title: Gulf War syndrome

text: To meet the "Kansas" case definition, a veteran of the 1990–91 Gulf War must have symptoms in at least three of the six symptom domains, which during the survey were scored based on severity ("severity"). Symptom onset must have developed during or after deploying to the 1990–91 Gulf War theatre of operations ("onset") and must have been present in the year before interview ("duration"). Participants were excluded if they had a diagnosis of or were being treated for any of several conditions that might otherwise explain their symptoms ("exclusionary criteria"), including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, chronic infectious disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or any serious psychiatric condition.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: Applying the Kansas case definition to the original Kansas study cohort resulted in a prevalence of Gulf War illness of 34.2% in Gulf War veterans and 8.3% in nondeployed Gulf War era veterans, or an excess rate of GWI of 26.3% in Gulf War veterans.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: Also in 1998, a study published by Dr. Keiji Fukuda under the auspices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examined chronic multisymptom illness through a cross-sectional survey of 3,675 ill and healthy U.S. Air Force veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf War, including from a Pennsylvania-based Air National Guard unit and three comparison Air Force units. The CDC case definition was derived from clinical data and statistical analyses.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The result was a symptom-category approach to a case definition, with three symptom categories: fatigue, mood–cognition, and musculoskeletal. To meet the case definition, the veteran of the 1990–91 Gulf War must have symptoms in two of the three categories and have experienced the illness for six months or longer ("duration").


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The original study also including a determination of severity of symptoms ("severity"). "Severe cases were identified if at least one symptom in each of the required categories was rated as severe. Of 1,155 participating Gulf War veterans, 6% had severe CMI, and 39% had mild to moderate CMI; of the 2,520 nondeployed era veterans Of 1,155 participating Gulf War veterans, 6% had severe CMI, and 39% had mild to moderate CMI; of the 2,520 nondeployed era veterans, 0.7% had severe and 14% had mild to moderate CMI."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: A 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine reviewed the peer-reviewed published medical literature for evidence regarding treatments for symptoms associated with "chronic multisymptom illness" (CMI) in 1990–91 Gulf War veterans, and in other chronic multisymptom conditions. For the studies the report reviewed that were specifically regarding CMI in 1990–91 Gulf War veterans ("Gulf War illness"), the report made the following conclusions:


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The report concluded: "On the basis of the evidence reviewed, the committee cannot recommend any specific therapy as a set treatment for [Gulf War] veterans who have CMI. The committee believes that a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not effective for managing [Gulf War] veterans who have CMI and that individualized health care management plans are necessary."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: By contrast, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) noted in a May 2018 publication that the primary focus of its Gulf War illness Research Program (GWIRP) "has been to fund research studies to identify treatment targets and test interventional approaches to alleviate symptoms. While most of these studies remain in progress, several have already shown varying levels of promise as GWI treatments."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The U.S Congress has made significant and continuing investment in DoD's Gulf War illness treatment research, with $129 million appropriated for the GWIRP between federal fiscal years (FY) 2006 and 2016. The funding has risen from $5 million in FY2006, to $20 million each year from FY2013 through FY2017, and to $21 million for FY2018.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: According to the May 2018 DoD publication cited above, "Research suggests that the GWI symptomology experienced by Veterans has not improved over the last 25 years, with few experiencing improvement or recovery ... . Many [Gulf War] Veterans will soon begin to experience the common co-morbidities associated with aging. The effect that aging will have on this unique and vulnerable population remains a matter of significant concern, and population-based research to obtain a better understanding of mortality, morbidity, and symptomology over time is needed."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The 2008 and 2014 VA (RAC) reports and the 2010 IOM report found that the chronic multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans—Gulf War illness—is more prevalent in Gulf War veterans than their non-deployed counterparts or veterans of previous conflicts. While a 2009 study found the pattern of comorbidities similar for actively deployed and nondeployed Australian military personnel, the large body of U.S. research reviewed in the VA and IOM reports showed the opposite in U.S. troops. The VA's 2014 RAC report found Gulf War illness in "an excess of 26–32 percent of Gulf War veterans compared to nondeployed era veterans" in pre-2008 studies, and "an overall multisymptom illness prevalence of 37 percent in Gulf War veterans and an excess prevalence of 25 percent" in a later, larger VA study.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: According to a May 2018 report by the U.S. Department of Defense, "GWI is estimated to have affected 175,000 to 250,000 of the nearly 700,000 troops deployed to the 1990–1991 GW theater of operations. Twenty-seven of the 28 Coalition members participating in the GW conflict have reported GWI in their troops. Epidemiologic studies indicate that rates of GWI vary in different subgroups of GW Veterans. GWI affects Veterans who served in the U.S. Army and Marines Corps at higher rates than those who served in the Navy and Air Force, and U.S. enlisted personnel are affected more than officers. Studies also indicate that GWI rates differ according to where Veterans were located during deployment, with the highest rates among troops who served in forward areas."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: Epidemiologic studies have looked at many suspected causal factors for Gulf War illness as seen in veteran populations. Below is a summary of epidemiologic studies of veterans displaying multisymptom illness and their exposure to suspect conditions from the 2008 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: A fuller understanding of immune function in ill Gulf War veterans is needed, particularly in veteran subgroups with different clinical characteristics and exposure histories. It is also important to determine the extent to which identified immune perturbations may be associated with altered neurological and endocrine processes that are associated with immune regulation. Very limited cancer data have been reported for U.S. Gulf War veterans in general, and no published research on cases occurring after 1999. Because of the extended latency periods associated with most cancers, it is important that cancer information is brought up to date and that cancer rates be assessed in Gulf War veterans on an ongoing basis. In addition, cancer rates should be evaluated in relation to identifiable exposure and location subgroups.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: An early argument in the years following the Gulf War was that similar syndromes have been seen as an after effect of other conflicts — for example, "shell shock" after World War I, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the Vietnam War. Cited as evidence for this argument was a review of the medical records of 15,000 American Civil War soldiers showing that "those who lost at least 5% of their company had a 51% increased risk of later development of cardiac, gastrointestinal, or nervous disease."


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: Early Gulf War research also failed to accurately account for the prevalence, duration, and health impact of Gulf War illness. For example, a November 1996 article in the "New England Journal of Medicine" found no difference in death rates, hospitalization rates, or self-reported symptoms between Persian Gulf veterans and non-Persian Gulf veterans. This article was a compilation of dozens of individual studies involving tens of thousands of veterans. The study did find a statistically significant elevation in the number of traffic accidents Gulf War veterans had. An April 1998 article in "Emerging Infectious Diseases" similarly found no increased rate of hospitalization and better health on average for veterans of the Persian Gulf War in comparison to those who stayed home.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: In contrast to those early studies, in January 2006, a study led by Melvin Blanchard published in the "Journal of Epidemiology", part of the "National Health Survey of Gulf War-Era Veterans and Their Families", found that veterans deployed in the Persian Gulf War had nearly twice the prevalence of chronic multisymptom illness, a cluster of symptoms similar to a set of conditions often at that time called Gulf War Syndrome.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: On November 17, 2008, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC), a Congressionally mandated federal advisory committee composed of VA-appointed clinicians, researchers, and representative Gulf War veterans, issued a major report announcing scientific findings, in part, that ""Gulf War illness is real"", that GWI is a distinct physical condition, and that it is not psychological in nature. The 454 page report reviewed 1,840 published studies to form its conclusions identifying the high prevalence of Gulf War illness, suggesting likely causes rooted in toxic exposures while ruling out combat stress as a cause, and opining that treatments likely could be found. It recommended that Congress increase funding for treatment-focused Gulf War illness research to at least $60 million per year.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: In March 2013, a hearing was held before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, to determine not whether Gulf War illness exists, but rather how it is identified, diagnosed and treated, and how the tools put in place to aid these efforts have been used.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: By 2016, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) concluded there was sufficient evidence of a positive association between deployment to the 1990–1991 Gulf War and Gulf War illness.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: Louis Jones Jr., the perpetrator of the 1995 murder of Tracie McBride, stated that the Gulf War syndrome caused him to commit the crime and he sought clemency, hoping to avoid the death penalty given to him by a federal court. Jones was executed in 2003.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: On March 14, 2014, Representative Mike Coffman introduced the Gulf War Health Research Reform Act of 2014 (H.R. 4261; 113th Congress) into the United States House of Representatives, where it passed the House by unanimous consent but then died in Congress when the Senate failed to take action on it. The bill would have altered the relationship between the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC) and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under which the RAC is constituted. The bill would have made the RAC an independent organization within the VA, require that a majority of the RAC's members be appointed by Congress instead of the VA, and authorized the RAC to release its reports without needing prior approval from the VA Secretary.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: In the year prior to the consideration of this bill, the VA and the RAC were at odds with one another. The VA replaced all but one of the members of the RAC, removed some of their supervisory tasks, tried to influence the board to decide that stress, rather than biology was the cause of Gulf War illness, and told the RAC that it could not publish reports without permission. The RAC was created after Congress decided that the VA's research into the issue was flawed, and focused on psychological causes, while mostly ignoring biological ones.


title: Gulf War syndrome

text: The RAC was first authorized under the Veterans Programs Enhancement Act of 1998 (Section 104 of Public Law 105–368, enacted November 11, 1998, and now codified as 38 U.S.C. § 527 note). While the law directing its creation mandated that it be established not later than January 1, 1999, the RAC's first charter was not issued until January 23, 2002, by VA Secretary Anthony Principi. The RAC convened for its first meetings on April 11–12, 2002.


