to demonstrate her "character's intense emotional demands."
De Armas had a supporting role in Todd Phillips's War Dogs (2016), acting opposite Miles Teller as the wife of an arms dealer, and again learned her lines phonetically. David Ehrlich of IndieWire found her to be "memorable in a thankless role". She starred opposite Édgar Ramírez in the biopic Hands of Stone (2016) as the wife of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán. Despite its delayed release, Hands of Stone was the first Hollywood film de Armas had filmed. She was contacted by director Jonathan Jakubowicz while still living in Madrid after watching her in El Internado and asked her to travel to Los Angeles to audition for the Spanish-language part. In reviewing the film, Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com described de Armas as "a hugely charismatic presence. But except for a couple of showy moments, she gets little to do besides function as the dutiful wife."
In Denis Villeneuve's futuristic thriller Blade Runner 2049 (2017), de Armas had a supporting role as Joi, the holographic AI girlfriend of Ryan Gosling's character, a blade runner. Mark Kermode of The Guardian said she "brings three-dimensional warmth to a character who is essentially a digital projection." Anthony Lane of The New Yorker found her to be "wondrous": "Whenever Joi appears, the movie's imaginative heart begins to race." While the performance was initially discussed as a breakthrough role, the film underperformed commercially, and de Armas spent much of the following year in her native Cuba, where she purchased a house. For her performance, she earned a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also in 2017, she had a supporting role in the action thriller Overdrive as the love interest to Scott Eastwood's character. Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that she "radiates more kick-ass charisma than her thankless sidekick role might suggest."
In 2018, de Armas starred opposite Demián Bichir in John Hillcoat's medical drama Corazón. She played a Dominican woman with congestive heart failure in the short film, funded by Montefiore Medical Center to raise awareness of organ donation. While de Armas's scenes opposite Himesh Patel in the 2019 romantic comedy Yesterday were included in the film's trailer, they were cut from the final product. The director Danny Boyle said that, while de Armas was "really radiant" in her scenes, the introduction of a love triangle subplot did not test well with audiences.
De Armas's role as an immigrant nurse in the ensemble murder mystery film Knives Out (2019), written and directed by Rian Johnson, was widely praised and marked a breakthrough for the actress. When first approached about the project, she was unenthusiastic about the idea of playing a stereotypical "Latina caretaker" but soon realized that her character was "so much more than that." Tom Shone of The Times remarked, "The film's standout performance comes from its least well-known member, the Cuban de Armas, who manages the difficult task of making goodness interesting." Benjamin Lee of The Guardian said her "striking" performance left a "lasting impression." The film was a major box office success. De Armas was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical with her also winning the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast with the cast.
De Armas starred in four films released in the United States in 2020. She had a supporting role in the crime thriller The Informer as the wife of Joel Kinnaman's character. Guy Lodge of Variety found "her thin role all the more glaring in the wake of her Knives Out stardom." She appeared as a femme fatale in the noir crime drama The Night Clerk. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said the film had "no idea" what to do with her "blinding charisma" while Katie Rife of The AV Club remarked that it would be remembered, "if at all, as a movie de Armas was way too good for." She starred opposite Wagner Moura in the Netflix biopic Sergio (2020) as Carolina Larriera, a U.N. official and the partner of diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter found her "magnetic" while Jessica Kiang of Variety said she imbued the part "with an intelligence and will that makes her more than just de Mello's romantic foil." De Armas reunited with Moura to play the wife of one of the Cuban Five in Olivier Assayas's Netflix spy thriller Wasp Network. The film was shot on location in Cuba; it was de Armas's first work in her home country since leaving as a teenager. Glenn Kenny of The New York Times found her "superb" while Jay Weissberg of Variety described her as "a joyous, bewitching presence whose career seems destined for the big time."
Leading roles and further recognition (2021–present)
In 2021, de Armas reunited with Daniel Craig to play a Bond girl in Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die. Fukunaga wrote the character of a Cuban CIA agent with de Armas in mind. She described the character as bubbly and "very irresponsible". In her short appearance in No Time to Die, her character, Paloma, claims to have little training, but proves to be highly skilled while fighting. No Time to Die was a commercial success, grossing $774.2 million worldwide, and earned positive reviews. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised de Armas' "witty and unworldly turn". De Armas starred in Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller Deep Water, based upon the novel by Patricia Highsmith. She and Ben Affleck play a couple in an open marriage. In 2022, De Armas starred in the Russo brothers' Netflix action thriller The Gray Man. Neither Deep Water nor The Gray Man were particularly successful with critics and audiences.
De Armas portrayed Marilyn Monroe (as Norma Jean) in the Netflix biopic Blonde (2022), based on the biographical fiction novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. Director Andrew Dominik noticed de Armas's performance in Knock Knock and, while she went through a long casting process, Dominik secured the role for her after the first audition. In preparation, de Armas worked with a dialect coach for a year, read Oates' novel and also said she studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, and films to prepare for the role. Despite criticism towards her casting, due to her having a notable Spanish accent, de Armas' performance was praised; Catherine Bray of Empire labeled de Armas' performance as "powerful", while Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair remarked that "De Armas is fiercely, almost scarily committed to the role, maintaining high and focused energy through every torrent of tears and screams and traumas." She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award in the same category. She became the first Cuban to be nominated for the first of these.
De Armas next starred in the Apple TV+ action comedy film Ghosted (2023). Benjamin Lee of The Guardian panned the film and the lack of chemistry between de Armas and Evans. She will next play the title role of an assassin in the action thriller From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, a spin-off of the John Wick franchise.
Personal life
De Armas began a relationship with Spanish actor Marc Clotet in mid-2010 and they married on the Costa Brava in July 2011. They divorced in early 2013. After meeting on the set of Deep Water in late 2019, de Armas dated American actor Ben Affleck from March 2020 to January 2021. She then began a relationship with Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis.
De Armas holds dual Cuban and Spanish citizenship. She moved to Los Angeles at 26, and resides in Vermont as of 2023. While hosting Saturday Night Live on 15 April 2023, she stated that she would be receiving US citizenship in three weeks.
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Ana de Armas at IMDb
Ana de Armas at AllMovie
Ana de Armas at Rotten Tomatoes
Ana de Armas on Instagram |
Andrea_Riseborough | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Riseborough | [
483
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Riseborough"
] | Andrea Louise Riseborough (born 20 November 1981) is an English actress. She made her film debut with a small part in Venus (2006), and has since appeared in more prominent roles in Brighton Rock (2010), W.E. (2011), Shadow Dancer (2012), Oblivion (2013), Birdman (2014), Nocturnal Animals (2016), Battle of the Sexes, The Death of Stalin (both 2017), Mandy, Nancy (both 2018), The Grudge, Possessor (both 2020), and To Leslie (2022). For the latter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Riseborough was nominated for a BAFTA her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the television film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008), and won critical acclaim for her performances in the Channel 4 miniseries The Devil's Whore (2008) and National Treasure (2016), as well as the BBC One miniseries The Witness for the Prosecution (2016). Her stage credits include Miss Julie, Measure for Measure (both 2006), and Anton Chekhov's Ivanov (2008).
Early life
Riseborough was born on 20 November 1981 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Isabel, a secretary and beautician, and George, a car dealer. She grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk to Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites."
She appeared at the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the play Riding England Sidesaddle by Christopher Goulding, as Celia Fiennes, and was a member of the Young People's Theatre for five years. Riseborough spent her schooldays at the independent school, Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School. She was a student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2005 with a BA in Acting Degree (H Level).
Career
Riseborough portrayed Margaret Thatcher in the BBC Four film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She appeared in the 2010 films Made in Dagenham and Mark Romanek's adaptation of Never Let Me Go. She starred in the American premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in January 2010. The production was directed by Joe Mantello. She appears in Rowan Joffé's film adaptation of Brighton Rock. She worked with The Devil's Mistress author Peter Flannery on his screenplay based on the life of Angelica Fanshawe. She played the role of Wallis Simpson in W.E., a film directed by Madonna. She stars in Resistance, an adaptation of an Owen Sheers novel. The film was released on 25 November 2011.
She writes with her creative partner, actor Tom Burke, and with Mike Leigh. Riseborough starred in the thriller Hidden, a low-budget film directed by the Duffer Brothers. Hidden was released for streaming September 2015. She appeared in Oblivion (2013), in a supporting role. She co-starred in the acting ensemble of the Alejandro González Iñárritu's showbusiness drama film Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards. Riseborough shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film.
In 2016 she co-starred in apartheid drama Shepherds and Butchers and the Tom Ford directed psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals. She joined the cast of Netflix's Bloodline for season 2, as a series regular character, Evangeline. She acted as Emma Stone's love interest in the biographical sports film Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. She portrayed Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Stalina in the 2017 comedy-drama film The Death of Stalin and was praised by Variety for the "shrewd, multi-layered complexity" of her performance.
She was cast in Waco, a six-part television series about the Waco siege. The first episode was released on 24 January 2018. That same year she acted in three films, the horror film Mandy, the mystery drama Nancy (which she also produced), and the historical drama Burden. Riseborough has been cast in Lone Scherfig's The Kindness of Strangers as an ER nurse who runs an eclectic therapy group. The film started shooting at the Russian Tea Room in the spring of 2018. She starred in a Sony remake of The Grudge. The film was released on 3 January 2020. Riseborough starred in the international cocaine trade drama ZeroZeroZero, an eight-part series adapted from the book by Roberto Saviano, which had its debut on Sky in the UK and Amazon Prime in the US in 2020. She starred in Possessor—written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg—as Tasya Vos, an agent for a secretive organization who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of high-paying clients. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020.
In 2022, Riseborough appeared in the film To Leslie, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Numerous celebrities praised her performance publicly and on social media, and hosted screenings during the voting period for the Academy Award nominations in January 2023. Her unexpected To Leslie nomination has generated some questions, and without referring to her, the Board of Governors has pledged to "review of the campaign procedures around this year's nominees, to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication." Also that year she had supporting roles as Mrs. Wormwood in the musical Matilda the Musical and Beatrice Vandenheuvel in David O. Russell's Amsterdam. In 2023, she acted opposite Kate Winslet portraying Vogue editor Audrey Withers in the biographical war drama Lee which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2024, Riseborough acted opposite Winslet again, portraying the latter's character's right-hand woman, in the HBO political satire miniseries The Regime, for which she earned a nomination at the inaugural Gotham TV Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Limited Series.
Personal life
Riseborough in 2020 revealed that she met the 'love of her life', Karim Saleh, while working on the set of Luxor. Previous to that she was reportedly in a long term relationship with Joe Appel from 2009 to 2016.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Theatre
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Andrea Riseborough at IMDb
Andrea Riseborough at AllMovie
Andrea Riseborough at Rotten Tomatoes
Andrea Riseborough at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
Menemen_(food) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menemen_(food) | [
484
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menemen_(food)"
] | Menemen is a popular traditional Turkish dish that includes eggs, tomato, green peppers, and spices such as ground black and red pepper cooked in olive oil.
Menemen may be made with onions, but the addition of onions is often debated and is more common when menemen is eaten as a main dish, rather than at breakfast. The dish is similar to Egyptian dish shakshouka also found in other Arab countries.
Menemen is commonly eaten for breakfast and served with bread. Its name originates from a small town in Izmir Province.
This dish is also similar to Hungarian Lecsó and Serbo-Croat Sataraš which might have descended from Menemen during the Ottoman imperial period.
Preparation
The tomatoes are typically finely diced or may be grated. Grated and diced tomatoes can also be mixed together, depending on the cook's preferred texture. If onions are being used, they may be added to the pan with the green chili peppers and sautéed with heated butter or oil. Aleppo pepper may be added. The addition of onions is often debated and is more common when menemen is not eaten at breakfast but as a main dish. Some Turkish cooks like Saniye Anne insist that a proper menemen cannot be made without onions. In 2018, Turkish food critic Vedat Milor launched a Twitter poll to resolve the discussion about onion within menemen. The poll became widely popular, with 437,657 people voting. The vote proved inconclusive, as the onion faction only had a narrow victory, with 51% of the vote.
Sucuk, a dried salami-like sausage, can be added to the pan after the peppers have softened. This adds some flavor to the oil; the sucuk can be removed from the pan before the tomatoes are added to avoid overcooking, but this is not necessary. The tomatoes become very soft and the mix not be too watery when the eggs are added. The eggs may be beaten together with salt, pepper and any desired fresh herbs or added directly to the pan. If pastırma is being used, it is added to the pan with the eggs. Kaşar cheese or white cheese may optionally be added on top of the eggs just before they finish cooking, along with a garnish of fresh herbs or scallions. It is usually served in the pan in which it is cooked, a double-handled cooking pan known as sahan, together with fresh bread.
Some variations may include mushrooms or minced lamb. Different spices may be added according to taste including cumin, paprika, mint, and thyme.
See also
Huevos rancheros
Mish-mash
Piperade
Scrambled eggs
Shakshouka
Strapatsada
List of egg dishes
References
External links
Menemen (food) at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject
Media related to Menemen (Turkish dish) at Wikimedia Commons |
Shakshouka | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouka | [
484
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouka"
] | Shakshouka (Arabic: شكشوكة : šakšūkah, also spelled shakshuka or chakchouka) is a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, commonly spiced with cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Shakshouka is a popular dish throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
Etymology
Shakshuka is a word for "mixture" in Algerian Arabic and "mixed" in Tunisian Arabic. The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as being of multiple origins, an onomatopoeic Maghribi Arabic word, related to the verb shakshaka meaning "to bubble, to sizzle, to be mixed up, to be beaten together," and the French word Chakchouka, which was borrowed into English in the nineteenth century. Chakchouka was borrowed into French from Algerian Arabic.
History
Gil Marks, while noting some similarities with the Ottoman dish menemen, suggests that shakshouka evolved from şakşuka which spread to the Maghreb through the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Anthony Buccini noted similarities between a wider range of vegetable stews. He and Noam Sienna conclude that both shakshouka and menemen, among other dishes like piperade and ratatouille, are members of a wider family of vegetable stews of common ancestry appearing throughout the western Mediterranean.
The migration of Maghrebi Jews in the 1950s brought the dish to Israel, where it was subsequently widely adopted despite not being previously present in Palestinian or Levantine cuisine. Shakshouka began appearing in Israeli restaurants in the 1990s.
Variations
Many variations of the basic sauce are possible, varying in spice and sweetness. Some cooks add preserved lemon, salty sheep milk cheeses, olives, harissa or a spicy sausage such as chorizo or merguez. Shakshouka is made with eggs, which are commonly poached but can also be scrambled, like in the Turkish menemen.
In Algeria, shakshouka is commonly eaten as a side dish, and there are countless variations of it, each with their own unique blend of ingredients. One such variation is hmiss, which is often served alongside traditional kesra bread. Hmiss typically includes grilled peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. In Tunisia, a similar dish called slata meshouia is enjoyed, but it differs from hmiss with the addition of onions, cumin and tuna.
Some variations of shakshouka can be made with lamb mince, toasted whole spices, yogurt and fresh herbs. Spices can include ground coriander, caraway, paprika, cumin and cayenne pepper. Tunisian cooks may add potatoes, broad beans, artichoke hearts or courgettes to the dish. The North African dish matbukha can be used as a base for shakshouka.
Because eggs are the main ingredient, it often appears on breakfast menus in English-speaking countries, but in the Arab world as well as Israel, it is also a popular evening meal, and like hummus and falafel, is a Levantine regional favorite. On the side, pickled vegetables and North African sausage called merguez might be served, or simply bread, with mint tea.
In Jewish culture, a large batch of tomato stew is made for the Sabbath dinner and the leftovers used the following morning to make a breakfast shakshouka with eggs. In Andalusian cuisine, the dish is known as huevos a la flamenca; this version includes chorizo and serrano ham. In Italian cuisine, there is a version of this dish called uova in purgatorio (eggs in purgatory) that adds garlic, basil or parsley.
Vegan variants replace the eggs with tofu.
See also
List of Middle Eastern dishes
Qalayet bandora
Huevos rancheros
Lecsó
Taktouka
References
External links
Quotations related to Shakshouka at Wikiquote |
List_of_mayors_of_Utica,_New_York | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Utica,_New_York | [
485
] | [
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Utica,_New_York"
] | This article contains a list of mayors of the city of Utica in the U.S. State of New York, in the United States.
List
== References == |
1928_in_music | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_in_music | [
485
] | [
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_in_music"
] | This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1928.
Specific locations
1928 in British music
1928 in Norwegian music
Specific genres
1928 in country music
1928 in jazz
Events
April 27 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet Apollon musagète receives its première in Washington.
May 5 – Composers Alban Berg and George Gershwin meet for the first time, in Vienna.
June – 1928 International Columbia Graphophone Competition, sponsored by the Columbia Graphophone Company to mark Schubert's death centenary, is judged in Vienna. Kurt Atterberg's Sixth Symphony is the winner and becomes probably the first major piece to be premiered on disc.
August 31 – The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper), adapted by Bertolt Brecht, Elisabeth Hauptmann and composer Kurt Weill (with set designer Caspar Neher) from The Beggar's Opera, receives its première in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm with Harald Paulsen and Lotte Lenya (Weill's wife) in the principal rôles.
September 11 – Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters, receives its première in Brno.
September 12 – Anton Webern's String Trio receives its première in Siena.
September 14 – Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is given its first performance.
September 21 – Al Jolson marries Ruby Keeler.
November 22 – Maurice Ravel's Bolero receives its première in Paris at the Palais Garnier.
November 27 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet Le Baiser de la fée receives its première in Paris.
December 2 – Arnold Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra receives its première in Berlin
December 29 – Pinetop Smith records "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" in Chicago; released in 1929 (the year of Smith's death) it becomes the first hit boogie-woogie recording.
Edward German is knighted for services to music.
Eric Fenby begins work as amanuensis for Frederick Delius.
Maurice Ravel embarks on a concert tour of the United States, where he meets George Gershwin.
Tampa Red's recording career begins.
Scrapper Blackwell makes his first recordings for Vocalion Records.
Leroy Carr's recording career begins with the release of "How Long, How Long Blues".
The first commercial recordings of Cajun music are released.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall début.
Published popular music
"After My Laughter Came Tears" w.m. Charles Tobias & Roy Turk
"Alabama Song" w. Bertolt Brecht m. Kurt Weill
"All By Yourself In The Moonlight" w.m. Jay Wallis
"Anything You Say" w.m. Walter Donaldson
"Baby" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Recorded and sung by Adelaide Hall
"Back in Your Own Backyard" w.m. Dave Dreyer, Al Jolson & Billy Rose
"Basin Street Blues" w.m. Spencer Williams
"Because My Baby Don't Mean Maybe Now" w.m. Walter Donaldson
"The Big Rock Candy Mountains" Harry McClintock
"Bill" w. P.G. Wodehouse & Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern. Introduced by Helen Morgan in the musical Showboat and performed by Miss Morgan in the 1929 and 1936 film versions.
"Blue Yodel" w. Jimmie Rodgers
"Bolero" m. Maurice Ravel
"Button Up Your Overcoat" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson. Introduced by Ruth Etting.
"Calling To You" by Jack Lumsdaine
"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern
"Carolina Moon" w. Benny Davis m. Joe Burke
"Cherry" w.m. Don Redman
"Chiquita" w. L. Wolfe Gilbert m. Mabel Wayne
"C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-P-L-E" w.m. Harry Carlton
"Coquette" w. Gus Kahn m. Carmen Lombardo & John Green
"Cow Cow Blues" m. Cow Cow Davenport
"Crazy Rhythm" w. Irving Caesar m. Joseph Meyer & Roger Wolfe Kahn. Introduced by Ben Bernie, Peggy Chamberlain and June O'Dea in the musical Here's Howe.
"Dance, Little Lady" w.m Noël Coward. Introduced by Sonnie Hale in the revue This Year of Grace
"Diga Diga Doo" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Adelaide Hall in the revue Blackbirds of 1928
"Do I Hear You Saying?" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Charles King and Flora Le Breton in the musical Present Arms.
"Doin' The New Low-Down" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Bill Robinson in the revue Blackbirds of 1928.
"Doin' The Raccoon" w. Raymond Klages m. J. Fred Coots
"Don't Look At Me That Way" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by Irène Bordoni in the musical Paris.
"Dusky Stevedore" w. Andy Razaf m. J. C. Johnson
"Empty Bed Blues" w.m. J. C. Johnson
"Fancy Our Meeting" w. Douglas Furber m. Joseph Meyer & Philip Charig. Introduced by Jack Buchanan and Elsie Randolph in the musical That's a Good Girl.
"Forgetting You" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson
"From Monday On" w. Bing Crosby m. Harry Barris
"A Garden In The Rain" w. James Dyrenforth m. Carroll Gibbons
"A Gay Caballero" w.m. Frank Crumit & Lou Klein
"Get Out And Get Under The Moon" w. Charles Tobias & William Jerome m. Larry Shay
"Glad Rag Doll" w.m. Dan Dougherty and Milton Ager
"De Glory Road" w. Clement Wood m. Jacques Wolfe
"Golden Gate" by Billy Rose & Dave Dreyer
"Henry's Made A Lady Out Of Lizzie" w.m. Walter O'Keefe
"Honey" w. Seymour Simons & Haven Gillespie m. Richard A. Whiting
"Hooray for Captain Spaulding" w. Bert Kalmar m. Harry Ruby. Introduced by Zeppo Marx, Robert Greig, Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx in the musical Animal Crackers and also performed by them in the 1930 film version.
"How About Me?" w.m. Irving Berlin
"How Long Has This Been Going On?" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin. Introduced by Bobbe Arnst in the musical Rosalie. Performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 film Funny Face
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Adelaide Hall at Les Ambassedeurs Club, Broadway, January 1928 in the revue Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue and in May at the Liberty Theatre, Broadway in Blackbirds of 1928.
"I Kiss Your Hand, Madame" w. (Eng) Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young (Ger) Fritz Rotter m. Ralph Erwin
"I Must Have That Man" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Adelaide Hall in the revue Blackbirds of 1928
"I Wanna Be Loved by You" w. Bert Kalmar m. Harry Ruby & Herbert Stothart. Introduced by Helen Kane and Dan Healy in the musical Good Boy. Performed by Miss Kane dubbing for Debbie Reynolds in the 1950 film Three Little Words.
"I'd Rather Be Blue Over You" w. Billy Rose m. Fred Fisher. Introduced by Fanny Brice in the film My Man.
"If I Had You" w.m. Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell & Reg Connelly
"I'll Get By" w. Roy Turk m. Fred E. Ahlert
"I'm a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas" w.m. Phil Baxter
"I'm Bringing A Red, Red Rose" w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson. Introduced by Paul Gregory and Frances Upton in the musical Whoopee!
"I'm On The Crest Of A Wave" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson. Introduced by Harry Richman in the revue George White's Scandals of 1928
"I've Got a Crush on You" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin. Introduced by Clifton Webb and Mary Hay in the musical Treasure Girl.
"Is There Anything Wrong In That?" w.m. Michael H. Cleary & Herb Magidson
"It Goes Like This (That Funny Melody)" w. Irving Caesar m. Cliff Friend
"It's Tight Like That" Georgia Tom, Hudson "Tampa Red" Whittaker
"Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time" w. L. Wolfe Gilbert m. Nathaniel Shilkret
"Jimmy, the Well-Dressed Man" w.m. Jimmy Durante
"Let's Do It" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by Irene Bordoni and Arthur Margetson in the musical Paris.
"Let's Misbehave" w.m. Cole Porter
"Life Upon The Wicked Stage" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern
"Louisiana" w. Andy Razaf & Bob Schafer m. J. C. Johnson
"Lovable" Holmes, Simons, Whiting
"Love Me or Leave Me" w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson
"Lover, Come Back to Me" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg
"Ma Belle" w. Clifford Grey m. Rudolf Friml
"Mack The Knife" w. (Eng) Marc Blitzstein (Ger) Bertolt Brecht m. Kurt Weill
"Make Believe" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern
"Makin' Whoopee" w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson
"Malagueña" m. Ernesto Lecuona
"March Of The Musketeers" w. P. G. Wodehouse & Clifford Grey m. Rudolf Friml. Introduced by Dennis King, Douglass Dumbrille, Detmar Poppen, Joseph Macauley and chorus in the theatre musical The Three Musketeers
"Marie" w.m. Irving Berlin
"Memories of France" by Al Dubin
"My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now" w. Irving Caesar m. Cliff Friend
"My Baby Just Cares for Me" w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson
"My Lucky Star" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson
"My Mammy" w. Walter Donaldson, Joe Young & Sam M. Lewis. Sung by Al Jolson.
"Nagasaki" w. Mort Dixon m. Harry Warren
"Oh, So Nice!" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin from Treasure Girl
"One Kiss" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg
"Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" m. Clarence "Pine Top" Smith
"Pirate Jenny" w. Bertolt Brecht m. Kurt Weill
"A Precious Little Thing Called Love" w.m. Lou Davis & J. Fred Coots
"Room 1411" m. Glenn Miller & Benny Goodman
"'Round Evening" w. Herb Steiner & J. Fred Coots m. George Whiting
"She's Funny That Way" w. Richard A. Whiting m. Neil Moret
"Short'nin' Bread" adapt. w.m. Jacques Wolfe
"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by William O'Neal in the operetta The New Moon. Performed in the 1940 film New Moon by Nelson Eddy.
"The Song Of The Prune" Frank Crumit, De Costa
"Sonny Boy" w.m. Al Jolson, B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown & Ray Henderson
"St James Infirmary" w.m. Joe Primrose
"Stack O'Lee" trad arr. Cliff Edwards
"Stouthearted Men" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg
"Sugar (That Sugar Baby of Mine)" w.m. Maceo Pinkard & Sidney D. Mitchell
"Sweet Lorraine" w. Mitchell Parish m. Cliff Burwell
"Sweet Sue" w. Will J. Harris m. Victor Young
"Sweetheart Of All My Dreams" w.m. Art Fitch, Kay Fitch & Bert Lowe
"Sweethearts On Parade" w. Charles Newman m. Carmen Lombardo
"'Tain't So, Honey, 'Tain't So" w.m. Willard Robison
"That's My Weakness Now" w.m. Bud Green & Sam H. Stept
"There Ain't No Sweet Man (That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears)" w.m. Fred Fisher
"There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" w.m. Dave Dreyer, Billy Rose & Al Jolson
"Together" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson
"Wanting You" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by Evelyn Herbert and Robert Halliday in the operetta The New Moon. Performed in the 1930 film version by Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett.
"West End Blues" w.m. Joseph Oliver & Clarence Williams
"When You're Smiling" w.m. Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin & Larry Shay
"Willow Tree" w. Andy Razaf m. Thomas Waller from the musical Keep Shufflin'
"World Weary" w.m. Noël Coward. Introduced by Beatrice Lillie in the revue This Year of Grace
"You Are Love" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern
"You Took Advantage of Me" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
"You Wouldn't Fool Me" w. B. G. De Sylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson
"You're The Cream In My Coffee" w. B.G. DeSylva & Lew Brown m. Ray Henderson
Top popular recordings
The following songs achieved the highest positions in Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954 and record sales reported on the "Discography of American Historical Recordings" website during 1928: Numerical rankings are approximate, they are only used as a frame of reference.
1928 Harlem Hit Parade (non-official)
(created with Popular Music Chart Entries)
Other important recordings
"The Mooche" by Duke Ellington
"Muggles" by Louis Armstrong
"Big Bill Blues" by Big Bill Broonzy
"Prison Cell Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Statesboro Blues" by Blind Willie McTell (released 1929)
"Playing With the Strings" by Lonnie Johnson
"How Long, How Long Blues" by Leroy Carr
"It's Tight Like That" by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom
"I Used To Be Your Sweet Mama" by Bessie Smith
"Son de la Loma" by Trio Matamoros
Classical music
Aaron Avshalomov – Four Biblical Tableaux
Granville Bantock – Pagan Symphony
Samuel Barber – Serenade, Op. 1, for string quartet (or string orchestra)
Béla Bartók – String Quartet No. 4
Werner Egk – Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
John Fernström – Symphony No. 2, Op. 15
Gerald Finzi – Grand Fantasia and Toccata
Roberto Gerhard – Wind Quintet
Karl Amadeus Hartmann – Jazz Toccata and Fugue
Gordon Jacob – String Quartet
Dmitri Kabalevsky
String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 8
Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 9
Wilhelm Kienzl – String Quartet No. 3 in E major
Uuno Klami – Karelian Rhapsody
George Gershwin – An American in Paris (jazz-influenced symphonic poem)
Ernst Krenek
Little Symphony
Piano Sonata No. 2
Maurice Ravel – Bolero
Sergei Prokofiev
Symphony No. 3
The Prodigal Son (ballet)
Albert Roussel – Psalm 80
Dmitri Shostakovich – Tahiti Trot, Op. 16
Roger Sessions – The Black Maskers Suite for Orchestra
Leo Sowerby – Symphony No. 2
Richard Strauss
Die Tageszeiten, Op.76
Gesänge des Orients, Op.77
Ernst Toch – Piano Sonata, Op. 47
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Chôros No. 11
Chôros No. 14
Quinteto (em forma de chôros)
Pancho Vladigerov – Bulgarische Rhapsodie "Vardar"
Felix Weingartner – Symphony No. 6, Op. 74
Opera
Cyril Scott – The Alchemist
Dmitri Shostakovich – The Nose (1927–28)
Richard Strauss – Die ägyptische Helena premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on 6 June 1928.
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht – Die Dreigroschenoper premiered on 31 August 1928, at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
Stefan Wolpe – Zeus und Elida, premiered in Berlin
Film
Irving Berlin – The Awakening (1928 film)
Willy Schmidt-Gentner – Heimkehr
Louis Silvers, Alois Reiser – Noah's Ark (1928 film)
Werner Richard Heymann – Alraune (1928 film)
Jazz
Musical theater
Angela Broadway production
Blackbirds of 1928 Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on May 9 and ran for 518 performances
Blue Eyes London production opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on April 27 and ran for 278 performances
Casanova Berlin production
Hello, Daddy (Music: Jimmy McHugh, Lyrics: Dorothy Fields, Book: Herbert Fields) Broadway production opened at Lew Fields' Mansfield Theatre on December 26, transferred to George M. Cohan's Theatre on January 21, 1929, and transferred to Erlanger's Theatre on May 6, 1929, for a total run of 198 performances
Here's Howe Broadway production opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on May 1 and ran for 71 performances.
Hold Everything! Broadway production opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 10 and ran for 409 performances.
Keep Shufflin' Broadway production opened at Daly's Theatre on February 27 and ran for 104 performances
The New Moon (Sigmund Romberg) – Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre on September 19, transferred to the Casino Theatre on November 18 and ran for a total of 509 performances.
Paris (Cole Porter) Broadway production opened at the Music Box Theatre on October 8 and ran for 195 performances.
Present Arms (Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers) Broadway production opened at Lew Fields' Mansfield Theatre on April 26 and ran for 155 performances.
Rain or Shine Broadway production opened at George M. Cohan's Theatre on February 9 and ran for 356 performances
Rainbow Broadway production opened at the Gallo Opera House on November 21 and ran for 29 performances
Show Boat (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II) – London production
So This Is Love London production opened on April 25 at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 321 performances
Sunny Days Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre on February 8 and ran for 101 performances. It re-opened at the Century Theatre on October 1 for a further run of 32 performances.
This Year of Grace by Noël Coward opens on 22 March 1928 at the London Pavilion and ran for nearly 10 months
The Three Musketeers Broadway production opened at the Lyric Theatre on March 13 and ran for 319 performances.
Treasure Girl Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 8 and ran for 68 performances
Ups-a-Daisy Broadway production opened at the Shubert Theatre on October 8 and ran for 64 performances. Starring Marie Saxon, Luella Gear, William Kent, Bob Hope and Roy Royston.
Virginia London production opened at the Palace Theatre on October 24.
London revue opened at the Pavilion on March 22 and ran for 316 performances.
Broadway production opened at the Selwyn Theatre on November 7 and ran for 158 performances.
White Lilacs opened at the Shubert Theatre on September 10 and transferred to Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on October 8 for a total run of 136 performances
Whoopee! Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on December 4 and ran for 407 performances
Births
January 2 – Alberto Zedda, Italian conductor and musicologist (died 2017)
January 7 – Emilio Pericoli, Italian singer (died 2013)
January 9 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer and songwriter (died 1994)
January 11 – Andréa Guiot, French operatic soprano (died 2021)
January 15 – François Pantillon, Swiss composer and conductor
January 16 – Pilar Lorengar, Spanish soprano (died 1996)
January 17 – Jean Barraqué, composer (died 1973)
January 29 – Bengt Hambraeus, composer (died 2000)
January 30 – Ruth Brown, R&B singer (died 2006)
January 31
Miltinho, Brazilian singer (died 2014)
Chuck Willis, singer and songwriter (died 1958)
February 3
Saulius Sondeckis, Lithuanian violinist and conductor (died 2016)
Frankie Vaughan, British singer (died 1999)
February 8 – Osian Ellis, Welsh harpist (died 2021)
February 10 – Anthony Prospect, conductor from Trinidad and Tobago (died 2000)
February 12 – Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra) (died 2013)
February 16 – Porfi Jiménez, Dominican-Venezuelan musician (died 2010)
February 17 – Tom Jones, American lyricist (died 2023)
February 23 – Isabel Bigley, singer and actress (died 2006)
February 26 – Fats Domino, pianist and singer-songwriter (died 2017)
February 27 – René Clemencic, Austrian composer, recorder player, harpsichordist, conductor and clavichord player (died 2022)
March 4 – Samuel Adler, American composer and conductor
March 6 – Ronald Stevenson, Scottish composer and pianist (died 2015)
March 9 – Keely Smith, American singer (died 2017)
March 10 – Sara Montiel, Spanish singer, actress (died 2013)
March 12 – Aldemaro Romero, Venezuelan composer and pianist (died 2007)
March 13 – Ronnie Hazlehurst, English conductor and composer (died 2007)
March 21 – Valentin Gheorghiu, Romanian pianist and composer (died 2023)
March 24 – Byron Janis, American pianist
March 31 – Lefty Frizzell, American country singer and songwriter (died 1975)
April 2 – Serge Gainsbourg, singer-songwriter (died 1991)
April 3 – Don Gibson, country singer and songwriter (died 2003)
April 4 – Monty Norman, singer and composer of the James Bond signature tune (died 2022)
April 5 – Tony Williams, vocalist (The Platters) (died 1992)
April 12 – Jean-François Paillard, French conductor (died 2013)
April 14 – Egil Monn-Iversen, Norwegian composer and pianist (died 2017)
April 19 – Alexis Korner, blues musician and historian (died 1984)
April 21 – Hillous Butrum, country musician (died 2002)
April 23
Sergio Tedesco, Italian actor, voice actor and tenor (died 2012)
Shirley Temple, actress, dancer and singer (died 2014)
April 29 – Carl Gardner, vocalist (The Coasters) (died 2011)
May 1 – Sonny James, American country singer (died 2016)
May 3 – Dave Dudley, country singer (died 2003)
May 4 – Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpeter (died 2006)
May 12 – Burt Bacharach, songwriter (died 2023)
May 19
Klara Berkovich, Soviet-American violinist
Bak Sheut-sin, Cantonese opera singer
May 23 – Rosemary Clooney, singer and actress (died 2002)
May 27 – Thea Musgrave, composer
June 7 – Charles Strouse, lyricist and composer
June 8 – Mimi Mariani, Indonesian actress, model, and singer (died 1971)
June 10 – Carl Dahlhaus, musicologist and editor (died 1989)
June 12
Vic Damone, singer (died 2018)
Richard M. Sherman, songwriter (died 2024)
June 19 – Tommy DeVito (The Four Seasons) (died 2020)
June 26 – Jacob Druckman, composer (died 1996)
July 1 – Bobby Day, singer, songwriter (died 1990)
July 3 – Edward Greenfield, critic (died 2015)
July 12 – S. R. Janakiraman, Indian Carnatic vocalist and musicologist
July 13 – Leroy Vinnegar, American bassist (died 1999)
July 16 – Concha Valdés Miranda, Cuban songwriter (died 2017)
July 22 – Keter Betts, American bassist (died 2005)
July 23 – Leon Fleisher, American classical pianist and teacher (died 2020)
July 26
Tadeusz Baird, Polish composer (died 1981)
Joe Jackson, African-American manager, father of Michael Jackson (died 2018)
August 9
Camilla Wicks, American violinist (died 2020)
Dolores Wilson, American coloratura soprano (died 2010)
August 10
Jimmy Dean, singer (died 2010)
Eddie Fisher, singer (died 2010)
August 16 – Ann Blyth, actress and singer
August 18 – Sonny Til, doo-wop singer (died 1981)
August 21 – Art Farmer, American jazz trumpeter, flugelhorn player (died 1999)
August 22 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (died 2007)
August 25 – Karl Korte, American composer (died 2022)
August 28 – Vilayat Khan, sitar player (died 2004)
September 1 – Ed Summerlin, composer, arranger, jazz saxophonist and music educator (died 2006)
September 2 – Horace Silver, hard bop jazz pianist (died 2014)
September 5
Damayanti Joshi, Indian classical dancer of Kathak (died 2004)
Albert Mangelsdorff, German jazz musician (died 2005)
September 6 – Yevgeny Svetlanov, conductor, pianist and composer (died 2002)
September 15 – Cannonball Adderley, jazz musician (died 1975)
September 24 – John Carter, jazz musician (died 1991)
October 3 – Erik Bruhn, dancer and choreographer (died 1986)
October 7 – José Messias, Brazilian musician, composer, and writer (died 2015)
October 9 – Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer (died 2016)
October 22 – Clare Fischer, keyboardist, composer, arranger and bandleader (died 2012)
October 27
Waldo Holmes, American musician and songwriter
Gilles Vigneault, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet
November 10
Marilyn Keith Bergman, composer (died 2022)
Ennio Morricone, film composer (died 2020)
November 13 – Hampton Hawes, jazz pianist (died 1977)
November 14 – Bernabé Martí, Spanish operatic tenor
November 18
Otar Gordeli, Georgian composer (died 1994)
Sheila Jordan, American singer and pianist
November 23 – Jerry Bock, composer of Fiddler on the Roof (died 2010)
November 27 – Walter Klien, pianist (died 1991)
December 7
Zdeněk Mahler, Czech writer, musicologist, pedagogue and screenwriter (died 2018)
Orlando Peña, Cuban bassist and songwriter (died 1994)
December 15 – Ida Haendel, violinist (died 2020)
December 18 – Galt MacDermot, Canadian-American composer and pianist (died 2018)
December 28 – Moe Koffman, jazz musician (died 2001)
December 29
Bernard Cribbins, English actor, comedian and singer (died 2022)
December 30 – Bo Diddley, singer, songwriter and guitarist (died 2008)
December 31 – Tatyana Shmyga, Soviet-Russian operetta/musical theatre performer (died 2011)
Deaths
January 1 – Loie Fuller, dancer (born 1862)
January 11 – Valborg Aulin, pianist and composer (born 1860)
February 16 – Eddie Foy, vaudeville star (born 1856)
March 1 – Sir Herbert Brewer, organist and composer (born 1865)
March 19 – Nora Bayes, singer, comedian and actress (born 1880)
March 27 – Leslie Stuart, musical theatre composer (born 1863)
April 24 – Ferdinand Hummel, harpist, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1855)
April 27 – Ernst Seifert, organ builder (born 1855)
May 6 – Juliusz Wertheim, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1880) (heart attack)
May 13 – David Thomas, composer (born 1881)
May 19 – Henry F. Gilbert, American composer and collector of folk music (born 1868)
May 28 – Emma Howson, operatic soprano (born 1844)
June 21 – Marie Novello, pianist (born 1898)
July 7 – Jón Laxdal, composer (born 1865)
August 12 – Leoš Janáček, composer (born 1854)
September 12 – Howard Talbot, conductor and composer (born 1865)
September 13 – Olena Falkman, concert vocalist (born 1849)
October 9 – Frank Ellsworth Olds, brass instrument manufacturer (born 1861)
October 30
Percy Anderson, D'Oyly Carte stage designer (born 1851)
Oscar Sonneck, musicologist (born 1873)
November 7 – Mattia Battistini, operatic baritone (born 1856)
November 10 – Anita Berber, dancer (born 1899)
November 13 – Enrico Cecchetti, dancer (born 1850)
November 26 – Herbert Sullivan, nephew and biographer of Sir Arthur Sullivan (born 1868)
December 3 – Theodor von Frimmel, musicologist (born 1853)
December 24 – Nicolae Leonard, operatic tenor (born 1886)
date unknown
Celeste Farotti, violin-maker (born 1864)
Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone, singer (born 1844)
== References == |
Appalachian_Trail | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail | [
486
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail"
] | The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km) between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy claims the Appalachian Trail to be the world's longest hiking-only trail. More than three million people hike segments of it each year.
The trail was first proposed in 1921 and completed in 1937. Improvements and changes have continued since then. It became the Appalachian National Scenic Trail under the National Trails System Act of 1968.
The trail is maintained by 31 trail clubs and multiple partnerships and managed by the National Park Service, United States Forest Service, and the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Most of the trail is in forest or wild lands, but some parts traverse towns, roads, and farms. From south to north it passes through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Thru-hikers walk the entire trail in a single season. The number of thru-hikes per year has increased steadily since 2010, with 715 northbound and 133 southbound thru-hikes reported in 2017. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimates there are over 3,000 attempts to traverse the entire trail each year, about 25% of which succeed. Many books, documentaries, and websites are dedicated to the pursuit. Some hike from one end to the other, then turn around and thru-hike the other way, a "yo-yo".
Affiliated trail sections extend from either end from the north as the International Appalachian Trail into Canada and beyond, and from the south as the Eastern Continental Trail into the Southeastern states of Alabama and Florida.
The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail informally constitute the Triple Crown of Hiking in the United States.
History
The trail was conceived by Benton MacKaye, a forester who wrote his original plan—called "An Appalachian Trail, A Project in Regional Planning"—shortly after his wife's death in 1921. MacKaye's idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers along the Appalachian Mountains from the highest point in the North (Mount Washington in New Hampshire) to the highest in the South (Mount Mitchell in North Carolina). Hiking was an incidental focus of his plan. In 1922, at the suggestion of Major William A. Welch, director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, his idea was publicized by Raymond H. Torrey with a story in the New York Evening Post under a full-page banner headline reading "A Great Trail from Maine to Georgia!"
On October 7, 1923, the first section of the trail, from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, New York, was opened. MacKaye then called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March 1925 in Washington, D.C. This meeting inspired the formation of the Appalachian Trail Conference (now called the Appalachian Trail Conservancy) (ATC). Arthur Perkins, a retired judge, and his younger associate Myron Avery took up the cause. In 1929, Perkins, who was also a member of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association and its Blue Blazed Trails committee, found Ned Anderson, a farmer in Sherman, Connecticut, who took on the task of mapping and blazing the Connecticut leg of the trail (1929–1933). It ran from Dog Tail Corners in Webatuck, New York, which borders Kent, Connecticut, at Ashley Falls, 50 miles (80 km) through the northwest corner of the state, up to Bear Mountain at the Massachusetts state line. A portion of the Connecticut trail has since been rerouted (1979–1983) to be more scenic, adhering less to highways and more to wilderness, and includes the Ned K. Anderson Memorial Bridge.
Anderson's efforts helped spark renewed interest in the trail, and Avery, who led the project after Perkins's death in 1932, was able to bring other states on board. Upon taking over the ATC, Avery adopted the goal to build a simple hiking trail. He and MacKaye clashed over the ATC's response to the construction of a road that overlapped part within Shenandoah National Park; MacKaye left the organization, while Avery was willing to reroute the trail. Avery served as Chair of the ATC from 1932 to 1952, the year he died. He was the first to walk the trail end-to-end, though not as a thru-hike, in 1936. In August 1937, the trail was completed to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, and the ATC shifted its focus toward protecting the trail lands and mapping the trail for hikers.
In 1977, the Appalachian Trail Conference honored Paul M. Fink as "the guiding influence" in establishing the Trail in Tennessee and North Carolina in the 1920s. Fink was inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame in 2019. In 1922, only a year after MacKaye's article proposing an Appalachian Trail was written, Fink began corresponding with hiking leaders in New England about building the Trail. When Avery began planning the Trail's route in the south, Fink was the first person he contacted.
Many of the trail's present highlights were not part of the trail in 1937: Roan Mountain, North Carolina and Tennessee; the Mount Rogers high country, including Grayson Highlands, Virginia; the Pochuck Creek swamp, New Jersey; Nuclear Lake, New York; Thundering Falls, Vermont; and Saddleback Mountain, Maine. Except for places where the Civilian Conservation Corps was brought in (mostly in Shenandoah National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Maine), the original trail often climbed straight up and down mountains, creating rough hiking conditions and a treadway prone to severe erosion. The ATC's trail crews and volunteer trail-maintaining clubs have relocated or rehabilitated miles of trail since then.
In 1936, a 121-day Maine to Georgia veteran's group funded and supported thru-hike was reported to have been completed, with all but three miles of the new trail cleared and blazed, by six Boy Scouts from New York City and their guides. The thru-hike was much later recorded and accepted by the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association. In 1938, the trail sustained major damage from a hurricane that went through the New England area. This was soon before the start of World War II, and many of the people working on the trail were called to active duty.
In 1948, Earl Shaffer of York, Pennsylvania, brought a great deal of attention to the project by publicizing the first claimed thru-hike. The claim was later criticized for the hike's omission of significant portions due to shortcuts and car rides. Shaffer later claimed the first north-to-south thru-hike, the first to claim to do so in each direction. Chester Dziengielewski was later named the first southbound thru-hiker. In 1998, Shaffer, nearly 80 years old, hiked the trail, making him the oldest person to claim a completed thru-hike. The first woman to walk the trail in a single season was Peace Pilgrim in 1952, while the first solo woman to complete the hike was 67-year-old Emma Gatewood, who did it northbound in 1955, taking 146 days. She repeated the achievement two years later, and again in 1963, at age 75.
In the 1960s, the ATC made progress toward protecting the trail from development, thanks to efforts of politicians and officials. Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson offered legislation to protect the route. The National Trails System Act of 1968 designated the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail as the first national scenic trails and paved the way for a series of such trails within the national park and national forest systems. Trail volunteers worked with the National Park Service to map a permanent route for the trail, and by 1971 a permanent route had been marked (though minor changes continue to this day). By the close of the 20th century, the Park Service had completed the purchase of all but a few miles of the trail's span.
Extensions
The International Appalachian Trail is a 1,900-mile (3,100 km) extension running northeast from Maine into New Brunswick and Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, where it ends at Forillon National Park. It is a separate trail and not an official extension of the Appalachian Trail. Other branches are designated in parts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and along the western shore of Newfoundland, to the northern end of the Appalachian Mountain range, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean, near L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. The route has since been extended to Greenland, Europe, and Morocco.
Although the Appalachian Trail ends in Georgia, the Appalachian Mountains continue south to Flagg Mountain in Alabama. In 2008, the Pinhoti National Recreation Trail in Alabama and Georgia, which terminates at Flagg Mountain, was connected to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail via the Benton MacKaye Trail. Promoters of the Southern extension refer to MacKaye's statement at the 1925 conference that the Georgia to New Hampshire trail should, in the future, extend to Katahdin, and "then to Birmingham, Alabama". As of March 2015, The Pinhoti Trail terminates at the base of Flagg Mountain, near Weogufka in Coosa County, 50 miles (80 km) east of Birmingham. In 2010, the Alabama state legislature formed the Alabama Appalachian Mountain Trail Commission to provide state resources for trail improvements, although officially designating Pinhoti as part of the Appalachian Trail would require an act of the United States Congress.
The 8.8-mile (14.2 km) Appalachian Approach Trail in Georgia begins at Amicalola Falls State Park's visitor center and ends at Springer Mountain. Because Springer Mountain is in a remote area, the Approach Trail is often the beginning of North bound thru-hike attempts. Much of the Approach Trail was originally built as part of the Appalachian Trail, before the southern terminus was relocated from Mount Oglethorpe to Springer Mountain.
Flora and fauna
The Appalachian Trail is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, including 2,000 rare, threatened, endangered, and sensitive plant and animal species.
Animals
The American black bear (Ursus americanus), among the largest animals along the Appalachian Trail, rarely confronts people. The black bear is the largest omnivore that may be encountered on the trail, and it inhabits all regions of the Appalachians. Bear sightings on the trail are uncommon, except in certain sections, especially Shenandoah National Park and portions of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts sections, where bear populations have increased steadily since 1980; confrontations are rarer still.
Other hazards include venomous snakes, including the Eastern timber rattlesnake and copperhead, which are common along the trail. Both snakes are generally found in drier, rockier sections of the trail; the copperhead's range extends north to around the New Jersey–New York state line, while rattlesnakes are commonly found along the trail in Connecticut and have been reported, although rarely, as far north as New Hampshire. Other large mammals commonly sighted include deer; elk, reintroduced in the Smoky Mountains; and moose, which may be found in the vicinity of Massachusetts and northward.
Small mammal species that inhabit along the trails are beaver, squirrel, river otter, chipmunk, porcupine, bobcat, two species of fox, boar, woodchuck, raccoon, and coyote. Bird species that reside in the trails are wild turkey, ruffed grouse, mourning dove, raven, two species of eagle, wood duck, three species of owl, and three species of hawk as well as warblers. There are different kinds of squirrels along the Appalachian Trail as well, especially in Maine. They are generally smaller and very territorial, and produce a loud call if approached.
For most hikers, the most persistent pests along the trail are ticks, mosquitos, and black flies along with the mice that inhabit shelters.
Plants
Plant life along the trail is varied. The trail passes through several different biomes from south to north, and the climate changes significantly, particularly dependent upon elevation. In the south, lowland forests consist mainly of second-growth; nearly the entire trail has been logged at one time or another. There are, however, a few old growth locations along the trail, such as Sages Ravine straddling the Massachusetts-Connecticut border and atop higher peaks along the trail on either side of the same border, the Hopper (a glacial cirque westward of the trail as it traverses Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts), and "The Hermitage", near Gulf Hagas in Maine. In the south, the forest is dominated by hardwoods, including oak and tulip trees, also known as yellow poplar. Farther north, tulip trees are gradually replaced by maples and birches. Oaks begin to disappear in Massachusetts. By Vermont, the lowland forest is made up of maples, birch and beech, with colorful foliage displays in September and October. While the vast majority of lowland forest south of the White Mountains is hardwood, many areas have some coniferous trees as well, and in Maine, these often grow at low elevations.
There is a drastic change between the lowland and subalpine, evergreen forest, as well as another, higher break, at tree line, above which only hardy alpine plants grow. The sub-alpine region is far more prevalent along the trail than true alpine conditions. While it mainly exists in the north, a few mountains in the south have subalpine environments, which are typically coated in an ecosystem known as the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest. Southern ranges and mountains where sub-alpine environments occur include the Great Smoky Mountains, where sub-alpine environments only begin around 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in elevation, Roan Highlands on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, where sub-alpine growth descends below 6,000 feet (1,800 m), and Mount Rogers and the Grayson Highlands in Virginia, where there is some alpine growth above 5,000 feet (1,500 m). Appalachian balds are also found in the Southern highlands, and are believed to occur due to fires or grazing in recent centuries, or in some cases due to thin, sandy soils. Several balds are sprouting trees, and on some, the National Forest service actually mows the grasses periodically in order to keep the balds free of trees.
Geography
There are no subalpine regions between Mount Rogers in Virginia and Mount Greylock in Massachusetts, mainly because the trail stays below 3,000 feet (910 m) from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Mount Greylock. But Mount Greylock has a large subalpine region, the only such forest in Massachusetts, extending down to 3,000 feet (910 m), which in the south would be far from the subalpine cutoff. This is especially low because Greylock is exposed to prevailing westerly winds, as the summits along its ridgeline rise about 200 to 650 feet (61 to 198 m) higher than any other peak in Massachusetts. Farther north, several peaks in Vermont reach into the subalpine zone, the bottom of which steadily descends as one proceeds northward, so that by the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it often occurs well below 3,000 feet (910 m). At Mount Moosilauke, which summits at 4,802 feet (1,464 m), the first alpine environment on the trail is reached, where only thin, sporadic flora are interspersed with bare rocks. Between the two regions is the krummholz region, where stunted trees grow with their branches oriented away from the winter's prevailing northwest wind, giving the appearance of flags; they are sometimes called "flag trees". This region resembles lowland terrain hundreds of miles north in Canada. It also contains many endangered and threatened species. The trail has been rerouted over New Hampshire's Presidential Range so the Appalachian Mountain Club can protect certain plant life. The alpine cutoff in the Whites is generally between 4,200 and 4,800 feet (1,300 and 1,500 m). Mountains traversed by the A.T. above treeline include Mount Moosilauke, several miles along the Franconia Range and along the Presidential Range. In the Presidentials, the trail climbs as high as 6,288 feet (1,917 m) on Mount Washington and spends about 13 miles (21 km) continuously above treeline, in the largest alpine environment in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
The segments of the trail through Pennsylvania are so rocky that hikers call the region "Rocksylvania". These small rocks, which are the result of erosion that has worn away the dirt along the trails, can be tough to walk on for extended periods of time without proper hard-soled shoes.
In Maine, the trail extends into even harsher environments, and subalpine and alpine growth descends to lower elevations. Alpine growth in the state ranges from around 2,500 feet (760 m) in the Mahoosuc Range to below 1,000 feet (300 m) in parts of the Hundred-Mile Wilderness, where nearly every area higher than 1,000 feet (300 m) is evergreen forest. These forests include more species of evergreen, as well. In addition to the white pine, spruce, and hemlock prevalent further south, Maine has many cedar trees along the trail. Near the northern terminus, there are even some tamarack (larch), a coniferous, pine-needled deciduous tree, which provides displays of yellow in the late fall after the birches and maples have gone bare. The hemlocks in Maine are also notable, as the woolly adelgid, which has ravaged populations further south, has not come into the state yet, and may be unable to make it so far north due to the cold climate.
Maine also has several alpine regions. In addition to several areas of the Mahoosuc Range, the Baldpates, and Old Blue in southern Maine have alpine characteristics despite elevations below 4,000 feet (1,200 m). Saddleback Mountain and Mount Bigelow, further north, extend only a bit above 4,000 feet (1,200 m), but each has long alpine areas, with no tree growth on the summit and unobstructed views on clear days. From Mount Bigelow, the trail extends for 150 miles (240 km) with only a small area of alpine growth around 3,500 feet (1,100 m) on the summit of White Cap Mountain. Mount Katahdin, the second-largest alpine environment in the eastern United States, has several square miles of alpine area on the flat "table land" summit as well as the cliffs and aretes leading up to it. Treeline on Mount Katahdin is only around 3,500 feet (1,100 m). This elevation in Massachusetts would barely be a subalpine region, and, south of Virginia, consists of lowland forest. This illustrates the drastic change in climate over 2,000 miles (3,200 km).
Hiking the trail
Bicycles are prohibited from most of the trail, except for the sections that follow the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal) in Maryland and the Virginia Creeper Trail in Virginia. Horses and pack animals are prohibited except horses on the C&O Canal and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Several short segments of the trail, in towns and scenic natural areas, were built to ADA accessibly standards for wheelchair use.
Navigation
Throughout its length, the AT is marked by white paint blazes that are 2 by 6 inches (5 by 15 cm). Side trails to shelters, viewpoints and parking areas use similarly shaped blue blazes. In past years, some sections of the trail also used metal diamond markers with the AT logo, few of which survive.
Lodging and camping
Most hikers carry a lightweight tent, tent hammock or tarp. The trail has more than 250 shelters and campsites available for hikers. The shelters, sometimes called lean-tos (in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut), huts (in Shenandoah National Park), or Adirondack shelters, are generally open, three-walled structures with a wooden floor, although some shelters are much more complex in structure. Shelters are usually spaced a day's hike or less apart, most often near a water source (which may be dry) and with a privy. They generally have spaces for tent sites in the vicinity as the shelters may be full. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) operates a system of eight huts along 56 miles (90 km) of New Hampshire's White Mountains. These huts are significantly larger than standard trail shelters and offer full-service lodging and meals during the summer months. The Fontana Dam Shelter in North Carolina is more commonly referred to as the Fontana Hilton because of amenities (e.g. flushable toilets) and its proximity to an all-you-can-eat buffet and post office. Several AMC huts have an extended self-service season during the fall, with two extending self-service seasons through the winter and spring. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains trail cabins, shelters, and huts throughout the Shenandoah region of Virginia.
Shelters are generally maintained by local volunteers. Almost all shelters have one or more pre-hung food hangers (generally consisting of a short nylon cord with an upside-down tuna can suspended halfway down its length) where hikers can hang their food bags to keep them out of the reach of rodents. In hiker lingo, these are sometimes called "mouse trapezes".
Most shelters also contain "unofficial registries", which are known as shelter logs. These logs usually come in the form spiral-bound notebooks that are kept in containers in shelters all along the trail, and signing in them is not required. These logs give hikers a way to leave day-to-day messages while they are on the trail to document where they have been, where they are going, and who/what they have seen. The logs provide a space for informal writing and can also be used to keep track of people on the trail. Most of all, they provide a system of communication for a network of hikers along the trail.
Shelter logs—entries written in log books at certain shelters—can provide proof of who summits certain mountains and can warn about dangerous animals or unfriendly people in the area. Hikers may cite when a certain water source is dried up, providing crucial information to other hikers.
In addition to official shelters, many people offer their homes, places of business, or inns to accommodate AT hikers. One example is the Little Lyford Pond camps maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Inns are more common in sections of the trail that coincide with national parks, most notably Virginia's Shenandoah National Park.
Trail communities
The trail crosses many roads, providing opportunity for hikers to hitchhike into town for food and other supplies. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy lists over 40 communities that have qualified as part of the organization's "A.T. Community" program, having become recognized for providing food, supplies and accommodations for passers-through. In the areas of the trail closer to trail towns, many hikers have experienced what is sometimes called "trail magic", or assistance from strangers through kind actions, gifts, and other forms of encouragement. Trail magic is sometimes done anonymously. In other instances, persons have provided food and cooked for hikers at a campsite.
Hikers also create their own community while on the trail. Many hikers create long lasting friendships while on the trail. Conversations are easily started because of the common interest of hiking.
Hazards
The Appalachian Trail is relatively safe. Most injuries or incidents are consistent with comparable outdoor activities. Most hazards are related to weather conditions, human error, plants, animals, diseases, and hostile humans encountered along the trail.
Many animals live around the trail, with bears, snakes, and wild boars posing the greatest threat to human safety. Several rodent- and bug-borne illnesses are also a potential hazard. In scattered instances, foxes, raccoons, and other small animals may bite hikers, posing risk of rabies and other diseases. There has been one reported case (in 1993) of hantavirus (HPS), a rare but dangerous rodent-borne disease affecting the lungs. The affected hiker recovered and hiked the trail the following year. The section of the trail that runs through the Mid-Atlantic and New England states has a very high population of deer ticks carrying Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and corresponds to the highest density of reported Lyme disease in the country.
The weather is a major consideration for hikers. Hiking season of the trail generally starts in mid-to-late spring, when conditions are much more favorable in the South. However, this time may also be characterized by extreme heat, sometimes in excess of 100 °F (38 °C). Farther north and at higher elevations, the weather can be characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, hail or snow storms and reduced visibility. Prolonged rain, though not typically life-threatening, can undermine stamina and ruin supplies. In March 2015, a hiker was killed on the trail in Maryland when a large tree blew over and fell onto him.
Violent crime is rare but has occurred in a few instances. The first reported homicide on the trail was in 1974 in Georgia. In 1981, the issue of violence on the Appalachian Trail received national attention when Robert Mountford, Jr. and Laura Susan Ramsay, both social workers in Ellsworth, Maine, were murdered by Randall Lee Smith. Another homicide occurred in May 1996, when two women were abducted, bound and murdered near the trail in Shenandoah National Park. The primary suspect was later discovered harassing a female cyclist in the vicinity, but charges against him were dropped and the case remained unsolved until 2024.
In May 2019, Oklahoman Ronald S. Sanchez Jr., 43 years old, was murdered at a campsite near Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in western Virginia Jefferson National Forest. A female hiker who has not been identified was also injured by an assailant there. James L. Jordan, 30, of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts was found not guilty of the crimes by reason of insanity.
Human error can lead to casualties as well. In July 2013, 66-year-old lone hiker Geraldine Largay disappeared on the trail in Maine. Largay became lost and survived 26 days before dying. Her remains were found two years later in October 2015. In October 2015, a hiker visiting from England was killed on the trail by falling while taking photos at the Annapolis Rocks overlook in Maryland.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic prompted the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to discourage use of the trail and the National Park Service to close all AT-managed hiking shelters from Virginia to Maine. The withdrawal of volunteers and trail-maintenance crews left the trail unprepared for the influx of users escaping home isolation. In 2021, the conservancy suspended issuing hang tags for through-hikers for a period during the continuing pandemic.
Trail completion
Trail hikers who attempt to complete the entire trail in a single season are called "thru-hikers"; those who traverse the trail during a series of separate trips are known as "section-hikers". Rugged terrain, weather extremes, illness, injury, and the time and effort required make thru-hiking difficult to accomplish. As of 2017, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimated that 3,839 hikers set out from Springer Mountain, northbound, 497 from Mount Katahdin, southbound, and reported 1,186 completions of hiking the entire trail, which includes those by both section and through hikers.
Most thru-hikers walk northward from Georgia to Maine, and generally start out in early spring and follow the warm weather as it moves north. These "north-bounders" are also called NOBO (NOrthBOund) or GAME (Georgia(GA)-to-Maine(ME)), while those heading in the opposite direction are termed "south-bounders" (also SOBO or MEGA).
A thru-hike generally requires five to seven months, although some have done it in three months, and several trail runners have completed the trail in less time. Trail runners typically tackle the AT with automobile support teams, without backpacks, and without camping in the woods.
Thru-hikers are classified into many informal groups. "Purists" are hikers who stick to the official AT trail, follow the white blazes, except for side trips to shelters and camp sites. "Blue Blazers" cut miles from the full route by taking side trails marked by blue blazes. The generally pejorative name "Yellow Blazers", a reference to yellow road stripes, is given to those who hitchhike to move either down or up the trail.
Part of hiker subculture includes making colorful entries in logbooks at trail shelters, signed using pseudonyms called "trail names".
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy gives the name "2000 Miler" to anyone who completes the entire trail. The ATC's recognition policy for "2000 Milers" gives equal recognition to thru-hikers and section-hikers, operates on the honor system, and recognizes blue-blazed trails or officially required roadwalks as substitutes for the official, white-blazed route during an emergency such as a flood, forest fire, or impending storm on an exposed, high-elevation stretch. As of 2018, more than 19,000 people had reported completing the entire trail. The northbound completion rate of hiking the trail in twelve months or fewer varied from 19% to 27% from 2011 to 2018. The southbound completion rate varied between 27% and 30% during the same period.
The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail form what is known as the Triple Crown of long-distance hiking in the United States. In 2001, Brian Robinson became the first one to complete all three trails in a year. In 2018, Heather Anderson (trail name "Anish") became the first woman to complete the three Triple Crown trails in a calendar year.
Speed records
Fastest known times for self-supported attempts (meaning no vehicle or crew support, like a traditional through-hiker):
Joe McConaughy completed the trail northbound on August 31, 2017, in 45 days, 12 hours, and 15 minutes.
Heather "Anish" Anderson completed the trail southbound on September 24, 2015, in 54 days, 7 hours, and 48 minutes.
Fastest known times for supported attempts (the athletes travel light, relying on a support crew with food, shelter, medical treatment, etc.):
Tara Dower completed the trail southbound on September 21, 2024 in 40 days, 18 hours, and 5 minutes.
Karel Sabbe completed the trail northbound on August 29, 2018, in 41 days, 7 hours, and 39 minutes.
Age records
On November 8, 2021, M.J. "Nimblewill Nomad" Eberheart became the oldest person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail at age 83.
On October 13, 2020, Juniper Netteburg is believed to be the youngest person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail on her own power at age 4.
Route
The trail is protected along more than 99% of its course by federal or state ownership of the land or by right-of-way. The trail is maintained by a variety of organizations, environmental advocacy groups, governmental agencies and individuals. Annually, more than 4,000 volunteers contribute over 175,000 hours of effort on the Appalachian Trail, an effort coordinated largely by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) organization. In total, the AT passes through eight national forests and two national parks.
In the course of its journey, the trail follows the ridge line of the Appalachian Mountains, crossing many of its highest peaks and running through wilderness with only a few exceptions. The trail once traversed many hundreds of miles of private property, but today 99% of the trail is on public land.
Georgia
Georgia has 75 miles (121 km) of the trail, including the southern terminus at Springer Mountain at an elevation of 3,782 feet (1,153 m). At 4,461 feet (1,360 m), Blood Mountain is the highest point on the trail in Georgia. The AT and approach trail, along with many miles of blue blazed side trails, are managed and maintained by the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club. See also: Georgia Peaks on the Appalachian Trail.
North Carolina
North Carolina has 95.7 miles (154.0 km) of the trail, not including more than 200 miles (320 km) along the Tennessee state line. Altitude ranges from 1,725 to 5,498 feet (526 to 1,676 m). The trail enters from Georgia at Bly Gap, ascending peaks such as Standing Indian Mountain, Mt. Albert, and Wayah Bald. It then goes by Nantahala Outdoor Center at the Nantahala River Gorge and the Nantahala River crossing. Up to this point, the trail is maintained by the Nantahala Hiking Club. Beyond this point, it is maintained by the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. 30 miles (48 km) further north, Fontana Dam marks the entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Tennessee
Tennessee has 71 miles (114 km) of the trail, not including more than 200 miles (320 km) along or near the North Carolina state line. The section that runs just below the summit of Kuwohi in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is along the North Carolina and Tennessee state line and is the highest point on the trail at 6,643 feet (2,025 m). The Smoky Mountains Hiking Club (Knoxville, TN) maintains the trail throughout the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Davenport Gap. North of Davenport Gap, the Carolina Mountain Club (Asheville, NC) maintains the trail to Spivey Gap. Then the remaining Tennessee section is maintained by the Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club (Kingsport, TN).
Virginia
Virginia has 550.3 miles (885.6 km) of the trail (one quarter of the entire trail) including more than 20 miles (32 km) along the West Virginia state line. With the climate, and the timing of northbound thru-hikers, this section is wet and challenging because of the spring thaw and heavy spring rainfall. Substantial portions of the trail closely parallel Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and, further south, the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy considers as excellent for beginning hikers a well-maintained 104 miles (167 km) section of the trail that the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed in Shenandoah National Park. Climbs in this section rarely exceed 1,000 feet (300 m). In the southwestern portion of the state, the trail goes within one half mile of the highest point in Virginia, Mount Rogers, which is a short side-hike from the AT.
West Virginia
West Virginia has 4 miles (6.4 km) of the trail, not including about 20 miles (32 km) along the Virginia state line. Here the trail passes through the town of Harpers Ferry, headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Harpers Ferry is what many consider to be the "psychological midpoint" of the trail's length, although the actual midpoint is about 75 miles (121 km) further north in southern Pennsylvania.
A CSX train derailment on December 21, 2019, damaged the pedestrian footbridge over the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, severing the trail between West Virginia and Maryland. The foot crossing reopened in July 2020.
Maryland
Maryland has 41 miles (66 km) of the trail, with elevations ranging from 230 to 1,880 feet (70 to 573 m). Most of the trail runs along the ridgeline of South Mountain in South Mountain State Park. Hikers are required to stay at designated shelters and campsites. The trail runs through the eastern edge of Greenbrier State Park. This can serve as stop point for a hot shower and a visit to the camp store. The trail runs along the C&O Canal Towpath route for 3 miles (4.8 km). Hikers will also pass High Rock, which offers extensive views and is also used as a hang-gliding site. The section ends at Pen Mar Park, which sits on the state line of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has 229.6 miles (369.5 km) of the trail. The trail extends from the Pennsylvania-Maryland line at the village of Pen Mar, northeast to the Delaware Water Gap at the Pennsylvania-New Jersey state line. In the south-central region of the state, the trail passes through Pine Grove Furnace State Park, which is often considered the symbolic mid-point of the Appalachian Trail. For much of its length in Pennsylvania, the trail is known for its very rocky terrain, which slows many hikers down while causing injuries and placing strain on equipment. Hikers often call the state "Rocksylvania". The AT community has also dubbed Pennsylvania as the state "where boots go to die".
New Jersey
New Jersey is home to 72.2 miles (116.2 km) of the trail. The trail enters New Jersey from the south on a pedestrian walkway along the Interstate 80 bridge over the Delaware River, ascends from the Delaware Water Gap to the top of Kittatinny Mountain in Worthington State Forest, passes Sunfish Pond (right), continues north through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and Stokes State Forest and eventually reaches High Point State Park, the highest peak in New Jersey (a side trail is required to reach the actual peak). It then turns in a southeastern direction along the New York state line for about 30 miles (48 km), passing over long sections of boardwalk bridges over marshy land, then entering Wawayanda State Park and then the Abram S. Hewitt State Forest just before entering New York near Greenwood Lake. In New Jersey the New York - New Jersey Trail Conference maintains and updates the Appalachian Trail. Black bear activity along the trail in New Jersey increased rapidly starting in 2001. Hence, metal bear-proof food storage boxes are in place at all New Jersey shelters.
