title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: A quick-thinking guard, William Miller, turned over all but the key to the outer door, which he pocketed. The prisoners' aim was to escape by boat from the dock, but when they were unable to open the outside door, they decided to battle it out. They held Miller and a second guard hostage. Prompted by Shockley and Thompson, Cretzer shot the hostages at very close range. Miller succumbed to his injuries while the second guard, Harold Stites, was also killed at the cell house. Although Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes returned to their cells, the other three, Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard, persisted with their fight.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The U.S. Marines intervened and killed the three prisoners. In this battle, apart from the guards and prisoners killed, 17 other guards and one prisoner were also injured. Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes were tried for the killing of the correctional officers. Shockley and Thompson were sentenced to death in the gas chamber, which was carried out at San Quentin in December 1948. However, Carnes, who was only 19 years of age, was given a second life sentence.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: On 11 June 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin attempted to escape using careful planning. Behind their cells in Cell Block B was a wide unguarded utility corridor. The prisoners chiseled away the salt-damaged concrete from around an air vent leading to this corridor, using tools such as a metal spoon soldered with silver from a dime and an electric drill improvised from a stolen vacuum cleaner motor. The noise was disguised by accordions played during music hour, and the progress was concealed by false walls which, in the dark recesses of the cells, fooled the guards.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The escape route led up through a fan vent; the prisoners removed the fan and motor, replacing them with a steel grill and leaving a shaft large enough for a prisoner to enter. Stealing a carborundum abrasive cord from the prison workshop, the prisoners then removed the rivets from the grill. In their beds, they placed papier-mâché dummies made with human hair stolen from the barbershop. Over many weeks, the escapees also made an inflatable raft from over 50 stolen raincoats, which they prepared on the top of the cell block, concealed from the guards by sheets which had been put up over the sides. They escaped through a vent in the roof and departed Alcatraz.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The FBI investigation was aided by another prisoner, Allen West, who was part of the escapees' group but was left behind. West's false wall kept slipping so he held it in place with cement, which set. When Morris and the Anglins accelerated the schedule, West desperately chipped away at the wall, but by the time he got out, his companions were gone. Hundreds of leads and theories have been pursued by the FBI and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt. The FBI's investigation was eventually closed in December 1979. The official report on the escape concludes that the prisoners drowned in the cold waters of the bay while trying to reach the mainland, it being unlikely that they made the to shore due to the strong ocean currents and the cold sea water temperatures ranging between .


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active. Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list. Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early-2010s seemed to suggest that the men had survived, and that contrary to the official FBI report of the escapee's raft never being recovered and no car thefts being reported, a raft was discovered on nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away, and a 1955 blue Chevrolet had been stolen on the night of the escape by three men, who could have been Morris and the Anglins, and that officials then engaged in a cover-up. Relatives of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in the mid-2010s in support of a longstanding rumor that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following the escape; a facial recognition analyst concluded that the one piece of physical evidence, a 1975 photograph of two men resembling John and Clarence Anglin, did support that conclusion.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The prison initially had a staff of 155, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden Cecil J. Shuttleworth, both considered to be "iron men". None of the staff were trained in rehabilitation but were highly trained in security. The guards' and staff's salaries varied. A new guard arriving in December 1948 was offered $3,024.96 per year, but there was a 6% deduction for retirement taxes a year (amounting to $181.50). The guards typically worked 40-hour weeks with five 8-hour shifts.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Guards who worked between 6 pm and 6 am were given a 10% increase and guards doing overtime had to be reported and authorized by the warden. Officers generally had to pay 25 cents for meals and were charged $10 to rent an apartment on the island, to include laundry service, although larger families were charged anything from $20–43 a month for larger quarters and charged additional for laundry. In 1960, a Bureau of Prisons booklet revealed that the average prison population between 1935 and 1960 was 263; the highest recorded was 302 in 1937 and the lowest recorded was 222 in 1947.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The main administration center was at the entrance to the prison, which included the warden's office. The office contained a desk with radio and telegraph equipment, typewriter, and a telephone. The administrative office section also had the offices of the associate warden and secretary, mail desk, captain's desk, a business office, a clerk's office, an accounting office, a control room which was added with modern technology in 1961, the officer's lounge, armory and vault, and a visiting area and restrooms. The basement of Alcatraz prison contained dungeons and the showers. The main stairway to the dungeon lay along Sunrise Alley at the side of A-Block, but the dungeons were also accessible by a staircase in a trapdoor along the corridor of D-Block. All visits to Alcatraz required prior written approval from the warden.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: A hospital had originally been installed at Alcatraz during its time as a military prison in the late 19th century. During its time as a federal penitentiary, it was located above the dining hall on the second floor. Hospital staff were U.S. Public Health Service employees assigned to the Federal Prison Service at Alcatraz. Doctors often lasted fewer than several days or months at Alcatraz, because few of them could tolerate the violent inmates who would often terrify them if they failed to be given certain drugs. Prisoners in ill health were often kept in the hospital, most famously Stroud and Al Capone, who spent years in it.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: When the Bureau of Prisons established the Federal Penitentiary on 1 January 1934, they took measures to strengthen the security of the prison cells to make Alcatraz "escape-proof", and also to improve living conditions for their own staff. Up-to-date technologies for enhancing security and comfort were added to the buildings. Guard towers were built outside at four strategic locations, cells were rebuilt and fitted with "tool-proof steel cell fronts and locking devices operated from control boxes", and windows were made covered with iron grills. Electromagnetic metal detectors were placed at the entrances of the dining hall and workshops, with remote controlled tear gas canisters at appropriate locations, remote controlled gun galleries with machine gun armed guards were installed to patrol along the corridors.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Improvements were made to the toilet and electricity facilities, old tunnels were sealed up with concrete to avoid hiding and escape by prisoners, and substantial changes and improvements were made to the housing facilities of guards, wardens and captain to live with their families, with quality relative to rank. Warden Johnston, U.S. Attorney General Homer Cummings, and Sanford Bates, first director of the Bureau of Prisons, collaborated very closely to create "a legendary prison" suited to the times, which resulted in the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary being nicknamed "Uncle Sam's Devil's Island".


