title: Robert Hardy

text: Hardy played both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, each on more than one occasion. He played Churchill most notably in "" (1981), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award, but also in "The Sittaford Mystery", "Bomber Harris" and "War and Remembrance". On 20 August 2010, he read Churchill's famous wartime address "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the speech. He played Roosevelt in the BBC serial, "Bertie and Elizabeth", and in the French TV mini-series, "Le Grand Charles", about the life of Charles de Gaulle. He also played Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in "Elizabeth R", and took the role of Sir John Middleton in the 1995 film version of "Sense and Sensibility".


title: Robert Hardy

text: His big screen roles included Professor Krempe in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge in the ""Harry Potter" films.


title: Robert Hardy

text: His voice performance as Robin Hood in "Tale Spinners For Children", an LP from the 1960s, is considered one of the best Robin Hood renditions. His voice was also the voice of D'Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers", and of Frédéric Chopin, in "The Story of Chopin".


title: Robert Hardy

text: Hardy was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours.


title: Robert Hardy

text: His first marriage, in 1952, was to Elizabeth Fox, the daughter of Sir Lionel Fox; they had a son, Paul. This marriage ended in 1956. In 1961 he married Sally Pearson, the daughter of the baronet Sir Neville Pearson and Dame Gladys Cooper as well as a half-sister of John Buckmaster and a sister-in-law of Robert Morley. From this marriage, which ended in 1986, Hardy had two other children, one of whom is Justine Hardy, a journalist, activist and psychotherapist who founded Healing Kashmir.


title: Robert Hardy

text: He was a close friend of actor Richard Burton, whom he met at Oxford University. He shared some memories of their wartime friendship and read extracts from Burton's newly published diaries at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2012.


title: Robert Hardy

text: While playing Henry V, Hardy developed an interest in medieval warfare, and in 1963 he wrote and presented an acclaimed television documentary on the subject of the Battle of Agincourt. He also wrote two books on the subject of the longbow, "Longbow: A Social and Military History" and "The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose" with Matthew Strickland. He was one of the experts consulted by the archaeologist responsible for raising the "Mary Rose". He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers of the City of London from 1988 to 1990. In 1996 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.


title: Robert Hardy

text: In February 2013, Hardy withdrew from his scheduled performance as Winston Churchill in Peter Morgan's play, "The Audience", after suffering cracked ribs as the result of a fall.


The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium in the fifteenth century. Volume I was published in 1776 and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, and VI in 1788–1789.


title: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

text: The six volumes cover the history, from 98 to 1590, of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and then of the Roman State Church, and the history of Europe, and discusses the decline of the Roman Empire among other things.


text: Gibbon offers an explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to attempt it.


text: According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens.


text: He began an ongoing controversy about the role of Christianity, but he gave great weight to other causes of internal decline and to attacks from outside the Empire.


text: Like other Enlightenment thinkers and British citizens of the age steeped in institutional anti-Catholicism, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious Dark Age. It was not until his own era, the "Age of Reason", with its emphasis on rational thought, it was believed, that human history could resume its progress.


text: Gibbon's tone was detached, dispassionate, and yet critical. He can lapse into moralisation and aphorism:


text: Numerous tracts were published criticising his work. In response, Gibbon defended his work with the 1779 publication of "A Vindication ... of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".


text: Edward Gibbon's central thesis in his explanation of how the Roman Empire fell, that it was due to embracing Christianity, is not widely accepted by scholars today. Gibbon argued that with the empire's new Christian character, large sums of wealth that would have otherwise been used in the secular affairs in promoting the state were transferred to promoting the activities of the Church. However, the pre-Christian empire also spent large financial sums on religious affairs and it is unclear whether or not the change of religion increased the amount of resources the empire spent on religion. Gibbon further argued that new attitudes in Christianity caused many Christians of wealth to renounce their lifestyles and enter a monastic lifestyle, and so stop participating in the support of the empire. However, while many Christians of wealth did become monastics, this paled in comparison to the participants in the imperial bureaucracy. Although Gibbon further pointed out that the importance Christianity placed on peace caused a decline in the number of people serving the military, the decline was so small as to be negligible for the army's effectiveness.


text: Gibbon's apparent antagonism to Christian doctrine spilled over into the Jewish faith, leading to charges of anti-Semitism. For example, he wrote:From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of mankind.


text: John Julius Norwich, despite his admiration for Gibbon's furthering of historical methodology, considered his hostile views on the Byzantine Empire flawed, and blamed him somewhat for the lack of interest shown in the subject throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. This view might well be admitted by Gibbon himself: "But it is not my intention to expatiate with the same minuteness on the whole series of the Byzantine history." However, the Russian historian George Ostrogorsky wrote, "Gibbon and Lebeau were genuine historians – and Gibbon a very great one – and their works, in spite of factual inadequacy, rank high for their presentation of their material."


text: Gibbon was critical of the Quran and Muhammad. He outlined in chapter 33 the widespread tale of the Seven Sleepers, and remarked "This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, as a divine revelation, into the Quran." His presentation of Muhammad's life again reflected his anti-Islamic views: "in his private conduct, Mahomet indulged the appetites of a man, and abused the claims of a prophet. A special revelation dispensed him from the laws which he had imposed on his nation: the female sex, without reserve, was abandoned to his desires; and this singular prerogative excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration, rather than the envy, of the devout Mussulmans."


text: Gibbon has been accused of antisemitism. He has described the Jews as "a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of humankind."


text: Gibbon challenged Church history by estimating far smaller numbers of Christian martyrs than had been traditionally accepted. The Church's version of its early history had rarely been questioned before. Gibbon, however, knew that modern Church writings were secondary sources, and he shunned them in favour of primary sources.


text: Gibbon's work was originally published in sections, as was common for large works at the time. The first two volumes were well-received and widely praised, but with the publication of volume 3, Gibbon was attacked by some as a "paganist" because he argued that Christianity (or at least the abuse of it by some of the clergy and its followers) had hastened the fall of the Roman Empire, as seen in this extended quote from chapter 38, part VI of Volume 3:


text: Voltaire was deemed to have influenced Gibbon's claim that Christianity was a contributor to the fall of the Roman Empire. As one pro-Christian commentator put it in 1840:


text: Gibbon's initial plan was to write a history ""of the decline and fall of the "city" of Rome"", and only later expanded his scope to the whole Roman Empire: If I prosecute this "History", I shall not be unmindful of the decline and fall of the "city" of Rome; an interesting object, to which my plan was originally confined.


text: Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted much of his life to this one work (1772–1789). His autobiography "Memoirs of My Life and Writings" is devoted largely to his reflections on how the book virtually "became" his life. He compared the publication of each succeeding volume to a newborn child.


text: Gibbon continued to revise and change his work even after publication. The complexities of the problem are addressed in Womersley's introduction and appendices to his complete edition.


text: Many writers have used variations on the series title (including using "Rise and Fall" in place of "Decline and Fall"), especially when dealing with a large polity that has imperial characteristics. Piers Brendon notes that Gibbon's work "became the essential guide for Britons anxious to plot their own imperial trajectory. They found the key to understanding the British Empire in the ruins of Rome."


text: The title and author are also cited in Noël Coward's comedic poem "I Went to a Marvellous Party", and in the poem "The Foundation of Science Fiction Success", Isaac Asimov acknowledged that his "Foundation" series – an epic tale of the fall and rebuilding of a galactic empire – was written ""with a tiny bit of cribbin' / from the works of Edward Gibbon"". Feminist science fiction author Sheri S. Tepper gave one of her novels the title "Gibbon's Decline and Fall".


text: In 1995, an established journal of classical scholarship, "Classics Ireland", published punk musician Iggy Pop's reflections on the applicability of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to the modern world in a short article, "Caesar Lives", (vol. 2, 1995) in which he asserted:America is Rome. Of course, why shouldn't it be? We are all Roman children, for better or worse ... I learn much about the way our society really works, because the system-origins – military, religious, political, colonial, agricultural, financial – are all there to be scrutinised in their infancy. I have gained perspective.


title: Freon

text: Freon ( ) is a registered trademark of the Chemours Company and generic descriptor for a number of halocarbon products. They are stable, nonflammable, low toxicity gases or liquids which have generally been used as refrigerants and as aerosol propellants. These include the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that cause ozone depletion and HCFCs (such as chlorodifluoromethane). Not all refrigerants of this type are labelled as "Freon" since Freon is a brand name for the refrigerants R-12, R-13B1, R-22, R-410A, R-502, and R-503 manufactured by The Chemours Company. Freon emits a strong chemical smell similar to acetone, a nail polish remover component.


title: Freon

text: The first CFCs were synthesized by Frédéric Swarts in the 1890s. In the late 1920s, a research team was formed by Charles Franklin Kettering in General Motors to find a replacement for the dangerous refrigerants then in use, such as ammonia. The team was headed by Thomas Midgley, Jr. In 1928, they improved the synthesis of CFCs and demonstrated their usefulness for such a purpose and their stability and nontoxicity. Kettering patented a refrigerating apparatus to use the gas; this was issued to Frigidaire, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors.


title: Freon

text: In 1930, General Motors and DuPont formed Kinetic Chemicals to produce Freon. Their product was dichlorodifluoromethane and is now designated "Freon-12", "R-12", or "CFC-12". The number after the R is a refrigerant class number developed by DuPont to systematically identify single halogenated hydrocarbons, as well as other refrigerants besides halocarbons.