New York
New York's 88.4 miles (142.3 km) of trail contain very little elevation change compared to other states. From south to north, the trail summits many small mountains under 1,400 feet (430 m) in elevation, its highest point in New York being Prospect Rock at 1,433 feet (437 m), and only 3,000 feet (910 m) from the state line with New Jersey. The trail continues north, climbing near Fitzgerald Falls, passing through Sterling Forest, and then entering Harriman State Park and Bear Mountain State Park. The lowest point on the entire Appalachian Trail is in the Bear Mountain Zoo at 124 feet (38 m). It crosses the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge. It then passes through Fahnestock State Park, and continues northeast and crosses the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. This track crossing is the site of the only train station along the trail's length. It enters Connecticut via the Pawling Nature Reserve. The section of the trail that passes through Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks is the oldest section of the trail, completed in 1923. A portion of this section was paved by 700 volunteers with 800 granite-slab steps followed by over a mile of walkway supported by stone crib walls with boulders lining the path. The project took four years, cost roughly $1 million, and opened in June 2010. The project was done by the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference, which maintains and updates the Appalachian Trail in New York.
Connecticut
Connecticut's 52 miles (84 km) of trail lie almost entirely along the ridges to the west above the Housatonic River valley.
The state line is also the western boundary of a 480 acres (190 ha) Connecticut reservation inhabited by Schaghticoke Indians. Inside it, the AT roughly parallels its northern boundary, crossing back outside it after 2,000 feet (610 m). The trail proceeds northward through the Housatonic River valley and hills to its west, veering northwesterly and, at Salisbury, ascending the southern Taconic mountains, at Lion's Head affording a view northeasterly towards Mt. Greylock and other points in Massachusetts, and at Bear Mountain, reaching over 2,000 feet (610 m) in elevation for the first time since Pennsylvania and yielding views across the Hudson River valley to the Catskills and across the broad expanse of the Housatonic valley and the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills to the east. Just north of Bear, the trail, as it crosses into Massachusetts, descends into Sages Ravine, a deep gorge in the eastern Taconic ridgeline which is home to a fragile old growth forest. As the trail crosses the brook in the ravine, it leaves the area maintained by the Connecticut section of the Appalachian Mountain Club.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts has 90 miles (140 km) of trail. The entire section of trail is in western Massachusetts's Berkshire County. It summits the highest peak in the southern Taconic Range, Mount Everett (2,604 feet (794 m)), then descends to the Housatonic River valley and skirts the town of Great Barrington. The trail passes through the towns of Dalton and Cheshire, and summits the highest point in the state at 3,491 feet (1,064 m), Mount Greylock. It then quickly descends to the valley within 2 miles (3.2 km) of North Adams and Williamstown, before ascending again to the Vermont state line. The trail throughout Massachusetts is maintained by the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club.
Vermont
Vermont has 150 miles (240 km) of the trail. Upon entering Vermont, the trail coincides with the southernmost sections of the generally north–south-oriented Long Trail. It follows the ridge of the southern Green Mountains, summitting such notable peaks as Stratton Mountain, Glastenbury Mountain, and Killington Peak. At Maine Junction, the AT reaches an intersection with the eastern end of the North Country National Scenic Trail, with that trail and the next segment of the Long Trail departing to the north. The AT then turns in a more eastward direction, crossing the White River, passing through Norwich, and entering Hanover, New Hampshire, as it crosses the Connecticut River. The Green Mountain Club maintains the AT from the Massachusetts state line to Route 12. The Dartmouth Outing Club maintains the trail from VT Route 12 to the New Hampshire state line.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire has 161 miles (259 km) of the trail. The New Hampshire AT is nearly all within the White Mountain National Forest. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, New Hampshire has more trail above tree-line than any other Appalachian State.
For northbound thru-hikers, it is the beginning of the main challenges that go beyond enduring distance and time: in New Hampshire and Maine, rough or steep ground are more frequent and alpine conditions are found near summits and along ridges. The trail crosses 15 of the 48 four-thousand footers of New Hampshire, including 6,288-foot (1,917 m) Mount Washington, the highest point of the AT north of Tennessee and most topographically prominent peak in eastern North America. The trail passes within half a mile of 9 additional 4000-footer peaks in the Whites (one summit is only 60 yards from the trail). Entering the alpine zone on the summit of Mount Pierce, from the south, the trail continues in alpine or near-alpine scrub continuously along the high Presidential ridge until descending the southeast flank of Mount Madison into the Great Gulf Wilderness over 12 miles northward. This region is subject to extremes of weather with little natural shelter and only occasional human-made shelter from the elements. The threat of severe and cold conditions in the Presidentials and across the New Hampshire Section is present year-round and requires hikers' careful attention to weather forecasts and planning, provisions and gear.
The Dartmouth Outing Club maintains the Appalachian Trail from the Vermont state line past Mount Moosilauke to Kinsman Notch, northwest of Woodstock, New Hampshire, Randolph Mountain Club maintains 2.2 miles from Osgood Trail near Madison Hut to Edmands Col, with the AMC maintaining the remaining miles through the state.
Maine
Maine has 281 miles (452 km) of the trail. The northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail is on Mount Katahdin's Baxter Peak in Baxter State Park.
In some parts of the trail in Maine, even the strongest hikers may only average 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h), with places where hikers must hold on to tree limbs and roots to climb or descend, which is especially hazardous in wet weather. The western section includes a mile-long (1.6 km) stretch of boulders, some of which hikers must pass under, at Mahoosuc Notch, sometimes called the trail's hardest mile.
Although there are dozens of river and stream fords on the Maine section of the trail, the Kennebec River is the only one on the trail that requires a boat crossing. The most isolated portion of the Appalachian Trail, known as the "Hundred-Mile Wilderness", occurs in Maine. It heads east-northeast from the town of Monson and ends outside Baxter State Park just south of Abol Bridge.
Park management strongly discourages thru-hiking within the park before May 15 or after October 15.
The AMC maintains the AT from the New Hampshire state line to Grafton Notch, with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club responsible for maintaining the remaining miles to Mt. Katahdin. The international extension, called the International Appalachian Trail begins at Mt. Katahdin.
Major intersections
Listed from south to north.
Southern terminus: Springer Mountain, Georgia
SR 60 at Woody Gap in Northeast Georgia
SR 11/US 19/US 129 at Neels Gap in Northeast Georgia
SR 348 at Tesnatee Gap in Northeast Georgia
SR 17/ SR 75 at Unicoi Gap in Northeast Georgia
US 76 at Dicks Creek Gap in Northeast Georgia
US 64 at Winding Stair Gap in North Carolina
US 19/US 74 at Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina
NC 143 at Stecoah Gap in North Carolina
NC 28 in Fontana Dam, North Carolina
U.S. Route 441/ SR 71 at Newfound Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee state line
SR 32 at Davenport Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee state line
I-40 along the North Carolina/Tennessee state line
NC 209/US 25/US 70 in Hot Springs, North Carolina
US 25/US 70 at Tanyard Gap in North Carolina
SR 70/ NC 208 at Allen Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee border
NC 212/ SR 352 at Devil Fork Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee border
I-26/US 23 at Sams Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee state line
US 19W at Spivey Gap in North Carolina
SR 395/ NC 197 at Indian Grave Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee border
SR 107/ NC 226 at Iron Mountain Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee border
SR 143/ NC 261 at Carvers Gap along the North Carolina/Tennessee border
US 19E near Roan Mountain, Tennessee
US 321/ SR 67 at Watauga Lake, Tennessee
SR 91 at Cross Mountain Gap in Tennessee
US 421/ SR 34 at Low Gap in Tennessee
US 58/ SR 91 in Damascus, Virginia
US 58 near Damascus, Virginia
US 58 at Summit Cut in Virginia
SR 600 in Grayson County, Virginia
SR 603 in Grayson County, Virginia
SR 650 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 672 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 670 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 601 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 16 at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in Virginia
SR 622 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 686 twice near Atkins, Virginia
SR 615 near Atkins, Virginia
SR 729 near Atkins, Virginia
US 11, SR 683, I-81 in Atkins, Virginia
SR 617 near Atkins, Virginia
SR 610 in Smyth County, Virginia
SR 742 in Bland County, Virginia
SR 42 in Bland County, Virginia
SR 625 in Bland County, Virginia
I-77/U.S. Route 52 near Wytheville, Virginia
US 460 in Pearisburg, Virginia
I-81 near Roanoke, Virginia
US 501 along the James River near Eagle Rock, Virginia
US 60 near Buena Vista, Virginia
I-64, US 250 near Waynesboro, Virginia
U.S. Route 33 in Shenandoah National Park
US 211 near Luray, Virginia
US 522 near Front Royal, Virginia
I-66 in Front Royal, Virginia
US 17/US 50 near Waterloo, Virginia
US 340 in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
US 340 in Sandy Hook, Maryland
I-70/US 40 near Hagerstown, Maryland
US 30 near Fayetteville, Pennsylvania
I-76, US 11, I-81 in Middlesex Township, Pennsylvania
US 11/US 15, US 22/US 322 in Duncannon, Pennsylvania
I-81 near Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania
I-476 near Slatington, Pennsylvania
I-80 along the Pennsylvania/New Jersey state line
US 206 near Frankford Township, New Jersey
I-87/New York State Thruway near Harriman, New York
US 6/US 9W/US 202 near Fort Montgomery, New York
US 9 near Garrison, New York
Taconic State Parkway near Shenandoah, New York
I-84 near Whaley Lake, New York
US 7 near Falls Village, Connecticut
US 44 near Salisbury, Connecticut
US 7 near Great Barrington, Massachusetts
I-90, US 20 near Lee, Massachusetts
US 4 near Rutland, Vermont
I-89 near West Hartford, Vermont
US 5, I-91 in Norwich, Vermont
I-93/US 3 near Franconia, New Hampshire
US 302 in the White Mountain National Forest
NH 16 at Pinkham Notch in the White Mountain National Forest
US 2 near Gorham, New Hampshire
US 201 in Caratunk, Maine
Northern terminus: Mount Katahdin, Maine
Management
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (originally, Appalachian Trail Conference) and the National Park Service oversee the entire length of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail via memoranda of understanding with other public agencies through whose land the trail runs, including the U.S. Forest Service, national parks, national forests, the Tennessee Valley Authority, state parks, and others, who help administer portions of the trail corridor. The estimated annual contribution of volunteer services for trail upkeep is $3 million.
Use in research
The Appalachian Trail has been a resource for researchers in a variety of disciplines. Portions of the trail in Tennessee were used on a study on trail maintenance for the trail's "uniform environmental conditions and design attributes and substantial gradient in visitor use." Beginning in 2007, various organizations, including the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the American Hiking Society, began a study to monitor environmental changes that have resulted from higher ozone levels, acid rain, smog, and other air quality factors. Such research has been supported by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Cornell University, the National Geographic Society, and Aveda Corporation.
Behavioral studies have also been conducted on hikers themselves. A 2007 study on hikers found that most persons hike the trail "for fun and enjoyment of life and for warm relationships with others" and that "environmental awareness, physical challenge, camaraderie, exercise, and solitude" were chief results among hikers. Since the highest single demographic of thru-hikers are males between the ages of 18 and 29, one informal study sought to find the correlation between this group and male college drop-outs. A study in 2018 found that around 95 percent of thru-hikers identified their race or ethnicity as white.
In popular culture
The trail was the setting for the 1998 Bill Bryson book, A Walk in the Woods, and for its 2015 film adaptation of the same name.
The phrase, "hiking the Appalachian Trail", became a euphemism for having an affair after it was used as a cover for Mark Sanford's whereabouts during his 2009 extramarital affair.
North to Maine is a 2009 play about the Appalachian Trail and the thru-hikers who walk it.
See also
Connected U.S. long-distance trails
Connected National Historic Trails
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Other U.S. long-distance trails
Pacific Crest Trail
Continental Divide Trail
References
Citations
Works cited
Tomaselli, Doris (2009). Ned Anderson: Connecticut's Appalachian Trailblazer, Small Town Renaissance Man (Limited 1st ed.). Sherman Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-615-28611-2.
Further reading
Online
ATC's official annual Appalachian Trail guide is the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker's Companion, compiled and updated by volunteers of the Appalachian L ong Distance Hikers Association (ALDHA) (available at AppalachianTrail.org). Individual state guides and maps are also available via the ATC.
The Official AT Databook, an annually updated compilation of trail mileages, water sources, road crossings, shelter locations, and other information. The 2018 DataBook is the 40th annual edition, is considered indispensable by many AT hikers, and the data published within is used by many other hiking guides.
A smartphone guidebook app with crowdsourced information (Wikipedia style) is available.
Non-fiction print
Garvey, Edward (1971). Appalachian Hiker. Oakton: Appalachian Books. ISBN 978-0-912660-01-1.
Fisher, Ronald (1972). The Appalachian Trail. Washington: National Geographic Society. ISBN 978-0-87044-106-6.
Hare, James R. (1977). From Katahdin to Springer Mountain. Emmaus Pa: Rodale Press. ISBN 978-0-87857-160-4.
Garvey, Edward (1978). Appalachian Hiker, II. Oakton: Appalachian Books. ISBN 978-0-912660-15-8.
Irwin, Bill (1992). Blind Courage. Waco: WRS Pub. ISBN 978-0-941539-86-9.
Luxenberg, Larry (1994). Walking the Appalachian Trail. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3095-2.
Mittlefehldt, Sarah (2013). Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Emblidge, David (1996). The Appalachian Trail Reader. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510091-4.
Bryson, Bill (1998). A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-307-27946-0.
Hall, Adrienne (2000). A Journey North. Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club Books. ISBN 978-1-878239-91-4.
Setzer, Lynn (2001). A Season on the Appalachian Trail. Harpers Ferry: Appalachian Trail Conference. ISBN 978-0-89732-382-6.
Mckinney, Rick (2005). Dead Men Hike No Trails. City: Booklocker.com, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59113-870-9.
Miller, David (2006). Awol on the Appalachian Trail. Livermore: Wingspan Press. ISBN 978-0547745527.
Tapon, Francis (2006). Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America. San Francisco: SonicTrek. ISBN 978-0-9765812-0-8.
Buras, Thom (2006). The Wayfarers Journal Episode One: Journey to Katahdin. www.TheWayfarersJournal.com. ISBN 978-0-9786169-9-1.
Alt, Jeff (2007). A Walk for Sunshine. Cincinnati: Dreams Shared Publications. ISBN 978-0-9679482-2-5.
Chenowith, Lon (2009). Five Million Steps: Adventure Along the Appalachian Trail. Tate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60799-416-9.
Letcher, Susan & Lucy (2010). Barefoot Sisters: Southbound & Barefoot Sisters Walking. Harrisburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3529-2.
Miller, David (2010). AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. Seattle: AmazonEncore. ISBN 978-1-935597-19-3.
Davis, Zach (2012). Appalachian Trials. Denver: Good Badger Publishing. ISBN 978-0985090104.
D'Anieri, Phillip (2021). The Appalachian Trail: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780358171997.
Sherman, Steve (1977). Appalachian odyssey : walking the trail from Georgia to Maine. Julia Older. Brattleboro, Vt.: S. Greene Press. ISBN 0-8289-0294-1. OCLC 2951974.
External links
Official sites
Official site of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy
National Park Service Trail information, with maps
Celebrating the Appalachian Trail (Google Doodle; 10/2/2023), (Doodle background) |
Grandma_Gatewood | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Gatewood | [
486
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Gatewood"
] | Emma Rowena Gatewood (née Caldwell; October 25, 1887 – June 4, 1973), better known as Grandma Gatewood, was an American ultra-light hiking pioneer. After a difficult life as a farm wife, mother of eleven children, and survivor of domestic violence, she became famous as the first solo female thru-hiker of the 2,168-mile (3,489 km) Appalachian Trail (A.T.) in 1955 at the age of 67. She subsequently became the first person (male or female) to hike the A.T. three times, after completing a second thru-hike two years later, followed by a section-hike in 1964. In the meantime, she hiked 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Oregon Trail in 1959. In her later years, she continued to travel and hike, and worked on a section of what would become the Buckeye Trail. The media coverage surrounding her feats was credited for generating interest in maintaining the A.T. and in hiking generally. Among many other honors, she was posthumously inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame in 2012.
Biography
Early life and education
Gatewood was born to a family of 15 children in Guyan Township, Gallia County, Ohio. Her father Hugh Caldwell, a farmer, turned to a life of drinking and gambling after his leg was amputated in the Civil War. The child-rearing of the family was left to her mother Evelyn (Trowbridge) Caldwell. Emma and her siblings slept four to a bed in their log cabin. Her formal education ended with the eighth grade, but she enjoyed reading encyclopedias and the Greek classics, and taught herself about wildlife and woodland plants that could be used as medicines and food. She also enjoyed writing poetry.
Marriage and children
On May 5, 1907, at the age of 19, she married 27-year-old Perry Clayton (P. C.) Gatewood, a college-educated primary school teacher, and later tobacco farmer, with whom she had 11 children. Almost immediately her husband set her to work burning tobacco beds, building fences, and mixing cement, in addition to her expected housework duties.
Although P. C. was recognized in the community as a man of above-average intellect, he had a mean streak. Within months of the wedding, he started to beat his wife, a vicious pattern that continued for the duration of their marriage. In 1924, he was convicted of manslaughter after killing a man during an argument. He was ordered to pay restitution to the widow of the victim, but his prison sentence was suspended because he had nine children and a farm to take care of. Emma recalled being beaten nearly to death on several occasions. When her husband became violent, she would often run into the woods, where she found peace and solitude.
In 1939, after yet another violent fight, P. C. arranged to have his wife arrested and jailed. Seeing her with broken teeth and a cracked rib, the town mayor took her in and found her a job. She filed for divorce in September 1940, and in February 1941 she testified against her husband in a hearing that resulted in the divorce being granted, giving her custody of the three children still at home and with alimony to be paid by P. C. This was at a time when divorce was difficult, and after her husband had repeatedly threatened to have her committed to an insane asylum as a means of maintaining control over her.
Six years later, she began working at various jobs, renovating her house, and writing poetry. By 1951, all of her children were on their own.
Hiking career
In the early 1950s, while reading a discarded copy of the August 1949 edition of National Geographic magazine, Gatewood found an article about the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). The description and photographs captivated her and made it sound like something she could do. All that was needed was "normal good health" and "no special skill or training." She set out in July 1954 at the age of 66 to hike south from Mount Katahdin in Maine. After a few days, she got lost, broke her glasses, and ran out of food. The rangers who found her convinced her to return home, but she decided not to tell anyone about her failure.
The following year, at the age of 67, Gatewood told her grown children that she was going for a walk. They did not ask where or for how long, as they knew she was resilient and would take care of herself. This time, she started earlier in the year and walked north from Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia beginning on May 3, 1955, and ending 146 days later on September 25 at Mount Katahdin. At the top of Baxter Peak, she signed the register, sang the first verse of the song "America the Beautiful" and spoke out loud, "I did it. I said I'd do it and I've done it."
Because the National Geographic magazine article had given her the impression of easy walks and clean cabins at the end of each day's expedition, she took little in the way of outdoor gear – no tent or sleeping bag, just a shower curtain to keep the rain off. She wore canvas Keds shoes on her misshapen feet and carried a small notebook, some clothes and food in a homemade denim bag slung over one shoulder. When she couldn't find shelter, she slept on piles of leaves. On cold nights, she heated large flat stones to use as a warm bed. When she ran out of food, she ate berries and other edible forest plants she recognized.
Local newspapers began picking up on her story in late June, beginning in Virginia with an article in The Roanoke Times. Then the Associated Press did a national profile of her while she was in Maryland, leading to an article in Sports Illustrated when she reached Connecticut. This publicity made her a celebrity even before the hike was over; she was often recognized and received "trail magic" (assistance from strangers) in the form of friends, food and places to sleep.
After the hike, Sports Illustrated ran a follow-up article describing her experiences on the trail. She was quoted as saying that, based on the National Geographic article's rosy descriptions, she thought "it would be a nice lark. It wasn't." She continued, "This is no trail. This is a nightmare. For some fool reason, they always lead you right up over the biggest rock to the top of the biggest mountain they can find." Newspapers across the United States, including The Baltimore Sun, carried articles about the "jovial little grandmother" who conquered the A.T. In addition, she was invited as the featured guest on the news and talk television program the Today Show with Dave Garroway and won two hundred dollars on the televised quiz show Welcome Travelers. In June 1956, U.S. Representative Thomas A. Jenkins of Ohio entered a description of Gatewood's accomplishment and subsequent publicity in the Congressional Record.
Gatewood thru-hiked the A.T. again in 1957. She reported that the trail was in better condition that year, due to the efforts by local hiking clubs to clean and mark parts of it. She was invited to speak to students and various civic groups about her experiences. In addition, she spent time with Girl Scouts and 4-H members at their camps. In 1958, she climbed six mountains in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
In 1959, at the age of 71, she was inspired by publicity about the Oregon Centennial Exposition to walk the 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Oregon Trail by herself, following in the footsteps of the pioneer women who had walked the route behind covered wagons one hundred years earlier. The trip took her three months from Independence, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon, averaging 22 miles (35 km) a day. Her arrival in Portland was celebrated as Grandma Gatewood Day. Among her many gifts and accolades were trips to Hollywood for guest appearances on the television programs Art Linkletter's House Party and You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
Gatewood completed her third hike of the A.T., this time in sections, in 1964 at age 76, making her the first person to complete the trail three times. She was also credited with being the oldest female thru-hiker by the Appalachian Trail Conference.
Every January beginning in 1967, she led a six-mile hike through Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio. For her last hike in 1973, more than 2,500 hikers showed up. The annual hike has become even more popular over the years; in January 2013, more than 4,000 people joined in.
When she was in her early eighties, she spent ten or more hours a day clearing and marking a 30-mile hiking trail through Gallia County, Ohio that would later be connected to the Buckeye Trail. In 1973, shortly before her death, she took a lengthy bus trip with an open-ended ticket, visiting all of the contiguous United States, plus three Canadian provinces.
Gatewood was a life member of the National Campers and Hikers Association and the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club. She was one of the founding members, Director Emeritus and a lifetime member of the Buckeye Trail Association. By the end of her life, she had walked more than 14,000 miles (23,000 km), or the equivalent of more than halfway around the Earth.
Death and funeral
At the time of her death at age 85 from a heart attack, Gatewood had one surviving sister plus 66 living descendants: 11 children, 24 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. Her funeral was held at the Waugh-Halley-Wood Funeral Home, and she was buried in Ohio Valley Memory Gardens. Her grave marker says simply "Emma R. Gatewood – Grandma."
Honors and legacy
Gatewood received numerous honors during her lifetime, and her legacy lives on through various tributes, artistic works, and other commemorative projects.
In her last few years, Gatewood received several awards, including the Ohio State Conservation Award and the Governor's Community Action Award. Upon her death, the Ohio Senate passed a resolution in her memory.
In Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio – where the North Country Trail, the Buckeye Trail, and the American Discovery Trail coincide – a six-mile section connecting Old Man's Cave to Cedar Falls to Ash Cave was designated as the Grandma Gatewood Memorial Trail in January 1981.
The Appalachian Trail Museum includes exhibits about her, and in June 2012, she was inducted into the museum's Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame.
She has been the subject of various projects, including a story-telling program (2011), a one-act play (2013), and picture albums designed by Eden Valley Enterprises.
Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story, which premiered in May 2015 and was shown on the Public Broadcasting System in 2016, is an Emmy Award-nominated 60-minute documentary by filmmaker Peter Huston.
Jeff & Paige, a children's music duo based in Boulder, Colorado, released a song in her honor, titled "Grandma Gatewood", on their 2015 album "Mighty Wolf".
The village of Cheshire, Ohio, together with the Buckeye Trail Association and the Ohio History Connection, dedicated a historical marker in her memory on May 28, 2016. The front of the marker is a summary of her accomplishments. On the reverse side is a poem entitled The Reward of Nature, which is believed to have been written by Gatewood during one of her hikes of the A.T.
In 2018, her story was retold in the New York Times Overlooked series, which adds stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in the historically male-dominated obituaries of the Times. The piece details her hiking accomplishments and abusive family life.
She inspired the Gatewood Cape, a lightweight combination rain cape and shelter.
"Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk" by Barter Theatre Resident Playwright Catherine Bush made its debut at the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) as a reading in 2023 and is now a captivating full-length play running from May 12 to June 9, 2024 at Barter Theatre's Smith Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia.
Biographies
Montgomery, Ben (2014). Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1613747186.
Houts, Michelle (2016). When Grandma Gatewood Took a Hike. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-2235-9.
Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story (PBS documentary). Eden Valley Enterprises and FilmAffects.
Thermes, Jennifer (2018). Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4197-2839-6.
Boyer Sagert, Kelly (2012–2015). Grandma Gatewood: Ohio's Legendary Hiker. Elyria, Ohio: Eden Valley Enterprises. ISBN 978-1-98-297098-7.
Seeds Nash, Katherine (2018). Grandma Gatewood – Trail Tales: Appalachian Trail. Springboro, Ohio: Braughler Books LLC. ISBN 9780982218709.
Seeds Nash, Katherine (2018). Grandma Gatewood – Trail Tales: A is for Appalachian Trail. Springboro, Ohio: Braughler Books LLC. ISBN 9781945091971.
References
External links
Blog about Grandma Gatewood produced by Eden Valley Enterprises
Description of the 57th Annual Hocking Hills (Ohio) Winter Hike scheduled for January 2022
Information on the Grandma Gatewood Fall Color Hike at Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio
Grandma Gatewood at Find a Grave
The 1949 National Geographic article that inspired Emma Gatewood to hike the Appalachian Trail Archived March 4, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
Appalachian Trail Histories
Review on SectionHiker website of the biography Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery |
Jennifer_Pharr_Davis | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Pharr_Davis | [
486
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Pharr_Davis"
] | Jennifer Pharr Davis is a long distance hiker from the United States of America who serves on the President's Council for Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. She has been called "the Serena Williams of long distance hiking" by Baratunde Thurston (PBS America Outdoors) and is also an author, speaker, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and Ambassador for the American Hiking Society. She has hiked over 14,000 miles on six different continents, including thru-hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail (three times), the Colorado Trail, the Long Trail in Vermont, the Bibbulmun Track in Australia, and numerous trails in Europe and South America (e.g., the Tour du Mont Blanc, West Highland Way, Laugavegur, GR 11 (Spain), GR 20, and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Cotahuasi Canyon and the Inca Trail.
Pharr Davis lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband Brew, their daughter Charley, and son Gus. She attended Hendersonville High School (North Carolina) and the Asheville School. She first hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2005 after graduating from Samford University. To prepare for her initial hike, she attended a class taught by Warren Doyle at the Appalachian Trail Institute. In 2008, she set the record for the fastest Appalachian Trail hike by a woman in 57 days and 8 hours at an average of 38 miles (61 km) per day. She had previously set the Long Trail trail record in 7 days and 15 hours in 2007. She also established the fastest known time on the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia in 2008.
In 2011, Pharr Davis set the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail completing it in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes. In 2015, Scott Jurek finished 3 hours and 12 minutes faster. New records have subsequently been set by Karl Meltzer, Joe McConaughy, Karel Sabbe, and most recently Tara Dower.
Pharr Davis has written a number of books. She has written two guidebooks about hiking in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, and one about hiking near Asheville, North Carolina. She has also written two memoirs- 2010's Becoming Odyssa, about her 2005 Appalachian Trail thru-hike, and 2013's Called Again, about her record setting A.T. hike, both published by Beaufort Books. Jennifer has also written 2017's Families on Foot and 2018's The Pursuit of Endurance as well as 2019's "I Come From a Place" with celebrated watercolorist Alan Shuptrine, from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Brew Davis wrote about his wife's 2011 hike and how he provided support throughout it in his 2011 book 46 days: keeping up with Jennifer Pharr Davis on the Appalachian Trail.
As a member of the National Speakers Association, Pharr Davis has shared her trail lessons hundreds of times throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, including presentations to Fortune 500 companies, trade organizations, colleges and universities, K-12 schools, libraries, festivals, churches, and other non-profits. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and The Early Show on CBS. Her articles have appeared in print and online editions for the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Trail Runner, Backpacker, and Guideposts.
In 2008, Pharr Davis founded Blue Ridge Hiking Company, with the belief that "the trail is there for everyone at every phase of life" and with the goal of getting people outdoors on their own terms. The company leads half-day, full day and overnight trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding Asheville.
Pharr Davis served as a board member for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, received a 2016 Laurel Wreath Award for athletic achievement from the Governor of North Carolina and was recognized as 2019 "Female Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Chamber of Commerce in Asheville, North Carolina. She was also named one of the 25 Most Adventurous Women of the Past 25 Years by Men's Journal, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine's Person of the Year in 2008 and her record-setting 2011 A.T. hike was named "Performance of the Year" by Ultrarunning Magazine.
In 2012, Pharr Davis hiked 600 miles on the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland and the GR 11 (Spain) across the Pyrenees in her second and third trimesters while pregnant with her daughter Charley. While on an 18-month book tour, Pharr Davis and her husband Brew took Charley hiking in all 50 states before their daughter turned two.
In 2017, she hiked the 1,175 mile Mountains to Sea Trail in partnership with the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail for the trail's 40th anniversary and completed the hike while still nursing her newborn Gus.
In recent years, Pharr Davis has hiked other long distance trails including the Pinhoti Trail, the Bartram Trail, the Foothills Trail, the Art Loeb Trail, and the Benton Mackaye Trail. She is also hiking the Continental Divide Trail in sections through the Rocky Mountains.
References
External links
Official website |
Fred_Rogers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers | [
487,
525
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers"
] | Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York City, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children's programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his thirty-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children's shows The Children's Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children's emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children's television has been widely lauded, and he received more than forty honorary degrees and several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children's television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
Early life
Rogers was born in 1928, at 705 Main Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His father, James Hillis Rogers, was "a very successful businessman" who was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's most prominent businesses. His mother, Nancy (née McFeely), knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.
Rogers grew up in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe. He had a sister, Elaine, whom the Rogerses adopted when he was eleven years old. Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets, and also spent time with his grandfather. He began playing the piano when he was five. Through an ancestor who immigrated from Germany to the U.S., Johannes Meffert (born 1732), Rogers is the sixth cousin of actor Tom Hanks, who portrays him in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).
Rogers had a difficult childhood. Shy, introverted, and overweight, he was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma. He was bullied as a child for his weight and called "Fat Freddy". According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood ... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".
Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness. "It was tough for me at the beginning," Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984, "and then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was okay. And one of them was ... the head of the football team". Rogers became president of the student council, a member of the National Honor Society, and editor-in-chief of the school yearbook. He registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1948 at age 20, where he was classified 1-A (available for military service); however, his status was changed to unqualified for military service following an Armed Forces physical on October 12, 1950. He attended Dartmouth College for one year before transferring to Rollins College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.
He then attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963. His work as an ordained minister, rather than to pastor a church, was to minister to children and their families through television. He regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.
Career
Early work
Rogers wanted to enter seminary after college, but instead chose to go into the nascent medium of television after experiencing TV at his parents' home in 1951, during his senior year at Rollins College. In a CNN interview, he said, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen". After graduating in 1951, he worked at NBC in New York City as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes's children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.
In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with him to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers worked off-camera to develop puppets, characters, and music for the show. He used many puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named after WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere), King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named after Rogers' wife), X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work. Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer. The Children's Corner won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's programming in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC. While working on the show, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland—who, according to Rogers' biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru". Much of Rogers' "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland. She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's scripts and songs for 30 years.
In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto contracted Rogers to come to Toronto to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963 to 1967. It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. CBC's children's programming head Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air". Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer. Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he developed, despite a potentially promising career with CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh. On Rogers' recommendation, Coombs remained in Toronto and became Rogers' Canadian equivalent of an iconic television personality, creating the children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996. Rogers' work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (also called the Neighborhood), a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing nationally in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes. It was videotaped at WQED in Pittsburgh and broadcast by National Educational Television (NET), which later became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Its first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Each subsequent season, filmed in color and funded by PBS, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and other charities, consisted of 65 episodes. By the time it ended production in December 2000, its average rating was about 0.7% of television households or 680,000 homes, and it aired on 384 PBS stations. At its peak in 1985–1986, its ratings were 2.1%, or 1.8 million homes. The last original episode aired in 2001, but PBS continued to air reruns, and by 2016 it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.
Many of the sets and props in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, like the trolley, the sneakers, and the castle, were created for Rogers' show in Toronto by CBC designers and producers. The program also "incorporated most of the highly imaginative elements that later became famous", such as its slow pace and its host's quiet manner. The format of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "remained virtually unchanged" for the entire run of the program. Every episode begins with a camera's-eye view of a model of a neighborhood, then panning in closer to a representation of a house while a piano instrumental of the theme song, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", performed by music director Johnny Costa and inspired by a Beethoven sonata, is played. The camera zooms in to a model representing Mr. Rogers' house, then cuts to the house's interior and pans across the room to the front door, which Rogers opens as he sings the theme song to greet his visitors while changing his suit jacket to a cardigan (knitted by his mother) and his dress shoes to sneakers, "complete with a shoe tossed from one hand to another". The episode's theme is introduced, and Mr. Rogers leaves his home to visit another location, the camera panning back to the neighborhood model and zooming in to the new location as he enters it. Once this segment ends, Mr. Rogers leaves and returns to his home, indicating that it is time to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Mr. Rogers proceeds to the window seat by the trolley track and sets up the action there as the Trolley comes out. The camera follows it down a tunnel in the back wall of the house as it enters the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The stories and lessons take place over a week's worth of episodes and involve puppets and human characters. The end of the visit occurs when the Trolley returns to the same tunnel from which it emerged, reappearing in Mr. Rogers' home. He then talks to the viewers before concluding the episode. He often feeds his fish, cleans up any props he has used, and returns to the front room, where he sings the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket. He exits the front door as he ends the song, and the camera zooms out of his home and pans across the neighborhood model as the episode ends.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood emphasized young children's social and emotional needs, and unlike another PBS show, Sesame Street, which premiered in 1969, did not focus on cognitive learning. Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson said, "While both shows target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten, Sesame Street concentrates on school-readiness skills while Mister Rogers Neighborhood focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and sense of moral and ethical reasoning". The Neighborhood also spent fewer resources on research than Sesame Street, but Rogers used early childhood education concepts taught by his mentor Margaret McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton in his lessons. As The Washington Post noted, Rogers taught young children about civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence". He tackled difficult topics such as the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, the addition of a newborn into a family, moving and enrolling in a new school, and divorce. For example, he wrote a special segment that dealt with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy that aired on June 7, 1968, two days after the assassination occurred.
According to King, the process of putting each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood together was "painstaking" and Rogers' contribution to the program was "astounding". Rogers wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano and sang for most of the songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, created all the characters (both puppet and human), played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, and produced and approved every detail of the program. The puppets created for the Neighborhood of Make-Believe "included an extraordinary variety of personalities". They were simple puppets but "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings". In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI, now The Fred Rogers Company), to produce the Neighborhood, other programs, and non-broadcast materials.
In 1975, Rogers stopped producing Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to focus on adult programming. Reruns of the Neighborhood continued to air on PBS. King reports that the decision caught many of his coworkers and supporters "off guard". Rogers continued to confer with McFarland about child development and early childhood education, however. In 1979, after an almost five-year hiatus, Rogers returned to producing the Neighborhood; King calls the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever". King writes that by the program's second run in the 1980s, it was "such a cultural touchstone that it had inspired numerous parodies", most notably Eddie Murphy's parody on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s.
Rogers retired from producing the Neighborhood in 2001 at age 73, although reruns continued to air. He and FCI had been making about two or three weeks of new programs per year for many years, "filling the rest of his time slots from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979". The final original episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired on August 31, 2001.
Other work and appearances
In 1969, Rogers testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, which was chaired by Democratic Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed a $20 million bill for the creation of PBS before he left office, but his successor, Richard Nixon, wanted to cut the funding to $10 million. Even though Rogers was not yet nationally known, he was chosen to testify because of his ability to make persuasive arguments and to connect emotionally with his audience. The clip of Rogers' testimony, which was televised and has since been viewed by millions of people on the internet, helped to secure funding for PBS for many years afterward. According to King, Rogers' testimony was "considered one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress, and one of the most powerful pieces of video presentation ever filmed". It brought Pastore to tears and also, according to King, has been studied by public relations experts and academics. Congressional funding for PBS increased from $9 million to $22 million. In 1970, Nixon appointed Rogers as chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
In 1978, while on hiatus from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a 30-minute interview program for adults on PBS called Old Friends ... New Friends. It lasted 20 episodes. Rogers' guests included Hoagy Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Berle, Lorin Hollander, poet Robert Frost's daughter Lesley, and Willie Stargell.
In September 1987, Rogers visited Moscow to appear as the first guest on the long-running Soviet children's TV show Good Night, Little Ones! with host Tatyana Vedeneyeva. The appearance was broadcast in the Soviet Union on December 7, coinciding with the Washington Summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. Vedeneyeva visited the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in November. Her visit was taped and later aired in March 1988 as part of Rogers' program. In 1994, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes, which featured interviews and portraits of four people from across the country who were having a positive impact on children and education. The first time Rogers appeared on television as an actor, and not himself, was in a 1996 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, playing a preacher.
Rogers gave "scores of interviews". Though reluctant to appear on television talk shows, he would usually "charm the host with his quick wit and ability to ad-lib on a moment's notice". Rogers was "one of the country's most sought-after commencement speakers", making over 150 speeches. His friend and colleague David Newell reported that Rogers would "agonize over a speech", and King reported that Rogers was at his least guarded during his speeches, which were about children, television, education, his view of the world, how to make the world a better place, and his quest for self-knowledge. His tone was quiet and informal but "commanded attention". In many speeches, including the ones he made accepting a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997, for his induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, and his final commencement speech at Dartmouth College in 2002, he instructed his audiences to remain silent and think for a moment about someone who had a good influence on them.
Personal life
Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd (called "Joanne") from Jacksonville, Florida, while attending Rollins College. They were married from 1952 until he died in 2003. They had two sons, James and John. Joanne Rogers was "an accomplished pianist" who, like Fred, earned a Bachelor of Music from Rollins, and went on to earn a Master of Music from Florida State University. She performed publicly with her college classmate, Jeannine Morrison, from 1976 to 2008. According to biographer Maxwell King, Rogers' close associates said he was "absolutely faithful to his marriage vows".
Rogers was red-green color-blind. He became a pescatarian in 1970, after the death of his father, and a vegetarian in the early 1980s, saying he "couldn't eat anything that had a mother". He became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times in the mid-1980s and said in one issue, "I love tofu burgers and beets". He told Vegetarian Times that he became a vegetarian for both ethical and health reasons. According to his biographer Maxwell King, Rogers also signed his name to a statement protesting wearing animal furs.
Rogers was a registered Republican, but according to Joanne Rogers, he was "very independent in the way he voted", choosing not to talk about politics because he wanted to be impartial.
Rogers was a Presbyterian, and many of the messages he expressed in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood were inspired by the core tenets of Christianity. Rogers rarely spoke about his faith on air; he believed that teaching through example was as powerful as preaching. He said, "You don't need to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across". According to writer Shea Tuttle, Rogers considered his faith a fundamental part of his personality and "called the space between the viewer and the television set 'holy ground'". He also studied Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Buddhism, and other faiths and cultures. King called him "that unique television star with a real spiritual life", emphasizing the values of patience, reflection, and "silence in a noisy world".
King reported that despite Rogers' family's wealth, he cared little about making money, and lived frugally, especially as he and his wife grew older. King reported that Rogers' relationship with his young audience was important to him. For example, since hosting Misterogers in Canada, he answered every letter sent to him by hand. After Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began airing in the U.S., the letters increased in volume, and he hired staff member and producer Hedda Sharapan to answer them, but he read, edited, and signed each one. King wrote that Rogers saw responding to his viewers' letters as "a pastoral duty of sorts".
The New York Times called Rogers "a dedicated lap-swimmer", and Tom Junod, author of "Can You Say ... Hero?", the 1998 Esquire profile of Rogers, said, "Nearly every morning of his life, Mister Rogers has gone swimming". Rogers began swimming when he was a child at his family's vacation home outside Latrobe, where they owned a pool, and during their winter trips to Florida. King wrote that swimming and playing the piano were "lifelong passions" and that "both gave him a chance to feel capable and in charge of his destiny", and that swimming became "an important part of the strong sense of self-discipline he cultivated". Rogers swam daily at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, after waking every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 A.M. to pray and to "read the Bible and prepare himself for the day". He did not smoke or drink. According to Junod, he did nothing to change his weight from the 143 pounds (65 kg) he weighed for most of his adult life; by 1998, this also included napping daily, going to bed at 9:30 P.M., and sleeping eight hours per night without interruption. Junod said Rogers saw his weight "as a destiny fulfilled", telling Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you'".
Sexuality
According to biographer Michael Long in a 2016 HuffPost essay, Rogers' sexuality had long been a topic of curiosity due to his lack of traditional machismo. The 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? briefly addresses the subject, including an interview with François Clemmons, the gay actor who played Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, who denied that Rogers was gay, saying that if he had a "gay vibe" he would have noticed it.
In 2019, social media users shared an excerpt from the 2018 biography The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, which recounts Rogers telling openly gay friend Dr. William Hirsch that he "must be right smack in the middle" of a one-to-ten sexuality scale, because "I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive." This led some social media users to suggest that Rogers may have been bisexual, although Long noted in his essay that there is no evidence that Rogers ever had sexual relations with men.
Death and memorials
After Rogers' retirement in 2001, he remained busy working with FCI, studying religion and spirituality, making public appearances, traveling, and working on a children's media center named after him at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe with Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of the college. By the summer of 2002, his chronic stomach pain became severe enough for him to see a doctor about it, and in October 2002, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He delayed treatment until after he served as Grand Marshal of the 2003 Rose Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby, in January. On January 6, Rogers underwent stomach surgery. He died less than two months later, on February 27, 2003, less than a month short of his 75th birthday at his home in Pittsburgh, with his wife of 50 years, Joanne, at his side. While comatose shortly before his death, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church from Archabbot Nowicki.
The following day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered Rogers' death on the front page and dedicated an entire section to his death and impact. The newspaper also reported that by noon, the internet "was already full of appreciative pieces" by parents, viewers, producers, and writers. Rogers' death was widely lamented. Most U.S. metropolitan newspapers ran his obituary on their front page and some dedicated entire sections to coverage of his death. WQED aired programs about Rogers the evening he died; the Post-Gazette reported that the ratings for their coverage were three times higher than their normal ratings. That same evening, Nightline on ABC broadcast a rerun of a recent interview with Rogers; the program got the highest ratings of the day, beating the February average ratings of Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 4, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring Rogers sponsored by Representative Mike Doyle from Pennsylvania.
On March 1, 2003, a private funeral was held for Rogers in Unity Chapel, which was restored by Rogers' father, at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe. About 80 relatives, co-workers, and close friends attended the service, which "was planned in great secrecy so that those closest to him could grieve in private". Reverend John McCall, pastor of the Rogers family's church, Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill, gave the homily; Reverend William Barker, a retired Presbyterian minister who was a "close friend of Mr. Rogers and the voice of Mr. Platypus on his show", read Rogers' favorite Bible passages. Rogers was interred at Unity Cemetery in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in a mausoleum owned by his mother's family.
On May 3, 2003, a public memorial was held at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. According to the Post-Gazette, 2,700 people attended. Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma (via video), and organist Alan Morrison performed in honor of Rogers. Barker officiated the service; also in attendance were Pittsburgh philanthropist Elsie Hillman, former Good Morning America host David Hartman, The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, and Arthur creator Marc Brown. Businesswoman and philanthropist Teresa Heinz, PBS President Pat Mitchell, and executive director of The Pittsburgh Project Saleem Ghubril gave remarks. Jeff Erlanger, who at age 10 appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1981 to explain his electric wheelchair, also spoke. The memorial was broadcast several times on Pittsburgh television stations and websites throughout the day.
Legacy
Marc Brown, creator of another PBS children's show, Arthur, considered Rogers both a friend and "a terrific role model for how to use television and the media to be helpful to kids and families". Josh Selig, creator of Wonder Pets, credits Rogers with influencing his use of structure and predictability, and his use of music, opera, and originality.
Rogers inspired Angela Santomero, co-creator of the children's television show Blue's Clues, to earn a degree in developmental psychology and go into educational television. She and the other producers of Blue's Clues used many of Rogers' techniques, such as using child developmental and educational research and having the host speak directly to the camera and transition to a make-believe world. In 2006, three years after Rogers' death and the end of production of Blue's Clues, the Fred Rogers Company contacted Santomero to create a show that would promote Rogers' legacy. In 2012, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with characters from and based upon Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, premiered on PBS.
Rogers' style and approach to children's television and early childhood education also "begged to be parodied". Comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on Saturday Night Live during the 1980s. Rogers told interviewer David Letterman in 1982 that he believed parodies like Murphy's were done "with kindness in their hearts".
Video of Rogers' 1969 testimony in defense of public programming has experienced a resurgence since 2012, going viral at least twice. It first resurfaced after then presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested cutting funding for PBS. In 2017, video of the testimony again went viral after President Donald Trump proposed defunding several arts-related government programs including PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.
A roadside Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedicated to Rogers to be installed in Latrobe was approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on March 4, 2014. It was installed on June 11, 2016, with the title "Fred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)".
Won't You Be My Neighbor? director Morgan Neville's 2018 documentary about Rogers' life, grossed over $22 million and became the top-grossing biographical documentary ever produced, the highest-grossing documentary in five years, and the twelfth-largest-grossing documentary ever made. The 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood tells the story of Rogers and his television series, with Tom Hanks portraying Rogers.
According to Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post, Rogers became a source for parenting advice; she called him "a timeless oracle against a backdrop of ever-shifting parenting philosophies and cultural trends". Robert Thompson of Syracuse University noted that Rogers "took American childhood—and I think Americans in general—through some very turbulent and trying times", from the Vietnam War and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. According to Asia Simone Burns of National Public Radio, in the years following the end of production on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2001 and his death in 2003, Rogers became "a source of comfort, sometimes in the wake of tragedy". Burns has said Rogers' words of comfort "began circulating on social media" following tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Manchester Arena bombing in Manchester, England, in 2017, and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
Awards and honors
Museum exhibits
Smithsonian Institution permanent collection. In 1984, Rogers donated one of his sweaters to the Smithsonian.
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Exhibit created by Rogers and FCI in 1998. It attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors over ten years. It included, from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, one of his sweaters, a pair of his sneakers, original puppets from the program, and photographs of Rogers. The exhibit traveled to children's museums throughout the country for eight years until it was given to the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans as a permanent exhibit to help them recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2007, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh created a traveling exhibit based on the factory tours featured in episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Heinz History Center permanent collection (2018). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and what would have been Rogers' 90th birthday. Exhibits include the iconic King Friday's blue castle, the Owl's tree and a tricycle ridden by courier Mr. McFeely.
Louisiana Children's Museum. The museum contains an exhibit of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which debuted in 2007. The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh donated the exhibit.
Fred Rogers Exhibit. The Exhibit displays the life, career, and legacy of Rogers and includes photos, artifacts from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and clips of the program and interviews featuring Rogers. It is located at the Fred Rogers Center.
Art pieces
Several pieces of art are dedicated to Rogers throughout Pittsburgh, including an eleven-foot (3.4 m) tall, 7,000-pound (3,200 kg) bronze statue of him in the North Shore neighborhood. In the Oakland neighborhood, his portrait is included in the Martin Luther King Jr. and "Interpretations of Oakland" murals. A dinosaur statue titled "Fredasaurus Rex Friday XIII" originally stood in front of the WQED building and, as of 2014, stood in front of the building containing the Fred Rogers Company offices. There is a "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe" in Idlewild Park and a kiosk of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood artifacts at Pittsburgh International Airport. The Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village debuted a miniature recreation of Rogers' house from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2005. In Rogers' hometown of Latrobe, a statue of Rogers on a bench is situated in James H. Rogers Park—a park named for Rogers' father. In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—a seven-foot (2.1 m) tall, 3,000-pound (1,400 kg) bronze statue by Paul Day—was dedicated at Rollins College. The memorial depicts Rogers and Daniel Tiger speaking with a group of children and features lyrics from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's theme on the base.
Honorary degrees
Rogers has received honorary degrees from over 43 colleges and universities. After 1973, two commemorative quilts, created by two of Rogers' friends and archived at the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, were made out of the academic hoods he received during the graduation ceremonies.
Note: Much of the below list is taken from "Honorary Degrees Awarded to Fred Rogers", unless otherwise stated.
Filmography
Television
Published works
Children's books
Our Small World (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Norb Nathanson), 1954, Reed and Witting, OCLC 236163646
The Elves, the Shoemaker, & the Shoemaker's Wife (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Small World Enterprises, OCLC 969517
The Matter of the Mittens, 1973, Small World Enterprises, OCLC 983991
Speedy Delivery (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Hubbard, OCLC 11464480
Henrietta Meets Someone New (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1974, Golden Press, OCLC 950967676
Mister Rogers Talks About, 1974, Platt & Munk, OCLC 1093164
Time to Be Friends, 1974, Hallmark Cards, OCLC 1694547
Everyone is Special (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1975, Western Publishing, OCLC 61280957
Tell Me, Mister Rogers, 1975, Platt & Munk, OCLC 1525780
The Costume Party (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1976, Golden Press, OCLC 3357187
Planet Purple (illustrated by Dennis Hockerman), 1986, Texas Instruments, ISBN 978-0-89512-092-2
If We Were All the Same (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, OCLC 15083194
A Trolley Visit to Make-Believe (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, OCLC 17237650
Wishes Don't Make Things Come True (illustrated Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, OCLC 15196769
No One Can Ever Take Your Place (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, OCLC 990550735
When Monsters Seem Real (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, OCLC 762290817
You Can Never Go Down the Drain (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, ISBN 978-0-394-80430-9
The Giving Box (illustrated by Jennifer Herbert), 2000, Running Press, OCLC 45616325
Good Weather or Not (with Hedda Bluestone Sharapan, illustrated by James Mellet), 2005, Family Communications, OCLC 31597516
Josephine the Short Neck-Giraffe, 2006, Family Communications, OCLC 1048459379
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (illustrated by Luke Flowers), 2009, Quirk Books, OCLC 1042097615
First Experiences series illustrated by Jim Judkis
Going to Day Care, 1985, Putnam, OCLC 11397421
The New Baby, 1985, Putnam, OCLC 11470082
Going to the Potty, 1986, Putnam, OCLC 1123224708
Going to the Doctor, 1986, Putnam, OCLC 12751383
Making Friends, 1987, Putnam, OCLC 1016110382
Moving, 1987, Putnam, OCLC 13526459
Going to the Hospital, 1988, Putnam, OCLC 16472458
When a Pet Dies, 1988, Putnam, OCLC 16130718
Going on an Airplane, 1989, Putnam, OCLC 18589040
Going to the Dentist, 1989, Putnam, OCLC 17954325
Let's Talk About It series
Going to the Hospital, 1977, Family Communications, OCLC 11287782
Having an Operation, 1977, Family Communications, OCLC 11394237
So Many Things To See!, 1977, Family Communications, OCLC 704507774
Wearing a Cast, 1977, Family Communications, OCLC 11287804
Adoption, 1993, Putnam, OCLC 608811678
Divorce, 1994, Putnam, OCLC 228437876
Extraordinary Friends, 2000, Putnam, OCLC 40838701
Stepfamilies, 2001, Putnam, OCLC 35192315
Songbooks
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Mal Wittman), 1960, Vernon Music Corporation, OCLC 12316162
Mister Rogers' Songbook (with Johnny Costa, illustrated by Steven Kellogg), 1970, Random House, OCLC 34224058
Books for adults
Mister Rogers Talks to Parents, 1983, Family Communications, OCLC 704903806
Mister Rogers' Playbook (with Barry Head, illustrated by Jamie Adams), 1986, Berkley Books, OCLC 1016158916
Mister Rogers Talks with Families About Divorce (with Clare O'Brien), 1987, Berkley Books, OCLC 229152864
Mister Rogers' How Families Grow (with Barry Head and Jim Prokell), 1988, Berkley Books, OCLC 20133117
You Are Special: Words of Wisdom from America's Most Beloved Neighbor, 1994, Penguin Books, OCLC 1007556599
Dear Mister Rogers, 1996, Penguin Books, OCLC 1084686063
Mister Rogers' Playtime, 2001, Running Press, OCLC 48118722
The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, 2002, Running Press, OCLC 50757046
You are special: Neighborly Wisdom from Mister Rogers, 2002, Running Press, OCLC 50402664
The World According to Mister Rogers, 2003, Hyperion Books, OCLC 52520625
Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers, 2005, Hyperion Books, OCLC 56686439
The Mister Rogers Parenting Resource Book, 2005, Courage Books, OCLC 60452524
Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom For Parents And Children, 2019, Hachette Books, OCLC 1082231639
Discography
Around the Children's Corner (with Josey Carey), 1958, Vernon Music Corporation, OCLC 12310040
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey), 1959
King Friday XIII Celebrates, 1964
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 1967
Let's Be Together Today, 1968
Josephine the Short-Neck Giraffe, 1969
You Are Special, 1969
A Place of Our Own, 1970
Come On and Wake Up, 1972
Growing, 1992
Bedtime, 1992
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (cassette and book), 1994, Hal Leonard, OCLC 36965578
Coming and Going, 1997
It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers, 2019, Omnivore Recordings, posthumous release
See also
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 documentary
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like, 2018 documentary
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 biographical drama film
List of vegetarians
Notes
References
Works cited
Gross, Terry (1984). "Terry Gross and Fred Rogers". Fresh Air. NPR.
King, Maxwell (2018). The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. Abrams Press. ISBN 978-1-68335-349-2.
Tiech, John (2012). Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City. Charleston, North Carolina: The History Press. ISBN 978-1-60949-709-5.
External links
Fred Rogers at IMDb
PBS Kids: Official Site
The Fred M. Rogers Center
The Fred Rogers Company (formerly known as Family Communications)
Fred Rogers at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
"It's a Beautiful 50th Birthday for 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'". Fresh Air. NPR. February 19, 2018. 1984 interview with Fred Rogers.
The Music of Mister Rogers—Pittsburgh Music History
Fred Rogers discography at Discogs
Fred Rogers at Voice Chasers Archived November 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
Appearances on C-SPAN
Fred Rogers on Charlie Rose |
A_Beautiful_Day_in_the_Neighborhood | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Day_in_the_Neighborhood | [
487
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Day_in_the_Neighborhood"
] | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a 2019 American biographical drama film on the TV presenter Fred Rogers, directed by Marielle Heller and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, inspired by the 1998 article "Can You Say ... Hero?" by Tom Junod, published in Esquire. It stars Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, and Chris Cooper. It depicts Lloyd Vogel (Rhys), a troubled journalist for Esquire who is assigned to profile television icon Fred Rogers (Hanks).
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 22, 2019, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It grossed $68 million worldwide. Critics praised Hanks and Rhys's performances, Heller's direction, and its heart-warming messages. It was chosen by Time magazine as one of the ten best films of the year. For his performance, Hanks was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, as well as the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and BAFTA Awards, among others.
Plot
In 1998, at the beginning of an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers displays a picture board with five doors. Three of the doors are opened to reveal the familiar faces of Lady Aberlin, King Friday, and Mr. McFeely. The fourth door is opened to reveal the face of Mr. Rogers' troubled new friend, Lloyd Vogel, who has a black eye and a cut near his nose. Mr. Rogers explains that Lloyd has been hurt (and not necessarily on his face), and he is struggling to forgive the one who hurt him. After explaining what forgiveness means, Mr. Rogers leaves to visit Lloyd.
Lloyd Vogel is an Esquire journalist known for his cynical writing. He is nervous to attend his sister Lorraine's third wedding because his estranged father, Jerry, against whom he has long held a grudge, is also attending. However, he attends with his wife Andrea and their newborn son, Gavin. During the reception, Lloyd is approached by Jerry, who notes his son’s new family. When Jerry makes a joke about Lloyd's deceased mother Lila -- whom he cheated on and abandoned when she was dying of cancer twenty years earlier -- this enrages Lloyd into punching his father and starting a chaotic brawl, in which he is punched against the wall by another guest, explaining the scar on his face.
Lloyd's editor, Ellen, assigns him to interview children's television presenter Fred Rogers for a 400-word article about heroes. Lloyd feels that the assignment is beneath him, but is informed that none of the other heroes were willing to talk to him. Still cynical, Lloyd questions whether Mister Rogers is "for real". Lloyd travels to the WQED studio in Pittsburgh to interview him. Rogers is dismissive of his fame and displays concern for Lloyd's nose injury. With coaxing, he relates some of the issues with his father, whose apology and attempt at reconciliation Lloyd has rebuffed. Rogers tells him his ways of dealing with anger, including striking the keys of a piano.
Determined to expose Rogers' friendly persona as an act, Lloyd watches several episodes of Rogers' show, but cannot discern anything. Interviewing Rogers again when he visits New York, seemingly dodging Lloyd's questions, he reminisces about raising his two sons. Fred takes out his puppets and asks Lloyd about his childhood rabbit stuffed animal and his father, provoking Lloyd into ending the interview.
Lloyd arrives home to find Jerry and his wife Dorothy having brought pizza while talking with Andrea. They have a tense argument over Jerry’s absence during Lila’s cancer progression and his self-development since. As Lloyd relates how his mother suffered hysterically in her last moments with only him and his sister present, Jerry suffers a heart attack and is transported to the hospital.
Faced with his resurgent trauma at staying overnight at the hospital for Jerry, Lloyd decides to go to Pittsburgh to see Rogers for counsel under the guise of work against Andrea’s protests. Exhausted on arriving, he envisions himself as Rogers’ guest, being asked about hospitals. Next, he finds himself wearing rabbit ears and shrunken to the size of Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday XIII, while Rogers and Andrea (as Lady Aberlin) tower over him. Finally, Lloyd also dreams about Lila, who gently recognizes his anger being for her memory, but assures him that she doesn’t need it. Lloyd awakens to find he collapsed on set.
Rogers and his wife, Joanne, bring Lloyd to their home to recuperate. The men later go to a restaurant, where Rogers asks Lloyd to spend one minute thinking about the people who "loved him into being", and encourages him to forgive Jerry.
Lloyd apologizes to Andrea for leaving her and Gavin at the hospital and visits Jerry and Dorothy at their home. He learns Jerry is dying of cardiac stenosis, and that is why Jerry attempted to reconnect with Lloyd. Lloyd forgives him, promises to be a better father, and writes an article about Rogers' impact on his life. Dorothy tells Lloyd that Jerry had never mentioned his previous marriage or children until recently, after he became ill.
Lorraine, her husband Todd, and Rogers visit Jerry. Rogers asks Jerry to pray for him before he departs. Jerry dies shortly after Rogers' visit and Lloyd's 10,000-word article, "Can You Say ... Hero?" is published as Esquire's cover story.
At his studio, Rogers finishes the episode he was earlier working on, opening the fifth and final door on his picture board, revealing a picture of Lloyd happily reunited with his family. As the production ends, Mr. Rogers plays the piano alone, stops, strikes the keys in frustration, and resumes playing.
Cast
Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel:A cynical journalist who is assigned to profile Fred Rogers for the magazine Esquire. Lloyd is based loosely on journalist Tom Junod, whose encounter with Rogers was adapted into the film. Director Marielle Heller described Lloyd as the viewer's "entry point into Fred's teachings" and expressed hope that Lloyd's character development and growth as a new father would compel viewers to reflect upon themselves.
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers:The creator and host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. To prepare for his role, Hanks visited the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for research in the Fred Rogers Archives and also watched Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a 2018 documentary film. At the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Hanks recalled watching "hundreds of hours" of footage of Rogers on set and behind the scenes in order to get into character. Heller noted that Rogers "doesn't have the dynamic nature you need for a protagonist for a movie" and considered him "the antagonist [...] who comes into someone's life and flips it upside down through his philosophy and the way he lived his life".
Susan Kelechi Watson as Andrea Vogel:A public attorney, Lloyd's wife, and a fan of Rogers' show. Watson, herself a fan of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, described her character as a "career woman" who faces unique challenges of patience and adaptation as the mother of a newborn.
Chris Cooper as Jerry Vogel:Lloyd's estranged father and a philanderer who cheated on his dying wife Lila and abandoned Lloyd and Lorraine when they were children. In a press interview for the film, Cooper described his character as "multidimensional" and compared filming a scene with Hanks to seeing the "eyes of God".
Maryann Plunkett as Joanne Rogers:Fred's wife. Plunkett met with Joanne Rogers to prepare for the role.
Enrico Colantoni as Bill Isler:The President & CEO of Family Communications. In a radio interview, Colantoni said he became friends with the real Bill Isler while filming and described his character as having been "so important to Fred".
Wendy Makkena as Dorothy Vogel:Jerry's second wife. Makkena described her character as part of Vogel's "dysfunctional, complicated family".
Tammy Blanchard as Lorraine Vogel: Lloyd's sister and Todd's wife.
Noah Harpster as Todd: Lorraine's husband and Lloyd's brother-in-law.
Christine Lahti as Ellen: Lloyd's editor.
Additional cast members include Carmen Cusack as Margy, a producer of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood; Jessica Hecht as Lila Vogel, Lloyd's late mother and Jerry's ex-wife; Maddie Corman as Betty Aberlin, an actress starring as Lady Aberlin on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood; Daniel Krell as Mr. McFeely; and Jordan, Naomi, and Zoey Harsh as Gavin Vogel, Lloyd's son.
Notable cameos in the film include Rogers' wife Joanne, Mr. McFeely actor David Newell, Family Communications head Bill Isler, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood producer Margy Whitmer who appear as customers in a restaurant that Rogers and Lloyd meet in. Arsenio Hall and Oprah Winfrey make uncredited appearances in archive footage of talk shows that Lloyd watches in the film, and Fred Rogers appears in archive footage of his show during the ending credits, singing the song "You've Got to Do It".
Production
Development
On January 29, 2018, it was announced that Sony's TriStar Pictures had bought the worldwide distribution rights to the film You Are My Friend, a biographical film based on a 1998 Esquire magazine article about television personality Fred Rogers, who would be played by Tom Hanks. The script by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster appeared on the 2013 Black List of best unproduced screenplays. It would be directed by Marielle Heller; its producers would be Big Beach's Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf along with Youree Henley.
In July 2018, Matthew Rhys signed to play journalist Lloyd Vogel, with production set to start in September 2018. Being Welsh, Rhys had never heard of Fred Rogers before he was offered the role. In August 2018, Chris Cooper was added to play Vogel's father; and in September, Susan Kelechi Watson was added. In October 2018, Enrico Colantoni, Maryann Plunkett, Tammy Blanchard, Wendy Makkena, Sakina Jaffrey, Carmen Cusack, Harpster and Maddie Corman joined the cast. In 2018, Nate Heller was chosen to score the film.
Filming
Principal photography began on September 10, 2018, in Pittsburgh, with several sets converted into New York City. Filming also took place in the Fred Rogers Studio at WQED (TV) where the late television host recorded Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The crew consulted with original crew members from Rogers' television series, and brought in the same cameras and monitors used in the original production. The film received tax credits of approximately $9.5 million against a production budget of $45 million for filming in Pittsburgh. Production wrapped on November 9, 2018.
On October 12, 2018, sound mixer James Emswiller had a heart attack and fell from a second-story balcony. He was taken to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Mercy, where he was pronounced dead.
Release
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019. It was originally going to be released on October 18, 2019 by Sony Pictures Releasing, but in May 2018 was pushed back a month to November 22, 2019. It was released in China on September 18, 2020, after the country reopened theaters following COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Marketing
The film's title was announced on December 27, 2018. The trailer was released on July 22, 2019.
Home media
The film was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on Digital HD on February 4, 2020, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on February 18.
Reception
Box office
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood grossed $61.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $68.4 million, against a production budget of $25 million.
In the United States and Canada, it was released alongside Frozen II and 21 Bridges, and was projected to gross around $15 million from 3,231 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $4.5 million on its first day, including $900,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $13.3 million, finishing third at the box office. It fell just 11% in its second weekend, making $11.8 million and finishing fifth, and remained in fifth place the following weekend with $5.2 million.
Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 372 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Much like the beloved TV personality that inspired it, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood offers a powerfully affecting message about acceptance and understanding." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average four out of five stars, with 66% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Steve Pond of TheWrap wrote: "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood finds a gentle state of grace and shows the courage and smarts to stay in that zone, never rushing things or playing for drama ... But just as Mr. Rogers used his show to talk about big issues with children in a tone that was softer and more halting than you'd expect given the subject matter, so does Heller stick to understatement in a way that threatens to become dull or sappy but never does." Benjamin Lee of The Guardian wrote: "It's a given that Hanks will nab at least a best supporting actor nomination but it would be all too easy to forget his co-star. The cynic-becomes-a-believer arc is age old but it unfolds here without cliche thanks to an emotionally intelligent script from Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, but mainly because of a marvelous, prickly turn from Rhys."
Armond White of the National Review was more critical: "Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster don't show enough faith in Rogers' remedies—and not enough interest in their religious origins. In short, the movie seems wary of faith (it briefly mentions that Rogers was an ordained minister) and settles for secular sentimentality to account for his sensibility and behavior. This not only weakens the film, but it also hobbles Hanks's characterization."
Accolades
References
External links
Official website
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood at AllMovie
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood at IMDb
"Can You Say ... Hero?", Esquire, November 1998 |
Jonathan_Tremblay | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Tremblay | [
488
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Tremblay"
] | Jonathan Tremblay (born November 15, 1984) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2011 election. He represented the electoral district of Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord as a member of the New Democratic Party. Tremblay was defeated when he ran for re-election in 2015.
Shortly after his defeat, Tremblay announced he would seek a city council seat in Beaupré in a by-election.
Prior to being elected, Tremblay was a bricklayer and mason. He has three children.
References
External links
Jonathan Tremblay – Parliament of Canada biography |
Peter_Tosh | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tosh | [
489
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tosh"
] | Winston Hubert McIntosh (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari. He was murdered in 1987 during a home invasion.
Early life
Tosh was born Winston Hubert McIntosh in Westmoreland, the westernmost parish of Jamaica. He was abandoned by his parents and "shuffled among relatives". When McIntosh was fifteen, his aunt died and he moved to Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. He was educated in Bluefields up to age 17, then moved to Kingston to live with his aunt. He began an apprenticeship as a welder.
He first learned guitar after watching a man in the country play a song that captivated him. He watched the man play the same song for half a day, memorizing everything his fingers were doing. He then picked up the guitar and played the song back to the man. The man then asked McIntosh who had taught him to play; McIntosh told him that he had. During the early 1960s, as an aspiring musician, Tosh went to vocal teacher Joe Higgs, who gave free music lessons to young people. Through his contact with Higgs, Tosh met Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) and Neville O'Reilly Livingston (Bunny Wailer). He then changed his name to Peter Tosh and the trio started singing together in 1962. Higgs taught the trio to harmonise and while developing their music, they would often play on the street corners of Trenchtown.
Music career
By 1964, Tosh, Marley, and Bunny had formed the Wailing Wailers, with falsetto singer Junior Braithwaite, and backup singers Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Initially, Tosh was the only one in the group who could play musical instruments. According to Bunny Wailer, Tosh was critical to the band because he was a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, and thus became an inspiration for the other band members to learn to play. The Wailing Wailers had a major ska hit with their first single, "Simmer Down", and recorded several more successful singles before Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith left the band in late 1965. Marley spent much of 1966 in Delaware in the United States with his mother, Cedella (née Malcolm) Marley-Booker, and for a brief time was working at a nearby Chrysler factory. He returned to Jamaica in early 1967 with a renewed interest in music and a new spirituality. Tosh and Bunny were already Rastafarians when Marley returned from the US, and the three became very involved with the Rastafari faith. Soon afterwards, they renamed the musical group the Wailers. Tosh would explain later that they chose the name Wailers because to "wail" means to mourn or to, as he put it, "...express one's feelings vocally". He also claims that he was the beginning of the group, and that it was he who first taught Bob Marley the guitar. Also according to Bunny Wailer, the early Wailers learned to play instruments from Tosh.
