title: Galácticos

text: The decline in the team's on-field performance had seemingly hit a nadir in the 2005–06 season, crashing out of the Champions League to Arsenal in the round of 16 without scoring a goal in either leg. Despite the new signings, which included Júlio Baptista (€24 million), Robinho (€30 million), and Sergio Ramos (€27 million), Real Madrid suffered from some poor results, including a 0–3 loss at the hands of Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu in November 2005. Madrid's coach Wanderley Luxemburgo was sacked the following month and his replacement was Juan Ramón López Caro. A brief return to form came to an abrupt halt after Madrid lost the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals 6–1 to Real Zaragoza, a defeat that was nearly reversed with a 4–0 home victory. This foresaw Pérez resigning as club president on February 27, 2006, and was succeeded by Ramón Calderón.


title: Galácticos

text: The final season of the "galáctico" era is considered to be the 2006–07 season. Fabio Cannavaro and Ruud van Nistelrooy were brought in for a combined fee of €21 million, while Zidane and Ronaldo both departed, with the former retiring. The incoming transfers were notable in the fact that less media attention or marketing was involved in the signing of these players; Cannavaro had been fresh off of captaining Italy to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but had left Juventus after it was relegated to Serie B, while Van Nistelrooy had fallen out of favour at Manchester United. Both signings were seen as needed for the team, which lacked stability in both attack and defence in the season prior.


title: Galácticos

text: Following Pérez's departure, Calderón hired Fabio Capello with a mandate of "reining in the players and clearing out dead wood". Capello balanced the team out and moved away from the "galáctico" approach enforced previously, with Capello famously dropping Beckham for periods of the season, due to form and inability to be integrated into the starting eleven. However, Beckham was returned to the team during the second half of the season, and was widely considered by many to be one of their better performers at the time. The team's performance in the Champions League still disappointed, with their elimination to Bayern Munich on the away goals rule: the team initially enjoyed a 3–2 first leg win at home, but lost the second leg away 2–1, with Roberto Carlos failing to control the ball on kickoff which led to Roy Makaay scoring in 10.12 seconds, the fastest Champions League goal in history. Domestically, the team finally overtook Barcelona and won La Liga, but Capello was sacked at the conclusion of the season.


title: Galácticos

text: The nail in the coffin of the end of the first "galáctico" era is considered to be the departure of Beckham to join Major League Soccer (MLS) side LA Galaxy after the 2006–07 season. Beckham's contract was due to expire after that season, and Calderón favored re-signing him, however, Beckham derided his treatment, and benching, by Capello, who later responded publicly saying that Beckham would get no further chances on the first team, although he was later forced to backtrack on that declaration. Beckham was also the last of the big four to move on, with Figo having joined Inter Milan two seasons prior, Zidane retiring after the 2006 World Cup, and Ronaldo moving to A.C. Milan half a season before Beckham's departure. Capello was then replaced by Bernd Schuster, who led the team to the second consecutive La Liga title in 2007–08 and a Supercopa de España at the beginning of the 2008–09 season. However, Madrid continued to fail in the Champions League, with consecutive round of 16 exits, and couldn't produce stable results on the domestic front either, with multiple early Copa del Rey eliminations.


title: Galácticos

text: Several other players are considered to be a part of the "galácticos" legacy due to their influence on the team during that period despite either being signed previously to the reign of Pérez or being graduates of the Madrid youth system, these often included:


title: Galácticos

text: The 2008–09 season saw Real Madrid eclipsed by rivals Barcelona, who completed their treble, including beating Real to win La Liga by a wide margin of nine points. Real were humbled in the Champions League first knockout round by Liverpool, suffering a 1–0 loss at the Santiago Bernabéu and a heavy 4–0 defeat at Anfield. The defeat marked the fifth successive season of early Champions League exits in the round of 16, with Real not making the quarter-finals since 2004. To make things worse, they lost both their "El Clásico" matches and crashed out of the Copa del Rey to third tier side Real Unión. The team was widely derided in the press. Manager Bernd Schuster was sacked midway through the 2008–09 season, with the team perceptibly in decline despite the efforts of Juande Ramos, who kept the team with 19 successive victories, shortening the deficit to only six points (initially, Barcelona led by 12). It was all brought to an end when a rampant Barcelona later defeated an exposed Real 2–6, with Lionel Messi, Xavi and Thierry Henry being the stars.


title: Galácticos

text: In addition, Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón resigned in January 2009 after corruption allegations and having failed to secure notable transfer targets for the club.


title: Galácticos

text: The resignation of Ramón Calderón resulted in a presidential election in mid-2009, returning Florentino Pérez to the presidency. Pérez again pledged to go on a spending spree to return the club to European and domestic competitiveness, notably with his vocal claims of an attempt to sign AC Milan's Kaká. Just 24 hours after his appointment, Manuel Pellegrini was unveiled as Juande Ramos' replacement as manager. After much speculation linking him to the club, Kaká was duly signed for a then-world record fee of £56 million on 9 June 2009.


title: Galácticos

text: Then, on 11 June, Manchester United revealed they had accepted a shock offer of £80 million (a new world record transfer fee) for Cristiano Ronaldo. United gave Real until 30 June to complete the deal, and on 26 June, Real Madrid and United signed the final agreement for the transfer of Ronaldo, which became effective on 1 July. That same day, it was confirmed that Olympique Lyonnais had accepted an offer from Madrid for Karim Benzema. On 29 July 2009, it was announced that Real and Liverpool had reached an agreement for the transfer of Álvaro Arbeloa to the Spanish club for a fee of €4 million, the same amount Liverpool paid for the player in January 2007; Arbeloa subsequently signed a five-year contract with Real.


title: Galácticos

text: On 4 August, Real Madrid and Liverpool again agreed terms for the transfer of Xabi Alonso to the Santiago Bernabéu for a fee of €34 million. Other players that came to Real Madrid included Raúl Albiol, Ezequiel Garay and Esteban Granero. Antonio Adán became the third goalkeeper through the youth system. Newly hired manager Manuel Pellegrini was under heavy pressure to deliver instant success following the high-profile off-season signings.


title: Galácticos

text: In their first year, the second era of "galácticos" failed to win any trophies. They were crushed 4–0 against Alcorcón in the Copa del Rey (ultimately losing 4–1 on aggregate), then were knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16 for the sixth consecutive year (losing to Lyon 2–1 on aggregate), after which Pellegrini received an ultimatum from club president Pérez that Real would have to win La Liga or he would be sacked. Ending the domestic season, Real Madrid set a club record of 96 points, with 31 wins and 102 goals scored, but nonetheless finished second in La Liga to defending champions Barcelona. Madrid also had the misfortune to become the runners-up with the highest points total in the history of Europe's top five leagues, until surpassed by Liverpool's 97 points in 2018–19.


title: Galácticos

text: Once again, Real Madrid suffered from poor transfer decisions, as Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, who were transferred to Inter Milan and Bayern Munich respectively because they were considered surplus to requirements, each played key roles as their clubs reached the 2010 Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabéu.


title: Galácticos

text: Manuel Pellegrini was sacked and José Mourinho was appointed manager. Even before the 2009–10 season had concluded, the team was actively courting Mourinho, who had successfully managed Inter Milan to a semi-final victory over Barça in the Champions League ("Los Blancos" fans were pleased that this denied Barça the opportunity to win the Champions League at the Bernabéu) en route to achieving a continental treble. Mourinho was released by Inter after a record-breaking compensation package was agreed on 27 May 2010.


title: Galácticos

text: Though a manager and not a player, Mourinho has often been referred to as a "galáctico". He was in high demand as a football manager for his past successes, having earlier in his career led an unfancied Porto to consecutive European trophies, then at Chelsea and Inter took underachieving squads to domestic and European successes. While Real Madrid wanted to make his arrival a media frenzy, Mourinho vetoed the club's plans which supposedly would have involved a giant catwalk or parading a massive white shirt across the pitch. Florentino Pérez was absent during the simple media presentation announcing Mourinho's appointment; only director general Jorge Valdano, the media and Mourinho were present. This suggested an apparent power shift, with Real Madrid "having at long last allowed a coach [Mourinho] the freedom to build the squad".