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Despite Alcatraz being designed to house the "worst of the worst" of criminals who caused problems at other prisons, under the guidelines and regulations set by the strict prison administrators, courts could not direct a prisoner to be directly sent to Alcatraz, however notorious they were for misbehavior and attempted escape from other prisons. Prisoners entering Alcatraz would undergo vigorous research and assessments prior to their arrival. Security in the prison was very tight, with constant checking of bars, doors, locks, electrical fixtures, and other physical security.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Prisoners were normally counted 13 times daily, and the ratio of prisoners to guards was the lowest of any American prison of the time. The front door was made of solid steel, virtually impossible for any prisoners to escape through. The island had many guard towers, most of which have since been demolished, which were heavily guarded at various points in the day at times when security may have been breached. For instance, there were guard towers on each of the industry buildings to ensure that inmates didn't attempt to escape during the work day shifts.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The recreation yard and other parts of the prison had a 25-foot fence around it topped with barbed wire, should any inmates attempt to escape during exercise. One former employee of the jail likened his prison job to being a zoo keeper or his old farm job, due to the fact that prisoners were treated like animals, sending them out to "plow the fields" when some of them worked during the day, and then counting them up and feeding them and so on. He referred to those four years of his life working in the prison as a "total waste of his life". The corridors were regularly patrolled by the guards, with passing gates along them. The most heavily trafficked corridor was "Broadway" between B and C Block, due to its being the central corridor of the prison and passed not only by guards but other prison workers.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: At the end of each 20-minute meal in the dining hall, the forks, spoons and knives were laid out on the table and carefully counted to ensure that nothing had been taken as a potential weapon. In the earlier years as a prison, prisoners were forbidden from talking while eating, but this was later relaxed, provided that the prisoners communicated quietly.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The gun gallery was situated in the Recreation Yard and mounted on one of the dining hall's exterior walls. There was a metal detector outside of the dining hall for security purposes. The dining hall had tear-gas canisters attached to the rafters of the ceiling which could be activated by remote control, should prisoners riot or attempt to escape. The first warden, James A. Johnston, always entered the dining hall alone and unarmed, due to heavy guarding around him. Several riots did break out in the dining hall during Alcatraz's history. Those prisoners who were not involved in the fighting hid under the dining hall tables to escape possible gunfire.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: An inmate register reveals that there were 1,576 prisoners in total held at Alcatraz during its time as a Federal Penitentiary, although figures reported have varied and some have stated 1,557. The prison cells, purposefully designed so that none adjoined an outside wall, typically measured by and high. The cells were primitive with a bed, a desk and a washbasin and toilet on the back wall and few furnishings except a blanket. An air vent, measuring by , covered by a metal grill, lay at the back of the cells which led into the utility corridors. Prisoners had no privacy in going to the toilet and the toilets would emit a strong stench because they were flushed with salt water. Hot water taps were not installed until the early 1960s, shortly before closure.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The penitentiary established a very strict regimen of rules and regulations under the title "the Rules and Regulations for the Government and Discipline of the United States Penal and Correctional Institutions" and also a "Daily Routine of Work and Counts" to be followed by the prisoners and also the guards. Copies of these were provided to the prisoners to read and follow. Inmates were basically entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else was seen as a privilege. Inmates were given a blue shirt, grey pants (blue and white in later years), cotton long underwear, socks and a blue handkerchief; the wearing of caps was forbidden in the cellhouse.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Cells were expected to be kept tidy and in good order. Any dangerous article found in the cells or on inmates such as money, narcotics, intoxicating substances or tools which had the potential to inflict injury or assist in an escape attempt was considered contraband and made the prisoners eligible for disciplinary action. It was compulsory for prisoners to shave in their cells three times a week. Attempting to bribe, intimidate, or assault prison officers was seen as a very serious offense. African-Americans were segregated from the rest in cell designation due to racial abuse being prevalent.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Toilet paper, matches, soap, and cleanser were issued to the cells on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and inmates could request hot water and a mop to clean their cells. The bars, windows and floors of the prison were cleaned on a daily basis. In earlier years there was a strict code of silence but by the 1950s this had relaxed and talking was permitted in the cellhouse and dining hall provided conversations were quiet and there was no shouting, loud talking, whistling or singing.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Prisoners would be woken at 6:30 am, and sent to breakfast at 6:55 am. After returning to the cell, inmates then had to tidy their cell and place the waste basket outside. At 7:30 am, work started in the shifts for those privileged enough to do so, punctuated by a whistle, and prisoners would have to go through a metal detector during work shifts. If assigned a job, prisoners had to accept that line of work; prisoners were not permitted to have money in their possessions but earnings went into a prisoner's Trust Fund.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Some of the prisoners were assigned duties with the guards and foremen in the Laundry, Tailor Shop, Cobblers Shop, Model Shop etc. and in gardening and labor. Smoking, a privilege, was permitted in the workplace providing that it would not be hazardous, but inmates were not permitted to smoke between the recreation yard and work. Lunch was served at 11:20 am, followed by a 30-minute rest in the cell, before returning to work until 16:15.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Dinner was served at 16:25 and the prisoners would then retire to their cells to be locked in for the night at 16:50. Lights went off at 21:30. After being locked in for the night, 6 guards usually patrolled the four cell blocks. Many prisoners have compared their duration at Alcatraz to hell and would have preferred death to continued incarceration.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Alcatraz Library was located at the end of D-Block. Upon entering Alcatraz, every inmate was given a library card and a catalog of books found in the library. Inmates could place orders by putting a slip with their card in a box at the entrance to the dining hall before breakfast, and the books would be delivered to and from their cell by a librarian. The library, which utilized a closed-stack paging system, had a collection of 10,000 to 15,000 books, mainly left over from the army days.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Inmates were permitted a maximum of three books in addition of up to twelve text books, a Bible, and a dictionary. They were permitted to subscribe to magazines but crime-related pages were torn out and newspapers were prohibited. Sex, crime and violence were censored from all books and magazines, and the library was governed by a chaplain who regulated the censorship and the nature of the reading material to ensure that the material was wholesome. Failure to return books by the date given made the inmate liable to removal of privileges.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The average prisoner read 75 to 100 books a year. Every evening, inmates would generally read books loaned from the library and usually an hour or 75 minutes was allocated to the practicing of musical instruments, from the guitar to the accordion. A prison band often practiced in the dining room or auditorium above it. Al Capone famously practiced the banjo in the shower block, although most prisoners were limited to playing in their cells alone.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Alcatraz cellhouse had a corridor naming system named after major American streets and landmarks. Michigan Avenue was the corridor to the side of A-Block. Broadway was the central corridor in which the inmates would assemble as they massed through Times Square (an area with a clock on the wall), before entering the dining hall for their meals. Broadway separated Block-B and Block-C and prisoners kept along it had the least privacy in the prison.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The corridor between Block-C and the library was called Park Avenue. The corridor in D-Block was named Sunset Strip. Gun galleries lay at the end of each block, including the West and East Gun Galleries.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: A-Block was never modernized, so retained its "flat strap-iron bars, key locks and spiral staircases" from the original military prison. No inmates were permanently held there during the years Alcatraz was a federal penitentiary. Several inmates, however, were held briefly in A-Block before a hearing or transfer. In the later years, A-Block was mainly used for storage. A law library was set up at some point, where inmates could type legal documents.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Most new inmates at Alcatraz were assigned to the second tier of B-Block. They had "quarantine status" for their first three months in confinement in Alcatraz, and were not permitted visitors for a minimum of 90 days. Inmates were permitted one visitor a month, although anybody likely to cause trouble such as registered criminals were barred from visiting. Letters received by inmates were checked by prison staff first, to see if they could decipher any secret messages. Frank Morris and his fellow escapees escaped Alcatraz during the June 1962 escape from Alcatraz by entering a utility corridor behind B-Block.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: D-Block gained notoriety as a "Treatment block" for some of the worst inmates, with varying degrees of punishment, including Isolation, Solitary and Strip. Prisoners usually spent anywhere from 3 to 19 days in Solitary. Prisoners held here would be given their meals in their cells, were not permitted to work and could only shower twice a week. After a 1939 escape attempt in which Arthur "Doc" Barker was killed, the Bureau of Prisons tightened security in the D-Block. The Birdman of Alcatraz inhabited cell 42 in D-Block in solitary confinement for 6 years.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The worst cells for confinement as a punishment for inmates who stepped out of line were located at the end of D-Block in cells 9–14, known as "The Hole". Inmates held in the hole were limited to just one 10-minute shower and an hour of exercise in the yard a week. The five cells of "The Hole" had nothing but a sink and toilet; the very worst cell was the final cell, nicknamed "The Oriental" or "Strip Cell", which contained nothing but a hole in the floor as a toilet, and in which prisoners would often be confined naked with nothing else for two days. The guards controlled the flushing of the toilet in the final cell.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: After completing the punishment in the Hole, the prisoner could then return to his cell but would be tagged. A red tag, third grade, denoted a prisoner who was restricted from leaving his cell for perhaps 3 months. At second grade the prisoners could receive letters, and if after 30 days they remained well-behaved, they would then be restored full prison privileges.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Alcatraz Dining Hall, often referred to as the Mess Hall, is the dining hall where the prisoners and staff ate their meals. It is a long wing on the west end of the Main Cellhouse of Alcatraz, situated in the center of the island. It is connected to the block by a corridor known as "Times Square", as it passes beneath a large clock approaching the entrance way to the dining hall. This wing includes the dining hall and the kitchen beyond it. On the second floor was the hospital and the auditorium, which was where movies were screened to the inmates at weekends.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Dining hall protocol was a scripted process, including a whistle system to indicate which block and tier of men would move into and out of the hall at any given time, who sat where, where to place hands, and when to start eating. Prisoners would be awakened at 6:30 am, and sent to breakfast at 6:55 am. A breakfast menu is still preserved on the hallway board, dated 21 March 1963. The breakfast menu included assorted dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, a scrambled egg, milk, stewed fruit, toast, bread, and butter. Lunch was served in the dining hall at 11:20 am, followed by a 30-minute rest in the cell, before returning to work until 16:15.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Dinner was served at 16:25 and the prisoners would then go to their cells at 16:50 to be locked in for the night. Inmates were permitted to eat as much as they liked within 20 minutes, provided they left no waste. Waste would be reported and may make the prisoner subject to removal of privileges if they made a habit of it.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Each dining table had benches which held up to six men, although smaller tables and chairs later replaced these which seated four. All of the prison population, including the guards and officials would dine together, thus seating over 250 people. The food served at Alcatraz was reportedly the best in the United States prison system.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The Recreation Yard was the yard used by inmates of the prison between 1934 and 1963. It is located opposite the dining hall south of the end of D-Block, facing the mainland on a raised level surrounded by a high wall and fence above it. Guard Tower #3 lay just to the west of the yard. The gun gallery was situated in the yard, mounted on one of the dining hall's exterior walls.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: In 1936, the previously dirt-covered yard was paved. The yard was part of the most violent escape attempt from Alcatraz in May 1946 when a group of inmates hatched a plot to obtain the key into the recreation yard, kill the tower guards, take hostages, and use them as shields to reach the dock.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Inmates were permitted out into the yard on Saturdays and Sundays and on holidays for a maximum of 5 hours. Inmates who worked seven days a week in the kitchen were rewarded with short yard breaks during the weekdays. Badly behaved prisoners were liable to having their yard access rights taken away from them on weekends. The prisoners of Alcatraz were permitted to play games such as baseball, softball and other sports at these times and intellectual games such as chess.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Because of the small size of the yard and the diamond at the end of it, a section of the wall behind the first base had to be padded to cushion the impact of inmates overrunning it. Inmates were provided gloves, bats, and balls, but no sport uniforms. In 1938, there were four amateur teams, the Bees, Oaks, Oilers, and Seals, named after Minor League clubs, and four league teams named after Major League clubs, the Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, and Tigers. Many of the inmates used weekends in the yards to converse with each other and discuss crime, the only real opportunities they had during the week for a durable conversation.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The Warden's House is located at the northeastern end of the Main Cellblock, next to Alcatraz Lighthouse. The 3-floor 15-room mansion was built in 1921 according to the Golden Gate National Recreational Area signpost, although some sources say it was built in 1926 or 1929 and had 17 or 18 rooms.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Between 1934 and 1963, the four wardens of Alcatraz resided here, including the first warden, James A. Johnston. A house of luxury, in stark contrast to the jail next to it, the wardens often held lavish cocktail parties here. The signpost at the spot shows a photograph of a trusted inmate doing chores at the house for the warden and that the house had a terraced garden and greenhouse. The mansion had tall windows, providing fine views of San Francisco Bay. Today, the house is a ruin, burned down by Native Americans during the Occupation of Alcatraz on 1 June 1970.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Building 64 Residential Apartments was the first building constructed on the island of Alcatraz, intended entirely for the purpose of accommodating the military officers and their families living on the island. Located next to the dock on the southeastern side of the island, below the Warden's House, the three-story apartment block was built in 1905 on the site of a U.S. Army barracks which had been there from the 1860s. It functioned as the Military Guard Barracks from 1906 until 1933. One of its largest apartments in the southwest corner was known as the "Cow Palace" and a nearby alleyway was known as "Chinatown".