During the mid-1960s Tosh, along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, were introduced to Danny Sims and Johnny Nash, who signed the three artists to an exclusive recording contract on Sims' and Nash's JAD Records label as well as an exclusive publishing agreement through Sims' music publishing company, Cayman Music. Rejecting the up-tempo dance of ska, the band slowed their music to a rocksteady pace, and infused their lyrics with political and social messages inspired by their new-found faith. The Wailers composed several songs for the American-born singer Nash before teaming with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry to record some of the earliest well-known reggae songs, including "Soul Rebel", "Duppy Conqueror", and "Small Axe". The collaboration had given birth to reggae music and in 1970 bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and his brother, drummer Carlton Barrett, joined the group. They recorded the album The Best of The Wailers, which was produced by Leslie Kong and released in 1971.
In 1972, Danny Sims assigned the balance of the JAD Records recording contract with the band to Chris Blackwell and Island Records company and released their debut, Catch a Fire, in 1973, following it with Burnin' the same year. The Wailers had moved from many producers after 1970 and there were instances where producers would record rehearsal sessions that Tosh did and release them in England under the name "Peter Touch".
In 1973, Tosh was driving home with his girlfriend Evonne when his car was hit by another car driving on the wrong side of the road. The accident killed Evonne and severely fractured Tosh's skull.
After Island Records president Chris Blackwell refused to issue his solo album in 1974, Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the Wailers, citing the unfair treatment they received from Blackwell, to whom Tosh often referred with a derogatory play on Blackwell's surname, 'Whiteworst'. Tosh had written or co-written many of the Wailers' hit songs such as "Get Up, Stand Up", "400 Years", and "No Sympathy". Tosh went on to start a solo career, releasing albums with CBS Records and Rolling Stones Records
Solo career
Tosh's debut solo album, Legalize It, was recorded in 1975-6 at Treasure Isle. It was released in June 1976 on CBS Records. The title track soon became popular among endorsers of cannabis legalization, reggae music lovers and Rastafari all over the world, and was a favourite at Tosh's concerts. Also in 1976, Tosh organised a backing band, Word, Sound and Power, who were to accompany him on tour for the next few years, and many of whom performed on his albums of this period. Tosh's second album, Equal Rights, released in 1977. It featured his recording of a song co-written with Marley, "Get Up, Stand Up", and a cover of "Stepping Razor" that would also appear on the soundtrack to the film Rockers.
In 1978, the Rolling Stones' record label Rolling Stones Records contracted with Tosh, on which the album Bush Doctor was released, introducing Tosh to a larger audience. The album featured Rolling Stones frontmen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and the lead single – a cover version of The Temptations song "Don't Look Back" – was performed as a duet with Jagger. In April, Tosh performed at the Jamaican One Love Peace Concert of 1978. Tosh lit a marijuana spliff and lectured about legalising cannabis, lambasting attending dignitaries Michael Manley and Edward Seaga for their failure to enact such legislation. According to The Gleaner, Tosh became regular target for the police after the concert. In September, he was arrested by police at Half-Way Tree square; on grounds of smoking marijuana and attacking a police officer. He report being beaten severely while in police custody - resulting in a broken hand and head injuries requiring stitches.
Mystic Man (1979), and Wanted Dread and Alive (1981) followed, both released on Rolling Stones Records. Tosh tried to gain some mainstream success while keeping his militant views, but was only moderately successful, especially when compared to Marley's achievements.
In 1984, after the release of 1983's album Mama Africa, Tosh went into self-imposed exile, seeking the spiritual advice of traditional medicine men in Africa, and trying to free himself from recording agreements that distributed his records in South Africa. Tosh had been at odds for several years with his label, EMI, over a perceived lack of promotion for his music.
Tosh also participated in the international opposition to South African apartheid by appearing at anti-apartheid concerts and by conveying his opinion in various songs like "Apartheid" (1977, re-recorded 1987), "Equal Rights" (1977), "Fight On" (1979), and "Not Gonna Give It Up" (1983). In 1987, Peter Tosh seemed to be having a career revival. He was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Performance in 1987 for No Nuclear War, his last record.
Personal life
Religion
Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer during the late 1960s, Peter Tosh became a devotee of Rastafari. One of the beliefs of the Rastas is that Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, was either an embodiment of God or a messenger of God, leading the three friends to be baptized in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Unicycling
At some point after his departure from the Wailers, Tosh developed an interest in unicycles and became a unicycle rider, being able to ride forwards and backwards and hop. He often amused his audiences by riding onto the stage on his unicycle for his shows.
Family
Tosh's girlfriend Evonne was killed in a car crash in 1973. Tosh was in a relationship with his wife Marlene Brown for about five years from 1982, she was 21 at the start of the relationship. Tosh had ten children including Andrew (1967), Jawara (mother Melody Cunningham), Aldrina and youngest Niambe.
Assault and murder
On 11 September 1987, after Tosh returned to his home in Jamaica, a three-man gang came to his house on motorcycles demanding money. Tosh replied that he did not have any with him, but the gang did not believe him. They remained at his residence for several hours and tortured Tosh in an attempt to extort money from him. Over the hours, as various associates of Tosh arrived to visit him, they were also taken hostage by the gunmen. The gunmen included chief thug, Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, a man whom Tosh had previously befriended and tried to help find work after Lobban's release from a lengthy jail sentence.
Tosh said he did not have any money in the house, after which Lobban and the fellow gunmen began opening fire in a reckless manner. Tosh was shot twice in the head and killed. Herbalist Wilton "Doc" Brown and disc jockey Jeff 'Free I' Dixon also died as a result of wounds sustained during the robbery. Several others in the house were wounded, including Tosh's common law wife Andrea Marlene Brown, Free I's wife Yvonne ("Joy"); Tosh's drummer Carlton "Santa" Davis, and musician Michael Robinson.
According to Police Commissioner Herman Ricketts, Lobban surrendered and two other men were interrogated but not publicly named. Lobban plead innocent during his trial, telling the court he had been drinking with friends. The trial was held in a closed court due to the involvement of illegal firearms. Lobban was ultimately found guilty by a jury of eight women and four men and sentenced to death by hanging.
In 1995, Lobban's sentence was commuted and he remained in jail. Another suspect was acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The other two gunmen were never identified by name.
Instruments
In 1983, at the Los Angeles stop on Tosh's Mama Africa tour, a local musician named Bruno Coon went to the hotel at which Tosh was staying, claiming to have a gift for him. The gift was a custom-built guitar in the shape of an M16 rifle. Tosh accepted the gift personally. The guitar was subsequently lost by the airlines when the tour went to Europe but was recovered when Tosh's public relations agent placed an article about its loss in Der Spiegel. Tosh went on to perform on stage with the guitar.
The promoters of the Flashpoint Film Festival announced in 2006 that Tosh's common-law wife Andrea "Marlene" Brown would auction it on eBay. Tosh's sons, Andrew Tosh, and Jawara McIntosh, prevented the sale, claiming ownership of the guitar. In 2011 Andrew Tosh said that the guitar was in the custody of a close friend, awaiting the opening of a museum dedicated to Peter Tosh.
Legacy
In 1979, a 1964 photograph of Tosh in sunglasses and a suit, also featuring Bob Marley and the Wailers, was used the inspiration for the logo of 2 Tone Records. The label released albums from ska bands such as The Specials. The logo featured a stylized man in a suit based on the photo of Tosh, although the figure was called "Walt Jabsco". The logo in turn was the inspiration for a character in a Webdings font designed by Vincent Connare in 1997 ("Man in Business Suit Levitating emoji" in the Emoji system). Connare changed the design to face forward and floating. Tosh’s children Andrew Tosh and Niambe McIntosh both praised the emoji in a 2021 BBC interview, with Andrew stating that "[Peter Tosh] wanted [people] to dance to their own (political) awakening".
In 1993, Stepping Razor: Red X was released, a documentary film chronicling Tosh's life, music and untimely death. It was directed by Canadian filmmaker Nicholas Campbell, produced by Wayne Jobson and based upon a series of spoken-word recordings made by Peter Tosh himself. The film was released on DVD in 2002.
A monument to Tosh is maintained by his family near Negril, Jamaica, which is open to the public. His birthday is celebrated there annually with live reggae music.
In October 2012, Tosh was posthumously awarded Jamaica's fourth highest honour, the Order of Merit.
In 2015, Tosh's daughter – the administrator of the Peter Tosh Estate – deemed that April 20 should be celebrated as International Peter Tosh Day, in honour of his "philosophy of responsible cannabis consumption for medicinal and spiritual health benefits".
A square on Trafalgar Road in Kingston, Jamaica, was renamed Peter Tosh Square. The square is home to the Peter Tosh Museum, opened on Peter Tosh's 72nd birthday on 19 October 2016. Among the artifacts on display is Tosh's M16 guitar. There was a benefit concert for the grand opening, on the 22nd, featuring Chronixx, Luciano and Andrew Tosh.
The annual Peter Tosh Gala Awards event was inaugurated in 2017.
In October 2019, a commemorative blue plaque dedicated by the Nubian Jak Community Trust honoring Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer was placed at the former site of Basing Street Studios in London, where Catch a Fire and Burnin' were completed.
In 2023, he was posthumously bestowed with the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Captured Live (1984)
Live at the One Love Peace Concert (JAD) (2000)
Live & Dangerous: Boston 1976 (2001)
Live at the Jamaica World Music Festival 1982 (JAD) (2002)
Complete Captured Live (2002)
Live at My Father's Place 1978 (2014)
Compilations
Listed are compilations containing material previously unreleased outside of Jamaica.
The Toughest (Capitol) (1988)
Honorary Citizen (1997)
Scrolls of the Prophet: The Best of Peter Tosh (1999)
Arise Black Man (1999)
Black Dignity (Early Works of the Stepping Razor) (2001)
I Am That I Am (JAD) (2001)
The Best of Peter Tosh 1977–1987 (2003)
Can't Blame the Youth (JAD) (2004)
Black Dignity (2004)
Talking Revolution (2005)
The Ultimate Peter Tosh Experience (2009)
Appears on
The Wailing Wailers (1965)
Negril (Eric Gale, 1975)
Rastafari Dub (Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus, 1975)
Blackheart Man (Bunny Wailer, 1976)
Word Sound and Power (Chris Hinze, 1980)
See also
List of Rastafarians
List of reggae musicians
References
External links
Peter Tosh on AllMusic
Discography
Peter Tosh – Jamaicapage.com Feature
The Wailers News
Peter Tosh [Discography, Biography & Lyrics] @ www.MusicGonnaTeach.com |
Bunny_Wailer | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer | [
489
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer"
] | Neville O'Riley Livingston (10 April 1947 – 2 March 2021), known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the longtime standard-bearers of reggae music. He was also known as Jah B, Bunny O'Riley, and Bunny Livingston.
Early life and family
Wailer was born Neville O'Riley Livingston on 10 April 1947 in Kingston. He spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish. It was there that he first met Bob Marley, and the two young boys befriended each other quickly. The boys both came from single-parent families; Livingston was brought up by his father, Marley by his mother. Later, Wailer's father Thaddeus "Thaddy Shut" Livingston lived with Marley's mother Cedella Booker in Trenchtown and had a daughter with her named Pearl Livingston. Peter Tosh had a son, Andrew Tosh, with Wailer's sister Shirley, making Andrew his nephew.
The Wailers
Wailer had originally gone to audition for Leslie Kong at Beverley's Records in 1962, around the same time his step-brother Bob Marley was cutting "Judge Not". Wailer had intended to sing his first composition, "Pass It On", which at the time was more ska-oriented. However, Wailer was late getting out of school and missed his audition. A few months later, in 1963, he formed "The Wailing Wailers" with Marley and friend Peter Tosh, and the short-term members Junior Braithwaite and Beverley Kelso. Wailer tended to sing lead vocals less often than Marley and Tosh in the early years, but when Marley left Jamaica in 1966 for Delaware in the US, and was briefly replaced by Constantine "Vision" Walker, Wailer began to record and sing lead vocals on some of his own compositions, such as "Who Feels It Knows It", "I Stand Predominate", and "Sunday Morning". Wailer's style of music was influenced by gospel music and the soul singer Curtis Mayfield. In 1967, he recorded "This Train", based on a gospel standard, for the first time, at Studio One.
Wailer was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis in June 1967 and served a 14-month prison sentence. Around this time he, Bob Marley, and Peter Tosh signed an exclusive recording agreement with Danny Sim's JAD Records and an exclusive publishing agreement with Sim's music publishing company Cayman Music.
As the Wailers regularly changed producers in the late 1960s, Wailer continued to contribute songs to the group's repertoire. The music critic Kwame Dawes says that Wailer's song lyrics were carefully crafted and literary in style, and he remained a key part of the group's distinctive harmonies. Wailer sang lead on such songs as "Dreamland" (a cover of El Tempos' "My Dream Island", which soon became his signature song) "Riding High", "Brainwashing", and in the bridge of the Wailers' song, "Keep On Moving" (sung in the style of Curtis Mayfield of the Impressions), produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry. In 1971, the Wailers recorded Bunny Wailer's song "Pass It On", which he said he wrote in 1962; it was released as a dubplate mix on JAD's "Original Cuts" compilation. This version of the song features different lyrics and music in the verses to the later versions of "Pass It On" – Wailer would later reuse these in "Innocent Blood". By 1973, each of the three founding Wailers operated his own label, Marley with Tuff Gong, Tosh with H.I.M. Intel Diplo, and Bunny Wailer with Solomonic. He sang lead vocals on "Reincarnated Souls", the B-side of the Wailers first Island single of the new era, and on two tracks on the Wailers last trio LP, "Burnin'": "Pass it On" and "Hallelujah Time". By now he was recording singles in his own right, cutting "Searching For Love", "Life Line", "Trod On", "Arab Oil Weapon", and "Pass It On" (a new recording of the Wailers song) for his own label.
Bunny Wailer toured with the Wailers in England and the United States, but soon became reluctant to leave Jamaica. He and Tosh were more marginalised in the group as the Wailers attained international success, and attention was increasingly focused on Marley. Wailer subsequently left the Wailers in 1973 and adopted the name "Bunny" in pursuit of a solo career after balking when Chris Blackwell wanted the Wailers to tour freak clubs in the United States, stating that it was against his Rastafari principles. Before leaving the Wailers, Wailer had become more focused on his spiritual faith. He identified with the Rastafari movement, as did the other Wailers. He also composed much of his own material as well as re-recording a number of cuts from the Wailers' catalogue. Wailer recorded primarily in the roots style, in keeping with his often political and spiritual messages; his album Blackheart Man was well received. According to the journalist Peter Mason, writing in the Guardian newspaper, Blackheart Man "is widely felt to be one of reggae’s highest peaks".
Solo career
After leaving the Wailers, Wailer experimented with disco on his album Hook Line & Sinker, while Sings the Wailers reworks many of The Wailers songs with the backing of Jamaican session musicians, Sly and Robbie. He also had success recording in the typically apolitical, more pop, dancehall style.
During this musical period, one of the highlights of Bunny Wailer's career was composing the hit single "Electric Boogie" in 1982 for Marcia Griffiths. This song led to the dance craze "Electric Slide" in 1986, which gained popularity in Washington D.C. and other parts of the world. Bunny Wailer also recorded versions of the song for himself, although with less success compared to Griffiths' versions.
Wailer's music had dancehall and rockers influences, best exemplified by the album Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers on which he reinterpreted some of the Wailers material as a solo roots singer with roots reggae-based backing by Sly and Robbie. The album, produced by Bunny Wailer, was recorded at Harry J Studio. Some of these tracks are reworked classic Wailers tracks such as "Dreamland", a cover of El Tempos' "My Dream Island" with slightly reworked lyrics that became Bunny's signature song. This was recorded in 1966 by Clement Coxsone Dodd, and in 1972 with Lee "Scratch" Perry; it was released as a 7" in 1971 with a U-Roy version on the B-side. Another classic is "Dancing Shoes", first recorded in the mid-1960s as a driving ska/soul classic with Bunny Wailer on lead vocals.
Wailer won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album three times; in 1991 for the album Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley, in 1995 for Crucial! Roots Classics, and in 1997 for Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley's 50th Anniversary. He was also featured on the album True Love by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including; Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe, and The Skatalites. Wailer's catalogue is now under the curation of his agent Simon Vumbaca.
However, in 1991, Bunny Wailer faced one of the lowest points in his career at the annual Sting event in Portmore, when he was driven off stage by a shower of bottles thrown by the audience. This incident, not uncommon at dancehall events, highlighted the tension between Wailer's traditional style and the emerging trends popularized by artists such as Ninjaman and Shabba Ranks.[1]
In August 2012, it was announced that Bunny Wailer would receive Jamaica's fifth highest honour, the Order of Jamaica.
In 2016, he played a month-long 'Blackheart Man' tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his 1976 album.
In October 2017, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the Jamaican government, the nation's fourth-highest honour.
In October 2019, a commemorative blue plaque dedicated by the Nubian Jak Community Trust honoring Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer was placed at the former site of Basing Street Studios in London, where Catch a Fire and Burnin' were completed.
In November 2019, Wailer received a Pinnacle Award in New York from the Coalition to Preserve Reggae.
Health and death
In October 2018, Wailer suffered a minor stroke, resulting in speech problems. After suffering another stroke in July 2020, he was hospitalized at Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, where he eventually died on 2 March 2021 at the age of 73, of complications from the stroke he suffered the previous year.
Solo discography
Albums
Compilations
Crucial! Roots Classics (1994) RAS
Retrospective (1995) Solomonic/Shanachie
Dubd'sco Volumes 1 & 2 (1998) RAS
Bob Marley & The Wailers Vol 2: Bunny Wailer & Johnny Lover (2002) Saludos Amigos (with Johnny Lover)
Winning Combinations: Bunny Wailer & Dennis Brown (2002) Universal Special Products (with Dennis Brown)
The Wailers Legacy (2006) Solomonic (Bunny Wailer & The Wailers)
Tuff Gong/Island Singles 1: Tread Along: 1969–1976 (2016) Dub Store Records/Tuff Gong/Island
Solomonic Singles 2: Rise and Shine: 1977–1986 (2016) Dub Store Records/Solomonic
DVDs
Live (2005) Video Music, Inc.
Appearances on DVD compilations
A Reggae Session (1988) Sony BMG, features "Roots, Radics, Rockers and Reggae" and "Rise and Shine"
Discography overview
Roots Reggae Library
References
External links
The Wailers News
Bunny Wailer at AllMusic
Bunny Wailer discography at Discogs
Bunny Wailer at IMDb
Bunny Wailer [Discography, Biography & Lyrics] @ www.MusicGonnaTeach.com
Roots Archives - Artist : Bunny Wailer |
List_of_Xena:_Warrior_Princess_episodes | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xena:_Warrior_Princess_episodes | [
490
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xena:_Warrior_Princess_episodes"
] | Xena: Warrior Princess is an American television series that was created by Robert Tapert and John Schulian. Xena is a historical fantasy set primarily in ancient Greece, although it has a flexible time setting and occasionally features Oriental, Egyptian and Medieval elements. The flexible fantasy framework of the show accommodates a considerable range of theatrical styles, from high melodrama to slapstick comedy, from whimsical and musical to all-out action and adventure. While the show is typically set in ancient times, its themes are essentially modern and it investigates the ideas of taking responsibility for past misdeeds, the value of human life, personal liberty and sacrifice, and friendship. The show often addresses ethical dilemmas, such as the morality of pacifism; however, the storylines rarely seek to provide unequivocal solutions.
The character of Xena debuted on March 13, 1995, on the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Three episodes featuring Xena, collectively called The Xena Trilogy, initially aired as part of the first season of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Xena's own series began on September 4, 1995. The series ran for six seasons and 134 episodes until its final episode aired on June 23, 2001. The series won an Emmy Award in 2001, and was ranked in #10 in TV Guide's Top 25 Cult TV Shows of All Time.
Series overview
Episodes
Introductory episodes (1995)
The program and its namesake character are introduced during the first season of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episodes, "The Warrior Princess", "The Gauntlet" and "Unchained Heart", served as pilot episodes for the show.
Season 1 (1995–96)
Season 2 (1996–97)
Season 3 (1997–98)
Season 4 (1998–99)
Season 5 (1999–2000)
Season 6 (2000–01)
Home media release
References
External links
Xena: Warrior Princess at IMDb |
Lucy_Lawless | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Lawless | [
490
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Lawless"
] | Lucille Frances Lawless (née Ryan; born 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder.
Lawless had recurring roles as Diane Lewis-Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2012–2014), and as Countess Palatine Ingrid Von Marburg on the WGN America supernatural series Salem (2015). She also starred as Ruby on the Starz horror-comedy series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018).
Early life
Lucille Frances "Lucy" Ryan was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert to teacher Julie Ryan (née Haynes) and Mount Albert's mayor, banker Frank Ryan. She is the fifth of six siblings (four brothers and one sister). She has described her family as "this big, sprawling Irish Catholic family", and while filming in Ireland for the Discovery Channel in 2004, told Ireland on Sunday that her father's family originated in Quilty, County Clare, Ireland.
Her first musical was at age 10 and she began acting in secondary school. She attended Marist College, Auckland, and began studies at Auckland University in languages. At 18, she went on her "overseas experience", travelling through Europe and Australia with her future husband, Garth Lawless. At 21, she won the 1989 Mrs New Zealand competition.
Lawless has said she suffered from bulimia as a child, but was able to overcome the illness.
Career
Lawless's television debut was in the New Zealand sketch-comedy series, Funny Business. Then she studied drama at the William Davis Centre for Actors Study in Vancouver, Canada.
In 1994, Lawless appeared in Hercules and the Amazon Women, that became the television pilot for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In that episode, she played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia. She went on to play another character, Lyla, in the first-season episode "As Darkness Falls".
Xena: Warrior Princess
Lawless received her best-known role as a heroic warrior woman named Xena in the first season of Hercules. She first appeared in the episode "The Warrior Princess" which aired in March 1995. R. J. Stewart dramatised the teleplay from a story that Robert G. "Rob" Tapert commissioned John Schulian to write. The character became a fan favourite. Vanessa Angel was originally cast in the role, but she fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting. To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless's hair, previously an ash blonde, was dyed black. She also wore a much darker costume. Lawless returned as Xena in two more episodes of the first season of Hercules, which portrayed her turn from villainess to a good, heroic character.
The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created: Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September 1995. Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent programme, was a huge hit and achieved high ratings and cultural significance, lasting six seasons. The series brought Lawless an immense amount of attention and she became an international celebrity.
While taping an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October 1996, Lawless suffered a fractured pelvis when the horse she was riding lost its footing in the studio car park. She made a complete recovery, but several episodes of the second season of Xena were rewritten to focus on background characters to minimise the time Lawless was needed on set.
LGBT rights icon
Xena's ambiguous romantic relationship with travelling companion Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) led to Lawless becoming a lesbian icon, a role of which she has said she is proud. She has said that during the years she was playing the role, she had been undecided on the nature of the relationship, but in a 2003 interview with Lesbian News magazine, she said that after viewing the series finale, she had come to see Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as definitely gay, adding "they're married, man". This reputation became cemented after her "graphic lesbian sex scenes" in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. She has appeared at gay pride events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
For her support of LGBT rights, including her public support for same-sex marriage, Lawless was given the Star 100–Ally of the Year award at the Australian LGBTI Awards ceremony in 2017.
Other work
Lawless first appeared on Broadway in September 1997 in the Grease revival, as the "bad girl" character Betty Rizzo. She wanted to play the lead role of Sandy and later stated her belief that the producers typecast her to play "bad girls" following her success as Xena. She said the Sandy character was very similar to her sheltered childhood, growing up in New Zealand with many protective older brothers.
From 2005 to 2009, she had a recurring role in the television series Battlestar Galactica. Lawless appeared as D'Anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who worked on a critical documentary about the crew of the Galactica and was later revealed to be Humanoid Cylon model Number Three.
Lawless competed as one of the celebrity singers on the Fox reality TV show Celebrity Duets in 2006, finishing as the runner-up to winner Alfonso Ribeiro.
Lawless has also performed as a voice actor in several animated features: In 2008, Lawless voiced the animated character of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in the direct-to-video superhero animated film Justice League: The New Frontier, adapted from the DC Comics limited series. In 2014, Lawless voiced the militaristic "Queen of the Ants" in the American animated television series Adventure Time on the Cartoon Network.
In 2007, Lawless was to appear as one of the leads in the ensemble cast of the ABC television series, Football Wives, based on the popular British series Footballers' Wives. The series did not continue past the pilot episode, but the network extended the options on its contracts with Lawless and the other actors slated to star in the series, including Gabrielle Union, Kiele Sanchez, Ving Rhames, and James Van Der Beek.
Lawless returned to television on 10 November 2008 in a guest-starring role on the CBS television series CSI: Miami, in a Season 7 episode, "Cheating Death", playing a madam with connections to a murder and helping Horatio "H" Caine with his inquiries.
In 2009, Lawless appeared in two episodes of the final season of The L Word as Sergeant Marybeth Duffy. She played a role in the Adam Sandler movie Bedtime Stories released December 2008. Also in 2008, Lawless appeared with her former Xena stuntwoman Zoë Bell in Sony (Crackle)'s new web series Angel of Death, written by Ed Brubaker, which debuted online in early 2009. In 2009, Lawless guest-starred in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords as Paula, assistant to the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Lawless co-starred in the Starz original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The show was based on the life of Spartacus, the famous gladiator, and the slave revolt he led, and was produced by long-time Xena producers Sam Raimi and "Rob" Tapert, her own husband. Lawless played the role of Lucretia, the wife of Lentulus Batiatus, who were both the owners of a gladiator ludus, which also saw Lawless doing nude scenes for the first time. Lawless won the 2011 Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Lawless reprised her role as Lucretia in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which chronicled life in the Ludus before Spartacus's arrival, and she also returned for the sequel Spartacus: Vengeance.
Lawless provided the voice of Goldmoon for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-DVD animated movie based on the novel of the same name. From 2012 to 2014, she had a recurring role on the NBC series Parks and Recreation as Diane, the love interest and eventual wife of Ron Swanson.
In 2014, Lawless guest starred in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Isabelle Hartley in the season two premiere, and reprised the role later in episode 15 of season two, "One Door Closes". In 2015, Lawless landed the recurring guest role of Countess Palatine Ingrid Von Marburg in WGN America's Salem. Countess Marburg is presented as one of the last remaining survivors of the legendary line of ancient German witches. The series ended in 2017. In March 2015, it was announced that she would be portraying the role of Ruby in Starz horror-comedy series Ash vs Evil Dead. The series ended in 2018.
In 2019, Lawless began playing Alexa Crowe, a private investigator in My Life Is Murder. The Acorn TV series began in 2019 and reached its third season in 2022.
In 2023, Lawless co-wrote and directed Never Look Away, a film based on the life of New Zealand-born CNN camera operator Margaret Moth.
Music
Lawless, who has a background in musical theatre, played Betty Rizzo on Broadway in a production of Grease in 1997. She continued to sing during the run of Xena, even contributing dirge music of her own composition; this made it into the episode "The Path Not Taken" as the dirge "Burial", which she sang for the first time in the episode. Two musically-oriented episodes, "The Bitter Suite" and "Lyre, Lyre, Heart's on Fire", also showcased not only her singing but also that of some of her castmates. (See also List of Xena: Warrior Princess episodes for details.)
Lawless was encouraged to resume her singing career after being a contestant on Celebrity Duets, which she finished as runner-up to Alfonso Ribeiro. She made her solo debut at the Roxy in Hollywood, a venue of 500 seats, on 13 January 2007, with a sold-out crowd for consecutive concerts.
Charity work and activism
Lawless is a member of the board of trustees of the StarShip Foundation, the charity arm of the Starship Children's Health which is part of the Auckland District Health Board. It is set up to provide additional equipment, support and help to staff, patients and families. She helps fundraising for the organisation. She recently sat for the New Zealand television series The Sitting, an arts series where celebrity portraits are produced during an interview session, with the portraits later auctioned for charity.
Since 2006, 21 September marks "Lucy Lawless Feel the Love Day/Week". The day, organised by the Official Lucy Lawless Fan Club, begins a week of charitable acts and donations by fans in honour and support of Lawless.
In May 2009 Lawless became a "climate ambassador" for the Greenpeace "Sign On" campaign.
In February 2012, she and six other Greenpeace activists boarded an oil drilling ship at Port Taranaki, and remained on it for 77 hours to stop it leaving for the Arctic where it was going to take part in oil exploration. She was subsequently arrested and charged with burglary, which carried an imprisonment term of up to 10 years if convicted. She pleaded guilty on 14 June 2012 to trespass charges regarding the February incident. Lawless said she intended for now to remain involved with Greenpeace. In February 2013, Lawless and the other six activists were each sentenced to pay a fine of NZ$651 and undertake 120 hours of community service. The judge denied the NZ$545,000 in reparations that Shell Todd Oil Services had sought from the activists. Following the sentencing, Lawless said: "I consider it a great victory that the court has struck down the reparation demand from Shell, which I think was absolutely ludicrous."
Personal life
In 1988, she became pregnant from her boyfriend Garth Lawless while working with him in the Australian outback. They married in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, that year, then returned to New Zealand where their daughter was born. They divorced in 1995.
On 28 March 1998, Lawless married Xena's executive producer, Pacific Renaissance Pictures CEO Robert Tapert at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California. They have two sons.
Astronomer Michael E. Brown nicknamed his newly discovered dwarf planet "Xena"; its then-provisional designation being 2003 UB313. When this object was initially determined to be larger than Pluto, it gained international attention and forced a year-long debate among astronomers as to the definition of a planet. (Observations made by New Horizons subsequently found Pluto to be marginally larger than the object, which was ultimately named Eris.) The object's nickname "Xena" was used in the press. New Scientist magazine polled the public on their preferred final name for the so-called tenth planet; "Xena" ranked number 4. Lawless called Brown in December 2005 to thank him for his "senseless act of beauty", and claimed that she "never dared hope [the name] would stick". Eventually, both it and Pluto were deemed not to be true planets, and were instead classified as dwarf planets. Although "Xena" is now officially known as Eris, Brown made an indirect tribute to Lawless by naming Eris's moon Dysnomia after the Greek goddess of lawlessness.
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Hunted: The Demon's Forge (2011), as Seraphine
Evil Dead: The Game (2023), as Ruby Knowby
Stage
1997: Grease! – On Broadway, NY USA
2002: The Vagina Monologues – Auckland, NZ
2005: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Seattle, USA
2011: BARE For Christchurch – Auckland, NZ
2013: Chicago The Musical – Hollywood Bowl, LA, USA
2013: Chicago The Musical – Auckland, NZ
2014–2015: Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight – Pasadena, CA, USA
2017: Pleasuredome The Musical – Auckland, NZ
Discography
Albums
Come 2 Me
Come to Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood
Concert DVDs
Come to Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood
Gimme Some, Sugar: Lawless, NYC
Lucy Lawless Live in Chicago: Still Got The Blues
Lucy Lawless Live at The Roxy Theater: Ho Down
Lucy Lawless Live in Concert: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Other songs
"Little Child" on Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars
"4 All of Us" with Pauly Fuemana (OMC)
"Little Child" on The Starship Christmas Album 2012 – Starship Foundation
Honours
In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lawless was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to entertainment and the community.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Lucy Lawless at IMDb
Lucy Lawless at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
Lucy Lawless at the Internet Broadway Database |
Tim_McGraw | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_McGraw | [
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_McGraw"
] | Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has released 16 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, five for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number one on the Top Country Albums charts, with his 1994 breakthrough album Not a Moment Too Soon being the top country album of 1994. In total, McGraw's albums have produced 65 singles, 25 of which have reached number one on the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. Three of these singles – "It's Your Love", "Just to See You Smile", and "Live Like You Were Dying" – were respectively the top country songs of 1997, 1998, and 2004 according to Billboard Year-End. He has also won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and three People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour, which was done in partnership with his wife, Faith Hill, is one of the highest-grossing tours in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side, Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Tomorrowland, Four Christmases, flashback scenes in 2 episodes of Yellowstone (American TV series), and The Shack as well as lead roles in Flicka (2006), Country Strong (2010), and 1883 (2021). He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats. McGraw has been married to singer Faith Hill since 1996 and is the eldest son of former MLB pitcher Tug McGraw.
Early life
Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana, the only child of Elizabeth "Betty" Ann D'Agostino, a waitress from Jacksonville, Florida, and Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr., a pitcher for the minor league Jacksonville Suns and future star pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1966, D'Agostino was a student at Terry Parker High School. She lived in the same apartment building as Tug McGraw, who was playing baseball for Jacksonville. When she became pregnant with McGraw as a teen, D'Agostino's parents sent her to Louisiana to live with relatives. Through his father, McGraw has two half-brothers, Mark and Matthew, and a half-sister named Cari. He also has two younger half-sisters, Tracey and Sandra, through his mother's marriage to Horace Smith.
McGraw grew up believing Smith was his father, and used this stepfather's surname until meeting Tug. At age 11, McGraw discovered his birth certificate while searching in his mother's closet to look for a picture for a school project. Following the discovery, he learned from her who his biological father was and she took him to meet the elder McGraw for the first time. Tug McGraw denied the parentage for seven years until Tim was 18 years old. After that time, the two formed a relationship and remained close until the former baseball star died in 2004.
As a child, McGraw played competitive sports, including baseball, even before the knowledge of who his father was and his professional baseball career. McGraw was also a member of the FFA in high school. Following high school graduation, he attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, where he was a pre-law major and pledged as a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. A knee injury sustained while playing baseball for the college prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports.
While in college, McGraw learned to play guitar and would frequently perform and sing for money. He has claimed his roommates often hid the guitar because he was so bad. McGraw followed his mother when she returned to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1987. After the move, he attended Florida Community College at Jacksonville for one term, and occasionally sat in with local bands. In 1989, on the day his hero Keith Whitley died, McGraw dropped out of college to head to Nashville and pursue a musical career.
Music career
1990s
Tim McGraw
McGraw came to the attention of Curb Records in 1990. After cutting a demo single, McGraw gave a copy to his father. A man who was friends with Curb Records executives heard the demo while driving with Tug one day and recommended that Curb contact the young singer. Several weeks later, he was able to play his tape for Curb executives, after which they signed him to a recording contract. McGraw made his debut with the single "What Room Was the Holiday In", which was released on March 29, 1991, and did not enter the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart upon its release. In a 2001 retrospective on McGraw's career in Billboard, a former program director for Nashville station WSM-FM said that he added the song to the station's playlist because it showed "undeniable promise", while another former program director at WXTU in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recalled that McGraw's debut single was "terrible" but that he booked the singer to make an appearance at the station due to his father's fame.
Two years later in April 1993, McGraw released his debut album Tim McGraw, which was commercially unsuccessful and did not sell well. This is his only studio album not to achieve a music recording sales certification or to enter the Top Country Albums charts. Three more singles were released from Tim McGraw: "Welcome to the Club", "Memory Lane", and "Two Steppin' Mind". None made country Top 40 and the album itself did not chart. Both "Memory Lane" and "Tears in the Rain", another cut from the album, were co-written by Joe Diffie. "Memory Lane" had originally appeared on Keith Palmer's self-titled 1991 debut album.
Not a Moment Too Soon
McGraw's second album, entitled Not a Moment Too Soon, was much more successful than his self-titled debut, and it was the best-selling country album of 1994. Its first single, "Indian Outlaw", sparked controversy, as critics argued that it presented Native Americans in a patronizing way. Some radio stations even chose not to play it. However, the controversy helped spur sales, and the song became McGraw's first Top 10 entry on the U.S. country charts after getting as high as number 8. The song also peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album's second single, "Don't Take the Girl", became McGraw's first number one on the U.S. country charts, in addition to peaking at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also "helped cement his image as a ruggedly good-looking guy with a sensitive side." By year's end, the third single from the album, "Down on the Farm" peaked at number 2; after that, the album's fourth single, also its title track, became the singer's second number one song in early 1995. The fifth and final single "Refried Dreams" reached number 5. The album sold over 6 million copies, topping the Billboard 200 and Top Country Album charts. On the strength of this success, McGraw won Academy of Country Music awards for Album of the Year and Top New Male Vocalist in 1994. Billboard named Not a Moment Too Soon as the top country album of 1994 on Billboard Year-End.
All I Want
McGraw's third studio album, All I Want, was released in 1995. Just like its predecessor, this album debuted at No. 1 on the country charts. The album even sold over 2 million copies in the United States and reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200. The album's first single, "I Like It, I Love It", became McGraw's third number one on the American country charts and it also peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song also eventually became the goal song for the Nashville Predators once they began their inaugural season and since then has been left unchanged. The album's next two singles, "Can't Be Really Gone" and "All I Want Is a Life" (its partial title track) both made the top 5 at numbers 2 and 5, respectively. The fourth single, "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart", gave McGraw his fourth number one on the U.S. country charts in 1996. Finishing off the singles was "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It", which peaked at number 4.
In 1996, McGraw headlined the most successful country tour of the year, The Spontaneous Combustion Tour, with Faith Hill as his supporting act. Hill broke off her engagement to her former producer Scott Hendricks so that she and McGraw could start dating each other; they then married on October 6, 1996.
Everywhere
The singer's fourth album, Everywhere was released in 1997. It topped the country charts as well and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 4 million copies. The album spawned six singles. Four of those singles - "It's Your Love" (a duet with Faith Hill), the title track, "Where the Green Grass Grows", and "Just to See You Smile" - reached number one on the country charts. The Country Music Association awarded Everywhere its Album of the Year award for 1997. At the 40th Grammy Awards, "It's Your Love" received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals and Best Country Song. Both "It's Your Love" and "Just to See You Smile" were the number one country songs of 1997 and 1998 according to Billboard Year-End charts; "Just to See You Smile" also set a record for the longest run on the country charts at the time, at 42 weeks. The album's other two singles, "One of These Days" and "For a Little While" both peaked at number 2.
A Place in the Sun
McGraw's fifth album, A Place in the Sun, continued his streak in 1999, debuting atop both the US country and pop album charts and selling 3 million copies. Over 251,000 of those copies were sold during its first week, making this the singer's first number 1 opener on the Billboard 200. It produced another four number one hits on the U.S. country charts with "Please Remember Me", "Something Like That", "My Best Friend", and "My Next Thirty Years". "Some Things Never Change" peaked at number 7 on the charts. McGraw also contributed a song for the Grammy-winning tribute album to Bob Wills entitled Ride With Bob. A cover of "Milk Cow Blues", this song was recorded as a duet with Asleep at the Wheel, whom he had met while performing together at the George Strait Country Music Festival.
McGraw recorded two more duets with his wife in the late-1990s, both of which appeared on her albums. "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me", from her multi-platinum-certified 1998 album Faith, reached the Top 5 of the US country charts. Her follow-up album, 1999's Breathe, featured "Let's Make Love", which won a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration in 2000.
2000s
Greatest Hits
In 2000, McGraw released his first Greatest Hits album, which topped the country albums charts for nine weeks and sold nearly 6 million copies, making this one of the biggest-selling albums in the modern country market. In the latter half of the year, he and Hill went out on the Soul2Soul Tour, playing to sellout crowds in 64 venues, including Madison Square Garden. The tour was one of the top tours of any genre in the U.S. It was also the leading country tour of 2000. While in Buffalo, New York, McGraw and Kenny Chesney became involved in a scuffle with police officers after Chesney attempted to ride a police horse. McGraw came to Chesney's aid after police officers nearby believed the horse was being stolen and tried to arrest him. The two were arrested and charged with assault but were later cleared. During a concert with the George Strait Country Music Festival several weeks later, Hill, dressed as a police officer, made an unscheduled appearance at the end of McGraw's set and led him off the stage.
Set This Circus Down
McGraw's sixth studio album, Set This Circus Down, was released in April 2001. It even spawned four number one hits on the country charts as well, this time with "Grown Men Don't Cry", "Angry All the Time" (with Faith Hill), "The Cowboy in Me", and "Unbroken". The singer provided harmony vocals for Jo Dee Messina's song "Bring On the Rain", which he also produced. That song topped the country charts. Hungry for more of his music, fans downloaded a version of his performance of the song "Things Change" from his appearance at the Country Music Association Awards Show. The song was played extensively on radio, becoming the first country song to appear on the charts from a fully downloaded version.
Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors
In 2002, McGraw bucked country music traditions by recording his seventh studio album Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors with his tour band The Dancehall Doctors. Unlike rock music—where it is commonplace for touring bands to provide the music on albums recorded by the artist they support, country albums are typically recorded with session musicians. McGraw chose to use his own touring band, in order to recognize their part in
his success, and to capture some of the feel of a real band.
All of the Dancehall Doctors have worked with McGraw since at least 1996. Their lineup includes:
Darran Smith – lead guitar, acoustic guitar
Bob Minner – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin
Denny Hemingson – steel guitar, electric, baritone, and slide guitars, dobro
John Marcus – bass guitar
Dean Brown – fiddle, mandolin
Jeff McMahon – piano, organ, synthesizer, keyboards ... etc.
Billy Mason – drums
David Dunkley – percussion
The album debuted at No. 2 on the country albums charts, Its fourth and fifth singles "Real Good Man" and "Watch the Wind Blow By" both climbed to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. "She's My Kind of Rain" peaked at No. 2 in 2003, and "Red Rag Top" reached number 5. The album also features a cover of Elton John's early-1970s classic "Tiny Dancer," as well as duets with Kim Carnes on "Comfort Me" (a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks) and Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles on "Illegal." "She's My Kind of Rain" also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance-Male at the 46th Grammy Awards.
Live Like You Were Dying
His eighth album, 2004's Live Like You Were Dying, continued the singer's record of commercial success. The album's first single and its title track was dedicated to his father Tug McGraw, who died of a brain tumor earlier in the year, was an ode to living life fully and in the moment. The second single "Back When" was a paean to an easy nostalgia. In December 2019, McGraw spoke on stage at the annual End Well Symposium about why he wrote "Live Like You Were Dying" and his struggles with caregiving for his dying father. "Live Like You Were Dying" spent seven non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard and went on to become the top country song of 2004 on the Billboard Year-End charts. It also became one of the most awarded records by winning ACM Single and Song of the Year, CMA Single and Song of the Year, and a Grammy. "Back When" went to number one on the country charts as well. The album produced three more singles with "Drugs or Jesus", "Do You Want Fries with That", and "My Old Friend". "Drugs or Jesus" became McGraw's first single since 1993 to not ever reach within the Top 10 on the U.S. country charts, while "Do You Want Fries with That" and "My Old Friend" peaked at numbers 5 and 6, respectively.
In late 2004, his unlikely duet with hip hop artist Nelly on "Over and Over" became a crossover hit, spending 10 weeks atop the top 40 chart. "Over and Over" brought McGraw a success he had never previously experienced on contemporary hit radio or R&B radio, and brought both artists success neither had previously experienced in the hot adult contemporary market. The song also spent a week at the top of the charts in the United Kingdom, becoming McGraw's first hit single in Britain and Nelly's third number one hit in the country after "Dilemma" and "My Place". "Over and Over" also reached the top of the charts in Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland, and the top 10 in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Romania, and Switzerland.
Throughout the 2005 NFL season, McGraw sang an alternate version of "I Like It, I Love It" every week during the season. The alternate lyrics, which changed each week, would make reference to plays during Sunday's games, and the song would be played alongside video highlights during halftime on Monday Night Football. Later in the year, McGraw became a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats when majority owner Bud Adams (owner of the NFL's Tennessee Titans) was awarded the expansion franchise.
Let It Go
In April 2006, McGraw and Hill began their 73-concert 55-city Soul2Soul II Tour, again to strong commercial acceptance. The tour grossed roughly $89 million and sold approximately 1.1 million tickets, making it the top-grossing tour in the history of country music. It was also named "Major Tour of the Year" by Pollstar, beating out such heavyweights as Madonna and the Rolling Stones. In a special gesture, the couple donated all of the profits from their performance in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina relief. McGraw, along with Kenny Chesney, contributed to a version of Tracy Lawrence's song "Find Out Who Your Friends Are", which can be found on Lawrence's album For the Love. Although the official single version features only Lawrence's vocals, many stations have opted to play the version with McGraw and Chesney instead.
McGraw released his eleventh studio album, Let It Go, on March 27, 2007. The album's first single, "Last Dollar (Fly Away)", peaked at number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. This marked McGraw's first No. 1 single since "Back When" in late 2004. The album debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Album charts, marking his fourth No. 1 album on the 200 charts and his ninth overall. His daughters can be heard singing the chorus during the last few seconds of the song on the video. During the Academy of Country Music awards show on May 15, 2007, McGraw performed a song titled "If You're Reading This", which he co-wrote with The Warren Brothers. Several radio stations began to play the live recording of the song; as a result, it entered the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at No. 35. McGraw also produced the debut album of country music duo Halfway to Hazard. The duo's first single, "Daisy", peaked at No. 39 on the country charts in the summer of 2007. In the summer of 2007, McGraw and Hill toured together once again in the Soul2Soul 2007 tour.
In the edition of January 18, 2008 of the USA Today newspaper, McGraw was stated to be featured on the Def Leppard album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, having also co-written the first single, "Nine Lives", with Def Leppard band members Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, and Rick Savage. The unusual pairing goes back to 2006 when McGraw joined Def Leppard onstage for the song "Pour Some Sugar On Me", and then collaborated on the song "Nine Lives" afterward. The album was released on April 25, 2008. At the 2007 50th Annual Grammy Awards, McGraw received 5 nominations including Best Country Album (for Let It Go), Best Country Song (both for "If You're Reading This" and "I Need You"), Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (with "I Need You"), and Best Male Country Vocal Performance (with "If You're Reading This"). In May 2008, he hit the road with the Live Your Voice tour. The mainly-outdoor arena concert tour was his first solo outing in nearly three years. Also in May 2008, he debuted a new song in his follow-up to Let It Go at the Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, California. In July 2008, the album's sixth single and its title track, "Let It Go", was released to country radio. Following that, a seventh single, "Nothin' to Die For", entered the Country charts at No. 57 in late December. McGraw released his third greatest-hits package, Greatest Hits 3 on October 7, 2008. The album features 12 tracks. McGraw was set to debut a new song at the 2009 ACM Awards, but then canceled his performance; he was replaced by Blake Shelton, who sang "She Wouldn't Be Gone".
Southern Voice
McGraw's twelfth studio album, Southern Voice, was released October 20, 2009, and led by the single "It's A Business Doing Pleasure With You", which was shipped to radio outlets in late June 2009.
Southern Voice was argued to be McGraw's last album for Curb Records, following the dispute over releasing his third Greatest Hits collection back in October 2008 without his permission. McGraw did not approve of the release. On November 30, 2010, Curb Records released his fourth greatest hits compilation, Number One Hits.
2010s
Emotional Traffic and Curb Records lawsuit
On January 2, 2011, McGraw announced plans for his Emotional Traffic Tour featuring opening acts Luke Bryan and The Band Perry.
Sirius XM announced on March 30, 2011, that they would be launching Tim McGraw radio, a commercial-free music channel devoted to McGraw's music, and featuring an in-depth interview with McGraw as well. As of fall 2010, McGraw had finished work on the album Emotional Traffic, his last album with Curb Records. On May 13, 2011, Curb Records filed a breach-of-contract suit against McGraw. The label alleged that McGraw recorded tracks for his Emotional Traffic album too early prior to its delivery to the label. Several days later, McGraw filed a counter suit against the label seeking advance payment and recording-fund reimbursement, unspecified damages, and a jury trial. A trial was scheduled to begin in July 2012. In November 2011, a judge granted McGraw permission to record music for another label, ending his relationship with Curb Records that began in 1990. A few hours after the ruling, Curb released "Better Than I Used to Be", the second single from Emotional Traffic. The album was released on January 24, 2012.
Two Lanes of Freedom
In December 2011, McGraw released his first Christmas single, "Christmas All Over the World", on his own label StyleSonic Records. On May 21, 2012, however, he signed with Big Machine Records.
McGraw's debut album for Big Machine, entitled Two Lanes of Freedom, was released on February 5, 2013. It debuted at number 2 on the charts by selling 108,000 copies. The album includes the singles "Truck Yeah", "One of Those Nights", "Highway Don't Care" (a duet with Taylor Swift which also features Keith Urban on lead guitar), and "Southern Girl". McGraw performed at the C2C: Country to Country festival in London on March 16, 2013.
Love Story and Sundown Heaven Town
McGraw released a single titled "Lookin' for That Girl" in January 2014 as the lead-off single to his second album for Big Machine. It was followed immediately by the announcement of the Sundown Heaven Town Tour. The album, titled Sundown Heaven Town, was released on September 16, 2014. Four months into its run, "Lookin' for That Girl" was withdrawn as a single and replaced with "Meanwhile, Back at Mama's", which features backing vocals from Hill. "Shotgun Rider" became the album's third single and a number 1 Country Airplay hit by the end of 2014. Following it was "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools", a duet with Catherine Dunn. McGraw's eighth greatest hits album, Love Story, is a compilation of his twelve biggest love songs and two previously unreleased recordings. It was released exclusively through Walmart on February 4, 2014, by Curb Records.
Damn Country Music
On August 10, 2015, McGraw released a new single to digital retailers, titled "Top of the World", which was later released to radio on August 17, 2015, as the lead single to his third studio album for Big Machine Records. On September 17, McGraw announced that the album was titled Damn Country Music, with a release date scheduled for November 6. The album's second single, "Humble and Kind", released to country radio on February 1, 2016, and went on to reach number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. McGraw was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of Take Me Home, Country Roads, On the Road Again and I Will Always Love You which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards. The album's third single, "How I'll Always Be" released to country radio on July 11, 2016. It reached number 3 on the Country Airplay in January 2017.
The Rest of Our Life
On October 4, 2016, during a show at the Ryman Auditorium, McGraw and Hill announced that they would be going back on the road together again on the Soul2Soul World Tour. The tour began on April 7, 2017, in New Orleans and will continue into 2018, incorporating the C2C: Country to Country festival held in the UK and Ireland throughout March 2018.
Before the commencement of the tour, it was reported that McGraw, alongside Hill, had signed a new deal with Sony Music Nashville. The signing also indicated the release of a duet album between the couple, and that multiple solo recordings would be produced. The new record label signing also preceded the release of "Speak to a Girl", the lead single from the duet album, The Rest of Our Life, which was released on November 17, 2017. The release of the album coincided with the opening of an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum titled Mississippi Woman, Louisiana Man, which celebrates the careers of both McGraw and Hill.
McGraw released two major best-selling books in 2019, with the first co-written with "Pulitzer Prize" winner Jon Meacham which reached No. 2 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation. New York: Random House. 2019. ISBN 978-0593132951. His second book, "Grit and Grace", also reached No. 2 on the New York Times Bestsellers list.
2020s
Here on Earth
In February 2020, McGraw rejoined Big Machine Records, which he was previously signed to from 2011 to 2017. He released a new album, Here on Earth, on August 21, 2020. The "Here on Earth Tour" was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, McGraw released the single "Undivided" with Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, which was included on a deluxe edition of Here on Earth released later that year. On October 9, 2021, McGraw confronted a heckler at a performance at the Nugget Events Center in Sparks, Nevada, after he forgot the words to his song "Just to See You Smile." After removing the heckler, he explained that he had been filming a movie and had a lot on his mind, and asked for the audience's help in remembering the words.
Standing Room Only and Poet's Resumé
On August 25, 2023, McGraw released his sixteenth studio album, Standing Room Only. The title track was released as the album's lead single on March 10, 2023. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Country Airplay chart. Three months after releasing Standing Room Only, McGraw surprise-released a six-track EP, Poet's Resumé on November 21, 2023.
Producer
McGraw has occasionally served as a record producer in collaboration with Byron Gallimore, who has co-produced all of his albums. The two co-produced Jo Dee Messina's self-titled debut, as well as her next two albums, I'm Alright and Burn. McGraw and Gallimore also produced the only album released by The Clark Family Experience in 2000, and Halfway to Hazard's 2007 self-titled debut album.
Acting career
McGraw's first acting appearance came in a 1997 episode of The Jeff Foxworthy Show, where he played Foxworthy's rival. In 2004, McGraw played a sheriff in Rick Schroder's independent release Black Cloud. Later in the same year, McGraw received critical acclaim as the overbearing father of a running back in the major studio Texas high school football drama Friday Night Lights. The Dallas Observer said the role was "played with unexpected ferocity by country singer Tim McGraw". The movie went on to gross over $60 million worldwide at the box office, and sold millions in the DVD market. Most recently, it was named one of the Top 50 High School Movies of All Time (No. 37) by Entertainment Weekly.
McGraw's first lead role was in the 2006 film Flicka, which was released in theaters October 20, 2006. In the remake of the classic book My Friend Flicka, McGraw played the father, Rob, costarring with Alison Lohman and Maria Bello. The family-friendly movie debuted in the top 10 list and has grossed over $25 million at the box office. McGraw again achieved critical acclaim for his acting. Shortly before Flicka opened, McGraw received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is located at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard near stars honoring Julie Andrews, William Shatner, and the late Greta Garbo. One of his Flicka co-stars, Alison Lohman, attended the ceremony that included comments from Billy Bob Thornton, McGraw's co-star in the film Friday Night Lights. In addition to acting in Flicka, McGraw served as executive producer of the soundtrack album, which was released by his record label, StyleSonic Records, in association with Curb Records and Fox 2000 films. It featured the closing credit song "My Little Girl", one of the first two songs that McGraw recorded that he also co-wrote (the other being "I've Got Friends That Do", both of which were included on Greatest Hits Vol. 2). The song was nominated by the Broadcast Film Critics for "Best Song" in a film, and the movie was nominated in the category "Best Family Film (Live Action)". The movie proved to be another success in the DVD market, and has sold over a million copies, debuting at No. 3 on the DVD sales chart.
McGraw also had a small part in the Michael Mann–produced 2007 film The Kingdom, reuniting him with Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg. McGraw played a bitter, angered widower whose wife was killed in the terrorist attack that is the centerpiece of the movie. On November 22, 2008, McGraw made his first appearance on Saturday Night Live. He also played "Dallas McVie" in Four Christmases. McGraw appeared in the 2009 film The Blind Side as Sean Tuohy, husband of Sandra Bullock's character, Leigh Anne Tuohy. The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in and adopted by the Tuohys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. He is among the stars of Dirty Girl, a film that premiered on September 12, 2010, at the Toronto Film Festival, along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy and Dwight Yoakam. Also in 2010, McGraw starred in Country Strong as James Canter, the husband and manager of the fictional country singer Kelly Canter (portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow). In addition to his appearance in the film, McGraw's song "Me and Tennessee", a duet with Paltrow, was played during the closing credits and appears on the film's soundtrack. In 2015, McGraw appeared in Brad Bird's Tomorrowland as Eddie Newton, a NASA engineer, and Casey Newton's (played by Britt Robertson) father.
1883, a spinoff prequel to Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone television series was released in late 2021 and stars McGraw, Faith Hill, and Sam Elliott.
Charitable efforts
In 1994, when McGraw first reached fame, he established the annual Swampstock event. It began as a charity softball game to raise money for hometown little league programs; the event now includes a celebrity softball game and a multi-artist concert that attracts over 11,000 fans per year. The combined events have funded new Little League parks and equipment, and have established college scholarship funds for students in the northeast Louisiana area.
From 1996 to 1999, McGraw hosted an annual New Year's Eve concert in Nashville with special guests including Jeff Foxworthy, the Dixie Chicks, and Martina McBride. The 1997 show raised over $100,000 for the Country Music Foundation Hall of Fame and Museum. Beginning in 1999, McGraw would pick select cities on each tour, and the night before he was scheduled to perform, would choose a local club and host a quickly-organized show. This tour-within-a-tour became known as "The Bread and Water Tour", and all proceeds from the show would go to a charity from that community.
McGraw designed a charity T-shirt sold through Angelwear to benefit MusiCares. MusiCares supports musicians in times of need. His charity focuses particularly on health issues. The Tim McGraw Foundation raises funds to enhance the quality of life of children and adults with brain tumors. He supports the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, the David Foster Foundation, which helps families of children in need of organ transplants, and Musicians on Call, which brings music to hospital patients' bedsides. He also performs during dinners and auctions to benefit children with disabilities. Hill and McGraw gave the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society $375,000 (the entire gate receipts from one of their concerts) to assist the families of 17 sailors following the terrorist attack on USS Cole, the guided-missile destroyer that suffered significant damage in the Gulf of Aden, Yemen on October 12, 2000.
In the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, McGraw who was raised in Mississippi, joined groups taking supplies to Gulfport, Mississippi. The two also hosted several charity concerts to benefit those who were displaced by the storm. Later in the year, the couple established the Neighbor's Keeper Foundation, which provides funding for community charities to assist with basic humanitarian services, in the event of a natural disaster, or for desperate personal circumstances.
McGraw is also a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet, to which various celebrities donate their time, skills, and fame, to help the Red Cross highlight important initiatives and response efforts.
McGraw has helped out with charity events held by Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. The Brett Favre Fourward Foundation has featured McGraw performing concerts during dinners and auctions that benefit children with disabilities in Wisconsin and Mississippi. One instance is recorded on Favre's official website.
On July 12, 2007, it was made public that McGraw while in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a performance, donated $5,000 to Kailey Kozminski, the 3-year-old daughter of Officer Robert Kozminski, a Grand Rapids police officer who was killed on July 8, 2007, while responding to a domestic disturbance.
In April 2023, McGraw surprised rising country star Brandon Davis, whom he previously brought on tour with him in 2022, with a new guitar after all of his gear was stolen earlier in the month.
Politics
In a 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, McGraw stated he would like to run for public office as a Democratic Party candidate, possibly for United States Senate or Governor of Tennessee—his home state. In the same interview, he praised Bill Clinton.
In a 2008 interview with People magazine, McGraw referred to himself as a "Blue Dog Democrat" and stated that he and his family support Barack Obama.
In January 2021, McGraw performed on the Celebrating America inaugural special, a primetime virtual concert celebrating the inauguration of Joe Biden.
Personal life
McGraw married fellow country singer Faith Hill in 1996, and they have three daughters. He and Hill own Goat Cay, which they unofficially named L'île d'Anges, a private island in the Bahamas.
In 2000, Kenny Chesney and McGraw became involved in a scuffle with police officers in Buffalo, New York, after Chesney was riding a State Police horse and refused to get off the horse. McGraw came to Chesney's aid after police officers nearby believed the horse was being stolen. The two were arrested and charged, Chesney for disorderly conduct and McGraw for assault, but were acquitted in 2001.
McGraw holds a private pilot license and owns a single-engine Cirrus SR22.
In 2015, Forbes estimated McGraw's annual income at $38 million.
McGraw is the godfather to the son of Garrett Hedlund and Emma Roberts. He and Hedlund became friends after co-starring in Friday Night Lights and Country Strong.
In acknowledgment of his grandfather's Italian heritage, McGraw was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2004, receiving the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Music during the Foundation's 29th Anniversary Gala.
McGraw's Bracco Italiano named Lepshi won Best of Breed at the 2023 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The McGraw-Hill family also has two other Bracco Italianos, Caesar and Stromboli.
Discography
Studio albums
Tim McGraw (1993)
Not a Moment Too Soon (1994)
All I Want (1995)
Everywhere (1997)
A Place in the Sun (1999)
Set This Circus Down (2001)
Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors (2002)
Live Like You Were Dying (2004)
Let It Go (2007)
Southern Voice (2009)
Emotional Traffic (2012)
Two Lanes of Freedom (2013)
Sundown Heaven Town (2014)
Damn Country Music (2015)
The Rest of Our Life (with Faith Hill) (2017)
Here on Earth (2020)
Standing Room Only (2023)
Tours
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards
Grammy Awards
Other awards
References
Further reading
Brown, Jim; Sparrow, Susan. Faith Hill & Tim McGraw: Soul 2 Soul. Quarry Music Books, 2002. ISBN 1-55082-293-4
Gray, Scott. Perfect Harmony: the Faith Hill & Tim McGraw Story. 1st ed. Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN 0-345-43412-9
McGraw, Tim. Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors: This is Ours. Atria Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7434-6706-X
Nichols, Tim, and Craig Wiseman. Live Like You Were Dying. Rutledge Hill P, 2004. ISBN 1-4016-0212-6
Trimble, Betty "McMom". A Mother's Story. D'Agostino/Dahlhauser/Ditmore Pub, 1996. ISBN 1-886371-32-6
External links
Official website
Tim McGraw at AllMusic
Tim McGraw at Country Music Television
Tim McGraw at IMDb |
Faith_Hill | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Hill | [
491
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Hill"
] | Audrey Faith McGraw (née Perry; born September 21, 1967), known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide.
Hill's first two albums, Take Me as I Am (1993) and It Matters to Me (1995), were major successes that placed a combined three number ones on Billboard's country charts, quickly establishing her as one of country music's top acts. Next she achieved immense mainstream and crossover success with two albums, Faith (1998) and Breathe (1999). Faith produced her first international hit, "This Kiss", while her album Breathe became one of the best-selling country albums of all time. The album was led by the huge crossover success of the songs "Breathe" and "The Way You Love Me". Breathe saw massive sales worldwide and earned three Grammy Awards.
In 2001, Hill recorded "There You'll Be" for the Pearl Harbor soundtrack and it too became an international success. Nominated for an Academy Award, it remains her best-selling single in Europe.
Hill's next two albums, Cry (2002) and Fireflies (2005), continued her commercial successes; the former spawned another crossover single, "Cry", which won Hill a Grammy, and the latter produced the singles "Mississippi Girl" and "Like We Never Loved at All", which earned additional Grammy Awards.
Hill has won five Grammy Awards, 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, six American Music Awards, and several other awards. Her Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 with Tim McGraw became the highest-grossing country tour of all time. In 2001, she was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies Home Journal. In 2009, Billboard named her as the Adult Contemporary Artist of the Decade (2000s) and also as the 39th top artist overall. From 2007 to 2012, Hill was the voice of NBC Sunday Night Football's intro song. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019. Hill has been married to American singer Tim McGraw since 1996, with whom she has recorded several duets.
Early life and career beginnings
Audrey Faith Perry was born in Ridgeland, Mississippi, north of Jackson, Mississippi. She was adopted as an infant and named Audrey Faith Perry. She was raised in the nearby town of Star, 20 miles southeast of Jackson by her adoptive parents, Edna and Ted Perry, with their two biological sons in a devout Christian environment.
She began singing at Star Baptist Church at age 3. Hill's vocal talent was apparent early, and she had her first public performance, at a 4-H luncheon, when she was seven. In 1976, a few days before her 9th birthday, she attended a concert by Elvis Presley at the State Fair Coliseum in Jackson, which deeply impressed her. During her teenage years, she became a member of the Steele Family gospel quartet and performed regularly with them at area churches of all denominations. At 17, Hill formed a band that played at local rodeos. She graduated from McLaurin Attendance Center in 1986, then briefly attended Hinds Junior College (now Hinds Community College) in Raymond, Mississippi. At times, she sang for prisoners at the Hinds County Jail, her song of choice being "Amazing Grace".
At age 19 Hill dropped out of college to move to Nashville and pursue her dream of being a country singer. In her early days in Nashville, she auditioned to be a backup singer for Reba McEntire, but failed to secure the job. A few years later in 1991, the singer who beat out Hill for the job was killed in a plane crash with 6 other members of Reba's band.
After a stint selling T-shirts, Hill became a secretary at a music publishing firm. Hill also landed a job at a local McDonald's restaurant franchise, which she intensely disliked. "Fries, burgers, cash register–I did it all, I hated it," she has said.
In 1988, she married music publishing executive Daniel Hill (not to be confused with Canadian musician Dan Hill).
A co-worker heard Hill singing to herself one day, and soon the head of her music publishing company was encouraging her to become a demo singer for the firm. She supplemented this work by singing backup vocals for songwriter Gary Burr, who often performed his new songs at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe. During one of those performances, Martha Sharp, an executive from Warner Bros. Records was in the audience, and, impressed with Hill's voice, began the process of signing her to a recording contract.
In 1994, she and Daniel Hill divorced shortly after the release of her album.
Music career
1993–1997: Country music success
Faith Hill's debut album was Take Me as I Am (1993); sales were strong, buoyed by the chart success of "Wild One". Hill became the first female country singer in 30 years to hold Billboard's number one position for four consecutive weeks when "Wild One" managed the feat in 1994. Her version of "Piece of My Heart", also went to the top of the country charts in 1994. The album sold a total of 3 million copies. Other singles from the album include "Take Me as I Am".
The recording of Hill's second album was delayed by surgery to repair a ruptured blood vessel on her vocal cords. It Matters to Me finally appeared in 1995 and was another success, with the title track becoming her third number-one country single. Several other top 10 singles followed, and more than 3 million copies of the album were sold. The fifth single from the album, "I Can't Do That Anymore", was written by Alan Jackson. Other singles from the album include "You Can't Lose Me", "Someone Else's Dream", and "Let's Go to Vegas". During this period, Hill appeared on the acclaimed PBS music program Austin City Limits.
In spring 1996, Hill began the Spontaneous Combustion Tour with country singer Tim McGraw. At the time Hill had recently become engaged to her former producer, Scott Hendricks, and McGraw had recently broken an engagement. McGraw and Hill were quickly attracted to each other and began a relationship. After discovering that Hill was pregnant with their first child, the couple married on October 6, 1996. The couple have three daughters together: Gracie Katherine (born 1997), Maggie Elizabeth (born 1998) and Audrey Caroline (born 2001). Since their marriage, Hill and McGraw have endeavored to never be apart for more than three consecutive days.
After the release of It Matters to Me, Hill took a three-year break from recording to give herself a rest from four years of touring and to begin a family with McGraw. During her break, she joined forces with her husband for their first duet, "It's Your Love". The song stayed at number one for six weeks, and won awards from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. Hill has remarked that sometimes when they perform the song together, "it [doesn't] feel like anybody else was really watching."
1998–2003: Pop music crossover and career breakthrough
Faith Hill re-entered the music business in 1998 with her third album Faith. The album showcased her progression toward a more mainstream, pop-oriented sound, although it retained a distinct country sound. "This Kiss" became a number one country hit, and was the first of her singles to place on the pop charts, peaking at number seven. More than six million copies of the album were sold. The album also had several other hits including another duet with McGraw, "Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me", "Let Me Let Go" and "The Secret of Life".
Hill immediately released Breathe in November 1999 following this success; it debuted at the top of the Billboard Country and all genre charts, ahead of albums by Mariah Carey and Savage Garden. Although the album had few overt country sounds, it "complement[ed] her vocal strengths." For the first time, the album consisted solely of songs about love and did not venture into the more somber territory that her previous albums had touched. The title track, "Breathe", reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "The Way You Love Me" hit the top 10 as well, topping out at number six on the charts. The album won Hill three Grammy Awards including Best Country Album, Best Country Collaboration With Vocals for "Let's Make Love" featuring Tim McGraw and Best Country Female Vocal Performance for "Breathe". It marked a step away from her girl-next-door image, as the videos and promotional pictures all portrayed a much sexier image. Breathe has sold almost 10 million copies worldwide.
2000 was a very busy year for Hill. In addition to a successful tour with her husband, Hill was featured in a CBS television special, VH1's Behind the Music, VH1 Divas 2000, and the Lifetime cable channel's Intimate Portrait series. She signed an endorsement deal with CoverGirl makeup, performed at the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards, appeared on the cover of numerous magazines, and performed the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXIV. Hill was also named to Mr. Blackwell's 10-best dressed women of 2000, the only singer listed among actresses and other celebrities. Hill and McGraw also embarked on their first Soul2Soul tour, the "Soul2Soul Tour 2000".
In 2000, Hill recorded a song for the movie Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, entitled "Where Are You Christmas?" (written by James Horner, Will Jennings and Mariah Carey). The song also appeared on the pop and country charts. Hill's success on the pop charts disturbed some country music insiders, who questioned whether she was trying to dismiss her country roots and move into the pop genre. Despite the grumbling, Hill won the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Award, and in her acceptance speech announced, "I love this business, and I love this industry... and my heart is here."
In 2001, Hill recorded a song for the Pearl Harbor soundtrack. The track, also titled "There You'll Be", which was originally offered to Celine Dion, has since become one of Hill's most critically acclaimed songs. Because of the single's international success, a compilation album There You'll Be: The Best of Faith Hill, was released to international markets. The album featured dance mixes of "Breathe" and "The Way You Love Me" along with alternate versions of "Piece of My Heart" and "Let Me Let Go". "There You'll Be" was nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in a motion picture.
In 2002, Hill released her fifth studio album, Cry. The album "spotlight[ed] her impressive set of pipes", and also marked the completion of her "transformation into a pop diva", containing few nods to her country roots. Though the album debuted at number one on Billboard magazine's pop and country album charts, the album's singles received much less country radio airplay than her previous hits, instead aiming to international and adult contemporary markets. The album also won a Grammy Award and over 3.7 million copies have been sold worldwide.
An album track from the album "Baby You Belong", was used as the theme song for the movie Lilo & Stitch. The music video featured clips from the movie as well as performance clips.
"When the Lights Go Down", the official second single from the album was used to promote an NBC television special which detailed the making of Cry and also featured intimate performances of Hill's hits.