title: Freon

text: Most uses of CFCs are now banned or severely restricted by the Montreal Protocol of August 1987, as they have been shown to be responsible for ozone depletion. Brands of freon containing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) instead have replaced many uses, but they, too, are under strict control under the Kyoto Protocol, as they are deemed "super-greenhouse effect" gases.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Robert James Keeshan (June 27, 1927 – January 23, 2004) was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program "Captain Kangaroo", which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. He also played the original Clarabell the Clown on the "Howdy Doody" television program.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan was born to Irish parents in Lynbrook, New York. After an early graduation in 1945 from Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York, during World War II, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, but was still in the United States when Japan surrendered. He attended Fordham University on the GI Bill. He received his bachelor's degree in education in 1951.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: An urban legend claims that actor Lee Marvin said on "The Tonight Show" that he had fought alongside Keeshan at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Over time this legend has been published verbatim. Other legends had compounded on it, such that Keeshan was a trained killer, that he was awarded the Navy Cross, that he was a tough sergeant who saved the lives of dozens of men and women in the war, and that he destroyed a German tank in action in North Africa (an apparent confusion with a similarly named British soldier). However, Marvin never made the statement (he never served in Iwo Jima, but was wounded during the Battle of Saipan). Keeshan never saw combat in Europe or Japan, having enlisted too late to serve overseas. The Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C, still receives calls asking for verification of Keeshan's "heroic" war service. Keeshan continuously dispelled the rumors.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Network television programs began shortly after the end of the war. "Howdy Doody", which premiered in 1947 on NBC, was one of the first. Starting on January 3, 1948, Keeshan played Clarabell the Clown, a silent Auguste clown who communicated by honking several horns attached to a belt around his waist. One honk meant "yes"; two meant "no". Clarabell often sprayed Buffalo Bob Smith with a seltzer bottle and played practical jokes. Keeshan had conflicts with Smith and in late 1952 left the show, or possibly was fired, after hiring an agent for himself and other workers on the show.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: By September 21, 1953, Keeshan came back to local TV on WABC-TV, Channel 7 in New York City, in a new children's show, "Time for Fun". He played Corny the Clown, and this time he spoke. Later that same year, in addition to "Time for Fun", he began "Tinker's Workshop", a program aimed at preschoolers, where he played the grandfather-like Tinker.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Developing ideas from "Tinker's Workshop", Keeshan and his long-time friend Jack Miller submitted the concept of "Captain Kangaroo" to the CBS network, which was looking for innovative approaches to children's television programming. CBS approved the show, and Keeshan starred as the title character when it premiered on CBS on October 3, 1955. He described his character as based on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children". The show was an immediate success, and he served as its host for nearly three decades.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Recurring characters included his sidekick (and fan favorite) Mr. Green Jeans (played by Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum), Dennis (played by Cosmo Allegretti), and puppets such as Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: "The New York Times" commented: "Captain Kangaroo, a round-faced, pleasant, mustachioed man possessed of an unshakable calm ... was one of the most enduring characters television ever produced."


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan also had a Saturday morning show called "Mister Mayor" during the 1964–65 season. Keeshan, in his role as the central characters in both "Captain Kangaroo" and "Mister Mayor", heavily promoted the products of the Schwinn Bicycle Co., a sponsor, directly on-air to his audience. By 1972, he had introduced another character on "Captain Kangaroo" to recommend Schwinn products: Mr. Schwinn Dealer, due to the Federal Trade Commission ruling against children's show hosts directly endorsing their sponsor's products during their programs after 1969.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan had a longtime close friendship with Fred Rogers of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". Each paid visits to the other's show in 1970, and they appeared together on the PBS special "Springtime with Mister Rogers" in 1980. The following year, Rogers appeared briefly in Keeshan's TV special "Good Evening, Captain" (following Keeshan's 1981 heart attack); Rogers and Dick Clark presented Keeshan with flowers at the end of the show.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan did voice recordings for a number of albums for Columbia Records, Golden Records and RCA-Victor. Several were of children's songs performed with other characters from "Captain Kangaroo", but other albums included "A Child's Introduction to Jazz", narration for "Peter and the Wolf" conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and "Captain Kangaroo Introduces You to the Nutcracker Suite".


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan suffered a severe heart attack just moments after stepping off a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport on July 11, 1981, which pushed the start of a revamped version of his show back to at least mid-August. He had come to the city to accept a children's service award.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan underwent triple-bypass surgery and received an estimated 5,000 get-well wishes from fans during his hospitalization.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Following the heart attack, Keeshan received three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in 1982, 1983, and 1984. Despite these accolades, Keeshan's show was shortened from its hour-long format to 30 minutes in 1981, to make room for the expansion of the "CBS Morning News" lineup. The program was retitled "Wake Up with the Captain", and moved to a new 7:00 am time slot. At the start of 1982, the show was rescheduled to an even earlier slot of 6:30 am. In the fall of 1982, CBS installed it as a weekend-only hour offering, and two years later, in the fall of 1984, the show became a Saturday half-hour entry.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Tired of CBS's constant reductions of his show, Keeshan left "Captain Kangaroo" when his contract with the network ended in December 1984, just nine months shy of the show's 30th anniversary. By 1987, repeats of the show were airing daily on many PBS stations.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan's show was given a farewell of sorts with "Captain Kangaroo and Friends", a primetime network TV special that aired in 1985.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: After "Captain Kangaroo" ended, Keeshan hosted 1985's "CBS Storybreak", which featured animated versions of children's literature. He appeared in framing sequences for the animated stories, showcasing the book versions and suggesting similar books for the viewers to seek out. In 1987, he founded Corporate Family Solutions with former Tennessee Republican Governor Lamar Alexander, which provided day-care programs to businesses.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan resided on Melbury Road in Babylon Village, Long Island, New York, before moving to spend the last 14 years of his life in Norwich, Vermont, where he became a children's advocate, as well as an author. His memoirs, "Good Morning, Captain", were published in 1995 by Fairview Press. He was a strong advocate against video game violence and took part in congressional hearings in 1993. He also joined with parents' groups in the 1980s who protested children's TV shows based on toys like He-Man and Transformers, feeling that toys turned into TV shows did not teach children anything about the real world. He also made a rare film appearance in "The Stupids" in 1996.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: In 1997, he starred as the Wizard in the St. Louis Muny outdoor theater production of "The Wizard of Oz".


title: Bob Keeshan

text: In the 1990s, Keeshan expressed an interest in bringing back a new version of "Captain Kangaroo" as a gentler and kinder answer to the violent cartoons on children's television. Despite having sponsors and television stations lined up, he was unable to obtain permission from ICM, the company that owned the rights to "Captain Kangaroo" at that time.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan was married to Anne Jeanne Laurie Keeshan for 45 years, ending at her death February 25, 1996. They had three children: Michael Derek, Laurie Margaret, and Maeve Jeanne.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Bob Keeshan died in Windsor, Vermont, on January 23, 2004, at age 76. He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery in Babylon, New York.


title: Bob Keeshan

text: Keeshan's grandson, Britton Keeshan, became the youngest person at that time to have climbed the Seven Summits by climbing Mount Everest in May 2004. He carried photographs of his grandfather on that ascent, and he buried a photo of the two of them at the summit.


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: Extracurricular () is a South Korean streaming television series directed by Kim Jin-min, starring Kim Dong-hee, Park Ju-hyun, Jung Da-bin, Nam Yoon-su, Choi Min-soo, Park Hyuk-kwon, and Kim Yeo-jin. It was released on Netflix on April 29, 2020.


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: On April 22, 2019, Netflix announced through a press release that it would distribute a new Korean original series entitled "Extracurricular" and produced by Studio 329, confirming at the same time that the main cast would consist of Kim Dong-hee, Jung Da-bin, Park Ju-hyun, Nam Yoon-soo, Choi Min-soo, Park Hyuk-kwon and Kim Yeo-jin. The series is written by Song Ji-na's son Jin Han-sae and directed by Kim Jin-min, whose wife Kim Yeo-jin is starring in the series.


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: On April 28, 2020, the press conference was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic, in presence of actors Kim Dong-hee, Jung Da-bin, Park Ju-hyun and Nam Yoon-soo, executive producer (and Studio 329's CEO) Yoon Shin-ae, and director Kim Jin-min. The series being released a few months after the Nth room case opened, director Kim said that "the incident was so shocking that [he] felt frightened. "Extracurricular" could become an opportunity to discuss this uncomfortable reality. As a creator, [he] felt [he] had to deal with the issues of our society with more depth and responsibility."


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: On April 29, some of the cast and crew attended a special one-day class by Professors Kwon Il-yong (South Korea's first profiler), Park Mi-rang (a criminologist) and Seo Min-soo (from the Police Human Resources Development Institute), which was broadcast live on Netflix Korea's YouTube and V Live channels. They discussed the reality of youth crime in society.


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: On March 19, 2020, Netflix Korea announced through Twitter that the series would be released on April 29. On April 16, the official trailer was released.