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The Social Hall, also known as the Officers' Club, was a social club located on the northwestern side of the island. Located in proximity to the Power House, water tower and Former Military Chapel (Bachelor Quarters), it formerly housed the post exchange. The club was a social venue for the Federal Penitentiary workers and their families on the island to unwind after locking Alcatraz's criminals up at 17:30. It was burned down by Native Americans during the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1970, leaving a shell which still remains.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The club had a small bar, library, large dining and dance floor, billiards table, ping pong table and a two-lane bowling alley, and was the centre of social life on the island for the employees of the penitentiary. It regularly hosted dinners, bingo events, and from the 1940s onwards showed movies every Sunday night after they had been shown to the inmates during the day on Saturday and Sunday. The club was responsible for organizing numerous special events on the island (held either in the hall or the Parade Grounds) and the fundraising associated with it, anything from ice cream and watermelon feasts to Halloween fancy dress and Christmas parties.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The Power House is located on the northwest coast of Alcatraz Island. It was constructed in 1939 for $186,000 as part of a $1.1 million modernization scheme which also included the water tower, New Industries Building, officers quarters and remodeling of the D-block. The white powerhouse smokestack and lighthouse were said to give an "appearance of a ship's mast on either side of the island". A sign reading "A Warning. Keep Off. Only Government permitted within 200 yards" lay in front of the powerhouse to deter people landing on the island at the point.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Between 1939 and 1963, it supplied power to the Federal Penitentiary and other buildings on the island. The powerhouse had a tower duty station which was guarded with a "30-caliber Winchester rifle with 50 rounds of ammunition, a 1911 semiautomatic pistol with three seven-round magazines, three gas grenades, and a gas mask".


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The water tower is located on the northwestern side of the island, near Tower No. 3, beyond the Morgue and Recreation Yard. The water tank is situated on six cross-braced steel legs submerged in concrete foundations.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: As Alcatraz had no water supply of its own, it had to import it from the mainland, brought by tug and barge. During the island's military years, there were in-ground water tanks and water tanks were situated on the roof of the citadel. The water tower was built in 1940–41 by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, after the island received a government renovations grant to supply the majority of the island's fresh water.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: It is the tallest building on the island, at a height of with a volume of gallons of fresh water. It was used to store potable water for drinking, water for firefighting, and water for the island's service laundry facility.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The Model Industries Building is a three/four-story building on the northwest corner of Alcatraz Island. This building was originally built by the U.S. military and was used as a laundry building until the New Industries Building was built as part of a redevelopment program on Alcatraz in 1939 when it was a federal penitentiary. As part of the Alcatraz jail, it held workshops for inmates to work in.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: On 10 January 1935, the building shifted to within 2.5 feet from the edge of the cliff following a landslide caused by a severe storm. The warden at the time, James A. Johnston, proposed extend the seawall next to it and asked the bureau for $6500 to fund it. He would later claim to dislike the building because it was irregularly shaped. A smaller, cheaper riprap was completed by the end of 1935.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: A guard tower and a catwalk from Hill Tower was added to the roof of the Industries Building in June 1936 and the building was made secure with bars from old cells to bar the windows and grill the roof ventilators and to prevent inmates from escaping from the roof. It ceased use as a laundry in 1939 when it was moved to the upper floor of the New Industries Building. Today the building is heavily rusted after decades of exposure to the salt air and wind, and neither the guard tower on top of the building nor the Hill Tower still exist.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The New Industries Building was constructed in 1939 for $186,000 as part of a $1.1 million modernization scheme which also included the water tower, power house, officers' quarters and remodeling of the D-block.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: The ground floor of the two-story 306 ft long building contained a clothing factory, dry cleaning plant, furniture plant, brush factory, and an office, where prisoners of the federal penitentiary could work for money. They earned a small wage for their labour which was put into an account, known as a Prisoner's Trust Fund, which would be given to them upon leaving Alcatraz. They made items such as gloves, furniture mats, and army uniforms. The laundry room occupied the entire upper floor, the largest in San Francisco at the time. Each window has 9 panes and there are 17 bays on each floor on either side.