title: Edsel

text: Edsel is a discontinued division and brand of automobiles that was marketed by the Ford Motor Company from the 1958 to the 1960 model years. Deriving its name from Edsel Ford, son of company founder Henry Ford, Edsels were developed in an effort to give Ford a fourth brand to gain additional market share from Chrysler and General Motors. Established as an expansion of the Lincoln-Mercury Division to three brands (re-christened the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division), Edsel shared a price range with Mercury; the division shared its bodies with both Mercury and Ford.


title: Edsel

text: Competing against Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Dodge, and DeSoto, Edsel was the first new brand introduced by an American automaker since the 1939 launch of Mercury and 1956 launch of Continental, which ended and merged into Lincoln after 1957. In the year leading to its release, Ford invested in an advertising campaign, marketing Edsels as the cars of the future. While 1958 Edsels would introduce multiple advanced features for its price segment, the launch of the model line would become symbolic of commercial failure. Introduced in a recession that catastrophically affected sales of medium-priced cars, Edsels were considered overhyped, unattractive (distinguished by a vertical grille), and low quality.


title: Edsel

text: Following a loss of over $250 million ($ in dollars) on development, manufacturing, and marketing on the model line, Ford quietly discontinued the Edsel brand before 1960.


title: Edsel

text: Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation on January 17, 1956, and thus was no longer entirely owned by members of the Ford family. The company was now able to sell cars according to current market trends following the sellers' market of the postwar years. Ford's new management compared the company's roster of makes with that of General Motors and Chrysler, and concluded that Lincoln was competing not with Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile, Buick, and DeSoto. Ford developed a plan to move Lincoln upmarket, with the Continental broken out as a separate make at the top of Ford's product line, and to add premium/intermediate vehicles to the intermediate slot vacated by Lincoln.


title: Edsel

text: Marketing research and development for the new intermediate line had begun in 1955 under the code name "E car", which stood for "experimental car." Ford Motor Company eventually decided on the name "Edsel", in honor of Edsel Ford, son of the company's founder, Henry Ford despite objections from Edsel's son Henry Ford II. The proposed vehicle marque would represent the start-up of a new division of the firm alongside that of Ford itself and the Lincoln-Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same bodies.


title: Edsel

text: Ford later claimed to have performed more than adequate, if not superior, product development and market research work in the planning and design of the new vehicle. Ford assured its investors, and the Detroit automotive press, that Edsels were not only superior products (as compared to their Oldsmobile/Buick/DeSoto competition), but the details of their styling and specifications were the result of a sophisticated market analysis and research and development effort that would essentially guarantee their broad acceptance by the buying public when the cars were introduced.


title: Edsel

text: In November 1956, the Edsel Division of Ford Motor Company was formed to establish a retail organization and dealer network, alongside Ford and Lincoln-Mercury (the Continental Division had ceased to exist several months earlier). With a network of 1,187 Edsel dealers, Ford Motor Company now had approximately 10,000 dealerships between its three divisions, bringing it closer in line with Chrysler (10,000 dealers across five brands) and General Motors (16,000 across six brands).


title: Edsel

text: Edsels were introduced amid considerable publicity on "E Day"—September 4, 1957. They were also promoted by a top-rated television special, "The Edsel Show", on October 13, but the promotional effort was not enough to counter the adverse initial public reaction to Edsel styling and unconventional build.


title: Edsel

text: After the launch date, Edsel was described as a "reborn LaSalle," a General Motors brand that had disappeared in 1940. For months, Ford had been telling the industry press that it "knew" (through its market research) that there would be great demand for the vehicles. Ford also insisted that, in the Edsels, it had built exactly the "entirely new kind of car" that Ford had been leading the buying public to expect through its pre-introduction publicity campaign for the cars. In reality, however, Edsels shared their engineering and bodywork with other Ford models, and the similarities were apparent once the vehicles were viewed firsthand.


title: Edsel

text: For its inaugural model year, Edsel introduced a seven-model product line, including four sedans and three station wagons. The lower-trim Edsel Ranger and Edsel Pacer shared bodies with Ford Fairlane sedans ( wheelbase) while the higher-trim Edsel Corsair and Edsel Citation shared bodies with the Mercury Monterey and Mercury Montclair sedans ( wheelbase). Sharing its body and wheelbase with Ford station wagons, Edsel offered the two-door Edsel Roundup and the four-door Edsel Villager and Edsel Bermuda.


title: Edsel

text: The Edsel model line offered multiple design features that were considered innovative for the time. In place of a horizontal strip or a round dial, the speedometer was a rotating dome; in line with aircraft design, the dashboard adopted warning lights for conditions as low oil level, parking brake engaged, and engine overheating. While not equipped with cruise control, Edsel introduced a speed warning on the speedometer if the driver exceeded a preset speed limit. While a standard column-mounted transmission shifter was offered (as a delete option), Edsel marked the introduction of the Teletouch push-button shifting system (mounted in the steering wheel hub).


title: Edsel

text: Edsels also integrated many elements of the Ford Lifeguard safety package into its design. Along with optional seatbelts, Edsels featured a deep-dish steering wheel, double-latched doors, and childproof rear door locks; the model line was among the first to introduce remote-operated trunk opening and self-adjusting brakes.


title: Edsel

text: In the first year, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the United States, and 4,935 were sold in Canada. Though below expectations, this nevertheless represented the second-largest launch for any new car brand to date, exceeded only by the DeSoto introduction in 1929. There was one four-door Citation model purchased and delivered in October 1957 to the United Kingdom for Ian Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford. Its current whereabouts is unknown. In January 1958, the free-standing Edsel division was added to Lincoln-Mercury, with the re-christened Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division (M-E-L) adopting Edsel sales and marketing operations. As the model year progressed and sales fell under expectations, multiple Edsel-only dealers closed or expanded their brand offerings with the encouragement of Ford Motor Company, including Lincoln-Mercury or imported Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany franchises.


title: Edsel

text: For the 1959 model year, Ford revised the market position of Edsel, slotting it between Ford and Mercury. To reflect the marketing change, the Mercury-based Citation was withdrawn and the Corsair became a higher-trim version of the Ranger (the Pacer was also discontinued); the station wagon line was pared down to the Villager wagon (dropping the two-door Roundup and wood-trim Bermuda). While all Edsel sedans used a Ford body, their wheelbase was (2 inches longer).


title: Edsel

text: In response to the widely negative response to 1958 Edsel exteriors, the exterior of 1959 Edsels underwent a restyling to tone down its appearance. While the vertical center grille made its return (following heavy revision), a redesign of the hoodline integrated the headlamps into a full-width outer grille (visually lowering the hoodline). A similar revision of the rear fascia repositioned the taillamps. Being based on the 1959 Ford, Edsels received the same roof design as the Fairlanes. Although Fords got a new luxury series of cars midyear, the Galaxie, Edsel never got an equivalent series, further eroding its appeal as a medium price automobile.


title: Edsel

text: The 1959 Edsel interior dropped several features to increase its commonality with Ford. The push-button Teletouch transmission controls were withdrawn, alongside the rotating-dome speedometer, as Edsel introduced a slightly restyled version of the Ford Fairlane 500 dashboard (the optional climate control and fully padded dashboard returned). Alongside the use of distinct interior trim from Ford, Edsel offered a 70/30 split-bench seatback for Corsairs; in 1967, Ford would return the split-bench seatback on the Ford LTD (continuing it into the 2010s on its full-size cars).


title: Edsel

text: For the 1960 model year, Edsel saw its model line reduced further, offering only the Ranger sedans, hardtop, and convertible alongside the Villager station wagon. Redesigned alongside 1960 Fords, 1960 Edsels were released with far more muted styling than their 1958 namesake.


title: Edsel

text: Sharing nearly its entire body with Ford, Edsel abandoned its trademark vertical grille in favor of a split grille (similar to the 1959 Pontiac); for the first time, a full-width front bumper was used. While sharing their tailfins with Ford, the rear fascia of Edsels were distinguished by four oblong vertical taillamps. Distinguished primarily by their grille and taillamps, the 1960 Edsels were also fitted with model-specific hoods, bumpers, and body-side trim. The four-door Ranger hardtop had no direct Ford equivalent, as it combined the roofline of the Fairlane with the doors of the Galaxie.


title: Edsel

text: In a design advance, the muffler was relocated from below the passenger compartment to the rear of the car, intended for better muffler protection and less heat and noise intrusion to the passenger compartment.


title: Edsel

text: 1960 Edsels were produced between October 15 and November 19, 1959. In total, 2,846 vehicles were produced at Louisville Assembly (except for pilot prototypes).


title: Edsel

text: Ford announced the end of the Edsel program on November 19, 1959. However, production continued until late in November, with the final tally of 2,846 model year 1960 cars. Total Edsel sales were approximately 116,000, less than half the company's projected break-even point. The company lost $350 million (the equivalent of $ in dollars) on the venture. Only 118,287 Edsels were built, including 7,440 produced in Oakville, Ontario Canada. By U.S. auto industry standards, these production figures were dismal, particularly when spread across a run of three model years.


title: Edsel

text: On November 20, 1959, United Press International's (UPI) wire service reported that book values for used Edsels had declined by as much as $400 based on condition and age immediately following the Ford press release. In some newspaper markets, dealers scrambled to renegotiate newspaper advertising contracts involving the 1960 Edsel models, while others dropped the name from their dealerships' advertising entirely. Ford issued a statement that it would distribute coupons to customers who purchased 1960 models (and carryover 1959 models) prior to the announcement, valued at $300 to $400 toward the purchase of new Ford products to offset the decreased values. The company also issued credits to dealers for stock unsold or received following the announcement.