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: John Serba of "Decider" said that ""Extracurricular" is good, funny stuff. The debut episode's near-miss ending isn't entirely satisfying, but that's not likely to stop you from binging the crap out of this show."


title: Extracurricular (TV series)

text: The series has also "gained rave reviews for its clear depiction of the struggles of teenage students."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Everette Howard Hunt Jr. (October 9, 1918 – January 23, 2007) was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), particularly in the United States involvement in regime change in Latin America including the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Along with G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Sturgis, and others, Hunt was one of the Nixon administration "plumbers", a team of operatives charged with identifying government sources of national security information "leaks" to outside parties. Hunt and Liddy plotted the Watergate burglaries and other clandestine operations for the Nixon administration. In the ensuing Watergate scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison. After release, Hunt lived in Mexico and then Florida until his death.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt was born in Hamburg, New York, United States, the son of Ethel Jean (Totterdale) and Everette Howard Hunt Sr., an attorney and Republican Party official. He graduated from Hamburg High School in 1936 and Brown University in 1940. During World War II, Hunt served in the U.S. Navy on the destroyer USS "Mayo", the United States Army Air Corps, and finally, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, in China.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt was a prolific author, having published 73 books during his lifetime. During and after the war, he wrote several novels under his own name, including "East of Farewell" (1942), "Limit of Darkness" (1944), "Stranger in Town" (1947), "Maelstrom" (1949) "Bimini Run" (1949), and "The Violent Ones" (1950). He also wrote spy and hardboiled novels under an array of pseudonyms, including Robert Dietrich, Gordon Davis, David St. John, and P. S. Donoghue. Hunt won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his writing in 1946. Some have found parallels between his writings and his experiences during Watergate and espionage. He continued his writing career after he was released from prison, publishing nearly twenty spy thrillers between 1980 and 2000.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Prior to 1949, Hunt served as an Officer in the Information Division of the Economic Cooperation Administration, a predecessor of the Mutual Security Agency.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Shortly following the end of World War II the OSS was disbanded. The subsequent emergence of the Cold War and the lack of a central intelligence organization resulted in the CIA's formation in 1947. Warner Bros. had just bought rights to Hunt's novel "Bimini Run" when he joined the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) in October 1949. He was assigned as a covert action officer specializing in political action and influence in what later came to be called the CIA's Special Activities Division.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: According to David Talbot, "Howard Hunt prided himself on being part of the CIA’s upper tier. But that’s not how he was viewed at the top of the agency. Hunt liked to brag that he had family connections to Wild Bill Donovan himself, who had admitted him into the OSS, the original roundtable of American intelligence. But it turned out that Hunt’s father was a lobbyist in upstate New York to whom Donovan owed a favor, not a fellow Wall Street lawyer. Everyone knew Hunt was a writer, but they also knew he was no Ian Fleming. To the Georgetown set, there would always be something low-rent about men like Hunt—as well as William Harvey and David Morales. The CIA was a cold hierarchy. Men like this would never be invited for lunch with Allen Dulles at the Alibi Club or to play tennis with Dick Helms at the Chevy Chase Club. These men were indispensable—until they became expendable."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt became the OPC Station Chief in Mexico City in 1950, and recruited and supervised William F. Buckley Jr., who worked under Hunt in his OPC Station in Mexico during the period 1951–1952. Buckley and Hunt remained lifelong friends, and Buckley became godfather to Hunt's first three children.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In Mexico, Hunt helped lay the framework for Operation PBFortune, later renamed Operation PBSuccess, the successful covert operation to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz, the democratically elected president of Guatemala. Hunt was assigned as Chief of Covert Action in Japan. He afterwards served as Chief of Station in Uruguay, (where he was noted by American diplomatic contemporary Samuel F. Hart for controversial working methods). Hunt would later say "What we wanted to do was to have a terror campaign, to terrify Arbenz particularly, to terrify his troops, much as the German Stuka bombers terrified the population of Holland, Belgium and Poland”.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt was subsequently given the assignment of forging Cuban exile leaders in the United States into a suitably representative government-in-exile that would, after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, form a pro-American Puppet state intent on taking over Cuba. The failure of the invasion temporarily damaged his career.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt was undeniably bitter about what he perceived as President John F. Kennedy's lack of commitment in attacking and overthrowing the government of Cuba. In his semi-fictional autobiography, "Give Us This Day", he wrote: "The Kennedy administration yielded Castro all the excuse he needed to gain a tighter grip on the island of José Martí, then moved shamefacedly into the shadows and hoped the Cuban issue would simply melt away."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1959 Hunt helped CIA Director Allen W. Dulles write "The Craft of Intelligence". The following year Hunt established Brigade 2506, an Agency-sponsored group of Cuban exiles formed to attempt the military overthrow of the Cuban government headed by Fidel Castro. It carried out the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion landings in Cuba on 17 April 1961. After that fiasco, Hunt was reassigned as Executive Assistant to Dulles.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: After President John F. Kennedy fired Dulles in 1961 for the Bay of Pigs failure, Hunt served as the first Chief of Covert Action for the Domestic Operations Division (DODS) from 1962 to 1964.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt told "The New York Times" in 1974 that he spent about four years working for DODS, beginning shortly after it was set up by the Kennedy administration in 1962, over the "strenuous opposition" of Richard Helms and Thomas H. Karamessines. He said that the division was assembled shortly after the Bay of Pigs operation, and that "many men connected with that failure were shunted into the new domestic unit." He said that some of his projects from 1962 to 1966, which dealt largely with the subsidizing and manipulation of news and publishing organizations in the US, "did seem to violate the intent of the agency's charter."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1964, DCI John A. McCone directed Hunt to take a special assignment as a Non-Official Cover (NOC) officer in Madrid, Spain, tasked to create the American answer to Ian Fleming's British MI-6 James Bond novel series. While assigned in Spain, Hunt was covered as a recently retired U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who had moved his family to Spain in order to write the first installment of the 9-novel Peter Ward series, "On Hazardous Duty" (1965).


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: After a year and a half in Spain, Hunt returned to his assignment at DODS. Following a brief tenure on the Special Activities Staff of the Western European Division, he became Chief of Covert Action for the region (while remaining based in the Washington metropolitan area) in July 1968. Hunt was lauded for his "sagacity, balance and imagination", and received the second-highest rating of Strong (signifying "performance ... characterized by exceptional proficiency") in a performance review from the Division's Chief of Operations in April 1969. However, this was downgraded to the third-highest rating of Adequate in an amendment from the Division's Deputy Chief, who recognized Hunt's "broad experience" but opined that "a series of personal and taxing problems" had "tended to dull his cutting edge." Hunt would later maintain that he "had been stigmatized by the Bay of Pigs", and had come to terms with the fact that he "would not get promoted too much higher."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In these final years of Hunt's CIA service, he began to cultivate new contacts in "society and the business world." While serving as vice president of the Brown University Club of Washington, he befriended and commenced a strong association with the organization's president, former congressional aide Charles Colson, who soon began working on Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Hunt retired from the CIA at the pay grade of GS-15, Step 8 on April 30, 1970.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Upon retiring from the CIA, Hunt neglected to elect survivorship benefits for his wife. An April 1971 request to retroactively amend his election was rebuffed by the agency. In a May 5, 1972, letter to CIA General Counsel Lawrence Houston, Hunt raised the possibility of returning to active duty for a short period of time in exchange for activating the benefits upon his proposed second retirement. Houston advised Hunt in his May 16 response that this "would be in violation of the spirit of the CIA Retirement Act".