2005–2006: Return to country music
In 2005, Hill returned with her new country album, Fireflies. The CD debuted on top of the Billboard Country and all genre album charts, placing her among only a handful of artists to have three consecutive albums debut at number one on both charts. The debut single, "Mississippi Girl", became Hill's highest-debuting single. The song was specifically written for her by John Rich (of Big and Rich) and Adam Shoenfield of MuzikMafia, and tells the abbreviated story of her life. Hill recorded two other songs by Rich, "Sunshine and Summertime" and "Like We Never Loved at All", both of which became successful singles. The title track "Fireflies", "Stealing Kisses" and "If You Ask" were written by artist Lori McKenna and also appear on McKenna's albums. They appeared and performed the songs together on the Oprah Winfrey Show and an awards show. The album marked a return to Hill's country roots and succeeded in reestablishing her place on country radio.
In 2006, after a six-year break from touring following the birth of her youngest daughter, Hill and husband Tim McGraw embarked on their Soul2Soul II Tour 2006. The tour became the highest grossing country music tour ever with a gross of $90 million. It was named "Major Tour of the Year" by the prestigious Pollstar, beating out such heavyweights as Madonna and the Rolling Stones.
2007–2010: Love Will Always Win, The Hits, Joy to the World and NBC Sunday Night Football
In 2007, Hill began work on her first domestic greatest hits package, titled The Hits, which was released on October 2. It contains two new tracks, "Lost" and "Red Umbrella", as well as 13 additional tracks. The album also features hits covering her entire career from 1993 to 2005. Included with the 2-Disc Special-Edition of The Hits is a DVD of 11 of Hill's music videos. The DVD substitutes the Tim McGraw duet "Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me" for their "I Need You" duet on the CD.
Hill is also featured on McGraw's 2007 album Let It Go where she sings two duets with him, "I Need You" and "Shotgun Rider". Both of these songs were performed during the couple's critically acclaimed Soul2Soul II Tour; this tour began in June 2006 and ran through to August 2007. The song I Need You was nominated for both the Best Country Collaboration with Vocals and Best Country Song awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
At the beginning of the 2007 NFL season, Hill replaced Pink as the signature voice of NFL on NBC's Sunday Night Football, singing the weekly game's introductory theme song; of which the show's producer said:
It's not often that you get the opportunity to have a mega-star like Faith Hill perform the signature open to your show.
Hill performed this opening theme until April 15, 2013.
In September 2008, Hill issued her first Christmas album, titled Joy to the World. The compilation received positive reviews, including about.com, which gave the album four and a half out of five stars, calling the album, "a great collection of classic Christmas songs". She worked on the album for two years prior to its official release. The album included one original track, "A Baby Changes Everything", which was released as the album's only single in late 2008 and debuted at No. 24 on Billboard's AC chart, quickly rising to the No. 1 position, becoming Hill's fourth number one on that chart.
During the Super Bowl XLIII pregame show On February 1, 2009, Hill performed "America the Beautiful". Other performers at the event were Jennifer Hudson and Journey, whilst Bruce Springsteen performed the Halftime show.
Celebrating the induction of ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hill performed "The Winner Takes It All", together with keyboardist Benny Andersson, at the event held in New York City on March 13, 2010. Hill also performed a rendition of "The Long & Winding Road" as part of a tribute to Paul McCartney which was held at the White House on July 28, 2010. Audience members included President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
After the performances, Hill contributed a song titled "Give In to Me" which appears on the Country Strong soundtrack which was released in October 2010. The film also stars Hill's husband Tim McGraw. Further appearances followed, with Hill featuring in Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn, where she performs "Love Is The Foundation". Hill also contributed her vocals to the Ryan Tedder penned song "All I Ever Wanted" for the 2010 film Life As We Know It. The song was used in trailers to promote the film and appeared during the end credits of the film.
2011–2015: Unreleased studio album and Las Vegas Residency
Brendan O'Brien, known for producing projects for Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine began working with Hill and producing her next album, originally set for release in 2011. Hill also worked with pop producer Brian Kennedy in January 2011 to complete the album.
Hill returned to the studio in March 2011 for another round of recording. "I would like to have a record out," she told Billboard.com, "but it hasn't been the right thing yet. I don't want it to be just another record. It's a lot of work to support a record, so I just want it to be... really great. I want it to represent where I am as a woman. I don't want it to be fake. I want it to be authentic and real." In mid-2011, Hill recorded a duet with George Strait on the song "A Showman's Life" which is on Strait's album Here for a Good Time.
During the CMA Awards held on November 9, 2011, Hill performed the potential first single for her upcoming album titled "Come Home". This song is a re-working of the OneRepublic song heard on their "Dreaming out Loud" album.
In June 2012, Hill debuted the songs "Illusion" and "Overrated" during her set at the CMA Music Festival. Following the performance, Hill confirmed that the album was done, but made no comment about when it would be released or whether the rumored title of Illusion was official.
While a second single, titled "American Heart", along with its accompanying music video, was released on October 1, 2012, no further singles have since been released while an album also remains unreleased.
Following a successful tour of Australia with their Soul2Soul tour throughout March and April 2012, Hill and McGraw began an exclusive twenty show run of the Soul2Soul show at the Venetian in Las Vegas starting December 2012. A second leg of the show ran from October 2013, through to April 2014. The show was met with critical acclaim.
During the Billboard Music Awards filmed on May 17, 2015, Hill joined Little Big Town on a performance of their single "Girl Crush".
2016–present: New music and touring
Hill was one of 30 artists selected to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of the songs "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and "I Will Always Love You". The single was released September 16 and celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards.
On October 4, 2016, during a surprise show at Nashville's famous Ryman Auditorium, both Faith and her husband announced that they would once again be going back on the road together with the Soul2Soul The World Tour 2017. The tour began April 7, 2017, in New Orleans, and continued into Europe throughout 2018, including as part of the C2C: Country to Country festival.
Hill sent out a tweet via her official Twitter account announcing the release of a new compilation album after the announcement of the tour. The album, titled Deep Tracks, is a montage of Hill's favorite songs that were previously included on her various albums but were not released as singles. The album also includes three previously unreleased songs entitled, "Boy", "Why" and "Come to Jesus". The album, which is Hill's last record to be released via Warner Bros. Records, was released November 18, 2016.
It was reported on February 3, 2017, that Hill, alongside McGraw, had signed a new deal with Sony Music Nashville, also indicating that a duet album between the couple, as well as multiple solo recordings would be produced. The new record label signing also preceded the release of "Speak to a Girl", the lead single from Hill and McGraw's joint album, The Rest of Our Life, which was released on November 17, 2017. The release of the album coincided with the opening of an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum titled Mississippi Woman, Louisiana Man, which celebrates the careers of both Hill and McGraw.
Artistry
Hill has a mezzo-soprano vocal range, which Joanna Horowitz of The Seattle Times described as unmistakably "throaty".
Although Hill typically does not write most of the music she performs, Horowitz noted that her music "emphasize[s] personal, intimate storytelling". She co-wrote two tracks on her debut album Take Me as I Am: "I've Got This Friend" and "Go the Distance".
Other ventures
Film and television career
In 1997, Hill guest starred in a three episode arc of popular television series Touched by an Angel and its subsequent spin off series, Promised Land. This marked her acting debut.
In 2002 it was rumored that Hill had won the role of Julia Compton Moore, the wife of Hal Moore, played by Mel Gibson, in the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers. The role was ultimately played by Madeleine Stowe.
Hill made her film debut in the summer of 2004, when she co-starred with Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick and Glenn Close in director Frank Oz's remake of the 1975 thriller The Stepford Wives. Although the film received mixed reviews, it went on to earn over $100 million.
In 2015, Hill appeared in the independent crime drama film Dixieland. The film was written and directed by Hank Bedford and also stars Chris Zylka, Riley Keough, Spencer Lofranco, and Steve Earle. Dixieland had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2015. The film was released in a limited release and through video on demand on December 11, 2015, by IFC Films.
On October 14, 2015, it was announced that Hill would be an executive producer for a new lifestyle television program with former Oprah executive producer Lisa Erspamer. The show, called Pickler & Ben, debuted in mid-2017, features Kellie Pickler and Ben Aaron as hosts and is filmed in Nashville.
In August 2021, it was announced that Hill would co-star in Paramount+'s Yellowstone prequel 1883. Hill also appeared in one episode of Yellowstone season four in a flashback scene.
Fragrance
In October 2009, Hill released her first fragrance titled Faith Hill Parfums. The fragrance is a blend of Southern Magnolia, Jasmine and Peach Pears. In 2010, Hill released her second fragrance, titled True.
Philanthropy
Hill used her 1999 tour to support a national children's book drive, The Faith Hill Family Literacy Project. The charity was inspired by Faith's father, who faced challenges with literacy. Fans who donated books at one of her concerts were entered into a drawing to meet her personally after the show. The effort resulted in the donation of 35,000 children's books, which were distributed to hospitals, schools, libraries, and daycare centers in 40 cities across the United States.
In the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, Hill and her husband, Tim McGraw, who was raised in Louisiana, joined groups taking supplies to Gulfport, Mississippi. The two also hosted several charity concerts to benefit those who were displaced by the storm. Later in the year the couple established the Neighbor's Keeper Foundation, which provides funding for community charities to assist with basic humanitarian services in the event of a natural disaster or for desperate personal circumstances. In a special gesture, the couple also donated profits from their performance in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina relief.
In June 2010, Hill and McGraw organized Nashville Rising, a benefit concert aimed to raise $2 million for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in response to the flood in early May that killed 22 people and caused $2 billion in damage.
Discography
Take Me as I Am (1993)
It Matters to Me (1995)
Faith (1998)
Breathe (1999)
Cry (2002)
Fireflies (2005)
Joy to the World (2008)
The Rest of Our Life (with Tim McGraw) (2017)
Tours
Headlining tours
This Kiss Tour (1999)
Co-headlining tours
Soul2Soul Tour (with Tim McGraw) (2000)
Soul2Soul II Tour (with Tim McGraw) (2006-07)
Australia 2012 (with Tim McGraw) (2012)
Soul2Soul: The World Tour (with Tim McGraw) (2017-18)
Promotional tours
'94 Promo Tour (1994)
Residency shows
Faith (2004)
Soul2Soul (with Tim McGraw) (2012-13)
Opening act
No Doubt About It Tour (for Neal McCoy) (1994)
Waitin' on Sundown (for Brooks & Dunn) (1994)
Read My Mind Tour (for Reba McEntire) (1994)
Fruit of the Loom Comfort Tour (for Alan Jackson) (1994-95)
Easy Come Easy Go Tour (George Strait) (1994)
Spontaneous Combustion Tour (for Tim McGraw) (1996)
The Cowboy Rides Away Tour (for George Strait) (2014)
Other shows
Chevy Truck Country Music Festival (with George Strait, Tim McGraw, John Michael Montgomery, Lila McCann and Big House) (1998)
Millennium Blast Show (with Tim McGraw) (1999)
Sam & Audrey (with Tim McGraw) (2016)
Live 8 Rome, Italy (with Tim McGraw, Duran Duran, Planet Funk, Max Pezzali, Fiorella Mannoia, etc.) (2005)
Concert specials
Faith! (CBS) (2000)
When the Lights Go Down (NBC) (2002)
Fireflies (NBC) (2005)
Love Will Always Win (CBS) (2007)
Joy to the World (PBS) (2008)
Greatest Hits (PBS/GAC) (2009)
Tim & Faith: Soul2Soul (Showtime) (2017)
Awards
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Hill has won 5 awards from 17 nominations.
Country Music Association Awards
The Country Music Association Awards are held annually by the Country Music Association and celebrate excellence and achievements in the country genre. Hill has won 3 awards from 22 nominations.
Other awards
In addition to her five Grammy Awards, Hill has also won 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, six American Music Awards, and four People's Choice Awards among others. In addition, Hill received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under in 2000, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
References
Further reading
Brown, Jim; Sparrow, Susan (2002). Faith Hill & Tim McGraw: Soul 2 Soul. Quarry Music Books. ISBN 1-55082-293-4.
Gray, Scott (1999). Perfect Harmony: the Faith Hill & Tim McGraw Story (1st ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-43412-9.
External links
Official website
Faith Hill at AllMusic
Faith Hill discography at Discogs
Faith Hill at IMDb
Faith Hill discography at MusicBrainz
Faith Hill at People.com |
Netflix | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix | [
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix"
] | Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.
Launched in 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its pioneering DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media services, with over 277.7 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries as of 2024. By 2022, "Netflix Original" productions accounted for half of its library in the United States and the namesake company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing of mobile games through its flagship service. As of 2023, Netflix is the 23rd most-visited website in the world, with 23.66% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 5.84%, and Brazil at 5.64%.
History
Launch as a mail-based rental business (1997–2006)
Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, was a co-founder of Pure Software, which was acquired by Rational Software that year for $750 million, the then biggest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. Randolph had worked as a marketing director for Pure Software after Pure Atria acquired a company where Randolph worked. He was previously a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a computer mail-order company, as well as vice president of marketing for Borland. Hastings and Randolph came up with the idea for Netflix while carpooling between their homes in Santa Cruz, California, and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale. Patty McCord, later head of human resources at Netflix, was also in the carpool group. Randolph admired Amazon and wanted to find a large category of portable items to sell over the Internet using a similar model. Hastings and Randolph considered and rejected selling and renting VHS as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, first introduced in the United States in early 1997, they tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail, by mailing a compact disc to Hastings's house in Santa Cruz. When the CD arrived intact, they decided to enter the $16 billion Home-video sales and rental industry. Hastings is often quoted saying that he decided to start Netflix after being fined $40 at a Blockbuster store for being late to return a copy of Apollo 13. Hastings invested $2.5 million into Netflix from the sale of Pure Atria. Netflix launched as the first DVD rental and sales website with 30 employees and 925 titles available—nearly all DVDs published. Randolph and Hastings met with Jeff Bezos, where Amazon offered to acquire Netflix for between $14 and $16 million. Fearing competition from Amazon, Randolph at first thought the offer was fair, but Hastings, who owned 70% of the company, turned it down on the plane ride home.
Initially, Netflix offered a per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription concept in September 1999. The per-rental model was dropped by early 2000, allowing the company to focus on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees. In September 2000, during the dot-com bubble, while Netflix was suffering losses, Hastings and Randolph offered to sell the company to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, thought the offer was a joke and declined, saying, "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown." While Netflix experienced fast growth in early 2001, the continued effects of the dot-com bubble collapse and the September 11 attacks caused the company to hold off plans for its initial public offering (IPO) and to lay off one-third of its 120 employees.
DVD players were a popular gift for holiday sales in late 2001, and demand for DVD subscription services were "growing like crazy", according to chief talent officer Patty McCord. The company went public on May 23, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at US$15.00 per share. In 2003, Netflix was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to cover its subscription rental service and several extensions. Netflix posted its first profit in 2003, earning $6.5 million on revenues of $272 million; by 2004, profit had increased to $49 million on over $500 million in revenues. In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day.
In 2004, Blockbuster introduced a DVD rental service, which not only allowed users to check out titles through online sites but allowed for them to return them at brick and-mortar stores. By 2006, Blockbuster's service reached two million users, and while trailing Netflix's subscriber count, was drawing business away from Netflix. Netflix lowered fees in 2007. While it was an urban legend that Netflix ultimately "killed" Blockbuster in the DVD rental market, Blockbuster's debt load and internal disagreements hurt the company.
On April 4, 2006, Netflix filed a patent infringement lawsuit in which it demanded a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Blockbuster's online DVD rental subscription program violated two patents held by Netflix. The first cause of action alleged Blockbuster's infringement of copying the "dynamic queue" of DVDs available for each customer, Netflix's method of using the ranked preferences in the queue to send DVDs to subscribers, and Netflix's method permitting the queue to be updated and reordered. The second cause of action alleged infringement of the subscription rental service as well as Netflix's methods of communication and delivery. The companies settled their dispute on June 25, 2007; terms were not disclosed.
On October 1, 2006, Netflix announced the Netflix Prize, $1,000,000 to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. On September 21, 2009, it awarded the $1,000,000 prize to team "BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos". Cinematch, launched in 2000, was a system that recommended movies to its users, many of which might have been entirely new to the user.
Through its division Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. In late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters. Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008.
Transition to streaming services (2007–2012)
In January 2007, the company launched a streaming media service, introducing video on demand via the Internet. However, at that time it only had 1,000 films available for streaming, compared to 70,000 available on DVD. The company had for some time considered offering movies online, but it was only in the mid-2000s that data speeds and bandwidth costs had improved sufficiently to allow customers to download movies from the net. The original idea was a "Netflix box" that could download movies overnight, and be ready to watch the next day. By 2005, Netflix had acquired movie rights and designed the box and service. But after witnessing how popular streaming services such as YouTube were despite the lack of high-definition content, the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept.
In February 2007, Netflix delivered its billionth DVD, a copy of Babel to a customer in Texas. In April 2007, Netflix recruited ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood, to build a "Netflix Player" that would allow streaming content to be played directly on a television rather than a desktop or laptop. Hastings eventually shut down the project to help encourage other hardware manufacturers to include built-in Netflix support, which would be spun off as the digital media player product Roku.
In January 2008, all rental-disc subscribers became entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost. This change came in a response to the introduction of Hulu and to Apple's new video-rental services. In August 2008, the Netflix database was corrupted and the company was not able to ship DVDs to customers for 3 days, leading the company to move all its data to the Amazon Web Services cloud. In November 2008, Netflix began offering subscribers rentals on Blu-ray and discontinued its sale of used DVDs. In 2009, Netflix streams overtook DVD shipments.
On January 6, 2010, Netflix agreed with Warner Bros. to delay new release rentals to 28 days after the DVDs became available for sale, in an attempt to help studios sell physical copies, and similar deals involving Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox were reached on April 9. In July 2010, Netflix signed a deal to stream movies of Relativity Media. In August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $1 billion to stream films from Paramount, Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal increased Netflix's annual spending fees, adding roughly $200 million per year. It spent $117 million in the first six months of 2010 on streaming, up from $31 million in 2009. On September 22, 2010, Netflix launched in Canada, its first international market. In November 2010, Netflix began offering a standalone streaming service separate from DVD rentals.
In 2010, Netflix acquired the rights to Breaking Bad, produced by Sony Pictures Television, after the show's third season, at a point where original broadcaster AMC had expressed the possibility of cancelling the show. Sony pushed Netflix to release Breaking Bad in time for the fourth season, which as a result, greatly expanded the show's audience on AMC due to new viewers bingeing on the Netflix past episodes, and doubling the viewership by the time of the fifth season. Breaking Bad is considered the first such show to have this "Netflix effect".
In January 2011, Netflix announced agreements with several manufacturers to include branded Netflix buttons on the remote controls of devices compatible with the service, such as Blu-ray players. By May 2011, Netflix had become the largest source of Internet streaming traffic in North America, accounting for 30% of traffic during peak hours.
On July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans into two separate plans: one covering the streaming and the other DVD rental services. The cost for streaming would be $7.99 per month, while DVD rental would start at the same price. On September 11, 2011, Netflix expanded to countries in Latin America. On September 18, 2011, Netflix announced its intentions to rebrand and restructure its DVD home media rental service as an independent subsidiary called Qwikster, separating DVD rental and streaming services. On September 26, 2011, Netflix announced a content deal with DreamWorks Animation. On October 10, 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under the name Netflix and that its streaming and DVD-rental plans would remain branded together, citing customer dissatisfaction with the split.
In October 2011. Netflix and The CW signed a multi-year output deal for its television shows. On January 9, 2012, Netflix started its expansion to Europe, launching in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In February 2012, Netflix reached a multi-year agreement with The Weinstein Company. In March 2012, Netflix acquired the domain name DVD.com. By 2016, Netflix rebranded its DVD-by-mail service under the name DVD.com, A Netflix Company. In April 2012, Netflix filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers tweeted that the intent was to "engage on issues like net neutrality, bandwidth caps, UBB and VPPA". In June 2012, Netflix signed a deal with Open Road Films.
On August 23, 2012, Netflix and The Weinstein Company signed a multi-year output deal for RADiUS-TWC films. In September 2012, Epix signed a five-year streaming deal with Netflix. For the initial two years of this agreement, first-run and back-catalog content from Epix was exclusive to Netflix. Epix films came to Netflix 90 days after premiering on Epix. These included films from Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate.
On October 18, 2012, Netflix launched in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. On December 4, 2012, Netflix and Disney announced an exclusive multi-year agreement for first-run United States subscription television rights to Walt Disney Studios' animated and live-action films, with classics such as Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland and Pocahontas available immediately and others available on Netflix beginning in 2016. Direct-to-video releases were made available in 2013.
On January 14, 2013, Netflix signed an agreement with Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Television to distribute Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation, and Adult Swim content, as well as TNT's Dallas, beginning in March 2013. The rights to these programs were given to Netflix shortly after deals with Viacom to stream Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. Channel programs expired.
For cost reasons, Netflix stated that it would limit its expansion in 2013, adding only one new market—the Netherlands—in September of that year. This expanded its availability to 40 territories.
Development of original programming and distribution expansion (2013–2017)
In 2011, Netflix began its efforts into original content development. In March, it made a straight-to-series order from MRC for the political drama House of Cards, led by Kevin Spacey, outbidding U.S. cable networks. This marked the first instance of a first-run television series being specifically commissioned by the service. In November the same year, Netflix added two more significant productions to its roster: the comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black, adapted from Piper Kerman's memoir, and a new season of the previously cancelled Fox sitcom Arrested Development. Netflix acquired the U.S. rights to the Norwegian drama Lilyhammer after its television premiere on Norway's NRK1 on January 25, 2012. Notably departing from the traditional broadcast television model of weekly episode premieres, Netflix chose to release the entire first season on February 8 of the same year.
House of Cards was released by Netflix on February 1, 2013, marketed as the first "Netflix Original" production. Later that month, Netflix announced an agreement with DreamWorks Animation to commission children's television series based on its properties, beginning with Turbo: F.A.S.T., a spin-off of its film Turbo. Orange is the New Black would premiere in July 2013; Netflix stated that Orange is the New Black had been its most-watched original series so far, with all of them having "an audience comparable with successful shows on cable and broadcast TV."
On March 13, 2013, Netflix added a Facebook sharing feature, letting United States subscribers access "Watched by your friends" and "Friends' Favorites" by agreeing. This was not legal until the Video Privacy Protection Act was modified in early 2013. On August 1, 2013, Netflix reintroduced the "Profiles" feature that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles.
In November 2013, Marvel Television and ABC Studios announced Netflix had ordered a slate of four television series based on the Marvel Comics characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Each of the four series received an initial order of 13 episodes, and Netflix also ordered a Defenders miniseries that would tie them together. Daredevil and Jessica Jones premiered in 2015. The Luke Cage series premiered on September 30, 2016, followed by Iron Fist on March 17, 2017, and The Defenders on August 18, 2017. Marvel owner Disney later entered into other content agreements with Netflix, including acquiring its animated Star Wars series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and a new sixth season.
In February 2014, Netflix began to enter into agreements with U.S. internet service providers, beginning with Comcast (whose customers had repeatedly complained of frequent buffering when streaming Netflix), in order to provide the service a direct connection to their networks. In April 2014, Netflix signed Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his production firm The Hurwitz Company to a multi-year deal to create original projects for the service. In May 2014, Netflix & Sony Pictures Animation had a major multi-deal to acquired streaming rights to produce films. It also began to introduce an updated logo, with a flatter appearance and updated typography.
In September 2014, Netflix expanded into six new European markets, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. On September 10, 2014, Netflix participated in Internet Slowdown Day by deliberately slowing down its speed in support of net neutrality regulations in the United States. In October 2014, Netflix announced a four-film deal with Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions.
In April 2015, following the launch of Daredevil, Netflix director of content operations Tracy Wright announced that Netflix had added support for audio description, and had begun to work with its partners to add descriptions to its other original series over time. The following year, as part of a settlement with the American Council of the Blind, Netflix agreed to provide descriptions for its original series within 30 days of their premiere, and add screen reader support and the ability to browse content by availability of descriptions.
In March 2015, Netflix expanded to Australia and New Zealand. In September 2015, Netflix launched in Japan, its first country in Asia. In October 2015, Netflix launched in Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
In January 2016, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announced a major international expansion of its service into 130 additional countries. It then had become available worldwide except China, Syria, North Korea, Kosovo and Crimea. In May 2016, Netflix created a tool called Fast.com to determine the speed of an Internet connection. It received praise for being "simple" and "easy to use", and does not include online advertising, unlike competitors. On November 30, 2016, Netflix launched an offline playback feature, allowing users of the Netflix mobile apps on Android or iOS to cache content on their devices in standard or high quality for viewing offline, without an Internet connection.
In 2016, Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films, more than any network or cable channel. In April 2016, Hastings stated that the company planned to expand its in-house, Los Angeles-based Netflix Studios to grow its output; Hastings ruled out any potential acquisitions of existing studios.
In February 2017, Netflix signed a music publishing deal with BMG Rights Management, whereby BMG will oversee rights outside of the United States for music associated with Netflix original content. Netflix continues to handle these tasks in-house in the United States. On April 25, 2017, Netflix signed a licensing deal with IQiyi, a Chinese video streaming platform owned by Baidu, to allow selected Netflix original content to be distributed in China on the platform.
On August 7, 2017, Netflix acquired Millarworld, the creator-owned publishing company of comic book writer Mark Millar. The purchase marked the first corporate acquisition to have been made by Netflix. On August 14, 2017, Netflix entered into an exclusive development deal with Shonda Rhimes and her production company Shondaland.
In September 2017, Netflix announced it would offer its low-broadband mobile technology to airlines to provide better in-flight Wi-Fi so that passengers can watch movies on Netflix while on planes.
In September 2017, Minister of Heritage Mélanie Joly announced that Netflix had agreed to make a CA$500 million (US$400 million) investment over the next five years in producing content in Canada. The company denied that the deal was intended to result in a tax break. Netflix realized this goal by December 2018.
In October 2017, Netflix iterated a goal of having half of its library consist of original content by 2019, announcing a plan to invest $8 billion on original content in 2018. In October 2017, Netflix introduced the "Skip Intro" feature which allows customers to skip the intros to shows on its platform through a variety of techniques including manual reviewing, audio tagging, and machine learning.
In November 2017, Netflix signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan. In November 2017, Netflix withdrew from co-hosting a party at the 75th Golden Globe Awards with The Weinstein Company due to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases.
Expansion into international productions and new productions (2017–2020)
In November 2017, Netflix announced that it would be making its first original Colombian series, to be executive produced by Ciro Guerra. In December 2017, Netflix signed Stranger Things director-producer Shawn Levy and his production company 21 Laps Entertainment to what sources say is a four-year deal. In 2017, Netflix invested in distributing exclusive stand-up comedy specials from Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld.
In February 2018, Netflix acquired the rights to The Cloverfield Paradox from Paramount Pictures for $50 million and launched on its service on February 4, 2018, shortly after airing its first trailer during Super Bowl LII. Analysts believed that Netflix's purchase of the film helped to make the film instantly profitable for Paramount compared to a more traditional theatrical release, while Netflix benefited from the surprise reveal. Other films acquired by Netflix include international distribution for Paramount's Annihilation and Universal's News of the World and worldwide distribution of Universal's Extinction, Warner Bros.' Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Paramount's The Lovebirds and 20th Century Studios' The Woman in the Window. In March, the service ordered Formula 1: Drive to Survive, a racing docuseries following teams in the Formula One world championship.
In March 2018, Sky UK announced an agreement with Netflix to integrate Netflix's subscription VOD offering into its pay-TV service. Customers with its high-end Sky Q set-top box and service will be able to see Netflix titles alongside their regular Sky channels. In October 2022, Netflix revealed that its annual revenue from the UK subscribers in 2021 was £1.4bn.
In April 2018, Netflix pulled out of the Cannes Film Festival, in response to new rules requiring competition films to have been released in French theaters. The Cannes premiere of Okja in 2017 was controversial, and led to discussions over the appropriateness of films with simultaneous digital releases being screened at an event showcasing theatrical film; audience members also booed the Netflix production logo at the screening. Netflix's attempts to negotiate to allow a limited release in France were curtailed by organizers, as well as French cultural exception law—where theatrically screened films are legally forbidden from being made available via video-on-demand services until at least 36 months after their release. Besides traditional Hollywood markets as well as from partners like the BBC, Sarandos said the company also looking to expand investments in non-traditional foreign markets due to the growth of viewers outside of North America. At the time, this included programs such as Dark from Germany, Ingobernable from Mexico and 3% from Brazil.
On May 22, 2018, former president, Barack Obama, and his wife, Michelle Obama, signed a deal to produce docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix under the Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher Ground Productions.
In June 2018, Netflix announced a partnership with Telltale Games to port its adventure games to the service in a streaming video format, allowing simple controls through a television remote. The first game, Minecraft: Story Mode, was released in November 2018. In July 2018, Netflix earned the most Emmy nominations of any network for the first time with 112 nods. On August 27, 2018, the company signed a five-year exclusive overall deal with international best–selling author Harlan Coben. On the same day, the company signed an overall deal with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch. In October 2018, Netflix paid under $30 million to acquire Albuquerque Studios (ABQ Studios), a $91 million film and TV production facility with eight sound stages in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for its first U.S. production hub, pledging to spend over $1 billion over the next decade to create one of the largest film studios in North America. In November 2018, Paramount Pictures signed a multi-picture film deal with Netflix, making Paramount the first major film studio to sign a deal with Netflix. A sequel to AwesomenessTV's To All the Boys I've Loved Before was released on Netflix under the title To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You as part of the agreement. In December 2018, the company announced a partnership with ESPN Films on a television documentary chronicling Michael Jordan and the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season titled The Last Dance. It was released internationally on Netflix and became available for streaming in the United States three months after a broadcast airing on ESPN.
In January 2019, Sex Education made its debut as a Netflix original series, receiving much critical acclaim. On January 22, 2019, Netflix sought and was approved for membership into the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), making it the first streaming service to join the association. In February 2019, The Haunting creator Mike Flanagan joined frequent collaborator Trevor Macy as a partner in Intrepid Pictures and the duo signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix to produce television content. On May 9, 2019, Netflix contracted with Dark Horse Entertainment to make television series and films based on comics from Dark Horse Comics. In July 2019, Netflix announced that it would be opening a hub at Shepperton Studios as part of a deal with Pinewood Group. In early-August 2019, Netflix negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Game of Thrones creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The first Netflix production created by Benioff and Weiss was planned as an adaptation of Liu Cixin's science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, part of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. On September 30, 2019, in addition to renewing Stranger Things for a fourth season, Netflix signed The Duffer Brothers to an overall deal covering future film and television projects for the service.
On November 13, 2019, Netflix and Nickelodeon entered into a multi-year agreement to produce several original animated feature films and television series based on Nickelodeon's library of characters. This agreement expanded on their existing relationship, in which new specials based on the past Nickelodeon series Invader Zim and Rocko's Modern Life (Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus and Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling respectively) were released by Netflix. Other new projects planned under the team-up include a music project featuring Squidward Tentacles from the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, and films based on The Loud House and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The agreement with Disney ended in 2019 due to the launch of Disney+, with its Marvel productions moving exclusively to the service in 2022.
In November 2019, Netflix announced that it had signed a long-term lease to save the Paris Theatre, the last single-screen movie theater in Manhattan. The company oversaw several renovations at the theater, including new seats and a concession stand.
In January 2020, Netflix announced a new four-film deal with Adam Sandler worth up to $275 million. On February 25, 2020, Netflix formed partnerships with six Japanese creators to produce an original Japanese anime project. This partnership includes manga creator group CLAMP, mangaka Shin Kibayashi, mangaka Yasuo Ohtagaki, novelist and film director Otsuichi, novelist Tow Ubutaka, and manga creator Mari Yamazaki. On March 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it will be producing two spin-off films based on SpongeBob SquarePants for Netflix. On April 7, 2020, Peter Chernin's Chernin Entertainment made a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix to make films. On May 29, 2020, Netflix announced the acquisition of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre from the American Cinematheque to use as a special events venue. In July 2020, Netflix appointed Sarandos as co-CEO. In July 2020, Netflix invested in Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones' new production outfit Broke And Bones.
In September 2020, Netflix signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Meghan agreed to a multi-year deal promising to create TV shows, films, and children's content as part of their commitment to stepping away from the duties of the royal family. In September 2020, Hastings released a book about Netflix culture titled No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, which was coauthored by Erin Meyer. In December 2020, Netflix signed a first-look deal with Millie Bobby Brown to develop and star in several projects including a potential action franchise.
Expansion into gaming, Squid Game, new programing and new initiatives (2021–2022)
In March 2021, Netflix earned the most Academy Award nominations of any studio, with 36. Netflix won seven Academy Awards, which was the most by any studio. Later that year, Netflix also won more Emmys than any other network or studio with 44 wins, tying the record for most Emmys won in a single year set by CBS in 1974.
On April 8, 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced an agreement for Netflix to hold the U.S. pay television window rights to its releases beginning in 2022, replacing Starz and expanding upon an existing agreement with Sony Pictures Animation. The agreement also includes a first-look deal for any future direct-to-streaming films being produced by Sony Pictures, with Netflix required to commit to a minimum number of them. On April 27, Netflix announced that it was opening its first Canadian headquarters in Toronto. The company also announced that it would open an office in Sweden as well as Rome and Istanbul to increase its original content in those regions.
In early-June, Netflix hosted a first-ever week-long virtual event called "Geeked Week", where it shared exclusive news, new trailers, cast appearances and more about upcoming genre titles like The Witcher, The Cuphead Show!, and The Sandman.
On June 7, 2021, Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions signed a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix spanning feature films, TV series, and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers, and filmmakers. On June 10, 2021, Netflix announced it was launching an online store for curated products tied to the Netflix brand and shows such as Stranger Things and The Witcher. On June 21, 2021, Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners signed a deal with Netflix to release multiple new feature films for the streaming service. On June 30, 2021, Powerhouse Animation Studios (the studio behind Netflix's Castlevania) announced signing a first-look deal with the streamer to produce more animated series.
In July 2021, Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive from Electronic Arts and Facebook, as vice president of game development, along with plans to add video games by 2022. Netflix announced plans to release mobile games which would be included in subscribers' plans to the service. Trial offerings were first launched for Netflix users in Poland in August 2021, offering premium mobile games based on Stranger Things including Stranger Things 3: The Game, for free to subscribers through the Netflix mobile app.
On July 14, 2021, Netflix signed a first-look deal with Joey King, star of The Kissing Booth franchise, in which King will produce and develop films for Netflix via her All The King's Horses production company. On July 21, 2021, Zack Snyder, director of Netflix's Army of the Dead, announced he had signed his production company The Stone Quarry to a first-look deal with Netflix; his upcoming projects include a sequel to Army of the Dead and a sci-fi adventure film titled Rebel Moon. In 2019, he agreed to produce an anime-style web series inspired by Norse mythology.
As of August 2021, Netflix Originals made up 40% of Netflix's overall library in the United States. The company announced that "TUDUM: A Netflix Global Fan Event", a three-hour virtual behind the scenes featuring first-look reveals for 100 of the streamer's series, films and specials, would have its inaugural show in late September 2021. According to Netflix, the show garnered 25.7 million views across Netflix's 29 Netflix YouTube channels, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok and Tudum.com.
Also in September, the company announced The Queen's Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, launching in 2022 in Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, and Washington, D.C..
Squid Game, a South Korean survival drama created and produced by Hwang Dong-hyuk, rapidly became the service's most-watched show within a week of its launch in many markets on September 17, 2021, including Korea, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Within its first 28 days on the service, Squid Game drew more than 111 million viewers, surpassing Bridgerton and becoming Netflix's most-watched show.
On September 20, 2021, Netflix signed a long-term lease with Aviva Investors to operate and expand the Longcross Studios in Surrey, UK. On September 21, 2021, Netflix announced that it would acquire the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the rights to Roald Dahl's stories and characters, for an undisclosed price and would operate it as an independent company. The company acquired Night School Studio, an independent video game developer, on September 28, 2021.
On October 13, 2021, Netflix announced the launch of the Netflix Book Club, partnering with Starbucks for a social series called But Have You Read the Book?. Uzo Aduba became inaugural host of the series and announced monthly book selections set to be adapted by the streamer. Aduba speaks with the cast, creators, and authors about the book adaptation process over a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Through October 2021, Netflix commonly reported viewership for its programming based on the number of viewers or households that watched a show in a given period (such as the first 28 days from its premiere) for at least two minutes. On the announcement of its quarterly earnings in October 2021, the company stated that it would switch its viewership metrics to measuring the number of hours that a show was watched, including rewatches, which the company said was closer to the measurements used in linear broadcast television, and thus "our members and the industry can better measure success in the streaming world."
Netflix officially launched mobile games on November 2, 2021, for Android users around the world. Through the app, subscribers had free access to five games, including two previously made Stranger Things titles. Netflix intends to add more games to this service over time. On November 9, the collection launched for iOS. Some games in the collection require an active internet connection to play, while others will be available offline. Netflix Kids' accounts will not have games available. On November 16, Netflix announced the launch of "Top10 on Netflix.com", a new website with weekly global and country lists of the most popular titles on their service based on their new viewership metrics. On November 22, Netflix announced that it would acquire Scanline VFX, the visual effects and animation company behind Cowboy Bebop and Stranger Things. On the same day, Roberto Patino signed a deal with Netflix and established his own production banner, Analog Inc., in partnership with the company. Patino's first project under the deal is a series adaptation of Image Comics' Nocterra.
On December 6, 2021, Netflix and Stage 32 announced that they have teamed up the workshops at the Creating Content for the Global Marketplace program. On December 7, 2021, Netflix partnered with IllumiNative, a woman-led non-profit organization, for the Indigenous Producers Training Program. On December 9, Netflix announced the launch of "Tudum", an official companion website that offers news, exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes videos for its original television shows and films. On December 13, Netflix signed a multi-year overall deal with Kalinda Vazquez. On December 16, 2021, Netflix signed a multi-year creative partnership with Spike Lee and his production company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks to develop film and television projects.
In compliance with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive and its implementation in France, Netflix reached commitments with French broadcasting authorities and film guilds, as required by law, to invest a specific amount of its annual revenue into original French films and series. These films must be theatrically released and would not be allowed to be carried on Netflix until 15 months after their release.
In January 2022, Netflix ordered additional sports docuseries from Drive to Survive producers Box to Box Films, including a series that would follow PGA Tour golfers, and another that would follow professional tennis players on the ATP and WTA Tour circuits.
The company announced plans to acquire Next Games in March 2022 for €65 million as part of Netflix's expansions into gaming. Next Games had developed the mobile title Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales as well as two The Walking Dead mobile games. Later in the month, Netflix also acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer, Boss Fight Entertainment, for an undisclosed sum.
On March 15, 2022, Netflix announced a partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to produce five new series and specials based on Seuss properties following the success of Green Eggs and Ham. On March 29, 2022, Netflix announced that it would open an office in Poland to serve as a hub for its original productions across Central and Eastern Europe. On March 30, 2022, Netflix extended its lease agreement with Martini Film Studios, just outside Vancouver, Canada, for another five years. On March 31, 2022, Netflix ordered a docuseries that would follow teams in the 2022 Tour de France, which would also be co-produced by Box to Box Films.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netflix suspended its operations and future projects in Russia. It also announced that it would not comply with a proposed directive by Roskomnadzor requiring all internet streaming services with more than 100,000 subscribers to integrate the major free-to-air channels (which are primarily state-owned). A month later, ex-Russian subscribers filed a class action lawsuit against Netflix.
Netflix stated that 100 million households globally were sharing passwords to their account with others, and that Canada and the United States accounted for 30 million of them. Following these announcements, Netflix's stock price fell by 35 percent. By June 2022, Netflix had laid off 450 full-time and contract employees as part of the company's plan to trim costs amid lower than expected subscriber growth.
On April 13, 2022, Netflix released the series Our Great National Parks, which was hosted and narrated by former US President Barack Obama. It also partnered with Group Effort Initiative, a company founded by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, to provide opportunities behind the camera for those in underrepresented communities. On the same day, Netflix partnered with Lebanon-based Arab Fund For Arts And Culture for supporting the Arab female filmmakers. It will provide a one-time grant of $250,000 to female producers and directors in the Arab world through the company's Fund for Creative Equity. Also on the same day, Netflix announced an Exploding Kittens mobile card game tied to a new animated TV series, which will launch in May. Netflix formed a creative partnership with J. Miles Dale. The company also formed a partnership with Japan's Studio Colorido, signing a multi-film deal to boost their anime content in Asia. The streaming giant is said to co-produce three feature films with the studio, the first of which will premiere in September 2022. On April 28, the company launched its inaugural Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, featuring more than 250 shows over 12 nights at 30-plus locations across Los Angeles, including the first-ever stand-up show at Dodger Stadium.
The first volume of Stranger Things 4 logged Netflix's biggest premiere weekend ever for an original series with 286.79 million hours viewed. This was preceded by a new Stranger Things interactive experience hosted in New York City that was developed by the show's creators. After the release of the second volume of Stranger Things 4 on July 1, 2022, it became Netflix's second title to receive more than one billion hours viewed.
On July 19, 2022, Netflix announced plans to acquire Australian animation studio Animal Logic. That month, in collaboration with Sennheiser, Netflix began to add Ambeo 2-channel audio mixes (referred to as "spatial audio") to selected original productions, which allows simulated surround sound on stereo speakers and headphones.
On September 5, 2022, Netflix opened an office in Warsaw, Poland responsible for the service's operations in 28 markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
On October 4, 2022, Netflix have signed a creative partnership with Andrea Berloff and John Gatins. On October 11, Netflix signed up with the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board for external measurement of viewership in the UK. On October 12, Netflix signed to build a production complex at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown, New Jersey. On October 18, Netflix began exploring a cloud gaming offering and opened a new gaming studio in Southern California.
On November 7, 2022, Netflix announced a strategic partnership with The Seven, a Japanese production company owned by TBS Holdings, to produce multiple original live-action titles for the subscribers over the next five years. On December 12, 2022, Netflix announced that sixty-percent of its subscribers had watched a Korean drama. CEO Ted Sarandos attributed the increase in viewership of Korean content among Americans to Korean films and dramas being "often unpredictable" and catching "the American audience by surprise".
On January 10, 2023, Netflix announced plans to open an engineering hub in its Warsaw office. The hub is to provide Netflix's creative partners with software solutions for the production of films and series. In February 2023, Netflix launched a wider rollout of spatial audio, and began allowing Premium subscribers to download content for offline playback on up to six devices (expanded from four).
On March 4, 2023, Netflix broadcast its first-ever global live-streaming event, the stand-up comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.
Netflix reworked its viewership metrics again in June 2023. Viewership of shows was measured during the first 91 days of availability, instead of the first 28 days, and now are based on the total viewership hours divided by the total hours of the show itself. This provided more equal considerations for shorter shows and movies compared to longer ones.
In August 2023, the company announced Netflix Stories, a collection of interactive narrative games from Netflix series and films such as Love is Blind, Money Heist and Virgin River.
Discontinuation of DVD rentals, expansion of live events, WWE agreement (2023–present)
On April 18, 2023, Netflix announced that it would discontinue its DVD-by-mail service on September 29. Users of the service were able to keep the DVDs that they had received. Over its lifetime the service had sent out over 5 billion shipments.
In October 2023, Eunice Kim was promoted to Chief Product Officer and Elizabeth Stone was promoted to Chief Technology Officer. That same month, amid a restructuring of its animation division, Netflix announced a multi-film agreement with Skydance Animation beginning with the upcoming Spellbound. The agreement partially replaces one it had with Apple TV+.
In December 2023, Netflix released its first "What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report", a look at viewership for every original and licensed title watched more than 50,000 hours from January to June 2023. The company also announced plans to publish the report twice a year. In its first report for the first six months of 2023, it reported that The Night Agent was the most watched show on globally in that period.
On January 23, 2024, Netflix announced a major agreement with professional wrestling promotion WWE, under which it will acquire the international rights to its live weekly program Raw beginning in January 2025; the rights will initially cover the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, and expand to other territories over time. Outside of the United States, it will also hold international rights to all three of WWE's main weekly programs (Raw, SmackDown, and NXT), premium live events, and documentaries among other content. The agreement was reported to be valued at $500 million per-year over ten years.
In February 2024, Netflix joined with Peter Morgan, creator of the Netflix series The Crown, to produce the play Patriots on Broadway. The venture is the first Broadway credit for the company but not its first stage project. It was actively involved as a producer of Stranger Things: The First Shadow in London. Both productions share a lead producer, Sonia Friedman.
In May 2024, the company hosted its second Netflix Is a Joke festival in Los Angeles. It streamed several specials from the festival live, including Katt Williams's Woke Folk and The Roast of Tom Brady, both of which ranked on Netflix's global top 10 the following two weeks. That same month, Netflix announced that it would stream both National Football League Christmas games in 2024. For 2025 and 2026, the streamer will have exclusive rights to at least one NFL Christmas game each year.
In June 2024, the company announced plans for Netflix House, a new permanent entertainment venue for fans to experience Netflix series and films. The first locations in the announcement are King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania and Galleria Dallas in Texas.
Availability and access
Global availability
Netflix is available in every country and territory except for China, North Korea, Syria and Russia.
In January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin VPN blocking since it can be used to watch videos from a country where they are unavailable. The result of the VPN block is that people can only watch videos available worldwide and other videos are hidden from search results. Variety is present on Netflix. Hebrew and right-to-left interface orientation, which is a common localization strategy in many markets, are what define the Israeli user interface's localization, and in some regions, Netflix offers a more affordable mobile-only subscription.
Subscriptions
Customers can subscribe to one of three plans; the difference in plans relates to video resolution, the number of simultaneous streams, and the number of devices to which content can be downloaded.
At the end of Q1 2022, Netflix estimated that 100 million households globally were sharing passwords to their account with others. In March 2022, Netflix began to charge a fee for additional users in Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica to attempt to control account sharing. On July 18, 2022, Netflix announced that it would test the account sharing feature in more countries, including Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. On October 17, Netflix launched Profile Transfer to help end account sharing.
On July 13, 2022, Netflix announced plans to launch an advertising-supported subscription option. Netflix's planned advertising tier would not allow subscribers to download content like the existing ad-free platform. On July 20, 2022, it was announced that the advertising-supported tier would be coming to Netflix in 2023 but it would not feature the full library of content. In October, the launch date was announced as November 3, 2022, and was launched in 12 countries: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan and South Korea. The ad-supported plan was called "Basic with Ads" and it cost $6.99 per month in the United States at launch.
On February 24, 2023, Netflix cut subscription prices in more than 30 countries around the world to attract more subscribers from those countries. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Croatia, Venezuela, Kenya, and Iran are on the list of countries where the cost for a subscription will be reduced. In the same month stronger anti-password-sharing rules were expanded to Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. In May 2023, these measures were further expanded to United States and Brazil subscribers.
In July 2023, Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers for the second quarter of the year for a total of 238.39 million subscribers overall. The United States and Canada accounted for 1.2 million subscribers which was the largest regional quarterly gain since 2021.
Netflix announced in February that it was going to enforce stricter regulations for password sharing. In May 2023, Netflix began cracking down on password-sharing in the US, UK, and Australia. Under these new rules, multiple people can use and share one account, but they have to be under the same household. Netflix defines a household as people who live in the same location as the owner of the account. Users are asked to set a primary location based on the device's IP address.
Netflix reported 8.05 million new subscribers in Q2 2024, up from 5.9 million subscribers added in Q2 2023.
In July 2024, Netflix started phasing out its cheapest subscription plan for users in France and the US, a year after the plan was removed for Canada and the UK. Members in these countries have the option to sign up for either the standard ad-free plan or the ad plan.
Device support
Netflix can be accessed via a web browser, while Netflix apps are available on various platforms, including Blu-ray players, tablet computers, mobile phones, smart TVs, digital media players, and video game consoles. Currently supported game consoles include:
Microsoft Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Sony PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
Several older devices no longer support Netflix. For home gaming consoles, this includes the PlayStation 2, PlayStation TV, Wii and Wii U. For handheld gaming consoles, this includes the Nintendo 3DS family of systems and the PlayStation Vita. The second and third generation Apple TV previously supported Netflix with an ad-free plan, but the app was automatically removed on these devices on July 31, 2024.
In addition, a growing number of multichannel television providers, including cable television and IPTV services, have added Netflix apps accessible within their own set-top boxes, sometimes with the ability for its content (along with those of other online video services) to be presented within a unified search interface alongside linear television programming as an "all-in-one" solution.
The maximum video resolution supported on computers is dependent on the DRM systems available on a particular operating system and web browser.
Content
Original programming
"Netflix Originals" are content that is produced, co-produced, or distributed exclusively by Netflix. Netflix funds its original shows differently than other TV networks when they sign a project, providing the money upfront and immediately ordering two seasons of most series. It keeps licensing rights, which normally give production companies future revenue opportunities from syndication, merchandising, etc.
Over the years, Netflix output ballooned to a level unmatched by any television network or streaming service. According to Variety Insight, Netflix produced a total of 240 new original shows and movies in 2018, then climbed to 371 in 2019, a figure "greater than the number of original series that the entire U.S. TV industry released in 2005." The Netflix budget allocated to production increased annually, reaching $13.6 billion in 2021 and projected to hit $18.9 billion by 2025, a figure that once again overshadowed any of its competitors. As of August 2022, original productions made up 50% of Netflix's overall library in the United States.
Film and television deals
Netflix has exclusive pay TV deals with several studios. The deals give Netflix exclusive streaming rights while adhering to the structures of traditional pay TV terms.
Distributors that have licensed content to Netflix include Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and previously The Walt Disney Studios. Netflix also holds current and back-catalog rights to television programs distributed by Walt Disney Television, DreamWorks Classics, Kino International, Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Global Content Distribution, along with titles from other companies such as Hasbro Entertainment and Funimation. Formerly, the streaming service also held rights to select television programs distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Television and 20th Century Fox Television.
Netflix negotiated to distribute animated films from Universal that HBO declined to acquire, such as The Lorax, ParaNorman, and Minions.
Netflix holds exclusive streaming rights to the film library of Studio Ghibli (except Grave of the Fireflies) worldwide except in the U.S. and Japan as part of an agreement signed with Ghibli's international sales holder Wild Bunch in 2020.
Netflix Games
In July 2021, Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive from Electronic Arts and Facebook, as vice president of game development, along with plans to add video games by 2022. Netflix announced plans to release mobile games which would be included in subscribers' plans to the service. Trial offerings were first launched for Netflix users in Poland in August 2021, offering premium mobile games based on Stranger Things including Stranger Things 3: The Game, for free to subscribers through the Netflix mobile app.
Netflix officially launched mobile games on November 2, 2021, for Android users around the world. Through the app, subscribers had free access to five games, including two previously made Stranger Things titles. Netflix intends to add more games to this service over time. On November 9, the collection launched for iOS. Verdu said in October 2022 that besides continuing to expand their portfolio of games, they were also interested in cloud gaming options.
To support the games effort, Netflix began acquiring and forming a number of studios. The company acquired Night School Studio, an independent video game developer, in September 2021. Netflix announced plans to acquire Next Games in March 2022 for €65 million as part of Netflix's expansions into gaming. Next Games had developed the mobile title Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales as well as two The Walking Dead mobile games. Later in the month, Netflix also acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer, Boss Fight Entertainment, for an undisclosed sum. Netflix opened a mobile game studio in Helsinki, Finland in September 2022, and a new studio, their fifth total, in southern California in October 2022, alongside the acquisition of Spry Fox in Seattle.
In June 2024, Verdu was moved into a new role focusing on "innovation in game development." The next month, Netflix hired Alain Tascan, vice president of game development at Epic Games, to head up Netflix Games. As of July 2024, Netflix has over 80 games in development, releasing at least one game each month to attract fans.
Technology
Content delivery
Netflix freely peers with Internet service providers (ISPs) directly and at common Internet exchange points. In June 2012, a custom content delivery network, Open Connect, was announced. For larger ISPs with over 100,000 subscribers, Netflix offers free Netflix Open Connect computer appliances that cache their content within the ISPs' data centers or networks to further reduce Internet transit costs. By August 2016, Netflix closed its last physical data center, but continued to develop its Open Connect technology. A 2016 study at the University of London detected 233 individual Open Connect locations on over six continents, with the largest amount of traffic in the US, followed by Mexico.
As of July 2017, Netflix series and movies accounted for more than a third of all prime-time download Internet traffic in North America.
API
On October 1, 2008, Netflix offered access to its service via a public application programming interface (API). It allowed access to data for all Netflix titles, and allows users to manage their movie queues. The API was free and allowed commercial use. In June 2012, Netflix began to restrict the availability of its public API. Netflix instead focused on a small number of known partners using private interfaces, since most traffic came from those private interfaces. In November 2014, Netflix retired the public API. Netflix then partnered with the developers of eight services deemed the most valuable, including Instant Watcher, Fanhattan, Yidio and Nextguide.
Recommendations and thumbnails
Netflix presents viewers with recommendations based on interactions with the service, such as previous viewing history and ratings of viewed content. These are often grouped into genres and formats, or feature the platform's highest-rated content. Each title is presented with a thumbnail. Before around 2015, these were the same key art for everyone, but since then has been customized. Netflix may select a specific key art for a thumbnail based on viewing history, such as an actor or scene type based on genre preferences. Some thumbnails are generated from video stills.
The Netflix recommendation system is a vital part of the streaming platform's success, enabling personalized content suggestions for hundreds of millions of subscribers worldwide. Using advanced machine learning algorithms, Netflix analyzes user interactions, including viewing history, searches, and ratings, to deliver personalized recommendations for movies and TV shows.
The recommendation system considers individual user preferences, similarities with other users with comparable tastes, specific title attributes (genre, release year, etc.), device usage patterns, and viewing time. As users interact with the platform and provide feedback with their viewing habits, the recommendation system is able to adapt and refine its suggestions over time. Netflix uses a two-tiered ranking system, using the presentation of titles on the homepage for easy navigation to maximize user engagement. This is done by organizing content into rows and ranking the titles within each row based on how much the user would be interested in it. Netflix also uses A/B testing to determine what causes the biggest interest and engagement related to options concerning movie suggestions and how titles are organized.
Tags like "bittersweet", "sitcom", or "intimate" are assigned to each title by Netflix employees. Netflix also uses the tags to create recommendation micro-genres like "Goofy TV Shows" or "Girls Night In".
Awards
On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned the first Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for original streaming programs at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its series, Arrested Development, Hemlock Grove and House of Cards, earned a combined 14 nominations (nine for House of Cards, three for Arrested Development and two for Hemlock Grove). The House of Cards episode "Chapter 1" received four nominations for both the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards and 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, becoming the first episode of a streaming television series to receive a major Primetime Emmy Award nomination. With its win for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, "Chapter 1" became the first episode from a streaming service to be awarded an Emmy. David Fincher's win for Directing for a Drama Series for House of Cards made the episode the first from a streaming service to win a Primetime Emmy.
On November 6, 2013, Netflix earned its first Grammy nomination when You've Got Time by Regina Spektor — the main title theme song for Orange Is the New Black — was nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
On December 12, 2013, the network earned six nominations for Golden Globe Awards, including four for House of Cards. Among those nominations was Wright for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her portrayal of Claire Underwood, which she won. With the accolade, Wright became the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a streaming television series. It also marked Netflix's first major acting award. House of Cards and Orange is the New Black also won Peabody Awards in 2013.
On January 16, 2014, Netflix became the first streaming service to earn an Academy Award nomination when The Square was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
On July 10, 2014, Netflix received 31 Emmy nominations. Among other nominations, House of Cards received nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Orange is the New Black was nominated in the comedy categories, earning nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. Taylor Schilling, Kate Mulgrew, and Uzo Aduba were respectively nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (the latter was for Aduba's recurring role in season one, as she was promoted to series regular for the show's second season).
Netflix got the largest share of 2016 Emmy Award nominations, with 16 major nominations. However, streaming shows only got 24 nominations out of a total of 139, falling significantly behind cable. The 16 Netflix nominees were: House of Cards with Kevin Spacey, A Very Murray Christmas with Bill Murray, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, and Bloodline.
Stranger Things received 19 nominations at the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards, while The Crown received 13 nominations.
In December 2017, Netflix was awarded PETA's Company of the Year for promoting animal rights movies and documentaries like Forks Over Knives and What the Health.
At the 90th Academy Awards, held on March 4, 2018, the film Icarus, distributed by Netflix, won its first Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. During his remarks backstage, director and writer Bryan Fogel remarked that Netflix had "single-handedly changed the documentary world." Icarus had its premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was bought by Netflix for $5 million, one of the biggest deals ever for a non-fiction film. Netflix became the network whose programs received more nomination at the 2018 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards with 112 nominations, therefore breaking HBO's 17-years record as a network whose programs received more nomination at the Emmys, which received 108 nominations.
On January 22, 2019, films distributed by Netflix scored 15 nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture for Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, which was nominated for 10 awards. The 15 nominations equal the total nominations films distributed by Netflix had received in previous years.
In 2020, Netflix received 20 TV nominations and films distributed by Netflix also got 22 film nominations at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. It secured three out of the five nominations for best drama TV series for The Crown, Ozark and Ratched and four of the five nominations for best actress in a TV series: Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin, Laura Linney and Sarah Paulson.
In 2020, Netflix earned 24 Academy Award nominations, marking the first time a streaming service led all studios.
Films and programs distributed by Netflix received 30 nominations at the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards, more than any other distribution company, where their distributed films and programs won seven awards including best motion picture for The Trial of the Chicago 7 and best TV drama for The Crown. Netflix also received the most nominations of any studio at the 93rd Academy Awards – 35 total nominations with 7 award wins.
In February 2022, The Power of the Dog, a gritty western distributed by Netflix and directed by Jane Campion, received 12 nominations, including Best Picture, for the 94th annual Academy Awards. Films distributed by the streamer received a total of 72 nominations. Campion became the third female to receive the Best Director award, winning her second Oscar for The Power of the Dog. At the 50th International Emmy Awards, Netflix original Sex Education won Best Comedy Series. Later that year, Netflix received 26 Emmy Awards including six for Squid Game. The Squid Game wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series were the first-ever for a non-English language series in those categories.
In March 2023, Netflix won six Academy Awards including four for All Quiet on the Western Front which was the most awarded Netflix film in its history. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was the first streaming film to named Best Animated Feature and The Elephant Whisperers was the first Indian-produced film to receive Best Documentary Short Film. Netflix received 103 Emmy nominations including 13 each for the limited series Beef and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
In July 2024, Netflix received 107 Emmy nominations which was the most of any network.
Criticism
Netflix has been subject to criticism from various groups and individuals as its popularity and market reach increased in the 2010s.
Customers have complained about price increases in Netflix offerings dating back to the company's decision to separate its DVD rental and streaming services, which was quickly reversed. As Netflix increased its streaming output, it has faced calls to limit accessibility to graphic violence and include viewer advisories for issues such as sensationalism and promotion of pseudoscience. Netflix's content has also been criticized by disability rights movement advocates for lack of closed captioning quality.
Some media organizations and competitors have criticized Netflix for selectively releasing ratings and viewer numbers of its original programming. The company has made claims boasting about viewership records without providing data to substantiate its successes or using problematic estimation methods. In March 2020, some government agencies called for Netflix and other streamers to limit services due to increased broadband and energy consumption as use of the platform increased. In response, the company announced it would reduce bit rate across all streams in Europe, thus decreasing Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent. These same steps were later taken in India.
In May 2022, Netflix's shareholder Imperium Irrevocable Trust filed a lawsuit against the company for violating the U.S. securities laws. In January 2024, a federal judge dismissed the suit, stating that shareholders failed to provide instances of Netflix lying about subscriber growth.
In May 2023, Netflix officially banned the use of password sharing between individuals of different households, meaning sharing an account was only available to those living in the same house.
See also
List of streaming media services
References
Further reading
External links
Netflix |
Marc_Randolph | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Randolph | [
492
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Randolph"
] | Marc Bernays Randolph (born April 29, 1958) is an American tech entrepreneur, advisor and speaker. He is the co-founder and first CEO of Netflix.
A serial entrepreneur who is said to have helped found the U.S. edition of Macworld magazine and the Ordinal computer mail-order businesses MacWarehouse and MicroWarehouse, Randolph now serves on the boards of Looker Data Sciences and Chubbies Shorts. He previously served on the boards of Getable, Rafter, ReadyForce.
Randolph, who has experience as a mountain guide, is the chairman of the board of trustees of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Lander, Wyoming and a board member of the environmental advocacy group 1% for the Planet.
Early life and education
Randolph was born to a Jewish family in Chappaqua, New York, the eldest child of Stephen Bernays Randolph, an Austrian-born nuclear engineer turned financial adviser and Muriel Lipchik of Brooklyn, New York who ran her own real estate firm. One of Randolph's paternal great-grand uncles was psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud. Another paternal great-uncle of Randolph was Edward Bernays, an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda. Randolph spent his summers during high school and college working for the National Outdoor Leadership School, becoming one of its youngest instructors. He graduated from Hamilton College in New York with a geology degree.
Career
Early career
Randolph's first job out of college in 1981 was at Cherry Lane Music Company in New York. Put in charge of the company's small mail-order operation, Randolph taught himself direct mail and marketing techniques while tinkering with different ways to sell Cherry Lane's catalog of sheet music directly to consumers. Randolph's fascination with using computer software to track customers' buying behavior would ultimately inform his decision to create a user interface at Netflix that doubled as a market research platform. He further developed his theories about using direct mail to influence and retain customers doing circulation work while helping found the U.S. version of MacUser magazine in 1984. While co-founding computer mail-order firms MacWarehouse and MicroWarehouse with Peter Godfrey and his partners about a year later, Randolph made the connection between overnight delivery and improved customer retention. The discovery later proved crucial to Netflix's growth and survival: the company's subscriber base first blossomed and cut into Blockbuster Inc revenues in cities where Netflix offered overnight DVD delivery.
Randolph spent the dawn of the Internet age building direct-to-consumer marketing operations at software giant Borland International starting in 1988. He left Borland in 1995 for a series of short stints at Silicon Valley start-ups, including heading marketing at desktop scanner maker Visioneer, and then as a member of the founding team of Integrity QA, a developer of automated software testing products. In late 1996, software debugging company Pure Atria acquired the nine-person software startup. Pure Atria's founder and CEO Reed Hastings retained Randolph as vice president of corporate marketing for the rapidly expanding Pure Atria. In late 1996, Pure Atria announced that Rational Software would acquire it in an $850 million stock swap in what was then the richest merger in Silicon Valley history. Hastings and Randolph commuted together between their homes in Santa Cruz, California, into Silicon Valley for about four months while the Rational merger was finalized, and on these drives, the idea for Netflix was born.
Netflix
Randolph wanted to replicate the e-commerce model pioneered by online bookseller Amazon.com. He had heard that digital-versatile-discs (DVD) were being tested in several U.S. markets, and he wanted to explore the concept of selling the compact new digital format online. He and Hastings could not find a DVD, so they tested the idea with a compact disc.
"Reed and I were in downtown Santa Cruz and we were saying, 'I wonder if we can mail these things'," Randolph said. "We went in and bought a music CD and went into one of the stationery stores … and bought a greeting card and stuck the CD in the envelope and mailed it to Reed's house. And the next day, he said, 'It came. It's fine.' If there was an aha moment, that was it."
Hastings, Randolph's mother, and Integrity QA founder Steve Kahn were initial investors in Netflix when plans first started in 1996-1997. Randolph named the company, designed its initial user interface and branding and acted as chief executive for the first year while Hastings attended Stanford University graduate school. Netflix launched on April 14, 1998, out of an office park in Scotts Valley, California.
Randolph designed the user interface to act as an online catalog of movies and a market research platform so that he could constantly test different versions to perfect the user experience. The data generated by these market tests led the team to three concepts that they combined in 1999 to create Netflix's successful business model: a subscription-based service with no due dates or late fees and unlimited access to content, a "Queue" that allowed subscribers to specify the order in which DVDs should be mailed to them, and a serialized delivery system that automatically mailed out a DVD as soon as the previous rental was returned.
The subscriber data collected by the user interface fed a recommendation engine known as Cinematch, that helped manage the company's limited DVD inventory by guiding subscribers to movies and TV shows that were in stock and generally away from new releases.
Randolph ceded the CEO post to Hastings in 1999 and turned to product development. He and founding team member Mitch Lowe tested a concept for a movie rental kiosk called Netflix Express that Lowe later turned into movie kiosk giant Redbox after Hastings rejected it as a line of business. Randolph left Netflix in 2002 after helping guide the company through its initial public offering two years earlier. He credited Hastings with successfully scaling the company to 93 million subscribers worldwide, and said he preferred the start-up stage. "At the beginning, it's very much triage. If there are a hundred things broken and you need the skill to pick the three you've got to fix, I'm really good at that. I'm not good at the other ninety-seven," Randolph said.
After Netflix
Since his departure from Netflix, Randolph has served as a mentor at MiddCORE and a board member of Looker Data Sciences. He is also Entrepreneur in Residence for High Point University and its Belk Entrepreneurship Center.
In addition to his mentorships he is a keynote speaker, focusing on entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation. He travels the world speaking about his experience with Netflix and the lessons he has learned from his other startup investments.
In September 2019, his book, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea was published by Little, Brown and Company.
Personal life
Randolph has been married to Lorraine Kiernan since 1987. They have three children. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California.
References
External links
Official website |
One_Percent_for_the_Planet | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Percent_for_the_Planet | [
492
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Percent_for_the_Planet"
] | One Percent for the Planet is an international organization whose members contribute at least one percent of their annual revenue to environmental causes to protect the environment.
Since 1985, Patagonia pledged 1% of sales to the preservation of restoration of the natural environment.
In 2002, 1% for the Planet was founded by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, to "encourage more businesses to donate 1% of sales to environmental groups". Since its creation, the organization has been joined by countries around the world, with a great number of partners in France, Great Britain, Australia, and Japan. France is the only country to have an independent entity.
Members
BIC joined as a member in 2022 with an eco-friendly product line; Honest Tea joined with a glass product line. Other notable members include OXO, New Belgium Brewing Company, Klean Kanteen, and Nature's Path's EnviroKidz brand.
References
External links
Official website |
Yvon_Chouinard | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard | [
492
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard"
] | Yvon Chouinard (born November 9, 1938) is an American rock climber, environmentalist, philanthropist, and outdoor industry businessman. His company, Patagonia, is known for its high quality outdoor products and outerwear. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Chouinard is also a surfer, kayaker, and falconer and is particularly fond of tenkara fly-fishing. He has written about climbing issues and ethics and on mixing environmentalism and business.
Early life
Chouinard's father was a French-Canadian handyman, mechanic, and plumber. In 1947, Yvon and his family moved from Lewiston, Maine to Southern California. They were Catholic.
His early climbing partners included Royal Robbins and Tom Frost. A Sierra Club member, in his youth he founded the Southern California Falconry Club, and it was his investigations of falcon aeries that led him to rock climbing. To save money and to make adaptations for the way he was climbing, he decided to make his own climbing tools by teaching himself blacksmithing, and eventually started a business.
Yosemite rock climber to leading alpinist
Chouinard was one of the leading climbers of the "Golden Age of Yosemite Climbing." He was one of the protagonists of the film made about this era: Valley Uprising (2014). He participated in the first ascent of the North America Wall in 1964 (with Royal Robbins, Tom Frost, and Chuck Pratt), using no fixed ropes. The next year, his and TM Herbert's ascent of the Muir Wall on El Capitan improved the style of previous first ascents. Chouinard became the most articulate advocate of the importance of style, the basis of modern rock climbing.
In 1961, he visited Western Canada with Fred Beckey, and made several important first ascents, including the North Face of Mount Edith Cavell (Rockies), the Beckey-Chouinard Route on South Howser Tower in the Bugaboos (Purcell Mountains), and the North Face of Mount Sir Donald (Selkirk Mountains). These climbs opened his eyes to the idea of applying Yosemite big-wall climbing techniques to mountain climbing, and his advocacy was important to modern, high-grade alpinism. Also in 1961, he visited Shawangunk Ridge for the first time, freeclimbing the first pitch of Matinee (the hardest free climb done at Shawangunk Ridge at the time); and introducing chrome-molybdenum steel pitons to the area, which revolutionized climbing protection. In 1968, he climbed Cerro Fitzroy in Patagonia by a new route (The Californian Route, 3rd overall ascent of the mountain) with Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Lito Tejada-Flores, and Douglas Tompkins.
Chouinard has also traveled and climbed in the European Alps and in Pakistan.
Chouinard Equipment, Ltd.
In 1957, he bought a second-hand coal-fired forge, and started making hardened steel pitons for use in Yosemite Valley. Between time spent surfing and climbing, he sold pitons out of the back of his car to support himself. The improved pitons were a big factor in the birth of big-wall climbing from 1957 to 1960 in Yosemite. The success of his pitons caused him to found Chouinard Equipment, Ltd.