title: Galácticos

text: Real Madrid continued the spending spree by signing players Ángel Di María, Sergio Canales, Pedro León, Ricardo Carvalho, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil. Khedira and Özil had just earlier played key roles in Germany's third-place finish at the 2010 World Cup.


title: Galácticos

text: On 20 April 2011, the second "galácticos" era managed to win their first trophy, a 1–0 victory over Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive goal in extra time. They also managed to get past the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in seven years, reaching the semi-finals where they lost to eventual champions Barça. In La Liga, they finished as runners-up to Barça with 92 points, being defeated 0–5 in the 13th round, and drawing 1–1 in the 32nd round, thus achieving their first point in the last six matches against the "Azulgranas".


title: Galácticos

text: May 2011 saw the appointment of former "galáctico" Zinedine Zidane as general manager of the club, replacing Jorge Valdano.


title: Galácticos

text: In the 2011–12 season, Real Madrid won its 32nd title under the management of José Mourinho with a national record of 100 points, a record 121 goals scored, a record goal difference of +89 and the most away wins among several other records in a single La Liga season. The key moment was the 2–1 win over Barça at Nou Camp on 21 April, Barça's first home loss of the season, which extended Real Madrid's lead in the table to seven points with four matches left, and led to Barça coach Pep Guardiola conceding the league title. In the Champions League, the team reached the semi-finals where they faced Bayern Munich (managed by Jupp Heynckes, who had previously led Real Madrid to its 1998 Champions League title), losing the first leg 2–1 and winning the second leg at home 2–1 (with former Real Madrid player Arjen Robben converting a penalty to level the aggregate score). Bayern won 3–1 in the ensuring penalty shootout which saw spot kicks of "galácticos" Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká saved by Bayern's Manuel Neuer, as well as a missed penalty by Sergio Ramos.


title: Galácticos

text: Real Madrid started the 2012–13 season by winning the Supercopa de España, defeating Barcelona on away goals. However, the super cup turned out to be their only trophy of the season, despite being close to win them all. Real finished runners-up to Barça in La Liga, accumulating 85 points, and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the third year in a row, where they were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund 3–4 on aggregate. Madrid also entered the Copa del Rey in the round of 32, going on a memorable run to the final, which saw them defeat Barcelona in the semi-finals before losing to Atlético Madrid 1–2 a.e.t. in a heartbreaking fashion. A major transfer of the season was the signing of Luka Modrić from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in the region of £33 million. After a loss to Atlético in the Copa del Rey final, Pérez announced the departure of José Mourinho at the end of the season by "mutual agreement". Real Madrid beat Barcelona in three of their six meetings that season (2–1 in Supercopa at home, 3–1 in the Copa del Rey away, 2–1 in the league at home), drawing two (2–2 in the league away, 1–1 in the Copa del Rey at home) and losing once (2–3 in the Supercopa away). The most striking victory came in the 2012–13 Copa del Rey semi-finals where Madrid knocked out defending champions Barcelona 4–2 on aggregate by winning 3–1 at Camp Nou (with two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo) after a 1–1 draw at the Bernabéu. The third win over Barcelona came in the 26th round of La Liga, where Real defeated them 2–1 with goals scored by Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos.


title: Galácticos

text: Mourinho's last year, however, saw infighting between him and several "galácticos" like Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo. Mourinho's selection policy generated controversy; long-time Real Madrid player and club captain Casillas had been sidelined since January 2013 despite recovering from a broken hand, in favor of Diego López, who had been in fine form in the domestic and European campaign during Casillas' absence.


title: Galácticos

text: In the Champions League, Real Madrid defeated Manchester United, drawing the first leg at the Bernabeu 1–1 and then producing a come-from-behind 2–1 win at Old Trafford (which was marred by controversy over a red card being issued to Manchester United player Nani), with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring in both legs. The team reached their third consecutive Champions League semi-finals, though Borussia Dortmund beat Real in the first leg 4–1 with Robert Lewandowski scoring four goals, leading Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp to remark that it was a historic night for his club, saying, "That was like Robin Hood taking from the rich" (Dortmund had previously went with an expensive group of largely foreign players but after almost going bankrupt, had restructured back to financial health largely with young home-grown players). Real's 2–0 home win in the second leg with two late goals was not enough to overturn Dortmund's 4–3 aggregate advantage.


title: Galácticos

text: Real advanced to the Copa del Rey final against city rival Atlético Madrid after defeating Barcelona 4–2 on aggregate in the semi-finals. However, Madrid fell short of clinching the trophy, being denied by a man of the match performance of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, as Atletico scored in extra time to win 2–1. Mourinho, despite having signed a four-year contract extension in 2012, departed Real Madrid by mutual agreement with the club at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season, amid feuds with key players Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Pepe.


title: Galácticos

text: On 25 June 2013, Carlo Ancelotti became the manager of Real Madrid after signing a three-year deal. A day later, he was introduced at his first press conference for Madrid, where it was announced that both Zinedine Zidane and Paul Clement will be his assistants. On 1 September 2013, the long-awaited transfer of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur was announced, with Bale joining Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo in the Madrid attack. The transfer of the Welshman was reportedly a new world record, with the transfer price around €100 million. In Ancelotti's first season at the club, Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey, with Bale scoring the winner in the final against Barcelona. On 24 May 2014, Real Madrid defeated city rivals Atlético Madrid in the Champions League final, winning their first European title since 2002, and they became the first team to win ten European Cups, an achievement known as "La Décima". Real Madrid's attacking trio of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano, dubbed the "BBC", finished the season with 97 goals.


title: Galácticos

text: On 12 August 2014, Real Madrid won the UEFA Super Cup against the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League champions Sevilla by a score of 2–0. Cristiano Ronaldo scored both of Madrid's goals to win the club's 78th official trophy. In the Supercopa de España, against Atlético, Real finished their home leg with 1–1 after goals from James Rodríguez and Raúl García going into the Vicente Calderón Stadium. Mario Mandžukić shocked Real early on after just two minutes in the second leg with the only goal of the match, which meant that Atlético won the title. In the last match of the season, Martin Ødegaard became Real Madrid's youngest ever player to play in La Liga.


title: Galácticos

text: On 4 January 2016, it was announced that Benítez was sacked and replaced by Zinedine Zidane. On 28 May 2016, Real Madrid defeated city rivals Atlético Madrid in the Champions League final, winning their eleventh European title.


title: Galácticos

text: On 2 May 2017, Ronaldo scored yet another hat-trick and Madrid ran away with a thumping 3–0 victory against Atlético Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. On 6 May 2017, a brace apiece from Morata and Rodríguez against Granada guided Madrid to a 4–0 victory. On 10 May 2017, an Isco goal was enough for Madrid to reach the Champions League final, despite Atlético winning the second leg 2–1, meaning that Real advanced by an aggregate score of 4–2. On 14 May 2017, a Ronaldo brace and goals from Nacho and Kroos secured Real a 4–1 win over Sevilla. On 17 May 2017, two goals from Ronaldo and one from each Benzema and Kroos got Madrid a 4–1 away victory in the rescheduled match at Celta Vigo. That win gave Madrid the lead in the league table, with one game left. On 21 May 2017, a 2–0 win over Málaga, with goals from Ronaldo and Benzema, secured the 33rd league title for the club.


title: Galácticos

text: On 3 June 2017, Real Madrid won the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, defeating Juventus 4–1 in the final, with a brace from Ronaldo and goals from Casemiro and Asensio. Real won their second consecutive, third in four years and twelfth overall title. With that victory, Madrid also became the first team to defend their title in the Champions League era.


title: Galácticos

text: Real Madrid won the Champions League for the third time in a row by defeating Liverpool 3–1 in the final, becoming the first team to achieve that feat since 1976. This was also Madrid's fourth European Cup in five years, signifying a period of unparalleled dominance unseen since Madrid's own dominance in the 1950s and 60s.