title: Edsel

text: Historians have advanced several theories in an effort to explain Edsel's failure. Popular culture often faults vehicle styling. "Consumer Reports" has alleged that poor workmanship was Edsel's chief problem. Marketing experts hold Edsels up as a supreme example of the corporate culture's failure to understand American consumers. Business analysts cite the weak internal support for the product inside Ford's executive offices. According to author and Edsel scholar Jan Deutsch, an Edsel was "the wrong car at the wrong time."


title: Edsel

text: Edsels are most notorious for being a marketing disaster. The name "Edsel" became synonymous with the real-life commercial failure of the predicted "perfect" product or product idea. Similar ill-fated products have often been colloquially referred to as "Edsels". Ford's own Sierra model, which launched almost 25 years later, is often compared to Edsels owing to initial buyer antipathy to their perceived radical styling, even though, unlike Edsels, it ultimately became a sales success. Since the Edsel program was such a debacle, it gave marketers a vivid illustration of how "not" to market a product. The principal reason Edsel's failure is so infamous is that Ford did not consider that failure was a possibility until after the cars had been designed and built, the dealerships established, and $400 million invested in the product's development, advertising and launch. Incredibly, Ford had presumed to invest $400 million (well over $4 billion in 21st century dollars) in developing the new product line without any prior study to determine whether such an investment would be prudent or profitable.


title: Edsel

text: The prerelease advertising campaign promoted the cars as having "more YOU ideas", and the teaser advertisements in magazines revealed only glimpses of the cars through a highly blurred lens or wrapped in paper or under tarps. In fact, Ford had never test marketed the vehicles or their radical styling concepts with potential buyers prior to either the vehicles' initial development decision or vehicle shipments to their new dealerships. Edsels were shipped to the dealerships under wraps and remained so on the dealer lots.


title: Edsel

text: The public also had difficulty understanding exactly what Edsels were, primarily because Ford made the mistake of pricing Edsels within Mercury's market price segment. Theoretically, Edsels were conceived to fit into Ford's marketing structure as a mid-price model, with the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury. However, when the cars debuted in September 1957, the least expensive Ranger model was priced within $74 of the most expensive and best-trimmed Ford sedan and $63 less than Mercury's base Medalist model. In their mid-range pricing, Edsel's Pacer and Corsair models were "more" expensive than their ostensibly more costly Mercury counterparts. Edsel's top-of-the-line Citation hardtop sedan was the only model priced to correctly compete with Mercury's mid-range Montclair Turnpike Cruiser model, as illustrated in the chart below. Edsel products were priced from $2,484 () to $3,766 ().


title: Edsel

text: Not only was Edsel competing against its own sister divisions, but model for model, buyers did not understand what the cars were supposed to be—a step above the Mercury, or a step below it.


title: Edsel

text: After introduction to the public, Edsels did not live up to their preproduction publicity, even though many new features were offered, such as self-adjusting rear brakes and automatic lubrication. While Ford's market research had indicated that these and other features would make Edsels attractive to them as car buyers, their selling prices exceeded what buyers were willing to pay. Upon seeing the price for a base model, many potential buyers simply left the dealerships. Other customers were frightened by the price for a fully equipped top-of-the-line model.


title: Edsel

text: One of the external forces working against the Edsel brand was the onset of an economic recession in late 1957.


title: Edsel

text: Compounding Edsel's problems was the fact that the car had to compete with well-established nameplates from the Big Three, such as Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Dodge and DeSoto, as well as with its sister division Mercury, which had never been a stellar sales success. To make matters still worse, as a new make, Edsel had no established brand loyalty with buyers, as its competing makes had.


title: Edsel

text: Even if the 1957–1958 recession had not occurred, Edsel would have been entering a shrinking marketplace. In the early 1950s, when the "E" car was in its earliest stages of development, Ford Executive Vice President Ernest R. Breech had convinced Ford management that the medium-priced market segment offered great untapped opportunity. At the time, Breech's assessment was basically correct; in 1955, Pontiac, Buick and Dodge had sold a combined two million units. But by the fall of 1957, when Edsels were introduced, the market had changed drastically. Independent manufacturers in the medium-priced field were drifting to insolvency. Hoping to reverse its losses, Packard acquired Studebaker, which was also in financial difficulty. The board decided to stop production under the venerable Packard badge after 1958. The 1957–58 Packards were Studebaker bodied cars using much Packard Styling (also known as "Packardbakers"). Attempting to capitalize on the emerging consumer interest in economy cars, American Motors shifted its focus to its compact Rambler models and discontinued its pre-merger brands, Nash and Hudson, after the 1957 model year. Sales of Chrysler's DeSoto marque dropped dramatically from its 1957 high by over 50% in 1958. When DeSoto sales failed to rebound during the 1959 model year, plans were made in Highland Park to discontinue the nameplate by 1961.


title: Edsel

text: Sales for most car manufacturers, even those not introducing new models, were down. Among domestic makes, only Rambler and Lincoln produced more cars in 1958 than in 1957. Customers started buying more fuel-efficient automobiles, particularly Volkswagen Beetles, which were selling at rates exceeding 50,000 a year in the U.S. from 1957 onward. Edsels were equipped with powerful engines and offered brisk acceleration, but they also required premium fuel, and their fuel economy, especially in city driving, was poor even by late-1950s standards.


title: Edsel

text: Ford Motor Company had conducted the right marketing study, but it came up with the wrong product to fill the gap between Ford and Mercury. By 1958, buyers had become fascinated with economy cars, and a large car like an Edsel was seen as too expensive to buy and own. When Ford introduced the Falcon in 1959, it sold over 400,000 units in its first year. Ford's investment in expanded plant capacity and additional tooling for Edsels helped make the company's subsequent success with the Falcon possible.


title: Edsel

text: By 1965, the market for medium-priced cars had recovered, and this time, Ford had the right car; the Galaxie 500 LTD. The LTD's success led Chevrolet to introduce the Caprice as a mid-1965 upscale trim option on its top-of-the-line Impala four-door hardtop.


title: Edsel

text: The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its lack of popularity. Naming the vehicle after Edsel Ford was proposed early in its development. However, the Ford family strongly opposed its use. Henry Ford II declared that he did not want his father's good name spinning around on thousands of hubcaps. Ford also ran internal studies to decide on a name, and even dispatched employees to stand outside movie theaters to poll audiences as to what their feelings were on several ideas. They reached no conclusions.


title: Edsel

text: Ford retained the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding to come up with a name. When the agency issued its report, citing over 6,000 possibilities, Ford's Ernest Breech commented that they had been hired to develop "one" name, not 6,000. Early favorites for the name brand included Citation, Corsair, Pacer, and Ranger, which were ultimately chosen for the vehicle's series names.


title: Edsel

text: David Wallace, manager of marketing research, and coworker Bob Young unofficially invited freethinker poet Marianne Moore for input and suggestions. Moore's unorthodox contributions (among them "Utopian Turtletop," "Pastelogram," "Turcotinga," "Resilient Bullet," "Andante con Moto" and "Mongoose Civique") were meant to stir creative thought and were not officially authorized or contractual in nature.


title: Edsel

text: By the instruction of Ernest Breech, who was chairing a board meeting in the absence of Henry Ford II, the car was finally called "Edsel" in honor of Edsel Ford, former company president and son of Henry Ford.


title: Edsel

text: Even though Edsels shared basic technology with other Ford cars of the era, a number of issues caused reliability problems, mostly with the 1958 models. Reports of mechanical flaws with the cars surfaced, due primarily to lack of quality control and confusion of parts with other Ford models. Ford never dedicated a stand-alone factory solely to Edsel model production. The 1958 Edsels were assembled in both Mercury and Ford factories. The longer-wheelbase models, Citation and Corsair, were produced alongside the Mercury products, while the shorter-wheelbase models, Pacer and Ranger, were produced alongside Ford products. Workers assembling Fords and Mercurys often found the task of assembling the occasional Edsel that moved down the line burdensome, because it required them to change tools and parts bins, then switch back to resume assembling Fords or Mercurys after completing assembly on Edsels. The workers were also expected to accommodate Edsel assembly with no adjustment in their hourly quota of Ford and Mercury production. Consequently, the desired quality control of the different Edsel models proved difficult to achieve, even when the Fords and Mercurys were satisfactorily assembled on the same lines. Many Edsels actually left the assembly lines unfinished. Uninstalled parts were placed in the trunks along with installation instructions for dealership mechanics, some of whom never installed the additional parts at all. Some dealers did not even receive all the parts.


title: Edsel

text: In the March 1958 issue of "Popular Mechanics", 16% of Edsel owners reported poor workmanship, with complaints ranging from faulty welding to power steering failure. In its test car, "Popular Mechanics" tested for these problems and discovered others, notably a badly leaking trunk during rain, and the odometer showing fewer than actual miles traveled.


title: Edsel

text: Edsel's most memorable design feature was its trademark "horsecollar" grille, which was distinct from that of other cars of the period. According to a popular joke at the time, Edsels "resembled an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon"..


title: Edsel

text: According to Thomas E. Bonsall's book, "Disaster in Dearborn" (2002), it was assistant stylist Bob "Robin" Jones, who suggested a vertical motif for the front end of the "E-car".


title: Edsel

text: Edsel's front end bore little resemblance, if any, to the original concept. Roy Brown, the original chief designer on the Edsel project, had envisioned a slender, almost delicate opening in the center. Engineers, fearing engine cooling problems, vetoed the intended design, so a ring design was suggested. Ernest Breech then demanded that the grille be taller and wider, which led to the "horsecollar".


title: Edsel

text: The vertical grille, after being improved for the 1959 models, was discontinued for the 1960 models, which were similar to Ford models of the same year, although coincidentally, the new front end was very similar to that of the 1959 Pontiac.