In the late 1960s, Chouinard and business partner Tom Frost began studying ice climbing equipment, and re-invented the basic tools (crampons and ice axes) to perform on steeper ice. These new tools and his book Climbing Ice (1978) started the modern sport of ice climbing.
Around 1970, he became aware that the use of steel pitons made by his company was causing significant damage to the cracks of Yosemite. These pitons composed 70 percent of his income. In 1971 and 1972, Chouinard and Frost introduced new aluminum chockstones, called Hexentrics and Stoppers, along with the less successful steel Crack-n-Ups, and committed the company to the advocacy of the new tools and a new style of climbing called "clean climbing." This concept revolutionized rock climbing and led to further success of the company, despite cannibalizing the sales of pitons, formerly his most important product.
They applied for a U.S. patent on Hexentrics in 1974, and it was granted on April 6, 1976. These are still manufactured by Black Diamond Equipment.
In the latter 1960s, Chouinard attempted a number of significant technological and technique changes to ice climbing after trips to the Alps in Europe and Sierra Nevada ice gullies in autumn. He removed the flex from crampons, making them more rigid for front-pointing. He drew the taper of a rock hammer into a point for better ice purchase. He increased the cross section of ice screws while also using lighter materials. He experimented with pick and blade issues with ice axes. Prior to this, much of ice climbing was seen as mere step cutting. He attempted to replace hand ice picks (climbing type) with a small ice axe head called a Climaxe.
In 1989, Chouinard Equipment, Ltd. filed for bankruptcy protection in order to protect it from liability lawsuits. The hard assets of Chouinard Equipment, Ltd. were acquired by its employees through the Chapter 11 process, and the company was reestablished as Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd.
Patagonia and environmentalism
Chouinard is most known for founding the clothing and gear company Patagonia. Chouinard started to sell clothes by chance as a way to support his moderately profitable equipment business. In 1970 on a trip to Scotland, he purchased some rugby shirts and sold them with great success. From this small start, the Patagonia company developed a wide selection of rugged technical clothing. According to Chouinard, the intent of Patagonia is to make clothes for people under the rugged, southern Andes/Cape Horn conditions of places like Patagonia.
Recognizing that the financial success of the company provided the opportunity to also achieve personal goals, Chouinard committed the company to being an outstanding place to work, and to be an important resource for environmental activism. In 1984, Patagonia opened an on-site cafeteria offering "healthy, mostly vegetarian food," and started providing on-site child care. In 1986, Chouinard committed the company to "tithing" for environmental activism, committing one percent of sales or ten percent of profits, whichever is the greater. The commitment included paying employees working on local environmental projects so they could commit their efforts full-time.
In the early 1990s, an environmental audit of Patagonia revealed the surprising result (at the time), that corporate cotton, although it was a natural material, had a heavy environmental footprint. In 1996, Chouinard committed the company to using all organic cotton.
In 2002, Yvon Chouinard founded 1% for the Planet and Patagonia became the first business to commit 1% of annual sales to the environment.
In 2014, Patagonia supported the advocacy documentary film DamNation, which is about changing attitudes in America towards its dams. Chouinard was the executive producer of the film, and he was also featured in the film commenting about dams.
In 2018, in acknowledgment that sustainability and responsible practices are core to Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard was recognized with the Sierra Club's top award, the John Muir Award.
In 2022, Chouinard announced that he was donating ownership in Patagonia to a trust to ensure profits are used for addressing climate change. Chouinard's family retains control of the company's voting stock through the Patagonia Purpose Trust.
Personal life
In 1971, Chouinard met and married his wife, Malinda Pennoyer, who was an art and home economics student at California State University, Fresno. They have a son (Fletcher) and a daughter (Claire), both of whom work for Patagonia.
In 2021, Yvon Chouinard received an honorary degree from Bates College.
Publications
Chouinard, Yvon (1982). Climbing Ice. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-87156-207-3.
Chouinard, Yvon (2005). Let My People Go Surfing. New York: The Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-072-6.
Chouinard, Yvon; Vincent Stanley (2012). The Responsible Company: What We've Learned from Patagonia's First 40 years. Patagonia Books. ISBN 978-0-9801227-8-7.
Chouinard, Yvon; Mathews, Craig; Mazzo, Mauro (2014) Simple Fly Fishing: Techniques for Tenkara and Rod & Reel. Patagonia Books. ISBN 978-1938340369
Notable ascents
1961 North Face, Mount Edith Cavell, Canadian Rockies (First ascent with Fred Beckey and Dan Doody).
1962 Northeast Face, Disappointment Peak, Teton Range, Wyoming. (IV 5.9 A3) First ascent with Tom Frost.
1964 North American Wall, El Capitan, Yosemite Valley – (VI 5.8 A5 3000') – First ascent with Royal Robbins, Tom Frost and Chuck Pratt.
1965 Muir Wall, El Capitan, Yosemite Valley – (VI 5.10 A3) – First ascent with TM Herbert, June 1965.
1968 Southwest Ridge aka California Route, Cerro Fitzroy, Patagonia First ascent of route with Doug Tompkins, Lito Tejada-Flores, Chris Jones and Dick Dorworth, 3rd ascent of peak.
1975 Diamond Couloir (direct finish) Mount Kenya, Kenya. First ascent of direct finish with Michael Covington, January 1975.
Related reading
Franklin, Jonathan (2021). A Wild Idea. HarperOne. ISBN 978-0062964120.
Krakauer, Jon (1990). Eiger Dreams. Presses de la Cité. ISBN 2-258-04862-1.
Paumgarten, Nick (September 19, 2016). "Patagonia's Philosopher-King". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
References
Other sources
"Patagonia's History". Retrieved December 6, 2014.
External links
Outdoor Business Pioneer Yvon Chouinard (NPR interview with Yvon Chouinard) |
Wedding_dress_of_Meghan_Markle | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress_of_Meghan_Markle | [
493
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress_of_Meghan_Markle"
] | The wedding dress worn by Meghan Markle at her wedding to Prince Harry on 19 May 2018 was designed by the British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller, artistic director of the fashion house Givenchy. The bride's veil was embroidered with flowers representing the countries of the Commonwealth; the California poppy, in honour of Markle's home state of California; and wintersweet, a flower that grows at Kensington Palace.
Pre-wedding speculation
The engagement of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was announced on 27 November 2017, but the speculation about the bride's dress had started even earlier. Some commentators suggested that Markle would not wear a white wedding dress as she had been married previously. In December 2017, Israeli designer Inbal Dror was asked to submit designs for a wedding dress. It was rumoured that Erdem and Ralph & Russo were also contenders. By January 2018, British designer Stewart Parvin was the bookmakers' favourite. Betting was suspended after Alexander McQueen attracted a large amount of wagers. Markle had commented on wedding dress styles in 2016, as her character was getting married in Suits, saying that she preferred simple styles. Markle, long a vocal admirer of the style of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, described Bessette-Kennedy's wedding gown as "everything goals".
Design
Designer
Markle chose designer Waight Keller because she "wanted to highlight the success of a leading British talent who has now served as the creative head of three globally influential fashion houses — Pringle of Scotland, Chloé, and now Givenchy."
She chose Keller to create her wedding dress due to the designer's "elegant aesthetic" and "relaxed demeanour." Waight Keller has been Givenchy's creative director since 2017. The dress was made in Paris by "a small team of ateliers". There was only five months to have the dress and the veil manufactured, and Waight Keller and Markle met for eight fittings.
Markle and Waight Keller worked closely together to design the dress, which shows a "timeless minimal elegance", according to a Kensington Palace announcement. The two contacted each other through discreet texts and phone calls, before and after nondisclosure agreements were signed, with Waight Keller unable to tell anyone that she had been selected to design the dress.
Waight Keller stated that the dress sought to "convey modernity through sleek lines and sharp cuts", while paying homage to the history of the Givenchy house.
Dress
The design of the simple white dress and the name of its maker were revealed only when the bride got out of the car and entered St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding service. The dress was made of silk with three-quarter-length sleeves, an open boat neckline and a train with built-in triple silk organza underskirt. Waight Keller helped develop a double bonded silk cady for the construction of the dress, which featured only six seams. The dress was without lace or any other embellishments.
Veil
The dress is augmented by a long 5 metre (16-ft) veil, hand-embroidered with a variety of flowers on its hem, and symbolic sprays of wheat. It was 3 metres wide. The veil took longer to create than the dress itself, and the embroiderers spent 500 hours on completing it, washing their hands every 30 minutes to make sure that the veil would remain immaculate until the wedding day. A piece of the blue dress from Markle's first date with Prince Harry was stitched into the bridal veil. Markle also chose two favourite flowers – wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), which grows outside Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, where she and Harry lived, and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), from where she was born – along with individual flowers representing the 53 countries of the Commonwealth, reflecting the couple's interest in the work of the Commonwealth. The countries and flowers are:
Antigua and Barbuda – agave (Agave karatto)
Australia – golden wattles (Acacia pycnantha)
Bahamas – yellow elder (Tecoma stans)
Bangladesh – sada shapla or white water lily (white form of Nymphaea nouchali)
Barbados – the pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)
Belize – the black orchid (Prosthechea cochleata)
Botswana – ear of Sorghum and cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa)
Brunei Darussalam – simpor (Dillenia suffruticosa)
Cameroon – red stinkwood (Prunus africana)
Canada – bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Cyprus – Cyclamen cyprium
Dominica – carib wood (Poitea carinalis)
Eswatini – fire heath (Erica cerinthoides)
Fiji – tagimaucia (Medinilla waterhousei)
Gambia – white variety orchid
Ghana – caladium (Caladium)
Grenada – bougainvillea (Nyctaginaceae)
Guyana – Queen Victoria water lily (Victoria amazonica)
India – Indian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
Jamaica – lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale)
Kenya – the tropical orchid
Kiribati – Bidens kiribatiensis
Lesotho – spiral aloe (Aloe polyphylla)
Malawi – lotus (Nymphaea lotus)
Malaysia – bunga raya or tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
Malta – Maltese centaury (Cheirolophus crassifolius)
Mauritius – Trochetia boutoniana
Mozambique – maroon bell bean (Markhamia zanzibarica)
Namibia – welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis)
Nauru – Calophyllum
New Zealand – kowhai (Sophora microphylla)
Nigeria – yellow trumpet (Costus spectabilis)
Pakistan – jasmine (Jasminum officinale)
Papua New Guinea – Sepik blue orchid (Dendrobium lasianthera)
Rwanda – torch lily (Kniphofia uvaria)
Saint Lucia – the rose and the marguerite
Samoa – teuila (Alpinia purpurata)
Seychelles – tropicbird orchid (Angraecum eburneum)
Sierra Leone – scadoxus (Scadoxus cinnabarinus)
Singapore – Vanda 'Miss Joaquim'
Solomon Islands – hibiscus (Hibiscus)
South Africa – protea (Protea cynaroides)
Sri Lanka – blue water lily (pale blue form of Nymphaea nouchali)
St Kitts and Nevis – poinciana (Delonix regia)
St Vincent & the Grenadines – Soufriere tree (Spachea perforata)
Tonga – heilala (Garcinia sessilis)
Trinidad & Tobago – chaconia (Warszewiczia coccinea)
Tuvalu – plumeria (Plumeria rubra)
Uganda – desert rose (Adenium obesum)
United Kingdom
England – rose (Rosa)
Northern Ireland – flax (Linum usitatissimum)
Scotland – thistle (Cirsium vulgare)
Wales – daffodil (Narcissus)
United Republic of Tanzania – African violet (Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia)
Vanuatu – anthurium (Anthurium)
Zambia – bougainvillea (Bougainvillea)
Reception
Elizabeth Emanuel, co-designer of Diana, Princess of Wales's wedding gown, thought that the gown made a "really solid fashion statement" and thought that Waight Keller "should be pleased because Meghan looked absolutely stunning and beautiful." Waight Keller stated that Prince Harry told her "Oh my God. Thank you. She is absolutely magnificent."
The media have noted similarities between Markle's dress and those worn by Angela Brown at her wedding to Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein in 2000, and Mary Donaldson at her wedding to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark in 2004. It has also been compared to a Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 film Funny Face. Emilia Wickstead claimed that the dress was "identical" to one of her designs. Unfavorable comparisons of Markle's wedding dress in comparison to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress were proclaimed online and in the press, with Catherine's wedding dress being proclaimed as the "victor". Critics also noted that Markle's dress seemed an attempt to mimic the late fashionista Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Markle's wedding dress was compared to a formal dress Bessette-Kennedy once wore during her life, and her reception dress had similarities to Bessette-Kennedy's now-classic wedding gown at her wedding to John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996, although Markle's reception dress was a 1990s-style halter dress.
Markle's wedding dress received mixed reviews from the public, some saying it was "beautiful" and "stunning" while others described it as "boring", "baggy", and "ill-fitting." Celebrity commentators, fashion editors, internet influencers, and Twitter commenters criticized the dress, calling it "boring", "ill-fitting", and "too big", criticizing the cut, the shape, and even the matte satin fabric, calling the finish "dull", criticizing a perceived lack of tailoring on the sleeves and waist, and others declaring the overall effect as "heavy". Fashion experts noted that the silk cady fabric would have been difficult to move in if the dress had been more form-fitting. Critics mocked the veil style and length, and created an Internet meme comparing it to a CVS receipt.
Robin Givhan of The Washington Post noted in her review of the gown that "It was not a Hollywood red carpet statement...it was not a Disney princess fantasy...the dress was a backdrop; it was in service to the woman." Desiree Cooper of the Detroit Free Press unfavorably compared the dress to a costume "straight from The Handmaid's Tale", but conceded, "She could have been wearing a paper bag (which she nearly was) and it wouldn't have mattered an iota. That girl was just plain stunning." Less than a week after the wedding, dresses based on Markle's were being sold.
The dress, veil and tiara were exhibited by the Royal Collection Trust at Windsor Castle from October 2018 until February 2019, and then at Holyrood Palace from June 2019 to October 2019.
See also
List of individual dresses
== References == |
Sophora_microphylla | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophora_microphylla | [
493
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophora_microphylla"
] | Sophora microphylla, commonly known as weeping kōwhai and small-leaved kōwhai, is a species of flowering tree in the family Fabaceae native to New Zealand. It is the most widespread of the eight species of kōwhai (the New Zealand Sophora). It is also called South Island kōwhai, although this name is misleading as it is widely distributed throughout the main islands of the country.
Growing to 8 m (26 ft) tall and broad, it is an evergreen shrub or small tree. Each leaf is 10 cm (4 in) long with up to 40 pairs of shiny oval leaflets. It produces many racemes of pea-like yellow flowers from August or as early as May through to October. The specific epithet microphylla means "small-leaved". The plant has smaller leaflets (around 3–6 mm long by 2–5 mm wide) and flowers (1.8-5.0 cm long) than the other well known species, Sophora tetraptera (large-leaved kōwhai). When young S. microphylla has a divaricating and bushy growth habit with many interlacing branches, which begins to disappear as the tree ages.
It occurs throughout the main islands of New Zealand, though is scarce in parts of Northland and parts of the eastern North Island from East Cape south to northern Wairarapa.
The cultivar Sun King 'Hilsop' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Its nectar is toxic to the honeybee.
Pre-human forests
Studies of accumulated dried vegetation in the pre-human mid-late Holocene period suggests a low Sophora microphylla forest ecosystem in Central Otago that was used and perhaps maintained by giant moa birds, for both nesting material and food. Neither the forests nor moa existed when European settlers came to the area in the 1850s.
== References == |
Kit_(association_football) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_(association_football) | [
494
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_(association_football)"
] | In association football, kit (also referred to as a strip or uniform) is the standard equipment and attire worn by players. The sport's rules specify the minimum kit which a player must use, and also prohibit the use of anything that is dangerous to either the player or another participant. Individual competitions may stipulate further restrictions, such as regulating the size of logos displayed on shirts and stating that, in the event of a match between teams with identical or similar colours, the away team must change to different coloured attire, to avoid clashes.
Footballers generally wear identifying numbers on the backs of their shirts. Originally a team of players wore numbers from 1 to 11, corresponding roughly to their playing positions, but at the professional level this has generally been superseded by squad numbering, whereby each player in a squad is allocated a fixed number for the duration of a season. Professional clubs also usually display players' surnames or nicknames on their shirts, above (or, infrequently, below) their squad numbers.
Football kit has evolved significantly since the early days of the sport when players typically wore thick cotton shirts, knickerbockers and heavy rigid leather boots. In the twentieth century, boots became lighter and softer, shorts were worn at a shorter length, and advances in clothing manufacture and printing allowed shirts to be made in lighter synthetic fibres with increasingly colourful and complex designs. With the rise of advertising in the 20th century, sponsors' logos began to appear on shirts, and replica strips were made available for fans to purchase, generating significant amounts of revenue for clubs.
Equipment
Basic equipment
The rules set out the basic equipment which must be worn by all players in Law 4 (Players' Equipment). Five separate items are specified: shirt (also known as a jersey), shorts, socks (also known as stockings), footwear and shin pads. Goalkeepers are allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms instead of shorts.
While most players wear studded football boots ("soccer shoes" or "cleats" in North America), the Laws do not specify that these are required. Shirts must have sleeves (both short and long sleeves are accepted), and goalkeepers must wear shirts which are easily distinguishable from all other players and the match officials. Thermal undershorts may be worn, but must be the same colour as the shorts themselves. Shin pads must be covered entirely by the stockings, be made of rubber, plastic or a similar material, and "provide a reasonable degree of protection". The only other restriction on equipment defined is the requirement that a player must not use equipment or wear anything deemed dangerous to himself or another player.
It is normal for individual competitions to specify that all outfield players on a team must wear the same colours, though the Law states only "The two teams must wear colours that distinguish them from each other and also the referee and the assistant referees". In the event of a match between teams who would normally wear identical or similar colours the away team must change to a different colour. Because of this requirement a team's second-choice is often referred to as its "away kit" or "away colours", although it is not unknown, especially at international level, for teams to opt to wear their away colours even when not required to by a clash of colours, or to wear them when they are the home team. The England national team sometimes plays in red shirts even when their white standard kit does not clash with their opponent, as this was the strip worn when the team won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. In some cases both teams have been forced (or chose) to wear their second choice away kits; such as the match between Netherlands and Brazil in the 1974 FIFA World Cup where they wore white and dark blue rather than their first choice of orange and yellow, respectively; and the match between Netherlands and Spain in the 2014 FIFA World Cup where they wore dark blue and white rather than their home colors of orange and red, respectively. Many professional clubs also have a "third kit", ostensibly to be used if both their first-choice and away colours are deemed too similar to those of an opponent.
Most professional clubs have retained the same basic colour scheme for several decades, and the colours themselves form an integral part of a club's culture. Teams representing countries in international competition generally wear national colours in common with other sporting teams of the same nation. These are usually based on the colours of the country's national flag, although there are exceptions—the Italy national team, for example, wear blue as it was the colour of the House of Savoy, the Australian team like most Australian sporting teams wear the Australian National Colours of green and gold, neither of which appear on the flag, and the Dutch national team wear orange, the colour of the Dutch Royal House.
Shirts are normally made of a polyester mesh, which does not trap the sweat and body heat in the same way as a shirt made of a natural fibre. Most professional clubs have sponsors' logos on the front of their shirts, which can generate significant levels of income, and some also offer sponsors the chance to place their logos on the back of their shirts. Depending on local rules, there may be restrictions on how large these logos may be or on what logos may be displayed. Competitions such as the Premier League may also require players to wear patches on their sleeves depicting the logo of the competition. A player's number is usually printed on the back of the shirt, although international teams often also place numbers on the front, and professional teams generally print a player's surname above their number. The captain of each team is usually required to wear an elasticated armband around the left sleeve to identify them as the captain to the referee and supporters.
Most current players wear specialist football boots, which can be made either of leather or a synthetic material. Modern boots are cut slightly below the ankles, as opposed to the high-ankled boots used in former times, and have studs attached to the soles. Studs may be either moulded directly to the sole or be detachable, normally by means of a screw thread. Modern boots such as the Adidas Predator, originally designed by former Liverpool player Craig Johnston, feature increasingly intricate, scientifically aided designs and features such as air pockets in the soles and rubber "blades" on the sole rather than studs. The blades have been the subject of controversy as several top managers have blamed them for injuries both to opposition players and to the wearers themselves.
The rules specify that all players, regardless of gender, must wear the same kit, however in September 2008 the Dutch women's team FC de Rakt made international headlines by swapping its old strip for a new one featuring short skirts and tight-fitting shirts. This innovation, which had been requested by the team itself, was initially vetoed by the KNVB, Dutch football's governing body, but this decision was reversed when it was revealed that the FC de Rakt team were wearing hot pants (very short shorts) under their skirts, and were therefore technically in compliance.
Other equipment
All players are permitted to wear gloves, and goalkeepers usually wear specialist goalkeeping gloves. Prior to the 1970s gloves were rarely worn, but it is now extremely unusual to see a goalkeeper without gloves. In Portugal's match against England in the Euro 2004 tournament, Ricardo drew much comment for deciding to remove his gloves during the penalty shoot-out. Since the 1980s significant advancements have been made in the design of gloves, which now feature protectors to prevent the fingers bending backwards, segmentation to allow greater flexibility, and palms made of materials designed to protect the hand and to enhance a player's grip. Gloves are available in a variety of different cuts, including "flat palm", "roll finger" and "negative", with variations in the stitching and fit. Goalkeepers sometimes also wear caps to prevent glare from the sun or floodlights affecting their performance. Players with sight problems may wear glasses as long as there is no risk of them falling off or breaking and thereby becoming dangerous. Most players affected choose to wear contact lenses, although Dutch player Edgar Davids, unable to wear contact lenses due to glaucoma, was known for his distinctive wraparound goggles. Other items that may be dangerous to other players, such as jewellery, however, are not allowed. Players may also choose to wear headgear to protect themselves from head injury, or to prevent further such injuries, such as Petr Čech and Cristian Chivu's use of rugby helmets, as long as it presents no risk to the safety of the wearer or any other player.
Match officials' kit
Referees, assistant referees and fourth officials wear kits of a similar style to that worn by players; until the 1950s it was more common for a referee to wear a blazer than a jersey. Officials wear shirts of a different colour to those worn by the two teams and their goalkeepers. Black is the traditional colour worn by officials, and "the man in black" is widely used as an informal term for a referee, although increasingly other colours are being used in the modern era to minimise colour clashes. The 1994 World Cup was the first in which FIFA dispensed with black kits for officials. Referees also sometimes have sponsors' logos on their shirts, although these are normally confined to the sleeves.
History
Victorian era
The first written evidence of a clothing item specifically dedicated to football comes in 1526, from the Great Wardrobe of King Henry VIII of England, which included a reference to a pair of football boots. The earliest evidence of coloured shirts used to identify football teams comes from early English public school football games, for example an image of Winchester College football from before 1840 is entitled "The commoners have red and the college boys blue jerseys" and such colours are mentioned again in a Bell's Life in London article of 1858. House sporting colours are mentioned in Rugby football (rule XXI) as early as 1845: "No player may wear cap or jersey without leave from the head of his house". In 1848, it was noted at Rugby that "considerable improvement has taken place in the last few years, in the appearance of a match... in the use of peculiar dress consisting of velvet caps and jerseys".
Organised association football was first played in England in the 1860s, and many teams would probably play in whatever clothing they had available, with players of the same team distinguishing themselves by wearing coloured caps or sashes. The Sheffield club rules in 1857 required members to acquire one red and one dark blue cap, in order to form teams within the membership for matches, and a report of a match between Sheffield and Hallam & Stumperlow in 1860 refers to the Sheffield side wearing their "usual scarlet and white", and the Hallam players a "blue garment". One report of an 1860 match played to an indeterminate code, between Spalding Football Club and Spalding Victoria, refers to Spalding as the "pinks" and Victoria as the "blues".
Limiting colours simply to caps or sashes proved to be problematic though, and an 1867 handbook of the game suggested that teams should attempt "if it can be previously so arranged, to have one side with striped jerseys of one colour, say red, and the other with another, say blue. This prevents confusion and wild attempts to wrest the ball from your neighbour." The Charles Alcock football yearbooks from 1868 also included return forms which asked club secretaries to include details of club colours.
The first standard strips emerged with the founding of the FA, the Football Association's initial minutes recording some of the club colours, such as the Royal Engineers A.F.C.'s red and blue, and Lincoln's white jerseys with red, white, and blue caps. Many clubs opted for colours associated with the schools or other sporting organisations from which the clubs had emerged. Blackburn Rovers, for example, adopted shirts of a halved design based on those of the team for former pupils of Malvern College, one of the schools where the sport had developed. Their original colours of light blue and white were chosen to reflect an association with Cambridge University, where a number of the club's founders had been educated. Colours and designs often changed dramatically between matches, with Bolton Wanderers turning out in both pink shirts and white shirts with red spots within the same year. Rather than the modern shorts, players wore long knickerbockers or full-length trousers, often with a belt or even braces. Lord Kinnaird, an early star of the game, was noted for always being resplendent in long white trousers. There were no numbers printed on shirts to identify individual players, and the programme for an 1875 match between Queen's Park and Wanderers in Glasgow identifies the players by the colours of their caps or stockings. The first shin pads were worn in 1874 by the Nottingham Forest player Sam Weller Widdowson, who cut down a pair of cricket pads and wore them outside his stockings. Initially the concept was ridiculed but it soon caught on with other players. By the turn of the century pads had become smaller and were being worn inside the stockings.
As the game gradually moved away from being a pursuit for wealthy amateurs to one dominated by working-class professionals, kits changed accordingly. The clubs themselves, rather than individual players, were now responsible for purchasing kit and financial concerns, along with the need for the growing numbers of spectators to easily identify the players, led to the lurid colours of earlier years being abandoned in favour of simple combinations of primary colours. In 1890, the Football League, which had been formed two years earlier, ruled that no two member teams could register similar colours, so as to avoid clashes. This rule was later abandoned in favour of one stipulating that all teams must have a second set of shirts in a different colour available. Initially the home team was required to change colours in the event of a clash, but in 1921 the rule was amended to require the away team to change.
Specialised football boots began to emerge in the professional era, taking the place of everyday shoes or work boots. Players initially simply nailed strips of leather to their boots to enhance their grip, leading the Football Association to rule in 1863 that no nails could project from boots. By the 1880s these crude attachments had become studs. Boots of this era were made of heavy leather, had hard toecaps, and came high above a player's ankles.
Early 20th century
As the game began to spread to Europe and beyond, clubs adopted kits similar to those worn in the United Kingdom, and in some cases chose colours directly inspired by British clubs. In 1903, Juventus of Italy adopted a black and white strip inspired by Notts County. Two years later, Argentina's Club Atlético Independiente adopted red shirts after watching Nottingham Forest play.
In 1904, the Football Association dropped its rule that players' knickerbockers must cover their knees and teams began wearing them much shorter. They became known as "knickers", and were referred to by this term until the 1960s when "shorts" became the preferred term. Initially, almost all teams wore knickers of a contrasting colour to their shirts. In 1909, in a bid to assist referees in identifying the goalkeeper amongst a ruck of players, the rules were amended to state that the goalkeeper must wear a shirt of a different colour to their team-mates. Initially it was specified that goalkeepers' shirts must be either scarlet or royal blue, but when green was added as a third option in 1912 it caught on to the extent that soon almost every goalkeeper was playing in green. In this period goalkeepers generally wore a heavy woollen garment more akin to a jumper than the shirts worn by outfield players.
Sporadic experiments with numbered shirts took place in the 1920s but the idea did not initially catch on. The first major match in which numbers were worn was the 1933 FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester City. Rather than the numbers being added to the clubs' existing strips, two special sets, one white and one red, were made for the final and allocated to the two teams by the toss of a coin. The Everton players wore numbers 1–11, while the City players wore 12–22. It was not until around the time of the Second World War that numbering became standard, with teams wearing numbers 1–11. Although there were no regulations on which player should wear which number, specific numbers came to be associated with specific positions on the field of play, examples of which were the number 9 shirt for the team's main striker and the number 1 shirt for the goalkeeper. In contrast to the usual practice, Scottish club Celtic wore numbers on their shorts rather than their shirts until 1975 for international matches, and until 1994 for domestic matches. The 1930s also saw great advancements in boot manufacture, with new synthetic materials and softer leathers becoming available. By 1936 players in Europe were wearing boots which weighed only a third of the weight of the rigid boots of a decade earlier, although British clubs did not adopt the new-style boots, with players such as Billy Wright openly pronouncing their disdain for the new footwear and claiming that it was more suited to ballet than football.
In the period immediately after the war, many teams in Europe were forced to wear unusual kits due to clothing restrictions. England's Oldham Athletic, who had traditionally worn blue and white, spent two seasons playing in red and white shirts borrowed from a local rugby league club, and Scotland's Clyde wore khaki. In the 1950s kits worn by players in southern Europe and South America became much more lightweight, with V-necks replacing collars on shirts and synthetic fabrics replacing heavy natural fibres. The first boots to be cut below the ankle rather than high-topped were introduced by Adidas in 1954. Although they cost twice as much as existing styles, the boots were a huge success and cemented the German company's place in the football market. Around the same time Adidas also developed the first boots with screw-in studs which could be changed according to pitch conditions. Other areas were slower to adopt the new styles – British clubs again resisted change and stuck resolutely to kits little different from those worn before the war, and Eastern European teams continued to wear kits that were deemed old-fashioned elsewhere. The FC Dynamo Moscow team that toured Western Europe in 1945 drew almost as much comment for the players' long baggy shorts as for the quality of their football. With the advent of international competitions such as the European Cup, the southern European style spread to the rest of the continent and by the end of the decade the heavy shirts and boots of the pre-war years had fallen entirely out of use. The 1960s saw little innovation in kit design, with clubs generally opting for simple colour schemes which looked good under the newly adopted floodlights. Designs from the late 1960s and early 1970s are highly regarded by football fans.
Modern era
In the 1970s, clubs began to create strongly individual strips, and in 1975, Leeds United, who had changed their traditional blue and gold colours to all white in the 1960s to mimic Real Madrid, became the first club to design shirts which could be sold to fans in the form of replicas. Driven by commercial concerns, other clubs soon followed suit, adding manufacturers' logos and a higher level of trim. In 1973, German team Eintracht Braunschweig signed a deal with local alcohol producer Jägermeister to display its logo on the front of their shirts. Soon almost all major clubs had signed such deals, and the cost to companies who sponsor large teams has increased dramatically. In 2008 German club FC Bayern Munich received €25 million in sponsorship money from Deutsche Telekom. However Spanish clubs FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao refused to allow sponsors' logos to appear on their shirts as recently as 2005. Until 2011 Barcelona refused paying sponsors in favour of wearing the UNICEF logo on their shirts while donating €1.5 million to the charity per year. Players also began to sign sponsorship deals with individual companies. In 1974 Johan Cruijff refused to wear the Dutch national team's strip as its Adidas branding conflicted with his own individual contract with Puma, and was permitted to wear a version without the Adidas branding. Puma had also paid Pelé $120,000 to wear their boots and specifically requested that he bend down and tie his laces at the start of the 1970 FIFA World Cup final, ensuring a close-up of the boots for a worldwide television audience. In the 1970s, the U.S.-based North American Soccer League experimented with printing players' names on their shirts and allocating each player a squad number rather than simply numbering the 11 players starting a game from 1 to 11, but these ideas did not catch on at the time in other countries, although Italy's A.C. Milan added names to players' shirts in 1980. The names were removed in 1981 and for many years they would not be adopted by any other team in Italy.
In the 1980s, manufacturers such as Hummel and Adidas began to design shirts with increasingly intricate designs, as new technology led to the introduction of such design elements as shadow prints and pinstripes. Hummel's distinctive halved strip designed for the Danish national team for the 1986 FIFA World Cup caused a stir in the media but FIFA worried about moiré artefacts in television pictures. Shorts became shorter than ever during the 1970s and 1980s, and often included the player's number on the front. In the 1991 FA Cup Final Tottenham Hotspur's players lined up in long baggy shorts. Although, the new look was derided, clubs in Britain and elsewhere had within a short time adopted the longer shorts. In the 1990s shirt designs became increasingly complex, with many teams sporting extremely gaudy colour schemes. Design decisions were increasingly driven by the need for the shirt to look good when worn by fans as a fashion item, but many designs from this era have since come to be regarded as amongst the worst of all time. In 1996, Manchester United notoriously introduced a grey strip which had been specifically designed to look good when worn with jeans, but abandoned it halfway through a match after manager Alex Ferguson claimed that the reason why his team was losing 3–0 was that the players could not see each other on the pitch. United switched to different colours for the second half and scored one goal without reply. The leading leagues also introduced squad numbers, whereby each player is allocated a specific number for the duration of a season. A brief fad arose for players celebrating goals by lifting or completely removing their shirts to reveal political, religious or personal slogans printed on undershirts. This led to a ruling from the International Football Association Board in 2002 that undershirts must not contain slogans or logos; since 2004 it has been a bookable offence for players to remove their shirts.
The market for replica shirts has grown enormously, with the revenue generated for leading clubs and the frequency with which they change designs coming under increased scrutiny, especially in the United Kingdom, where the market for replicas is worth in excess of £200m. Several clubs have been accused of price fixing, and in 2003 Manchester United were fined £1.65m by the Office of Fair Trading. The high prices charged for replicas have also led to many fans buying fake shirts which are imported from countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.
The chance for fans to purchase a shirt bearing the name and number of a star player can lead to significant revenue for a club. In the first six months after David Beckham's transfer to Real Madrid the club sold more than one million shirts bearing his name. A market has also developed for shirts worn by players during significant matches, which are sold as collector's items. The shirt worn by Pelé in the 1970 FIFA World Cup Final sold at auction for over £150,000 in 2002.
A number of advances in kit design have taken place since 2000, with varying degrees of success. In 2002 the Cameroon national team competed in the African Cup of Nations in Mali wearing shirts with no sleeves, but FIFA later ruled that such garments were not considered to be shirts and therefore were not permitted. Manufacturers Puma AG initially added "invisible" black sleeves to comply with the ruling, but later supplied the team with new one-piece singlet-style tops. FIFA ordered the team not to wear the tops but the ruling was disregarded, with the result that the Cameroon team was docked six points in its qualifying campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a decision later reversed after an appeal. More successful were the skin-tight shirts designed for the Italian national team by manufacturers Kappa, a style subsequently emulated by other national teams and club sides.
A brief fashion for men wearing snood-scarf neckwarmers ended in 2011 when the IFAB banned them as potentially dangerous. A ban on women wearing the hijab was introduced by the IFAB in 2007, but lifted in 2012 after pressure from Prince Ali of Jordan. In keeping with French views, the French Football Federation said it would maintain its ban.
See also
Retro kit
Shirt swapping
History of association football
Further reading
Butler, David; Butler, Robert (2021). "The evolution of the football jersey – an institutional perspective". Journal of Institutional Economics. 17 (5): 821–835. doi:10.1017/S1744137421000278. hdl:10468/11295.
References
External links
Latest Football Kits News Archived 20 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
Graphical history of English and Scottish football kits
Goalkeeper Gloves – illustrated history
Photographic history of football shirts from all over the world
Football's equipment evolution at FIFA.com |
Nouhaila_Benzina | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouhaila_Benzina | [
494
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouhaila_Benzina"
] | Nouhaila Benzina (Arabic: نهيلة بنزينة; born 11 May 1998) is a Moroccan professional footballer who plays as a defender for AS FAR and the Morocco women's national team.
In July 2023, she made history as the first female player to ever wear an Islamic headscarf (a hijab) at the senior-level FIFA Women's World Cup. She is considered a role model for Muslim female footballers.
Club career
Benzina has played for AS FAR in Morocco.
International career
Benzina has capped for Morocco at under-20 and senior levels.
Benzina was included in the Moroccan national team squad for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, which marked the debut World Cup appearance for both Benzina and the Moroccan national team. Morocco's first Women's World Cup match was on 24 July against Germany, where Benzina made headlines around the world for being the first player on the team roster to wear a hijab at a World Cup match, though she did not play in the match. On 30 July she became the first player to play in a World Cup match wearing a hijab in her country's 1–0 win against South Korea. French press, namely L'Équipe, made Islamophobic comments directed at her after the match.
International goals
Honours
AS FAR
Moroccan Women's Championship (8): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023,2024
Moroccan Women Throne Cup (7): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
UNAF Women's Champions League (2): 2021, 2024
CAF Women's Champions League (1): 2022; third place: 2021
Morocco
Africa Cup of Nations runner-up: 2022
UNAF Women's Tournament: 2020
See also
List of Morocco women's international footballers
References
External links
Nouhaila Benzina on Instagram |
Harry_C._Bradley_(actor) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_C._Bradley_(actor) | [
495
] | [
"https://w.wiki/ASFv"
] | Harry C. Bradley (born Harry Charles Bradley Cockrill; April 15, 1869 – October 18, 1947) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1930 and 1946.
Early life and career
Bradley was born and raised in San Francisco. His father Theodore Cockrill was San Francisco's Chief of Police.
Before he ever stepped in front of a movie camera, Bradley had amassed about 2 decades' worth of Broadway stage credits, most notably in the original production of Anne Nichols' Abie's Irish Rose, in which Bradley portrayed Father Whelan in all 2,327 performances.
Personal life and death
Bradley was married at least twice, both times to fellow stage performers.
In 1894, he married Lurelle Lansing Waters. She divorced Bradley on grounds of desertion in 1906, but continued to appear alongside him onstage under her maiden name for at least another two years.
From 1926 until her death in June 1947, Bradley was married to the stage actress and singer Lorena Atwood. On October 18, scarcely four months later, Bradley suffered a fatal heart attack in Hollywood.
Selected filmography
References
External links
Harry C. Bradley at the Internet Broadway Database
Harry C. Bradley at IMDb |
Lottie_Alter | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_Alter | [
495
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_Alter"
] | Charlotte Alice Alter (January 16, 1871 – December 25, 1924) was an American actress on stage and in silent films.
Early life
Alter was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on January 16, 1871, the daughter of Frederick Pernal Alter and Ida Alter (née Soplitt).
Career
Alter began acting in the American midwest by 1890, playing soubrette roles in touring companies managed by Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Jefferson, and Charles Frohman, in such shows as The Cricket on the Hearth, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, The Country Circus, Fifi, The Shadows of a Great City, The Girl I Left Behind Me, and Hearts are Trumps. On Broadway, she acted in To Have and to Hold (1901), The Vinegar Buyer (1903), The Trifler (1905) with Esme Beringer, Charley's Aunt (1906), and Excuse Me (1911) by Rupert Hughes. Of her work in Excuse Me, critic George Jean Nathan wrote that she was among "the best in a generally capable cast."
She toured Australia and Great Britain in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. In 1916 she was leading her own company in vaudeville.
Silent film appearances by Alter included roles in the film shorts Advertising for a Wife (1910) and An Arizona Romance (1910), and the feature films The Eternal City (1915) alongside Pauline Frederick and Thomas Holding, and The Lottery Man (1916) with Oliver Hardy and Thurlow Bergen.
Personal life
Alter married a fellow actor, Harry C. Bradley, in 1923.
She died in Beechhurst, Queens, New York, in 1924 of pneumonitis. She was buried at Flushing Cemetery.
References
External links
Lottie Alter at IMDb
Lottie Alter at the Internet Broadway Database
Photographs of Lottie Alter in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, New York Public Library Digital Collections.
A photograph of Lottie Alter by Matzene, in the University of Washington Libraries. |
Charley%27s_Aunt | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley%27s_Aunt | [
495
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley%27s_Aunt"
] | Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. The story centres on Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The complications of the plot include the arrival of the real aunt and the attempts of an elderly fortune hunter to woo the bogus aunt. The play concludes with three pairs of young lovers united, along with an older pair – Charley's real aunt and Jack's widowed father.
The play was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in February 1892. It then opened in London at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892, and quickly transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893. The production broke the historic record for longest-running play worldwide, running for 1,466 performances. It was produced by the actor W. S. Penley, a friend of Thomas, who appeared as Babberley.
The play was also a success on Broadway in 1893, and in Paris, where it had further long runs. It toured internationally and has been revived continually and adapted for films and musicals.
Synopsis
Act I
Jack Chesney and Charley Wykeham are undergraduates at Oxford University in love with, respectively, Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue. Charley receives word that his aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez, a rich widow from Brazil whom he has never met, is coming to visit him. The boys invite Amy and Kitty to lunch to meet her, also intending to declare their love to the girls, who are being sent away to Scotland with Amy's uncle, Stephen Spettigue, who is also Kitty's guardian. They seek out another Oxford undergraduate, Lord Fancourt Babberley (known as "Babbs"), to distract Donna Lucia while they romance their girls. While they are out, Babbs breaks into Jack's room to steal all his champagne, but Jack and Charley intercept him and persuade him to stay for lunch. Babbs tells the boys about his own love, the daughter of an English officer called Delahay, whom he met in Monte Carlo, although he does not remember her name. Babbs also uses Jack's room to try on his costume for an amateur play in which he is taking part.
Amy and Kitty arrive to meet Jack and Charley, but Donna Lucia has not arrived yet, and so the girls leave to go shopping until she shows up. Annoyed, Jack orders Charley to go to the railway station to wait for Donna Lucia. Jack soon receives an unexpected visit from his father, Sir Francis Chesney, a retired colonel who served in India. Sir Francis reveals that he has inherited debts that have wiped out the family's fortunes; instead of going into politics as he had intended, Jack will have to accept a position in Bengal. Horrified, Jack suggests that Sir Francis should marry Donna Lucia, a widow and a millionaire, in order to clear the family debts. Sir Francis is hesitant but agrees to meet Donna Lucia before he makes a decision.
Charley receives a telegram saying that Donna Lucia will not be arriving for a few days. The boys panic: the girls are coming, and they won't stay without a chaperone. Fortunately Babbs's costume happens to be that of an old lady. Jack and Charley introduce Babbs as Charley's aunt. His strange appearance and unchanged voice (he had never acted before) do not raise any suspicions. Babbs annoys the boys by accepting kisses from Amy and Kitty; the boys respond to his flirtations with violence.
Sir Francis soon enters to meet Donna Lucia. He takes one look at Babbs and tries to leave, but Jack retrieves him. Spettigue arrives, angered that Kitty and Amy are lunching with the boys without his permission. However, the penniless Spettigue soon learns that Charley's aunt is Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez, the celebrated millionaire. He decides to stay for lunch to attempt to woo "Donna Lucia".
Act II
Outside Jack's rooms, in the grounds of St Olde's College, the boys are trying to get their girls alone so that they can confess their love. However, Babbs is in the way, charming the girls as Donna Lucia. Jack's father, Sir Francis, has decided to propose marriage to Donna Lucia, purely for money. Jack urgently corners Babbs and orders him to let his father down gently. Babbs does so, which Sir Francis finds to be a relief. Spettigue still wants to marry "Donna Lucia" for her money.
Meanwhile, the real Donna Lucia, who turns out to be an attractive woman of middle age, arrives with her adopted niece, Miss Ela Delahay, an orphan. The money left to Ela by her father is enough to make her independent for life. Ela reveals that her father had won a lot of money at cards from Fancourt Babberley, for whom Ela still holds a great deal of affection. Donna Lucia recounts the story of a colonel named Frank who she once met more than twenty years ago, of whom she was similarly fond. However, he was too shy to propose, and he left for India before he could tell her how he felt. Sir Francis enters, Donna Lucia recognizes him, and the two rekindle their affection. However, before she can introduce herself, she discovers that someone is impersonating her. To investigate, she introduces herself as "Mrs Beverly-Smythe", a penniless widow.
Jack and Charley finally make their declarations of love to their girls. However, they discover that they need Spettigue's consent to marry. The girls enlist Babbs to get the consent from the greedy Spettigue. Spettigue invites the entire party, including the real Donna Lucia and Ela, to his house, so that he can talk to "Donna Lucia" in private. Babbs, recognizing Ela as the girl he fell in love with in Monte Carlo, tries to escape, but he is caught by Spettigue.
Act III
Babbs is upset by being in the same room as the girl he loves without being able to talk to her. Jack and Charley try to calm him down. Babbs spends time with the real Donna Lucia, Ela, Amy and Kitty, during which the real Donna Lucia embarrasses Babbs by showing how little he really knows about Donna Lucia. Ela takes a liking to the fake Donna Lucia, who sounds like the man she loves, and pours her heart out to Babbs, telling him of the anguish of losing her father and of the man who cared for him in his dying days, Lord Fancourt Babberley. She admits that she loves him and longs to see him again.
Babbs tricks Spettigue into giving the letter of consent for the marriages of Charley to Amy and Jack to Kitty by accepting marriage to Spettigue. (Kitty's father's will specified that if she marries without Spettigue's consent, Spettigue would inherit all of the money.) Charley can no longer keep up the lie and admits that "Donna Lucia" is not really his aunt. Babbs, now dressed in a suit, confirms that he had been playing the part of Charley's aunt. As he is about to return to Spettigue the letter of consent, the real Donna Lucia reveals her identity and takes the letter, stating that it "is addressed to and has been delivered to Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez".
Spettigue storms off, threatening to dispute the letter. Amy is upset at everyone for making a fool of her uncle. Donna Lucia reassures her and gives the girls the letter. Sir Francis and Donna Lucia are engaged (he made the proposal before he realized her identity); the young couples can marry; and Babbs confesses his feelings to Ela.
Productions
Original production
The play was originally given at Bury St. Edmunds on 29 February 1892, commissioned by the local hunt, which sponsored a new play every year for its annual social festivities, known as the "Hunt Bespeak". Penley produced the piece and played Lord Fancourt Babberly, Both the local paper and the leading national theatrical paper, The Era, record Charley's surname as Wyckenham. It was soon simplified to Wykeham. A provincial tour followed, including Colchester, Cambridge and Cheltenham, with the original cast. Penley recast some of the roles, presenting the play at Derby in May. The original and Derby casts were as follows:
Stephen Spettigue, uncle of Amy, guardian of Kitty, and the story's villain – Henry Crisp
Colonel Sir Francis Chesney, father of Jack Chesney – Arthur Styan (Gerald Godfrey in Derby)
Jack Chesney, Oxford undergraduate, in love with Kitty – Wilton Heriot (H. J. Carvill in Derby)
Charley Wykeham, Oxford undergraduate, in love with Amy – Ernest Lawford (Brandon Hurst in Derby)
Lord Fancourt Babberley, undergraduate pulled unwillingly into Jack and Charley's scheme – W. S. Penley
Brassett, Jack's valet – Harry Nelson (Percy Brough in Derby) – Charles King
Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez, Charley's aunt from Brazil – Ada Branson
Amy Spettigue, Stephen Spettigue's young niece – Lena Burleigh (Rose Nesbitt in Derby)
Kitty Verdun, Stephen Spettigue's young ward – Dora de Winton
Ela Delahay, orphaned young woman accompanying Donna Lucia (loved by Lord Fancourt) – Emily Cudmore
After a further provincial tour, Penley secured the Royalty Theatre in London, which had suddenly fallen vacant, and opened the play there on 21 December 1892. He again recast the piece, except for a few roles, as follows:
Stephen Spettigue – Ernest Hendrix
Colonel Chesney – Brandon Thomas
Jack Chesney – Percy Lyndal
Charley Wykeham – H. Farmer
Lord Fancourt Babberley – W. S. Penley
Brasset – Cecil Thornbury
Footman – G. Graves
Donna Lucia – Ada Branson
Amy Spettigue – Kate Gordon
Kitty Verdun – Nina Boucicault
Ela Delahay – Emily Cudmore
The play was an immediate success, opening to enthusiastic audiences and excellent notices from the press. It soon transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on 19 December 1896.
Revivals
During the original London run, seven companies toured the United Kingdom with the play. The piece was successfully staged throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, in many other countries. It had a major success on Broadway, opening on 2 October 1893 at the Standard Theatre, starring Etienne Girardot, where it ran for another historic long run of four years. It was revived on Broadway several times until 1970. Charley's Aunt was given in a German translation as Charleys Tante at Weimar in August 1894. The first French production (La Marraine de Charley) was the following month at the Théâtre de Cluny in Paris, where it ran for nearly 300 performances. The play was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895, The Theatre recorded that Charley's Aunt had been taken up in country after country. "From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere."
Thomas and Penley quarrelled and went to law over the licensing of an 1898 American production. Penley contended that the original idea for the play had been his, and that Thomas had merely turned it into a playscript. Penley had, on this pretext, secretly negotiated a deal with the American producer, Charles Frohman, which gave Thomas only one third of the royalties. Penley told a journalist, in 1894: "The play was my idea and Brandon Thomas wrote it. Later on, we went down into the country and worked at it. Then we worked it out on the stage." Despite this rift, Penley continued to play Fancourt Babberley in frequent West End productions until he retired from acting in 1901.
Thomas revived the play at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1904, once again playing Sir Francis Chesney. He revived it again in 1905, 1908 and in 1911, when his daughter, Amy Brandon Thomas, played Kitty. In her later years, Amy played the role of Donna Lucia in revivals. Thomas's son, Jevan Brandon-Thomas, played Jack in three London revivals of the play and directed the annual London revivals from 1947 to 1950. Amy Brandon-Thomas insisted on setting the play in the present at each revival, despite protests from critics that it would be better played in the period in which it was written. Eventually, for a West End revival in 1949, Victorian dresses and settings were introduced, designed by Cecil Beaton. Nearly continuous revivals have played "somewhere in London" and elsewhere in Britain since the original production. Foreign language productions have included a 2007 Czech production.
Actors who have played Lord Fancourt Babberley in the West End include Richard Goolden, Leslie Phillips, John Mills, Frankie Howerd, Tom Courtenay, Griff Rhys Jones and John Wood. Performers who played the juvenile roles early in their careers include Noël Coward, John Gielgud, Rex Harrison, Betty Marsden, Ralph Michael and Gerald Harper. In the US, Babbs has been played in various revivals by such actors as José Ferrer, Roddy McDowall and Raúl Juliá.
Adaptations
Silent film versions of the play were released in 1915 and 1925, the latter featuring Sydney Chaplin (brother of Charlie Chaplin) and Ethel Shannon. A well-received sound film version starring Charles Ruggles was released in 1930. In 1934 a German version Charley's Aunt was released; directed by Robert A. Stemmle it starred Fritz Rasp, Paul Kemp and Max Gülstorff. Arthur Askey took the leading role in a 1940 British film Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt that developed themes from the original play. Perhaps the best known film version was released in 1941, directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jack Benny in the title role. This version slightly alters the plotline from the original version (for instance, Babbs is framed for accidentally setting off a fire alarm at Oxford University and faces expulsion). The play's story was popular in Germany and Austria, with at least four different film versions being released: in 1934; 1956 (starring Heinz Rühmann); 1963 (starring Peter Alexander), and a television version in 1976. A 1959 Danish film version starred Dirch Passer in the principal role and featured Ove Sprogøe, Ghita Nørby and Susse Wold. In the film, Passer sings the song "Det er svært at være en kvinde nu til dags" (English: "It is hard to be a woman nowadays"). Passer had first played the role in Charley's Tante in 1958 at the ABC Theatre where it was a hit and played for 1½ years. An Austrian film version was made in 1963. In Spain, there is a 1981 film version starring Paco Martínez Soria, titled La Tía de Carlos. Two film adaptations have appeared in Egypt: a silent version in 1920 titled al-Khala al-Amrikiyya starring Ali al-Kassar, and a sound film in 1960 titled Sukkar Hanim, starring Samia Gamal.
The earliest operatic adaptation of the play is the 1897 zarzuela La viejecita by Manuel Fernández Caballero, which is still performed in Spain. The role of Carlos (Charlie) was written as a breeches role for Lucrecia Arana. Jevan Brandon-Thomas wrote a pantomime version, Babbs in the Wood, for the amusement of the 1930 London cast and their friends. The Observer commented, "It is quite clear that Mr Brandon-Thomas could earn a handsome living at any time in low – very low – comedy." A Broadway musical version, Where's Charley?, with a book by George Abbott and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, starred Ray Bolger as Charley. It ran between 1948 and 1950 at the St. James Theatre and featured the song "Once in Love with Amy" for Bolger. The musical was made into a 1952 film (with Bolger repeating his stage role) and had a successful run in London beginning in 1958 at the Palace Theatre.
In 1957, CBS television in the US aired a live production as part of the Playhouse 90 series, starring Art Carney as Babbs, and Orson Bean as Charley and Jeanette MacDonald as the real Donna Lucia. In the 1960s BBC Television broadcast three productions of the play. The first, in 1961, featured Bernard Cribbins as Babbs, Donald Wolfit as Spettigue and Rosalie Crutchley as Donna Lucia. Richard Briers played Babbs in a 1965 version, and a 1969 production starred Danny La Rue, Coral Browne and Ronnie Barker.
A Soviet version was made for television in 1975, entitled Hello, I'm Your Aunt!. A Chinese version, Li Cha's Aunt, first adapted as a musical play in 2015; it was performed over 500 times and revived. Li Cha's Aunt was adapted as a Chinese film of the same name in 2018 (the film poster also shows the English title "Hello, Mrs. Money"). Indian versions include Moruchi Mavshi, a Marathi adaptation by Pralhad Keshav Atre first performed in 1947 and still revived, and Khalid Ki Khala, an Urdu adaptation mounted by the Hindustani Theatre in 1958.
Notes
References
Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 5997224.
External links
Charley's Aunt public domain audiobook at LibriVox
IBDB entry
List of longest theatre runs, 1875–1920
Numerous photos from Charley's Aunt
Charleys Aunt performance details in the University of Bristol Theatre Archive
Critique in ČSFD.cz
Theatre Company of Jan Hrušínský, Prague |
Northern_California | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_California | [
496
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_California#Cities"
] | Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two regions, the other being Southern California. The main northern population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area (anchored by the cities of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland), the Greater Sacramento area (anchored by the state capital Sacramento), the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area (anchored by the city of Fresno). Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for some of the most powerful tech and Internet-related companies in the world, including Meta, Apple, Google, and Nvidia.
The Northern California Megaregion, one of the 11 megaregions of the United States is centered in Northern California, and extends from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe–Reno area.
Evidence of Native American habitation in the area dates from at least 19,000 years ago and successive waves of arrivals led to one of the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries did not establish European settlements in northern California. In 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County.
Description
Northern California is not a formal geographic designation. Historically, the state was divided by the Tehachapi Mountains which was a barrier to travelers before highways were built, and remains a bioregion barrier. This geographical barrier curves from Point Conception at the Pacific Ocean eastward through Mount Pinos, Tejon Pass and Tehachapi Pass, then cuts northward through the Sierra Nevada mountain range to Mount Patterson and the Nevada border. The Mojave Desert and the Great Basin Desert are separated from Northern California by mountain ranges in this definition of bioregions.
California's north–south midway division is around 37°N, near the level of Morgan Hill and Chowchilla. (The geographic center of California is at 37°09′58″N 119°26′58″W near North Fork, northeast of Fresno.) Popularly, though, "Northern California" usually refers to the state's northernmost 48 counties. Because of California's large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well. For example, the Central Valley is a region that is distinct both culturally and topographically from coastal California, though in northern versus southern California divisions, the Sacramento Valley and most of the San Joaquin Valley are usually placed in northern California. Some observers describe three partitions of California, with north and south sections separated by Central California.
The state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. Extreme northern residents have felt under-represented in state government and, in 1941, attempted to form a new state with southwestern Oregon to be called Jefferson, or more recently to introduce legislation to split California into two or three states.
The coastal area north of the Bay Area is often referred to as the North Coast, touching the counties of Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Del Norte. The interior region north of Sacramento metropolitan area is referred to by locals as the Northstate, consisting of about 20 counties.
"Northern California" was used by Tim Draper as the name of the northernmost state to be created by splitting California into three new states. The bill, Cal 3, was prevented from appearing on the 2018 California ballot because of a constitutional review by the Supreme Court of California.
Significance
Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the world's economic, scientific, and cultural stages. From the development of gold mining techniques and logging practices in the 19th century that were later adopted around the world, to the development of world-famous and online business models (such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo!, and eBay), northern California has been at the forefront of new ways of doing business. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, to breakthroughs in microchip technology. Cultural contributions include the works of Ansel Adams, George Lucas, and Clint Eastwood, as well as beatniks, the Summer of Love, winemaking, the cradle of the international environmental movement, and the open, casual workplace first popularized in the Silicon Valley dot-com boom and now widely in use around the world. Other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech (development and commercialization of genetic engineering) to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training.
It is also home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, and the largest in California by square meters, Travis Air Force Base.
Cities
Northern California's largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which consists of 9 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties. The Bay Area consists of the major cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and their many suburbs. Although not a part of the Bay Area, in recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. These cities in the central part of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills may be viewed as part of a single megalopolis. The 2010 U.S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any metropolitan area in California.
The state's larger inland cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. Key cities in the region which are not in major metropolitan areas include Eureka on the far North Coast, Redding, at the northern end of the Central Valley, Chico, and Yuba City in the mid-north of the Central Valley, as well as Fresno and Visalia on the southern end. Though smaller in each case, with the notable exception of Fresno, than the larger cities of the general region, these smaller regional centers are often of historical and economic importance for their respective size, due to their locations, which are primarily rural or otherwise isolated.
History
Prehistory to 1847
Inhabited for millennia by Native Americans, from the Shasta tribe in the north, to the Miwoks in the central coast and Sierra Nevada, to the Yokuts of the southern Central Valley, northern California was among the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America.
European explorers
The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown; in 1542, Cabrillo's expedition sailed perhaps as far north as the Rogue River in today's Oregon. Beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, and then continued south with their Asian trade goods to Mexico.
In 1579, northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of today's San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coast as far north as Monterey Bay, where he went ashore. Other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established.
Spanish era
The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast. The mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776. In all, ten missions stretched along the coast from Sonoma to Monterey (and still more missions to the southern tip of Baja California). In 1786, the French signaled their interest in the northern California area by sending a voyage of exploration to Monterey.
The first twenty years of the 19th century continued the colonization of the northern California coast by Spain. By 1820, Spanish influence extended inland approximately 25 to 50 miles (80 km) from the missions. Outside of this zone, perhaps 200,000 to 250,000 Native Americans continued to lead traditional lives. The Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 between Spain and the young United States, set the northern boundary of the Spanish claims at the 42nd parallel, effectively creating today's northern boundary of northern California.
Russian presence
In 1812, the Russian state-sponsored Russian-American Company established Fort Ross, a fur trading outpost on the coast of today's Sonoma County. Fort Ross was the southernmost Russian settlement, located some 60 miles (97 km) north of Spanish colonies in San Francisco. In 1839, the settlement was abandoned due to its inability to meet resource demands, and the increasing Mexican and American presence in the region.
Mexican era
After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico continued Spain's missions and settlements in northern California as well as Spain's territorial claims. The Mexican Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) in these settlements primarily traded cattle hides and tallow with American and European merchant vessels.
In 1825, the Hudson's Bay Company established a major trading post just north of today's Portland, Oregon. British fur trappers and hunters then used the Siskiyou Trail to travel throughout northern California. The leader of a further French scientific expedition to northern California, Eugene Duflot de Mofras, wrote in 1840 "...it is evident that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred men.": 260 By the 1830s, a significant number of non-Californios had immigrated to northern California. Chief among these was John Sutter, a European immigrant from Switzerland, who was granted 48,827 acres (197.60 km2) centered on the area of today's Sacramento.
American interest
American trappers began entering northern California in the 1830s.: 263–4 In 1834, American visionary Ewing Young led a herd of horses and mules over the Siskiyou Trail from missions in northern California to British and American settlements in Oregon. Although a small number of American traders and trappers had lived in northern California since the early 1830s, the first organized overland party of American immigrants to arrive in northern California was the Bartleson-Bidwell Party of 1841 via the new California Trail.: 263–273 Also in 1841, an overland exploratory party of the United States Exploring Expedition came down the Siskiyou Trail from the Pacific Northwest. In 1846, the Donner Party earned notoriety as they struggled to enter northern California.
Californian independence and beginning of the United States era
When the Mexican–American War was declared on May 13, 1846, it took almost two months (mid-July 1846) for word to get to California. On June 14, 1846, some 30 non-Mexican settlers, mostly Americans, staged a revolt and seized the small Mexican garrison in Sonoma. They raised the "Bear Flag" of the California Republic over Sonoma. The "Bear Flag Republic" lasted only 26 days, until the U.S. Army, led by John Frémont, took over on July 9. The California state flag today is based on this original Bear Flag, and continues to contain the words "California Republic."
Commodore John Drake Sloat ordered his naval forces to occupy Yerba Buena (present San Francisco) on July 7 and within days American forces controlled San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sutter's Fort in Sacramento. The treaty ending the Mexican–American War was signed on February 2, 1848, and Mexico formally ceded Alta California (including all of present-day northern California) to the United States.
Gold Rush and California statehood
The California Gold Rush took place almost exclusively in northern California from 1848 to 1855. It began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Coloma. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 people coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet, home to about 1,000 Californios into a boomtown of over 50,000 people in the 12 years between 1848 and 1860. New roads, churches, and schools were built, and new towns sprung up, aided in part by the development of new methods of transportation such as steamships which came into regular service and railroads which now connected the coasts. The Gold Rush also had negative effects: American colonists chose to use genocide as a tool to remove the Indigenous people so that they could look for gold on their land.
The Gold Rush also increased pressure to make California a U.S. state. Pro-slavery politicians initially attempted to permanently divide northern and southern California at 36 degrees, 30 minutes, the line of the Missouri Compromise. But instead, the passing of the Compromise of 1850 enabled California to be admitted to the Union as a free state.
Population and agricultural expansion (1855–1899)
The decades following the Gold Rush brought dramatic expansion to northern California, both in population and economically – particularly in agriculture. The completion of the First transcontinental railroad in 1869, with its terminus in Sacramento (and then later, Oakland), meant that northern California's agricultural produce (and some manufactured goods) could now be shipped economically to the rest of the United States. In return, immigrants from the rest of the United States (and Europe) could comfortably come to northern California. A network of railroads spread throughout northern California, and in 1887, a rail link was completed to the Pacific Northwest. Almost all of these railways came under the control of the Southern Pacific Railroad, headquartered in San Francisco, and San Francisco continued as a financial and cultural center.
Substantial tensions during this era included nativist sentiments (primarily against Chinese immigrants), tensions between the increasing power of the Southern Pacific Railroad and small farmers, and the beginnings of the labor union movement.
Economy
Northern California's economy is noted for being the de facto world leader in high-tech industry (software, semiconductor/micro-electronics, biotechnology and medical devices/instruments), as well as being known for clean power, biomedical, government, and finance. Other significant industries include tourism, shipping, manufacturing, and agriculture. Its economy is diverse, though more concentrated in high technology. It is home to the state capital, as well as several Western United States regional offices in San Francisco, such as the Federal Reserve and 9th Circuit Court.
Climate
Northern California has a warm or mild to cool climate, in which the Sierra mountains gets snow in the late fall through winter and occasionally into spring. Summers are mild along the coast and generally warm and dry, while winters are cool and usually wet. The high temperatures range from 50s °F (10–15 °C) to 30s °F (−1 – +4 °C) in the winters while summers temperature range is 90s °F (32–37 °C) to 60s °F (15–20 °C) or 50s °F (10–15 °C), with highs well into the 100s °F (37–42 °C) for the Sacramento region. Snow covers the mountains (generally above 3,000 feet (910 m)) in mid January through February. Fog occurs infrequently or occurs normally in the west and coast, especially in the summer, creating some of the coolest summer conditions in North America. Since the first decade of the 21st century, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency as a consequence of climate change.
Population
The population of the forty-eight counties of northern California has shown a steady increase over the years.
The largest percentage increase outside the Gold Rush era (52%) came during the 1940s, as the region was the destination of many post-War veterans and their families, attracted by the greatly expanding industrial base and (often) by their time stationed in northern California during World War II. The largest absolute increase occurred during the 1980s (over 2.1 million person increase), attracted by job opportunities in part by the expansion taking place in Silicon Valley and the Cold War–era expansion of the defense industry. Since the 2000 U.S. Census, Northern California has grown at a faster rate than Southern California due to the strong economic performances of the Bay Area and Sacramento.
Parks and other protected areas
National Park System
The U.S. National Park System controls a large and diverse group of parks in northern California. The best known is Yosemite National Park, which is displayed on the reverse side of the California state quarter. Other prominent parks are the Kings Canyon-Sequoia National Park complex, Redwood National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park and the largest in the contiguous forty-eight states, Death Valley National Park.
National Monuments and other federally protected areas
Other areas under federal protection include Muir Woods National Monument, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Devils Postpile National Monument, Lava Beds National Monument, Point Reyes National Seashore, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and the Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries (both off the coast of San Francisco). Included within the latter National Marine Sanctuary is the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge; this National Wildlife Refuge is one of approximately twenty-five such refuges in northern California. National forests occupy large sections of northern California, including the Shasta–Trinity, Klamath, Modoc, Lassen, Mendocino, Eldorado, Tahoe, and Sequoia national forests, among others. Included within (or adjacent to) national forests are federally protected wilderness areas, including the Trinity Alps, Castle Crags, Granite Chief, and Desolation wilderness areas.
In addition, the California Coastal National Monument protects all islets, reefs, and rock outcroppings from the shore of northern California out to a distance of 12 nmi (22 km), along the entire northern California coastline. In addition, the National Park Service administers protected areas on Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area, and the Smith River National Recreation Area. The NPS also administers the Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County, the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, and the Tule Lake National Monument outside of Tulelake.
Other
Educational institutions
Northern California hosts a number of world-renowned universities including Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. Top-tier public graduate schools include Boalt Hall and Hastings law schools and UC San Francisco (a top-ranked medical school) and UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, the largest veterinary school in the United States.
Public
Six University of California campuses:
Eleven California State University campuses:
A large number of local community colleges
Private
(Partial list)
Academy of Art University
California College of the Arts
Dominican University of California
Fresno Pacific University
Golden Gate University
Jessup University
Menlo College
Northwestern Polytechnic University
Notre Dame de Namur University
Pacific Union College
Samuel Merritt University
Santa Clara University
Saint Mary's College of California
Simpson University
Stanford University
Touro University California
University of San Francisco
University of the Pacific
Research
(Partial list)
American Institute of Mathematics
Bodega Marine Reserve
Hopkins Marine Station
Joint Genome Institute
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lick Observatory
Long Marine Laboratory
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
NASA Ames Research Center
Owens Valley Radio Observatory
Pacific Institute
Point Reyes Bird Observatory
White Mountain Research Station
Counties
Regions
The following regions are entirely or partly within northern California:
Cities and towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants
Largest cities (city proper) in northern California
Metropolitan areas
Northern California is home to three of the state's four extended metropolitan areas, which are home to over three-fourths of the region's population as of the 2010 United States Census:
Major business districts
The following are major central business districts:
San Francisco Financial District
Downtown Oakland
Downtown Sacramento
Downtown San Jose
Transportation
See also articles:
Transportation in the Sacramento metropolitan area
Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area
See also categories:
Airports
There are 11 airports in Northern California categorized as Primary Service Commercial airports by the FAA:
Railroad
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) – commuter subway connecting most of the core Bay Area including San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose
Caltrain – commuter rail between San Francisco and Gilroy (south of San Jose)
Muni Metro (San Francisco)
VTA light rail (San Jose)
Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) – commuter train connecting Stockton and the Central Valley with San Jose and the Bay Area
Sacramento Regional Transit District light rail
Amtrak:
California Zephyr – connects Chicago to the Bay Area
Capitol Corridor – San Jose to Auburn (eastern suburb of Sacramento)
Coast Starlight – coastal train between Los Angeles and Seattle with northern California stops in San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento
San Joaquin – Central Valley train linking Bakersfield in the Central Valley to Sacramento and Oakland
Major transit organizations
AC Transit
Arcata and Mad River Transit System
County Connection
El Dorado Transit
Eureka Transit Service
Fairfield and Suisun Transit
Fresno Area Express
Golden Gate Transit
Lake Transit
Mendocino Transit Authority
Monterey-Salinas Transit
Porterville City Operated Local Transit
Redwood Transit System
SamTrans
San Benito Express
SF MUNI
San Joaquin Regional Transit District
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
Santa Cruz Metro
Solano Express
SolTrans
Sonoma County Transit
Tri Delta Transit
Visalia Transit
VINE (Napa County)
Major transit ferries
San Francisco Bay Ferry
Golden Gate Ferry
Blue & Gold Fleet
Angel Island – Tiburon Ferry
Freeways
Interstate highways
Interstate 80 (Eastshore Freeway/Lincoln Highway)
Interstate 280 (Southern Embarcadero Freeway/Southern Freeway/Junipero Serra Freeway/Sinclair Freeway)
Interstate 380
Interstate 580 (Eastshore Freeway/MacArthur Freeway/Brown Freeway)
Interstate 680 (Joseph P. Sinclair Freeway/Donald D. Doyle Highway/Blue Star Memorial Highway/Luther E. Gibson Freeway)
Interstate 780
Interstate 880 (Nimitz Freeway)
Interstate 980 (Grove-Shafter Freeway)
Interstate 238
Interstate 5 (Golden State Freeway/West Side Freeway)
Interstate 205 (Robert T. Monagan Freeway)
Interstate 505
Interstate 80 Business (Capital City Freeway)
U.S. Routes
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 50 (El Dorado Freeway)
U.S. Route 101 (South Valley Freeway/Bayshore Freeway/James Lick Freeway/Central Freeway/Redwood Highway/Michael J. Burns Freeway/Redwood Highway)
U.S. Route 395
U.S. Route 97
U.S. Route 199
Principal state highways
State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway/Cabrillo Highway)
State Route 3
State Route 4
State Route 9
State Route 12
State Route 13 (Ashby Avenue/Tunnel Road/Warren Freeway)
State Route 16
State Route 17
State Route 20
State Route 24
State Route 25
State Route 26
State Route 29
State Route 32
State Route 33
State Route 35 (Skyline Boulevard)
State Route 36
State Route 37 (Sears Point Tollway)
State Route 41 (E.G. Lewis Highway, Yosemite Freeway, Southern Yosemite Highway, Wawona Road)
State Route 43
State Route 44
State Route 49 (Golden Chain Highway)
State Route 59
// State Route 61 (Webster Tube/Posey Tube/Doolittle Drive/Davis Street)
State Route 63
State Route 65
State Route 68
State Route 70
State Route 82 (Monterey Highway/El Camino Real/Mission Street)
State Route 84
State Route 85 (Stevens Creek Freeway/West Valley Freeway/Norman Y. Mineta Highway/CHP Officer Scott M. Greenly Memorial Freeway)
State Route 87 (Guadalupe Parkway)
State Route 88
State Route 89
State Route 92 (J. Arthur Younger Freeway/Jackson Street)
State Route 96
State Route 99
State Route 104
State Route 108
State Route 113
State Route 116
State Route 120
State Route 121
State Route 128
State Route 130
State Route 132
State Route 137
State Route 139
State Route 140
State Route 152
State Route 156
State Route 160 (North Sacramento Freeway/River Road)
State Route 162
State Route 165
State Route 168
State Route 174
State Route 180
/ State Route 185 (International Boulevard/East 14th Street/Mission Boulevard)
State Route 190
State Route 193
State Route 198
State Route 201
State Route 216
State Route 219
State Route 236
State Route 237
State Route 238 (Mission Boulevard, Foothill Boulevard)
State Route 245
State Route 254 (Avenue of the Giants)
State Route 262 (Mission Boulevard)
State Route 267
State Route 269
State Route 275 (Tower Bridge Gateway)
State Route 299
Communication
Telephone area codes
209 — Northern San Joaquin Valley (Stockton, Modesto, and Merced).