title: Galácticos

text: Zidane's and Ronaldo's departures after the season concluded marked the end of the "Second Galáctico Era" that yielded four Champions League titles, two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey, two Supercopa de España, three UEFA Super Cups, and three FIFA Club World Cup titles. The team was instrumental in ending Barcelona's dominance, despite the "Blaugrana" boasting arguably the greatest collection of talent in history, and overshadowed the Catalans on the European stage. Real Madrid was also somewhat notoriously unlucky in its league campaigns throughout these nine years, finishing runners-up with 96, 92 (twice), and 90 points, as well as on 87 points in third place, just three off the league winners - despite better international records, Real was still behind Barcelona in the La Liga.


title: Galácticos

text: Ronaldo left the club in 2018, triggering Real's worst season in a decade. The club simultaneously entered a long rebuild, which started to bear fruit in the 2019–20 season where they won the league title.


title: Galácticos

text: The 2020–21 season again ended trophyless for "Los Blancos" but still signified the club's return to the Champions League semi-finals after two consecutive round of 16 exits. Finally, in the 2021–22 season, the breakthrough happened. Under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti, who returned for his second spell at the club, Real clinched the European double of La Liga and the Champions League. In the final, Real defeated Liverpool 1–0 in a rematch of their 2018 encounter. As such, despite the overhaul and practical end of the "galácticos", Real won their fifth European Cup in the last nine years. However, this title was by all means different. Despite Real's status as the most decorated team in the history of the Champions League, they were considered underdogs in this season's campaign, ranked no higher than seventh prior to the start of the group stages in September 2021 (after, in order, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United). Prior to the start of the knockout phase in February 2022, they were again ranked seventh, behind Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Ajax, in addition to having been considered underdogs to all of the teams they faced thereafter. As such, Madrid's run can be considered among the most improbable ones in modern Champions League history.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Frank Oz and starring Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly. The screenplay was written by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning. It is a remake of the 1964 Marlon Brando/David Niven film "Bedtime Story", also written by Shapiro and Henning, and was later remade in 2019 as "The Hustle", starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The film tells the story of two con men competing to swindle an heiress out of $50,000. Caine plays educated and suave Lawrence Jamieson, who stages elaborate ruses to bilk rich women, while Martin plays his less refined, small-time rival, Freddy Benson. It takes place on the French Riviera. The film was released on December 14, 1988 and received positive reviews from critics.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Lawrence Jamieson is an intelligent and sophisticated British con artist operating in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. With the help of manservant Arthur and amoral police official Andre, he seduces wealthy women and cons them out of money by posing as a prince in exile trying to raise money for his country's "freedom fighters." His only concern is another con artist known as "The Jackal" who has been reported in the area.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: While on a train, Lawrence crosses paths with small-time American hustler Freddy Benson, who brags about his meager accomplishments at conning rich women out of money with a sob story about a sick grandmother. Worried that Freddy's inexperienced antics will scare away his prey, Lawrence attempts to trick Freddy into choosing a different destination, then has him arrested and put on a plane out of town. However, after Freddy meets one of Lawrence's former marks, he blackmails Lawrence into taking him on as a pupil.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Lawrence attempts to teach Freddy style and refinement, with limited success. He then involves Freddy in his cons, having him play his mentally challenged brother Ruprecht to scare away women Lawrence has seduced (and now, in the new con, proposed to). When Lawrence refuses to give Freddy a cut of the profits, Freddy angrily quits but refuses to leave town.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Lawrence is unwilling to share his territory with Freddy, so the two agree on a bet: the first to con $50,000 out of a selected mark wins, and the other must leave town. They target new arrival Janet Colgate, the naïve "United States Soap Queen". Freddy poses as a psychosomatically crippled U.S. Navy veteran who needs $50,000 for treatment by the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Emil Schaffhausen of Liechtenstein. When Janet shows sympathy to Freddy, Lawrence poses as Dr. Schaffhausen and agrees to treat Freddy but stipulates that Janet pay the $50,000 fee directly to him.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Lawrence discovers that Janet is not actually a soap heiress, having won her vacation and "Soap Queen" title in a sweepstakes; nevertheless, she plans to liquidate most of her assets to pay for Freddy's treatment. Lawrence attempts to call off the bet, as he only cons wealthy marks. Freddy counters with a new bet: Janet herself, with the first in bed with her declared the winner. Lawrence is disgusted and refuses to seduce Janet, but agrees that should Freddy fail with Janet, he wins.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Under the guise of continuing Freddy's treatment, Lawrence dances with Janet and taunts Freddy, raising the ire of some nearby British sailors, whom Freddy convinces to waylay Lawrence. He rushes to Janet's hotel room, where he demonstrates his love by standing and walking to her. However, Lawrence has secretly been present the whole time and declares Freddy cured. Ushering Freddy out of the room, he explains that the sailors released him after discovering that he is a Royal Naval Reserve officer. Lawrence puts Janet on a departing plane and leaves the sailors with Freddy, who realizes that he lost the bet, but enjoys the merry drinking with them.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: However, Janet instead returns to her hotel room and finds Freddy there. She declares her love for him, and they kiss and begin undressing. Andre reports this to Lawrence, who accepts his defeat with grace. He waits for Freddy to return and gloat over his victory, but instead Janet arrives in tears and says that Freddy stole the money her father sent. Disgusted, Lawrence calls Andre to have Freddy arrested, gives Janet a bag containing $50,000 of his own money, and takes her to the airport.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Before her plane departs, Janet returns Lawrence's bag, refusing to take what isn't hers. Andre arrives with Freddy, who claims that Janet stole his wallet and clothes. Lawrence disbelieves him, pointing out Janet's honesty in returning the $50,000. Opening his bag, he finds that the money has been replaced with Freddy's clothes and a note wherein Janet reveals herself to be the Jackal. Freddy is furious, while Lawrence is impressed.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The following week, Freddy and Lawrence contemplate their loss at Lawrence's villa. They are about to part ways when Janet, posing as a New York City real estate agent, arrives in a yacht filled with wealthy people. She prompts the shocked Lawrence and Freddy to assume roles in her scheme and, after sending her guests off to refresh themselves, takes the pair aside and announces that while she made three million dollars the previous year, "[their] fifty thousand was the most fun." Joining arms, they set out to fleece their latest victims.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The original 1964 film titled "Bedtime Story" was written as a vehicle for Doris Day, Cary Grant and Rock Hudson. It was eventually made with Shirley Jones, David Niven and Marlon Brando.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The 1988 version similarly underwent casting changes. It started as a possible vehicle for Mick Jagger and David Bowie, who approached Dale Launer to write a screenplay for them. Launer suggested a remake of "Bedtime Story". Launer acquired the rights for the remake, but Bowie and Jagger dropped out to do a movie with Martin Scorsese. According to Bowie, they were "a bit tweezed that we lost out on a script that could have been reasonably good." According to Splitsider, Eddie Murphy was considered for the role of Freddy Benson. John Cleese was also approached for the role of Jamieson, but declined. He admitted in a 2008 interview that he regretted doing so. In the second volume of his published diaries, Michael Palin confirmed that Cleese "reluctantly" turned down the role. Palin wrote that he then received a phone call from Frank Oz on April 1, 1988, asking him to consider the part of Jamieson. Palin flew to New York City from London a few days later to read for the role, but was not sure of his own suitability for the part.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Richard Dreyfuss was also sent a script. Though he was intended for the part of Benson, a misunderstanding resulted in him preparing the part of Jamieson, so Steve Martin (who conversely had also been asked to play Jamieson) read Benson's part instead. Oz was excited by Martin's version of Benson, and settled on this choice. Michael Caine was eventually chosen to play Jamieson. Palin wrote in his diary that Caine was "probably the nearest he (Oz) will get in an English actor to the effortless charisma of Niven."