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Immediately following his retirement, he went to work for the Robert R. Mullen Company, which cooperated with the CIA; H. R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff to President Nixon, wrote in 1978 that the Mullen Company was in fact a CIA front company, a fact that was apparently unknown to Haldeman while he worked in the White House. Through CIA's Project QKENCHANT, Hunt obtained a Covert Security Approval to handle the firm's affairs during Mullen's absence from Washington.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1971, Hunt was hired as a consultant by Colson, by now director of Nixon's Office of Public Liaison, and joined the White House Special Investigations Unit, specializing in political sabotage.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt's first assignment for the White House was a covert operation to break into the Los Angeles office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Lewis J. Fielding. In July 1971, Fielding had refused a request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for psychiatric data on Ellsberg. Hunt and Liddy cased the building in late August. The burglary, on September 3, 1971, was not detected, but no Ellsberg files were found.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Also in the summer of 1971, Colson authorized Hunt to travel to New England to seek potentially scandalous information on Senator Edward Kennedy, specifically pertaining to the Chappaquiddick incident and to Kennedy's possible extramarital affairs. Hunt sought and used CIA disguises and other equipment for the project. This mission eventually proved unsuccessful, with little if any useful information uncovered by Hunt.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt's White House duties included assassinations-related disinformation. In September 1971, Hunt forged and offered to a "Life" magazine reporter two top-secret U.S. State Department cables designed to prove that President Kennedy had personally and specifically ordered the assassination of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, during the 1963 South Vietnamese coup. Hunt told the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 that he had fabricated the cables to show a link between President Kennedy and the assassination of Diem, a Catholic, to estrange Catholic voters from the Democratic Party, after Colson suggested he "might be able to improve upon the record."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1972, Hunt and Liddy were part of an assassination plot targeting journalist Jack Anderson, on orders from Colson. Nixon had disliked Anderson because during the 1960 presidential election Anderson had published an election-eve story concerning a secret loan from Howard Hughes to Nixon's brother, which Nixon believed was the reason he lost the election. Hunt and Liddy met with a CIA operative and discussed methods of assassinating Anderson, which included covering Anderson's car steering wheel with LSD to drug him and cause a fatal accident, poisoning his aspirin bottle, and staging a fatal robbery. The assassination plot never materialized because Hunt and Liddy were arrested for their involvement in the Watergate scandal later that year.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: According to Seymour Hersh, writing in "The New Yorker", Nixon White House tapes show that after presidential candidate George Wallace was shot on May 15, 1972, Nixon and Colson agreed to send Hunt to the Milwaukee home of the gunman, Arthur Bremer, to place McGovern presidential campaign material there. The intention was to link Bremer with the Democrats. Hersh writes that, in a taped conversation, "Nixon is energized and excited by what seems to be the ultimate political dirty trick: the FBI and the Milwaukee police will be convinced, and will tell the world, that the attempted assassination of Wallace had its roots in left-wing Democratic politics." Hunt did not make the trip, however, because the FBI had moved too quickly to seal Bremer's apartment and place it under police guard.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt organized the bugging of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building. Hunt and fellow operative G. Gordon Liddy, along with the five burglars arrested at the Watergate, were indicted on federal charges three months later.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt put pressure on the White House and the Committee to Re-Elect the President for cash payments to cover legal fees, family support, and expenses, for himself and his fellow burglars. Key Nixon figures, including Haldeman, Charles Colson, Herbert W. Kalmbach, John Mitchell, Fred LaRue, and John Dean eventually became entangled in the payoff schemes, and large amounts of money were passed to Hunt and his accomplices, to try to ensure their silence at the trial, by pleading guilty to avoid prosecutors' questions, and afterwards. Tenacious media, including "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times", eventually used investigative journalism to break open the payoff scheme, and published many articles that proved to be the beginning of the end for the cover-up. Prosecutors had to follow up once the media reported. Hunt also pressured Colson, Dean, and John Ehrlichman to ask Nixon for clemency in sentencing, and eventual presidential pardons for himself and his cronies; this eventually helped to implicate and snare those higher up.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt was sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in prison, and spent 33 months in prison at Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood and the low-security Federal Prison Camp at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on a conspiracy charge, arriving at the latter institution on April 25, 1975. While at Allenwood, he suffered a mild stroke.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt supported the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: "The Dallas Morning News", the "Dallas Times Herald", and the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" photographed three transients under police escort near the Texas School Book Depository shortly after the assassination of Kennedy. The men later became known as the "three tramps". According to Vincent Bugliosi, allegations that these men were involved in a conspiracy originated from theorist Richard E. Sprague who compiled the photographs in 1966 and 1967, and subsequently turned them over to Jim Garrison during his investigation of Clay Shaw. Appearing before a nationwide audience on the December 31, 1968, episode of "The Tonight Show", Garrison held up a photo of the three and suggested they were involved in the assassination. Later, in 1974, assassination researchers Alan J. Weberman and Michael Canfield compared photographs of the men to people they believed to be suspects involved in a conspiracy and said that two of the men were Watergate burglars E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis. Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory helped bring national media attention to the allegations against Hunt and Sturgis in 1975 after obtaining the comparison photographs from Weberman and Canfield. Immediately after obtaining the photographs, Gregory held a press conference that received considerable coverage and his charges were reported in "Rolling Stone" and "Newsweek".


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: The Rockefeller Commission reported in 1975 that they investigated the allegation that Hunt and Sturgis, on behalf of the CIA, participated in the assassination of Kennedy. The final report of that commission stated that witnesses who testified that the "derelicts" bore a resemblance to Hunt or Sturgis "were not shown to have any qualifications in photo identification beyond that possessed by an average layman". Their report also stated that FBI Agent Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, "a nationally-recognized expert in photoidentification and photoanalysis" with the FBI photographic laboratory, had concluded from photo comparison that none of the men was Hunt or Sturgis. In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that forensic anthropologists had again analyzed and compared the photographs of the "tramps" with those of Hunt and Sturgis, as well as with photographs of Thomas Vallee, Daniel Carswell, and Fred Lee Chrisman. According to the Committee, only Chrisman resembled any of the tramps, but determined that he was not in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1992, journalist Mary La Fontaine discovered the November 22, 1963, arrest records that the Dallas Police Department had released in 1989, which named the three men as Gus W. Abrams, Harold Doyle, and John F. Gedney. According to the arrest reports, the three men were "taken off a boxcar in the railroad yards right after President Kennedy was shot", detained as "investigative prisoners", described as unemployed and passing through Dallas, then released four days later.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: In 1973, Viking Press published Tad Szulc's book about Hunt's career titled "Compulsive Spy". Szulc, a former correspondent for "The New York Times", claimed unnamed CIA sources told him that Hunt, working with Rolando Cubela Secades, had a role in coordinating the assassination of Castro for an aborted second invasion of Cuba. In one passage, he also stated that Hunt was the acting chief of the CIA station in Mexico City in 1963 while Lee Harvey Oswald was there.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: The Rockefeller Commission's June 1975 report stated that they investigated allegations that the CIA, including Hunt, may have had contact with Oswald or Jack Ruby. According to the Commission, one "witness testified that E. Howard Hunt was Acting Chief of a CIA Station in Mexico City in 1963, implying that he "could" have had contact with Oswald when Oswald visited Mexico City in September 1963." Their report stated that there was "no credible evidence" of CIA involvement in the assassination and noted: "At no time was [Hunt] ever the Chief, or Acting Chief, of a CIA Station in Mexico City.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Released in the Fall of 1975 after the Rockefeller Commission's report, Weberman and Canfield's book "Coup d'Etat in America" reiterated Szulc's allegation. In July 1976, Hunt filed a $2.5 million libel suit against the authors, as well as the book's publishers and editor. According to Ellis Rubin, Hunt's attorney who filed the suit in a Miami federal court, the book said that Hunt took part in the assassination of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: As part of his suit, Hunt filed a legal action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in September 1978 requesting that Szulc be cited for contempt if he refused to divulge his sources. Three months earlier, Szulc stated in a deposition that he refused to name his sources due to "the professional confidentiality of sources" and "journalistic privilege". Rubin stated that knowing the source of the allegation that Hunt was in Mexico City in 1963 was important because Szulc's passage "is what everybody uses as an authority ... he's cited in everything written on E. Howard Hunt". He added that rumors that Hunt was involved in the Kennedy assassination might be put to end if Szulc's source was revealed. Stating that Hunt had not provided a sufficient reason to override Szulc's First Amendment rights to protect the confidentiality of his sources, United States District Judge Albert Vickers Bryan Jr. ruled in favor of Szulc.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: On November 3, 1978, Hunt gave a security-classified deposition for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He denied knowledge of any conspiracy to kill Kennedy. (The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released the deposition in February 1996.) Two newspaper articles published a few months before the deposition stated that a 1966 CIA memo linking Hunt to the assassination of President Kennedy had recently been provided to the HSCA. The first article, by Victor Marchetti – author of the book "The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence" (1974) – appeared in the Liberty Lobby newspaper "The Spotlight" on August 14, 1978. According to Marchetti, the memo said in essence, "Some day we will have to explain Hunt's presence in Dallas on November 22, 1963." He also wrote that Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and Gerry Patrick Hemming would soon be implicated in a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: The second article, by Joseph J. Trento and Jacquie Powers, appeared six days later in the Sunday edition of "The News Journal", Wilmington, Delaware. It alleged that the purported memo was initialed by Richard Helms and James Angleton and showed that, shortly after Helms and Angleton were elevated to their highest positions in the CIA, they discussed the fact that Hunt had been in Dallas on the day of the assassination and that his presence there had to be kept secret. However, nobody has been able to produce this supposed memo, and the United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States determined that Hunt had been in Washington, D.C., on the day of the assassination.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt sued Liberty Lobby – but not the "Sunday News Journal" – for libel. Liberty Lobby stipulated, in this first trial, that the question of Hunt's alleged involvement in the assassination would not be contested. Hunt prevailed and was awarded $650,000 damages. In 1983, however, the case was overturned on appeal because of error in jury instructions. In a second trial, held in 1985, Mark Lane made an issue of Hunt's location on the day of the Kennedy assassination. Lane successfully defended Liberty Lobby by producing evidence suggesting that Hunt had been in Dallas. He used depositions from David Atlee Phillips, Richard Helms, G. Gordon Liddy, Stansfield Turner, and Marita Lorenz, plus a cross-examination of Hunt. On retrial, the jury rendered a verdict for Liberty Lobby. Lane claimed he convinced the jury that Hunt was a JFK assassination conspirator, but some of the jurors who were interviewed by the media said they disregarded the conspiracy theory and judged the case (according to the judge's jury instructions) on whether the article was published with "reckless disregard for the truth." Lane outlined his theory about Hunt's and the CIA's role in Kennedy's murder in a 1991 book, "Plausible Denial".