408/669 — Most of Santa Clara County (San Jose and Gilroy).
415/628 — San Francisco, Daly City, and Marin County. One of the three original Area Codes in California.
510/341 — Inner East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and Fremont). Originally part of area code 415.
530 — A large northeastern section of the region including Tehama County, Shasta County, Lassen County, Yuba County, Sutter County, Butte County, and Nevada County. Split from area code 916 in 1997–1998.
559 — Southern San Joaquin Valley (Madera, Fresno, and Visalia).
650 — San Francisco Peninsula (San Mateo, Redwood City, and Palo Alto). Originally part of area code 415.
707 — The North Coast section of the region from Sonoma County to the Oregon border. Cities include Eureka, Ukiah, Santa Rosa, Napa, Vallejo and Fairfield.
831 — Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties. Originally part of area code 408.
916/279 — Sacramento County and the Sacramento suburbs in western Placer and El Dorado Counties. One of the three original area codes in California, formerly covered all areas now within 530.
925 — Outer East Bay (Concord, Pittsburg, Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Pleasanton and Livermore). Originally part of area codes 415 and 510.
Sports
Major league professional sports teams
College sports teams
California Golden Bears
Cal Poly Humboldt Lumberjacks
Stanford Cardinal
Fresno State Bulldogs
San Jose State Spartans
Sacramento State Hornets
UC Davis Aggies
Sports venues
Laguna Seca Raceway (motorsport)
Sonoma Raceway (motorsport)
Olympic Club (golf)
Silverado Country Club (golf)
TPC Harding Park (golf)
TPC Stonebrae (golf)
Sporting events
Pac-12 Football Championship Game (college football)
Emerald Bowl (college football)
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (golf)
Frys.com Open (golf)
Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic (golf)
Grand Prix of Sonoma (motorsport)
Toyota/Save Mart 350 (motorsport)
Monterey Sports Car Championships (motorsport)
Superbike World Championship (motorsport)
See also
Northern California Megaregion
California megapolitan areas
Central California
History of California through 1899
History of the west coast of North America
Jefferson (proposed Pacific state)
Megaregions of the United States
Southern California
References
External links
Northern California at Curlie
Real Estate Engineering and Architect Service in California. "Leading Pre-Construction Service Providers in California". Design Everest. Retrieved July 29, 2021. |
San_Jose,_California | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California | [
496
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California"
] | San Jose, officially the City of San José (Spanish for 'Saint Joseph' SAN hoh-ZAY, -SAY; Spanish: [saŋ xoˈse]), is the largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2022 population of 971,233, it is the most populous city in both the Bay Area and the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area—which in 2022 had a population of 7.5 million and 9.0 million respectively—the third-most populous city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 sq mi (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County and the main component of the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of around two million residents in 2018.
San Jose is notable for its innovation, cultural diversity, affluence, and sunny and mild Mediterranean climate. Its connection to the booming high tech industry phenomenon known as Silicon Valley prompted Mayor Tom McEnery to adopt the city motto of "Capital of Silicon Valley" in 1988 to promote the city. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Inc., PayPal, Broadcom, and Zoom maintain their headquarters in San Jose. One of the wealthiest major cities in the world, San Jose has the third-highest GDP per capita (after Zürich and Oslo) and the fifth-most expensive housing market. It is home to one of the world's largest overseas Vietnamese populations, a Hispanic community that makes up over 40% of the city's residents, and historic ethnic enclaves such as Japantown and Little Portugal.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was long inhabited by the Tamien nation of the Ohlone peoples of California. San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first city founded in the Californias. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence.
Following the American Conquest of California during the Mexican–American War, the territory was ceded to the United States in 1848. After California achieved statehood two years later, San Jose was designated as the state's first capital. Following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics
industries further accelerated the transition from an agricultural center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U.S. census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California. By the 1990s, San Jose had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries and was California's fastest-growing economy for 2015–2016. Between April 2020 and July 2022, San Jose lost 42,000 people, 4.1% of its population, dropping to 12th largest city position in largest city ranking.
Name
San Jose is named after el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (Spanish for 'the Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe'), the city's predecessor, which was eventually located in the area of what is now the Plaza de César Chávez. In the 19th century, print publications used the spelling "San José" for both the city and its eponymous township. On December 11, 1943, the United States Board on Geographic Names ruled that the city's name should be spelled "San Jose" based on local usage and the formal incorporated name.
In the 1960s and 1970s, some residents and officials advocated for returning to the original spelling of "San José", with the acute accent on the "e", to acknowledge the city's Mexican origin and Mexican-American population. On June 2, 1969, the city adopted a flag designed by historian Clyde Arbuckle that prominently featured the inscription "SAN JOSÉ, CALIFORNIA". On June 16, 1970, San Jose State College officially adopted "San José" as the city's name, including in the college's own name. On August 20, 1974, the San Jose City Council approved a proposal by Catherine Linquist to rename the city "San José" but reversed itself a week later under pressure from residents concerned with the cost of changing typewriters, documents, and signs. On April 3, 1979, the city council once again adopted "San José" as the spelling of the city name on the city seal, official stationery, office titles and department names. As late as 2010, the 1965 city charter stated the name of the municipal corporation as City of San Jose, without the accent mark, but later editions have added the accent mark.
By convention, the spelling San José is only used when the name is spelled in mixed upper- and lowercase letters, but not when the name is spelled only in uppercase letters, as on the city logo. The accent reflects the Spanish version of the name, and the dropping of accents in all-capital writing was once typical in Spanish. While San José is commonly spelled both with and without the acute accent over the "e", the city's official guidelines indicate that it should be spelled with the accent most of the time and sets forth narrow exceptions, such as when the spelling is in URLs, when the name appears in all-capital letters, when the name is used on social media sites where the diacritical mark does not render properly, and where San Jose is part of the proper name of another organization or business, such as San Jose Chamber of Commerce, that has chosen not to use the accent-marked name.
History
Precolonial period
San Jose, along with most of the Santa Clara Valley, has been home to the Tamien group (also spelled as Tamyen, Thamien) of the Ohlone people since around 4,000 BC. The Tamien spoke Tamyen language of the Ohlone language family.
During the era of Spanish colonization and the subsequent building of Spanish missions in California, the Tamien people's lives changed dramatically. From 1777 onward, most of the Tamien people were forcibly enslaved at Mission Santa Clara de Asís or Mission San José where they were baptized and educated to be Catholic neophytes, also known as Mission Indians. This continued until the mission was secularized by the Mexican Government in 1833. A large majority of the Tamien died either from disease in the missions, or as a result of the state sponsored genocide. Some surviving families remained intact, migrating to Santa Cruz after their ancestral lands were granted to Spanish and Mexican Immigrants.
Spanish period
California was claimed as part of the Spanish Empire in 1542, when explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo charted the Californian coast. During this time Alta California and the Baja California peninsula were administered together as Province of the Californias (Spanish: Provincia de las Californias). For nearly 200 years, the Californias remained a distant frontier region largely controlled by the numerous Native Nations and largely ignored by the government of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City. Shifting power dynamics in North America—including the British/American victory and acquisition of North America, east of the Mississippi following the 1763 Treaty of Paris, as well as the start of Russian colonization of northwestern North America— prompted Spanish/Mexican authorities to sponsor the Portolá Expedition to survey Northern California in 1769.
In 1776, the Californias were included as part of the Captaincy General of the Provincias Internas, a large administrative division created by José de Gálvez, Spanish Minister of the Indies, in order to provide greater autonomy for the Spanish Empire's borderlands. That year, King Carlos III of Spain approved an expedition by Juan Bautista de Anza to survey the San Francisco Bay Area, in order to choose the sites for two future settlements and their accompanying mission. De Anza initially chose the site for a military settlement in San Francisco, for the Royal Presidio of San Francisco, and Mission San Francisco de Asís. On his way back to Mexico from San Francisco, de Anza chose the sites in Santa Clara Valley for a civilian settlement, San Jose, on the eastern bank of the Guadalupe River, and a mission on its western bank, Mission Santa Clara de Asís.
San Jose was officially founded as California's first civilian settlement on November 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe by José Joaquín Moraga, under orders of Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Viceroy of New Spain. San Jose served as a strategic settlement along El Camino Real, connecting the military fortifications at the Monterey Presidio and the San Francisco Presidio, as well as the California mission network. In 1791, due to the severe flooding which characterized the pueblo, San Jose's settlement was moved approximately a mile south, centered on the Pueblo Plaza (modern-day Plaza de César Chávez).
In 1800, due to the growing population in the northern part of the Californias, Diego de Borica, Governor of the Californias, officially split the province into two parts: Alta California (Upper California), which would eventually become several western U.S. states, and Baja California (Lower California), which would eventually become two Mexican states.
Mexican period
San Jose became part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821, after Mexico's War of Independence was won against the Spanish Crown, and in 1824, part of the First Mexican Republic. With its newfound independence, and the triumph of the republican movement, Mexico set out to diminish the Catholic Church's power within Alta California by secularizing the California missions in 1833.
In 1824, in order to promote settlement and economic activity within sparsely populated California, the Mexican government began an initiative, for Mexican and foreign citizens alike, to settle unoccupied lands in California. Between 1833 and 1845, thirty-eight rancho land grants were issued in the Santa Clara Valley, 15 of which were located within modern-day San Jose's borders. Numerous prominent historical figures were among those granted rancho lands in the Santa Valley, including James A. Forbes, founder of Los Gatos, California (granted Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara), Antonio Suñol, Alcalde of San Jose (granted Rancho Los Coches), and José María Alviso, Alcalde of San Jose (granted Rancho Milpitas).
In 1835, San Jose's population of approximately 700 people included 40 foreigners, primarily Americans and Englishmen. By 1845, the population of the pueblo had increased to 900, primarily due to American immigration. Foreign settlement in San Jose and California was rapidly changing Californian society, bringing expanding economic opportunities and foreign culture.
By 1846, native Californios had long expressed their concern for the overrunning of California society by its growing and wealthy Anglo-American community. During the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, Captain Thomas Fallon led nineteen volunteers from Santa Cruz to the pueblo of San Jose, which his forces easily captured. The raising of the flag of the California Republic ended Mexican rule in Alta California on July 14, 1846.
American period
By the end of 1847, the Conquest of California by the United States was complete, as the Mexican–American War came to an end. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ceded California to the United States, as part of the Mexican Cession. On December 15, 1849, San Jose became the capital of the unorganized territory of California. With California's Admission to the Union on September 9, 1850, San Jose became the state's first capital.
On March 27, 1850, San Jose was incorporated. It was incorporated on the same day as San Diego and Benicia; together, these three cities followed Sacramento as California's earliest incorporated cities. Josiah Belden, who had settled in California in 1842 after traversing the California Trail as part of the Bartleson Party and later acquired a fortune, was the city's first mayor. San Jose was briefly California's first state capital, and legislators met in the city from 1849 to 1851. (Monterey was the capital during the period of Spanish California and Mexican California). The first capitol no longer exists; the Plaza de César Chávez now lies on the site, which has two historical markers indicating where California's state legislature first met.
In the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers. The City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor. During this period, San Jose also became a center of innovation for the mechanization and industrialization of agricultural and food processing equipment.
Though not affected as severely as San Francisco, San Jose also suffered significant damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Over 100 people died at the Agnews Asylum (later Agnews State Hospital) after its walls and roof collapsed, and San Jose High School's three-story stone-and-brick building was also destroyed. The period during World War II was tumultuous; Japanese Americans primarily from Japantown were sent to internment camps, including the future mayor Norman Mineta. Following the Los Angeles zoot suit riots, anti-Mexican violence took place during the summer of 1943. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported San Jose's population as 98% white.
As World War II started, the city's economy shifted from agriculture (the Del Monte cannery was the largest employer and closed in 1999) to industrial manufacturing with the contracting of the Food Machinery Corporation (later known as FMC Corporation) by the United States War Department to build 1,000 Landing Vehicle Tracked. After World War II, FMC (later United Defense, and currently BAE Systems) continued as a defense contractor, with the San Jose facilities designing and manufacturing military platforms such as the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and various subsystems of the M1 Abrams battle tank.
IBM established its first West Coast operations in San Jose in 1943 with a downtown punch card plant, and opened an IBM Research lab in 1952. Reynold B. Johnson and his team developed direct access storage for computers, inventing the RAMAC 305 and the hard disk drive; the technological side of San Jose's economy grew.
During the 1950s and 1960s, City Manager A. P. "Dutch" Hamann led the city in a major growth campaign. The city annexed adjacent areas, such as Alviso and Cambrian Park, providing large areas for suburbs. An anti-growth reaction to the effects of rapid development emerged in the 1970s, championed by mayors Norman Mineta and Janet Gray Hayes. Despite establishing an urban growth boundary, development fees, and the incorporations of Campbell and Cupertino, development was not slowed, but rather directed into already-incorporated areas.
San Jose's position in Silicon Valley triggered further economic and population growth. Results from the 1990 U.S. Census indicated that San Jose surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in the Bay Area for the first time. This growth led to the highest housing-cost increase in the nation, 936% between 1976 and 2001. Efforts to increase density continued into the 1990s when an update of the 1974 urban plan kept the urban growth boundaries intact and voters rejected a ballot measure to ease development restrictions in the foothills. As of 2006, sixty percent of the housing built in San Jose since 1980 and over three-quarters of the housing built since 2000 have been multifamily structures, reflecting a political propensity toward Smart Growth planning principles.
Geography
San Jose is located at 37°20′10″N 121°53′26″W. San Jose is located within the Santa Clara Valley, in the southern part of the Bay Area in Northern California. The northernmost portion of San Jose touches San Francisco Bay at Alviso, though most of the city lies away from the bayshore. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 180.0 sq mi (466 km2), making the fourth-largest city in California by land area (after Los Angeles, San Diego and California City).
San Jose lies between the San Andreas Fault, the source of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and the Calaveras Fault. San Jose is shaken by moderate earthquakes on average one or two times a year. These quakes originate just east of the city on the creeping section of the Calaveras Fault, which is a major source of earthquake activity in Northern California. On April 14, 1984, at 1:15 pm local time, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Calaveras Fault near San Jose's Mount Hamilton. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, damaged many buildings in San Jose as described earlier. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1839, 1851, 1858, 1864, 1865, 1868, and 1891. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 also did some damage to parts of the city.
Cityscape
San Jose's expansion was made by the design of "Dutch" Hamann, the City Manager from 1950 to 1969. During his administration, with his staff referred to as "Dutch's Panzer Division", the city annexed property 1,389 times, growing the city from 17 to 149 sq mi (44 to 386 km2), absorbing the communities named above, changing their status to "neighborhoods."
They say San José is going to become another Los Angeles. Believe me, I'm going to do everything in my power to make that come true.
Sales taxes were a chief source of revenue. Hamann would determine where major shopping areas would be, and then annex narrow bands of land along major roadways leading to those locations, pushing "tentacles" or "finger areas" across the Santa Clara Valley and, in turn, walling off the expansion of adjacent communities.
During his reign, it was said the City Council would vote according to Hamann's nod. In 1963, the State of California imposed Local Agency Formation Commissions statewide, but largely to try to maintain order with San Jose's aggressive growth. Eventually the political forces against growth grew as local neighborhoods bonded together to elect their own candidates, ending Hamann's influence and leading to his resignation. While the job was not complete, the trend was set. The city had defined its sphere of influence in all directions, sometimes chaotically leaving unincorporated pockets to be swallowed up by the behemoth, sometimes even at the objection of the residents.
Major thoroughfares in the city include Monterey Road, the Stevens Creek Boulevard/San Carlos Street corridor, Santa Clara Street/Alum Rock Avenue corridor, Almaden Expressway, Capitol Expressway, and 1st Street (San Jose).
Topography
The Guadalupe River runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains flowing north through San Jose, ending in the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. Along the southern part of the river is the neighborhood of Almaden Valley, originally named for the mercury mines which produced mercury needed for gold extraction from quartz during the California Gold Rush as well as mercury fulminate blasting caps and detonators for the U.S. military from 1870 to 1945. East of the Guadalupe River, Coyote Creek also flows to south San Francisco Bay and originates on Mount Sizer near Henry W. Coe State Park and the surrounding hills in the Diablo Range, northeast of Morgan Hill, California.
The lowest point in San Jose is 13 ft (4.0 m) below sea level at the San Francisco Bay in Alviso; the highest is 2,125 ft (648 m). Because of the proximity to Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton, San Jose has taken several steps to reduce light pollution, including replacing all street lamps and outdoor lighting in private developments with low pressure sodium lamps. To recognize the city's efforts, the asteroid 6216 San Jose was named after the city.
There are four distinct valleys in the city of San Jose: Almaden Valley, situated on the southwest fringe of the city; Evergreen Valley to the southeast, which is hilly all throughout its interior; Santa Clara Valley, which includes the flat, main urban expanse of the South Bay; and the rural Coyote Valley, to the city's extreme southern fringe.
The extensive droughts in California, coupled with the drainage of the reservoir at Anderson Lake for seismic repairs, have strained the city's water security. San Jose has suffered from lack of precipitation and water scarcity to the extent that some residents may run out of household water by the summer of 2022.
Climate
San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb), with warm to hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. San Jose has an average of 298 days of sunshine and an annual mean temperature of 61.4 °F (16.3 °C). It lies inland, surrounded on three sides by mountains, and does not front the Pacific Ocean like San Francisco. As a result, the city is somewhat more sheltered from rain, barely avoiding a cold semi-arid (BSk) climate.
Like most of the Bay Area, San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates. Because of a more prominent rain shadow from the Santa Cruz Mountains, Downtown San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South San Jose, only 10 mi (16 km) distant, experiences more rainfall, and somewhat more extreme temperatures.
The monthly daily average temperature ranges from around 50 °F (10 °C) in December and January to around 70 °F (21 °C) in July and August. The highest temperature ever recorded in San Jose was 109 °F (43 °C) on September 6, 2022; the lowest was 18 °F (−7.8 °C) on January 6, 1894. On average, there are 2.7 mornings annually where the temperature drops to, or below, the freezing mark; and sixteen afternoons where the high reaches or exceeds 90 °F or 32.2 °C. Diurnal temperature variation is far wider than along the coast or in San Francisco but still a shadow of what is seen in the Central Valley.
"Rain year" precipitation has ranged from 4.83 in (122.7 mm) between July 1876 and June 1877 to 30.30 in (769.6 mm) between July 1889 and June 1890, although at the current site since 1893 the range is from 5.33 in (135.4 mm) in "rain year" 2020–21 to 30.25 in (768.3 mm) in "rain year" 1982–83. 2020-2021 was the lowest precipitation year ever, in 127 years of precipitation records in San Jose. The most precipitation in one month was 12.38 in (314.5 mm) in January 1911. The maximum 24-hour rainfall was 3.60 in (91.4 mm) on January 30, 1968. On August 16, 2020, one of the most widespread and strong thunderstorm events in recent Bay Area history occurred as an unstable humid air mass moved up from the south and triggered multiple dry thunderstorms which caused many fires to be ignited by 300+ lightning strikes in the surrounding hills. The CZU lightning complex fires took almost 5 months to fully be controlled. Over 86,000 acres were burned and nearly 1500 buildings were destroyed.
The snow level drops as low as 4,000 ft (1,220 m) above sea level, or lower, occasionally coating nearby Mount Hamilton and, less frequently, the Santa Cruz Mountains, with snow that normally lasts a few days. Snow will snarl traffic traveling on State Route 17 towards Santa Cruz. Snow rarely falls in San Jose; the most recent snow to remain on the ground was on February 5, 1976, when many residents around the city saw as much as 3 in (0.076 m) on car and roof tops. The official observation station measured only 0.5 in (0.013 m) of snow.
Neighborhoods and districts
The city is generally divided into the following areas: Central San Jose (centered on Downtown San Jose), West San Jose, North San Jose, East San Jose, and South San Jose. Many of San Jose's districts and neighborhoods were previously unincorporated communities or separate municipalities that were later annexed by the city.
Besides those mentioned above, some well-known communities within San Jose include Japantown, Rose Garden, Midtown San Jose, Willow Glen, Naglee Park, Burbank, Winchester, Alviso, East Foothills, Alum Rock, Communications Hill, Little Portugal, Blossom Valley, Cambrian, Almaden Valley, Little Saigon, Silver Creek Valley, Evergreen Valley, Mayfair, Edenvale, Santa Teresa, Seven Trees, Coyote Valley, and Berryessa.
A distinct ethnic enclave in San Jose is the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood, immediately south of the SoFA District; this neighborhood is home to a community of Hispanics, centered on Willow Street.
Selection of neighborhoods in San Jose
Parks
San Jose possesses about 15,950 acres (6,455 ha) of parkland in its city limits, including a part of the expansive Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The city's oldest park is Alum Rock Park, established in 1872. In its 2013 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, reported that San Jose was tied with Albuquerque and Omaha for having the 11th best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities.
Almaden Quicksilver County Park, 4,147 acres (16.78 km2) of former mercury mines in South San Jose (operated and maintained by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department).
Alum Rock Park, 718 acres (2.91 km2) in East San Jose, the oldest municipal park in California and one of the largest municipal parks in the United States.
Children's Discovery Museum hosts an outdoor park-like setting, featuring the world's largest permanent Monopoly game, per the Guinness Book of World Records. Caretakers for this attraction include the 501(c)3 non-profit group Monopoly in the Park.
Circle of Palms Plaza, a ring of palm trees surrounding a California state seal and historical landmark at the site of the first state capitol
Emma Prusch Farm Park, 43.5 acres (17.6 ha) in East San Jose. Donated by Emma Prusch to demonstrate the valley's agricultural past, it includes a 4-H barn (the largest in San Jose), community gardens, a rare-fruit orchard, demonstration gardens, picnic areas, and expanses of lawn. Chickens, ducks, and peafowl roam the park freely.
Field Sports Park, Santa Clara County's only publicly owned firing range, located in south San Jose
Iris Chang Park, located in North San Jose, is dedicated to the memory of Iris Shun-Ru Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking and a San Jose resident.
Kelley Park, including diverse facilities such as Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (a child-centric amusement park), the Japanese Friendship Garden (Kelley Park), History Park at Kelley Park, and the Portuguese Historical Museum within the history park
Martial Cottle Park, a former agricultural farm, in South San Jose. Operated by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department
Oak Hill Memorial Park, California's oldest secular cemetery
Overfelt Gardens, including the Chinese Cultural Garden
Plaza de César Chávez, a small park in Downtown, hosts outdoor concerts and the Christmas in the Park display
Raging Waters, water park with water slides and other water attractions. This sits within Lake Cunningham Park
Rosicrucian Park, nearly an entire city block in the Rose Garden neighborhood; the Park offers a setting of Egyptian and Moorish architecture set among lawns, rose gardens, statuary, and fountains, and includes the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Planetarium, Research Library, Peace Garden and Visitors Center
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, 5+1⁄2 acres (22,000 m2) park in the Rose Garden neighborhood, featuring over 4,000 rose bushes
Trails
A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked San Jose the nineteenth most walkable of 50 largest cities in the United States.
San Jose's trail network of 60 mi (100 km) of recreational and active transportation trails throughout the city. The major trails in the network include:
Coyote Creek Trail
Guadalupe River Trail
Los Gatos Creek Trail
Los Alamitos Creek Trail
Penitencia Creek Trail
Silver Creek Valley Trail
This large urban trail network, recognized by Prevention Magazine as the nation's largest, is linked to trails in surrounding jurisdictions and many rural trails in surrounding open space and foothills. Several trail systems within the network are designated as part of the National Recreation Trail, as well as regional trails such as the San Francisco Bay Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail.
Wildlife
Early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the Rio Guadalupe dating as far back as the 18th century. Both steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and King salmon are extant in the Guadalupe River, making San Jose the southernmost major U. S. city with known salmon spawning runs, the other cities being Anchorage; Seattle; Portland and Sacramento. Runs of up to 1,000 Chinook or King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) swam up the Guadalupe River each fall in the 1990s, but have all but vanished in the current decade apparently blocked from access to breeding grounds by impassable culverts, weirs and wide, exposed and flat concrete paved channels installed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. In 2011 a small number of Chinook salmon were filmed spawning under the Julian Street bridge.
Conservationist Roger Castillo, who discovered the remains of a mammoth on the banks of the Guadalupe River in 2005, found that a herd of tule elk (Cervus canadensis) had recolonized the hills of south San Jose east of Highway 101 in early 2019.
At the southern edge of San José, Coyote Valley is a corridor for wildlife migration between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.
Demographics
In 2022, the US Census Bureau released its new population estimates. With a total population of 971,233, San Jose showed a 4.1% decline in population since the 2020 census. Some reasons for this decline are people leaving the area for more affordable cities and more remote working opportunities.
2020
2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that San Jose had a population of 945,942. The population density was 5,256.2 inhabitants per square mile (2,029.4/km2). The racial makeup of San Jose was 404,437 (42.8%) White, 303,138 (32.0%) Asian (10.4% Vietnamese, 6.7% Chinese, 5.6% Filipino, 4.6% Indian, 1.2% Korean, 1.2% Japanese, 0.3% Cambodian, 0.2% Thai, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.2% Laotian), 30,242 (3.2%) African American, 8,297 (0.9%) Native American, 4,017 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 148,749 (15.7%) from other races, and 47,062 (5.0%) from two or more races. There were 313,636 residents of Hispanic or Latino background (33.2%). 28.2% of the city's population was of Mexican descent; the next largest Hispanic groups were those of Salvadoran (0.7%) and Puerto Rican (0.5%) heritage. Non-Hispanic Whites were 28.7% of the population in 2010, down from 75.7% in 1970.
The census reported that 932,620 people (98.6% of the population) lived in households, 9,542 (1.0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 3,780 (0.4%) were institutionalized. There were 301,366 households, out of which 122,958 (40.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 162,819 (54.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 37,988 (12.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 18,702 (6.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 16,900 (5.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2,458 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 59,385 households (19.7%) were made up of individuals, and 18,305 (6.1%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.09. There were 219,509 families (72.8% of all households); the average family size was 3.54.
The age distribution of the city was as follows: 234,678 people (24.8%) were under the age of 18, 89,457 people (9.5%) aged 18 to 24, 294,399 people (31.1%) aged 25 to 44, 232,166 people (24.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 95,242 people (10.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.8 males.
There were 314,038 housing units at an average density of 1,745.0 per square mile (673.7/km2), of which 176,216 (58.5%) were owner-occupied, and 125,150 (41.5%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.3%. 553,436 people (58.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 379,184 people (40.1%) lived in rental housing units.
2000
According to the 2000 United States Census, there were 894,943 people, 276,598 households, and 203,576 families residing in the city.
The population density was 5,117.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,976.0/km2). There were 281,841 housing units at an average density of 1,611.8 per square mile (622.3/km2). Of the 276,598 households, 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.20 and the average family size was 3.62.
In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 26.4% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.
According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was the highest in the U.S. for any city with more than a quarter-million residents with $76,963 annually. The median income for a family was $86,822. Males had a median income of $49,347 versus $36,936 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,697. About 6.0% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
The CSA San Jose shares with San Francisco was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2018, with a GDP of $1.03 trillion. Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the U.S., this CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2018, at $106,757.
San Jose is a United States Foreign-Trade Zone. The city received its Foreign Trade Zone grant from the U.S. Federal Government in 1974, making it the 18th foreign-trade zone established in the United States. Under its grant, the City of San Jose is granted jurisdiction to oversee and administer foreign trade in Santa Clara County, Monterey County, San Benito County, Santa Cruz County, and in the southern parts of San Mateo County and Alameda County.
San Jose hosts many companies with more than 1,000 employees, including the headquarters of:
San Jose also hosts major facilities for Becton Dickinson, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, KLA Tencor, Lockheed Martin, Nippon Sheet Glass, and Qualcomm. The North American headquarters of Samsung Semiconductor are located in San Jose. Approximately 2000 employees will work at the new Samsung campus which opened in 2015.
Other large companies based in San Jose include:
Sizable government employers include the city government, Santa Clara County, and San Jose State University. Acer's United States division has its offices in San Jose. Prior to its closing, Netcom had its headquarters in San Jose.
On July 31, 2015, Cupertino-based Apple Inc. purchased a 40-acre site in San Jose. The site, which is bare land, will be the site of an office and research campus where it is estimated that up to 16,000 employees will be located. Apple paid $138.2 million for the site. The seller, Connecticut-based Five Mile Capital Partners, paid $40 million for the site in 2010.
Wealth
It is situated in the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States.
With a median home price of $1,085,000 and the highest percentage of million-dollar (or more) homes in the United States, San Jose has the most expensive housing market in the United States and the fifth most expensive housing market in the world.
The cost of living in San Jose and the surrounding areas is among the highest in California and the nation, according to 2004 data. Housing costs are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked by the ACCRA Cost of Living Index are above the national average. Households in the city limits have the highest disposable income of any city in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents.
Silicon Valley
The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known as Silicon Valley. Area schools such as the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, San Jose State University, San Francisco State University, California State University, East Bay, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University pump thousands of engineering and computer science graduates into the local economy every year.
San Jose residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city. On October 15, 2015, the United States Patent and Trademark Office opened a satellite office in San Jose to serve Silicon Valley and the Western United States. By April 2018, Google was in the process of planning the "biggest tech campus in Silicon Valley" in San Jose. However, in April 2023, it was reported that Google paused on Google West San Jose Campus constructions due to slowing economic conditions and a decreased requirement for physical office space by tech companies, although the tech ecosystem has also recently become more geographically dispersed.
High economic growth during the tech bubble caused employment, housing prices, and traffic congestion to peak in the late 1990s. As the economy slowed in the early 2000s, employment and traffic congestion was somewhat diminished. In the mid-2000s, traffic along major highways again began to worsen as the economy improved. San Jose had 405,000 jobs within its city limits in 2006, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%. San Jose has the highest median income of any U.S. city with over 280,000 people.
On March 14, 2013, San Jose implemented a public wireless connection in its downtown area. Wireless access points have been placed on outdoor light posts throughout the city.
Media
San Jose is served by Greater Bay Area media. Print media outlets in San Jose include The Mercury News, the weekly Metro Silicon Valley, El Observador and the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. The Bay Area's NBC O&O, KNTV 11, is licensed to San Jose. In total, broadcasters in the Bay Area include 34 television stations, 25 AM radio stations, and 55 FM radio stations.
In April 1909, Charles David Herrold, an electronics instructor in San Jose, constructed a radio station to broadcast the human voice. The station, "San Jose Calling" (call letters FN, later FQW), was the world's first radio station with scheduled programming targeted at a general audience. The station became the first to broadcast music in 1910. Herrold's wife Sybil became the first female "disk jockey" in 1912. The station changed hands a number of times before becoming today's KCBS in San Francisco.
Top employers
As of June 30, 2023, the top employers in the city were:
Culture
Architecture
Because the downtown area is in the flight path to nearby Mineta San Jose International Airport (also evidenced in the above panoramic), there is a height limit for buildings in the downtown area, which is underneath the final approach corridor to the airport. The height limit is dictated by local ordinances, driven by the distance from the runway and a slope defined by Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Core downtown buildings are limited to approximately 300 ft (91 m) but can get taller farther from the airport.
There has been broad criticism over the past few decades of the city's architecture. Citizens have complained that San Jose is lacking in aesthetically pleasing architectural styles. Blame for this lack of architectural "beauty" can be assigned to the re-development of the downtown area from the 1950s onward, in which whole blocks of historic commercial and residential structures were demolished. Exceptions to this include the Downtown Historic District, the Hotel De Anza, and the Hotel Sainte Claire, both of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places for their architectural and historical significance.
Municipal building projects have experimented more with architectural styles than have most private enterprises. The Children's Discovery Museum, Tech Museum of Innovation, and the San Jose Repertory Theater building have experimented with bold colors and unusual exteriors. The new City Hall, designed by Richard Meier & Partners, opened in 2005 and is a notable addition to the growing collection of municipal building projects.
San Jose has many examples of houses with fine architecture. Late 19th century and early 20th century styles exist in neighborhoods such as Hanchett Park, Naglee Park, Rose Garden, and Willow Glen (including Palm Haven).
Styles include Mediterranean Revival architecture, Spanish Colonial architecture, Neoclassical architecture, Craftsman, Mission Revival, Prairie style, and Queen Anne style Victorian.
Notable architects include Frank Delos Wolfe, Theodore Lenzen, Charles McKenzie, and Julia Morgan.
Visual arts
Public art is an evolving attraction in the city. The city was one of the first to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building project budgets, and as a result of this commitment, a considerable number of public art projects exist in the downtown area, and a growing collection in neighborhoods including libraries, parks, and fire stations. In particular, the Mineta Airport expansion incorporated art and technology into its development.
Early public art included a statue of Quetzalcoatl (the plumed serpent) downtown, controversial in its planning because some called it pagan, and controversial in its implementation because many felt that the final statue by Robert Graham did not look like a winged serpent, and was more noted for its expense than its aesthetics. Locals joked that the statue resembles a pile of feces.
A statue of Thomas Fallon also met strong resistance from those who called him largely responsible for the decimation of early native populations. Chicano/Latino activists protested because he had captured San Jose by military force in the Mexican–American War (1846). They also protested the perceived "repression" of historic documents detailing Fallon's orders expelling many of the city's Californio (early Spanish/Mexican/Mestizo) residents. In October 1991 protests at Columbus Day and Dia de la Raza celebrations stalled than plan, and the statue was stored in a warehouse in Oakland for more than a decade. The statue returned in 2002 to a less conspicuous location: Pellier Park, a small triangular patch at the merge of West Julian and West St. James streets.
In 2001, the city-sponsored SharkByte, an exhibit of decorated sharks based on the mascot of the hockey team, the San Jose Sharks, and modeled after Chicago's display of decorated cows. Large models of sharks decorated in clever, colorful, or creative ways by local artists were displayed for months at dozens of locations around the city. After the exhibition, the sharks were auctioned off for charity.
In 2006, Adobe Systems commissioned an art installation titled San Jose Semaphore by Ben Rubin, at the top of its headquarters building. Semaphore is composed of four LED discs which "rotate" to transmit a message. The content remained a mystery until it was deciphered in August 2007. The visual art installation is supplemented with an audio track, transmitted from the building on a low-power AM station. The audio track provides clues to decode the message being transmitted.
San Jose retains a number of murals in the Chicano history tradition of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco of murals as public textbooks.
Although intended to be permanent monuments to the city's heritage as a mission town founded in 1777, a number of murals have been painted over, notably Mural de la Raza, on the side of a Story Rd shoe store, and Mexicatlan at the corner of Sunset and Alum Rock. In addition, two of three murals by Mexican artist Gustavo Bernal Navarro have disappeared. The third mural, La Medicina y la Comunidad at the Gardner clinic on East Virginia Street, depicts both modern and traditional healers.
Surviving Chicano history murals include Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe at Our Lady of Guadalupe church and the 1970s or 1980s Virgen de Guadelupe Huelga Bird at Cal Foods east of downtown. The Guadalajara restaurant has the 1986 Guadalajara Market No. 2 by Edward Earl Tarver III and a 2013 work by Jesus Rodriguez and Empire 7, La Gran Culture Resonance.
An unknown artist painted the Huelga Bird and Aztec City mural in the 1970s or 1980s on the Clyde L. Fisher Middle School. In 1995 Antonio Nava Torres painted The Aztec Calendar Handball Court at Biebrach Park, and the unknown artist of Chaco's Pachuco painted it on the former Chaco's Restaurant in the 1990s. The Jerry Hernandez mural by Frank Torres at Pop's Mini Mart on King Road dates to 2009, and another recent mural by Carlos Rodriguez on the Sidhu Market at Locust and West Virginia depicts a stern-looking warrior.
Performing arts
The city is home to many performing arts companies, including Opera San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, sjDANCEco, The San Jose Symphonic Choir, Children's Musical Theater San Jose, the San Jose Youth Symphony, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, City Lights Theatre Company, The Tabard Theatre Company, San Jose Stage Company, and the now-defunct American Musical Theatre of San Jose which was replaced by Broadway San Jose in partnership with Team San Jose. San Jose is also home to the San Jose Museum of Art, one of the nation's premiere Modern Art museums.
The SAP Center at San Jose is one of the most active venues for events in the world. According to Billboard Magazine and Pollstar, the arena sold the most tickets to non-sporting events of any venue in the United States, and third in the world after the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, England, and the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, for the period from January 1 – September 30, 2004.
The annual Cinequest Film Festival in downtown has grown to over 60,000 attendees per year, becoming an important festival for independent films. The San Francisco Asian American Film Festival is an annual event, which is hosted in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Downtown San Jose. Approximately 30 to 40 films are screened in San Jose each year at the Camera 12 Downtown Cinemas. The San Jose Jazz Festival is another of many events hosted throughout the year.
The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies houses the largest collection of Ludwig van Beethoven in the world, outside of Europe, and is the only institution of its kind in North America.
Sports
San Jose is home to the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL, and the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. The Sharks and the Barracuda play in the SAP Center at San Jose. The Earthquakes built an 18,000 seat new stadium that opened in March 2015. San Jose was a founding member of both the California League and Pacific Coast League in minor league baseball. San Jose currently fields the San Jose Giants, a Low-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
San Jose has been host to several U.S. Olympic team trials over the years. In 2004, the San Jose Sports Authority held the trials for judo, taekwondo, trampolining and rhythmic gymnastics at the San Jose State Event Center. SAP Center hosted the Gymnastic trials in 2012 and 2016 (women's only). and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (used in Olympic years to select the Olympians) in 1996, 2012, and 2018. It was due to host the 2021 Championship, but that was moved to Las Vegas and it will instead host 2023. In 2008, around 90 percent of the members of the United States Olympic team were processed at San Jose State University prior to traveling to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The 2009 Junior Olympics for trampoline were also held here.
In August 2004, the San Jose Seahawk Rugby Football Club hosted the USA All-Star Rugby Sevens Championships at Watson Bowl, east of Downtown.
San Jose State hosted the 2011 American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) national tournament. The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is also frequently held in San Jose.
From 2005 to 2007, the San Jose Grand Prix, an annual street circuit race in the Champ Car World Series, was held in the downtown area. Other races included the Trans-Am Series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship, the United States Touring Car Championship, the Historic Stock Car Racing Series, and the Formula D Drift racing competition.
In the 2010s, San Jose "aggressively wooed" the Oakland Athletics to relocate to San Jose from nearby Oakland, but the San Francisco Giants exercised a veto against this proposal. In 2013, the city of San Jose sued Major League Baseball for not allowing the Athletics to relocate to San Jose. On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's bid on the Athletics, who in 2023 announced they would relocate to Las Vegas.
Landmarks
Notable landmarks in San Jose include Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, History Park at Kelley Park, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, Plaza de César Chávez, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Mexican Heritage Plaza, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Lick Observatory, Hayes Mansion, SAP Center at San Jose, Hotel De Anza, San Jose Improv, Sikh Gurdwara of San Jose, Peralta Adobe, Excite Ballpark, Spartan Stadium, Japantown San Jose, Winchester Mystery House, Raging Waters, Circle of Palms Plaza, San Jose City Hall, San Jose Flea Market, Oak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose electric light tower, and The Tech Museum of Innovation.
Museums and institutions
The Tech Museum of Innovation
Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, which houses the largest collection of Ludwig van Beethoven in the world outside of Europe
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, the largest U.S. public library west of the Mississippi River
San Jose Museum of Art, contemporary art museum with a collection of West Coast artists
Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
History Park at Kelley Park
Mexican Heritage Plaza, a Chicano museum and cultural center
Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, is an inclusive contemporary arts museum grounded in the Chicano/Latino experience
Portuguese Historical Museum
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on display in the western United States, located at Rosicrucian Park
San Jose East Carnegie Branch Library is notable as it is the last Carnegie library still operating in San Jose, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
San Jose Steam Railroad Museum, proposed, artifacts and rolling stock are kept at the fairgrounds and Kelley Park
History San José
Japanese American Museum of San Jose, a museum of Japanese-American history
Old Bank of America Building, a historic landmark
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, the first museum in America dedicated solely to quilts and textiles as an art form
Viet Museum, a museum of Vietnamese-American history
Law and government
Local
San Jose is a charter city under California law, giving it the power to enact local ordinances that may conflict with state law, within the limits provided by the charter. The city has a council-manager government with a city manager nominated by the mayor and elected by the city council.
The San Jose City Council is made up of ten council members elected by district, and a mayor elected by the entire city. During city council meetings, the mayor presides, and all eleven members can vote on any issue. The mayor has no veto powers. Council members and the mayor are elected to four-year terms; the even-numbered district council members beginning in 1994; the mayor and the odd-numbered district council members beginning in 1996. Each council member represents approximately 100,000 constituents.
Council members and the mayor are limited to two successive terms in office, although a council member that has reached the term limit can be elected mayor, and vice versa. The council elects a vice-mayor from the members of the council at the second meeting of the year following a council election. This council member acts as mayor during the temporary absence of the mayor, but does not succeed to the mayor's office upon a vacancy.
The City Manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, and must present an annual budget for approval by the city council. When the office is vacant, the Mayor proposes a candidate for City Manager, subject to council approval. The council appoints the Manager for an indefinite term, and may at any time remove the manager, or the electorate may remove the manager through a recall election. Other city officers directly appointed by the council include the City Attorney, City Auditor, City Clerk, and Independent Police Auditor. Like all cities and counties in the state, San Jose has representation in the state legislature.
Like all California cities except San Francisco, both the levels and the boundaries of what the city government controls are determined by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The goal of a LAFCO is to try to avoid uncontrolled urban sprawl. The Santa Clara County LAFCO has set boundaries of San Jose's "Sphere of Influence" (indicated by the blue line in the map near the top of the page) as a superset of the actual city limits (the yellow area in the map), plus parts of the surrounding unincorporated county land, where San Jose can, for example, prevent development of fringe areas to concentrate city growth closer to the city's core. The LAFCO also defines a subset of the Sphere as an 'Urban Service Area' (indicated by the red line in the map), effectively limiting development to areas where urban infrastructure (sewers, electrical service, etc.) already exists.
San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County. Accordingly, many county government facilities are located in the city, including the office of the County Executive, the Board of Supervisors, the District Attorney's Office, eight courthouses of the Superior Court, the Sheriff's Office, and the County Clerk.
San Jose is protected by the San Jose Police Department and San Jose Fire Department. Drinking water is supplied by the San José Municipal Water System (Muni Water) along with the privately owned San Jose Water Company and Great Oaks Water Company. The San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility provides advanced wastewater treatment and reclaimed water.
State and federal
In the California State Senate, San Jose is split between the 10th, 15th, and 17th districts, represented by Democrat Aisha Wahab, Democrat Dave Cortese, and Democrat John Laird respectively.
In the California State Assembly, San Jose is split between the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 28th districts, represented by Democrat Marc Berman, Democrat Alex Lee, Democrat Ash Kalra, Democrat Evan Low, and Democrat Gail Pellerin, respectively.
Federally, San Jose is split between California's 17th, 18th, and 19th congressional districts, represented by Democrat Ro Khanna, Democrat Zoe Lofgren, and Democrat Jimmy Panetta, respectively.
Several state and federal agencies maintain offices in San Jose. The city is the location of the Sixth District of the California Courts of Appeal. It is also home to one of three courthouses of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the other two being in Oakland and San Francisco.
Crime
Like most large cities, crime levels had fallen significantly after rising in the 1980s. From 2002 to 2006, Morgan Quitno Press named San Jose the safest city in the United States with a population over 500,000 people. Crime in San Jose had been lower than in other large American cities until 2013, when crime rates in San Jose climbed above California and U.S. averages.
In 2021, SmartAsset ranked San Jose tied as the 10th safest city in the United States. In 2020, violent crime per 100,000 people has been the lowest the city has seen in 2017 while the homicide rate has been the highest since 2016; property crime per 100,000 people has been the lowest the city has seen in over ten years.
2021 mass shooting
On May 26, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard in San Jose. Ten people were killed, including the gunman, 57-year-old VTA employee Samuel James Cassidy, who shot and killed himself. The shooting led to a day-long suspension of light rail services in the area. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In June 2021, roughly a month following the shooting, San Jose became the first city in the United States to require gun owners to carry liability insurance after a unanimous vote by the city council.
Education
Higher education
San Jose is home to several colleges and universities. The largest is San José State University, which was founded by the California legislature in 1862 as the California State Normal School, and is the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) system. Located in downtown San Jose since 1870, the university enrolls approximately 35,000 students in over 250 different bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs.
The school enjoys a good academic reputation, especially in the fields of engineering, business, computer science, art and design, and journalism, and consistently ranks among the top public universities in the western region of the United States. San Jose State is one of only three Bay Area schools that fields a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Division I college football team; Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley are the other two.
California University of Management and Technology (CALMAT) offers many degree programs, including MBA, Computer Science, Information Technology. Most classes are offered both online and in the downtown campus. Many of the students are working professionals in the Silicon Valley.
The University of Silicon Valley is located in the Golden Triangle of North San Jose.
Lincoln Law School of San Jose and University of Silicon Valley Law School offer law degrees, catering to working professionals.
National University maintains a campus in San Jose.
The San Jose campus of Golden Gate University offers business bachelor and MBA degrees.
In the San Jose metropolitan area, Stanford University is in Stanford, California, Santa Clara University is in Santa Clara, California, and U.C. Santa Cruz is in Santa Cruz, California. Within the San Francisco Bay Area, other universities include U.C. Berkeley, U.C. San Francisco, U.C. Hastings College of Law, University of San Francisco, and California State University, East Bay.
The San Jose area's community colleges, San Jose City College, West Valley College, Mission College and Evergreen Valley College, offer associate degrees, general education units to transfer to CSU and UC schools, and adult and continuing education programs. The West campus of Palmer College of Chiropractic is also located in San Jose.
WestMed College is headquartered in San Jose and offers paramedic training, emergency medical technician training, and licensed vocational nursing programs.
The University of California operates Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton.
Western Seminary has one of its four campuses in San Jose, which opened on the campus of Calvary Church of Los Gatos in 1985. The campus relocated in 2010 to Santa Clara. Western is an evangelical, Christian graduate school that provides theological training for students who hope to serve in a variety of ministry roles including pastors, marriage and family therapists, educators, missionaries and lay leadership. The San Jose campus offers four master's degrees, and a variety of other graduate-level programs.
National Hispanic University offered associate and bachelor's degrees and teaching credentials to its students, focusing on Hispanic students, until its closing in 2015.
Primary and secondary education
Until the opening of Lincoln High School in 1943, San Jose students only attended San Jose High School. San Jose has 127 elementary, 47 middle, and 44 public high schools.
Public education in the city is provided by four high school districts, fourteen elementary districts, and three unified school districts (which provide both elementary and high schools).
Unified school districts include: San Jose USD (SJUSD), Morgan Hill USD, and Santa Clara USD
Secondary school districts include: Campbell UHSD, East Side UHSD, Fremont UHSD, and Los Gatos-Saratoga JUSD
Elementary school districts include: Alum Rock UESD, Berryessa UESD, Cambrian ESD, Campbell UESD, Cupertino UESD, Evergreen ESD, Franklin-McKinley ESD, Los Gatos UESD, Luther Burbank ESD, Moreland SD, Mount Pleasant ESD, Oak Grove ESD, Orchard ESD, and Union ESD.
SJUSD declared bankruptcy in 1983; at that time, it was the largest US school district to declare bankruptcy. Observers identified the reasons as a drop of 5,000 students in the preceding years, the difficulties imposed on school finances by Serrano v. Priest in 1968, the reduction of tax monies because of 1978 California Proposition 13, and the local teachers' union contract requiring a raise in pay.
Private schools in San Jose are primarily run by religious groups. The Catholic Diocese of San Jose has the second-largest student population in Santa Clara County, behind only SJUSD; the diocese and its parishes operate several schools in the city, including five high schools. Other private religious schools are Baptist, non-denominational Protestant, and Wisconsin Synod Lutheran. Secular private schools include Cambrian Academy and Harker School.
Libraries
The San José Public Library system is unique in that the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library combines the collections of the city's system with the San Jose State University main library. In 2003, construction of the library, which now holds more than 1.6 million items, was the largest single library construction project west of the Mississippi, with eight floors that result in more than 475,000 sq ft (44,100 m2) of space with a capacity for 2 million volumes.
The city has 23 neighborhood branches including the Biblioteca Latinoamericana ('Latin American Library') which specializes in Spanish language works. The East San Jose Carnegie Branch Library, a Carnegie library opened in 1908, is the last Carnegie library in Santa Clara County still operating as a public library and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. As the result of a bond measure passed in November 2000, a number of brand new or completely reconstructed branches have been completed and opened. The yet-to-be-named brand new Southeast Branch is also planned, bringing the bond library project to its completion.
The San Jose system (along with the university system) were jointly named as "Library of the Year" by Library Journal in 2004.
Transportation
Like other American cities built mostly after World War II, San Jose is highly automobile-dependent, with 76 percent of residents driving alone to work and 12 percent carpooling in 2017. The city set an ambitious goal to shift motorized trips to walking, bicycling, and public transit in 2009 with the adoption of its Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan. In 2018, the city extended these goals to 2050 with its San Jose Climate Smart plan.
Public transit
Rail service to and from San Jose is provided by Amtrak (the Sacramento–San-Jose Capitol Corridor and the Seattle–Los-Angeles Coast Starlight), Caltrain (commuter rail service between San Francisco and Gilroy), ACE (commuter rail service to Pleasanton and Stockton), and the local VTA light rail system connecting downtown to Mountain View, Milpitas, Campbell, and Almaden Valley, operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). Historic streetcars from History Park operate on the light rail lines in downtown during holidays.
Long-term plans call for BART to be expanded to Santa Clara from the Berryessa/North San José station. Originally, the extension was to be built all at once, but due to the recession, sales tax revenue has dramatically decreased. Because of this, the extension will be built in two phases. Phase 1 extended service to San Jose with the completion of the Milpitas and Berryessa BART stations on June 13, 2020. In addition, San Jose will be a major stop on the future California High-Speed Rail route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Diridon Station (formerly Cahill Depot, 65 Cahill Street) is the meeting point of all regional commuter rail service in the area. It was built in 1935 by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was refurbished in 1994.
VTA also operates many bus routes in San Jose and the surrounding communities, as well as offering paratransit services to local residents. Additionally, the Highway 17 Express bus line connects central San Jose with Santa Cruz. Intercity bus providers include Greyhound, BoltBus, Megabus, California Shuttle Bus, TUFESA, Intercalifornias, Hoang, and USAsia. FlixBus also services the city with a stop at 129 W San Carlos.
Air
San Jose is served by Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport two mi (3.2 km) northwest of downtown, and by Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County, general aviation airport located in the eastern part of San Jose. San Jose residents also use San Francisco International Airport, a major international hub located 35 mi (56 km) to the northwest, and San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, another major international airport located 35 mi (56 km) to the north. The airport is also near the intersections of three major freeways, US 101, I-880, and SR 87.
Highways
The San Jose area is served by a freeway system that includes three Interstate freeways and one U.S. Route. It is, however, the largest city in the country not served by a primary (one- or two-digit route number) Interstate; most of the Interstate Highway Network was planned by the early 1950s well before San Jose's rapid growth decades later.
US 101 runs south to the California Central Coast and Los Angeles, and then runs north up near the eastern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula to San Francisco. I-280 also heads to San Francisco, but goes along just to the west of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula. I-880 heads north to Oakland, running parallel to the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay. I-680 parallels I-880 to Fremont, but then cuts northeast to the eastern cities of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Several state highways also serve San Jose: SR 17, SR 85, SR 87 and SR 237. Additionally, San Jose is served by a system of county-wide expressways, which includes the Almaden Expressway, Capitol Expressway, San Tomas Expressway, and Lawrence Expressway.
Several regional transportation projects have been undertaken in recent years to manage congestion on San Jose freeways. This includes expanding State Route 87 to add more lanes near the downtown San Jose area.
The interchange for I-280 connecting with I-680 and U.S. 101 was named the Joe Colla Interchange.
Major highways:
Bicycling
Central San Jose has seen a gradual expansion of bike lanes over the past decade, which now comprise a network of car-traffic-separated and buffered bike lanes. San Jose Bike Party is a volunteer-run monthly social cycling event that attracts up to 1,000 participants during summer months to "build community through bicycling". Fewer than one percent of city residents ride bicycles to work as their primary mode of transportation, a statistic unchanged in the past ten years. Typically, between 3 and 5 residents are struck and killed by car drivers while bicycling on San Jose streets each year.
Notable people
Sister cities
San Jose has one of the oldest Sister City programs in the nation. In 1957, when the city established a relationship with Okayama, Japan, it was only the third Sister City relationship in the nation, which had begun the prior year. The Office of Economic Development coordinates the San Jose Sister City Program which is part of Sister Cities International. As of 2014, there are eight sister cities:
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Official website
Visit San Jose, official tourism website
San Jose Chamber of Commerce
San Jose at Curlie
Santa Clara County: California's Historic Silicon Valley, National Park Service
Up-to-the-minute view of San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera |
National_Register_of_Historic_Places | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places | [
496
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places"
] | The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value".
The enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts.
For most of its history, the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service (NPS), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. Its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and coordinate, identify and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.
Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts and multiple property submissions (MPS). The Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, site, structure, building or object.
National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties. Some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks (NHL), National Historic Sites (NHS), National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, and some National Monuments.
History
On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO). The National Register initially consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park System. Approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. The 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation.
To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, with director George B. Hartzog Jr., established an administrative division named the Federal Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register. The division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund.
The first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but later for commercial structures as well.
In 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.S. National Park system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates". Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service (HCRS) of the United States Department of the Interior.
In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate. He was described as a skilled administrator, who was sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, academia and local governments.
Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs eventually became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register. The 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register. Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups.
The National Register of Historic Places has grown considerably from its legislative origins in 1966. In 1986, citizens and groups nominated 3,623 separate properties, sites and districts for inclusion on the National Register, a total of 75,000 separate properties. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. Others are listed as contributing members within historic districts.
Nomination process
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States Government that special effort should be made to preserve the natural beauty of the countryside and public park and recreation lands, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic sites. Any individual can prepare a National Register nomination, although historians and historic preservation consultants often are employed for this work. The nomination consists of a standard registration form (NPS 10-900) and contains basic information about a property's physical appearance and the type of significance embodied in the building, structure, object, site, or district.
The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) receives National Register nominations and provides feedback to the nominating individual or group. After preliminary review, the SHPO sends each nomination to the state's historic review commission, which then recommends whether the State Historic Preservation Officer should send the nomination to the Keeper of the National Register. For any non-Federally owned property, only the State Historic Preservation Officer may officially nominate a property for inclusion in the National Register. After the nomination is recommended for listing in the National Register by the SHPO, the nomination is sent to the National Park Service, which approves or denies the nomination.
If approved, the property is entered officially by the Keeper of the National Register into the National Register of Historic Places. Property owners are notified of the nomination during the review by the SHPO and state's historic review commission. If an owner objects to a nomination of private property, or in the case of a historic district, a majority of owners, then the property cannot be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Criteria
For a property to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet at least one of its four main criteria. Information about architectural styles, association with various aspects of social history and commerce and ownership are all integral parts of the nomination. Each nomination contains a narrative section that provides a detailed physical description of the property and justifies why it is significant historically with regard either to local, state, or national history. The four National Register of Historic Places criteria are the following:
Criterion A, "Event", the property must make a contribution to the major pattern of American history.
Criterion B, "Person", is associated with significant people of the American past.
Criterion C, "Design/Construction", concerns the distinctive characteristics of the building by its architecture and construction, including having great artistic value or being the work of a master.
Criterion D, "Information potential", is satisfied if the property has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to prehistory or history.
The criteria are applied differently for different types of properties; for instance, maritime properties have application guidelines different from those of buildings.
Exclusions
The National Park Service names seven categories of properties that "are not usually considered for" and "ordinarily ... shall not be considered eligible for" the National Register: religious properties (e.g., churches); buildings that have been moved; birthplaces or graves of important persons; cemeteries; reconstructed properties; commemorative properties (e.g., statues); and "properties that have achieved significance within the last fifty years".: 25 However, if they meet particular "Criteria Considerations" for their category in addition to the overall criteria, they are, in fact, eligible.: 25 Hence, despite the forbidding language, these kinds of places are not actually excluded as a rule. For example, the Register lists thousands of churches.
There is a misconception that there is a strict rule that a property must be at least 50 years old to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In reality, there is no hard rule. John H. Sprinkle Jr., deputy director of the Federal Preservation Institute, stated:
[T]his "rule" is only an exception to the criteria that shape listings within the National Register of Historic Places. Of the eight "exceptions" [or criteria considerations], Consideration G, for properties that have achieved significance within the past fifty years, is probably the best-known, yet also misunderstood preservation principle in America.
The National Register evaluation procedures do not use the term "exclusions". The stricter National Historic Landmarks Criteria, upon which the National Register criteria are based, do specify exclusions, along with corresponding "exceptions to the exclusions", which are supposed to apply more narrowly.: 52
Multiple property submission
A multiple property submission (MPS) is a thematic group listing of the National Register of Historic Places that consists of related properties that share a common theme and can be submitted as a group. Multiple property submissions must satisfy certain basic criteria for the group of properties to be included in the National Register.
The process begins with the multiple property documentation form which acts as a cover document rather than the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The purpose of the documentation form is to establish the basis of eligibility for related properties. The information of the multiple property documentation form can be used to nominate and register related historic properties simultaneously, or to establish criteria for properties that may be nominated in the future. Thus, additions to an MPS can occur over time.
The nomination of individual properties in an MPS is accomplished in the same manner as other nominations. The name of the "thematic group" denotes the historical theme of the properties. It is considered the "multiple property listing". Once an individual property or a group of properties is nominated and listed in the National Register, the multiple property documentation form, combined with the individual National Register of Historic Places nomination forms, constitute a multiple property submission.
Examples of MPS include the Lee County Multiple Property Submission, the Warehouses in Omaha, the Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia and the Illinois Carnegie Libraries. Before the term "Multiple Property Submission" was introduced in 1984, such listings were known as "Thematic Resources", such as the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource, or "Multiple Resource Areas".
Properties listed
A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, site, building, or property. However, the Register is mostly "an honorary status with some federal financial incentives". The National Register of Historic Places automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, including National Historic Sites (NHS), National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials and some National Monuments.
There are also 35 listed sites in the three island countries with a Compact of Free Association with the United States, as well as one site in Morocco, the American Legation in Tangier.
Listing in the National Register does not restrict private property owners from the use of their property.
Some states and municipalities, however, may have laws that become effective when a property is listed in the National Register. If federal money or a federal permitting process is involved, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 is invoked. Section 106 requires the federal agency involved to assess the effect of its actions on historic resources. Statutorily, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has the most significant role by Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The section requires that the director of any federal agency with direct or indirect jurisdiction of a project that may affect a property listed or determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places must first report to the Advisory Council. The director of said agency is required to "take into account the effect of the undertaking" on the National Register property, as well as to afford the ACHP a reasonable opportunity to comment.
While Section 106 does not mandate explicitly that any federal agency director accept the advice of the ACHP, their advice has a practical influence, especially given the statutory obligations of the NHPA that require federal agencies to "take into account the effect of the undertaking".
In cases where the ACHP determines federal action will have an "adverse effect" on historic properties, mitigation is sought. Typically, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is created by which the involved parties agree to a particular plan. Many states have laws similar to Section 106. In contrast to conditions relating to a federally designated historic district, municipal ordinances governing local historic districts often restrict certain kinds of changes to properties. Thus, they may protect the property more than a National Register listing does.
The Department of Transportation Act, passed on October 15, 1966, the same day as the National Historic Preservation Act, included provisions that addressed historic preservation. The DOT Act is much more general than Section 106 NHPA in that it refers to properties other than those listed in the Register.
The more general language has allowed more properties and parklands to enjoy status as protected areas by this legislation, a policy developed early in its history. The United States Supreme Court ruled in the 1971 case Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe that parklands could have the same protected status as "historic sites".
Types of properties
Listed properties are generally in one of five broad categories, although there are special considerations for other types of properties that in anyone, or into more specialized subcategories. The five general categories for National Register properties are: building, structure, site, district and object. In addition, historic districts consist of contributing and non-contributing properties.
Buildings, as defined by the National Register, are distinguished in the traditional sense. Examples include a house, barn, hotel, church, or similar construction. They are created primarily to shelter human activity. The term building, as in outbuilding, can be used to refer to historically and functionally related units, such as a courthouse and a jail or a barn and a house.
Structures differ from buildings in that they are functional constructions meant to be used for purposes other than sheltering human activity. Examples include an aircraft, a grain elevator, a gazebo and a bridge.
Objects are usually artistic in nature, or small in scale compared to structures and buildings. Although objects may be movable, they are generally associated with a specific setting or environment. Examples of objects include monuments, sculptures and fountains.
Sites are the locations of significant events, which can be prehistoric or historic in nature and represent activities or buildings (standing, ruined, or vanished). When sites are listed, it is the locations themselves that are of historical interest. They possess cultural or archaeological value regardless of the value of any structures that currently exist at the locations. Examples of types of sites include shipwrecks, battlefields, campsites, natural features and rock shelters.
Historic districts possess a concentration, association, or continuity of the other four types of properties. Objects, structures, buildings and sites in a historic district are united historically or aesthetically, either by choice or by the nature of their development.
There are several other different types of historic preservation associated with the properties of the National Register of Historic Places that cannot be classified as either simple buildings or historic districts. Through the National Park Service, the National Register of Historic Places publishes a series of bulletins designed to aid in evaluating and applying the criteria for evaluation of different types of properties. Although the criteria are always the same, the manner they are applied may differ slightly, depending upon the type of property involved. The National Register bulletins describe the application of the criteria for aids to navigation, historic battlefields, archaeological sites, aviation properties, cemeteries and burial places, historic designed landscapes, mining sites, post offices, properties associated with significant persons, properties achieving significance within the last fifty years, rural historic landscapes, traditional cultural properties and vessels and shipwrecks.
Property owner incentives
Properties are not protected in any strict sense by the Federal listing. States and local zoning bodies may or may not choose to protect listed historic places. Indirect protection is possible, by state and local regulations on the development of National Register properties and by tax incentives. By contrast, the state of Colorado, for example, does not set any limits on owners of National Register properties.
Until 1976, federal tax incentives were virtually non-existent for buildings on the National Register. Before 1976 the federal tax code favored new construction rather than the reuse of existing, sometimes historical, structures. In 1976, the tax code was altered to provide tax incentives that promote the preservation of income-producing historic properties. The National Park Service was given the responsibility to ensure that only rehabilitations that preserved the historic character of a building would qualify for federal tax incentives. A qualifying rehabilitation is one that the NPS deems consistent with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Properties and sites listed in the Register, as well as those located in and contributing to the period of significance of National Register Historic Districts, became eligible for the federal tax benefits.
Owners of income-producing properties listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places or of properties that are contributing resources within a National Register Historic District may be eligible for a 20% investment tax credit for the rehabilitation of the historic structure. The rehabilitation may be of a commercial, industrial, or residential property, for rentals. The tax incentives program is operated by the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program, which is managed jointly by the National Park Service, individual State Historic Preservation Offices and the Internal Revenue Service.
Some property owners may also qualify for grants, like the now-defunct Save America's Treasures grants, which apply specifically to properties entered in the Register with national significance or designated as National Historic Landmarks.
The NHPA did not distinguish between properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places and those designated as National Historic Landmarks concerning qualification for tax incentives or grants. This was deliberate, as the authors of the act had learned from experience that distinguishing between categories of significance for such incentives caused the lowest category to become expendable. Essentially, this made the Landmarks a kind of "honor roll" of the most significant properties of the National Register of Historic Places.
Limitations
As of 1999, 982 properties have been removed from the Register, most often due to being destroyed. Among the properties that were demolished or otherwise destroyed after their listing are the Jobbers Canyon Historic District in Omaha, Nebraska (listed in 1979, demolished in 1989), Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, California (listed in 1978, destroyed in a fire in 1989), Palace Amusements in Asbury Park, New Jersey (listed in 2000, demolished in 2004), The Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas (listed in 1997, destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008), seven of the nine buildings included in the University of Connecticut Historic District in Storrs, Connecticut (listed in 1989, demolished in 2017), and the Terrell Jacobs Circus Winter Quarters in Peru, Indiana (listed in 2012, demolished in 2021).
Comparisons to historic registers of other nations
In France, designation of monument historique is similar to NRHP listing. In the French program, however, permanent restrictions are imposed upon designated monuments, for example requiring advance approval for any renovation of a designated building. NRHP listing imposes no such restrictions, but rather is "primarily an honor", although tax subsidies may be available for renovations. France had about 43,600 monuments in 2015.
Listed buildings of the United Kingdom may not be demolished, extended, or altered without special permission; the program covers about 374,000 listings in 2010, involving more than 500,000 buildings.
In 2022, the U.S. has about 94,000 NRHP-listed properties, including historic districts; the total number of buildings covered is much larger.
See also
References
Further reading
"Title 36, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations". Archived from the original on March 2, 2007.
"Title 36--Parks, Forests, and Public Property; Chapter I--National Park Service, Department of the Interior; Part 60--National Register of Historic Places". National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on March 2, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
Shrimpton, Rebecca H., ed. (1997). "How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation". Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. Archived from the original on April 7, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007. National Register Bulletin No. 15
Sprinkle, John H. Jr. (2014). Crafting Preservation Criteria: The National Register of Historic Places and American Historic Preservation. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-16984-7.
Wiley, John (1994). National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. ISBN 0-471-14403-7.
External links
Official website |
Winchester_Mystery_House | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House | [
496
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House"
] | The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester. The house became a tourist attraction nine months after Winchester's death in 1922. The Victorian and Gothic-style mansion is renowned for its size and its architectural curiosities and for the numerous myths and legends surrounding the structure and its former owner.
Sarah Winchester
Sarah Winchester, always called Sallie, after her paternal grandmother, was born in 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. She married William Wirt Winchester in 1862.
In 1866, Winchester gave birth to a girl named Annie Pardee Winchester. Diagnosed with marasmus, she did not thrive and lived only a month.
Between the fall of 1880 and the spring of 1881, Winchester's mother, father-in-law, and husband died. She was left with a large inheritance from her husband.