title: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

text: Native Americans, known as Ohlone (A Miwok word), were the earliest known inhabitants of Alcatraz island. In Miwok mythology, evil spirits were said to inhabit the island. In popular culture, Alcatraz has been listed as among the top 5 allegedly "haunted" spots in California.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Cry Macho is a 2021 American neo-Western drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk and the late N. Richard Nash, based on Nash's 1975 novel. It stars Eastwood as a former rodeo star hired to reunite a young boy (Eduardo Minett) in Mexico with his father (Dwight Yoakam) in the United States. There were many attempts to adapt Nash's novel into a film over the years. Most notably, Arnold Schwarzenegger came on board to star in 2011 but canceled after a scandal. In 2020, Eastwood's adaptation was announced; he produced the film with Albert S. Ruddy, Tim Moore, and Jessica Meier.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: "Cry Macho" was filmed in the state of New Mexico; Ben Davis was the cinematographer, Mark Mancina was the composer, and Joel and David Cox were the editors. "Cry Macho" was theatrically released in the United States on September 17, 2021, by Warner Bros. Pictures with a simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service for 31 days. It was a commercial failure as it underperformed at the box office, grossing $16 million on a $33 million budget, and received mixed reviews from critics. It was met with negativity for its screenplay and positivity for its scenery and score, while Eastwood's performance divided critics.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: By 1979, Texan rodeo star Mike Milo has retired due to a severe back injury. The following year, his former boss Howard Polk hires him to travel to Mexico City and bring back Howard's 13-year-old son, Rafo. He agrees and upon entering Mexico, he meets the boy's mother, Leta, who tells him that Rafo has turned to a life of crime, participating in cockfights with a rooster named Macho. Soon after, Mike finds Rafo participating in a cockfight that is interrupted by a police raid. After the police depart, Mike tells Rafo that his father wants to see him. Intrigued, Rafo agrees to go with Mike back to Texas and leaves to pack his stuff.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: A drunk Leta tells Mike that she wants her son to stay in Mexico and threatens him. After Mike leaves, Leta orders several of her henchmen to follow him. Driving back to Texas alone, Mike discovers that Rafo has snuck into his truck with Macho. When Rafo steals his wallet and shares his desire to spend time with his father, Mike agrees to drive him to the border. During the drive there, the pair share stories about their lives, including how Leta's henchmen used to abuse Rafo, and discuss the meaning of being "macho."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: At a restaurant, Mike phones Howard and tells him that he has found Rafo. Outside of the restaurant, one of Leta's henchmen, Aurelio, tries to forcefully take Rafo and tells the locals that Mike has kidnapped him. Rafo yells out that Aurelio is a molester and they beat him up. After Mike and Rafo leave, Mike's truck is stolen by thieves. Walking to the next town Mike buys new clothes to fit in better and Rafo "borrows" an abandoned car to use. At a cantina, they meet the owner, Marta, who helps them evade police officers searching for them. They hit the road only to turn around after passing through one of the many police checkpoints along the highway. Returning to the town during a rain storm, they seek shelter in a shrine. Mike tells Rafo that he lost his wife and children in a car accident.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Recognizing the car, Marta finds them and brings them breakfast. Rafo discovers their car has a leak and Mike tells him they have to stay put for now. After coming across a ranch, Mike offers his services in helping break the wild horses, in the process teaching Rafo how to ride a horse and demonstrating his love for animals. The pair return to Marta's cafe and begin spending time with her family. On a phone call with Mike, Howard expresses his concern that Mike has been in Mexico for two weeks, longer than expected. When Aurelio and police officers show up asking for Mike and Rafo, the two sneak away, running into Marta and saying a brief goodbye. They find a new car and start their final drive to the border.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: On the highway once again, Mike notices a patrol car following them and turns off suddenly to lose the tail . Mike reveals that Howard told him over the phone that he wants to see Rafo simply to battle Leta in court for her money. An angry Rafo tries to leave but the police pull up and search their vehicle. When they find nothing, the police officers leave and the pair continues their journey. While driving, Mike tells Rafo that being "macho" is overrated and encourages him to make his own decisions in life. Rafo says he still wants to be with his father. Aurelio then finds them, runs them off the road, and holds them at gunpoint. However, Macho jumps at him enabling Mike to grab his gun. They then use Aurelio's car to make it to the border. As a final goodbye, Rafo gives Macho to Mike before reuniting with his father. Mike remains on the Mexican side of the border and returns to Marta.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: The novel "Cry Macho", which the film adapts, was originally written as a screenplay by author N. Richard Nash. Sometime in the 1970s, 20th Century Fox received the script and rejected it twice. To compensate, he reworked the material, turned it into a novel, and had it published in 1975. The novel was so well received that Nash decided to pitch the screenplay again, without changing a word, and successfully sold it to a studio. In Hollywood, producer Albert S. Ruddy spent decades trying to adapt the novel into a movie. In 1988, Ruddy gave Clint Eastwood the opportunity to star; Eastwood declined the role and suggested Robert Mitchum for the part. In 1991, an adaptation starring Roy Scheider started filming in Mexico; production was never completed. Other actors on board to star at one point included Burt Lancaster and Pierce Brosnan. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was given the option of starring in either a "Westworld" remake or a "Cry Macho" adaptation. He chose the latter and put it on hold after he was elected the governor of California. In 2011, he said his first movie after his time as governor would be "Cry Macho", with Brad Furman at the helm and filming set to take place in New Mexico. The project, however, was canceled after Schwarzenegger's divorce with Maria Shriver, following a scandal that revealed he had fathered a son a decade earlier with an employee in their household.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: In October 2020, Warner Bros. Pictures announced Eastwood would produce, direct, and star in an adaptation of the novel. The screenplay included additional contributions by Nick Schenk, who previously worked with Eastwood on "Gran Torino" (2008) and "The Mule" (2018). Principal photography began on November 4, 2020, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with cinematographer Ben Davis. Filming in the state moved to Socorro County on November 16 and concluded on November 30. In December, filming took place in Belen, New Mexico, with the Montaño's Family Restaurant there being turned into a cafe for the shoot. Crew members had to follow a variety of safety protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic, like social distancing, wearing masks, and being tested for the virus on a daily basis. The film was shot on a $33 million budget.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Filming concluded on December 15, 2020, a day ahead of schedule. The rest of the cast was revealed later that month. According to the New Mexico State Film Office, the production employed 250 crew members, 10 supporting cast members, and over 600 background extras from New Mexico. Filming locations included the counties of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Sierra, and Valencia. Eastwood recalled rehiring a young cast member who had received a false positive for the coronavirus. He mentioned the many difficulties of filming scenes with Macho, the rooster in the film, who was played by 11 birds. The film features him riding a horse, an activity he last did on film for "Unforgiven" in 1992, and said that the wrangler was worried. When asked about acting at the age of 90 and rejecting the role in 1988, Eastwood said, "I always thought I'd go back and look at that. It was something I had to grow into. One day, I just felt it was time to revisit it. It's fun when something's your age, when you don't have to work at being older." During post-production, Joel and David Cox edited the film and Mark Mancina composed the score. A soundtrack album was released by WaterTower Music on September 10, 2021, and features an original song titled "Find a New Home" written by Mancina and performed by Will Banister.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav criticized the studio's decision to finance the film. Warner Bros. executives allegedly said that though they knew the film was unlikely to turn a profit, they felt indebted to Eastwood because of his decades-long relationship with the studio and his consistent ability to deliver films under budget and on time.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: The marketing campaign for "Cry Macho" began on August 5, 2021, when two sets of "first look" images, a theatrical release poster, and a trailer were released. In a statement to "Entertainment Weekly", Eastwood said the film was about a man who "starts his life over again." Based on the promotional material, "Empire"s James White said the film would be Eastwood's "latest examination of the changing face of machismo". William Hughes from "The A.V. Club" said the trailer expressed "more heartwarming elements—advice, definitions of masculinity, cockfighting—while focusing on the relationship between Eastwood and the kid he's maybe, kind of, sort of kidnapped."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: In late August, representatives from Warner Bros. Pictures discussed how the studio would release its films in the future, said they had "found a way to make it work," and presented a pre-recorded hour-long reel showcasing their upcoming projects at CinemaCon, which included the trailer for "Cry Macho" and a special tribute piece for Eastwood. In September, several featurettes with a focus on Eastwood's career were released, featuring several clips from "Cry Macho" and Eastwood's filmography alongside recorded messages from producers Albert S. Ruddy and Tim Moore as well as Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Gene Hackman, John Lee Hancock, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, and Hilary Swank. In their review of the footage, Eric Vespe from "/Film" said, "As far as the movie it is promoting is concerned, I can't say I'm more or less excited to see it, but as a film fan, I do appreciate that we're showing Clint Eastwood the love and appreciation he deserves while he's still with us. There is something about seeing Eastwood in a cowboy hat, sitting on a horse, that just feels right, you know? It's no wonder that so much real estate is dedicated to that aspect of his new movie in this clever bit of marketing." "Yahoo! News" wrote that "it [is] safe to say that Eastwood fans will feel all kinds of emotions when they see him back in the saddle." After the film was released, however, "Forbes" said "Cry Macho" was going to flop at the box office because "the marketing allure of 'See Clint Eastwood onscreen ... one last time' was going to wear off."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: "Cry Macho" was theatrically released in the United States on September 17, 2021, by Warner Bros. Pictures with a simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service for 31 days. The film was originally set to premiere on October 22, but was pushed forward as a result of a release date shuffle with "Dune" and "The Many Saints of Newark". The film opened the 2021 Tokyo International Film Festival on October 30, 2021.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: It was released on digital formats on November 5, 2021, with a physical release on Blu-ray and DVD in addition to a manufacture-on-demand 4K Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection on December 7, 2021.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: According to Samba TV, which measures its results from a sample of three million households and only counts a view if the film was watched for at least 5 minutes, "Cry Macho" was streamed on HBO Max in 693,000 households in its first three days, tying with the viewership numbers of "In the Heights". Online audiences were generally over the age of 65 and 35% Hispanic. By the end of its first month, the film had been watched in over 1.6 million households in the United States.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: "Cry Macho" grossed $10.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $16.5 million.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: The film received a wide release in 3,967 theaters alongside "Copshop" on September 17, 2021. Box office analytics from "Variety" and "TheWrap" estimated that it would gross between $5–10 million in its opening weekend; "Boxoffice Pro" predicted a $1–5 million opening and $2–15 million total gross in the United States and Canada. "TheWrap"s Jeremy Fuster predicted older male demographics would most likely stream the film on HBO Max and would go see it in theaters only if it received positive word of mouth. In a statement to "TheWrap", Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said, "This is yet another test of the hybrid model with its own twist. While the theatrical model is generally better for bigger blockbusters, "Cry Macho" could get a serious boost from HBO Max given that the audience it is aiming for is still showing reluctance in showing up to theaters."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: The film made $4.4 million in its opening weekend for a per theater average of $1,115, finishing third at the box office. Audiences were 79% over the age of 35, 51% female, and 66% Caucasian, 14% Latino, 8% Black, and 12% Asian or other. The analytics firm EntTelligence said older patrons saw the film in theaters early in the afternoon, with 88% of all audiences showing up before 8:00pm. Additionally, early screenings cost an average of $10.77 per ticket, less than the $13 average for the limited releases of "Blue Bayou" and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye". "Variety" describes the film's poor performance at the box office as being similar to recent releases from Warner Bros. Pictures during the COVID-19 pandemic such as "Reminiscence" and "Malignant". In its second weekend, "Cry Macho" suffered a 53.8% decline and grossed $2.05 million in 4,022 theaters, placing fifth.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Worldwide, "Cry Macho" made an estimated $350,000 during its opening weekend in 585 theaters and $414,000 in its second weekend across 18 foreign markets. Two months after its original release, the film opened in the U.K. and Ireland on November 12, 2021. That same week, the film made $932,000 across 12 foreign markets. As of December 28, 2021, the film's largest markets were Spain ($835,056), Italy ($831,284), France ($810,000), Portugal ($119,096), Greece ($106,000), the U.K. ($96,742), Mexico ($95,000), Argentina ($82,000), Australia ($59,679), and the Netherlands ($33,366).


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 73% of audience members gave it a positive score.