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin indicated in 1999 that Hunt was made part of a fabricated conspiracy theory disseminated by a Soviet "active measures" program designed to discredit the CIA and the United States. According to Mitrokhin, the KGB created a forged letter from Oswald to Hunt implying that the two were linked as conspirators, then forwarded copies of it to "three of the most active conspiracy buffs" in 1975. Mitrokhin indicated that the photocopies were accompanied by a fake cover letter from an anonymous source alleging that the original had been given to FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley and was apparently being suppressed.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: According to Kerry Thornley, who served with Oswald in the Marine Corps and wrote the biographical book "The Idle Warriors" about him before the assassination of the president (the manuscript was seized during the investigation and was kept as physical evidence for a long time), Thornley regularly met with a man in New Orleans known to him as Gary Kirstein, with whom they discussed the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Also, according to Thornley, Kirstein in those years wanted to organize the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and planned to "frame a jailbird for it." In ""Confession to Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK by Kerry Thornley as told to Sondra London"" he said that after Watergate, when photos of Howard Hunt appeared in the media, he found that he was very similar to his acquaintance Kirstein, along with whom they discussed organizing the assassination of the president.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: After Hunt's death, Howard St. John Hunt and David Hunt stated that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Notes and audio recordings were made. In the April 5, 2007, issue of "Rolling Stone", St. John Hunt detailed a number of individuals purported to be implicated by his father, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis, David Morales, Antonio Veciana, William Harvey, and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume is Lucien Sarti. The two sons alleged that their father cut the information from his memoirs to avoid possible perjury charges. According to Hunt's widow and other children, the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain and furthermore falsified accounts of Hunt's supposed confession. The "Los Angeles Times" said they examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive".


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt's memoir, "American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond", was ghost-written by Greg Aunapu and published by John Wiley & Sons in March 2007. According to the Hunt Literary Estate, Hunt had intended to write an update to his 1974 autobiography "Undercover" and supplement this edition with post-9/11 reflections, but by the time he had embarked on the project, he was too ill to continue. This prompted John Wiley & Sons to search for and hire a ghost writer to write the book in its entirety. According to St. John Hunt, it was he who suggested to his father the idea of a memoir to reveal what he knew about the Kennedy assassination, but the Hunt Literary Estate refutes this as scurrilous.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: The foreword to "American Spy" was written by William F. Buckley Jr. According to Buckley, he was asked through an intermediary to write the introduction but declined after he found that the manuscript contained material "that suggested transgressions of the highest order, including a hint that LBJ might have had a hand in the plot to assassinate President Kennedy." He stated that the work "was clearly ghostwritten", and eventually agreed to write an introduction focusing on his early friendship with Hunt after he received a revised manuscript "with the loony grassy-knoll bits chiseled out".


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: "Publishers Weekly" called "American Spy" a "breezy, unrepentant memoir" and described it as a "nostalgic memoir [that] breaks scant new ground in an already crowded field". Tim Rutten of the "Los Angeles Times" said it was "a bitter and self-pitying memoir" and "offers a rather standard account of how men of his generation became involved in intelligence work". Referencing the book's title, Tim Weiner of "The New York Times" wrote: ""American Spy" is presented as a 'secret history,' a double-barreled misrepresentation. There are no real secrets in this book. As history it is bunk." Weiner said that the author's examination of the Kennedy assassination was the low-point of the book, indicating that Hunt pretended to take various conspiracy theories, including the involvement of former President Johnson, seriously. He concluded his review describing it as a work "in a long tradition of arrant nonsense" and "a book to shun". Joseph C. Goulden of "The Washington Times" described it as a "true mess of a book" and dismissed Hunt's allegations against Johnson as "fantasy". Goulden summarized his review: "I wish now that I had not read this pathetic book. Avoid it."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Writing for "The Christian Science Monitor", Daniel Schorr said "Hunt tells most of his Watergate venture fairly straight". Contrasting this opinion, Politico's James Rosen described the chapters regarding Watergate as the "[m]ost problematic" and wrote: "There are numerous factual errors – misspelled names, wrong dates, phantom participants in meetings, fictitious orders given – and the authors never substantively address, only pause occasionally to demean, the vast scholarly literature that has arisen in the last two decades to explain the central mystery of Watergate." Rosen's review was not entirely negative and he indicated that the book "succeeds in taking readers beyond the caricatures and conspiracy theories to preserve the valuable memory of Hunt as he really was: passionate patriot; committed Cold Warrior; a lover of fine food, wine and women; incurable intriguer, wicked wit and superb storyteller." Dennis Lythgoe of "Deseret News" said "[t]he writing style is awkward and often embarrassing", but that "the book as a whole is a fascinating look into the mind of one of the major Watergate figures". In "National Review", Mark Riebling praised "American Spy" as "the only autobiography I know of that convincingly conveys what it was like to be an American spy." "The Boston Globe" writer Martin Nolan called it "admirable and important" and said that Hunt "presents a livelier, tabloid version of the 1970s". According to Nolan: "It is the best moment-by-moment depiction of the June 17, 1972, burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters I have ever read."


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt's first wife, Dorothy, was killed in the December 8, 1972, plane crash of United Airlines Flight 553 in Chicago. Congress, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the crash, and concluded that the crash was an accident caused by crew error. Over $10,000 in cash was found in Dorothy Hunt's handbag in the wreckage.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: Hunt later married schoolteacher Laura Martin, with whom he raised two more children, Austin and Hollis. Following his release from prison, he and Laura moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, where they lived for five years. Afterwards they returned to the United States, where they settled in Miami, Florida.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: On January 23, 2007, he died of pneumonia in Miami. He is buried in Prospect Lawn Cemetery in his hometown of Hamburg, New York.


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: A fictionalized account of Hunt's role in the Bay of Pigs operation appears in Norman Mailer's 1991 novel "Harlot's Ghost". Hunt was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 1995 biopic "Nixon". In the 2019 film "The Irishman", Hunt is portrayed by stage actor Daniel Jenkins. In the 2022 series "Gaslit", Hunt is portrayed by J. C. MacKenzie. Canadian journalist David Giammarco interviewed Hunt for the December 2000 issue of "Cigar Aficionado" magazine. Hunt later wrote the foreword to Giammarco's book "For Your Eyes Only: Behind the Scenes of the James Bond Films" (ECW Press, 2002).


title: E. Howard Hunt

text: An episode of The X-Files, entitled Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, depicted the shadowy intelligence operative played by William B. Davis as an unsuccessful author of mystery/suspense fiction in his spare time. When meeting Lee Harvey Oswald, prior to the JFK assassination, he goes by the alias 'Mr. Hunt.'


title: Carol Lynley

text: Carol Lynley (born Carole Ann Jones; February 13, 1942 – September 3, 2019) was an American actress known for her roles in the films "Blue Denim" (1959) and "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972).


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley was born in Manhattan to an Irish father and New England mother. She began her career as a child model before taking up acting. She won the Theatre World Award as "one of the most promising personalities for 1956–57" for her performance in "The Potting Shed". Lynley started her film career in 1958 with the Disney film "The Light in the Forest", followed by "Holiday for Lovers" (1959) and "Blue Denim" (1959). In 1959, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female for the film "The Light in the Forest". A year later, she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female for the film "Blue Denim".


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley was born Carole Ann Jones in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Frances (née Felch) and Cyril Jones. Her father was Irish and her mother, a native of New England, was of English, Scottish, Welsh, and German ancestry. She studied dance in her childhood. Lynley's parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother worked as a waitress until Lynley's income from modelling was enough to sustain the family.


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley had first appeared on a local television show and at the age of 14 she was signed as a child model. She then appeared on live TV shows, the "Goodyear Television Playhouse", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Danger Route".


title: Carol Lynley

text: She began her career as a child model under the name Carolyn Lee. She appeared on the April 22, 1957 cover of "Life" identified as "Carol Lynley, 15, Busy Career Girl" at age 15. When she started acting, she discovered that child actress Carolyn Lee (born Carolyn Copp, 1935) had already registered the name in the Actors' Equity union. She modified it by using the final syllable of Carolyn and fusing it with Lee to make Lynley.


title: Carol Lynley

text: In her teenage years, Lynley appeared in several Clairol and Pepsodent advertisements that were publicized across the country.


title: Carol Lynley

text: In 1955, Lynley made her first stage appearance in Moss Hart's Broadway stage hit "Anniversary Waltz". At the age of 15, she played the role of Dame Sybil Thorndyke's granddaughter in the Broadway play "The Potting Shed" (1957).


title: Carol Lynley

text: Early on, Lynley distinguished herself on both the Broadway stage and in Hollywood screen versions of the controversial drama "Blue Denim" (1959), in which the teenaged characters played by Lynley and co-star Brandon deWilde had to deal with an unwanted pregnancy and (then-illegal) abortion. She won the Theatre World Award as "one of the most promising personalities for 1956–57" for her performance in Blue Denim. This recognition helped her get a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox.


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley started her film career in 1958 with the Disney film "The Light in the Forest" followed by "Holiday for Lovers" (1959). In 1959, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. In 1960, she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female for the film "Blue Denim".


title: Carol Lynley

text: She acted in 20th Century Fox productions "Holiday for Lovers", "Blue Denim", "Hound-Dog Man" (all in 1959), "Return to Peyton Place" (1961), and "The Stripper" (1963). "The Stripper" was based on the play "A Loss of Roses" written by William Inge.