title: Edsel

text: Complaints also surfaced about the taillights on 1958 Edsel station wagons. The lenses were boomerang-shaped and placed in a reverse fashion. At a distance, they appeared as arrows pointed in the opposite direction of the turn being made. When the left turn signal flashed, its arrow shape pointed right, and vice versa. However, there was little that could be done to give the Ford-based station wagons a unique appearance from the rear, because corporate management had insisted that no sheetmetal could be changed. Only the taillights and trim could be touched. There was room for separate turn signals in addition to the boomerangs, but the U.S. industry had never supplied them up to that point, and they were probably never seriously considered.


title: Edsel

text: The Teletouch pushbutton automatic transmission selector was an extremely complex feature. It proved problematic in part because the steering wheel hub, where the pushbuttons were located, was the traditional location of the horn button. Some drivers inadvertently shifted gears when they intended to sound the horn. While Edsels were fast, the location of the transmission pushbuttons was not conducive to street racing. There were also jokes among stoplight drag racers about the buttons: D for Drag, L for Leap, and R for Race (instead of Drive, Low and Reverse). The control wires for Teletouch were also routed too close to the exhaust manifold, which often caused unpredictable movement of the selector mechanism and, in some cases, complete failure. The electrical design required drivers to shift from Park to Reverse to Neutral to Drive, in that order, to avoid overloading the Teletouch motor. The motor was also not powerful enough to bring the car out of Park while on a hill, so dealerships would instruct drivers to set the parking brake before pushing the Park button.


title: Edsel

text: Mechanics of the time were wary of the 410-cubic-inch Edsel "E-475" engine because its perfectly flat cylinder heads lacked distinct combustion chambers. The heads were set at an angle, with "roof" pistons forming both a squish zone on one side and a combustion chamber on the other. Combustion thus took place entirely within the cylinder bore. This design was similar to Chevrolet's 348-cubic-inch "W" engine, which was also introduced in 1958. While the design reduced the cost of manufacture and may also have helped minimize carbon buildup, it was also unfamiliar to many mechanics.


title: Edsel

text: Following World War II, Henry Ford II retained Robert McNamara as one of the "Whiz Kids" to help turn Ford around. McNamara's cost-cutting and cost-containment skills helped Ford emerge from its near-collapse after the war. As a result, McNamara eventually amassed a considerable amount of power at Ford. McNamara was very much a throwback to Henry Ford in that, like the elder Ford, McNamara was committed to the Ford marque to the almost total exclusion of the company's other products. Thus, McNamara had little use for the Continental, Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel brand cars made by the company.


title: Edsel

text: McNamara opposed the formation of the separate divisions for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel cars, and moved to consolidate Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel into the M-E-L division. McNamara saw to it that the Continental program was canceled and that the model was merged into the Lincoln range for 1958. He next set his sights on Edsel by maneuvering for elimination of the dual wheelbases and separate bodies used for 1958. Instead, Edsels would share the Ford platform and use Ford's inner body structure for 1959. By 1960, Edsels emerged as little more than a Ford with different trim. McNamara also moved to reduce Edsel's advertising budget for 1959, and for 1960, he virtually eliminated it. The final blow came in the fall of 1959, when McNamara convinced Henry Ford II and the rest of Ford's management that Edsel was doomed and that it was time to end production before Edsel bled the company dry. McNamara also attempted to discontinue the Lincoln nameplate, but that effort ended with Elwood Engel's now classic redesign of 1961. McNamara left Ford when he was named Secretary of Defense by President John F. Kennedy.


title: Edsel

text: During the 1964 presidential election, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater blamed McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, for Edsel's failure. Eventually, Ford's former executive vice president Ernest R. Breech, who was a financial contributor to Goldwater, wrote to the Senator's campaign, explaining that "Mr. McNamara ... had nothing to do with the plans for the Edsel car or any part of the program." However, the charge continued to be leveled against McNamara for years. During his time as head of the World Bank, McNamara instructed his public affairs officer to distribute copies of Breech's letter to the press whenever the accusation was made.


title: Edsel

text: The Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi features an Edsel crashing through a wall, intended to symbolically represent US military failure in the Vietnam War. McNamara became the US Secretary of Defense after his career at Ford, and oversaw the escalation of the US military presence in Vietnam.


title: Edsel

text: While Edsel would cost Ford over $250 million (in 1958 dollars), the project would see longer-term benefits for the company, as Ford invested over $100 million to build compact cars over the 1960s.


title: Edsel

text: Prior to the closure of the Edsel division, the brand was intending to release the Edsel Comet compact for the 1960 model year, sharing a body with the Ford Falcon. Running prototypes of sedans and station wagons were developed into November 1959 (only days before the closure of Edsel). The design was approved for production, with the Comet sold by Lincoln-Mercury under no divisional branding. Though sharing chassis underpinnings and many body stampings with the Falcon, the Comet was stretched to a wheelbase (longer than the GM Y-body "senior compacts"). The Comet adopted multiple design features from the full-size Edsel line, including its oblong taillamp lenses (though canted diagonally, creating its rear tailfins) along with the instrument cluster. Comet keys were styled like Edsel keys (restyling the "E" emblem as a "C").


title: Edsel

text: While sold without divisional branding, the Comet proved successful; Lincoln-Mercury sold more 1960 Comets than the entire Edsel model line sold through its 1958-1960 existence. For 1962, the Comet was branded as a Mercury; the model line was produced through 1977.


title: Edsel

text: For 1961, Lincoln-Mercury introduced the Mercury Meteor as its entry-level full-size sedan, slotted below the Mercury Monterey. Beginning life as a design for the 1961 Edsel Ranger, the base trim of the Meteor was designed with oblong taillamps (switching to horizontal layout), derived from the 1960 Ranger and Comet (designed as an Edsel). For 1962, the full-size Meteor was discontinued, with Mercury shifting the nameplate to its newly-introduced intermediate car line (becoming a counterpart of the Ford Fairlane through 1963).


title: Edsel

text: While the Edsel trademark vertical grille saw a nearly universal negative response by contemporary buyers and critics, multiple subsequent automobile manufacturers have employed narrow vertically-oriented grilles with greater success in the marketplace, including Pontiac, Jaguar, Subaru, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and Saab; the BMW 4 Series (G22) is a contemporary model line with a vertical grille generating a negative critical response similar to the Edsel.


title: Edsel

text: Through technological advances, multiple features introduced by Edsel cars, including self-adjusting brakes, automatic climate control, steering wheel-mounted transmission controls, and childproof rear door locks are no longer impractical ideas, but included in many current production features as options or standard equipment.


title: Edsel

text: More than half a century after its spectacular failure, Edsels have become highly collectible items among vintage car hobbyists. Fewer than 10,000 Edsels survive and they are considered valuable collectors' items. A mint-condition Edsel convertible from any of its three model years may sell for over $100,000. The rarest Edsel (by body style) is the 1960 Ranger convertible: only 76 were built. Approximately 25 survive today. The rarest Edsel by model is the 1960 Ranger deluxe interior 4-door hardtop, model 57B. Originally intended to be released as the 1960 Corsair, only 31 units were produced.


title: Edsel

text: Plastic scale models of all three Edsel years were produced by Aluminum Metal Toys (AMT), in its familiar 1/25 scale. Both promotional and kit versions were sold. These command premium prices today, especially the rare 1959 and 1960 models. The 1958 Pacer hardtop was re-issued as a totally new and much more detailed kit by AMT in the 1990s. The 1960 hardtop is also available as a resin kit from several resin model producers, but is typically priced close to the cost of an original kit. Yat Ming, a producer of diecast model cars, offered a nicely detailed 1958 Citation in 1/18 scale in both hardtop and convertible body styles. Yat Ming also produced a detailed 1/43 scale diecast of the Citation convertible in several color combinations. The Franklin Mint produced highly detailed 1/24 scale and 1/43 scale diecast models of the 1958 Citation convertible. The Danbury Mint produced a 1/24 scale diecast replica of the 1958 Bermuda station wagon, complete with accurately detailed wood trim.


title: Edsel

text: Despite lack of sales success, several Edsels were nevertheless raced in NASCAR's Grand National series in the late 1950s.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Sydney Earl Chaplin (March 30, 1926 – March 3, 2009) was an American actor. He was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. One of his major roles was in his father's film "Limelight" (1952). In theater, Chaplin won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his 1957 performance in "Bells Are Ringing".


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Born in 1926 in Beverly Hills, California, Chaplin was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. His parents had married in November 1924 when Lita became pregnant with Sydney's elder brother Charles. Sydney was born five weeks prematurely, 10 months after the birth of his older brother. He was named for his father's half-brother, Sydney Chaplin. His parents divorced a year after his birth. The boys later had eight half-siblings from their father's fourth marriage to Oona O'Neill.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: His mother insisted on calling him "Tommy" due to her distaste for his namesake uncle. Sydney and his older brother were brought up mostly by their maternal grandmother, while his mother attempted to advance her career as a singer. The family spent most of one year in Nice, where the boys became fluent in French.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Chaplin was educated at the boarding schools Black-Foxe Military Institute and Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, as well as the public North Hollywood High School.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: After serving in the United States Army during World War II in Europe, Chaplin returned to California, where he became involved in acting both on stage and in films. He gained early acting experience in The Circle Theater, now known as El Centro Theatre, including acting in three plays directed by his father.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: He also appeared in several Broadway productions, including "Bells Are Ringing" opposite Judy Holliday in 1957, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. In 1959, he costarred with Lauren Bacall in George Axelrod's comedy "Goodbye Charlie" and headlined Jule Styne's 1961 musical "Subways Are for Sleeping". He played in "Funny Girl" opposite Barbra Streisand in 1964, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Chaplin also had supporting roles in two of his father's films, "Limelight" (1952) and "A Countess from Hong Kong" (1967).