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Several aspects of "Cry Macho" received a polarized response, including its tone, themes, and execution. "Variety" Owen Gleiberman praised Eastwood's direction for keeping the story simple "in an inoffensive and good-natured way." Glenn Kenny, writing for "RogerEbert.com", gave the film three and a half stars out of four, lauding it for its cinematography and second act, where "small events transpire in beautifully shot, unhurried scenes. The simple sincerity about what's worthwhile in life is the movie's reason for being. Nothing more and nothing less." From "The New York Times", A. O. Scott found it to be a "hangout movie with nothing much to prove and just enough to say," gave positive feedback to the film's score and scenery, and wrote about Eastwood, "If the old man's driving, my advice is to get in and enjoy the ride."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Nick Schenk's screenplay received generally negative reviews and was called "weak" by "CNN" Brian Lowry and G. Allen Johnson from the "San Francisco Chronicle". In a mixed review, David Rooney from "The Hollywood Reporter" described it as "the kind of movie where, rather than let the audience observe the gradual development of a mutual understanding, we get Eastwood's Mike Milo spelling it out." From the "Los Angeles Times", Justin Chang wrote that the film's themes tackling machismo were well-supported by the performances of the leads but said the story was repetitive and too similar to "Gran Torino" and "The Mule". "The Guardian" Benjamin Lee gave the film two stars out of five, writing that it consists of "scene after scene of nothing, not a funny line or a moving moment or an unresolved conflict, just nothing." "The New Yorker" Richard Brody added that "the movie's heartening adventure gets its retrospective, tall-tale air from its implication of narrow, quasi-miraculous escapes, from the very suggestion of its implausibility."


title: Cry Macho (film)

text: Eastwood's role in the film also divided critics. "Vulture" Bilge Ebiri said filmgoers would enjoy Eastwood's presence because of his filmography and added, "The picture doesn't always work, but it works when it has to. The same could be said for its star. Somehow, when we look at Mike, we don't see Eastwood the 91-year-old actor, but Clint the icon — not so much ageless as preserved in weathered glory, cinema's forever haunted cowboy." "The Atlantic" David Sims praised Eastwood's charm and use of the film to reflect on his career, writing that the actor has "tended toward bluntness, casting a baleful eye over his career while telling a tale of a man who still has more to learn." Oliver Jones from "The New York Observer" disagreed and said "Cry Macho" would disappoint filmgoers, leaving them with "wistful memories of what once was."


title: 666 (number)

text: In Christianity, 666 is called the "number of the beast" in (most manuscripts of) chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation of the New Testament.


title: 666 (number)

text: 666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers (formula_1, i.e. ), and thus it is a triangular number. Because 36 is also triangular, 666 is a doubly triangular number. Also, ; 15 and 21 are also triangular numbers, and .


title: 666 (number)

text: In base 10, 666 is a repdigit (and therefore a palindromic number) and a Smith number. A prime reciprocal magic square based on 1/149 in base 10 has a magic total of 666.


title: 666 (number)

text: The prime factorization of 666 is 2 ⋅ 3 ⋅ 37. Also, 666 is the sum of the squares of the first seven primes: formula_2


title: 666 (number)

text: The number of integers which are relatively prime to 666 is 6 ⋅ 6 ⋅ 6 and the number of twin primes less than formula_3 + 666 is 666.


title: 666 (number)

text: The Roman numeral for 666, DCLXVI, has exactly one occurrence of all symbols whose value is less than 1000 in decreasing order (D = 500, C = 100, L = 50, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1).


title: 666 (number)

text: In the "Textus Receptus" manuscripts of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation () cryptically asserts 666 to be "the man's number" or "the number of a man" (depending on how the text is translated) associated with the Beast, an antagonistic creature that appears briefly about two-thirds into the apocalyptic vision. Some manuscripts of the original Koine Greek use the symbols χξϛ chi xi stigma (or χξϝ with a digamma), while other manuscripts spell out the number in words.


title: 666 (number)

text: In modern popular culture, 666 has become one of the most widely recognized symbols for the Antichrist or, alternatively, the devil. Earnest references to the number occur both among apocalypticist Christian groups and in explicitly anti-Christian subcultures.


title: 666 (number)

text: References in contemporary Western art or literature are, more likely than not, intentional references to "the Beast" symbolism. Such popular references are therefore too numerous to list.


title: 666 (number)

text: It is common to see the symbolic role of the integer 666 transferred to the numerical digit sequence 6-6-6. Some people take the Satanic associations of 666 so seriously that they actively avoid things related to 666 or the digits 6-6-6. This is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.


title: 666 (number)

text: The Number of the Beast is cited as 616 in some early biblical manuscripts, the earliest known instance being in Papyrus 115.


title: 666 (number)

text: Mathematicians and others have created a meme with the square root of 666, that is 25.8069. The saying goes, "If 666 is evil, then is 25.8069 the root of all evil?"


title: Connie Stevens

text: Connie Stevens (born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia; August 8, 1938) is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn, New York City to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until age 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in rural Missouri after she witnessed a murder in the city. In 1953, at age 15, Stevens relocated with her father to Los Angeles, California.


title: Connie Stevens

text: She began her career in 1957, making her feature film debut in "Young and Dangerous", before releasing her debut album, "Concetta", the following year. She subsequently had a supporting role in the musical comedy "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (1958) opposite Jerry Lewis, followed by the drama film "The Party Crashers" (also 1958) opposite Frances Farmer.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of "Cricket" Blake on the network television series "Hawaiian Eye", beginning in 1959. She garnered concurrent musical success when her single "Sixteen Reasons" became a radio hit, peaking at number 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart in 1960. Stevens continued to appear in film and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as well as performing as a musical nightclub act.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens' later film roles include in the comedy "Tapeheads" (1988) and the drama "Love Is All There Is" (1996). In 2009, Stevens made her directorial debut with the feature film "Saving Grace B. Jones", which she also wrote and produced, based partly on elements of her own childhood.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens was born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, United States, the daughter of musician Peter Ingolia (known as Teddy Stevens) and singer Eleanor McGinley. Stevens is of Italian, Irish, German-Jewish and Polish-Jewish descent. She adopted her father's stage name of Stevens as her own. Her parents divorced and she lived with her grandparents and attended Catholic boarding schools. Actor John Megna was her half-brother.


title: Connie Stevens

text: At the age of 12, she witnessed a murder while waiting at a bus stop in Brooklyn. The event traumatized Stevens, and she was sent to live with family friends in Boonville, Missouri.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Coming from a musical family, Stevens joined the singing group called The Fourmost with Tony Butala, who went on to fame as founder of The Lettermen. Stevens moved to Los Angeles with her father in 1953.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Her first notable film role was in "Young and Dangerous" (1957) with Mark Damon, a low budget teen movie. She also was in "Eighteen and Anxious" (1957); and an episode of "The Bob Cummings Show" ("Bob Goes Hillbilly"). In December 1957 Stevens signed a seven-year contract with Paramount starting at $600 a week going up to $1,500 a week.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Jerry Lewis saw her in "Dragstrip Riot" (1958), and cast her as his love interest in his 1958 production of "Rock-A-Bye Baby", giving Stevens her first big break.


title: Connie Stevens

text: In May 1959, she signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. starting at $300 per week. Like many Warners contract players, Stevens was kept busy guest-starring on their regular TV shows such as "The Ann Sothern Show", "Maverick", "Tenderfoot", "77 Sunset Strip" and "Cheyenne".


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stardom came when she was cast as Cricket Blake in the popular television detective series "Hawaiian Eye" from 1959 to 1963, a role that made her famous; her principal costar was Robert Conrad.


title: Connie Stevens

text: First televised on December 23, 1960, she appeared (uncredited) in "The Dresden Doll", Episode 15 of Season 3 of "77 Sunset Strip" as her character from "Hawaiian Eye", Cricket Blake.


title: Connie Stevens

text: In a televised interview on August 26, 2003, on CNN's "Larry King Live", Stevens recounted that while on the set of "Hawaiian Eye" she was told she had a telephone call from Elvis Presley. "She didn't believe it, but in fact it was Elvis, who invited her to a party and said that he would come to her house and pick her up personally"; they subsequently dated.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens' first album was titled "Concetta" (1958). She had minor single hits with the standards "Blame It on My Youth" (music by Oscar Levant and lyrics by Edward Heyman), "Looking for a Boy" (music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin), and "Spring Is Here" (music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart).


title: Connie Stevens

text: She appeared opposite James Garner in a comedy episode of the TV Western series "Maverick" titled "Two Tickets to Ten Strike," and after making several appearances on the Warner Bros. hit TV series "77 Sunset Strip", she recorded the hit novelty song "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" (1959), a duet with one of the stars of the program, Edd Byrnes, that reached #4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. She and Byrnes also appeared together on ABC's "The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom".


title: Connie Stevens

text: She had hit singles as a solo artist with "Sixteen Reasons" (1960), her biggest hit, reaching #3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, (#9 in the UK) and a minor #71 hit "Too Young to Go Steady" (1960) (music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Harold Adamson). Other single releases were "Apollo","Why'd You Wanna Make Me Cry?", "Something Beautiful," "Mr. Songwriter," "Now That You've Gone," "La-La (Means I Love You)" (originally performed by The Delfonics), and "Keep Growing Strong" (which was remade by the Stylistics under the title "Betcha by Golly, Wow").


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens' popularity on the small screen and as a recording star encouraged Warner Bros. to try her in films. She starred in three films for the studio, all opposite Troy Donahue: "Parrish" (1961), as a rural girl; "Susan Slade" (1962), playing the title role, an unwed mother; and "Palm Springs Weekend" (1963), a teen romantic comedy. In 1962 Warner Bros. suspended her briefly for refusing to go on a publicity tour. She performed in "Wizard of Oz" on stage in Kansas.


title: Connie Stevens

text: When "Hawaiian Eye" ended Stevens guest-starred on "Temple Houston" and "The Red Skelton Show". She played the lead in the horror film "Two on a Guillotine" (1965), for Warners.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens later starred as Wendy Conway in the television sitcom "Wendy and Me" (1964–1965) with George Burns, who also produced the show with Warner Bros. and played an older man who watched Wendy's exploits upstairs on the TV in his apartment. She had a percentage of the show, and had three and a half years left on her contract with Warners. She said "I've done the teenage epics... and want to move up into something like "Virginia Woolf" or "Any Wednesday". I want to be a big star but do I have to throw tantrums and behave badly to get there? Can't I just be talented and work hard and be happily married?"