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley appeared in many films, often portraying the blonde-girl-next-door gone bad. She is best known for her film roles in "Return to Peyton Place" (1961), the sex comedy "Under the Yum Yum Tree" (1961), the drama "The Cardinal" (1963), the romantic drama "The Pleasure Seekers" (1964), the thriller "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965), and "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), in which she lip-synced the Oscar-winning song "The Morning After" (her singing voice was dubbed by studio singer Renee Armand).


title: Carol Lynley

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Lynley was on the peak of her career in the year 1965. She posed nude at age 22 for the March 1965 edition of "Playboy" magazine (pp. 108–115). She starred in the Otto Preminger directed thriller "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965). Lynley played Jean Harlow in the biopic "Harlow" (1965), co-starring Ginger Rogers, but the film failed at the box office.


title: Carol Lynley

text: The decline in her career started in the late 1960s. In 1967, Lynley had major roles in the horror "The Shuttered Room" and the British spy caper "Danger Route", but the films were not successful. She did smaller roles, guest appearances and appeared in low-budget productions like "Once You Kiss a Stranger" (1969), "The Maltese Bippy" (1969), "Norwood" (1970), and the Larry Hagman directed horror spoof "Son of the Blob" (1972). In 1972, she made a brief comeback when she had supporting roles in "", a made for television film which drew top ratings, and "The Posiden Adventure", which was one of the top-grossing films of the year. However, she was unable to maintain her career momentum. She then appeared in "The Four Deuces" (1975), "The Washington Affair" (1977) and "Bad Georgia Road" (1977). In 1992, she acted in a low-budget thriller "Spirits", as a nun. She acted in "Flypaper" (1997), followed by the low-budget film "Drowning on Dry Land" (1999). Many of the low-budget movies she acted in during the later part of her career were direct-to-video.


title: Carol Lynley

text: She appeared in the pilot television movies for "" and "Fantasy Island". Her many other series appearances include "The Big Valley", "Mannix", "It Takes a Thief", "Night Gallery", "The Invaders", "Kojak", "Hawaii Five-O", "Tales of the Unexpected", "Hart to Hart", and "Charlie's Angels". Lynley appeared in the fourth season of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." in the two-part episode "The Prince of Darkness Affair".


title: Carol Lynley

text: In 2000, in an interview with the "San Francisco Chronicle", Lynley discussed the difficulty faced by middle-aged actresses in finding roles. She predicted she'd have a comeback in old age, stating, "I don't mean to sound conceited, but I am a very talented actress, and I have my head screwed on right." And she added "I'm not going to drug clinics, I look good, and I've got all my marbles. So I really believe I'll be back."


title: Carol Lynley

text: In 2006, she appeared in a 30-minute film, "Vic", co-written and directed by Sage Stallone, the son of Sylvester Stallone.


title: Carol Lynley

text: In 1960, Lynley married publicist Michael Selsman. The marriage produced one child, Jill Selsman (a director of short films), and ended in divorce in 1964. She also had an 18-year intermittent affair with English broadcaster and writer David Frost.


title: Carol Lynley

text: Lynley died aged 77 of a heart attack on September 3, 2019, at her home in Pacific Palisades, California. She was cremated; her ashes were scattered at sea off the Southern California coast.


title: María Elena Holly

text: María Elena Holly (née Santiago; born December 20, 1932) is the widow of American rock and roll pioneer Buddy Holly. As a receptionist at Peermusic, she met with Holly and his band the Crickets on June 19, 1958, and Holly proposed to her after five hours on their first date. Less than two months later, the couple married on August 15, 1958, in Lubbock, Texas. On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash along with fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper near Clear Lake, Iowa. She suffered a miscarriage the following day and did not attend Holly's funeral.


title: María Elena Holly

text: In the following years, María Elena Holly remarried Puerto Rican government official Joe Diaz, with whom she had three children. In the 1978 film "The Buddy Holly Story", she is portrayed by actress Maria Richwine. As Buddy Holly's widow, she owns the rights to his name, image, trademarks, and other intellectual property. In 2010, Santiago-Holly co-founded The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation with Peter Bradley.


title: María Elena Holly

text: María Elena Santiago was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. María Elena's mother died when she was 6 years old. In 1953, her father sent her to live with her aunt (Provi Garcia) in New York City. Santiago worked as a receptionist for music publisher Peermusic.


title: María Elena Holly

text: As a receptionist at Peermusic, Maria Elena is believed to have met musician Buddy Holly in August 1957 when as rising stars he and the Crickets first visited Peer Southern Music in the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway to meet their publishing manager Murray Deutch, who was Maria's boss. On June 19, 1958, just before recording a cover of the Bobby Darin song "Early in the Morning" in New York's Pythian Temple, Holly asked her out on a date. Santiago had never been out on a date and told Holly he would have to ask her aunt for permission, which he received promptly. Five hours into their first date, Buddy handed a rose to Maria and asked her to marry him.


title: María Elena Holly

text: On August 15, 1958, less than two months after their first date, she married Holly at Tabernacle Baptist Church in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas. They settled down in Lubbock until Buddy broke up with the Crickets, and they moved to New York. Santiago-Holly went on one tour (October 1958) with her husband and took on promotional duties. Buddy Holly also formed the Maria Music publishing company with which "Stay Close to Me" was filed. Holly produced Lou Giordano's version of the song, which was issued on Brunswick 55115 on January 27, 1959.


title: María Elena Holly

text: In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly was on tour when he and fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in an airplane crash along with pilot Roger Peterson near Clear Lake, Iowa. At the time, Holly and Santiago had been married for only six months, and she learned of his death from the reports on television. As a result of psychological trauma from the incident, Santiago miscarried with her husband's child on February 4. Her husband was interred in Lubbock.


title: María Elena Holly

text: Santiago-Holly did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site. In a February 7, 1959, interview with the "Lubbock Avalanche-Journal", she said, "In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane."


title: María Elena Holly

text: Following the miscarriage suffered by Santiago-Holly and the circumstances in which she was informed of his death, a policy was later adopted by authorities not to disclose victims' names until after their families have been informed.


title: María Elena Holly

text: Santiago-Holly later married Joe Diaz, a Puerto Rican government official. Together, they had three children. Now divorced, she is a grandmother living in Dallas, Texas, and promotes her first husband's legacy. In 1989, The Smithereens paid honor to her with the song "Maria Elena" on their album "11". Actress Maria Richwine played Santiago-Holly's role in the 1978 movie "The Buddy Holly Story". Jill Hennessy portrayed her in the Broadway production of "".


title: María Elena Holly

text: In 2008, Santiago-Holly threatened legal action against Peggy Sue Gerron, the subject of the song "Peggy Sue", after the publication of Gerron's autobiography "Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?"


title: María Elena Holly

text: While visiting New York City in May 2008, Santiago-Holly visited Washington Square Park, where Holly often played his guitar. She observed musicians singing there, and later told the "Avalanche-Journal": "I gave one musician $9 because 9 was Buddy's favorite number." She also visited the apartment building where she and Holly had lived. Santiago-Holly remarked it was the first time she had been back to the building since Holly's death.


title: María Elena Holly

text: In 2010, Santiago-Holly co-founded, with Peter Bradley, the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. The foundation is a charitable corporation whose mission is to keep Buddy Holly's legacy alive by providing musical education to new generations regardless of income, ethnicity or educational limitations. Among the areas in the musical education provided are songwriting, production, arranging, orchestration and performance education. The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation co-hosts worldwide songwriting retreats with Chris Difford. They are organized by Peter Bradley Jr, board Director of the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.


title: History of KFC

text: KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of restaurant franchising, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. Branding himself "Colonel Sanders", the founder became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising. The company's rapid expansion made it too large for Sanders to manage, so in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey.


title: History of KFC

text: KFC was one of the first fast-food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Britain, Mexico, and Jamaica by the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, KFC experienced mixed success domestically, as it went through a series of changes in corporate ownership with little or no experience in the restaurant business. In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor Heublein, which was taken over by the R. J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate, which later sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas, and in 1987 KFC became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China.


title: History of KFC

text: In 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which changed its name to Yum! Brands in 2002. Yum! has proven to be a more focused owner than Pepsi, and although KFC's number of outlets has declined in the US, the company has continued to grow in Asia, South America, and Africa. The chain has expanded to 18,875 outlets across 118 countries and territories, with 4,563 outlets in China alone, KFC's largest market.


title: History of KFC

text: Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana. His father died in 1895, and to make ends meet his mother took work at a canning plant. As the eldest child at the age of five, Sanders was left to care for his two siblings. When he turned seven his mother taught him how to cook. After leaving the family home at age 13, Sanders pursued several professions including railroad worker and insurance salesman, with mixed success. In 1930, he took over a Shell filling station on US Route 25 just outside North Corbin, a small city on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. By June, he had converted a storeroom into a small eating area using his own dining table, serving meals such as steaks and country ham to travelers.


title: History of KFC

text: In 1934, Sanders took over the lease of the Pure Oil filling station on the other side of the road, due to its greater visibility for motorists. He then began to sell fried chicken. To improve his skills, Sanders took an eight-week restaurant-management course at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. By 1936, his business had proved successful enough for him to be given the honorary title of Kentucky colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon. In 1937, Sanders expanded his restaurant to 140 seats, and in 1940 purchased a motel across the street, the Sanders Court & Café.


title: History of KFC

text: Sanders was dissatisfied with the 35 minutes it took to prepare his chicken in an iron frying pan, but he did not want to deep fry. Although a much faster process, in Sanders' opinion it produced dry and crusty chicken that was unevenly cooked. On the other hand, if he prepared the chicken in advance of an order, there was sometimes waste at the end of the day. In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers were released onto the market, predominantly designed for steaming vegetables. Sanders bought one and modified it into a pressure fryer, which he then used to prepare chicken. The new method reduced production time to be comparable with deep frying, yet, in Sanders' opinion, retained the quality of pan-fried chicken. In July 1940, Sanders finalized what came to be known as his Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices. Although he never publicly revealed the recipe, he admitted to the use of salt and pepper, and claimed that the ingredients "stand on everybody's shelf".