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Production of the film began on June 6, 1988 and lasted through early August, finishing "six days ahead of schedule." Filming locations included Antibes, Cannes, Beaulieu-sur-Mer (depicted in the film as "Beaumont-sur-Mer"), Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer. The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild was visited by the leading characters in a scene. The estate belonging to Lawrence is a private villa (Villa Hier) located at the tip of the Cap d'Antibes; the hotel hosting a number of dining and casino scenes is the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The soundtrack includes "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Irving Berlin, "Pick Yourself Up" by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, and "We're in the Money" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. They all feature the violinist Jerry Goodman.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Prior to the film's December 14, 1988 theatrical release in the United States, it premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on December 5. The studio held test screenings of the film in early October, one for a blue-collar audience and one for "more upscale", with both receiving high marks.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: In a DVD extra providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, Frank Oz discusses a teaser trailer he directed for the studio, which he wanted to use for promotion before there was enough actual footage to assemble a trailer. An entire day was spent filming a scene in which Freddy and Lawrence stroll along the promenade, politely moving out of the way of other people, until Freddy casually pushes an elderly woman into the water and Lawrence nonchalantly shoves a little boy's face into his cotton candy.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The film grossed $3.8 million from 1,466 theaters in its opening weekend, finishing fifth at the box office. In total it grossed $42 million in the US.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A buoyant, clever update of the conman flick "Bedtime Story", with plenty of comedic jousting resulting from a winning chemistry between Michael Caine and Steve Martin." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" said, "The plot ... is not as complex as a movie like "The Sting", and we can see some of the surprises as soon as they appear on the horizon. But the chemistry between Martin and Caine is fun, and Headly provides a resilient foil." "Variety" called it "wonderfully crafted" and "absolutely charming", and added: "Director Frank Oz clearly has fun with his subjects, helped out in good part by clever cutting and a great, imitative '30s jazzy score by Miles Goodman." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it "one of the season's most cheerful, most satisfying new comedies" which was a "blithe, seemingly all-new, laugh-out-loud escapade". He added that "Mr. Caine and Mr. Martin work together with an exuberant ease that's a joy to watch" plus "In this season of lazy, fat, mistimed and misdirected comedies, exemplified by "Scrooged" and "Twins," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" is an enchanted featherweight folly."


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Michael Caine was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Tom Hanks in "Big". Glenne Headly was named Most Promising New Actress by the Chicago Film Critics Association.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: The film served as the basis of a stage musical of the same name that opened on Broadway in early 2005. It starred John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz as Lawrence and Freddy and Sherie Rene Scott as the "Jackal", in the show named Christine Colgate, not Janet.


title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has produced a remake of the film with Rebel Wilson, Anne Hathaway and Alex Sharp, titled "The Hustle". It was released on May 10, 2019.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a phenolic aldehyde. Its functional groups include aldehyde, hydroxyl, and ether. It is the primary component of the extract of the vanilla bean. Synthetic vanillin is now used more often than natural vanilla extract as a flavoring in foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin and ethylvanillin are used by the food industry; ethylvanillin is more expensive, but has a stronger note. It differs from vanillin by having an ethoxy group (−O−CHCH) instead of a methoxy group (−O−CH).


title: Vanillin

text: Natural vanilla extract is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to vanillin. Artificial vanilla flavoring is often a solution of pure vanillin, usually of synthetic origin. Because of the scarcity and expense of natural vanilla extract, synthetic preparation of its predominant component has long been of interest. The first commercial synthesis of vanillin began with the more readily available natural compound eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol). Today, artificial vanillin is made either from guaiacol or lignin.


title: Vanillin

text: Lignin-based artificial vanilla flavoring is alleged to have a richer flavor profile than oil-based flavoring; the difference is due to the presence of acetovanillone, a minor component in the lignin-derived product that is not found in vanillin synthesized from guaiacol.


title: Vanillin

text: Although it is generally accepted that vanilla was domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread to the Old World in the 16th century, in 2019, researchers published a paper stating that vanillin residue had been discovered inside jars within a tomb in Israel dating to the 2nd millennium BCE, suggesting the cultivation of an unidentified, Old World-endemic "Vanilla" species in Canaan since the Middle Bronze Age. Traces of vanillin were also found in wine jars in Jerusalem, which were used by the Judahite elite before the city was destroyed in 586 BCE.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanilla beans, called "tlilxochitl," were discovered and cultivated as a flavoring for beverages by native Mesoamerican peoples, most famously the Totonacs of modern-day Veracruz, Mexico. Since at least the early 15th century, the Aztecs used vanilla as a flavoring for chocolate in drinks called "xocohotl".


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin was first isolated as a relatively pure substance in 1858 by Nicolas-Theodore Gobley, who obtained it by evaporating a vanilla extract to dryness and recrystallizing the resulting solids from hot water. In 1874, the German scientists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann deduced its chemical structure, at the same time finding a synthesis for vanillin from coniferin, a glucoside of isoeugenol found in pine bark. Tiemann and Haarmann founded a company Haarmann and Reimer (now part of Symrise) and started the first industrial production of vanillin using their process in Holzminden, Germany. In 1876, synthesized vanillin (2) from guaiacol (1).


title: Vanillin

text: By the late 19th century, semisynthetic vanillin derived from the eugenol found in clove oil was commercially available.


title: Vanillin

text: Synthetic vanillin became significantly more available in the 1930s, when production from clove oil was supplanted by production from the lignin-containing waste produced by the sulfite pulping process for preparing wood pulp for the paper industry. By 1981, a single pulp and paper mill in Thorold, Ontario supplied 60% of the world market for synthetic vanillin. However, subsequent developments in the wood pulp industry have made its lignin wastes less attractive as a raw material for vanillin synthesis. Today, approximately 15% of the world's production of vanillin is still made from lignin wastes, while approximately 85% synthesized in a two-step process from the petrochemical precursors guaiacol and glyoxylic acid.


title: Vanillin

text: Beginning in 2000, Rhodia began marketing biosynthetic vanillin prepared by the action of microorganisms on ferulic acid extracted from rice bran. At  USD$700/kg, this product, sold under the trademarked name Rhovanil Natural, is not cost-competitive with petrochemical vanillin, which sells for around US$15/kg. However, unlike vanillin synthesized from lignin or guaiacol, it can be labeled as a natural flavoring.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin is most prominent as the principal flavor and aroma compound in vanilla. Cured vanilla pods contain about 2% by dry weight vanillin; on cured pods of high quality, relatively pure vanillin may be visible as a white dust or "frost" on the exterior of the pod.


title: Vanillin

text: It is also found in "Leptotes bicolor", a species of orchid native to Paraguay and southern Brazil, and the Southern Chinese red pine.


title: Vanillin

text: At lower concentrations, vanillin contributes to the flavor and aroma profiles of foodstuffs as diverse as olive oil, butter, raspberry, and lychee fruits.


title: Vanillin

text: In other foods, heat treatment generates vanillin from other compounds. In this way, vanillin contributes to the flavor and aroma of coffee, maple syrup, and whole-grain products, including corn tortillas and oatmeal.


title: Vanillin

text: Natural vanillin is extracted from the seed pods of "Vanilla planifolia", a vining orchid native to Mexico, but now grown in tropical areas around the globe. Madagascar is presently the largest producer of natural vanillin.


title: Vanillin

text: As harvested, the green seed pods contain vanillin in the form of its β--glucoside; the green pods do not have the flavor or odor of vanilla.


title: Vanillin

text: After being harvested, their flavor is developed by a months-long curing process, the details of which vary among vanilla-producing regions, but in broad terms it proceeds as follows:


title: Vanillin

text: First, the seed pods are blanched in hot water, to arrest the processes of the living plant tissues. Then, for 1–2 weeks, the pods are alternately sunned and sweated: during the day they are laid out in the sun, and each night wrapped in cloth and packed in airtight boxes to sweat. During this process, the pods become dark brown, and enzymes in the pod release vanillin as the free molecule. Finally, the pods are dried and further aged for several months, during which time their flavors further develop. Several methods have been described for curing vanilla in days rather than months, although they have not been widely developed in the natural vanilla industry, with its focus on producing a premium product by established methods, rather than on innovations that might alter the product's flavor profile.