In 1884, her eldest sister, Mary Converse died. Around this time, she began developing rheumatoid arthritis and her doctor suggested that a warmer and drier climate might help improve her health. In 1885, at the age of 46, Winchester moved to California from New Haven, Connecticut. According to Mary Jo Ignoffo in her book Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, her doctor's recommendation, her happy memories of traveling to San Francisco with her husband in the 1870s, and advertising about the weather and health benefits of California were possible factors in Winchester's decision to move.
Winchester invited her three remaining sisters to follow her to California, which they did.
In 1886, Edward "Ned" Rambo, a San Francisco agent for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, took Winchester on a tour of the Santa Clara valley to look for a home. He showed her a forty-five-acre ranch for sale that was located near San Jose. She purchased the property from John Hamm which included a two-story, eight-room farmhouse. Since the property reminded her of Llanada Alavesa from the Basque area, she named her new home Llanada Villa.
In 1890, Winchester's niece, Marion Merriman (called Daisy) aged around twenty-one, came to live with her. Merriman became Winchester's personal secretary, looking after business correspondence and banking. They attended charitable events together and were paying members of Associated Charities and the Red Cross. In 1903, Winchester paid for Daisy's wedding to Frederick Marriott III. That same year, Winchester purchased several homes and properties in Atherton. One of the homes was offered to Daisy and her new husband to live in, which they accepted. Winchester subsequently purchased a home for the couple closer to the train station for Fredrick to travel to work from. In 1904, Winchester purchased a large property near the hamlet of Burlingame, north of Coyote Point, then bought a houseboat, or ark as they were called at the time, instead of building a house.
Winchester died on September 7, 1922, at the age of 83.
San Jose house renovation
Winchester and her husband had developed an interest in architecture and interior design while building a home on Prospect Hill in New Haven. With plans to expand the farmhouse, Winchester hired at least two architects but dismissed them, deciding to do the planning herself. She designed the rooms one by one, supervised the project, and sought advice from the carpenters she hired. She took inspiration for the house from the world's fairs that were common then. While the home was similar in scope to other homes built then, it was unusual for a woman to look after such a project and, Colin Dickey states in his book Ghostland: an American History in Haunted Places, she could be considered an architectural pioneer of her time.
She was known to rebuild and abandon construction if the progress did not meet her expectations, which resulted in a maze-like design. In the San Jose News of 1897, it was reported that a seven-story tower was torn down and rebuilt sixteen times. As a result of her expansions, there are walled-off exterior windows and doors that were not removed as the house grew in size. Multiple levels, up to five, were added to different parts of the home. The design was essentially Victorian, with elements of Gothic and Romanesque features.
Features of the house
There was carved wood on the ballroom walls and ceilings. Woods such as teak, maple, and mahogany were used to make an intricate pattern on the ballroom floor. A large, brick fireplace was framed by two windows that included quotes from Shakespeare. The second floor had bedrooms that each had adjoining sitting rooms and sewing rooms. The wall coverings had a leather or metal appearance, known as Lincrusta wall coverings. The ceilings had mouldings, stencils, and faux finishes. There were chandeliers from Germany, art glass from Austria, furnishings from Asia, and paintings from France. An annunciator, an early form of intercom, which was a common feature of large homes during this time period, was installed for calling servants. There existed an indoor garden with slanted floors that would carry excess water to trap doors which had pipes that would supply water to the outdoor flowers. A generator was installed for a water pump and electricity. Because of Winchester's height of four feet ten inches and health issues, a stairway was built that has 44 steps but rises only ten feet.
The windows are unusual since they are pastel-colored, asymmetrical in their design, and have sharp bevels. The windows on the upper levels had a spider-web tracery, a popular design then. The windows to the right and left of the brick fireplace feature Shakespearean quotations from Richard II and Troilus and Cressida. It has been claimed by tour guides and articles over the years that the windows were made by Tiffany & Co despite the fact that the company rarely used beveled glass. This style of window is also found at Craigdarroch Castle in British Columbia, Canada, prompting architectural historian Jim Wolf to believe that the windows were made by the same company. Wolf determined that glass artist John Mallon from Alexander Dunsmuir's company, the Pacific American Decorative Company, was the most likely artisan of the windows. This theory was confirmed when an envelope postmarked July 1894, which had the seal of Dunsmuir's company on it and a scribbled note that appears to be in Winchester's hand, was discovered in the wall of one of the dining rooms that was being restored. Many of the art glass windows that were purchased were never installed and have been housed in a storage room.
Winchester would take breaks from construction on a regular basis to rest, sometimes for months, since she tired easily. It slowed construction considerably and is counter to the claims made in articles and by tour guides that she had the house under construction around the clock for thirty-eight years, until her death in 1922.
At its largest, the house had approximately 500 rooms.
As claimed by Bruce Spoon, a student from San Jose State College who decided to write his master's thesis about Winchester in 1951, the reasons for building her large home were to keep workers employed and to express her artistic vision. He reached this conclusion after interviewing people who remembered her and after reviewing newspaper and magazine articles.
1906 earthquake
When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake hit, the Llanada Villa was severely damaged. Though there are rumors that Winchester was trapped in the San Jose home, there is no evidence that she was there. She owned several homes in California, and after the earthquake spent most of her time at her home in Atherton.
The seven-story tower and most of the chimneys collapsed. One entire wing was destroyed along with the third and fourth story additions. Winchester had the rubble removed but had little more done to the property after the earthquake. It left doors that opened to nothing where balconies had once been, pipes that were protruding from what were once window boxes, and staircases that once led to upper floors ending suddenly.
After 1910, due to failing health, Winchester did not work on the San Jose home except for odd maintenance jobs and adding an elevator in 1916. At this time, she dedicated her time to finances and building an investment portfolio. Mary Jo Ignoffo claims that, "She was far more successful constructing an investment portfolio than a mansion."
When Winchester died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens.
As a tourist attraction
The house became a tourist attraction nine months after Winchester's death in 1922. The house was in disrepair and considered to be of no monetary value. A group of investors purchased the property subsequently leasing the house to John and Mayme Brown who turned it into an attraction. They later purchased the house in 1931. There were many room additions and deletions made to the home after Winchester's death.
The first tour guide of the house was Mayme Brown. Past neighbors, friends, and workers for Winchester were distressed when they read about superstitious claims being made about the house and Winchester, and were upset the Browns were making money off of falsehoods. They described Winchester as clearheaded and savvier with finances and business than most men.
In 1924 Harry Houdini briefly visited the house and was reportedly impressed by its unusual layout and architectural novelties, but could not make a detailed investigation because of more pressing engagements. According to some accounts, Houdini suggested tour operators employ "Winchester mystery house" as a promotional name for the property.
When Keith Kittle, a past Disneyland and Frontier Village employee, became the general manager in 1973, the house was in poor shape. He had the house renovated in the 1970s and 1980s and added a Winchester rifle museum. He sought historical landmark status and began an advertising campaign that included large billboards along the highways. The billboards feature a silhouetted house with implications that a ghost encounter was possible. Attendance increased as he played off the history and superstition that was already circulating. Kittle was general manager until 1996.
As of September 2022, the house is owned and operated by Winchester Mystery House, LLC, which is a private company that represents the descendants of the Browns. Captive of the Labyrinth author Mary Jo Ignoffo wrote that tour guides are required to follow a script emphasizing fabrications and inaccuracies. According to Ignoffo, one guide lamented, "I feel so torn because I have to tell people untruths! Every time I go through the house and have to talk about 13s and other 'kooky' things, my heart breaks a little for Sarah....I have to bite my tongue every time I hear a guest say, 'what a nutcase.'"
Legends and lore
Winchester's story has been embellished over the years by various rumors, hyperbole, and myths, and popular writers have misrepresented or invented details about the house and its owner in order to enhance the legend.
Inheritance
Claims of Winchester inheriting as much as $20 million and earning $1,000 per day in royalties from her inheritance can be found in tourist literature purchased at the Winchester Mystery House. Ignoffo states that her husband's estate in 1881 was valued at $362,330 (equal to $11,439,633 today), but this amount included approximately $300,000 of stock that Winchester would only inherit when her mother-in-law died, which did not happen until 1898. With the addition of her husband's Winchester Repeating Arms Company shares, she owned a total of 777 shares valuing $77,700, which paid average dividends of $7,770 annually between 1880 and 1885.
Moving to California
Myths around her decision to move from the east coast to California are thought to have originated from author Susy Smith in her book Prominent American Ghosts, published in 1967. In Smith's version of events, Winchester visited a medium in Boston named Adam Coons who told her that she and her family were being haunted by the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles, that she must construct a house for these ghosts, and that she must never complete the project. This assertion of Winchester meeting with a medium has been repeated in brochures and articles ever since. According to Ignoffo, while it is plausible that Winchester did meet with a psychic medium since it was a common practice for women of her status at the time, there is no evidence that she did so.
Emily Mace, a scholar, and others have looked through issues of Banner of Light, which was a spiritualist periodical, and in the Boston city directories, which listed spiritualists in the area, and no one named Adam Coons could be found.
Neverending construction
Beginning around 1895, Winchester started appearing in newspapers. The articles in these local papers were filled with speculation about Winchester and the ongoing construction of her San Jose home. Her lack of interaction with neighbors and the known fact that her money came from the firearms industry fed into a superstitious narrative, despite large, ornate homes being commonly built by the wealthy. The newspapers declared that the reason that the construction was ongoing was that Winchester feared she would have bad luck if the construction would stop. This theory eventually grew into stories that she believed she would die if construction stopped.
In the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), when it added the Winchester home to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, they incorrectly stated that the construction lasted 38 years, and reiterated that Winchester believed she must continue building or she would die. HABS also incorrectly listed the purchase date as 1884 when county records state the purchase was not until 1886.
There were some articles published against the superstitious slant. In one, an unidentified acquaintance refuted these superstitious accusations, stating that they were nonsense and that Winchester was an unusually sensible woman.
While Winchester lived at the Atherton house, her relatives stayed at the San Jose home for almost a year in 1915 to attend the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, which ran for nine months. No construction happened during this time and the staff closed up the house for a week to attend the fair.
Ignoffo states that there is no evidence that Winchester was compelled to keep her construction project running and preferred to focus on estate planning.
Labyrinth construction
The belief that Winchester built her house in its strange, maze-like manner to confuse and keep spirits from harming her and that her sanity was questionable started in the mid-1890s and has grown in scale since her death. The doors and windows that open to nothing, the unusually shallow stairs, the stairs that end in a ceiling, interior barred windows and trap doors in the floor are used to confirm Winchester's spirituality and poor state of mind. According to paranormal investigators Nickell and Ignoffo these house oddities have simple explanations. The barred windows were previously exterior windows blocked off as the house additions grew. The doors and windows that opened to nothing resulted from the 1906 earthquake and the severe damage that happened to the house. The small steps were built because of Winchester's declining health. The trap doors were constructed in a greenhouse room where excess water could run and be piped to an outdoor garden. After the damage from the earthquake, Winchester did not rebuild the house.
Bell tower
The tower bell was used to call workmen and to serve as a fire alarm on the property. According to Joe Nickell, fanciful claims later arose that it was used to "summon spirits".
Ghostly music
According to Joe Nickell, claims that local residents heard "ghostly music" coming from the house are explained by the fact that Winchester often played the pump organ in the Grand Ballroom when she was unable to sleep.
Parties for spirits
According to Joe Nickell, claims that Winchester held parties for the spirits in her home that featured lavish dishes served on gold plates kept in a safe are fanciful and unsubstantiated. Nickell wrote that after her death when the safe was opened, no gold plates were found, only personal mementos and a lock of her baby's hair.
Gun guilt
At the turn of the twentieth century, the most common belief, that still persists, regarding Winchester's house building was that she felt tremendous guilt resulting from all the deaths caused by Winchester rifles and from inheriting so much money from the arms company. Ignoffo claims that it is unlikely Winchester had any guilt, since in the 1800s the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was seen as a success, and weapons were viewed as a necessity for survival.
Health and superstition
Ignoffo and paranormal investigator Joe Nickell report that as Winchester aged, particularly after 1900 as her health issues grew worse, which included arthritis, missing teeth and neuritis, she became more private and reclusive. This reluctance to appear in public or to socialize with her peers gave her a mysterious reputation feeding the gossip in the community and local newspapers which fuelled the rumor that she was superstitious. Winchester's companion of many years, Miss Henrietta Severs states Winchester had no superstitious beliefs. Winchester's relatives, employees and gardeners never made claims that she was superstitious, guilt-ridden or crazed.
All her employees were named as beneficiaries in her will.
Presidents
Winchester twice declined to host a U.S. president. First, in 1901, President William McKinley visited, and a committee to arrange accommodations was formed, but Winchester did not extend an invitation. The president and his official coaches drove past the mansion without stopping. Second, in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the area and the legend states that Winchester would not open a locked gate to let the president in; it was not true as the president had no interest in meeting Winchester as stopping at the home could have been used to promote rifle sales. He did not want to be seen endorsing any product. Despite there being plausible reasons for her not hosting the presidents, these instances furthered rumors that she was not of sound mind and was a crank.
The number thirteen
According to lore, architectural features such as thirteen bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms, and thirteen windows in certain rooms are due to Winchester's apparent fascination with the number thirteen. However, according to carpenter James Perkins, these items and “the more irregular features, which have made the house a world-famed oddity were built after Mrs. Winchester's death.” The first time that this apparent superstition appeared was in an article printed in 1929. Subsequently, it has been mentioned in most articles about Winchester and her house.
Nightly séances
Winchester's staff, who spent every day with her, stated she had no interest in séances and there is no record of them being held in the house. Nevertheless, a false urban legend has arisen claiming she held nightly séances in the blue room or in a closet by herself from midnight until two in the morning, talking to ghosts about what construction should be accomplished the following day. In addition to the lack of records found about seances at Llanada Villa, the closet séances were unlikely given that they were usually social events and not done by individuals and records show that the blue room was the gardener's bedroom.
Hauntings
Visitors and tour guides claim to have experienced cold spots, footsteps, cooking smells, odd sounds, whispering, doors and windows slamming, and feelings of being watched. Investigator Joe Nickell explains that they could be the result of confirmation bias and suggestibility due to publicity and rumors that the house is the most haunted house in the United States or even the world; or that over a thousand ghosts reside in the home. Nickell reports one example where a shadowy figure thought to be a ghost turned out to be a staff member at the house. According to Nickell, there is no evidence that the house is haunted, and that alleged whispering sounds can be imagined or due to wind. Additionally, it is common for large, rambling, and drafty old houses to have temperature variations, and the house's settling and exterior temperature changes can explain odd noises.
In popular culture
In 1960, the Winchester Mystery House was used as the Cyrus Zorba House in the film 13 Ghosts.
In 1966, the house was featured on the cover for the single "Psychotic Reaction" by the garage rock band Count Five.
The tale of the Winchester Mystery House was inspiration for The Haunted Mansion ride at Disney theme parks, the first of which opened in 1969 at Disneyland.
The house is the primary setting for Michaela Roessner's 1993 science fiction novel Vanishing Point in which it becomes the home of a squatter community following the disappearance of most of the human race.
The house is the setting of a subplot in the 1997 Tim Powers fantasy novel Earthquake Weather.
The plot of the 2002 miniseries Rose Red (written by Stephen King) was inspired by the lore surrounding Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House.
The Haunting of Winchester is a ghost story musical by composer Craig Bohmler and writer Mary Bracken Phillips that takes place in the house. It was commissioned by the San Jose Repertory Theatre for its 25th anniversary season and premiered in September–October 2005.
The British paranormal TV investigation show Most Haunted Live! conducted a seven-hour live TV investigation of the house in an episode that aired live in the U.S. only on October 19, 2007.
In 2011, Ghost Adventures featured the Winchester Mystery House in the fourth episode of season five.
In the MythBusters episode "Smell of Fear", the build team visited the Winchester Mystery House to look around and later watch "one of the scariest movies of all time" on a television that they set up in the grand ballroom, with the purpose of determining if fear does smell different by gathering their sweat samples for testing at the end of the night. While the team watched the movie in the dark, the show's crew randomly made loud noises to increase the frightening experience.
Sarah Winchester, Phantom Opera is a 24-minute film by French filmmaker Bertrand Bernello that had its North American premiere at the 54th New York Film Festival in October 2016.
The house was featured in seasons 1 and 4 of BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural in episodes where Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej stayed there overnight.
In 2017, the house was featured on an episode of Ghost Brothers.
In 2017, Emily Schulz told the story of the house to Christine Schiefer on the first episode of our And That's Why We Drink.
Features of the house are referenced in I the Mighty's song "111 Winchester".
In 2017, filming took place on the property for the film Winchester, featuring Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester. The film was released on February 23, 2018. In trailers and on posters, the film is noted to be based on a true story despite evidence that much of the stories in the movie are disputed in Mary Jo Ignoffo's book Captive of the Labyrinth.
In 2018, the house was described in "Locked Away", an episode of the podcast Lore.
In 2019, the podcast Criminal produced an episode about the house titled "The Widow and the Winchester".
House of Penance, a Dark Horse comic by Peter Tomasi, Ian Bertram and Dave Stewart, is "...perhaps the first biographical horror graphic novel" that illustrates the house as haunted and Sarah as obsessed.
Mrs Winchester's Gun Club is a 2019 adult fiction novel by Douglas Bruton concerning Sarah Winchester that tells a group of stories voiced by the victims of Winchester guns.
In January 2021, an episode of the award-winning podcast This Paranormal Life was released that discussed the Winchester Mystery House. The hosts deemed all claims of haunting to be false.
In June 2024, content creation group OfflineTV featured the Winchester Mystery House in a video on their YouTube channel, where they played hide and seek and explored the history and myths surrounding the property.
Gallery
See also
Haunting of Winchester House, a film by The Asylum loosely based on the myths surrounding the house
References
Citations
External links
Media related to Winchester Mystery House at Wikimedia Commons
Official website |
Alvania_belgica | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvania_belgica | [
497
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvania_belgica"
] | Alvania belgica is an extinct species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc or micromollusk in the family Rissoidae.
Distribution
Fossils of this species were found in Miocene strata in Belgium (age range: 15.97 to 11.608 Ma)
References
Glibert, M. (1952). Faune malacologique du Miocène de la Belgique. II Gastropodes. Mémoire Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique 121. 1–197; plates I-X.
== External links == |
Michael_Jordan | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan | [
498,
642
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan"
] | Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon. His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."
Jordan played college basketball with the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick and quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring while gaining a reputation as one of the best defensive players. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in 1991 and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a three-peat. Following the murder of his father, Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the 1993–94 NBA season to play Minor League Baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization, but returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three more championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for the second time in January 1999, returning for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards. He was selected to play for the United States national team during his college and NBA careers, winning four gold medals—at the 1983 Pan American Games, 1984 Summer Olympics, 1992 Tournament of the Americas and 1992 Summer Olympics—while also being undefeated.
Jordan's individual accolades include six NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, ten NBA scoring titles (both all-time records), five NBA MVP awards, 10 All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game selections, three NBA All-Star Game MVP awards, three NBA steals titles, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for career regular season scoring average (30.1 points per game) and career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game). In 1999, Jordan was named the 20th century's greatest North American athlete by ESPN and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press' list of athletes of the century. Jordan was twice inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, once in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team"). He became a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009, a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, and an individual member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015 and a "Dream Team" member in 2017. Jordan was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary Team in 1996 and to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. The trophy for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award is named in his honor.
One of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation, Jordan made many product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1984 and remain popular. Jordan starred as himself in the live-action/animation hybrid film Space Jam (1996) and was the central focus of the Emmy-winning documentary series The Last Dance (2020). He became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets (then named the Bobcats) in 2006 and bought a controlling interest in 2010, before selling his majority stake in 2023. Jordan is also a co-owner of 23XI Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. In 2016, he became the first billionaire player in NBA history. That same year, President Barack Obama awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As of 2024, his net worth is estimated at $3.2 billion by Forbes.
Early life
Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York City, on February 17, 1963, to bank employee Deloris (née Peoples) and equipment supervisor James R. Jordan Sr. He has two older brothers, James Jr. and basketball player Larry, as well as an older sister named Deloris and a younger sister named Roslyn. Jordan and his siblings were raised in the Methodist faith.
In 1968, the family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School, where he highlighted his athletic career by playing basketball, baseball, and football. He tried out for the basketball varsity team during his sophomore year, but at a height of 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), he was deemed too short. His taller friend Harvest Leroy Smith was the only sophomore to make the team. Motivated to prove his worth, Jordan became the star of Laney's junior varsity team and tallied some 40-point games. The following summer, he grew four inches (10 cm) and trained rigorously. Upon earning a spot on the varsity roster, Jordan averaged more than 25 points per game (ppg) over his final two seasons of high school play. As a senior, he was selected to play in the 1981 McDonald's All-American Game and scored 30 points, after averaging 26.8 ppg, 11.6 rebounds (rpg), and 10.1 assists per game (apg) for the season.
Jordan was recruited by numerous college basketball programs, including Duke, North Carolina, South Carolina, Syracuse, and Virginia. In 1981, he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Jordan majored in cultural geography. He chose this field of study because of its relationship to meteorology, as Jordan was interested in a career as a meteorologist.
College career
As a freshman in coach Dean Smith's team-oriented system, Jordan was named ACC Freshman of the Year after averaging 13.4 ppg on 53.4% shooting (field goal percentage). He made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. Jordan later described this shot as the major turning point in his basketball career. During his three seasons with the Tar Heels, Jordan averaged 17.7 ppg on 54.0% shooting and added 5.0 rpg and 1.8 apg.
Jordan was selected by consensus to the NCAA All-American First Team in both his sophomore (1983) and junior (1984) seasons. After winning the Naismith and the Wooden College Player of the Year awards in 1984, Jordan left North Carolina a year before his scheduled graduation to enter the 1984 NBA draft. Jordan returned to North Carolina to complete his degree in 1986, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geography. In 2002, Jordan was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team honoring the 50 greatest players in ACC history.
Professional career
Chicago Bulls (1984–1993; 1995–1998)
Early NBA years (1984–1987)
The Chicago Bulls selected Jordan with the third overall pick of the 1984 NBA draft after Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) and Sam Bowie (Portland Trail Blazers). One of the primary reasons why Jordan was not drafted sooner was because the first two teams were in need of a center. Trail Blazers general manager Stu Inman contended that it was not a matter of drafting a center but more a matter of taking Bowie over Jordan, in part because Portland already had Clyde Drexler, who was a guard with similar skills to Jordan. Citing Bowie's injury-laden college career, ESPN named the Blazers' choice of Bowie as the worst draft pick in North American professional sports history.
Jordan made his NBA debut at Chicago Stadium on October 26, 1984, and scored 16 points. In 2021, a ticket stub from the game sold at auction for $264,000, setting a record for a collectible ticket stub. During his rookie 1984–85 season with the Bulls, Jordan averaged 28.2 ppg on 51.5% shooting, and helped make a team that had won 35% of games in the previous three seasons playoff contenders. He quickly became a fan favorite even in opposing arenas. Roy S. Johnson of The New York Times described Jordan as "the phenomenal rookie of the Bulls" in November, and he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading "A Star Is Born" in December. The fans voted in Jordan as an All-Star starter during his rookie season. Controversy arose before the 1985 NBA All-Star Game when word surfaced that several veteran players, led by Isiah Thomas, were upset by the amount of attention Jordan was receiving. This led to a so-called "freeze-out" on Jordan, where players refused to pass the ball to him. The controversy left Jordan relatively unaffected when he returned to regular season play, and he would go on to be voted the NBA Rookie of the Year. The Bulls finished the season 38–44, and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in four games in the first round of the playoffs.
An often-cited moment was on August 26, 1985, when Jordan shook the arena during a Nike exhibition game in Trieste, Italy, by shattering the glass of the backboard with a dunk. The moment was filmed and is often referred to as an important milestone in Jordan's rise. The shoes Jordan wore during the game were auctioned in August 2020 for $615,000, a record for a pair of sneakers. Jordan's 1985–86 season was cut short when he broke his foot in the third game of the year, causing him to miss 64 games. The Bulls made the playoffs despite Jordan's injury and a 30–52 record, at the time the fifth-worst record of any team to qualify for the playoffs in NBA history. Jordan recovered in time to participate in the postseason and performed well upon his return. On April 20 at the Boston Garden, in Game 2 of the First Round, a 135–131 double overtime loss to the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics, Jordan scored a playoff career-high 63 points, breaking Elgin Baylor's single-game playoff scoring record. A Celtics team that is often considered one of the greatest in NBA history swept the series in three games.
Jordan completely recovered in time for the 1986–87 season, and had one of the most prolific scoring seasons in NBA history; he became the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season, averaging a league-high 37.1 ppg on 48.2% shooting. Jordan also demonstrated his defensive prowess, as he became the first player in NBA history to record 200 steals and 100 blocked shots in a season. Despite Jordan's success, Magic Johnson won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. The Bulls reached 40 wins, and advanced to the playoffs for the third consecutive year but were again swept by the Celtics.
Pistons roadblock (1987–1990)
Jordan led the league in scoring during the 1987–88 season, averaging 35.0 ppg on 53.5% shooting, and won his first league MVP Award. He was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 1.6 blocks per game (bpg), a league-high 3.1 steals per game (spg), and leading the Bulls defense to the fewest points per game allowed in the league. The Bulls finished 50–32, and made it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in Jordan's career, as they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games. In the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Bulls lost in five games to the more experienced Detroit Pistons, who were led by Isiah Thomas and a group of physical players known as the "Bad Boys".
In the 1988–89 season, Jordan again led the league in scoring, averaging 32.5 ppg on 53.8% shooting from the field, along with 8.0 rpg and 8.0 apg. During the season, Sam Vincent, Chicago's point guard, was having trouble running the offense, and Jordan expressed his frustration with head coach Doug Collins, who then put Jordan at point guard. In his time as a point guard, Jordan had 10 triple-doubles in 11 games, with averages of 33.6 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 10.8 apg, 2.9 spg, and 0.8 bpg on 51% shooting.
The Bulls finished with a 47–35 record, and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating the Cavaliers and New York Knicks along the way. The Cavaliers series included a career highlight for Jordan when he hit "The Shot" over Craig Ehlo at the buzzer in the fifth and final game of the series. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons again defeated the Bulls, this time in six games, by utilizing their "Jordan Rules" method of guarding Jordan, which consisted of double and triple teaming him every time he touched the ball.
The Bulls entered the 1989–90 season as a team on the rise, with their core group of Jordan and young improving players like Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, and under the guidance of new coach Phil Jackson. On March 28, 1990, Jordan scored a career-high 69 points in a 117–113 road win over the Cavaliers. He averaged a league-leading 33.6 ppg on 52.6% shooting, to go with 6.9 rpg and 6.3 apg, in leading the Bulls to a 55–27 record. They again advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals after beating the Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers; despite pushing the series to seven games, the Bulls lost to the Pistons for the third consecutive season.
First three-peat (1991–1993)
In the 1990–91 season, Jordan won his second MVP award after averaging 31.5 ppg on 53.9% shooting, 6.0 rpg, and 5.5 apg for the regular season. The Bulls finished in first place in their division for the first time in sixteen years and set a franchise record with 61 wins in the regular season. With Scottie Pippen developing into an All-Star, the Bulls had elevated their play. The Bulls defeated the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening two rounds of the playoffs. They advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals where their rival, the Detroit Pistons, awaited them; this time, the Bulls beat the Pistons in a four-game sweep.
The Bulls advanced to the Finals for the first time in franchise history to face the Los Angeles Lakers, who had Magic Johnson and James Worthy, two formidable opponents. The Bulls won the series in five games, and compiled a 15–2 playoff record along the way. Perhaps the best-known moment of the series came in Game 2 when, attempting a dunk, Jordan avoided a potential Sam Perkins block by switching the ball from his right hand to his left in mid-air to lay the shot into the basket. In his first Finals appearance, Jordan had 31.2 ppg on 56% shooting from the field, 11.4 apg, 6.6 rpg, 2.8 spg, and 1.4 bpg. Jordan won his first NBA Finals MVP award and cried while holding the Finals trophy.
Jordan and the Bulls continued their dominance in the 1991–92 season, establishing a 67–15 record, topping their franchise record from the 1990–91 campaign. Jordan won his second consecutive MVP award with averages of 30.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg, and 6.1 apg on 52% shooting. After winning a physical seven-game series over the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs and finishing off the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Finals in six games, the Bulls met Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers in the Finals. The media, hoping to recreate a Magic–Bird rivalry, highlighted the similarities between "Air" Jordan and Clyde "The Glide" during the pre-Finals hype.
In a Game 1 victory, Jordan scored a Finals-record 35 points in the first half, including a record-setting six three-point field goals. After the sixth three-pointer, he jogged down the court shrugging as he looked courtside. Marv Albert, who broadcast the game, later stated that it was as if Jordan was saying: "I can't believe I'm doing this." The Bulls went on to defeat the Blazers in six games. Jordan was named Finals MVP for the second year in a row, and finished the series averaging 35.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, and 6.5 apg, while shooting 52.6% from the floor.
In the 1992–93 season, despite a 32.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg, and 5.5 apg campaign, including a second-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting, Jordan's streak of consecutive MVP seasons ended, as he lost the award to his friend Charles Barkley, upsetting him. Jordan and the Bulls met Barkley and his Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals. The Bulls won their third NBA championship on a game-winning shot by John Paxson and a last-second block by Horace Grant, but Jordan was once again Chicago's leader. He averaged a Finals-record 41.0 ppg during the six-game series, and became the first player in NBA history to win three consecutive Finals MVP awards. Jordan scored more than 30 points in every game of the series, including 40 or more points in four consecutive games. With his third Finals triumph, Jordan capped off a seven-year run where he attained seven scoring titles and three championships, but there were signs that Jordan was tiring of his massive celebrity and all of the non-basketball hassles in his life.
Gambling
During the 1993 NBA playoffs, Jordan was seen gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the night before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks. The previous year, he admitted that he had to cover $57,000 in gambling losses, and author Richard Esquinas wrote a book in 1993 claiming he had won $1.25 million from Jordan on the golf course. David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, denied in 1995 and 2006 that Jordan's 1993 retirement was a secret suspension by the league for gambling, but the rumor spread widely.
In 2005, Jordan discussed his gambling with Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes and admitted that he made reckless decisions. Jordan stated: Yeah, I've gotten myself into situations where I would not walk away and I've pushed the envelope. Is that compulsive? Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. If you're willing to jeopardize your livelihood and your family, then yeah. When Bradley asked him if his gambling ever got to the level where it jeopardized his livelihood or family, Jordan replied: "No." In 2010, Ron Shelton, director of Jordan Rides the Bus, said that he began working on the documentary believing that the NBA had suspended him, but that research "convinced [him it] was nonsense".
First retirement and stint in Minor League Baseball (1993–1995)
On October 6, 1993, Jordan announced his retirement, saying that he lost his desire to play basketball. Jordan later said that the murder of his father three months earlier helped shape his decision. James R. Jordan Sr. was murdered on July 23, 1993, at a highway rest area in Lumberton, North Carolina, by two teenagers, Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery, who carjacked his Lexus. His body, dumped in a South Carolina swamp, was not discovered until August 3. Green and Demery were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jordan was close to his father; as a child, Jordan imitated the way his father stuck out his tongue while absorbed in work. Jordan later adopted it as his own signature, often displaying it as he drove to the basket. In 1996, Jordan founded a Chicago-area Boys & Girls Club and dedicated it to his father. In his 1998 autobiography For the Love of the Game, Jordan wrote that he was preparing for retirement as early as the summer of 1992. The added exhaustion due to the "Dream Team" run in the 1992 Summer Olympics solidified Jordan's feelings about the game and his celebrity status. Jordan's announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
Jordan further surprised the sports world by signing a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 7, 1994. He reported to spring training in Sarasota, Florida, and was assigned to the team's minor league system on March 31. Jordan said that this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. The White Sox were owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan's basketball contract during the years he played baseball.
In 1994, Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, batting .202 with three home runs, 51 runs batted in, 30 stolen bases, 114 strikeouts, 51 bases on balls, and 11 errors. His strikeout total led the team and his games played tied for the team lead. His 30 stolen bases were second on the team only to Doug Brady. Jordan also appeared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1994 Arizona Fall League, batting .252 against the top prospects in baseball. On November 1, 1994, his No. 23 was retired by the Bulls in a ceremony that included the erection of a permanent sculpture known as The Spirit outside the new United Center.
Return to the NBA (1995)
The Bulls went 55–27 in 1993–94 without Jordan in the lineup and lost to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. The 1994–95 Bulls were a shell of the championship team of just two years earlier. Struggling at mid-season to ensure a spot in the playoffs, Chicago was 31–31 at one point in mid-March; the team received help when Jordan decided to return to the Bulls.
In March 1995, Jordan decided to quit baseball because he feared he might become a replacement player during the Major League Baseball strike. On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA in a two-word press release: "I'm back." The next day, Jordan took to the court with the Bulls to face the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, scoring 19 points. The game had the highest Nielsen rating of any regular season NBA game since 1975. Although he could have worn his original number even though the Bulls retired it, Jordan wore No. 45, his baseball number.
Despite his 18-month hiatus from the NBA, Jordan played well, making a game-winning jump shot against Atlanta in his fourth game back. He scored 55 points in his next game, against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 1995. Boosted by Jordan's comeback, the Bulls went 13–4 to make the playoffs and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Orlando Magic. At the end of Game 1, Orlando's Nick Anderson stripped Jordan from behind, leading to the game-winning basket for the Magic; he later commented that Jordan "didn't look like the old Michael Jordan", and said, "No. 45 doesn't explode like No. 23 used to".
Jordan responded by scoring 38 points in the next game, which Chicago won. Before the game, Jordan decided that he would immediately resume wearing his former No. 23. The Bulls were fined $25,000 for failing to report the impromptu number change to the NBA. Jordan was fined an additional $5,000 for opting to wear white sneakers when the rest of the Bulls wore black. He averaged 31 ppg in the playoffs, but Orlando won the series in six games.
Second three-peat (1996–1998)
Jordan was freshly motivated by the playoff defeat, and he trained aggressively for the 1995–96 season. The Bulls were strengthened by the addition of rebound specialist Dennis Rodman, and the team dominated the league, starting the season at 41–3. The Bulls finished with the best regular season record in NBA history, 72–10, a mark broken two decades later by the 2015–16 Golden State Warriors. Jordan led the league in scoring with 30.4 ppg, and he won the league's regular season and All-Star Game MVP awards.
In the playoffs, the Bulls lost only three games in four series (Miami Heat 3–0, New York Knicks 4–1, and Orlando Magic 4–0), as they defeated the Seattle SuperSonics 4–2 in the NBA Finals to win their fourth championship. Jordan was named Finals MVP for a record fourth time; he achieved only the second sweep of the MVP awards in the All-Star Game, regular season, and NBA Finals after Willis Reed in the 1969–70 season. Upon winning the championship, his first since his father's murder, Jordan reacted emotionally, clutching the game ball and crying on the locker room floor.
In the 1996–97 season, the Bulls stood at a 69–11 record but ended the season by losing their final two games to finish the year 69–13, missing out on a second consecutive 70-win season. The Bulls again advanced to the Finals, where they faced the Utah Jazz. That team included Karl Malone, who had beaten Jordan for the NBA MVP award in a tight race (986–957). The series against the Jazz featured two of the more memorable clutch moments of Jordan's career. He won Game 1 for the Bulls with a buzzer-beating jump shot. In Game 5, with the series tied 2–2, Jordan played despite being feverish and dehydrated from a stomach virus. In what is known as "The Flu Game", Jordan scored 38 points, including the game-winning three-pointer with 25 seconds remaining. The Bulls won 90–88 and went on to win the series in six games. For the fifth time in as many Finals appearances, Jordan received the Finals MVP award. During the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, he posted the first triple-double in All-Star Game history in a victorious effort, but the MVP award went to Glen Rice.
The Bulls compiled a 62–20 record in the 1997–98 season. Jordan led the league with 28.7 ppg, securing his fifth regular season MVP award, plus honors for All-NBA First Team, First Defensive Team, and the All-Star Game MVP. The Bulls won the Eastern Conference Championship for a third straight season, including surviving a seven-game series with the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals; it was the first time Jordan had played in a Game 7 since the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals with the New York Knicks. After winning, they moved on for a rematch with the Jazz in the Finals.
The Bulls returned to the Delta Center for Game 6 on June 14, 1998, leading the series 3–2. Jordan executed a series of plays, considered to be one of the greatest clutch performances in NBA Finals history. With 41.9 seconds remaining and the Bulls trailing 86–83, Phil Jackson called a timeout. When play resumed, Jordan received the inbound pass, drove to the basket, and sank a shot over several Jazz defenders, cutting Utah's lead to 86–85. The Jazz brought the ball upcourt and passed the ball to Malone, who was set up in the low post and was being guarded by Rodman. Malone jostled with Rodman and caught the pass, but Jordan cut behind him and stole the ball out of his hands.
Jordan then dribbled down the court and paused, eyeing his defender, Jazz guard Bryon Russell. With 10 seconds remaining, Jordan started to dribble right, then crossed over to his left, possibly pushing off Russell, although the officials did not call a foul. With 5.2 seconds left, Jordan made the climactic shot of his Bulls career, a top-key jumper over a stumbling Russell to give Chicago an 87–86 lead. Afterwards, the Jazz' John Stockton narrowly missed a game-winning three-pointer, and the buzzer sounded as Jordan and the Bulls won their sixth NBA championship, achieving a second three-peat in the decade. Once again, Jordan was voted Finals MVP for a record sixth time, having led all scorers by averaging 33.5 ppg, including 45 in the deciding Game 6. The 1998 Finals holds the highest television rating of any Finals series, and Game 6 holds the highest television rating of any game in NBA history.
Second retirement (1999–2001)
With Phil Jackson's contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, Jordan retired for the second time on January 13, 1999. On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a player but as part owner and president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. Jordan's responsibilities with the Wizards were comprehensive, as he controlled all aspects of the Wizards' basketball operations, and had the final say in all personnel matters; opinions of Jordan as a basketball executive were mixed. He managed to purge the team of several highly paid, unpopular players (like forward Juwan Howard and point guard Rod Strickland) but used the first pick in the 2001 NBA draft to select high school student Kwame Brown, who did not live up to expectations and was traded away after four seasons.
Despite his January 1999 claim that he was "99.9% certain" he would never play another NBA game, Jordan expressed interest in making another comeback in the summer of 2001, this time with his new team. Inspired by the NHL comeback of his friend Mario Lemieux the previous winter, Jordan spent much of the spring and summer of 2001 in training, holding several invitation-only camps for NBA players in Chicago. Jordan hired his old Chicago Bulls head coach, Doug Collins, as Washington's coach for the upcoming season, a decision that many saw as foreshadowing another Jordan return.
Washington Wizards (2001–2003)
On September 25, 2001, Jordan announced his return to the NBA to play for the Washington Wizards, indicating his intention to donate his salary as a player to a relief effort for the victims of the September 11 attacks. In an injury-plagued 2001–02 season, Jordan led the team in scoring (22.9 ppg), assists (5.2 apg), and steals (1.4 spg), and was an MVP candidate, as he led the Wizards to a winning record and playoff contention; Jordan would eventually finish 13th in the MVP ballot. After he suffered torn cartilage in his right knee, and subsequent knee soreness, the Wizards missed the playoffs, and Jordan's season ended after only 60 games, the fewest he had played in a regular season since playing 17 games after returning from his first retirement during the 1994–95 season. Jordan started 53 of his 60 games for the season, averaging 24.3 ppg, 5.4 apg, and 6.0 rpg, and shooting 41.9% from the field in his 53 starts. His last seven appearances were in a reserve role, in which he averaged just over 20 minutes per game. The Wizards finished the season with a 37–45 record, an 18-game improvement.
Playing in his 14th and final NBA All-Star Game in 2003, Jordan passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer in All-Star Game history, a record since broken by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. That year, Jordan was the only Washington player to play in all 82 games, starting in 67 of them as he came off the bench in 15. Jordan averaged 20.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 spg per game. He also shot 45% from the field, and 82% from the free-throw line. Although Jordan turned 40 during the season, he scored 20 or more points 42 times, 30 or more points nine times, and 40 or more points three times. On February 21, 2003, Jordan became the first 40-year-old to tally 43 points in an NBA game. During his stint with the Wizards, all of Jordan's home games at the MCI Center were sold out and the Wizards were the second most-watched team in the NBA, averaging 20,172 fans a game at home and 19,311 on the road. Jordan's final two seasons did not result in a playoff appearance for the Wizards, and he was often unsatisfied with the play of those around him. At several points, Jordan openly criticized his teammates to the media, citing their lack of focus and intensity, notably that of Kwame Brown, the number-one draft pick in the 2001 NBA draft.
Final retirement (2003)
With the recognition that 2002–03 would be Jordan's final season, tributes were paid to him throughout the NBA. In his final game at the United Center in Chicago, which was his old home court, Jordan received a four-minute standing ovation. The Miami Heat retired the No. 23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though Jordan never played for the team. At the 2003 All-Star Game, Jordan was offered a starting spot from Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson but refused both; he accepted the spot of Vince Carter. Jordan played in his final NBA game on April 16, 2003, in Philadelphia. After scoring 13 points in the game, Jordan went to the bench with 4 minutes and 13 seconds left in the third quarter and his team trailing the Philadelphia 76ers 75–56. Just after the start of the fourth quarter, the First Union Center crowd began chanting "We want Mike!" After much encouragement from coach Doug Collins, Jordan finally rose from the bench and re-entered the game, replacing Larry Hughes with 2:35 remaining. At 1:45, Jordan was intentionally fouled by the 76ers' Eric Snow, and stepped to the line to make both free throws. After the second foul shot, the 76ers in-bounded the ball to rookie John Salmons, who in turn was intentionally fouled by Bobby Simmons one second later, stopping time so that Jordan could return to the bench. He received a three-minute standing ovation from his teammates, his opponents, the officials, and the crowd of 21,257 fans.
National team career
Jordan made his debut as a college player for the U.S. national basketball team at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. He led the team in scoring with 17.3 ppg as the U.S., coached by Jack Hartman, won the gold medal. The following year, Jordan won another gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The 1984 U.S. team was coached by Bob Knight and featured young players such as Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins, Chris Mullin, Steve Alford, and Wayman Tisdale. Jordan led the team in scoring, averaging 17.1 ppg for the tournament.
In 1992, Jordan, now an NBA player, was a member of the star-studded squad that was dubbed the "Dream Team", which included Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The team won two gold medals: the first in the 1992 Tournament of the Americas, and the second in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Jordan was the only player to start all eight games in the Olympics, averaged 14.9 ppg, and finished second on the team in scoring. He was undefeated in the four tournaments he played for the United States national team, and Jordan won all 30 games he took part in.
Player profile
Jordan was a shooting guard who could also play as a small forward, the position he would primarily play during his second return to professional basketball with the Washington Wizards, and as a point guard. Jordan was known throughout his career as a strong clutch performer. With the Bulls, he decided 25 games with field goals or free throws in the last 30 seconds, including two NBA Finals games and five other playoff contests. His competitiveness was visible in his prolific trash talk and well-known work ethic. Jordan often used perceived slights to fuel his performances. Sportswriter Wright Thompson described him as "a killer, in the Darwinian sense of the word, immediately sensing and attacking someone's weakest spot". As the Bulls organization built the franchise around Jordan, management had to trade away players who were not "tough enough" to compete with him in practice. To improve his defense, Jordan spent hours studying film of opponents. On offense, he relied more upon instinct and improvization.
Noted as a durable player, Jordan did not miss four or more games while active for a full season from 1986–87 to 2001–02, when he injured his right knee. Of the 15 seasons Jordan was in the NBA, he played all 82 regular season games nine times. Jordan has frequently cited David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Jerry West as influences. Confirmed at the start of his career, and possibly later on, Jordan had a special "Love of the Game Clause" written into his contract, which was unusual at the time, and allowed him to play basketball against anyone at any time, anywhere.
Jordan had a versatile offensive game and was capable of aggressively driving to the basket as well as drawing fouls from his opponents at a high rate. His 8,772 free throw attempts are the 11th-highest total in NBA history. Early in Jordan's career, he weighed in at around 200 pounds (91 kg) and was more athletic in terms of play style. As his career progressed, Jordan also developed the ability to post up his opponents and score with his trademark fadeaway jump shot, using his leaping ability to avoid block attempts. According to Hubie Brown, this move alone made Jordan nearly unstoppable. Around this time, he bulked up to 215 pounds (98 kg) in order to adapt to the increased physicality of NBA defenses during the 1990s, sacrificing some athleticism for added strength in the post. Despite media criticism by some as a selfish player early in his career, Jordan was willing to defer to this teammates, with a career average of 5.3 apg and a season-high of 8.0 apg. For a guard, Jordan was also a good rebounder, finishing with 6.2 rpg. Defensively, he averaged 2.3 spg and 0.8 bpg.
The three-point field goal was not Jordan's strength, especially in his early years. Later on in his career, Jordan improved his three-point shooting, and finished his career with a respectable 32% success rate. His three-point field-goal percentages ranged from 35% to 43% in seasons where Jordan attempted at least 230 three-pointers between 1989–90 and 1996–97. His effective field goal percentage was 50%, and he had six seasons with at least 50% shooting, five of which consecutively (1988–1992); Jordan also shot 51% and 50%, and 30% and 33% from the three-point range, throughout his first and second retirements, respectively, finishing his Bulls career with 31.5 points per game on 50.5 FG% shooting and his overall career with 49.7 FG% shooting.
Unlike NBA players often compared to Jordan, such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, who had a similar three-point percentage, he did not shoot as many threes as they did, as Jordan did not need to rely on the three-pointer to be effective on offense. Three-point shooting was only introduced in 1979 and would not be a more fundamental aspect of the game until the first decades of the 21st century, with the NBA having to briefly shorten the line to incentivize more shots. Jordan's three-point shooting was better selected, resulting in three-point field goals made in important games during the playoffs and the Finals, such as hitting six consecutive three-point shots in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals. Jordan shot 37%, 35%, 42%, and 37% in all the seasons he shot over 200 three-pointers, and also shot 38.5%, 38.6%, 38.9%, 40.3%, 19.4%, and 30.2% in the playoffs during his championship runs, improving his shooting even after the three-point line reverted to the original line.
In 1988, Jordan was honored with the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player awards, becoming the first NBA player to win both awards in a career let alone season. He also set both seasonal and career records for blocked shots by a guard, and combined this with his ball-thieving ability to become a standout defensive player. Jordan ranks fourth in NBA history in total steals with 2,514, trailing John Stockton, Jason Kidd and Chris Paul. Jerry West often stated that he was more impressed with Jordan's defensive contributions than his offensive ones. Doc Rivers declared Jordan "the best superstar defender in the history of the game".
Jordan was known to have strong eyesight. Broadcaster Al Michaels said that Jordan was able to read baseball box scores on a 27-inch (69 cm) television clearly from about 50 feet (15 m) away. During the 2001 NBA Finals, Phil Jackson compared Jordan's dominance to Shaquille O'Neal, stating: "Michael would get fouled on every play and still have to play through it and just clear himself for shots instead and would rise to that occasion."
Legacy
Jordan's talent was clear from his first NBA season; by November 1984, he was being compared to Julius Erving. Larry Bird said that rookie Jordan was the best player he ever saw, and that Jordan was "one of a kind", and comparable to Wayne Gretzky as an athlete. In his first game in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, Jordan received a near minute-long standing ovation. After Jordan established the single game playoff record of 63 points against the Boston Celtics on April 20, 1986, Bird described him as "God disguised as Michael Jordan".
Jordan led the NBA in scoring in 10 seasons (NBA record) and tied Wilt Chamberlain's record of seven consecutive scoring titles. Jordan was a fixture of the NBA All-Defensive First Team, making the roster nine times (NBA record shared with Gary Payton, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant). He also holds the top career regular season and playoff scoring averages of 30.1 and 33.4 ppg, respectively. By 1998, the season of his Finals-winning shot against the Jazz, he was well known throughout the league as a clutch performer. In the regular season, Jordan was the Bulls' primary threat in the final seconds of a close game and in the playoffs; he would always ask for the ball at crunch time. Jordan's total of 5,987 points in the playoffs is the second-highest among NBA career playoff scoring leaders. He scored 32,292 points in the regular season, placing him fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list behind LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Bryant.
With five regular season MVPs (tied for second place with Bill Russell—only Abdul-Jabbar has won more, with six), six Finals MVPs (NBA record), and three NBA All-Star Game MVPs, Jordan is the most decorated player in NBA history. He finished among the top three in regular season MVP voting 10 times. Jordan was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, and selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. He is one of only seven players in history to win an NCAA championship, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal (doing so twice with the 1984 and 1992 U.S. men's basketball teams). Since 1976, the year of the ABA–NBA merger, Jordan and Pippen are the only two players to win six NBA Finals playing for one team. In the All-Star Game fan ballot, Jordan received the most votes nine times, more than any other player.
Many of Jordan's contemporaries have said that he is the greatest basketball player of all time. In 1999, an ESPN survey of journalists, athletes and other sports figures ranked Jordan the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century. Jordan placed second to Babe Ruth in the Associated Press' December 1999 list of 20th century athletes. The Associated Press also voted Jordan the greatest basketball player of the 20th century. He has also appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 50 times. In the September 1996 issue of Sport, which was the publication's 50th-anniversary issue, Jordan was named the greatest athlete of the past 50 years.
Jordan's athletic leaping ability, highlighted in his back-to-back Slam Dunk Contest championships in 1987 and 1988, is credited by many people with having influenced a generation of young players. Several NBA players, including James and Dwyane Wade, have stated that they considered Jordan as their role model while they were growing up. Commentators have also dubbed a number of next-generation players "the next Michael Jordan" upon their entry to the NBA, including Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Allen Iverson, Bryant, Vince Carter, James, and Wade. Some analysts, such as The Ringer's Dan Devine, drew parallels between Jordan's experiment at point guard in the 1988–89 season and the modern NBA; for Devine, it "inadvertently foreshadowed the modern game's stylistic shift toward monster-usage primary playmakers", such as Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Luka Dončić, and James. Don Nelson stated: "I would've been playing him at point guard the day he showed up as a rookie."
Although Jordan was a well-rounded player, his "Air Jordan" image is also often credited with inadvertently decreasing the jump shooting skills, defense, and fundamentals of young players, a fact Jordan himself has lamented, saying: "I think it was the exposure of Michael Jordan; the marketing of Michael Jordan. Everything was marketed towards the things that people wanted to see, which was scoring and dunking. That Michael Jordan still played defense and an all-around game, but it was never really publicized." During his heyday, Jordan did much to increase the status of the game; television ratings increased only during his time in the league. The popularity of the NBA in the U.S. declined after his last title. As late as 2024, NBA Finals television ratings had not returned to the level reached during his last championship-winning season.
In August 2009, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, opened a Michael Jordan exhibit that contained items from his college and NBA careers as well as from the 1992 "Dream Team"; the exhibit also has a batting baseball glove to signify Jordan's short career in the Minor League Baseball. After Jordan received word of his acceptance into the Hall of Fame, he selected Class of 1996 member David Thompson to present him. As Jordan would later explain during his induction speech in September 2009, he was not a fan of the Tar Heels when growing up in North Carolina but greatly admired Thompson, who played for the rival NC State Wolfpack. In September, Jordan was inducted into the Hall with several former Bulls teammates in attendance, including Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Charles Oakley, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoč. Dean Smith and Doug Collins, two of Jordan's former coaches, were also among those present. His emotional reaction during his speech when Jordan began to cry was captured by Associated Press photographer Stephan Savoia and would later go viral on social media as the "Crying Jordan" Internet meme. In 2016, President Barack Obama honored Jordan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In October 2021, he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. In September 2022, Jordan's jersey in which he played the opening game of the 1998 NBA Finals was sold for $10.1 million, making it the most expensive game-worn sports memorabilia in history. In December 2022, the NBA unveiled a new MVP trophy, named in Jordan's honor, to be awarded beginning with the 2022–23 season, which replaced the original trophy, named in honor of former NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
Awards and honors
NBA
Six-time NBA champion – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998
Six-time NBA Finals MVP – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998
Five-time NBA MVP – 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
NBA Defensive Player of the Year – 1987–88
NBA Rookie of the Year – 1984–85
10-time NBA scoring leader – 1987–1993, 1996–1998
Three-time NBA steals leader – 1988, 1990, 1993
14-time NBA All-Star – 1985–1993, 1996–1998, 2002, 2003
Three-time NBA All-Star Game MVP – 1988, 1996, 1998
10-time All-NBA First Team – 1987–1993, 1996–1998
One-time All-NBA Second Team – 1985
Nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team – 1988–1993, 1996–1998
NBA All-Rookie First Team – 1985
Two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion – 1987, 1988
Two-time IBM Award winner – 1985, 1989
Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996
Selected on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021
No. 23 retired by the Chicago Bulls
No. 23 retired by the Miami Heat
Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor
NBA MVP trophy renamed in Jordan's honor ("Michael Jordan Trophy") in 2022
USA Basketball
Two-time Olympic gold medal winner – 1984, 1992
Tournament of the Americas gold medal winner – 1992
Pan American Games gold medal winner – 1983
Two-time USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year – 1983, 1984
NCAA
NCAA national championship – 1981–82
ACC Rookie of the Year – 1981–82
Two-time Consensus NCAA All-American First Team – 1982–83, 1983–84
ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year – 1983–84
ACC Athlete of the Year – 1984
USBWA College Player of the Year – 1983–84
Naismith College Player of the Year – 1983–84
Adolph Rupp Trophy – 1983–84
John R. Wooden Award – 1983–84
Two-time Sporting News National Player of the Year (1983, 1984)
No. 23 retired by the North Carolina Tar Heels
High school
McDonald's All-American – 1981
Parade All-American First Team – 1981
Halls of Fame
Two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee:
Class of 2009 – individual
Class of 2010 – as a member of the "Dream Team"
United States Olympic Hall of Fame – Class of 2009 (as a member of the "Dream Team")
North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame – Class of 2010
Two-time FIBA Hall of Fame inductee:
Class of 2015 – individual
Class of 2017 – as a member of the "Dream Team"
Media
Three-time Associated Press Athlete of the Year – 1991, 1992, 1993
Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year – 1991
Ranked No. 1 by Slam magazine's "Top 50 Players of All-Time"
Ranked No. 1 by ESPN SportsCentury's "Top North American Athletes of the 20th Century"
10-time ESPY Award winner (in various categories)
1997 Marca Leyenda winner
National
2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom
State/local
Statue inside the United Center
Section of Madison Street in Chicago renamed Michael Jordan Drive – 1994
Post-retirement
After his third retirement, Jordan assumed that he would be able to return to his front office position as Director of Basketball Operations with the Wizards. Jordan's previous tenure had produced mixed results and may have also influenced the trade of Richard "Rip" Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse, although Jordan was not technically Director of Basketball Operations in 2002. On May 7, 2003, Wizards owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan from the role. Jordan later stated that he felt betrayed, and that if he had known he would be fired upon retiring, he never would have come back to play for the Wizards.
Over the next few years, Jordan played golf in celebrity charity tournaments and spent time with his family in Chicago. He also promoted his Jordan Brand clothing line and rode motorcycles. Since 2004, Jordan has owned Michael Jordan Motorsports, a professional closed-course motorcycle road racing team that competed with two Suzukis in the premier Superbike championship sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) until the end of the 2013 season.
Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets
On June 15, 2006, Jordan bought a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats (known as the Hornets since 2013), becoming the team's second-largest shareholder behind majority owner Robert L. Johnson. As part of the deal, Jordan took full control over the basketball side of the operation, with the title Managing Member of Basketball Operations. Despite his previous success as an endorser, Jordan made an effort not to be included in Charlotte's marketing campaigns. A decade earlier, he had made a bid to become part-owner of Charlotte's original NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets, but talks collapsed when owner George Shinn refused to give Jordan complete control of basketball operations.
In February 2010, it was reported that Jordan was seeking majority ownership of the Bobcats. As February wore on, it became apparent that Jordan and former Houston Rockets president George Postolos were the leading contenders for ownership of the team. On February 27, the Bobcats announced that Johnson had reached an agreement with Jordan and his group, MJ Basketball Holdings, to buy the team from Johnson pending NBA approval. On March 17, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan's purchase, making him the first former player to become the majority owner of an NBA team, and the league's only African-American majority owner.
During the 2011 NBA lockout, The New York Times wrote that Jordan led a group of 10 to 14 hardline owners who wanted to cap the players' share of basketball-related income at 50 percent and as low as 47. Journalists observed that, during the labor dispute in 1998, Jordan told Washington Wizards then-owner Abe Pollin: "If you can't make a profit, you should sell your team." Jason Whitlock of FoxSports.com called Jordan "a hypocrite sellout who can easily betray the very people who made him a billionaire global icon" for wanting "current players to pay for his incompetence". He cited Jordan's executive decisions to draft disappointing players Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison.
During the 2011–12 NBA season that was shortened to 66 games by the lockout, the Bobcats posted a 7–59 record. The team closed out the season with a 23-game losing streak; their .106 winning percentage was the worst in NBA history. Before the next season, Jordan said: "I'm not real happy about the record book scenario last year. It's very, very frustrating."
During the 2019 NBA offseason, Jordan sold a minority piece of the Hornets to Gabe Plotkin and Daniel Sundheim, retaining the majority for himself, as well as the role of chairman. In 2023, Jordan finalized the sale of his majority stake to Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, ending his 13-year tenure as majority owner, although he kept a minority stake. The sale was officially completed in August 2023 for approximately $3 billion, more than 10 times the $275 million Jordan had paid for the team.
23XI Racing
On September 21, 2020, Jordan and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin announced they would be fielding a NASCAR Cup Series team with Bubba Wallace driving, beginning competition in the 2021 season. On October 22, the team's name was confirmed to be 23XI Racing (pronounced twenty-three eleven) and the team's entry would bear No. 23. After the team's inaugural season, it added a second car with No. 45, driven by Kurt Busch in 2022 and Tyler Reddick in 2023. Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, and Daniel Hemric also drove for 23XI as substitute drivers during the 2022 season. The team fielded a third car, No. 67, driven by Travis Pastrana in the 2023 Daytona 500. 23XI Racing has won seven races, two by Wallace, four by Reddick, and one by Busch. Reddick won the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship, the first for the team.
Personal life
Jordan married Juanita Vanoy at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas on September 2, 1989. They had three children: Jeffrey, Marcus, and Jasmine. The Jordans filed for divorce on January 4, 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They again filed for divorce and were granted a final decree of dissolution of marriage on December 29, 2006, commenting that the decision was made "mutually and amicably". It is reported that Juanita received a $168 million settlement (equivalent to $254 million in 2023), making it the largest celebrity divorce settlement on public record at the time.
In 1991, Jordan purchased a lot in Highland Park, Illinois, where he planned to build a 56,000-square-foot (5,200 m2) mansion. It was completed in 1995. Jordan listed the mansion for sale in 2012. He also owns homes in North Carolina and Jupiter Island, Florida.
On July 21, 2006, a judge in Cook County, Illinois, determined that Jordan did not owe his alleged former lover Karla Knafel $5 million in a breach of contract claim. Jordan had allegedly paid Knafel $250,000 to keep their relationship a secret. Knafel claimed Jordan promised her $5 million for remaining silent and agreeing not to file a paternity suit after Knafel learned she was pregnant in 1991; a DNA test showed that Jordan was not the father of the child.
Jordan proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto, on Christmas 2011, and they were married on April 27, 2013, at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church. It was announced on November 30, 2013, that the two were expecting their first child together. On February 11, 2014, Prieto gave birth to identical twin daughters named Victoria and Ysabel. In 2019, Jordan became a grandfather when his daughter Jasmine gave birth to a son, whose father is professional basketball player Rakeem Christmas.
Media figure and business interests
Endorsements
Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald's, Ball Park Franks, Rayovac, Wheaties, Hanes, and MCI. Jordan has had a long relationship with Gatorade, appearing in over 20 commercials for the company since 1991, including the "Be Like Mike" commercials in which a song was sung by children wishing to be like Jordan.
Nike created a signature shoe for Jordan, called the Air Jordan, in 1984. One of his more popular commercials for the shoe involved Spike Lee playing the part of Mars Blackmon. In the commercials, Lee, as Blackmon, attempted to find the source of Jordan's abilities and became convinced that "it's gotta be the shoes". The hype and demand for the shoes even brought on a spate of "shoe-jackings", in which people were robbed of their sneakers at gunpoint. Subsequently, Nike spun off the Jordan line into its own division named the "Jordan Brand". The company features a list of athletes and celebrities as endorsers. The brand has also sponsored college sports programs such as those of North Carolina, UCLA, California, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgetown, and Marquette.
Jordan also has been associated with the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. A Nike commercial shown during 1992's Super Bowl XXVI featured Jordan and Bugs Bunny playing basketball. The Super Bowl commercial inspired the 1996 live action/animated film Space Jam, which starred Jordan and Bugs in a fictional story set during the former's first retirement from basketball. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI. Jordan also made an appearance in the music video for Michael Jackson's "Jam" (1992).
Since 2008, Jordan's yearly income from endorsements is estimated to be over $40 million. In addition, when his power at the ticket gates was at its highest point, the Bulls regularly sold out both their home and road games. Due to this, Jordan set records in player salary by signing annual contracts worth in excess of US$30 million per season. An academic study found that his first NBA comeback resulted in an increase in the market capitalization of his client firms of more than $1 billion.
Most of Jordan's endorsement deals, including his first deal with Nike, were engineered by his agent, David Falk. Jordan has described Falk as "the best at what he does" and that "marketing-wise, he's great. He's the one who came up with the concept of 'Air Jordan'."
Business ventures
In June 2010, Jordan was ranked by Forbes as the 20th-most-powerful celebrity in the world, with $55 million earned between June 2009 and June 2010. According to Forbes, Jordan Brand generates $1 billion in sales for Nike. In June 2014, Jordan was named the first NBA player to become a billionaire, after he increased his stake in the Charlotte Hornets from 80% to 89.5%. On January 20, 2015, Jordan was honored with the Charlotte Business Journal's Business Person of the Year for 2014. In 2017, he became a part owner of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.
Forbes designated Jordan as the athlete with the highest career earnings in 2017. From his Jordan Brand income and endorsements, Jordan's 2015 income was an estimated $110 million, the most of any retired athlete. As of 2024, his net worth is estimated at $3.2 billion by Forbes, making him the fifth-richest African-American, behind Robert F. Smith, David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, and Rihanna.
Jordan co-owns an automotive group which bears his name. The company has a Nissan dealership in Durham, North Carolina, acquired in 1990, and formerly had a Lincoln–Mercury dealership from 1995 until its closure in June 2009. The company also owned a Nissan franchise in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The restaurant industry is another business interest of Jordan's. Restaurants he has owned include a steakhouse in New York City's Grand Central Terminal, among others; that restaurant closed in 2018. Jordan is the majority investor in a golf course, Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound, Florida.
In September 2020, Jordan became an investor and advisor for DraftKings.
Philanthropy
From 2001 to 2014, Jordan hosted an annual golf tournament, the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational, that raised money for various charities. In 2006, Jordan and his wife Juanita pledged $5 million to Chicago's Hales Franciscan High School. The Jordan Brand has made donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation named Jordan its Chief Wish Ambassador in 2008. In 2013, he granted his 200th wish for the organization. As of 2019, Jordan has raised more than $5 million for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2023, he donated $10 million to the organization for his 60th birthday.
In 2015, Jordan donated a settlement of undisclosed size from a lawsuit against supermarkets that had used his name without permission to 23 different Chicago charities. In 2017, Jordan funded two Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics in Charlotte, North Carolina, by giving $7 million, the biggest donation he had made at the time. The following year, after Hurricane Florence damaged parts of North Carolina, including his former hometown of Wilmington, Jordan donated $2 million to relief efforts. He gave $1 million to aid the Bahamas' recovery following Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
On June 5, 2020, in the wake of the protests following the murder of George Floyd, Jordan and his brand announced in a joint statement that they would be donating $100 million over the next 10 years to organizations dedicated to "ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education". In February 2021, Jordan funded two Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics in New Hanover County, North Carolina, by giving $10 million. In 2024, he funded the opening of another Novant Health Clinic, this time in Wilmington.
Film and television
Jordan played himself in the 1996 comedy film Space Jam. The film received mixed reviews, but it was a box office success, making $230 million worldwide, and earned more than $1 billion through merchandise sales.
In 2000, Jordan was the subject of an IMAX documentary about his career with the Chicago Bulls, especially the 1998 NBA playoffs, titled Michael Jordan to the Max. Two decades later, the same period of Jordan's life was covered in much greater and more personal detail by the Emmy Award-winning The Last Dance, a 10-part TV documentary which debuted on ESPN in April and May 2020. The Last Dance relied heavily on about 500 hours of candid film of Jordan's and his teammates' off-court activities which an NBA Entertainment crew had shot over the course of the 1997–98 NBA season for use in a documentary. The project was delayed for many years because Jordan had not yet given his permission for the footage to be used. Jordan was interviewed at three homes associated with the production and did not want cameras in his home or on his plane, as according to director Jason Hehir "there are certain aspects of his life that he wants to keep private".
Jordan granted rapper Travis Scott permission to film a music video for his single "Franchise" at his home in Highland Park, Illinois. Jordan appeared in the 2022 miniseries The Captain, which follows the life and career of Derek Jeter.
Books
Jordan has authored several books focusing on his life, basketball career, and world view.
Rare Air: Michael on Michael, with Mark Vancil and Walter Iooss (Harper San Francisco, 1993).
I Can't Accept Not Trying: Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence, with Mark Vancil and Sandro Miller (Harper San Francisco, 1994).
For the Love of the Game: My Story, with Mark Vancil (Crown Publishers, 1998).
Driven from Within, with Mark Vancil (Atria Books, 2005).
See also
Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes
List of athletes who came out of retirement
List of NBA teams by single season win percentage
Michael Jordan's Restaurant
Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City
Michael Jordan in Flight
Jordan vs. Bird: One on One
NBA 2K11
NBA 2K12
Notes
References
Sources
Condor, Bob (1998). Michael Jordan's 50 Greatest Games. Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8065-2030-8.
Halberstam, David (2000). Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. Broadway Books. ISBN 978-0-7679-0444-5.
Jordan, Michael (1998). For the Love of the Game: My Story. New York City: Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-0-609-60206-5.
Kotler, Philip; Rein, Irving J.; Shields, Ben (2006). The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace. The McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN 978-0-07-149114-3.
Kruger, Mitchell (2003). One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback. New York City: St. Martin's Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-312-99223-1.
Lazenby, Roland (2014). Michael Jordan: The Life. New York City: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-19477-8.
LaFeber, Walter (2002). Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism. W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-32369-6.
Markovits, Andrei S.; Rensman, Lars (June 3, 2010). Gaming the World: How Sports are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13751-3.
Porter, David L. (2007). Michael Jordan: A Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33767-3.
The Sporting News Official NBA Register 1994–95 (1994). The Sporting News. ISBN 978-0-89204-501-3.
Further reading
Leahy, Michael (2004). When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan's Last Comeback. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-7648-1.
McGovern, Mike (2005). Michael Jordan: Basketball Player. Ferguson. ISBN 978-0-8160-5876-1.
External links
Michael Jordan on Twitter
Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com
Michael Jordan at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Michael Jordan at Curlie
Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference (Minors)
Michael Jordan at IMDb
"Jordan archives". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on June 5, 1997. Retrieved April 29, 2020. |
Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_NBA | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_NBA | [
498
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_NBA"
] | The composition of race and ethnicity in the National Basketball Association (NBA) has changed throughout the league's history. The first non-white player to play in the league was an Asian American, Wat Misaka, in 1947. African Americans entered the league beginning in 1950. According to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick, the NBA in 2021 was composed of 73.2 percent black players, 16.8 percent white players, 3.1 percent Latino players of any race, and 0.4 percent Asian players. Additionally, 6.6 percent of the players were classified as either multiracial or "other" races. The league has the highest percentage of black players of any major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
History
Players
The NBA was founded in June 1946, with its first season played in 1946–47. Wat Misaka debuted in 1947–48 as the first non-white player and the first Asian American to play in the league.
African Americans first appeared in the NBA in 1950. Chuck Cooper was the first black player drafted in the NBA. On April 26, 1950, Harold Hunter signed with the Washington Capitols, becoming the first African American to sign a contract with any NBA team in history. However, Hunter was cut from the team during training camp and did not play professionally. On May 24, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton was the second African American player to sign an NBA contract. Earl Lloyd was the first to play in the NBA. Hank DeZonie also played that year. In 1953, Don Barksdale became the first African American to play in an NBA All-Star Game.
With the emergence of African American players by the 1960s, the NBA game was stylistically being played faster and above the rim. Many of the league's great players were black. At that time, African Americans believed they were limited by an unofficial league quota of four black players per team.