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Chaplin retired from acting in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he owned and managed a restaurant, Chaplin's, in Palm Springs, California.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Following his retirement from acting, Chaplin seldom made public appearances. Exceptions included his attendance at Cinecon in Los Angeles in 1998, and at the Cineteca di Bologna 2002 festival (Il Cinema Ritrovato), which mounted a fiftieth-anniversary screening of "Limelight." He appeared also at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2004, where he spoke after screenings of his father's film "The Circus" to promote film historian Jeffrey Vance's Chaplin books.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: In 1960 Chaplin married French dancer and actress Noëlle Adam, by whom he had one son, Stephan (born 1960). In 1985 this marriage ended in divorce.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: He became involved with Margaret Beebe in 1984. They married in 1998, and remained married until Chaplin's death.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: Chaplin helped complete and publish his mother's 1998 autobiography, "Wife of the Life of the Party". He also wrote the book's foreword, where he shared some of his own history and private thoughts on his parents.


title: Sydney Chaplin (American actor)

text: On March 3, 2009, Chaplin died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, of a stroke, at the age of 82, just 4 weeks short of his 83rd birthday.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Mazie Keiko Hirono (; Japanese name: , ; born November 3, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Hawaii since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Hirono previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013. Hirono also served as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1981 to 1995 and as Hawaii's ninth lieutenant governor from 1994 to 2002, under Ben Cayetano. She was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor of Hawaii in 2002, defeated by Republican Linda Lingle in the general election.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono is the first elected female senator from Hawaii, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, the first U.S. senator born in Japan, and the nation's first Buddhist senator. She considers herself a non-practicing Buddhist and is often cited with Hank Johnson as the first Buddhist to serve in the United States Congress. She is also the third woman to be elected to Congress from Hawaii (after Patsy Mink and Pat Saiki).


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 2012, Hirono was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Daniel Akaka. Hirono won the election, defeating Lingle in a landslide, 63% to 37%. She was sworn in on January 3, 2013, by Vice President Joe Biden. Hirono was the only person of Asian ancestry serving in the U.S. Senate from 2013 until 2017, when senators Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris were sworn in, representing Illinois and California, respectively. Although Brian Schatz joined the Senate a week before Hirono, following the death of Daniel Inouye, making him Hawaii's senior senator, Hirono's three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives make her the dean, or longest-serving member overall, of Hawaii's congressional delegation.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Mazie Hirono was born on November 3, 1947, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan to Laura Chie Satō, a Japanese American, and Hirono Matabe, a Japanese veteran of World War II. Mazie's maternal grandfather, Hiroshi Satō, immigrated to Hawaii to work on a sugar plantation at the age of 16; her grandmother, Tari Shinoki, immigrated to Hawaii as a picture bride. After finding plantation work difficult, the couple opened a bathhouse on River Street in Honolulu in 1928. The couple had a daughter, Laura Chie, in 1924, and a son, Akira.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 1939, Tari returned to Japan with the teenaged Laura and Akira; Hiroshi remained in Hawaii to run the bathhouse for two more years before joining his family in 1941. Laura felt out of place in Japan as one of the many Nisei Japanese Americans who emigrated with their returning Issei parents (barred from US citizenship or land ownership) before World War II and during the Great Depression. But although her brother returned to Hawaii after the war, she remained in Japan and married a veterinarian, Hirono Matabe, in 1946. Laura moved with her husband to southern Fukushima, and had three children, Roy, Mazie, and Wayne. Mazie, the middle child, was the only surviving daughter.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Mazie's father, Matabe, was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic who pawned even his wife's possessions for gambling money. Treated "like a slave" by her in-laws, Mazie's mother finally left the abusive marriage in 1951. Laura later recounted her point of decision: "My brother sent money to buy a school uniform for my son. My husband took the money, went to town and never came back home. It was getting closer to the start of school, so I went to look for him. I found out he had ordered an overcoat for himself with the money. He didn't need an overcoat in the spring. That's when I made up my mind to leave." After telling her in-laws she was going to take her children to school in her hometown, Laura left the house, never to return. Selling her clothes to pay the rail fare, she and the children moved back to her parents' home. Laura said, "My husband never came around once; my parents were supportive and took all of us in. My mother gave us money. I guess it all boils down to love."


title: Mazie Hirono

text: The Satō-Hirono family decided to return to Hawaii, but under the U.S. quota system Tari and Hiroshi, as Japanese nationals without American citizenship or professional status, could not go with Laura, an American citizen. Thus the family was separated, with three-year-old Wayne staying behind with his grandparents and Laura returning to Honolulu on her own with Mazie and Roy in March 1955. After two years of hard work, she brought her parents and youngest son to Hawaii in 1957. "She determined that she had to get away [from her husband]...she wanted to put thousands of miles between them", Hirono said of her mother. "That took a lot of courage. I always tell my mom there is nothing I can do—hard as it is to be in politics...harder than what she did."


title: Mazie Hirono

text: After first living with Mazie's uncle Akira, the family moved into a rooming house on Kewalo Street in Honolulu with one room, one table, three chairs and one bed. Laura recalled, "Mazie and Roy slept on the bed. I slept on the floor with a futon. The landlady was so nice. The rent was $35, but she charged us less because I didn't have a job." Laura began working for the Hawaii Hochi as a typesetter and also three nights a week for a catering company. Mazie worked in the school cafeteria and had a paper route. Though money was tight and the family was forced to move often, Laura kept them together. Mazie recalled that she and her brother used to get a dime once or twice a week from their mother. "We both had baseball piggy banks. My older brother spent all his dimes but I saved mine. But one day I came home and the dimes were gone. My mother had to use it to buy food."


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono never saw her father again, and he has since died. Laura became a newspaper proofreader in 1961 and retired from the Hawaii Newspaper Agency in 1986; Roy became a Hawaiian Electric supervisor. Wayne drowned in 1978, aged 26. Mazie's grandfather Hiroshi died in 1989, and her grandmother Tari died in 2000 at age 99.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Raised in Honolulu, Hirono became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1959, the year Hawaii became a state. She attended Kaahumanu Elementary and Koko Head Elementary Schools. She graduated from Kaimuki High School, which at the time of her attendance had a predominantly Japanese American student body. Hirono then enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in psychology in 1970. She left Hawaii to attend Georgetown University Law Center, where she obtained her J.D. degree in 1978. Hirono then returned to Honolulu, where she practiced law.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 1980, Hirono was elected to Hawaii's 12th House district in a multi-member district with Democratic State Representative David Hagino. Hawaii eliminated multi-member districts, and after redistricting she ran for Hawaii's 20th House district and won. After redistricting again in 1984, she ran for the newly redrawn Hawaii's 32nd House district and won. In 1992, after redistricting, she ran in the newly redrawn Hawaii's 22nd House district. She won the three-candidate Democratic primary with 91% of the vote. She won the general election and served only one term in the 22nd district before retiring in 1994 to run for statewide office.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: From 1980 to 1994, Hirono served in the Hawaii House of Representatives, passing more than 120 laws. She was honored by a coalition of leaseholders as Legislator of the Year in 1984.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono ran for lieutenant governor of Hawaii and won the Democratic primary, defeating fellow State Representative Jackie Young 65%–26%. In the general election she defeated three other candidates: Danny Kaniela Kaleikini (Best Party), State Representative Fred Hemmings (Republican Party), and Jack Morse (Green Party), 37%–31%–29%–4%.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono ran for reelection in 1998. She was challenged in the primary by Nancy L. Cook and defeated her, 89%–11%. In the general election Hirono defeated Republican State Senator Stan Koki 50%–49%, a difference of 5,254 votes.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 1994 Hirono joined the ticket of incumbent Lieutenant Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano and was elected to a historic administration led by the first Filipino American governor and first Japanese immigrant lieutenant governor. During her tenure as lieutenant governor, she was president of the National Commission on Teaching, America's Future, and the Hawaii Policy Group. She also spearheaded the first-in-the-nation comprehensive Pre-Plus program, a precursor to universal preschool education in the United States.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono originally wanted to run for mayor of Honolulu in a potential 2002 special election created by the vacancy of incumbent Mayor Jeremy Harris, who was planning to resign in order to run for governor of Hawaii. But due to internal controversies, Harris dropped out of the gubernatorial election and remained mayor for another two years. Hirono switched races.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono maneuvered to gain the support of potential Harris voters in her challenge against former State House Majority Leader Ed Case. Throughout the primary campaign, Hirono and Case polled almost equally. Hirono defeated Case in the September 21 Democratic primary, 41%–40%, a difference of 2,613 votes.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: A few weeks later, Republican nominee and Mayor of Maui Linda Lingle defeated Hirono 52–47%, becoming Hawaii's first female governor.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: On September 23, Hirono ran for being vacated by incumbent Ed Case. The Democratic primary was very competitive. There were ten candidates, seven of whom served in the Hawaii Legislature. Hirono's advantage was that she was the only candidate who had held statewide office and as a result had the most name recognition. She also raised the most money, mostly because of the endorsement of EMILY's List, and lent her own campaign $100,000. She won with a plurality of 22% of the vote. State Senator Colleen Hanabusa finished second with 21%, 845 votes short of Hirono.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 2008, Hirono was named the national preschool advocacy organization Pre-K Now's "Pre-K Champion" for her efforts on behalf of pre-kindergarten legislation.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono co-sponsored and signed the Prevention First Act of 2007. The act aimed to increase public access to contraception and government funding to support the use of contraception. It places an emphasis on informing and protecting women from unintended pregnancy.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: On May 4, 2011, Hirono voted against the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would have prohibited federal health care programs from covering abortion costs, with exceptions for life-threatening cases.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In July 2011, Hirono voted for the Access to Birth Control Act, which mandates that pharmacies provide birth control to customers without undue delay. The ABP Act also ensures that customers seeking birth control can obtain it without being submitted to unwanted harassment or breaches in patient confidentiality.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: EMILY's List, a Democratic pro-choice action committee, pledged support to Hirono for her history of supporting contraceptive and abortion policies during her term. Its endorsement helped Hirono in her 2012 senatorial race, contributing $129,714 to her campaign.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: On May 19, 2011, Hirono announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat left open by Daniel Akaka, who was retiring at the end of his term in 2012. She won the Democratic primary election on August 11, 2012. Hirono was endorsed as one of Democracy for America's Dean Dozen. The Republican nominee was former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle. Hirono won the general election on November 6, 2012, with 63% of the vote. She is the first female senator from Hawaii, as well as the first Asian-born immigrant to be elected to the U.S. Senate. She was a part of the first completely non-Christian Congressional delegation from the state, which continued until the election of Mark Takai (an Episcopalian) in 2014 as Representative of Hawaii's 1st congressional district.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In the 2012 campaign Hirono raised $5.2 million, with approximately 52% of that from large corporations. Lingle raised $5.5 million, with 74% from large corporations. Hirono spent $5 million and Lingle $4.8 million.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: On December 12, 2012, the Senate Democratic Steering Committee announced that Hirono would serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving her influence on matters ranging from approving nominations of federal judges to setting criminal-justice policy.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: During the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in September 2018, Hirono became an outspoken defender of Christine Blasey Ford after Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, telling men to "shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change."