title: Vanillin

text: Although the exact route of vanillin biosynthesis in "V. planifolia" is currently unknown, several pathways are proposed for its biosynthesis. Vanillin biosynthesis is generally agreed to be part of the phenylpropanoid pathway starting with -phenylalanine, which is deaminated by phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) to form t-cinnamic acid. The para position of the ring is then hydroxylated by the cytochrome P450 enzyme cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H/P450) to create "p"-coumaric acid. Then, in the proposed ferulate pathway, 4-hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA ligase (4CL) attaches "p"-coumaric acid to coenzyme A (CoA) to create "p"-coumaroyl CoA. Hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT) then converts "p"-coumaroyl CoA to 4-coumaroyl shikimate/quinate. This subsequently undergoes oxidation by the P450 enzyme coumaroyl ester 3’-hydroxylase (C3’H/P450) to give caffeoyl shikimate/quinate. HCT then exchanges the shikimate/quinate for CoA to create caffeoyl CoA, and 4CL removes CoA to afford caffeic acid. Caffeic acid then undergoes methylation by caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) to give ferulic acid. Finally, vanillin synthase hydratase/lyase (vp/VAN) catalyzes hydration of the double bond in ferulic acid followed by a retro-aldol elimination to afford vanillin. Vanillin can also be produced from vanilla glycoside with the additional final step of deglycosylation. In the past "p"-hydroxybenzaldehyde was speculated to be a precursor for vanillin biosynthesis. However, a 2014 study using radiolabelled precursor indicated that "p"-hydroxybenzaldehyde do not synthesise vanillin or vanillin glucoside in the vanilla orchids.


title: Vanillin

text: The demand for vanilla flavoring has long exceeded the supply of vanilla beans. , the annual demand for vanillin was 12,000 tons, but only 1,800 tons of natural vanillin were produced. The remainder was produced by chemical synthesis. Vanillin was first synthesized from eugenol (found in oil of clove) in 1874–75, less than 20 years after it was first identified and isolated. Vanillin was commercially produced from eugenol until the 1920s. Later it was synthesized from lignin-containing "brown liquor", a byproduct of the sulfite process for making wood pulp. Counterintuitively, though it uses waste materials, the lignin process is no longer popular because of environmental concerns, and today most vanillin is produced from the petrochemical raw material guaiacol. Several routes exist for synthesizing vanillin from guaiacol.


title: Vanillin

text: At present, the most significant of these is the two-step process practiced by Rhodia since the 1970s, in which guaiacol (1) reacts with glyoxylic acid by electrophilic aromatic substitution. The resulting vanillylmandelic acid (2) is then converted by 4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglyoxylic acid (3) to vanillin (4) by oxidative decarboxylation.


title: Vanillin

text: 15% of the world's production of vanillin is produced from lignosulfonates, a byproduct from the manufacture of cellulose via the sulfite process. The sole producer of wood-based vanillin is the company Borregaard located in Sarpsborg, Norway.


title: Vanillin

text: Wood-based vanillin is produced by copper-catalyzed oxidation of the lignin structures in lignosulfonates under alkaline conditions and is claimed by the manufacturing company to be preferred by their customers due to, among other reasons, its much lower carbon footprint than petrochemically synthesized vanillin.


title: Vanillin

text: The company Evolva has developed a genetically modified microorganism which can produce vanillin. Because the microbe is a processing aid, the resulting vanillin would not fall under U.S. GMO labeling requirements, and because the production is nonpetrochemical, food using the ingredient can claim to contain "no artificial ingredients".


title: Vanillin

text: Using ferulic acid as an input and a specific non GMO species of "Amycolatopsis" bacteria, natural vanillin can be produced.


title: Vanillin

text: Several studies have suggested that vanillin can affect the performance of antibiotics in laboratory conditions.


title: Vanillin

text: The largest use of vanillin is as a flavoring, usually in sweet foods. The ice cream and chocolate industries together comprise 75% of the market for vanillin as a flavoring, with smaller amounts being used in confections and baked goods.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin is also used in the fragrance industry, in perfumes, and to mask unpleasant odors or tastes in medicines, livestock fodder, and cleaning products. It is also used in the flavor industry, as a very important key note for many different flavors, especially creamy profiles such as cream soda.


title: Vanillin

text: Additionally, vanillin can be used as a general-purpose stain for visualizing spots on thin-layer chromatography plates. This stain yields a range of colors for these different components.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanillin has been used as a chemical intermediate in the production of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other fine chemicals. In 1970, more than half the world's vanillin production was used in the synthesis of other chemicals. As of 2016, vanillin uses have expanded to include perfumes, flavoring and aromatic masking in medicines, various consumer and cleaning products, and livestock foods.


title: Vanillin

text: Some people have allergic reactions to vanilla. They may be allergic to synthetically produced vanilla but not to natural vanilla, or the other way around, or to both.


title: Vanillin

text: Vanilla orchid plants can trigger contact dermatitis, especially among people working in the vanilla trade if they come into contact with the plant's sap. An allergic contact dermatitis called vanillism produces swelling and redness, and sometimes other symptoms. The sap of most species of vanilla orchid which exudes from cut stems or where beans are harvested can cause moderate to severe dermatitis if it comes in contact with bare skin. The sap of vanilla orchids contains calcium oxalate crystals, which are thought to be the main causative agent of contact dermatitis in vanilla plantation workers.