title: History of KFC

text: After being recommissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee and wearing a black frock coat (later switching to a white suit), a string tie, and referring to himself as "Colonel". His associates went along with the title change, "jokingly at first and then in earnest", according to biographer Josh Ozersky.


title: History of KFC

text: The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, so when the route planned in 1955 for Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, Sanders sold his properties and traveled the US to market his chicken concept to restaurant owners. Independent restaurant owners would pay four cents on each chicken sold as a franchise fee (later increased to five cents), in exchange for Sanders' "secret blend of herbs and spices", his recipe and method, and the right to advertise using his name and likeness. In 1952 he had already successfully franchised his chicken recipe to Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of the largest restaurants in the city.


title: History of KFC

text: Rodney L. Anderson, a sign painter from Roy Utah who was hired by Harman, coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken". Sanders adopted the name because it distinguished his product from the deep-fried "Southern fried chicken" product found in restaurants. Harman claimed that in his first year of selling "Kentucky Fried Chicken", his restaurant sales more than tripled, with 75 percent of the increase coming from the sale of fried chicken. In Utah, a product from Kentucky was exotic and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality.


title: History of KFC

text: As a franchise-led operation, KFC's success depended on the work of the early franchisees, and Harman has been described as the "virtual co-founder" of the chain by Sanders' biographer. Harman trademarked the phrase "It's finger lickin' good", which was eventually adopted as a slogan across the entire chain. In 1957 Harman bundled 14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy into a cardboard bucket, and offered it to families as "a complete meal" for US$3.50 (around US$30 in 2014). He first test-trialed the packaging as a favor to Sanders, who had called on behalf of a Denver franchisee who did not know what to do with 500 cardboard buckets he had bought from a traveling salesman.


title: History of KFC

text: By 1956, Sanders had six or eight franchisees, including Dave Thomas, who eventually founded the Wendy's restaurant chain. Thomas developed the rotating red bucket sign, was an early advocate of the take-out concept that Harman had pioneered, and introduced a bookkeeping form that Sanders rolled out across the entire KFC chain. Thomas sold his shares in 1968 for US$1 million (around US$7 million in 2013), and became regional manager for all KFC restaurants east of the Mississippi before founding Wendy's in 1969.


title: History of KFC

text: In 1956, Sanders moved the company headquarters from Corbin to Shelbyville, Kentucky, which offered superior transport links through which he could distribute his spices, pressure cookers, take-out cartons and advertising material to franchisees.


title: History of KFC

text: In the 1960s, John Wayne Gacy purchased some KFC franchises; abused some of his workers around this time and would start his murder spree later.


title: History of KFC

text: KFC popularized chicken in the fast food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. In 1960 the company had around 200 franchised restaurants; by 1963 this had grown to over 600, making it the largest fast food operation in the United States. In 1963, Sanders met John Y. Brown, Jr, a young Kentucky encyclopaedia salesman, who explained that he was keen to join the company. Sanders instead proposed the sale of the company, as he lacked an obvious or willing heir among his relatives.


title: History of KFC

text: Lacking sufficient funds himself, Brown convinced the financier Jack C. Massey to provide 60 percent of the acquisition capital, and provided a major contribution himself, with smaller contributions from franchise holder Pete Harman and company officials Lee Cummings and Harlan Adams. Sanders then began to have doubts about selling the company, as some members of his family were against it. The group acquired the company in 1964 for US$2 million (around US$15 million in 2013). The contract included a lifetime salary for Sanders and the agreement that he would be the company's quality controller and trademark.


title: History of KFC

text: Massey and Brown introduced standardization to the fragmented company. After visiting Pete Harman's operations in Utah, they began to implement the stand-alone take-out model across the entire chain. Franchisees were ordered to delist their own menu items so that they could concentrate on KFC products. The restaurants were re-branded with a distinctive red-and-white striped color pattern and mansard roofs with cupolas. The roll-out of freestanding stores accelerated the company's growth as outlets exclusively selling fried chicken proved to be more appealing to potential franchisees.


title: History of KFC

text: Despite selling the company, Sanders retained significant moral authority over executives and franchisees and made his feelings clear when he disagreed with corporate decisions. When Massey moved company headquarters from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, Sanders was quoted as saying, "This ain't no goddam Tennessee Fried Chicken, no matter what some slick, silk-suited son-of-a-bitch says". He believed that the company had reneged on their contract with him when they opened operations in Canada, arguing that the contract had granted him the exclusive rights to operate there. KFC was forced to renegotiate with Sanders regarding the Canadian activities, as he owned $1.5 million worth of stock and was using it to prevent Massey from listing the company publicly until his points of issue were addressed. Brown and Massey claimed that Sanders only had the rights to process chicken in Canada. After they renegotiated the contract to guarantee Sanders exclusive rights over Canada, he sold his stock to them, and the company went public in 1966. After going public, the company bought out its 600 franchisees and directly operated them itself. Later that year, Massey resigned from day-to-day management of the company (although he remained as chairman), and Brown relocated company headquarters to Louisville, Kentucky.


title: History of KFC

text: KFC had become the sixth largest restaurant chain in the US by sales volume by 1967, and 30 percent of sales were take-out. Brown felt that the company had to expand quickly, or else emerging rivals such as Church's Chicken would steal the company's lead; 863 outlets were opened in 1968. The company's growth pushed its stock value to "stratospheric" levels, according to "Reuters", and in 1969 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, KFC entered into ventures with other companies. Brown believed that the Colonel Sanders brand could be used to market anything, and launched the "Kentucky Roast Beef" restaurant chain, and "Colonel Sanders Inns" motels. The two ventures quickly failed. That same year, KFC entered into a joint venture with the California-based fish and chips chain H. Salt Esq. Fish & Chips, which proved more successful, although the stake was ultimately divested in 1980.


title: History of KFC

text: Massey resigned as chairman of the company in March 1970, and Brown took over his role. The chain had reached 3,000 outlets in 48 countries by 1970, but expansion was often chaotic and poorly executed. When he was promoted to regional manager, Dave Thomas complained that the company had become too "corporate", sent him "a lot of memos" and that Brown lacked motivational skill. A member of KFC senior management described the international strategy as "throwing some mud against the map on the wall, and hoping some of it would stick." The first outlet in Japan was opened after just two weeks preparation, and it proved to be a costly failure, losing $400,000 during its opening month and wasting more chicken than it sold. Operational problems became clear in July 1971, after the company reported its first ever profit loss from the prior six-month period.


title: History of KFC

text: Once too large for Sanders to manage, Kentucky Fried Chicken grew to overwhelm John Y. Brown as well. In July 1971, Brown sold the company to the Connecticut-based Heublein, a packaged food and drinks corporation, for US$285 million (around US$1.6 billion in 2013). Brown personally gained around $35 million from the sale. "Reuters" opined that the takeover probably saved the company from disaster. Heublein planned to increase KFC's volume with its sales and marketing expertise.


title: History of KFC

text: Meanwhile, Church's Chicken had encroached on KFC's market share with its offer of indoor seating and its "Crispy Chicken" product. KFC introduced its own "Extra Crispy Chicken" in 1972. The introduction of barbecue spare ribs in 1973 caused "tremendous" operating problems. After the product was launched there was a shortage of pork, which pushed prices beyond what customers were willing to pay. When management withdrew the product, they realized that fried chicken sales had been decreasing. Meanwhile, Sanders increasingly regretted selling the company, and his relationship with the new owners had soured. He began to complain of the company's declining food quality to the media:


title: History of KFC

text: The outburst prompted a KFC franchisee in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to unsuccessfully attempt to sue Sanders for libel. In 1973, Heublein attempted to sue Sanders after he opened a restaurant in Shelbyville, Kentucky, under the name of "Claudia Sanders, the Colonel's Lady Dinner House". In retaliation, Sanders attempted to sue Heublein for US$122 million (around US$570 million in 2013) over the alleged misuse of his image in promoting products he had not helped develop, and for hindering his ability to franchise restaurants. A Heublein spokesman described it as a "nuisance suit". Heublein ultimately settled out of court with Sanders for US$1 million (around US$4 million in 2013) in 1975, and allowed his restaurant venture to go ahead under the reworked name: "Claudia Sanders Dinner House".


title: History of KFC

text: Heublein had no previous experience in the operation of fast food outlets. Overconfidence led KFC to fail in such overseas markets as Hong Kong, which the company abandoned in 1975 after two years in operation. Sanders continued to attack Heublein publicly, and in 1976 complained that the company "doesn't know what it's doing" and that it was "downright embarrassing" to have his image associated with their poor quality product. The 800 company-owned stores had become unprofitable by 1978.


title: History of KFC

text: Heublein appointed Michael A. Miles to manage the business from 1977. He was credited with saving the ailing company by instituting a back-to-basics formula. Miles refurbished the stores, and introduced indoor seating and drive-thru windows. Electronic tills produced daily customer counts, inventories and profit and loss statements so that problems could be identified quickly. KFC expanded internationally in the 1970s and 80s, particularly in Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. Miles also lured Sanders back, and listened to his recommendations for the business. Subsequent changes resulted in 30 months of consecutive per store sales increases by late 1980.


title: History of KFC

text: Sanders died in 1980 from pneumonia at the age of 90, having continued to travel 200,000–250,000 miles a year up to this time, largely by car, promoting his product. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising.