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Hirono called for the resignation of fellow senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for their opposition to certifying the 2020 presidential election Electoral College count.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: She also called for the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be invoked to remove Donald Trump from office.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In April 2021, Hirono sponsored and the Senate passed a bill attempting to decrease hate crimes against Asian Americans due to xenophobia associated with COVID-19. The vote was 94–1, with Senator Hawley (R-MO) the only one who voted against the bill.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In July 2022, Hirono joined in introducing the Youth Voting Rights Act"," comprehensive legislation to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and expand youth access to voting. This legislation, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, was also introduced in the House by Representative Nikema Williams.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: According to On the Issues, Hirono's voting history places her in the "left/liberal" camp. The American Conservative Union gave her a 2% lifetime conservative rating in 2020.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono has a 100% rating from Naral Pro-Choice America. She is also endorsed by EMILY's list for pro-choice women. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Hirono told the panel: "If you don't support abortion, don't get one, but leave everyone else to the painful decisions they have to make along with their physicians".


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Hirono called the June 2022 overturning of "Roe v. Wade" "a horrific day in America". She also said, "This will go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of the Court."


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 2016, she participated in the Chris Murphy gun control filibuster. Hirono expressed disappointment when the Democrat-proposed Feinstein Amendment (banning the sale of firearms to individuals on the terrorist watchlist) and the Republican-backed background check expansion and alert system (regarding guns being sold to terrorist watchlist suspects) both failed to pass the Senate.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: On July 28, 2017, two months after undergoing surgery for stage-four kidney cancer, Hirono spoke on the Senate floor and voted against the so-called "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). MSNBC reporter Kyle Griffin filmed Hirono's speech and posted it on Twitter.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In January 2019, during the 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown, Hirono was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to Commissioner of Food and Drugs Scott Gottlieb recognizing the efforts of the FDA to address the effect of the government shutdown on the public health and employees while expressing alarm "that the continued shutdown will result in increasingly harmful effects on the agency's employees and the safety and security of the nation's food and medical products." Gottlieb said additional staff might be called in as needed.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In April 2019, Hirono was one of 41 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development." The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In April 2019, Hirono was one of seven senators to sponsor the Digital Equity Act of 2019, legislation establishing a $120 million grant program that would fund the creation and implementation of "comprehensive digital equity plans" in every state and a $120 million grant program to support projects developed by individuals and groups. The bill also gave the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) the role of evaluating and providing guidance for digital equity projects.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In May 2017, Hirono announced that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer, which had spread to her seventh rib. The cancer was discovered in a chest X-ray in April before minor eye surgery. Hirono's right kidney was removed on May 17, 2017, with a Cyberknife procedure to treat the rib lesion. She returned to the Senate on May 22, 2017, and was reelected to a second term in 2018.


title: Mazie Hirono

text: In 2021, Viking Press published Hirono's autobiography, "Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter's Story". "Marie Claire" listed the book among its "25 Great Memoirs to Pre-Order Now".


title: Mazie Hirono

text: Also in 2021, it was announced that Hirono would receive Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star for her "significant contributions in strengthening bilateral relations and promoting legislative exchanges between Japan and the United States".


title: Lois Smith

text: Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American character actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film "East of Eden", and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), "Resurrection" (1980), "Fatal Attraction" (1987), "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991), "Falling Down" (1993), "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995), "Dead Man Walking" (1995), "Twister" (1996), "Minority Report" (2002), "The Nice Guys" (2016), "Lady Bird" (2017), and "The French Dispatch" (2021).


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2017, Smith received critical acclaim for her leading performance in the science-fiction drama film "Marjorie Prime", for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and Saturn Award, and won a Satellite Award. She has also had many roles on daytime and primetime television. She was a regular cast member in the HBO horror drama "True Blood", and received a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series nomination for "The Americans".


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith also is known for her extensive work in the theatre. A three-time Tony Award nominee, she won the 2020 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in "The Inheritance", becoming the oldest performer to win a Tony Award for acting. She also received Tony nominations for her performances in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1990) and "Buried Child" (1996). She starred in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of "The Trip to Bountiful" in 2005 for which she received an Obie Award for Best Actress, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk Award. She is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.


title: Lois Smith

text: She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007 for her outstanding contributions to the theatre. In 2013, she received a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award for excellence in Off-Broadway performances. She has taught, directed, and written for the stage.


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith was born Lois Arlene Humbert in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of six children of Carrie (née Gottshalk) and William Humbert, who worked for a telephone company. Her father died in 1950 at age 54. Her family included her two sisters, Alice and Marvelle, and three brothers, William, Dilman, and Phillip, all of whom are now deceased. Her father moved the family to Seattle when Lois was 11 years old, and he was involved heavily in the church, staging plays there in which young Lois performed. She studied theatre at the University of Washington but did not graduate. At age 18, she married Wesley Dale Smith, whom she met in college; they divorced in 1970. They had one daughter, Moon Elizabeth Smith.


title: Lois Smith

text: Around 1951, Smith and her husband decided to leave Seattle for New York City to begin their professional careers. After she worked with Elia Kazan on "East of Eden", he encouraged her to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, which she did. She was also mentored in her early years in New York City by John Van Druten.


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith made her Broadway debut in 1952 at age 22 in the play "Time Out for Ginger" as Joan, with Nancy Malone as Ginger and Melvyn Douglas as their father. She followed this in 1955 with "The Wisteria Trees", a play that starred Helen Hayes. In 1956, she performed with Hayes in "The Glass Menagerie". Also in 1955, she was given the lead role of Josephine Perry in Sally Benson's play "The Young and Beautiful", which ran for 65 performances at the Longacre Theatre.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1957, Smith originated the role of Carol Cutrere in "Orpheus Descending" by Tennessee Williams, which also starred Maureen Stapleton. In 1958, she was directed by José Ferrer in "Edwin Booth".


title: Lois Smith

text: From 1965 to 1967, Smith starred in several plays as a company member with the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia with Andre Gregory. She is a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, founded by Curt Dempster in 1968.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1973, she returned to Broadway to appear in a revival of "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill. In 1975, she performed the role of Gaby in Corinne Jacker's play "Harry Outside". She also played the lead female role in Steve Tesich's play "Touching Bottoms" in 1978. In 1979, she played the role of Denise in Elizabeth Stearns's play "Hillbilly Women" at the Long Wharf Theatre. In 1987, she played Jessie Bliss in Darrah Cloud's "The Stick Wife" with the Hartford Stage Company.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1988, Smith was cast with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago as Ma Joad in the play "The Grapes of Wrath," an adaptation of the 1939 Steinbeck novel. Smith originated the stage role, and after going on tour, the production reached Broadway in 1990 and Smith earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play.


title: Lois Smith

text: Also in 1988, Smith originated the role of Mrs. Campbell in Horton Foote's "The Man Who Climbed the Pecan Trees". In 1989, she played Mistress Overdone in an Off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure".


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 1993. She is a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, founded by Curt Dempster in 1968.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1995, Smith starred as Halie in a revival of "Buried Child" by Sam Shepard at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company that transferred to Broadway in 1996, and for which she received her second nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In 1997, Smith played the role of Betty in "Defying Gravity" by Jane Anderson Off-Broadway. In 1998, she played Kandall Kingsley in Beth Henley's "Impossible Marriage". In 2001, she starred in the title role of "Mother Courage and Her Children," and in 2002 she starred as Fanny Cavendish in a revival of "The Royal Family", both with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2005, Smith starred in an Off-Broadway production of "The Trip to Bountiful" as Carrie Watts with the Signature Theatre Company, for which she received an Obie Award for Best Actress, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk Award.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2010, Smith played Vera in Amy Herzog's "After the Revolution", for which she was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. In 2012 she originated the role of Mable Murphy in Sam Shepard's play "Heartless", and in 2013, she starred in a revival of Horton Foote's "My Old Friends". In 2014, she starred in a new play by Jordan Harrison, "Marjorie Prime", originating the title role at the Mark Taper Forum. She was featured in Annie Baker's play "John", which opened Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre Company on July 22, 2015, and ran to September 6.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2018 she took on the leading role in Brooklyn College student Lily Thorne's "Peace for Mary Frances". The drama, directed by Lila Neugebauer, was given its world premiere by off-Broadway's The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York. Smith's performance was praised, but the play received negative reviews from a variety of outlets from The New York Times to The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap.