title: Vanillin

text: "Scolytus multistriatus", one of the vectors of the Dutch elm disease, uses vanillin as a signal to find a host tree during oviposition.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA's first appropriation in 1935 was $4.9 billion (about $15 per person in the U.S., around 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools, and roads. Most of the jobs were in construction, building more than 620,000 miles (1,000,000 km) of streets and over 10,000 bridges, in addition to many airports and much housing. The largest single project of the WPA was the Tennessee Valley Authority.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: At its peak in 1938, it supplied paid jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA employed 8.5 million people (about half the population of New York). Hourly wages were typically kept well below industry standards. Full employment, which was reached in 1942 and appeared as a long-term national goal around 1944, was not the goal of the WPA; rather, it tried to supply one paid job for all families in which the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: In one of its most famous projects, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. The five projects dedicated to these were: the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), the Historical Records Survey (HRS), the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), the Federal Music Project (FMP), and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey, for instance, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA was a federal program that ran its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments, which supplied 10–30% of the costs. Usually, the local sponsor provided land and often trucks and supplies, with the WPA responsible for wages (and for the salaries of supervisors, who were not on relief). WPA sometimes took over state and local relief programs that had originated in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) or Federal Emergency Relief Administration programs (FERA). It was liquidated on June 30, 1943, because of low unemployment during World War II. Robert D. Leininger asserted: "millions of people needed subsistence incomes. Work relief was preferred over public assistance (the dole) because it maintained self-respect, reinforced the work ethic, and kept skills sharp."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: On May 6, 1935, FDR issued executive order 7034, establishing the Works Progress Administration. The WPA superseded the work of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which was dissolved. Direct relief assistance was permanently replaced by a national work relief program—a major public works program directed by the WPA.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA was largely shaped by Harry Hopkins, supervisor of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and close adviser to Roosevelt. Both Roosevelt and Hopkins believed that the route to economic recovery and the lessened importance of the dole would be in employment programs such as the WPA. Hallie Flanagan, national director of the Federal Theatre Project, wrote that "for the first time in the relief experiments of this country the preservation of the skill of the worker, and hence the preservation of his self-respect, became important."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered. Harry Hopkins testified to Congress in January 1935 why he set the number at 3.5 million, using Federal Emergency Relief Administration data. Estimating costs at $1,200 per worker per year ($ in present-day terms), he asked for and received $4 billion ($ in present-day terms). Many women were employed, but they were few compared to men.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: In 1935 there were 20 million people on relief in the United States. Of these, 8.3 million were children under 16 years of age; 3.8 million were persons between the ages of 16 and 65 who were not working or seeking work. These included housewives, students in school, and incapacitated persons. Another 750,000 were person age 65 or over. Thus, of the total of 20 million persons then receiving relief, 13 million were not considered eligible for employment. This left a total of 7 million presumably employable persons between the ages of 16 and 65 inclusive. Of these, however, 1.65 million were said to be farm operators or persons who had some non-relief employment, while another 350,000 were, despite the fact that they were already employed or seeking work, considered incapacitated. Deducting this 2 million from the total of 7.15 million, there remained 5.15 million persons age 16 to 65, unemployed, looking for work, and able to work.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Because of the assumption that only one worker per family would be permitted to work under the proposed program, this total of 5.15 million was further reduced by 1.6 million—the estimated number of workers who were members of families with two or more employable people. Thus, there remained a net total of 3.55 million workers in as many households for whom jobs were to be provided.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA reached its peak employment of 3,334,594 people in November 1938. To be eligible for WPA employment, an individual had to be an American citizen, 18 or older, able-bodied, unemployed, and certified as in need by a local public relief agency approved by the WPA. The WPA Division of Employment selected the worker's placement to WPA projects based on previous experience or training. Worker pay was based on three factors: the region of the country, the degree of urbanization, and the individual's skill. It varied from $19 per month to $94 per month, with the average wage being about $52.50—$ in present-day terms. The goal was to pay the local prevailing wage, but limit the hours of work to 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week; the stated minimum being 30 hours a week, or 120 hours a month.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Being a voter or a Democrat was not a prerequisite for a relief job. Federal law specifically prohibited any political discrimination against WPA workers. Vague charges were bandied about at the time. The consensus of experts is that: “In the distribution of WPA project jobs as opposed to those of a supervisory and administrative nature politics plays only a minor in comparatively insignificant role." However those who were hired were reminded at election time that FDR created their job and the Republicans would take it away. The great majority voted accordingly.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: WPA projects were administered by the Division of Engineering and Construction and the Division of Professional and Service Projects. Most projects were initiated, planned and sponsored by states, counties or cities. Nationwide projects were sponsored until 1939.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA built traditional infrastructure of the New Deal such as roads, bridges, schools, libraries, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks, and post-offices, but also constructed museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, markets, fairgrounds, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, waterfronts, city halls, gyms, and university unions. Most of these are still in use today. The amount of infrastructure projects of the WPA included 40,000 new and 85,000 improved buildings. These new buildings included 5,900 new schools; 9,300 new auditoriums, gyms, and recreational buildings; 1,000 new libraries; 7,000 new dormitories; and 900 new armories. In addition, infrastructure projects included 2,302 stadiums, grandstands, and bleachers; 52 fairgrounds and rodeo grounds; 1,686 parks covering 75,152 acres; 3,185 playgrounds; 3,026 athletic fields; 805 swimming pools; 1,817 handball courts; 10,070 tennis courts; 2,261 horseshoe pits; 1,101 ice-skating areas; 138 outdoor theatres; 254 golf courses; and 65 ski jumps. Total expenditures on WPA projects through June 1941 totaled approximately $11.4 billion—the equivalent of $ today. Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings, including the iconic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, and Timberline Lodge in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: More than $1 billion—$ today—was spent on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities, and school lunch projects. One construction project was the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the bridges of which were each designed as architecturally unique. In its eight-year run, the WPA built 325 firehouses and renovated 2,384 of them across the United States. The 20,000 miles of water mains, installed by their hand as well, contributed to increased fire protection across the country.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The direct focus of the WPA projects changed with need. In 1935 priority projects were to improve infrastructure; roads, extension of electricity to rural areas, water conservation, sanitation and flood control. In 1936, as outlined in that year's Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, public facilities became a focus; parks and associated facilities, public buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects were funded. The following year, saw the introduction of agricultural improvements, such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of fungus pests. As the Second World War approached, and then eventually began, WPA projects became increasingly defense related.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: One project of the WPA was funding state-level library service demonstration projects, to create new areas of library service to underserved populations and to extend rural service. Another project was the Household Service Demonstration Project, which trained 30,000 women for domestic employment. South Carolina had one of the larger statewide library service demonstration projects. At the end of the project in 1943, South Carolina had twelve publicly funded county libraries, one regional library, and a funded state library agency.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: A significant aspect of the Works Progress Administration was the Federal Project Number One, which had five different parts: the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Historical Records Survey. The government wanted to provide new federal cultural support instead of just providing direct grants to private institutions. After only one year, over 40,000 artists and other talented workers had been employed through this project in the United States. Cedric Larson stated that "The impact made by the five major cultural projects of the WPA upon the national consciousness is probably greater in total than anyone readily realizes. As channels of communication between the administration and the country at large, both directly and indirectly, the importance of these projects cannot be overestimated, for they all carry a tremendous appeal to the eye, the ear, or the intellect—or all three."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: This project was directed by Holger Cahill, and in 1936 employment peaked at over 5,300 artists. The Arts Service Division created illustrations and posters for the WPA writers, musicians, and theaters. The Exhibition Division had public exhibitions of artwork from the WPA, and artists from the Art Teaching Division were employed in settlement houses and community centers to give classes to an estimated 50,000 children and adults. They set up over 100 art centers around the country that served an estimated eight million individuals.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Directed by Nikolai Sokoloff, former principal conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Federal Music Project employed over 16,000 musicians at its peak. Its purpose was to create jobs for unemployed musicians, It established new ensembles such as chamber groups, orchestras, choral units, opera units, concert bands, military bands, dance bands, and theater orchestras. They gave 131,000 performances and programs to 92 million people each week. The Federal Music Project performed plays and dances, as well as radio dramas. In addition, the Federal Music Project gave music classes to an estimated 132,000 children and adults every week, recorded folk music, served as copyists, arrangers, and librarians to expand the availability of music, and experimented in music therapy. Sokoloff stated, "Music can serve no useful purpose unless it is heard, but these totals on the listeners' side are more eloquent than statistics as they show that in this country there is a great hunger and eagerness for music."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: In 1929, Broadway alone had employed upwards of 25,000 workers, onstage and backstage; in 1933, only 4,000 still had jobs. The Actors’ Dinner Club and the Actors’ Betterment Association were giving out free meals every day. Every theatrical district in the country suffered as audiences dwindled. The New Deal project was directed by playwright Hallie Flanagan, and employed 12,700 performers and staff at its peak. They presented more than 1,000 performances each month to almost one million people, produced 1,200 plays in the four years it was established, and introduced 100 new playwrights. Many performers later became successful in Hollywood including Orson Welles, John Houseman, Burt Lancaster, Joseph Cotten, Canada Lee, Will Geer, Joseph Losey, Virgil Thomson, Nicholas Ray, E.G. Marshall and Sidney Lumet. The Federal Theatre Project was the first project to end; it was terminated in June 1939 after Congress zeroed out the funding.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: This project was directed by Henry Alsberg and employed 6,686 writers at its peak in 1936. By January 1939, more than 275 major books and booklets had been published by the FWP. Most famously, the FWP created the American Guide Series, which produced thorough guidebooks for every state that include descriptions of towns, waterways, historic sites, oral histories, photographs, and artwork. An association or group that put up the cost of publication sponsored each book, the cost was anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. In almost all cases, the book sales were able to reimburse their sponsors. Additionally, another important part of this project was to record oral histories to create archives such as the Slave Narratives and collections of folklore. These writers also participated in research and editorial services to other government agencies.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: This project was the smallest of Federal Project Number One and served to identify, collect, and conserve United States' historical records. It is one of the biggest bibliographical efforts and was directed by Dr. Luther H. Evans. At its peak, this project employed more than 4,400 workers.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Before the Great Depression, it was estimated that one-third of the population in the United States did not have reasonable access to public library services. Understanding the need, not only to maintain existing facilities but to expand library services led to the establishment of the WPA's Library Projects.  With the onset of the Depression local governments facing declining revenues were unable to maintain social services, including libraries. This lack of revenue exacerbated problems of library access that were already widespread. In 1934 only two states, Massachusetts and Delaware, provided their total population access to public libraries. In many rural areas, there were no libraries, and where they did exist, reading opportunities were minimal. 66% of the South's population did not have access to any public library. Libraries that existed circulated one book per capita. The early emphasis of these programs was on extending library services to rural populations, by creating libraries in areas that lacked facilities. The WPA library program also greatly augmented reader services in metropolitan and urban centers.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: By 1938, the WPA Library Services Project had established 2,300 new libraries, 3,400 reading rooms in existing libraries, and 53 traveling libraries for sparsely settled areas. Federal money for these projects could only be spent on worker wages, therefore local municipalities would have to provide upkeep on properties and purchase equipment and materials. At the local level, WPA libraries relied on funding from county or city officials or funds raised by local community organizations such as women's clubs. Due to limited funding, many WPA libraries were "little more than book distribution stations: tables of materials under temporary tents, a tenant home to which nearby readers came for their books, a school superintendents' home, or a crossroads general store." The public response to the WPA libraries was extremely positive. For many, "the WPA had become 'the breadline of the spirit.'"