title: History of KFC

text: There were 5,800 KFC outlets worldwide by 1983, located across 55 countries. That year, General Cinema Corporation acquired 18 percent of Heublein, who, fearing a hostile takeover, approached R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco firm, to act as a white knight and acquire the company for $1.3 billion. That year, Michael Miles resigned as chairman of KFC to take the role of CEO at Kraft Foods, and Richard Mayer took over his role. Reynolds had to contend with the introduction of Chicken McNuggets across the McDonald's chain in 1983; KFC introduced its own brand of chicken nuggets, called "Kentucky Nuggets" in 1985. In 1984, Reynolds dedicated $168 million for capital expansion at KFC.


title: History of KFC

text: In July 1986, Reynolds sold KFC to PepsiCo for a book value of $850 million (around US$1.8 billion in 2013). At the time, PepsiCo had interests in soft drinks and snacks, and also owned the restaurant chains Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Reynolds divested KFC in order to pay off debt related to its recent purchase of Nabisco and to concentrate on its tobacco and packaged food business. It was anticipated that PepsiCo would bring their merchandising expertise to the company. Dan Koeppel of "Adweek" believed that the chain had been suffering from corporate neglect, menu stagnation and mixed marketing messages; Nancy Giges of "Advertising Age" felt that the chain had been "smartly revived" by R. J. Reynolds. KFC chairman Richard Mayer was of the opinion that Reynolds had treated their restaurants division as a "hobby".


title: History of KFC

text: PepsiCo's acquisition was seen by some analysts as a means for the company to increase its soft drinks sales. PepsiCo chairman D. Wayne Calloway denied that soft drink preference was a factor in the KFC takeover. KFC management had previously given franchisees the freedom to sell any soft drinks they wanted, but PepsiCo stated that it hoped it could convince them to stock Pepsi products. Before the takeover, only 1,000 of the 6,500 KFC outlets sold Pepsi Cola, and PepsiCo switched 1,800 company-owned stores to their own soft drinks with immediate effect. The purchase of KFC by PepsiCo led to some fast food competitors switching from Pepsi to Coca-Cola. One of the first to switch was Wendy's, whose chairman, Robert Barney, stated, "[PepsiCo's] interests are now in conflict with Wendy's and we will not support a company that is trying to make our customers its customers." Burger King, which had switched from Coca-Cola to PepsiCo in 1983, returned to Coca-Cola in 1990, citing the growth of the PepsiCo chains as a "large factor" in the switch. By 1998, the majority of KFC franchisees had agreed to stock PepsiCo soft drink products.


title: History of KFC

text: In November 1987, KFC became the first Western restaurant chain in China, with an outlet in Beijing. In 1989, first quarter sales at KFC rose 30 percent to US$280 million. In July, president and CEO Richard Mayer left KFC in order to become the CEO at Kraft Foods, and was replaced by John Cranor III.


title: History of KFC

text: In August 1989, Cranor proposed amendments to the existing 1976 contract for US franchisees: PepsiCo could take over weak franchises, existing restaurants would not be safeguarded against competition from new outlets, and PepsiCo would have the right to increase royalty fees. The contract proved controversial amongst franchisees, who countered with a lawsuit, and the issue was not resolved until 1996. PepsiCo was accused of behaving in an imperious manner towards franchisees, who it believed were holding back the firm's growth, while the franchisees believed they had been the backbone of the company during a succession of indifferent corporate owners.


title: History of KFC

text: Cranor spent $42 million restructuring the company's operations worldwide. He invested an additional $50 million to refurbish outlets and $20 million on a new computer system to link outlet cash registers to the kitchen, drive-through window, manager's office and company headquarters. Cranor also expanded the chain into non-traditional locations, beginning with a 150 sq ft limited menu kiosk at a General Motors assembly plant in Dayton, Ohio. Between 1986 and 1991, the chain built a further 2,000 outlets to bring its total number to 8,500, and sales grew from $3.5 to $6.2 billion. The chain had to contend with the rise of grilled chicken as Americans became increasingly health-conscious. KFC found itself competing against the growing El Pollo Loco restaurant chain, as well as with Burger King, which had just introduced the BK Broiler, a grilled chicken burger. Delays in product development, cramped kitchens, and the ongoing franchisee contract dispute prevented the chain from rolling out a grilled product of its own.


title: History of KFC

text: In March 1991 the KFC name was officially adopted, although the chain was already widely known by that initialism. The change was advised by the Schechter Group brand consultancy agency. Research demonstrated that 80 percent of customers already associated the "KFC" initials with Kentucky Fried Chicken. A spokesman for the chain said that it represented its diversified menu, which was moving away from solely fried products. Kyle Craig, president of KFC US, admitted the change was an attempt to distance the chain from the unhealthy connotations of "fried". In 1994, Milford Prewitt praised the "crafty and well-timed repositioning" in "Nation's Restaurant News". On the other hand, a 2005 editorial in "Advertising Age" stated, "the chain's jettisoning of a venerable name—and distancing from the word fried—was ill-conceived and damaging. It made a clear brand fuzzy."


title: History of KFC

text: The early 1990s saw successful major products launched throughout the chain, including spicy "Hot Wings" (launched in 1990), popcorn chicken (1992), and, outside the US, the "Zinger", a spicy chicken fillet burger (1993). In 1993, rotisserie style chicken, under the name "Colonel's Rotisserie Gold", was introduced at over 30 percent of US outlets. However, despite a $100 million investment in marketing, the product failed to gain sales traction. The launch of skinless chicken, designed to appeal to health-conscious customers, failed; customers disliked the unfamiliar texture, and the product resulted in increased overheads, which contributed to a 37 percent decline in operating profits in 1991.


title: History of KFC

text: In June 1991, Singapore was chosen for the launch of the first-ever KFC breakfast menu. Products included chicken, omelettes and scrambled eggs, sold under the "Colonel's Country Breakfast" banner. Singapore was chosen for the launch due to the growth of the breakfast market in that country.


title: History of KFC

text: While the US division struggled, becoming the weakest part of PepsiCo's restaurants division, elsewhere sales boomed, with particular success in Japan. By 1992, almost half of company turnover came from outside the US. By 1993, KFC in the Asia Pacific region accounted for 22 percent of all KFC sales. John Cranor announced, "We're looking at almost unlimited opportunity for growth in Asia". By 1993, KFC was the leading Western fast food chain in South Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, and was second to McDonald's in most other Asian markets, including Japan and Singapore. Overseas operations often flourished while local management ignored or even defied orders from Louisville headquarters.


title: History of KFC

text: By 1994, KFC had a total of 9,407 outlets worldwide, including 5,149 outlets in the US, and over 100,000 employees. That year, the chain began to struggle after competitors such as McDonald's introduced value menu offerings. After a disappointing set of quarterly earnings, Cranor left the company in January 1994. In his wake, two executives with marketing backgrounds were charged with reviving the company. Roger Enrico was appointed as the CEO of PepsiCo Worldwide Restaurants, and David C. Novak was appointed President of KFC in North America.


title: History of KFC

text: In 1995, Novak introduced two successful new products— Crispy Strips (breaded strips of chicken) and the chicken pot pie— the chain's first major new product launches in almost two years. Novak credits an improved, more "open" relationship with franchisees for the introduction of the two new items: Crispy Strips were invented by an Arkansas franchisee, and the pot pie was similarly developed alongside franchisees. Meanwhile, less popular items, such as corn muffins, were removed from the menu. At the same time, Enrico scaled back the increasing competition between KFC and its sister companies, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut; Taco Bell had begun offering its own chicken products, and KFC had attacked Pizza Hut in its marketing.


title: History of KFC

text: In 1996 the company repaired its relationship with its franchisees by immediately dropping the most contentious of the contract terms that had been proposed by chairman John Cranor five years previously. The 1976 contract was restored, including the 1.5 mile outlet exclusivity zone, while the parent company gained greater control over national advertising. Novak also axed the Colonel's Rotisserie Gold product and introduced a new non-fried item called the Tender Roast. Tender Roast was served by piece, as with the fried chicken, in contrast with the rotisserie product, which had been sold in quarter, half or whole chicken portions. Afterwards, Novak oversaw ten fiscal quarters of consecutive growth at KFC North America. As a result of his success at KFC North America, Novak became President and CEO of the entire KFC organization in 1996.


title: History of KFC

text: In August 1997, PepsiCo spun off its poorly performing restaurants division as a public company valued at US$4.5 billion (around US$6.5 billion in 2013). Although KFC had been doing well, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell had been under-performing. One PepsiCo executive admitted, "restaurants weren't our schtick". The new company, named Tricon Global Restaurants, had 30,000 outlets and annual sales of US$10 billion (around US$14 billion in 2013) at the time, making it second only to McDonald's in global sales.


title: History of KFC

text: Since the turn of the 3rd millennium, fast food has been criticised for its animal welfare record, its links to obesity and its environmental impact. Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation" (2002) and Morgan Spurlock's film "Super Size Me" (2004) reflected these concerns. Since 2003, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has protested KFC's choice of poultry suppliers worldwide with the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign. PETA have held thousands of demonstrations, sometimes in the home towns of KFC executives, and CEO David Novak was soaked in fake blood by a protester. KFC President Gregg Dedrick said PETA mischaracterized KFC as a poultry producer rather than a purchaser of chickens. In 2008, Yum! stated: "[As] a major purchaser of food products, [Yum!] has the opportunity and responsibility to influence the way animals supplied to us are treated. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we are monitoring our suppliers on an ongoing basis."