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens had the juvenile lead in "Never Too Late" (1965), released by Warner Bros. She signed a new contract with Warner Bros. to make one film a year for six years.


title: Connie Stevens

text: She reprised her stage performance of "Wizard of Oz" at Carousel Theatre, California, then followed it with "Any Wednesday", at Melodyland, Anaheim California. Stevens was reunited with Lewis in "Way... Way Out" (1966).


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens in 1966 starred in the Broadway production of Neil Simon's "The Star-Spangled Girl" with Anthony Perkins and Richard Benjamin. While she continued to appear in television series such as "ABC Stage 67", "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", and "Love, American Style", Stevens enjoyed performing live, so in 1968 she also began appearing regularly in nightclubs in Las Vegas, where her shows were well received by both audiences and entertainment critics.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens had a small role in a TV movie "The Littlest Angel" (1969). She made "Mister Jerico" (1970) for British TV and had a supporting role in "The Grissom Gang" (1971).


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens starred in the TV movies "Call Her Mom" (1972), "Playmates" (1972), "Every Man Needs One" (1972), and "The Sex Symbol" (1974).


title: Connie Stevens

text: In the 1970s, Stevens started singing the "Ace Is the Place" theme song on Ace Hardware TV commercials in Southern California, and was a guest on "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" a few times.


title: Connie Stevens

text: She was in "Love's Savage Fury" (1979), "Murder Can Hurt You!" (1980), "Scruples" (1980), "Aloha Paradise", "Side Show" (1981), "Harry's Battles" (1981), and "Grease 2" (1982).


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens guest starred on "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", "Hotel", "Detective in the House", "Murder, She Wrote" and "Tales from the Darkside".


title: Connie Stevens

text: She had supporting roles in "Rowdies" (1986), "Back to the Beach" (1987), "Tapeheads" (1988), and "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis" (1988).


title: Connie Stevens

text: She also was seen numerous times on the Bob Hope USO specials, including his Christmas Show from the Persian Gulf (1988).


title: Connie Stevens

text: In 1988, Stevens said "I still want to make movies with Marlon Brando. But first I've got to get hot. That's what I'm trying to do - get hot. I'm still waiting for the big role. I haven't peaked yet."


title: Connie Stevens

text: I'm a big star all over the world except in Hollywood. I play (nightclubs in) Japan and Hong Kong every Christmas and New Year's... I don't have a hit TV show, I don't have a hit record, I don't have a hit movie, but I created something that people still love. I invented Cricket. There was barely a part written for me. Half the time, I said whatever I wanted. I was everybody's daughter. I was every boy's fantasy girlfriend. Girls wanted to be like me. That good feeling still exists. That's why I'm a big business, with 17 people working for me. I may not be the richest woman in the world, but I do okay. But Hollywood is a different story... There's something wrong when an actress can come off a 'Dynasty' or a 'Falcon Crest' and get a production deal (to star in a mini-series or TV movie) and I can't.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens had a regular role on the sitcom "Starting from Scratch" (1988). She said at the time, "TV is not my favorite medium; the work is hard, you don't have any life, and I feel like I've already been a champion in it, but the economics of the business is you need momentum to get hot. I'm using this to get me into movies." The show only lasted one season.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens’ later appearances include "Ellen", "Love Is All There Is", "Baywatch", "Clueless", "" (1997), "Returning Mickey Stern", "Titus", "Wild Card", "8 Simple Rules", "Fat Actress", "The Wedding Album".


title: Connie Stevens

text: In 1997, Stevens wrote, edited, and directed a documentary entitled "A Healing", about Red Cross nurses who served during the Vietnam War. The following year it won the title of Best Film at the Santa Clarita International Film Festival. She also co-wrote and directed the thriller "Saving Grace B. Jones" (2009); it was shot in Boonville and is based on true events that Steven's witnessed there, as a child.


title: Connie Stevens

text: She also was in "Double Duty" (2009), "Just Before I Go" (2014), and "Search Engines" (2016), co-starring daughter Joely Fisher.


title: Connie Stevens

text: In 1987, she, Barbara Eden and Lee Greenwood toured with Bob Hope on his USO tour to the Persian Gulf. Among her charitable works, she founded the Windfeather project to award scholarships to Native Americans, and supports CancerGroup.com. In 1991 Stevens received the Lady of Humanities Award from Shriners Hospital and the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the Sons of Italy in Washington, D.C.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens developed her own cosmetic skin care product line, Forever Spring, and in the 1990s opened the Connie Stevens Garden Sanctuary Day Spa in Los Angeles.


title: Connie Stevens

text: In 1994, accompanied by her two daughters, she issued her first recording in several years, "Tradition: A Family at Christmas,"


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens has a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6249 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, and a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.


title: Connie Stevens

text: On September 23, 2005, Stevens was elected secretary-treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild, the union's second-highest elected position. She succeeded James Cromwell, who did not seek re-election.


title: Connie Stevens

text: On June 29, 2013, the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution's President General, Merry Ann Wright, presented Stevens with the Founder's Medal for Patriotism, for her 40+ years of work with the USO.


title: Connie Stevens

text: Stevens was married twice during her twenties: her first husband was actor James Stacy from 1963 until their 1966 divorce, and her second husband was singer Eddie Fisher from 1967 until their 1969 divorce. She is the mother of actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, and the former stepmother of Todd Fisher and late actress Carrie Fisher.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was long, with an interior height of , and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The introduction of the sheet glass method into Britain by Chance Brothers in 1832 made possible the production of large sheets of cheap but strong glass, and its use in the Crystal Palace created a structure with the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. It astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: It has been suggested that the name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold, who in July 1850 wrote in the satirical magazine "Punch" about the forthcoming Great Exhibition, referring to a "palace of very crystal".


title: The Crystal Palace

text: After the exhibition, the Palace was relocated to an area of South London known as Penge Place which had been excised from Penge Common. It was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936. The nearby residential area was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark. This included the Crystal Palace Park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, which had previously been a football stadium that hosted the FA Cup Final between 1895 and 1914. Crystal Palace F.C. were founded at the site and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The huge, modular, iron, wood and glass, structure was originally erected in Hyde Park in London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, which showcased the products of many countries throughout the world.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. An executive Building Committee was quickly formed to oversee the design and construction of the exhibition building, comprising accomplished engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson, renowned architects Charles Barry and Thomas Leverton Donaldson, the Duke of Buccleuch and the Earl of Ellesmere, and chaired by William Cubitt. By 15 March 1850 they were ready to invite submissions, which had to conform to several key specifications: the building had to be temporary, simple, as cheap as possible, and economical to build within the short time remaining before the Exhibition opening, which had already been scheduled for 1 May 1851.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hanover, Switzerland, Brunswick, Hamburg and France. Two designs, both in iron and glass, were singled out for praise—one by Richard Turner, co-designer of the Palm House at Kew, and the other by French architect Hector Horeau but despite the great number of submissions, the committee rejected them all. Turner was furious at the rejection, and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design (like Horeau's) was too expensive.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: As a last resort, the committee came up with a standby design of its own, for a brick building in the "rundbogenstil" by Donaldson, featuring a sheet-iron dome designed by Tunnel, but it was widely criticized and ridiculed when it was published in the newspapers. Adding to the committee's woes, the site for the Exhibition was still not confirmed. The preferred site was in Hyde Park, adjacent to Princes Gate near Pennington Road, but other sites considered included Wormwood Scrubs, Battersea Park, the Isle of Dogs, Victoria Park, and Regent's Park.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park (and they were strongly supported by "The Times"). The most outspoken critic was arch-conservative Col. Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp; he denounced the Exhibition as "one of the greatest humbugs, frauds and absurdities ever known", and his trenchant opposition to both the Exhibition and its building continued even after it had closed.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: At this point, renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in the project, and, with the enthusiastic backing of commission member Henry Cole, he decided to submit his own design. At this time, Paxton was chiefly known for his celebrated career as the head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House. By 1850, Paxton had become a preeminent figure in British horticulture and had also earned great renown as a freelance garden designer; his works included the pioneering public gardens at Birkenhead Park which directly influenced the design of New York's Central Park.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: At Chatsworth, he had experimented extensively with glasshouse construction, developing many novel techniques for modular construction, using combinations of standard-sized sheets of glass, laminated wood, and prefabricated cast iron. The "Great Stove" (or conservatory) at Chatsworth (built in 1836) was the first major application of his ridge-and-furrow roof design, and was at the time the largest glass building in the world, covering around .


title: The Crystal Palace

text: A decade later, taking advantage of the availability of the new cast plate glass, Paxton further developed his techniques with the Chatsworth Lily House, which featured a flat-roof version of the ridge-and-furrow glazing, and a curtain wall system that allowed the hanging of vertical bays of glass from cantilevered beams. The Lily House was built specifically to house the giant "Victoria amazonica" waterlily which had only recently been discovered by European botanists; the first specimen to reach England was originally kept at Kew Gardens, but it did not do well.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton's reputation as a gardener was so high by that time that he was invited to take the lily to Chatsworth. It thrived under his care, and in 1849 he caused a sensation in the horticultural world when he succeeded in producing the first "amazonica" flowers to be grown in England. His daughter Alice was drawn for the newspapers, standing on one of the leaves. The lily and its house led directly to Paxton's design for the Crystal Palace. He later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as a key inspiration.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton left his meeting with Henry Cole on 9 June 1850 fired with enthusiasm. He immediately went to Hyde Park, where he 'walked' the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later, on 11 June, while attending a board meeting of the Midland Railway, Paxton made his original concept drawing, which he doodled onto a sheet of pink blotting paper. This rough sketch (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum) incorporated all the basic features of the finished building, and it is a mark of Paxton's ingenuity and industriousness that detailed plans, calculations and costings were ready to submit in less than two weeks. (The statue of Albert, Prince Consort, in Perth, Scotland, was sculpted with the subject holding a plan of the Crystal Palace. The statue was unveiled by Queen Victoria in 1864.)