title: Works Progress Administration

text: At its height in 1938, there were 38,324 people, primarily women, employed in library services programs, while 25,625 were employed in library services and 12,696 were employed in bookbinding and repair.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Because book repair was an activity that could be taught to unskilled workers and once trained, could be conducted with little supervision, repair and mending became the main activity of the WPA Library Project. The basic rationale for this change was that the mending and repair projects saved public libraries and school libraries thousands of dollars in acquisition costs while employing needy women who were often heads of households.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: By 1940, the WPA Library Project, now the Library Services Program, began to shift its focus as the entire WPA began to move operations towards goals of national defense. WPA Library Programs served those goals in two ways: 1.) existing WPA libraries could distribute materials to the public on the nature of an imminent national defense emergency and the need for national defense preparation, and 2.) the project could provide supplementary library services to military camps and defense impacted communities.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: By December 1941, the number of people employed in WPA library work was only 16,717. In May of the following year, all statewide Library Projects were reorganized as WPA War Information Services Programs. By early 1943, the work of closing war information centers had begun. The last week of service for remaining WPA library workers was March 15, 1943.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: While it is difficult to quantify the success or failure of WPA Library Projects relative to other WPA programs, "what is incontestable is the fact that the library projects provided much-needed employment for mostly female workers, recruited many to librarianship in at least semiprofessional jobs, and retained librarians who may have left the profession for other work had employment not come through federal relief...the WPA subsidized several new ventures in readership services such as the widespread use of bookmobiles and supervised reading rooms – services that became permanent in post-depression and postwar American libraries."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: In extending library services to people who lost their libraries (or never had a library to begin with) WPA Library Services Projects achieved phenomenal success, made significant permanent gains, and had a profound impact on library life in America.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The share of Federal Emergency Relief Administration and WPA benefits for African Americans exceeded their proportion of the general population. The FERA's first relief census reported that more than two million African Americans were on relief during early 1933, a proportion of the African-American population (17.8%) that was nearly double the proportion of whites on relief (9.5%). This was during the period of Jim Crow and racial segregation in the South, when blacks were largely disenfranchised.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: By 1935, there were 3,500,000 African Americans (men, women and children) on relief, almost 35 percent of the African-American population; plus another 250,000 African-American adults were working on WPA projects. Altogether during 1938, about 45 percent of the nation's African-American families were either on relief or were employed by the WPA.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Civil rights leaders initially objected that African Americans were proportionally underrepresented. African American leaders made such a claim with respect to WPA hires in New Jersey, stating, "In spite of the fact that Blacks indubitably constitute more than 20 percent of the State's unemployed, they composed 15.9% of those assigned to W.P.A. jobs during 1937." Nationwide in 1940, 9.8% of the population were African American.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: However, by 1941, the perception of discrimination against African Americans had changed to the point that the NAACP magazine "Opportunity" hailed the WPA:


title: Works Progress Administration

text: It is to the eternal credit of the administrative officers of the WPA that discrimination on various projects because of race has been kept to a minimum and that in almost every community Negroes have been given a chance to participate in the work program. In the South, as might have been expected, this participation has been limited, and differential wages on the basis of race have been more or less effectively established; but in the northern communities, particularly in the urban centers, the Negro has been afforded his first real opportunity for employment in white-collar occupations.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA mostly operated segregated units, as did its youth affiliate, the National Youth Administration. Blacks were hired by the WPA as supervisors in the North; however of 10,000 WPA supervisors in the South, only 11 were black. Historian Anthony Badger argues, "New Deal programs in the South routinely discriminated against blacks and perpetuated segregation."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The League of the Physically Handicapped in New York was organized in May 1935 to end discrimination by the WPA against the physically disabled unemployed. The city's Home Relief Bureau coded applications by the physically disabled applicants as "PH" ("physically handicapped"). Thus they were not hired by the WPA. In protest, the League held two sit-ins in 1935. The WPA relented and created 1,500 jobs for physically disabled workers in New York City.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: About 15% of the household heads on relief were women, and youth programs were operated separately by the National Youth Administration. The average worker was about 40 years old (about the same as the average family head on relief).


title: Works Progress Administration

text: WPA policies were consistent with the strong belief of the time that husbands and wives should not both be working (because the second person working would take one job away from some other breadwinner). A study of 2,000 female workers in Philadelphia showed that 90% were married, but wives were reported as living with their husbands in only 18 percent of the cases. Only 2 percent of the husbands had private employment. Of the 2,000 women, all were responsible for one to five additional people in the household.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: In rural Missouri, 60% of the WPA-employed women were without husbands (12% were single; 25% widowed; and 23% divorced, separated or deserted). Thus, only 40% were married and living with their husbands, but 59% of the husbands were permanently disabled, 17% were temporarily disabled, 13% were too old to work, and remaining 10% were either unemployed or disabled. Most of the women worked with sewing projects, where they were taught to use sewing machines and made clothing and bedding, as well as supplies for hospitals, orphanages, and adoption centers.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: One WPA-funded project, the Pack Horse Library Project, mainly employed women to deliver books to rural areas in eastern Kentucky. Many of the women employed by the project were the sole breadwinners for their families.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA had numerous critics. The strongest attacks were that it was the prelude for a national political machine on behalf of Roosevelt. Reformers secured the Hatch Act of 1939 that largely depoliticized the WPA.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Others complained that far left elements played a major role, especially in the New York City unit. Representative J. Parnell Thomas of the House Committee on Un-American Activities claimed in 1938 that divisions of the WPA were a "hotbed of Communists" and "one more link in the vast and unparalleled New Deal propaganda network."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Much of the criticism of the distribution of projects and funding allotment is a result of the view that the decisions were politically motivated. The South, as the poorest region of the United States, received 75 percent less in federal relief and public works funds per capita than the West. Critics would point to the fact that Roosevelt's Democrats could be sure of voting support from the South, whereas the West was less of a sure thing; swing states took priority over the other states.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: There was a perception that WPA employees were not diligent workers, and that they had little incentive to give up their busy work in favor of productive jobs. Some employers said that the WPA instilled poor work habits and encouraged inefficiency. Some job applicants found that a WPA work history was viewed negatively by employers, who said they had formed poor work habits.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: A Senate committee reported that, "To some extent the complaint that WPA workers do poor work is not without foundation. ... Poor work habits and incorrect techniques are not remedied. Occasionally a supervisor or a foreman demands good work." The WPA and its workers were ridiculed as being lazy. The organization's initials were said to stand for "We Poke Along" or "We Putter Along" or "We Piddle Around" or "Whistle, Piss and Argue." These were sarcastic references to WPA projects that sometimes slowed down deliberately because foremen had an incentive to keep going, rather than finish a project.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: The WPA's Division of Investigation proved so effective in preventing political corruption "that a later congressional investigation couldn't find a single serious irregularity it had overlooked," wrote economist Paul Krugman. "This dedication to honest government wasn't a sign of Roosevelt's personal virtue; rather, it reflected a political imperative. FDR's mission in office was to show that government activism works. To maintain that mission's credibility he needed to keep his administration's record clean. And he did."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Many complaints were recorded from private industry at the time that the existence of WPA works programs made hiring new workers difficult. The WPA claimed to counter this by keeping hourly wages well below private wages and encouraging relief workers to actively seek private employment and accept job offers if they got them.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: On December 23, 1938, after leading the WPA for three and a half years, Harry Hopkins resigned and became the Secretary of Commerce. To succeed him Roosevelt appointed Francis C. Harrington, a colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers and the WPA's chief engineer, who had been leading the Division of Engineering and Construction.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Following the passage of the Reorganization Act of 1939 in April 1939, the WPA was grouped with the Bureau of Public Roads, Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division, Branch of Buildings Management of the National Park Service, United States Housing Authority and the Public Works Administration under the newly created Federal Works Agency. Created at the same time, the Federal Security Agency assumed the WPA's responsibility for the National Youth Administration. "The name of the Works Progress Administration has been changed to Work Projects Administration in order to make its title more descriptive of its major purpose," President Roosevelt wrote when announcing the reorganization.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: As WPA projects became more subject to the state, local sponsors were called on to provide 25% of project costs. As the number of public works projects slowly diminished, more projects were dedicated to preparing for war. Having languished since the end of World War I, the American military services were depopulated and served by crumbling facilities; when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938, the U.S. Army numbered only 176,000 soldiers.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: On May 26, 1940, FDR delivered a fireside chat to the American people about "the approaching storm", and on June 6 Harrington reprioritized WPA projects, anticipating a major expansion of the U.S. military. "Types of WPA work to be expedited in every possible way to include, in addition to airports and military airfields, construction of housing and other facilities for enlarged military garrisons, camp and cantonment construction, and various improvements in navy yards," Harrington said. He observed that the WPA had already made substantial contributions to national defense over its five years of existence, by building 85 percent of the new airports in the U.S. and making $420 million in improvements to military facilities. He predicted there would be 500,000 WPA workers on defense-related projects over the next 12 months, at a cost of $250 million. The estimated number of WPA workers needed for defense projects was soon revised to between 600,000 and 700,000. Vocational training for war industries was also begun by the WPA, with 50,000 trainees in the program by October 1940.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: "Only the WPA, having employed millions of relief workers for more than five years, had a comprehensive awareness of the skills that would be available in a full-scale national emergency," wrote journalist Nick Taylor. "As the country began its preparedness buildup, the WPA was uniquely positioned to become a major defense agency."