Puerto Rican Butch Lee in 1978 was the first Latino in the league. Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player in 2001. In 2010, Jeremy Lin became the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA.
In 2011, Richard Lapchick with The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) of the University of Central Florida reported in their annual Racial and Gender Report Card that 17 percent of the league's players were white, the lowest since the report began in 1990. Hall of Fame player and Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird, who is white, stated in 2004 that the league needed more white players since the league's fans are mostly white. "And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them [the fans, not the guys] a little excited. But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African American," said Bird.
Contrary to Bird's assertion, as of 2017, White Americans, made up only 34% of the NBA's viewership, making it the only major sports league in North America, that doesn't have a majority white viewership. At the same time, the black share of viewership stands at 47 percent, while Hispanic (of any race) stood at 11% and Asian viewership stood at 8%.
More recently, a number of commentators and fans have remarked on the league's dwindling number of white American players. While a TIDES study found that the NBA was 18.3 percent white in the 2015–16 season, this number also included non-Americans, most notably Europeans. During the entire 1996–97 season, only three NBA teams did not field an American-born white; on the opening day of the 2016–17 season, eight teams did not have a white American on their roster, and an additional 10 teams had only one. At the latter point in time, fewer than 10 percent of NBA players were American-born whites (43 out of a possible 450).
Coaches
Bill Russell in 1966 became the first non-white and African American head coach in the NBA. In the late 1980s, teams began hiring black coaches in large numbers. At the start of the 2015–16 season, there were seven black head coaches in the league, down 50 percent from three years earlier, and the fewest in 16 years. At the conclusion of the 2016-17 season there were eight African American head coaches.
Owners
Robert Johnson of the Charlotte Bobcats (now known as the Charlotte Hornets) was the first black majority team owner in the NBA in 2004–05. He was succeeded as Bobcats owner in 2010–11 by another African American, Michael Jordan. In 2013–14, Jordan and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé, who is Indian, marked the first time in the history of major pro sports leagues in the U.S. that there were two non-white majority owners in a league. The number of NBA teams with non-white majority owners increased to three in September 2019 with the league approval of Taiwanese Canadian entrepreneur Joseph Tsai's purchase of Russian Mikhail Prokhorov's 51 percent share in the Brooklyn Nets. Tsai had previously held a 49 percent interest in the team, having acquired that stake from Prokhorov in 2018, and exercised an option to purchase the remaining interest before its 2021 expiration date.
Viewership demographics
Among NBA fans during the 2013–14 season, African Americans (844 minutes) and Asian Americans (719) spent the most time watching the league, followed by Hispanics (of any race, 390) and Whites (290). Furthermore, according to a Nielsen's survey, the NBA has the highest share of black viewers, with 45 percent of its viewers being black and 40 percent of viewers being white, making it the only top North American sport that did not have a white majority audience.
During the 2016–17 season, 66 percent of the league's viewers were racial and ethnic minorities. Its audience was 47 percent Blacks, 34 percent Whites, 11 percent Hispanics (of any race), and 8 percent Asians.
Timothy J. Piper examines how the NBA uses archival sports video in its advertising to give the impression that racial issues don't exist in the league, despite the fact that they do. The NBA tried to revitalize its brand prior to 2007 as a result of issues like dwindling attendance and broadcast ratings. In particular, it introduced a "business casual" attire policy for players in 2005 as part of its effort to distance itself from facets of hip-hop culture. The league's efforts to solve its economic fall were tied to this clothing code, which was intended to redefine player uniforms for NBA commerce, according to then-NBA Commissioner David Stern. This was all in order to enhance the league's image; some players welcomed this idea. The article also notes the NBA's 2007 advertising campaign, "Where Amazing Happens," which featured archival footage and signaled a change in the league's branding approach. The goal of this campaign, which marked a change from prior ones, was to portray the NBA as varied but "raceless".
See also
Black participation in college basketball
Race and sports
Baseball color line
List of foreign NBA players
List of foreign NBA coaches
Race and ethnicity in the NHL
List of African-American sports firsts
Race and ethnicity in the United States
Notes
References
Further reading
Kalb, Elliot; Weinstein, Mark (2009). The 30 greatest sports conspiracy theories of all time: ranking sports' most notorious fixes, cover-ups, and scandals. Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 25–34. ISBN 978-1-60239-678-4. Retrieved February 22, 2012. Discusses racial quota in the NBA through the early 1960s.
George, Nelson (1999). "Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball". U of Nebraska Press. pp. 139–43. ISBN 9780803270855. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew (2010). "'Too Black': Race in the 'Dark Ages' of the National Basketball Association". The International Journal of Sport and Society. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
External links
The national basketball association racial & gender report card at tidesport.org |
Earl_Lloyd | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Lloyd | [
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] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Lloyd"
] | Earl Francis Lloyd (April 3, 1928 – February 26, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He was the first African American player to play a game in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
An All–American player at West Virginia State University, Lloyd helped lead West Virginia State to an undefeated season in 1948. As a professional, Lloyd helped lead the Syracuse Nationals to the 1955 NBA Championship. Lloyd was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Early life
Earl Lloyd was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on April 3, 1928, to Theodore Lloyd Sr. and Daisy Lloyd. His father worked in the coal industry and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. Being a high school standout, Lloyd was named to the All-South Atlantic Conference three times and the All-State Virginia Interscholastic Conference twice. Lloyd did attend a segregated school, but gives gratitude to his family and educators for helping him through the tough times and his success after school.
Lloyd was a 1946 graduate of Parker–Grey High School, where he played for Coach Louis Randolph Johnson. He received a scholarship to play basketball at West Virginia State University, home of the Yellow Jackets. In school he was nicknamed "Moon Fixer" because of his size and was known as a defensive specialist.
College career
Lloyd led West Virginia State to two Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. He was named All–Conference three times (1948–50) and was All-American twice, as named by the Pittsburgh Courier (1949–50). As a senior, he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, while leading West Virginia State to a second–place finish in the CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship. In 1947–48, West Virginia State was the only undefeated team in the United States, with a 30–0 record. Lloyd graduated from WVSU with his B.S. degree in physical education in 1950.
Harlem Globetrotter
Prior to being drafted in the ninth round of the 1950 NBA Draft, Lloyd starred in the lineup of the Harlem Globetrotters. Lloyd led the team to two wins over the reigning Minneapolis Lakers; this proved his talents beyond his race. Except for racial segregation, he was one of the finest artists of his time. Lloyd's talents were recognized amongst other black teammates, the two being Chuck Cooper and Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton. All three would go on to be drafted by the NBA, Clifton in 1947, Cooper in 1950, and Lloyd in 1950, the 100th overall pick.
NBA career
Lloyd was drafted in the 9th round with pick #100 by the Washington Capitols in the 1950 NBA draft. Nicknamed "The Big Cat", Lloyd was one of three black players to enter the NBA at the same time. It was because of the order in which the team's season openers fell that Lloyd was the first to actually play in a game in the NBA, scoring six points on Halloween night. The date was October 31, 1950, one day ahead of Chuck Cooper of the Boston Celtics and four days before Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton of the New York Knicks.
Lloyd played in over 560 games in nine seasons. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward played in only seven games for the Washington Capitols before the team folded on January 9, 1951. He was then drafted into the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. While fulfilling his military duty, the Syracuse Nationals picked him up on waivers. Lloyd served time fighting in the Korean War before coming back to basketball in 1952. In the 1953–54 season, Lloyd led the NBA in both personal fouls and disqualifications.
In 1954–1955, Lloyd averaged career highs of 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds for Syracuse, which beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 4 games to 3 to win the 1955 NBA Championship. Lloyd and Jim Tucker became the first African–Americans to play on an NBA championship team. Lloyd spent six seasons with Syracuse and two with the Detroit Pistons before retiring in 1961.
Regarding the racism black players faced in the early years of the NBA, Lloyd recalled being refused service multiple times and an incident where a fan in Indiana spit on him. He even went as far as to detail a time in which he was told to "go back" to Africa, and a plethora of times racial slurs were used towards him. However, Lloyd persevered and said that these instances only pushed him and made him play harder. Saying he didn't encounter racial animosity from teammates or opposing players, Lloyd said of fans' antics, “My philosophy was: If they weren’t calling you names, you weren’t doing nothing. If they’re calling you names, you were hurting them.”
"In 1950, basketball was like a babe in the woods; it didn't enjoy the notoriety that baseball enjoyed," Lloyd once said. "I don't think my situation was anything like Jackie Robinson's-a guy who played in a hostile environment, where some of his teammates didn't want him around. In basketball, folks were used to seeing integrated college teams. There was a different mentality."
“He’s an unsung star. Anybody can score. Lloyd was an excellent defensive player. That was No. 1 on my roster,” said his Syracuse Coach Al Cervi.
In his NBA career with the Washington Capitols (1950–1951), Syracuse Nationals (1952–1958) and Detroit Pistons (1958–1960), Earl averaged 8.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 560 games over nine seasons.
Coaching and scouting career
According to Detroit News sportswriter Jerry Green, in 1965 Detroit Pistons General Manager Don Wattrick wanted to hire Lloyd as the team's head coach. Dave DeBusschere was instead named Pistons player–coach. Lloyd was the first African–American assistant coach and was named head coach for the 1971–72 season, making him the third African–American head coach, after John McLendon and Bill Russell. A 2–5 start to the following campaign resulted in Lloyd being relieved of his duties and replaced by assistant coach Ray Scott on October 28, 1972. He had an overall record of 22–55 with the Pistons.
Lloyd worked for the Pistons as a scout for five seasons. Lloyd is credited with helping draft Bailey Howell and discovering Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Ray Scott and Wally Jones.
Personal life
After his basketball career, Lloyd worked during the 1970s and 1980s as a job placement administrator for the Detroit public school system. During this time, Lloyd also ran programs for underprivileged children teaching job skills.
Lloyd served as Community Relations Director for the Bing Group, a Detroit manufacturing company in the 1990s.
Approached by a young African–American player who said he was indebted to Lloyd for opening the doors for future generations of black players, Lloyd replied that he owed him absolutely nothing.
“You cannot understand what an honor this is,” Lloyd said in 2007 about the court at T. C. Williams High School being named in his honor. “There’s no better honor than being validated by people who know you best. I will always, always treasure this.”
Lloyd and his wife, Charlita, had three sons and four grandchildren. Lloyd resided in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee, just outside Crossville, Tennessee, until his death on February 26, 2015.
Honors
In 1993, Lloyd was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Lloyd was inducted into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Hall of Fame in 1998.
The state of Virginia, proclaimed on February 9, 2001, as "Earl Lloyd Day" by action of Virginia's Governor.
In 2003, Lloyd was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.
Lloyd was named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Silver and Golden Anniversary Teams.
The newly constructed basketball court at T. C. Williams High School in Lloyd's home town of Alexandria, Virginia, was named in his honor in 2007. Lloyd attended Parker-Gray High School, as Alexandria's schools were racially-segregated at the time. T.C. Williams—the subject of the motion picture Remember the Titans—was created as a combined, desegregated school two decades later.
In November 2009, Moonfixer: The Basketball Journey of Earl Lloyd, was released. Lloyd wrote this biography with Syracuse area writer, Sean Kirst.
In 2012, Lloyd was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2014, a statue of Earl Lloyd was unveiled at West Virginia State University in the Walker Convocation Center. That same year, the "Earl Lloyd Classic" began, hosted at West Virginia State.
In 2015 Lloyd, along with fellow basketball player Alonzo Mourning, was one of eight Virginians honored in the Library of Virginia's "Strong Men & Women in Virginia History" because of his contributions to the sport of basketball.
In 2018, the road running in front of the Walker Convocation Center at West Virginia State University was renamed "Earl Lloyd Way."
In 2022, the 200 block of Madison Street in the city of Syracuse was named "Earl Lloyd Way."
NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
Head coaching record
See also
Race and ethnicity in the NBA
List of African-American firsts
References
Further reading
Kirst, Sean (October 20, 2010). "Earl Lloyd: In basketball, history's go-to guy". The Post Standard.
External links
Earl Lloyd at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
BasketballReference.com: Earl Lloyd (as coach)
BasketballReference.com: Earl Lloyd (as player)
Earl Lloyd's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
Biography of Earl Lloyd at the Library of Virginia's Strong Men & Women in Virginia History page |
African-American_presidents_of_the_United_States_in_popular_culture | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_presidents_of_the_United_States_in_popular_culture | [
499
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_presidents_of_the_United_States_in_popular_culture"
] | Before and after the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States in 2008, the idea of a Black president has been explored by various writers in novels (including science fiction), films and television, as well as other media. Numerous actors have portrayed a Black president. Such portrayals have occurred in both serious works and comedies.
Effect of media depictions
As writers and directors cast Black actors as president in several memorable portrayals, depictions of fictional Black presidents may have accustomed Americans to accept a Black man as president. Actor Dennis Haysbert who played a Black president on the hit show 24, said the portrayal “may have opened the eyes, the minds and the hearts of people because the character was so well liked." The show also raised the issue of whether television series "like political trial ballons, can ready the populace for change."
After Barack Obama's election, the television show the Cosby Show was cited for what has been termed the “Huxtable effect” for the influence of its "warmhearted" portrayal, "free of street conflicts and ghetto stereotypes - that broke ground for its depiction of an upwardly mobile Black family." The show has even been cited by some observers as a factor in Obama's victory.
Novels
In 1964 Irving Wallace published The Man, a popular novel addressing the idea of a black president, named Douglass Dilman in the book. Recently a critic described it as a window into "Kennedy-era racial pathologies", despite the author's liberal attitude. It included the portrayal of attractive multiracial or "mulatto" women who could pass for white, as does the hero Dilman's own light-skinned daughter. The Man—which was made into a 1972 movie starring James Earl Jones as Dilman—noted factors against a black president being elected in America, and Dilman's coming to power through an unlikely series of circumstances of succession.
Other novels featuring a first black president include Philip K. Dick's The Crack in Space (1966), T. Ernesto Bethancourt's young adult novel The Tomorrow Connection (1984) and T.D. Walters' self-published thriller The Race (2007).
Stand-up comedy
After civil rights and voting rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965, the move of blacks into full political participation began. Portrayals of blacks as president began to appear in comedians' routines. In the early years of his career in the 1960s, comedian Bill Cosby frequently told jokes along racial lines, including one about an imaginary first black president. He stopped when he decided to reach a wider audience.
In 1983 at age 22, Eddie Murphy (who was born the same year as Obama) enacted a parody of a black president in one of his stand-up routines, Eddie Murphy Delirious, filmed in Washington, D.C.
Movies and Television
Writers and directors have featured a black man as president in several memorable portrayals. There have been film and television proposals based on the idea, as well.
The first movie portrayal of a black American president was probably that of Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1933 film Rufus Jones for President. In this short musical comedy, the 7-year-old Davis is told by his mother, portrayed by Ethel Waters, that "anyone can become president, and later dreams of his own inauguration". Outside the dreams, the film reflects contemporary racist attitudes.
The 1941 musical movie Babes on Broadway included Judy Garland in black male drag singing a song "Franklin Delano Jones", about the first black president of the United States.
"When Rod Serling adapted Irving Wallace's "The Man" to the screen in 1972—it was a joint production of Paramount Pictures and ABC Circle Films, originally intended to air on ABC's made-for-television Movie of the Week series, but the network chose not to air it, prompting Paramount to release the film to theaters instead—the political climate had changed sufficiently that he could promote Douglass Dilman from survivor to competitor—a genuine leader who, after standing up to his white rivals, vows to win the presidency through "legitimate" electoral means." With James Earl Jones starring in 1972, the film version had a heroic black man as president, who ended the film in a position of moral authority.
In 1977 comedian Richard Pryor portrayed the first black president of the United States in a skit on The Richard Pryor Show, his short-lived foray on NBC television.
Lizzie Borden's 1983 science fiction film Born in Flames about a radical feminist insurgency, set in an alternative United States Socialist Democracy, features a black president.
The 1987 animated series Spiral Zone is the first television show in history to show a serious depiction of an African-American president of the United States in the episode The "Imposter".
In the 1993 science-fiction series SeaQuest DSV, the unnamed president of the United States featured in the first season episode "Better Than Martians" is portrayed by African-American actor Steven Williams.
In the 1997 science-fiction film The Fifth Element, character actor Tom Lister, Jr. played President Lindberg, the commander-in-chief of not just the United States of America but the planet Earth. His competence to lead is not questioned due to his race. In fact, his skin color is never mentioned.
A generation after The Man, the 1998 science fiction film Deep Impact featured black actor Morgan Freeman as president Tom Beck. Critic Louis Bayard noticed that Dennis Haysbert seemed to adopt Freeman's cadences for his own role as president.
Ernie Hudson played President Westwood in the 1999 direct-to-video movie Stealth Fighter.
In the hit show 24, a television precedent was set when Dennis Haysbert portrayed a lead character, David Palmer, and successful president who fought terrorism. Critic Charles Taylor described him as showing "the determination of magnetism, brains, resolve, compassion and willingness to make tough calls we dream of in a president." After the show portrayed the assassination of Palmer, his brother Wayne, played by D.B. Woodside, was also elected president. The Jerusalem Post speculated in June 2008 that television ratings "may have predicted Obama's primary victory over Hillary Clinton, as the most recent female television president appears to have been less popular than the black leaders of 24."
In 2000, Chris Tucker planned on writing, directing, producing and starring in a movie about the first black president of the United States.
Chris Rock wrote, directed, and starred as presidential candidate Mays Gilliam in the 2003 comedy Head of State, described as "undernourished." The movie's tagline was "The only thing white is the house". Another critic described Rock as in way over his head, and found it "depressing to see Rock pander to the most reactionary elements of the black audience." He also was surprised at some of the settings. "Rock doesn't seem to know much about contemporary America; when his character travels to Memphis (a majority-black city with a black mayor) we see only white people."
In 2004, a sketch on Chappelle's Show called "Black Bush" featured Dave Chappelle as an African-American "interpretation" of then President George W. Bush and his administration. It was controversial due to its set-up segment (which had Chappelle mocking fellow comedian Dennis Miller over the comedian's infamous "free pass" comment regarding not saying anything bad about George W. Bush) and its overall theme that if Bush and his top aides were black, that the public would be more willing to be critical of the president and his decisions. The sketch also features cameo appearances by actor Jamie Foxx, who appears as "Black Tony Blair" and Mos Def as "Black Head of the CIA" holding "Yellowcake from Africa" (Anthony Berry's character warns the other not to "drop that shit", though it is clearly just yellow cake).
In CBS's 2004 TV series Century City's fictional timeline, Oprah Winfrey is the US president.
Louis Gossett Jr. played the president in two different movies in 2005 — in the Christian movie Left Behind: World at War he played President Gerald Fitzhugh and in the direct-to-DVD Solar Attack he played President Ryan Gordon.
Mike Judge's 2006 Idiocracy featured President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho as a former porn star and champion wrestler played by erstwhile NFL defensive end Terry Alan Crews. Critic Bayard thought it odd that the lead character seemed so little advanced from earlier 20th century caricatures. The "joke is essentially unchanged from the days of Rufus Jones: These are the last guys in the world -- or any world -- you'd want to vote for."
A 2006 BBC Four adaptation of John Wyndham's short story Random Quest depicts the main character being sucked into an alternate reality in which Condoleezza Rice is president of the United States.
In ABC's 2008 series Life on Mars (a remake of BBC's series of the same name), it is hinted that Malia Obama, the daughter of then-candidate Barack Obama, is the president in 2035.
Post-Obama's election
Actor Danny Glover played President Thomas Wilson in the 2009 movie 2012.
NBC's 2010 series "The Event" features Blair Underwood in a starring role as Elias Martinez, an Afro-Cuban US president.
Actor Jamie Foxx played President James William Sawyer in the 2013 movie White House Down.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson played William Alan Moore, the US president in the 2014 movie Big Game.
In the 2014-2015 NBC TV series State of Affairs, Alfre Woodard plays Constance Payton, the first black female president of the United States.
In 2015, Keith David first voiced the President in second season Rick and Morty episode "Get Schwifty."
In 2016, actor Danny Johnson played President Todd in season 2 of the television show Quantico.
In 2019, the flashforward to 2045 in the final episode of Veep revealed that President Kemi Talbot (Toks Olagundoye) served two terms sometime between 2025 and 2041. President Richard Splett (Sam Richardson) was the incumbent president of 2045, having won a landslide reelection in 2044.
In 2019, Morgan Freeman played President Allan Trumbull in Angel Has Fallen, the third movie in the Fallen film series. He previously played Allan Trumbull as Speaker of the House in Olympus Has Fallen and as Vice President in London Has Fallen. Freeman previously played President Tom Beck in the 1998 film Deep Impact.
Music
Parliament's 1975 Washington, D.C.-themed song Chocolate City had Muhammad Ali as President of the United States and James Brown as vice president, among others.
In 1983, R&B artist Blowfly released a track entitled "The first black president", a conversation between President Blowfly and his assistant over hip hop music.
The music video accompanying N.W.A's "Express Yourself" featured a shot of the White House with the caption, "Live from the Black House", followed by one of Dr. Dre swiveling a chair in what is apparently meant to represent the Oval Office. Several more shots in the video continue the same scene.
Rap artist Nas was inspired by the Obama campaign to write a song entitled "Black President", which includes quotations from Obama. The track samples Tupac Shakur with a modified lyric saying, "And although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to have a black president."
Rap artist Young Jeezy, also inspired by the Obama campaign, wrote a song entitled "My President", which also featured Nas, and featured the chorus "My President Is Black ..."
When he appeared in speaking roles on Snoop Dogg's album No Limit Top Dogg, actor Rudy Ray Moore joked that he would run for president with two priorities - painting the White House black and legalizing just about everything.
Effect of Obama's presidency on television
The Obama presidency had the potential to affect television shows, but people had differing reactions to that. The comedian and actor Bill Cosby said he was "not all that optimistic that Obama’s presidency will make a major difference in terms of onscreen diversity," saying "they would die before putting another show on about a black family and black pride."
Pastor T.D. Jakes noted the portrayal on television of "middle-class African-Americans who are articulate, intelligent and thoughtful." He hoped the new president would make a difference in encouraging those types of depictions. "The Obama effect might even go beyond bolstering the presence of blacks on television and actually bring about a tonal change in programming," according to Brok Akil. She wrote a script based on a book called Making Friends With Black People, a buddy comedy that focuses on the state of race relations in the U.S. She added that, "In our pitch to NBC, we referenced Obama." She also said, "We talked about how he has gotten us to the table to talk about race in a meaningful way and it’s time to continue the discussion. So our new president has already had an impact."
See also
List of presidents of the United States
Lists of fictional presidents of the United States
President of the United States in fiction
African-American candidates for President of the United States
African-American heritage of presidents of the United States
List of actors who have played the president of the United States
Female president of the United States in popular culture
Public image of Barack Obama § In popular culture
== References == |
Stephenie_Meyer | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenie_Meyer | [
499
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenie_Meyer"
] | Stephenie Meyer (; née Morgan; born December 24, 1973) is an American author and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire romance book series Twilight, which has sold over 160 million copies, with translations into 49 different languages. She was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in the United States, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009.
An avid young reader, she attended Brigham Young University, marrying at the age of twenty-one before graduating with a degree in English in 1997. Having no prior experience as an author, she conceived the idea for the Twilight series in a dream. Influenced by the work of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, she wrote Twilight soon thereafter. After many rejections, Little, Brown and Company offered her a $750,000 three-book deal which led to a four-book series, two spin-off novels, a novella, and a series of commercially successful film adaptations. Aside from young adult novels, Meyer has ventured into adult novels with The Host (2008) and The Chemist (2016). Meyer has worked in film production and co-founded production company Fickle Fish Films. Meyer produced both parts of Breaking Dawn, the Twilight film series' finale, and two other novel adaptations.
Meyer's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shaped her novels. Themes consistent with her religion—including agency, mortality, temptation, eternal life, and pro life—are featured in her work. Critics have called her writing style overly simplistic, but her stories have also received praise, and she has acquired a fan following.
Meyer was included on Time's list of the "top 100 most influential people" in 2008 and Forbes's list of the "top 100 most powerful celebrities" in 2009, with her annual earnings exceeding $50 million.
Early and personal life
Meyer was born Stephenie Morgan on December 24, 1973, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, the second of six children (Seth, Stephenie, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi) of financial officer Stephen Morgan and homemaker Candy Morgan. She was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale. In 1992, Meyer won a National Merit Scholarship, which helped fund her undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1997. Although she began and finished her degree at BYU, Meyer took classes at Arizona State University in fall 1996 and spring 1997.
She met her future husband, Christian "Pancho" Meyer, in Arizona when they were both children. The couple married in 1994 and have three sons. Christian retired from his job as an auditor to take care of their children full time.
Before writing her first novel, Twilight, Meyer considered going to law school because she felt she had no chance of becoming a writer. She later noted that the birth of her oldest son—Gabe—in 1997 changed her mind: "Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom." Before becoming an author, Meyer's only professional work was as a receptionist at a property company.
The Twilight series
The Twilight novels
According to Meyer, the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003, about a human girl and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the draft of what became chapter 13 of the book. She wrote from chapter 13 to the end of the novel and then backfilled the first 12 chapters, in secret, without an ideal audience in mind or the intention to publish the novel. Meyer researched the Quileute Native Americans to include their legends and traditions in the novel, though some Quileute tribe members found her use of their legends offensive. Meyer joined the American Night Writers Association (ANWA) for aspiring LDS female writers. She completed the novel in three months. Her sister's response to the book was enthusiastic, and she persuaded Meyer to send the manuscript to literary agencies.
Of the 15 letters she wrote, five went unanswered, nine brought rejections, and the last was a positive response from Jodi Reamer of Writers House. Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish Twilight in a 2003 auction. By November, Meyer had signed a $750,000 three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company. Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. Bimonthly book signings and events at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, early in her writing career helped cultivate her fanbase. Twilight reached No. 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books within a month of its release, and later rose to #1. The novel was named the Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editor's Choice. Despite its success, Twilight was one of the most challenged books of 2009 according to the American Library Association for being sexually explicit, age-inappropriate, and for religious views; some schools and libraries were asked to remove the books from their shelves.
Upon publishing Twilight, Meyer had already outlined a story for a sequel. However, her publisher insisted that she follow Twilight with two sequels following Bella and Edward in college. Consequently, Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). The original story she pitched for the sequel would later be published in Breaking Dawn. Meanwhile, Meyer wrote a short story, "Hell on Earth", about demons at prom night, which was published in April 2007 in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Meyer's fans urged her to expand "Hell on Earth" into a full novel, but Meyer was occupied finishing Eclipse.
In its first week after publication, New Moon reached No. 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the No. 1 position, where it remained for the next 11 weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. In May 2007, Meyer held two promotional prom events at an Arizona State University gymnasium to celebrate the special edition release of New Moon and the release of Eclipse. For the event, Meyer wore a blood-red evening gown and signed over 1,000 books. Meyer's red dress was later auctioned for $5,500 at a fundraiser for a book seller's battle with breast cancer called Project Book Babe.
After the release of Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. The fourth installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies. Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day. The novel won Meyer a British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, despite competition from J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In 2009, Meyer faced plagiarism accusations for Breaking Dawn. Author of The Nocturne, Jordan Scott, claimed the circumstances around Bella's supernatural pregnancy and subsequent transformation into a vampire were similar to the storyline of her novel and indicated that Meyer plagiarized the plot of The Nocturne. Meyer dismissed the accusation, claiming she had not heard of the writer nor the novel. Scott failed to produce a copy of the novel to support her accusation; The Nocturne is not available on Amazon and is listed as "temporarily sold out" on her website.
The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. In 2008, the four Twilight books were in the top four spots on USA Today's year-end bestseller list. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and the first author to have books in all four of the top-selling spots. The Twilight novels held the top four spots on USA Today's year-end list again in 2009. The success of the Twilight series has been attributed to the Internet, which allowed Meyer to directly reach out to her fans, leading the series to be called "the first social networking bestseller". According to scholar Lykke Guanio-Uluru, the Twilight series "popularized and helped redefine, the paranormal romance subgenre".
Twilight saga films
In 2004, Paramount's MTV Films and Maverick Films optioned Twilight before the book was published in order to maximize its potential profits. The written script deviated greatly from the novel. However, the film was put into turnaround. In 2006, Erik Feig, president of Summit Entertainment, attempted to make a deal with Meyer by assuring her that the film would be true to the novel and that "no vampire character [would] be depicted with canine or incisor teeth longer or more pronounced than may be found in human beings". In 2007, the rights were sold to Summit Entertainment. Catherine Hardwicke was chosen to direct the film, and Melissa Rosenberg wrote the new script. Kristen Stewart was cast first as Bella Swan, and Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen after an audition with Stewart and Pattinson revealed they had good chemistry. Taylor Lautner was cast in the role of Jacob Black. Released on November 21, 2008, the film received favorable reviews; Roger Ebert called the film, "lush and beautiful" and Peter Bradshaw said it was, "wildly enjoyable". The film was a box-office success and became the fourth-highest-grossing November opening weekend release up to that time. Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene. The same year, Meyer began her work in film with a Jack's Mannequin music video "The Resolution", which she co-directed with Noble Jones.
Following the success of Twilight, Summit greenlit a film adaptation of the sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Each novel adaptation was headed by a different director. Chris Weitz directed New Moon, which was released on November 20, 2009. On opening night, New Moon broke the record for the highest single-day domestic gross on opening day, which had previously been set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Despite its commercial success, the film received poor reviews; Roger Ebert criticized the slow pace of the film, and Tim Robey of The Telegraph similarly said, "the movie gives us all the requisite looks of tortured longing, and not a lot else". Directed by David Slade, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, an adaptation of the third book in the series, was released on June 30, 2010. An article from The Guardian reported that it was the best film of the series according to critical consensus for being more "cinematic" and striking a better balance between romance and the supernatural. However, an article from The Telegraph rebutted The Guardian's claim, arguing that Twilight remained the best film in the series due to the "entirely straight-faced contrast between the forces of eternal darkness and the rigors of high school". Having already obtained the rights to Breaking Dawn, Summit approved a two-part adaptation.
In 2011, Meyer started her own production company, Fickle Fish Films, with producer Meghan Hibbett. Meyer spent much of 2011 producing both parts of Breaking Dawn, as well as the film adaptation of Shannon Hale's novel Austenland. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 was released on November 18, 2011, and the second part was released on November 16, 2012. Part one of the film received mixed reviews. Part two of the film received more positive reviews with Roger Ebert calling the ending "sensational". Critics also praised the acting, particularly that of Stewart.
The Twilight Saga was successful in the box office. With a combined budget of $373 million, the five-film series earned $3.341 billion worldwide. Despite the commercial success, the films were extensively criticized. Breaking Dawn: Part II won seven Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzie awards) including Worst Picture, Worst Sequel, and Worst Screen Couple (for Taylor Lautner and Mackenzie Foy). The series spawned two parody films: Vampires Suck and Breaking Wind, which were critical failures.
In 2009, Stephenie Meyer was included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities, entering at No. 26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million. The same year, Meyer was ranked No. 5 on Forbes' list of "Hollywood's Top-Earning Women", the only author on the list, and it was noted that the "Twilight series of young-adult vampire books have taken the publishing and film worlds by storm". In 2010, Forbes ranked her as the No. 59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.
Subsequent Twilight publications
In August 2009, USA Today revealed that Meyer broke J. K. Rowling's record on their bestseller list; the four Twilight books had spent 52 straight weeks in the top 10. In all, the books have spent more than 235 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. In 2015, she published a new book in honor of the 10th anniversary of the best-selling franchise titled Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, with the genders of the original protagonists switched.
On March 30, 2010, it was announced that Meyer had written a 200-page novella entitled The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The book was released on June 5, 2010, by Atom and was available for free between June 7 and July 5 on the official website. Following the release of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer donated $1.5 million to the American Red Cross Relief Fund to aid victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Those who took advantage of the free e-book were also encouraged to make donations to the Red Cross.
Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the Twilight series. The novel was intended to be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen. Meyer had hoped to have Midnight Sun published shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely. Upset by the release of a draft she called "messy and flawed", Meyer decided to pursue books unrelated to Twilight. She made the unedited and unfinished manuscript of a lengthy character development exercise of Midnight Sun available on her website.
The release of Midnight Sun was tentatively re-planned after re-visiting the Twilight series with Life and Death, a gender-swapped retelling of the novel in 2015. However, the release of Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian in 2015 halted and soured Meyer's plans to release the Midnight Sun because Grey was also told from the male perspective. Meyer stated in a New York Comic-Con panel that it was "a literal flip the table moment", admitting that "Midnight Sun is kind of cursed". This led to the novel being on indefinite hold. According to an article from The Guardian in 2018, Midnight Sun was "no longer in the pipeline". However, in May 2020, it was announced that Midnight Sun would be released on August 4, 2020. Following its release, it sold over one million copies, was number two on Amazon's "most sold" list, and was number one on USA Today's bestseller list one week after its release date.
Meyer has mentioned having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled Summer House, a novel involving time travel, as well as another about mermaids.
Adult fiction publications
The Host
In May 2008, Meyer's adult sci-fi novel The Host was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company. It follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, a young woman and an invading alien "soul", who are forced to work as one. The Host debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for 26 weeks. Despite having expressed intention to write a trilogy, with the second and third books being called The Soul and The Seeker, respectively, Meyer has not published any follow-up novels to The Host as of 2024.
In April 2009, Meyer took part in Project Book Babe, a benefit designed to help pay her friend Faith Hochhalter's medical bills after Hochhalter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Meyer donated many advance reader copies and original manuscripts for auction.
The Host was adapted into a film with Andrew Niccol directing, and Saoirse Ronan starring as Melanie Stryder, Max Irons as Jared Howe and Jake Abel as Ian O'Shea. The film was released on March 29, 2013, to generally negative reviews. It received poor critical reviews and was a box office flop compared to the Twilight film series.
The Chemist and television productions
In late 2015, it was announced that Meyer was producing a TV series based on Daniel O'Malley's book, The Rook. Despite having purchased the rights for the novel with her production company, she left the project shortly after filming due to creative differences.
In July 2016, Little, Brown and Company announced that Meyer has written an adult action thriller titled The Chemist, about "an ex-agent on the run from her former employers". The book was released on November 8, 2016. In 2018, it was announced that Meyer's production company Fickle Fish would be working with Tomorrow Studios to produce a television series based on The Chemist.
Reception
The reception of Meyer and her novels has been mixed. Entertainment Weekly has stated that Meyer is "the world's most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice", while The Guardian described her as an "imaginative storyteller, a prolific author and a newly powerful figure in the publishing market". Wayne Janes of the Toronto Sun agreed, saying "Meyer's success points up another trend—the virtual domination of the best-seller lists the last few years by what would normally be classified as young adult fiction", and noted, "In the absence of a new Harry Potter adventure, teens, fantasy enthusiasts and women (sales are mostly to women) who swoon at the idea of a virginal James Dean-ish vampire made Meyer the go-to gal for chaste love." Tymon Smith of The Times has described her as the "superstar of young adult fiction".
Meyer was named one of MSN Lifestyle's "Most Influential Women of 2008", where she was described as a "literary luminary". She was also ranked No. 49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008", and was included in their list of "People Who Mattered", with author Lev Grossman noting, "Maybe Americans aren't ready for a Mormon presidential nominee yet. But they're more than ready to anoint a Mormon as the best-selling novelist of the year."
She was ranked No. 82 on Vanity Fair's list of the "Top 100 Information Age Powers" of 2009. Meyer was featured in an issue of the biographical comic Female Force, a Bluewater Productions title that celebrates influential women in society and pop culture. Meyer was the second bestselling author of the decade, according to a list published by Amazon, beaten by J. K. Rowling.
Despite Meyer's success, her novels have been highly criticized. The New York Times called the premise of Twilight "attractive and compelling"; however, the review continues, "the book suffers at times from overearnest, amateurish writing", indicating that Meyer's relied too much on "telling" rather than "showing" and that there were excessive references to Edward's attractiveness and Bella's swooning. An article from The Guardian criticized Bella's character, calling her "a clumsy, selfish nincompoop with the charisma of a boiled potato" and criticized Edward's portrayal as the "perfect little gentleman" who constantly counters Bella's sexual advances. NPR criticized the novel for being a repetitive "jackhammer" masked behind ornate language. Furthermore, they found the story uninteresting and the main character unlikeable. Entertainment Weekly stated that the narrative of Breaking Dawn was at times so chaotic and outrageous that Meyer shifted the point of view to Jacob Black, which only toned down the mayhem of the plot for so long.
Novelist Orson Scott Card, who is a Mormon like Meyer, said, "[Stephenie Meyer] writes with luminous clarity, never standing between the reader and the dream they share. She's the real thing." In an interview with Newsweek, author Jodi Picoult said, "Stephenie Meyer has gotten people hooked on books, and that's good for all of us." Comparing Meyer to J. K. Rowling, Stephen King stated: "The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer, and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good." King went on to assert that Meyer's books appealed to readers because "[she's] opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books". American religious history scholar Jana Riess had mixed reactions to Meyer's novels. At times, she found the Mormon theology that influences Meyer's works to be beautiful and complex. However, she describes Meyer as a gifted storyteller, not a gifted writer, noting numerous technical flaws in her novels. Furthermore, Riess criticized the "retrogressive gender stereotypes" in Meyer's work.
The Quileute do have a tradition that their ancestors transformed from wolves to people, but most of the descriptions of the Quileute in the novel are inaccurate. The Quileute tribe described her use of their traditions in the books and films and subsequent merchandising as cultural theft.
Fan following
Meyer has gained a following among young adult readers of the Twilight novels, which are set in the small town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Forks has thus received attention from fans and celebrates "Stephenie Meyer Day" on September 13, the date of character Bella Swan's birthday. Meyer's fans cosplay her book characters, write fan fiction related to the stories, and attend book signings. Extreme fans are known as "Twihards".
Inspired by Meyer's Twilight series, a genre of geek rock called "Twi-rock", similar in purpose to wizard rock inspired by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, has emerged. Examples of these Twilight-themed bands include the Bella Cullen Project, Twilight Music Girls, Be Safe Bella, Bella Rocks, and the Mitch Hansen Band. The Mitch Hansen Band wrote the song "By You" in hopes that it would be included on the New Moon film soundtrack. An unofficial Twilight themed fan convention called TwiCon was organized in Dallas, Texas, in summer 2009, which included "Twi-rock" band performances, a Volturi Ball, panels, workshops, and vendors.
Originally an online novelized "fan-fiction" of the Twilight series, the novel Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James loosely explores the relationship between the main characters had they not remained celibate before marriage. Though the publisher claims the novel is "original and no longer based on Twilight", James did not receive copyright authorization to write the novel and some have argued that Fifty Shades of Grey may be a copyright infringement. Though Meyer has stated that the novel is "too smutty" and does not interest her, she has not filed a copyright claim.
Style and influences
Style
Since the release of Twilight, Meyer has been described as writing with "all plot and no style" and including "very little characterization", with her writing characterized as "fairly" poor. Meyer's prose lacks a consistent style or voice; for example, her short story "Hell on Earth" is driven more by dialogue alone, in contrast with the ornate descriptions found in the Twilight series. Meyer relies on detailed expository descriptions and active voice in her novels; she often opens her sentences with the most important information. While a stylistic focus of most novels is character development, Meyer has stated that she intentionally avoided describing her characters in detail, which she believes allows the reader to more easily "step into [their] shoes". In some works such as New Moon, in which Bella is largely on her own, Meyer offers "deeper insight into Bella's psyche" through the chapter titles, rather than the prose itself.
Meyer's work is typically classified as melodrama. In Twilight, Meyer makes allusions to canonical texts such as the Book of Genesis, Wuthering Heights, Macbeth, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Meyer has said that the individual style of each of her novels came from various genres of music she listened to while writing. A corpus stylistics analysis of the Twilight saga revealed that much of Meyer's description and characterization revolved around the physical attributes of the characters as shown through eyes, face, and expression. Some of Meyer's most frequent descriptions related to eye color and expression, the juxtaposition of warmth and cold, and the words "black" and "dark". The study authors concluded that the predictability and superficiality of Meyer's descriptions indicate that Meyer's writing style is unexceptional, and the success of her novels was related more to clever marketing.
Influences
Stephenie Meyer has named Mormonism as her greatest influence. However, according to actor Robert Pattinson, Meyer did not intend to include Mormon references in the novels and films. Yet professor of film and religion Angela Aleiss noted numerous clear influences of Mormonism in the Twilight series. Meyer has said, "Unconsciously, I put a lot of my basic beliefs into the story. Free agency is a big theme." Meyer cited BYU professor Steven Walker as having influenced her work. She explained that he revealed a new way for her to see and study literature, which impacts her writing.
Meyer has cited many novels as inspiration for the Twilight series, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and its sequels. Each book in the series was also inspired specifically by a different literary classic: Twilight by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; New Moon by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; Eclipse by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Although Meyer claims to have based Twilight on Pride and Prejudice, film studies scholar Anne Morey claims that the novel bears resemblance to Jane Eyre. The choice to name Edward came from the works of Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen, and her novels are influenced by both medieval courtly love and 19th-century etiquette. Although Meyer has claimed that she did not read vampire literature and thus could not be influenced by it, scholars Anne Klaus and Stefanie Krüger argue that Meyer's characters bear similarities to "traditional vampire figures" and that Edward resembles both gothic villains and Byronic heroes. Meyer has indicated that despite the supernatural and vampire themes in her novels, she was influenced far more by Austen and Shakespeare than by Anne Rice or Stephen King. Meyer has described Austen, Shakespeare, and Orson Scott Card as her favorite authors.
Meyer has cited music as a prominent influence of her writing, and she posts playlists of songs which specifically inspired her books on her website. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, and Linkin Park. Meyer cites Muse as a particular inspiration because she uses the different emotions portrayed in their songs as influences for various genres of scenes.
Recurring themes
Agency
According to professor of American religious history Jana Riess, a prominent theme in Meyer's novels is agency. In The Host, the Seeker believes that she is saving the human race by perfecting and controlling, similar to the Latter-day Saint belief that Satan's plan for human salvation was to "save" all souls by removing their agency and ability to sin. The Seeker plays a Satan-like role in the novel, as Meyer attempts to convey the message that the maintenance of agency is crucial. Additionally, Meyer's novels contain the themes of opposition. In The Host, Wanda learns that despite the lows and evils of humanity, beauty and pleasure could not be found on her previous planets because darkness did not exist. Wanda learns in the novel that it is only in facing darkness and sorrow that light and joy could be experienced, echoing a quotation from the Book of Mormon, "It musts needs be that there is an opposition in all things". However, "imprinting" in her Twilight series, the involuntary formation of a mate relationship, undermines Meyer's prolific theme of free agency. According to literature and women's studies scholar Natalie Wilson, the juxtaposition between Bella's agency to choose her mate and Jacob, a Native American male's, inability to choose has racial and cultural implications.
Mortality and temptation
Another theme is overcoming the circumstances and temptations of mortality referred to in the Book of Mormon as overcoming the "natural man", which is exemplified by Meyer's character Edward. As a vampire, Edward's purpose is to be carnal, killing and feeding on human blood. As led by Carlisle, Edward chooses to give up this life and transcend his circumstances by becoming a "vegetarian", choosing to feed only on animals. He chooses to uphold these values despite the daily temptation, which only augments when he meets Bella; he finds her blood nearly irresistible. Edward undergoes a transformation in which Bella's trust in Edward allows him to trust his own ability to overcome temptation and keep Bella safe. Self-control is a prominent theme in the Twilight series, the word appears 125 times throughout the novels, as the main characters struggle to control their emotions, attraction, thirst, or jealousy.
Immortality and eternal life
Apparent in Meyer's Twilight series is the theme of the distinction between immortality and eternal life. In Meyer's novels, vampires are immortal and have superhuman gifts and abilities; however, the Cullen family longs for things they cannot have. Their circumstances prevent them from forming meaningful relationships with humans or other vampires, isolating them within their small clan. Furthermore, the couples in the Cullen family are unable to procreate, which causes severe bitterness in Rosalie who envies Bella's ability to be pregnant. According to Riess, the distinction between eternal life and immortality is represented by Bella, who in Breaking Dawn, has achieved eternal life rather than immortality because she achieved the Mormon tenets of eternal life: immortality and a perfected body, eternal parenthood, and an eternal marriage. Riess indicates that Bella receives immortality in an act of self-sacrifice rather than self-service, as she dies for the birth of her child. Bella is subsequently resurrected in a perfected vampire body. In Mormonism, resurrection occurs in the context of relationships, exemplified by Bella who enjoys her resurrected body in the company of her husband, child, and the rest of the Cullen family. The titles of the novels serve to reinforce this idea. At the beginning of the series, Bella discusses leaving Phoenix and heading to Forks where she says, "[goodbye] to the sun". The titles of the first three novels, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, serve as natural phenomenon in which the sun is darkened. However, the final novel is titled Breaking Dawn, which symbolizes the beginning of a new day and Bella's transformation into a vampire and subsequent transcendence of her old life.
Views
Religion
Meyer is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not drink alcohol or coffee, smoke, or watch R-rated movies. Similarly, there is no drinking and smoking in the novels (with the exception of her 2008 The Host, which contains drinking). Despite pressure to include a major sex scene, Meyer was adamant against including graphic sex in her series. According to Lev Grossman of Time, some of the series' appeal is due to its lack of sex and its eroticizing of abstinence. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Meyer acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters "tend to think more about where they came from and where they are going, than might be typical." Meyer says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be influenced by her religion or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values, saying, "I don't think my books are going to be really graphic or dark, because of who I am. There's always going to be a lot of light in my stories."
Growing up, Meyer's life and family revolved around the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were involved in their community, and a young Meyer met her future husband at church. She studiously read the Book of Mormon, citing the book as having "the most significant impact on [her] life". However, Meyer dislikes when media constantly mentions her religion, saying that the press does not emphasize the religions of other authors.
Meyer is cited as having played a part in bringing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more into the mainstream by books The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith by Matthew Bowman and LDS in the USA: Mormonism and the Making of American Culture by Lee Trepanier and Lynita K. Newswander.
Feminism
According to an article from The Guardian, Meyer considers herself a feminist. Meyer has stated that, "the world is a better place when women are in charge". Additionally, she was happy with the commercial successes of Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, and enjoyed working with a nearly all-female production for Austenland. Meyer has explained that her definition of feminism is the ability for a woman to choose, and the definition of anti-feminism is removing the choice, whether it fits gender stereotypes or not, from the woman entirely. She continued that some modern feminists contradict their message of equality for women by limiting or shaming certain women's choices. Furthermore, she stated that women who choose to stay home or have children are particularly criticized and that limitations on what women can do are anti-feminist in nature.
However, Meyer has been criticized by some feminists who consider Meyer an antifeminist writer. Some claim that the series romanticizes a physically abusive relationship, criticizing things like Bella's entire life revolving around Edward; never being in control of her own life; being absolutely dependent on Edward's ability to protect her life, her virginity, and her humanity; and the physical injuries Bella suffers from finally consummating her relationship with Edward. Meyer has dismissed such criticisms, saying both that the books center around Bella's choice and that her damsel in distress persona is due only to her humanity. Women's studies scholar Donna Ashcraft argues that Meyer is not a feminist, by definition, because her novels encourage traditional gender roles. However, although Ashcraft qualifies Meyer as traditional or non-feminist, she says that Meyer is not antifeminist.
After being asked in an interview with The Guardian whether she is anti-abortion, Meyer refused to directly answer the question, insisting that she does not like to talk about politics and that she abhors when celebrities use their popularity to influence voters.
In popular culture
In the 2010 vampire horror film Lost Boys: The Thirst, South African actress Tanit Phoenix played Gwen Lieber, a fictional character and a so-called copy of Stephenie Meyer, who was a writer of not-so-good romantic vampire novels. The character was later killed by Peter, the Alpha vampire (played by Felix Mosse).
Awards
Bibliography
Twilight series
Main series:
Twilight (2005)
1.5. Midnight Sun (2020)
New Moon (2006)
Eclipse (2007)
3.5. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (2010), novella
Breaking Dawn (2008)
Related books:
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (2011), reference guide
Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (2015)
Standalone Novels
The Host (2008)
The Chemist (2016)
Young adult short stories
"Hell on Earth", published in Prom Nights from Hell (2007)
Comics
Twilight series:
Twilight: The Graphic Novel (2010–2011), with Young Kim
New Moon: The Graphic Novel (2012), with Young Kim
Non-fiction
"Hero at the Grocery Store" (2006), article
Filmography
Adaptations
Twilight (2008), film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, based on novel Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), film directed by Chris Weitz, based on novel New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), film directed by David Slade, based on novel Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011), film directed by Bill Condon, based on novel Breaking Dawn
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012), film directed by Bill Condon, based on novel Breaking Dawn
The Host (2013), film directed by Andrew Niccol, based on novel The Host
Twilight Storytellers: The Mary Alice Brandon File (2015), short directed by Kailey Spear and Sam Spear, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: Consumed (2015), short directed by Maja Fernqvist, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: The Groundskeeper (2015), short directed by Nicole Eckenroad, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: Masque (2015), short directed by Cate Carson, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: Sunrise (2015), short directed by Amanda Tasse, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: Turncoats (2015), short directed by Lindsey Hancock Williamson, based on novel series Twilight
Twilight Storytellers: We've Met Before! (2015), short directed by Yulin Kuang, based on novel series Twilight
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Ashcraft, Donna M. (2013). Deconstructing Twilight: Psychological and Feminist Perspectives on the Series. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433116384.
Blasingame, James; Deakin, Kathleen; Walsh, Laura A. (2012). Stephenie Meyer: In the Twilight. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 12. ISBN 9780810883734. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
Clarke, Amy M.; Osborn, Marijane, eds. (2010). The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786449989.
Guanio-Uluru, Lykke (2015). Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling, and Meyer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137469687.
Hanks, Maxine (December 2009). "Do Mormon Moms Dream of Monstrous Gods? Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Myth as Mormon Heroine's Journey" (PDF). Sunstone: 26–30. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
Klaus, Anne; Krüger, Stefanie (2011). "Vampires Without Fangs: The Amalgamation of Genre in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight"". The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature. 15 (1). Retrieved January 10, 2020.
Krohn, Katherine (October 1, 2010). "Stephenie Meyer: Dreaming of Twilight". USA Today. ISBN 9780761363705. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
Larsson, Mariah; Steiner, Ann, eds. (2011). Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media, and a Contemporary Cultural Experience. Lund, Sweden: Nordic Academic Press. ISBN 9789185509638. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
Morey, Anne (2012). Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the "Twilight" Series. Farnham: Ashgate. ISBN 9781409436614.
Reiss, Jana (2009). "Book of Mormon Stories that Steph Meyer Tells to Me: LDS Themes in the Twilight Saga and The Host". BYU Studies. 48 (3). Retrieved October 18, 2019.
Shapiro, Marc (2009). Stephenie Meyer: The Unauthorized Biography of the Creator of the Twilight Saga. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 9780312638290.
Scherer, Lauri S. (2012). People in the News: Stephenie Meyer. Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books. ISBN 9781420507614. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
Wilson, Natalie (2011). Seduced by Twilight: The Allure and Contradictory Messages of the Popular Saga. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786460427.
External links
Official website
Stephenie Meyer at IMDb
Works by Stephenie Meyer at Open Library
Stephenie Meyer at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Stephenie Meyer at the MLCA Database |
Breaking_Dawn | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Dawn | [
499
] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Dawn"
] | Breaking Dawn (stylized as breaking dawn) is the 2008 fourth novel in The Twilight Saga by American author Stephenie Meyer. Divided into three parts, the first and third sections are written from Bella Swan's perspective, and the second is written from the perspective of Jacob Black. The novel directly follows the events of the previous novel, Eclipse, as Bella and Edward Cullen get married, leaving behind a heartbroken Jacob. When Bella faces unexpected and life-threatening situations, she willingly risks her human life and possible vampire immortality.
Meyer finished an outline of the book in 2003, but developed and changed it as she wrote New Moon and Eclipse, though the main and most significant storylines remained unchanged. Little, Brown and Company took certain measures to prevent the book's contents from leaking, such as closing forums and message boards on several fansites and providing a special e-mail address for fans to send in links to leaks and spoilers online.
Breaking Dawn was released on August 2, 2008 at midnight release parties in over 4,000 bookstores throughout the US. From its initial print run of 3.7 million copies, over 1.3 million were sold in the US and 20,000 in the UK in the first 24 hours of the book's release, setting a record in first-day sales performance for the Hachette Book Group USA. The book was highly successful, selling over 6 million copies in 2008, and was the third best-selling novel of 2008 behind Twilight and New Moon.
Unlike the series' previous three entries, Breaking Dawn received mixed reviews from critics. It is also the most controversial book of the series, as adult themes and concepts are explored more directly than in its predecessors. However, the novel was awarded the British Book Award for "Children's Book of the Year". It was translated in 38 languages with rights sold to over 50 countries. The book has been adapted into a two-part movie, with the first part released on November 18, 2011, and the second part released on November 16, 2012.
Plot summary
After Bella's marriage with Edward, they spend their honeymoon on Isle Esme, a private island off the coast of Brazil that Carlisle owns. Two weeks into their honeymoon, Edward and Bella have sex for the first time, and she gets pregnant. Because the fetus is part-vampire, her condition progresses at an accelerated rate, causing Bella severe physical and emotional distress. Bella and Edward return home to Forks, Washington.
Knowing of Bella's wish to become a vampire, Jacob is suspicious when she returns from her honeymoon and the Cullens keep her father, Charlie, from seeing her. Believing the Cullens broke their treaty not to bite another human, he advances on their home intending to kill Edward. Jacob arrives and discovers Bella's pregnancy, in which the fetus is draining her life away. Jacob begs her to abort the fetus to save her life, as neither Carlisle, a doctor, nor Alice who can see the future, are optimistic about Bella's prognosis.
Despite concerns that her pregnancy will be fatal, Bella continues it, believing she can survive long enough to give birth and then be transformed into a vampire. As the wolves are telepathic, they hear Jacob's thoughts about Bella. Fearing Bella will give birth to an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty child, they want to kill her and the fetus. Jacob accepts his bloodline as the true pack leader to break free from the alpha, Sam's control. He goes to warn the Cullens that the wolf pack plans to kill Bella. En route, Seth Clearwater, a younger pack member, also breaks away and joins Jacob. He notes that once they formed their own pack, they can no longer hear the other wolves' thoughts. They start patrolling the Cullens' property before Leah, Seth's older sister and the lone female wolf, joins them.
Bella enters labor as the baby begins fighting its way out, breaking her body. Edward is forced to perform a cesarean section, saving the baby. As Bella is dying, Edward injects his venom into her heart. Jacob, believing Bella is dead, blames her baby, Renesmee. He goes to kill Renesmee but instead imprints (an involuntary response in which a shape-shifter finds his soul mate) on her.
After her painful transformation, Bella wakes to find herself changed into a vampire. Fully recovered, she enjoys her new life and vampire abilities. Renesmee grows rapidly into a toddler and is spotted at a distance by Irina, a vampire from the Alaskan coven. Misidentifying her as an "immortal child," a human child who is turned into an uncontrollable vampire, Irina presents her allegations to the Volturi who outlawed the creation of such creatures. As the largest and most powerful vampire coven, the Volturi see Renesmee and the Cullens as a threat and plot to destroy them. Foreseeing their arrival, the Cullens gather other vampire clans from around the world to stand as witnesses and prove that Renesmee is not an immortal child upon Alice's request. Jacob's imprinting on Renesmee forged an unbreakable bond and mutual protective pact between the Cullens and the Quileute, ending the hatred between them. As local and foreign vampires arrive, the Cullen house becomes the headquarters and training ground for the assorted vampires and the Quileute wolf packs. Bella learns that she is a 'shield', meaning the gifts of other vampires do not work on her, which is why Edward and Aro cannot read her mind. Bella works with the other vampires to improve her skill and shield people other than herself.
Upon confronting the gathered Cullen allies and witnesses, the Volturi discover that they were misinformed on Renesmee's identity. The Volturi execute Irina in an attempt to instigate a full battle but are unsuccessful. They bring up the Cullens' pact with the Quileute wolves and the uncertainty of Renesmee's future in an effort to further provoke hostilities, naming her as a threat to the secret existence of vampires. Alice and Jasper, who left prior to the gathering of the Cullen's allies, return with a Mapuche called Nahuel, a 150-year-old vampire-human hybrid like Renesmee. Alongside him is his biological aunt, Huilen, who explains that her sister fell in love with a vampire and became pregnant with his child, but died in childbirth. When Nahuel was born, he bit his aunt and made her immortal. Nahuel proves that hybrids pose no threat, and the Volturi agree to leave the Cullens alone. The Cullens and their allies leave in peace, realizing that the Volturi may one day return. While being alone with Edward, Bella allows him to read her mind for the first time and shares her feelings about him.
Background
Development
Originally, Meyer wrote a book titled Forever Dawn, which was a direct sequel to Twilight. While the basic storyline remained the same, Forever Dawn was narrated completely from Bella's point of view, the werewolves and Jacob were "only sketchily developed", Victoria and Laurent were both alive, and there was an epilogue. Meyer went on to say that she "may post some extras someday if I ever have time to go back through the Forever Dawn manuscript—it's just as long as Breaking Dawn."
The part that took Meyer the longest time to write in Breaking Dawn was the half-chapter describing the 3 months after Bella's transformation into a vampire because "the amount of time per word put into that section was probably ten times what it was in any other part of the book" and Meyer liked to write minute by minute, but didn't think it would be exciting.
Meyer decided to include the pregnancy in her story while she was researching vampires, early in 2003 and came across the legend of the incubus, a demon who could father children. Bella's insistence to not let her child die was inspired by Meyer's reaction when asked if she would let one of her children die so she could live, which was to deliver the child no matter what the consequences were. Meyer said in an interview with Shannon Hale, published in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, that the birth scene published is a little less grotesque than the one she wrote before editing due to her editor, agent and publisher's requests to "tone down the violence a little". She stated that Bella's pregnancy and childbirth, for her, were "a way to kind of explore that concept of what childbirth used to be" in the past and acknowledged that they were "taking Bella in a new direction that wasn't [as] relatable for a lot of people." Concerning the subject of the relatability of Bella, Meyer admitted that she lost some of her relatability to the character when she became a vampire and said, "every point up until that point in the story [the transformation] I would say I could step into this story right here and I could do everything she could do which made it really fun." Meyer wanted to experience Bella's vampiric experiences and "enjoyed very much" writing about them and wanted to end the book from her perspective, but still thought it was "a little bit harder" as she couldn't step in into the story anymore.
In regard to Renesmee's unique name, Meyer wrote that she "couldn't call her Jennifer or Ashley. What do you name the most unique baby in the world? I looked through a lot of baby name websites. Eventually I realized that there was no human name that was going to work for me, so I surrendered to necessity and made up my own."
Meyer states in regard to ending the series:
The Twilight Saga is really Bella's story, and this was the natural place for her story to wind up. She overcame the major obstacles in her path and fought her way to the place she wanted to be. I suppose I could try to prolong her story unnaturally, but it wouldn't be interesting enough to keep me writing. Stories need conflict, and the conflicts that are Bella-centric are resolved.
Influences
The plays The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare both influenced Breaking Dawn. Meyer decided that Alice would write her instruction to Bella on a page from The Merchant of Venice to give a clue that the final confrontation at the end of the book would be a mental one—not a physical battle—like the one at the end of the play. It also hints that the novel would have a happy ending for the couples, as in The Merchant of Venice. Originally it was the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë that Alice tore a page from, but Jane Eyre had nothing to do with the story, so Meyer changed it.
The idea of imprinting, which existed in Forever Dawn, was inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meyer described it as "the magic of setting things right—which doesn't happen in the real world, which is absolutely fantasy", and decided to introduce it earlier–in Eclipse–so she wouldn't have to explain it later.
Cover art
Meyer described the cover as "extremely meaningful" and said that she was "really happy with how it turned out". The cover is a metaphor for Bella's progression throughout the entire series; she began as the physically weakest player on the board, the pawn, but at the end she becomes the strongest, the queen. The chessboard also hints at the conclusion of the novel "where the battle with the Volturi is one of wits and strategy, not physical violence."
Title
The title, Breaking Dawn, is a reference to the beginning of Bella's life as a newborn vampire. Wanting to add a "sense of disaster" to the title to match the novel's mood, she called it Breaking Dawn. Another reason for giving the book this particular title is that it matches the book's plot, which centers on "a new awakening and a new day and there's also a lot of problems inherent in it".
Release
Marketing
Entertainment Weekly magazine released an excerpt of Breaking Dawn on May 30, 2008. Stephenie Meyer also revealed a 'Quote of the Day' from Breaking Dawn for about three weeks prior to its August 2, 2008 release. The first quote was released on Meyer's website on July 12, 2008. The first chapter of Breaking Dawn, "Engaged", was released in the special edition of Eclipse. Breaking Dawn was officially released on August 2, 2008 through midnight release parties in over 4,000 bookstores, most of which involved costume and trivia contests, crafts, and face painting.
Godiva also made a Twilight-themed chocolate bar, which was released in Barnes & Noble book stores at the release parties. A four-city Breaking Dawn Concert Series, featuring Stephenie Meyer and Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld, coincided with the novel's release. The concert series sold out three of its four locations on the day that tickets went on sale, selling out in under an hour in one city.
Publication
Prior to the novel's release, the first three Twilight books had already sold 8.5 million copies throughout the US and over 2 million copies in the UK. Breaking Dawn was one of the most anticipated books of 2008 with The Guardian noting, "Teenagers across the world are anxiously awaiting the next instalment of author Stephenie Meyer's vampiric series of novels." To meet the high demand, Little, Brown Books added a printing of 500,000 additional copies just prior to publication of the title, bringing the initial print run to 3.7 million.
The book sold 1.3 million copies in the US and 20,000 copies in the UK in its first 24 hours of release, as well as 100,000 copies in Canada during its first weekend. Breaking Dawn debuted at #1 on USA Today's top 150 best sellers list and has gone on to spend over 58 weeks on the list. It was also the biggest-selling children's book of 2008 with over 6 million copies sold.
A special edition of Breaking Dawn was released on August 4, 2009, containing a DVD of the Breaking Dawn Concert Series and an interview with Meyer.
Reception
Critical reception of Breaking Dawn was mixed. Lev Grossman wrote, "First, since there's a lot of one-star reviews up on Amazon, let me say up front: I loved Breaking Dawn." Cara von Wrangel Kinsey of School Library Journal responded with a positive review, describing the book as "captivating" and noting, "While this novel is darker and more mature than the earlier titles, Meyer's twists and turns are not out of character." The Charlotte Observer agreed and called the book "pretty darned good", but criticized the book's length saying, "I wish [Stephenie Meyer] hadn't felt compelled to pack so much into one volume. It should have been two books." Mary Harris Russell of the Chicago Tribune also responded with a positive review and hailed the book as a "fun read", noting that Stephenie Meyer "continues to produce witty writing about families, teenagers and popular culture", while Time called the book "a wild but satisfying finish to the ballad of Bella and Edward" and gave it a rating of A−. An article in The Daily News Tribune said of Breaking Dawn, "Some of the dialog is a bit stilted,... but, if you stay close to Meyer's rich and prodigious narrative, you too might fall in love with its suspense and moving sensitivity".
Publishers Weekly stated that the main problem with Breaking Dawn was that, "Essentially, everyone gets everything they want, even if their desires necessitate an about-face in characterization or the messy introduction of some back story. Nobody has to renounce anything or suffer more than temporarily—in other words, grandeur is out." In an article by The Associated Press, journalist Sara Rose wrote on NewsOK.com that fans of the series would love "engaging characters, great humor, a distracting obsession with beauty, focus on the minutiae of emotions"; however "casual readers may be disappointed with a lot of build-up and little action." The Independent called the book, "shockingly, tackily, sick-makingly sexist" and said that "Bella Swan lives to serve men and suffer." Entertainment Weekly graded Breaking Dawn with a D, criticizing the birth scene and Bella's "unwavering passion for Edward" and having no other goals. The Washington Post also responded with a negative review, making comments such as, "Meyer has put a stake through the heart of her own beloved creation," and "Breaking Dawn has a childbirth sequence that may promote lifelong abstinence in sensitive types."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Meyer responded to the negative response of many fans to the book and called it the "Rob Effect"; she said that the fans need time to accept the ending of Breaking Dawn, just as they needed time to accept Robert Pattinson playing the role of Edward in the Twilight movie.
Awards and honors
Breaking Dawn was the recipient of a British Book Award for "Children's Book of the Year". In the 2009 "Children's Choice Book Awards", the novel was chosen as "Teen Choice Book of the Year" and Meyer won the "Author of the Year" award.
Film adaptations
Summit Entertainment announced in November 2008 that they had obtained the rights to the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's series, Breaking Dawn. The studio greenlit an adaptation of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn in April 2010. The film was split into two parts; the first part of the film was released on November 18, 2011, and the second part was released on November 16, 2012.
Bill Condon directed both parts; Stephenie Meyer co-produced the film along with Karen Rosenfelt and Wyck Godfrey. In July 2010, Summit announced that the film would be shot in Vancouver, Canada, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Maggie Grace plays the part of Irina in the film, while Mackenzie Foy plays Renesmee, Edward and Bella's half-vampire, half-human child.
The infant Renesmee was portrayed by a robot. It was filmed at the Canadian Motion Picture Park Studios (CMPP).
The film did not follow the book strictly, as many of the scenes were created from scratch to add tension to the narrative.
References
External links
Breaking Dawn page at StephenieMeyer.com |
Tennessee_Centennial_and_International_Exposition | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Centennial_and_International_Exposition | [
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] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Centennial_and_International_Exposition"
] | The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition was an exposition held in Nashville from May 1 – October 31, 1897 in what is now Centennial Park. A year late, it celebrated the 100th anniversary of Tennessee's entry into the union in 1796. President William McKinley officially opened the event from the White House, where he pressed a button that started the machinery building at the fair; he would visit in person a month later.
Description
The Exposition grounds covered about 200 acres and was located on the western fringe of the city, with access to the streetcar line. The landscape plan featured the notable blue grass of the region planted in lawn areas. The more than 100 buildings included those devoted to agriculture, commerce, education, fine arts, history, machinery, minerals and forestry, and transportation. Others had special exhibits related to children, women and the United States Government. Many cities and organizations built buildings and exhibit halls on the Exposition grounds. Foreign nations also were represented here.
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad played a central role in the promotion and success of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and carried tourists to the event. John W. Thomas, who was president of the Railroad at the time, served as president of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Major Eugene Castner Lewis, who was the chief civil engineer for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, served as the director general of the Exposition. Lewis had suggested that a reproduction of the Parthenon be built in Nashville as the centerpiece of Tennessee’s Centennial Celebration to highlight the city as the "Athens of the South".
The City of Memphis featured a large pyramid in its exhibit, in honor of its Egyptian name. The Parthenon and the Pyramid were located next to each other on the shore of Lake Wautaga. Both the exhibits were lit at night. The separate Egyptian Pavilion featured popular belly dancers. During the exposition, Italian-style gondolas plied the lake, carrying tourists by water between exhibits.
Also located along Lake Watauga, the Negro Building was designed in a Spanish Renaissance style. Exhibits came from numerous cities, and Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute had their own exhibits. Booker T. Washington, president of the latter, was a featured speaker on Emancipation Day.
The total attendance was 1,786,714, of which the total paid attendance was 1,166,692. The total receipts were $1,101,285 (equivalent to $34.7 million in 2023), and the disbursements $1,101,246 (equivalent to $34.7 million in 2023).
The Parthenon was so popular that it was kept after most buildings and exhibits were dismantled. The original exposition grounds were adapted as Centennial Park for the city. Lake Watauga was also retained in the city park. The Centennial Exposition was a great success and is still considered one of the most notable events ever to be held in the state. Unlike most World's Fairs, it did not lose money, but the final accounting showed a direct profit of less than $50.
Later developments
The fair remains a great source of civic pride for Nashvillians. Today the fairgrounds survive as Centennial Park, the flagship park managed by the Metropolitan Nashville Parks and Recreation Department.
The Parthenon replica built for the exhibition was made of temporary materials. Because of its popularity, it was reconstructed using permanent materials in a project lasting from 1920 to 1931. Today it is used as an art museum. Among its exhibits is Alan LeQuire's 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue.
Nearly a century later, the United States held the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.
References
External links
Tennessee Virtual Archive -- Tennessee Centennial Exposition—Collection of photographs and sheet music as well as aspects of the history of the exhibition
Nashville Parthenon Official Website
Further reading
Cardon, Nathan. "The South's 'New Negroes' and African American Visions of Progress at the Atlanta and Nashville International Expositions, 1895-1897" Journal of Southern History (2014).
Cardon, Nathan. A Dream of the Future: Race, Empire, and Modernity at the Atlanta and Nashville World's Fairs (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Justi, Official History of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition (Nashville, 1898). |
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