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith made her film debut in 1955 directed by Elia Kazan in the drama film "East of Eden" with James Dean, Julie Harris, and Jo Van Fleet. Her next film was the western "Strange Lady in Town". In November 1955, she was featured on the cover of Life Magazine. Smith then focused on television work, not making a film until "The Way We Live Now" in 1970. She then earned critical acclaim for her role as Partita Dupea, the sister of Jack Nicholson's character in "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), and Smith won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Lois Smith

text: Supporting roles in films in the 1970s and 1980s included "Up the Sandbox", "Next Stop, Greenwich Village", "Resurrection", "Foxes", "Four Friends," "Reuben, Reuben", "Reckless", "Black Widow", "Fatal Attraction", and "Midnight Run".


title: Lois Smith

text: Supporting roles in the 1990s and 2000s included "Green Card", "Fried Green Tomatoes," "How to Make an American Quilt", "Falling Down", "Holy Matrimony", "Dead Man Walking", "Twister", "Tumbleweeds", "The Pledge", "Minority Report", "P.S.", "Sweet Land", "Hollywoodland", and "Killshot". In the 2010s, Smith played supporting roles in "Please Give", "The Nice Guys", "The Comedian", and the documentary "The Gettysburg Address".


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2017, Smith appeared in the science-fiction drama film "Marjorie Prime," for which she won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 22nd ceremony. Later that year, she had a supporting role in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama "Lady Bird", receiving a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination. She was later cast in "The French Dispatch", a drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson.


title: Lois Smith

text: Smith made her television debut in 1953 on "Kraft Television Theatre". In 1954, she appeared as the daughter of Mary Astor in a "Studio One" production. She performed on many series through the 1950s and 1960s, guest-starring on "Naked City", "The Doctors", "Dr. Kildare", and "The Defenders". In 1956, she appeared with John Cassavetes in "Bring Me a Dream", a teleplay by John Vlahos, and she appeared as Felicia in "Noon on Doomsday", written by Rod Serling. In 1959, she was given the lead role of Cindy in the teleplay "Cindy's Fella", a modernized version of Cinderella, with James Stewart and directed by Gower Champion.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1960, she performed in "The Master Builder" as Hilda and as Julie in "Miss Julie" in public television specials. Also in 1960, she appeared as Lena in a teleplay based on "Victory" by Joseph Conrad, and in a teleplay version of "Men In White" by Sidney Kingsley as Barbara Dennin. She did four episodes of "Route 66," and in 1967 performed in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" on CBS Playhouse with Shirley Booth. In 1970, she performed with Kim Stanley in a television special of Tennessee Williams's plays, "Dragon Country".


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1978, Smith played the lead role of Stacey MacAindra in the teleplay "Stacey" based on Margaret Laurence's "The Fire Dwellers". In 1980, she appeared in the television film "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" as the daughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald, and in 1981 played Bertha in a television film version of "The House of Mirth".


title: Lois Smith

text: She played supporting roles in the Emmy-nominated TV films "Rage of Angels" (1983), "The Execution of Raymond Graham" (1985), "Switched at Birth" (1991) and "Skylark" (1993). She guest-starred on two episodes of "The Equalizer" and one episode of "Thirtysomething" in 1991.


title: Lois Smith

text: In 1991, she portrayed Alice, the mother of Thelma Todd, in "" and in 1995 portrayed Margaret, the mother of Bess Truman in the Emmy-winning television film "Truman". She guest-starred on episodes of "The Practice", "Frasier", "Just Shoot Me!", "Touched by an Angel", "Cold Case" and "Law & Order".


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2002, Smith appeared in "The Laramie Project" and in 2004 she portrayed Anna Howard Shaw in the Emmy-winning film "Iron Jawed Angels". In 2007, she guest-starred on four episodes of "ER" and in 2009 in "A Dog Year" with Jeff Bridges. She played Adele Stackhouse, the grandmother of Anna Paquin's character on "True Blood" and played the mother-in-law of Felicity Huffman's character on "Desperate Housewives".


title: Lois Smith

text: In 2015, Smith was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer for her role in an episode of "The Americans". In 2017 she guest-starred in "The Gun", episode five of the third season of the Netflix series "Grace and Frankie", as Mrs. Hanson, the vituperative mother of Martin Sheen's character Robert. Also in 2017, she guest-starred in "In the Pink", episode 4 of season 4 of "Younger", as Belinda Lacroix, a Barbara Cartland-type romance novelist. In 2019, she guest-starred in "Mom" as Claire, Bonnie and Tammy's former caretaker at the old foster home.


title: Lois Smith

text: Soap opera fans have seen Smith on daytime in many recurring and guest-starring roles over the years, as the psychotic wife Zoe Cannell on "Somerset" (1972–1974), Eleanor Conrad on "The Doctors" (1975–1977), Ella Fitz (the co-conspirator of evil Alma Rudder) on "Another World" (1982–1983), Mrs. Oakes on "The Edge of Night" (1983), Elwinna Pendergast on "All My Children", and as Dorian's imperious aunt Betsy Cramer on "One Life to Live" (2003–2004).


title: The Drop (film)

text: The Drop is a 2014 American crime film directed by Michaël R. Roskam and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It was written by Dennis Lehane, based on his 2009 short story "Animal Rescue". It follows Bob Saginowski, a barman who becomes entangled in an investigation after the mafia-run bar where he works is robbed. It stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini (in his final film role), and Matthias Schoenaerts.


title: The Drop (film)

text: The film was produced by TSG Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment. It premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically on September the 12th, 2014. It received generally positive reviews and grossed $4.1 million during its opening weekend and $18.7 million worldwide, against a budget of $12.6 million.


title: The Drop (film)

text: In Brooklyn, Bob Saginowski tends a neighborhood bar run by his cousin Marvin Stipler, which the Chechen mafia uses as a 'drop' for illegal money. Marv ridicules Bob for commemorating the 10th anniversary of Richie “Glory Days” Whelan's unsolved murder. Bob finds a pit bull pup abandoned in a garbage can outside the home of a woman named Nadia, and they rescue the battered dog together.


title: The Drop (film)

text: When the bar is robbed by two masked gunmen, Marv is annoyed when Bob tells NYPD Detective Torres that one thief wore a broken watch. Recognizing Bob from church, Torres questions Bob's reluctance to take communion. Naming the dog Rocco, Bob bonds with Nadia, who offers to care for Rocco when Bob is at work. She later reveals that scars on her neck were self-inflicted when she struggled with drugs.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Chechen mobster Chovka threatens Marv and Bob to recover his stolen money. Meeting with one of the thieves, Fitz, Marv is revealed to have orchestrated the robbery, and a discussion with his sister Dottie reveals that he is desperate to pay for their father's life support. Bob is approached by a man who later appears at his home with proof he is Rocco's owner, but Bob refuses to return the mistreated dog.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Marv grows paranoid, and he and Bob find a bag outside the bar containing the stolen money and a severed arm with the broken watch, apparently delivered by the Chechens. Rocco's owner visits the bar, appearing to know Nadia, and Marv informs Bob that the man is Eric Deeds, who has long claimed to have killed Richie Whelan. Disposing of the arm, Bob is again questioned by Torres, and confronts Nadia. She later admits that Deeds is her unstable ex-boyfriend, but Bob assures her that he does not care about her past.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Bob and Marv return the money to the Chechens, who tell them that the bar will be the drop site on the night of the Super Bowl. When Fitz refuses to rob the bar again on the night of the drop, Marv kills him and recruits Deeds instead. Bob confronts Deeds, who demands $10,000 and threatens to reclaim and kill Rocco. Sensing Marv's plan, Bob warns him not to do something desperate again.


title: The Drop (film)

text: The day of the Super Bowl, Bob retrieves cash hidden in his basement and waits for Deeds, who instead breaks into Nadia's home and forces her to go the bar with him. At the bar, Bob hides his money and a pistol, and receives numerous deposits of mob cash throughout the night. Marv lines his car's trunk with plastic and waits near the bar, which is eventually empty except for Deeds and a frightened Nadia, who warns that Deeds has a gun. Bob offers the $10,000 for Rocco but Deeds refuses, threatening Nadia if Bob does not open the time lock safe.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Bob explains that years earlier, Marv was a loan shark skimming money from the Chechens. A customer with a large debt won a casino jackpot and paid Marv everything he owed; Marv seized the opportunity to use the customer's money to cover what he had stolen from the Chechens, leading Bob to kill the man and dispose of the body in his basement. Revealing that the man was Richie Whelan, Bob shoots Deeds dead and allows a terrified Nadia to leave. The Chechens dispose of Deeds' body and Chovka makes Bob the bar's new owner, having had Marv shot to death in his car.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Some time later, Detective Torres offers Bob condolences for Marv's death, unconvinced it was a carjacking gone wrong. Torres asks Bob about Deeds, who has gone missing and was last seen at the bar, just as Whelan had been; Torres reveals that although Deeds took credit for Whelan's death, he was in a psychiatric ward the night Whelan went missing. Torres insinuates that Bob is responsible for both disappearances — "No one ever sees you coming, do they, Bob?" Bob visits Nadia to ask if he should stay away, but she offers to join him on a walk with Rocco.