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The project was a major gamble for Paxton, but circumstances were in his favour: he enjoyed a stellar reputation as a garden designer and builder, he was confident that his design was perfectly suited to the brief, and the commission was now under enormous pressure to choose a design and get it built, with the Exhibition opening now being less than a year away. In the event, Paxton's design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, and it proved to be vastly faster and cheaper to build than any other form of building of a comparable size. His submission was budgeted at a remarkably low £85,800. By comparison, this was about times more than the Great Stove at Chatsworth but it was only 28 percent of the estimated cost of Turner's design, and it promised a building which, with a footprint of over , would cover roughly 25 times the ground area of its progenitor.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Impressed by the low bid for the construction contract submitted by the engineering firm Fox, Henderson and Co, the commission accepted the scheme and gave its public endorsement to Paxton's design in July 1850. He was exultant, but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the Exhibition's opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, and complete it on schedule and on budget.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: He was even able to alter the design shortly before building began, adding a high, barrel-vaulted transept across the centre of the building, at 90 degrees to the main gallery, under which he was able to safely enclose several large elm trees that would otherwise have had to be felled—thereby also resolving a controversial issue that had been a major sticking point for the vocal anti-Exhibition lobby.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton's modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. It incorporated many breakthroughs, offered practical advantages that no conventional building could match and, above all, embodied the spirit of British innovation and industrial might that the Great Exhibition was intended to celebrate.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The geometry of the Crystal Palace was a classic example of the concept of form following manufacturer's limitations: the shape and size of the whole building was directly based around the size of the panes of glass made by the supplier, Chance Brothers of Smethwick. These were the largest available at the time, measuring wide by long. Because the entire building was scaled around those dimensions, it meant that nearly the whole outer surface could be glazed using millions of identical panes, thereby drastically reducing both their production cost and the time needed to install them.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the main axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a flat-profile roof, except for the central transept, which was covered by a barrel-vaulted roof that stood high at the top of the arch. Both the flat-profile sections and the arched transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxton's design: his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system, which had first seen use at Chatsworth. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took the form of a long triangular prism, which made it both extremely light and very strong, and meant it could be built with the minimum amount of materials.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton set the dimensions of this prism by using the length of single pane of glass () as the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, thereby creating a triangle with a length-to-height ratio of 2.5:1, whose base (adjacent side) was long. By mirroring this triangle he obtained the gables that formed the vertical faces at either end of the prism, each of which was long. With this arrangement, Paxton could glaze the entire roof surface with identical panes that did not need to be trimmed. Paxton placed three of these by roof units side-by-side, horizontally supported by a grid of cast iron beams, which was held up on slim cast iron pillars. The resulting cube, with a floor area of by , formed the basic structural module of the building.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: By multiplying these modules into a grid, the structure could be extended virtually indefinitely. In its original form, the ground level of the Crystal Palace (in plan) measured by , which equates to a grid 77 modules long by 19 modules wide. As each module was self-supporting, Paxton was able to leave out modules in some areas, creating larger square or rectangular spaces within the building to accommodate larger exhibits. On the lower level, these larger spaces were covered by the floor above, and on the upper level by longer spans of roofing, but the dimensions of these larger spaces were always multiples of the basic by grid unit.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The modules were also strong enough to be stacked vertically, enabling Paxton to add an upper floor that nearly doubled the amount of available exhibition space. The first floor galleries were double the height of the ground floor galleries below, and the Crystal Palace could theoretically have accommodated a full second-floor gallery, but this space was left open. Paxton also used longer trellis girders to create a clear span for the roof of the immense central gallery, which was wide and long.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton's roofing system incorporated his elegant solution to the problem of draining the building's vast roof area. Like the Chatsworth Lily House (but unlike its later incarnation at Sydenham) most of the roof of the original Hyde Park structure had a horizontal profile, so heavy rain posed a potentially serious safety hazard. Because normal cast glass is brittle and has low tensile strength, there was a risk that the weight of any excess water build-up on the roof might have caused panes to shatter, showering shards of glass onto the patrons, ruining the valuable exhibits beneath, and weakening the structure.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton's ridge-and-furrow roof was designed to shed water very effectively. Rain ran off the angled glass roof panes into U-shaped timber channels which ran the length of each roof section at the bottom of the 'furrow'. These channels were ingeniously multifunctional. During construction, they served as the rails that supported and guided the trolleys on which the glaziers sat as they installed the roofing. Once completed, the channels acted both as the joists that supported the roof sections, and as guttering—a patented design now widely known as a "Paxton gutter".


title: The Crystal Palace

text: These gutters conducted the rainwater to the ends of each furrow, where they emptied into the larger main gutters, which were set at right angles to the smaller gutters, along the top of the main horizontal roof bearers. These main gutters drained at either end into the cast iron pillars, which also had an ingenious dual function: each was cast with a hollow core, allowing it to double as a concealed down-pipe that carried the storm-water down into the drains beneath the building.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: One of the few issues Paxton could not completely solve was leaks—when completed, rain was found to be leaking into the huge building in over a thousand places. The leaks were sealed with putty, but the relatively poor quality of the sealant materials available at that time meant that the problem was never totally overcome.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: To maintain a comfortable temperature inside such a large glass building was another major challenge, because the Great Exhibition took place decades before the introduction of mains electricity and air-conditioning. Glasshouses rely on the fact that they accumulate and retain heat from the sun, but such heat buildup would have been a major problem for the Exhibition. This would have been exacerbated by the heat produced by the thousands of people who would be in the building at any given time.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton solved this with two clever strategies. One was to install external canvas shade-cloths that were stretched across the roof ridges. These served multiple functions: they reduced heat transmission, moderated and softened the light coming into the building, and acted as a primitive evaporative cooling system when water was sprayed onto them. The other part of the solution was Paxton's ingenious ventilation system. Each of the modules that formed the outer walls of the building was fitted with a prefabricated set of louvres that could be opened and closed using a gear mechanism, allowing hot stale air to escape. The flooring consisted of boards wide, which were spaced about apart; together with the louvres, this formed an effective passive air-conditioning system. Because of the pressure differential, the hot air escaping from the louvres generated a constant airflow that drew cooler air up through the gaps in the floor.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The floor too had a dual function: the gaps between the boards acted as a grating that allowed dust and small pieces of refuse to fall or be swept through them onto the ground beneath, where it was collected daily by a team of cleaning boys. Paxton also designed machines to sweep the floors at the end of each day. But in practice, it was found that the trailing skirts of the female visitors did the job perfectly.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Thanks to the considerable economies of scale Paxton was able to exploit, the manufacture and assembly of the building parts was exceedingly quick and cheap. Each module was identical, fully prefabricated, self-supporting, and fast and easy to erect. All of the parts could be mass-produced in large numbers, and many parts served multiple functions, further reducing both the number of parts needed and their overall cost. Because of its comparatively low weight, the Crystal Palace required absolutely no heavy masonry for supporting walls or foundations.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The relatively light concrete footings on which it stood could be left in the ground once the building was removed (they remain in place today just beneath the surface of the site). The modules could be erected as quickly as the parts could reach the site— some sections were standing within eighteen hours of leaving the factory—and since each unit was self-supporting, workers were able to assemble much of the building section-by-section, without having to wait for other parts to be finished.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Fox, Henderson and co took possession of the site in July 1850 and erected wooden hoardings which were constructed using the timber that later became the floorboards of the finished building. More than 5,000 navvies worked on the building during its construction, with up to 2,000 on site at one time during the peak building phase. More than 1,000 iron columns supported 2,224 trellis girders and 30 miles of guttering, comprising 4,000 tons of iron in all.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Firstly stakes were driven into the ground to roughly mark out the positions for the cast iron columns; these points were then set precisely by theodolite measurements. Then the concrete foundations were poured, and the base plates for the columns were set into them. Once the foundations were in place, the erection of the modules proceeded rapidly. Connector brackets were attached to the top of each column before erection, and these were then hoisted into position.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The project took place before the development of powered cranes; the raising of the columns was done manually using shear legs (or shears), a simple crane mechanism. These consisted of two strong poles, which were set several meters apart at the base and then lashed together at the top to form a triangle; this was stabilized and kept vertical by guy ropes fixed to the apex, stretched taut and tied to stakes driven into the ground some distance away. Using pulleys and ropes hung from the apex of the shear, the navvies hoisted the columns, girders and other parts into place.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: As soon as two adjacent columns had been erected, a girder was hoisted into place between them and bolted onto the connectors. The columns were erected in opposite pairs, then two more girders were connected to form a self-supporting square—this was the basic frame of each module. The shears would then be moved along and an adjoining bay constructed. When a reasonable number of bays had been completed, the columns for the upper floor were erected (longer shear-legs were used for this, but the operation was essentially the same as for the ground floor). Once the ground floor structure was complete, the final assembly of the upper floor followed rapidly.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: For the glazing, Paxton used larger versions of machines he had originally devised for the Great Stove at Chatsworth, installing on-site production line systems, powered by steam engines, that dressed and finished the building parts. These included a machine that mechanically grooved the wooden window sash bars, and a painting machine that automatically dipped the parts in paint and then passed them through a series of rotating brushes to remove the excess.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The last major components to be put into place were the sixteen semi-circular ribs of the vaulted transept, which were also the only major structural parts that were made of wood. These were raised into position as eight pairs, and all were fixed into place within a week. Thanks to the simplicity of Paxton's design and the combined efficiency of the building contractor and their suppliers, the entire structure was assembled with extraordinary speed—the team of 80 glaziers could fix more than 18,000 panes of sheet glass in a week—and the building was complete and ready to receive exhibits in just five months.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: When completed, the Crystal Palace provided an unrivalled space for exhibits, since it was essentially a self-supporting shell standing on slim iron columns, with no internal structural walls whatsoever. Because it was covered almost entirely in glass, it also needed no artificial lighting during the day, thereby reducing the Exhibition's running costs.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Full-size elm trees growing in the park were enclosed within the central exhibition hall near the tall Crystal Fountain. However this caused a problem with sparrows becoming a nuisance and shooting was out of the question inside a glass building. Queen Victoria mentioned this problem to the Duke of Wellington, who offered the solution, "Sparrowhawks, Ma'am".