title: The Drop (film)

text: "The Drop" opened in 809 theaters in North America and grossed $4,104,552, with an average of $5,074 per theater and ranking #6 at the box office. The film's widest release in the United States was 1,192 theaters and it ultimately earned $10,724,389 domestically and $7,933,992 internationally for a total of $18,658,381, above its budget of $12.6 million.


title: The Drop (film)

text: "The Drop" received positive reviews from critics and has a "certified fresh" score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 204 reviews with an average score of 7.10/10. The critical consensus states "There's no shortage of similarly themed crime dramas, but "The Drop" rises above the pack with a smartly written script and strong cast." On Metacritic it has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Particular praise was given to the performances of Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini.


title: The Drop (film)

text: Film reviewer Mike Dennis gives it 3 ½ out of 4, citing "outstanding performances, script, direction, and especially cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis, whose bleak rendering of Brooklyn has never been matched."


title: He Got Game

text: He Got Game is a 1998 American sports drama film written, produced and directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. The film revolves around Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington), father of the top-ranked basketball prospect in the country, Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen). Jake, in prison for killing his wife, is released on parole for a week by the state's governor to persuade his son to play for the governor's alma mater in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.


title: He Got Game

text: Jesus Shuttlesworth, the top high-school basketball player in the United States, is being pursued by the top college basketball programs in the nation. His father, Jake, is a convicted felon serving time at Attica Correctional Facility for accidentally killing his wife, Martha, Jesus' mother, six years earlier. Jake is granted a work release by the governor, an influential alumnus of "Big State," one of the colleges Jesus is considering, so that he might persuade his son to sign with Big State. If successful, he'll get an early release from prison.


title: He Got Game

text: In his first moments outside of prison, Jake contacts his daughter, Mary Shuttlesworth, who is happy to see him. When Jesus returns home from school, he refuses to look his father in the eye, and tells his sister to get rid of the "stranger" in their living room. Jesus later agrees to meet with his father at an alternative location away from Mary. Throughout the movie, Jake tries to persuade Jesus to attend Big State with seemingly no success. Eventually, he divulges the deal set up by the governor, but Jesus appears unsympathetic to his father's situation.


title: He Got Game

text: Flashbacks illustrate the younger Jesus' grueling basketball training under his father and the night an argument between Jake and Jesus escalated into violence, resulting in Jake accidentally killing Jesus' mother after she intervened.


title: He Got Game

text: Intertwined with the story of the Shuttlesworth family is the sub-plot of Dakota Barns, a prostitute who stays in the room next to Jake in a run-down hotel. Dakota is being abused by her pimp, Sweetness, which Jake overhears through the thin walls. Throughout the film, Jake helps Dakota by cleaning her wounds and giving her some of his per diem money and the two develop a romantic relationship. In one of the final scenes, Dakota rides a Greyhound bus away from New York City.


title: He Got Game

text: Jesus is tempted with offers of cash and women on recruiting visits to big-time basketball programs. He also considers entering the NBA draft in order to play professionally sooner and immediately lift himself and his sister out of poverty. Unable to get through to his son, Jake challenges Jesus to one last game of one-on-one basketball. If Jake wins, Jesus will sign a letter of intent to play for Big State and if Jesus wins, he can make his own decision. After a competitive start, Jake tires during the course of the game and Jesus wins. As Jake is collected for transportation back to Attica, he turns to Jesus and says, "Let me tell you something, son: You get that hatred out your heart, or you'll end up just another nigga ... like your father."


title: He Got Game

text: Ultimately, Jesus decides to sign to play for Big State and gives Jake his blessing. However, the governor does not give Jake the promised reduction, as Jesus did not sign the letter of intent, and Jake's work release is fabricated to the media as an escape attempt. Jake ultimately finds freedom by casting away his dreams and burdens to his son, Jesus, symbolized by his throwing of an old basketball over the prison wall where it magically lands on the Big State court where Jesus is practicing alone. Jesus clutches the ball, knowing it is a message of hope from his father.


title: He Got Game

text: Filming took place between July and September 1997. Locations included Coney Island, Brooklyn, Cabrini–Green housing projects in Chicago, Illinois, Elon University, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California.


title: He Got Game

text: For the role of Jesus, Lee had drawn up a list of every NBA player who could pass for a high school senior. Kobe Bryant was the original choice to portray Jesus Shuttlesworth, but after shooting several air balls that resulted in a brutal playoff loss to the Utah Jazz in the 1997 NBA Playoffs, he planned an extensive workout plan that would help maintain his strength throughout the duration of the longer NBA seasons. Lee found Tracy McGrady too reserved and was not impressed by Allen Iverson's performance. Management for Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury wanted a guarantee that one or the other would be offered the part. Travis Best, Walter McCarty, and Rick Fox also auditioned, and Lee cast them in supporting roles. Lee approached Allen during halftime of a Bucks-Knicks game, ultimately offering him the role of Jesus. Allen had never acted before, and he trained with an acting coach for eight weeks prior to filming.


title: He Got Game

text: NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Bill Walton, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley, Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim, NBA coaches Rick Pitino and George Karl and broadcaster Dick Vitale made cameo appearances at one point early in the film.


title: He Got Game

text: Former football legend Jim Brown also appears as one of Jake's parole officers, assigned to keep tabs on him while he's away from the prison.


title: He Got Game

text: "He Got Game" was produced on an estimated $25 million budget. In the opening weekend of its release, it was shown on 1,319 screens, and took in $7,610,663 at the U.S. box offices debuting at #1. It eventually grossed a total of $21,554,585.00, which was a box office flop considering it fell short of its $25 million budget.


title: He Got Game

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 6.87/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though not without its flaws, "He Got Game" finds Spike Lee near the top of his game, combining trenchant commentary with his signature visuals and a strong performance from Denzel Washington." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: He Got Game

text: "Time Out London" writing, "Most scenes play too long, with a surplus of ideas, textures, tones and characters, and after 134 minutes it's clear Lee's problem with closure hasn't gone away." Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half-stars, and called it Lee's best film since "Malcolm X". He was particularly encouraged by Lee's determination not to adhere to typical conventions.


title: He Got Game

text: Both Ray Allen and Washington drew praise for their performances, with Roger Ebert writing that Allen "is that rarity, an athlete who can act," and "Slate" magazine writing that Washington's performance was "gorgeously underplayed".


title: He Got Game

text: Bill Simmons' review for ESPN pointed out factual flaws in the story: "...coaches aren't allowed to discuss potential recruits until after the signing period. Come on, Spike. (And while we're at it, players aren't allowed to visit a college one week before the signing deadline; Jesus couldn't live alone with his sister without both of them being thrown in a foster home," and argued "there's NO WAY IN HELL that Jesus wouldn't have just turned pro if he was that good and that broke.)"


title: He Got Game

text: The soundtrack for "He Got Game" was composed of numerous orchestral pieces by Aaron Copland with songs created by Public Enemy. It was released by Def Jam on April 21, 1998.


title: Will of the People (album)

text: Will of the People is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Muse, released on 26 August 2022 through Warner Records and Helium-3. Self-produced by the band, it is a genre-hopping album described by Muse as "a greatest hits album – of new songs". Five singles were released from the album; "Won't Stand Down", "Compliance", "Will of the People", "Kill or Be Killed" and "You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween".


title: Will of the People (album)

text: "Will of the People" received generally positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, becoming the band's seventh consecutive UK No.1 album. A tour in support of the album, the Will of the People World Tour, began in April 2022 and will continue throughout 2022 and 2023.


title: Will of the People (album)

text: "Will of the People" was recorded at Matt Bellamy's Red Room studio in Santa Monica, California, as well as Black Lodge and Abbey Road Studios in London. Warner Records said the album spans multiple genres, describing "Will of the People" as a "glam rocker" and "Kill or Be Killed" as "industrial". Frontman Matt Bellamy said it was spurred by Warner's request for a greatest hits album; instead, Muse decided to make an album that combined their previous sounds, describing it as essentially "a greatest hits album – of new songs".


title: Will of the People (album)

text: Bellamy said the lyrics were inspired by "the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world [...] as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long, are genuinely threatened". He called "Will of the People" "a personal navigation through those fears".


title: Will of the People (album)

text: The first snippet of the album was heard on 25 December 2021, when Bellamy briefly livestreamed himself and his 10-year old son Bing listening to the song "Won't Stand Down". Almost two weeks later, the band announced the official release of the song for 13 January 2022, their first single since 2018's "Pressure". The second single from the album, "Compliance", was released on 17 March 2022, alongside the announcement of the album and its release date of 26 August 2022.


title: Will of the People (album)

text: The third single off the album, "Will of the People", was released on 1 June 2022. That same month, the band began the European festival leg of their Will of the People World Tour, playing all three released singles live as well as a then-unreleased track from the album, "Kill or Be Killed". The song proved to be popular with fans, and so, on 13 July 2022, the band announced that the song would be released as the album's fourth single on 21 July 2022. On 23 August 2022, Muse announced that a fifth single from the album, "You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween", would be released on 26 August, the same day as the album's release.


title: Will of the People (album)

text: On 1 August 2022, it was announced that "Will of the People" could be purchased as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the "eco-friendly" Polygon-powered platform Serenade, making it one of the first new chart-eligible format in seven years, narrowly behind Aitch's first studio album, "Close to Home", the chart-eligible album that was released on 19 August.