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Paxton was acclaimed worldwide for his achievement, and was knighted by Queen Victoria in recognition of his work. The project was engineered by Sir William Cubitt; Paxton's construction partner was the ironwork contractor Sir Charles Fox's Fox and Henderson, whose director Charles Fox was also knighted for his contribution. The 900,000 square feet (84,000 m) of glass was provided by the Chance Brothers glassworks in Smethwick. This was the only glassworks capable of fulfilling such a large order; it had to bring in labour from France to fulfil the order in time. The final dimensions were long by wide. The building was high, with on the ground floor alone.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The Great Exhibition was opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria. It was the first of the World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry. There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than ten miles, by over 15,000 contributors. Britain occupied half the display space inside with exhibits from the home country and the Empire. France was the largest foreign contributor. The exhibits were grouped into four main categories—Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufacturers and Fine Arts. The exhibits ranged from the Koh-i-Noor diamond, Sevres porcelain and music organs to a massive hydraulic press and a fire-engine. There was also a 27-foot tall Crystal Fountain.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: In the first week, the prices were £1; they were then reduced to five shillings for the next three weeks, a price which still effectively limited entrance to middle-class and aristocratic visitors. The working classes finally came to the exhibition on Monday 26 May, when weekday prices were reduced to one shilling (although the price was two shillings and sixpence on Fridays, and still five shillings on Saturdays). Over six million admissions were counted at the toll-gates, although the proportion which were repeat/returning visitors is not known. The event made a surplus of £186,000 (equivalent to £), money which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The Crystal Palace had the first major installation of public toilets, the "Retiring Rooms", in which sanitary engineer George Jennings installed his "Monkey Closet" flushing lavatory (initially just for men, but later catering for women also). During the exhibition, 827,280 visitors each paid one penny to use them. It is often suggested that the euphemism "spending a penny" originated at the Exhibition but the phrase is more likely to date from the 1890s when public lavatories, fitted with penny-coin-operated locks, were first established by British local authorities.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The life of the Great Exhibition was limited to six months, after which something had to be decided on the future of the Palace building. Against the wishes of Parliamentary opponents, a consortium of eight businessmen, including Samuel Laing and Leo Schuster, who were both board members of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), formed a suitable holding company and proposed that the edifice be taken down and relocated to a property named Penge Place, which had been excised from Penge Common at the top of Sydenham Hill.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The reconstruction of the Palace began on Sydenham Hill in 1852. The new building, while incorporating most of the constructional parts of the original Hyde Park building, was so completely different in form as to be properly considered a quite different structure – a 'Beaux-arts' form in glass and metal. The main gallery was redesigned and covered with a new barrel-vaulted roof, the central transept was greatly enlarged and made even higher, the large arch of the main entrance was framed by a new facade and served by an imposing set of terraces and stairways. The building measured feet in length by feet across the transepts.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The new building, unlike the Hyde Park building, was elevated several metres above the surrounding grounds, and two large new transepts were added at either end of the main gallery. The building was modified and enlarged so much that it extended beyond the boundary of Penge Place, which was also the boundary between Surrey and Kent. The reconstruction was recorded for posterity by Philip Henry Delamotte, and his photographs were widely disseminated in his published works. The Crystal Palace Company also commissioned Negretti and Zambra to produce stereographs of the interior and grounds of the new building.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Within two years the rebuilt Palace building was complete, and on 10 June 1854, Queen Victoria again performed an opening ceremony, in the presence of 40,000 guests.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Several localities claim to be the area to which the building was moved. The street address of the Crystal Palace was Sydenham (SE26) after 1917, but the actual building and parklands were in Penge. When built, most of the buildings were in the County of Surrey, as were the majority of grounds, but in 1899 the county boundary was moved, transferring the entire site to Penge Urban District in Kent. The site is now within the Crystal Palace Ward of the London Borough of Bromley.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The Low Level Station is still in use as , while the only remains of the High Level Station are the subway under the Parade with its Italian mosaic roofing, a Grade II* listed building.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The South Gate is served by Penge West railway station. For some time this station was on an atmospheric railway. This is often confused with a 550-metre pneumatic passenger railway which was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1864, which was known as the Crystal Palace pneumatic railway.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Dozens of experts such as Matthew Digby Wyatt and Owen Jones were hired to create a series of courts that provided a narrative of the history of fine art. Amongst these were Augustus Pugin's Mediaeval Court from the Great Exhibition, as well as courts illustrating Egyptian, Alhambra, Roman, Renaissance, Pompeian, and Grecian art and many others. During the year of re-opening, 18 handbooks were published in the Crystal Palace Library by Bradbury & Evans as guides to the new installations.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Many of these were written by the specialists involved in creating and curating the new displays. So the 1854 guide to the Egyptian Court, destroyed in the 1866 fire, was entitled: 'The Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace. Described by Owen Jones, architect, and Joseph Bonomi, sculptor'. That which included a description of the dinosaurs was entitled: 'Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World. Described by Richard Owen, FRS. The animals constructed by B.W.Hawkins, FGS'.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: In the central transept was the 4,000-piece Grand Orchestra built around the 4,500-pipe Great Organ. There was a concert room with over 4,000 seats that hosted successful Handel Festivals for many years. The performance spaces hosted concerts, exhibits, and public entertainment. Many famous people visited the Palace especially during its early years, including the likes of Emma Darwin, the wife of Charles Darwin who noted in her diary on 10 June 1854, "Opening Crystal Pal".


title: The Crystal Palace

text: The Centre Transept of the Crystal Palace also once housed a circus and was the scene of daring feats by acts such as the tightrope walker Charles Blondin. Over the years, many world leaders visited and were accorded special festivals, with extended published programs. That for Garibaldi was entitled "General Garibaldi's Italian Reception and Concert Saturday April 16, 1864"; and that for the Shah: "Crystal Palace. Grand Fête in honour of His Majesty The Shah of Persia KG. Saturday July 6th" (1889).


title: The Crystal Palace

text: From the beginning general programmes were printed, at first for the summer season, and then on a daily basis. So, for instance, that for the summer of 1864 ("Programme of arrangements for the eleventh season, commencing on the 1st May, 1864") included the Shakespeare Tercentenary Festival and a course by designer Christopher Dresser. The daily "Programme for Monday October 6th (1873)" included a harvest exhibition of fruit, and the Australasian Collection, formed by H E Pain, of materials from Tasmania, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Australia and New Zealand; and a grand military fete was also on offer.


title: The Crystal Palace

text: Many of these publications were printed by Dickens and Evans—that, is Charles Dickens Jr, Dickens' son working with his father-in-law Frederick Evans. Another feature of the early programming were Christmas pantomimes, with published librettos, for example Harry Lemon's 'Dick Whittington and His Wonderful Cat. Crystal Palace Christmas 1869–70' (London 1869).