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Harrington died suddenly, aged 53, on September 30, 1940. Notably apolitical—he boasted that he had never voted—he had deflected Congressional criticism of the WPA by bringing attention to its building accomplishments and its role as an employer. Harrington's successor, Howard O. Hunter, served as head of the WPA until May 1, 1942.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Unemployment ended with war production for World War II, as millions of men joined the services, and cost-plus contracts made it attractive for companies to hire unemployed men and train them.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Concluding that a national relief program was no longer needed, Roosevelt directed the Federal Works Administrator to end the WPA in a letter December 4, 1942. "Seven years ago I was convinced that providing useful work is superior to any and every kind of dole. Experience had amply justified this policy," FDR wrote:


title: Works Progress Administration

text: By building airports, schools, highways, and parks; by making huge quantities of clothing for the unfortunate; by serving millions of lunches to school children; by almost immeasurable kinds and quantities of service the Work Projects Administration has reached a creative hand into every county in this Nation. It has added to the national wealth, has repaired the wastage of depression, and has strengthened the country to bear the burden of war. By employing eight millions of Americans, with thirty millions of dependents, it has brought to these people renewed hope and courage. It has maintained and increased their working skills; and it has enabled them once more to take their rightful places in public or in private employment.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: Roosevelt ordered a prompt end to WPA activities to conserve funds that had been appropriated. Operations in most states ended February 1, 1943. With no funds budgeted for the next fiscal year, the WPA ceased to exist after June 30, 1943.


title: Works Progress Administration

text: "The agencies of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration had an enormous and largely unrecognized role in defining the public space we now use", wrote sociologist Robert D. Leighninger. "In a short period of ten years, the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps built facilities in practically every community in the country. Most are still providing service half a century later. It is time we recognized this legacy and attempted to comprehend its relationship to our contemporary situation."


title: Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton

text: The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. The groom was second in the line of succession to the British throne. The couple had been in a relationship since 2003.


text: John Hall, Dean of Westminster, presided at the service; Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, conducted the marriage; Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, preached the sermon; and a reading was given by the bride's brother, James. William's best man was his brother, Prince Harry, while the bride's sister, Pippa, was the maid of honour. The ceremony was attended by the bride's and groom's families, as well as members of foreign royal families, diplomats, and the couple's chosen personal guests. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. As Prince William was not the heir apparent to the throne at the time, the wedding was not a full state occasion and many details were left to the couple to decide, such as much of the guest list of about 1,900.


text: Prince William and Kate Middleton met in 2001. Their engagement on 20 October 2010 was announced on 16 November 2010. The build-up to the wedding and the occasion itself attracted much media attention, being compared in many ways with the marriage of William's parents in 1981. The occasion was a public holiday in the United Kingdom and featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry. Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding; organisations and hotels held events across Canada, over 5,000 street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom, and one million people lined the route between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. The ceremony was viewed live by tens of millions more around the world, including 72 million live streams on YouTube. In the United Kingdom, television audiences peaked at 26.3 million viewers, with a total of 36.7 million watching part of the coverage.


text: In 2001, Catherine Middleton and Prince William met while studying at the University of St Andrews. They began dating in 2003.


text: On 16 November 2010, Clarence House stated that Prince William was to marry Catherine Middleton "in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London". They were engaged in October 2010, while on a private holiday in Kenya; Prince William gave Middleton the same engagement ring that his father had given to William's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales—an 18-karat white gold ring with a 12-carat oval Ceylon (Sri Lankan) sapphire and 14 round diamonds. It was announced at approximately the same time that, after their marriage, the couple would live on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where Prince William was based with the Royal Air Force.


text: The Queen said she was "absolutely delighted" for the couple, giving her formal consent to the marriage, as required by the since repealed Royal Marriages Act 1772, in her British privy council on the morning of the engagement. Congratulations also came in from the Queen's prime ministers, including Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard, who has at other times demonstrated moderate republican leanings. The suffragan Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent, who also has republican views, published a critical reaction to the wedding announcement on Facebook. He later acknowledged that his words were "offensive" and subsequently apologised, but his superior, Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, instructed him to withdraw from public ministry "until further notice".


text: Following the announcement, the couple gave an exclusive interview to ITV News political editor Tom Bradby and hosted a photocall at St James's Palace. On 12 December 2010, Buckingham Palace issued the official engagement photographs; these were taken on 25 November, in the state apartments at St. James's Palace, by photographer Mario Testino.


text: On 23 November 2010, the date of the ceremony was confirmed as Friday 29 April 2011. The Queen in her British Council ordered on 15 December 2010 that the wedding day would be a public holiday throughout the United Kingdom. It was also declared an official public holiday in the British Overseas Territories of Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos, and the British Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man. As 29 April fell six days before elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Alternative Vote referendum, this attracted political comment. John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, stated for the Scottish elections that the date was "unfortunate" and was "likely to see the Royal Family getting caught up in political debate".


text: TV programmes were also shown in the UK prior to the wedding which provided deeper insights into the couple's relationship and backgrounds, including "When Kate Met William" and Channel 4's "Meet the Middletons".


text: On 5 January, St James's Palace publicised that the ceremony would start at 11:00 local time and that the bride would arrive at the abbey by car rather than by carriage (the latter is the traditional transport for royal brides). The route planned was along The Mall, through Horse Guards Parade, and down Whitehall to the abbey. Beforehand, motorists were warned about using the roads in central London on the wedding day, including by Transport for London, which issued travel advice on road closures.


text: The costs of the wedding itself were borne by the Royal Family and the Middletons themselves, while the costs of security and transport were covered by Her Majesty's Treasury. The couple also asked that donations be made to charities in place of traditional wedding gifts; to that end, they established The Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton Charitable Gift Fund, which focuses on assisting charities such as the New Zealand Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and the Zoological Society of London.


text: The overall cost of the event was reportedly £23.7 million. The Australian newspaper "Herald Sun" estimated A$32 million for security and A$800,000 for flowers. Estimates of the cost to the economy of extra public holidays, such as that allowed for the wedding, vary between £1.2 billion and £6 billion. The British government tourist authority VisitBritain predicted the wedding would trigger a tourism boom that would last several years, eventually pulling in an additional 4 million visitors and generating £2 billion. However, VisitBritain's head of research and forecasting, David Edwards, suggested to colleagues two days after the engagement was announced that the evidence points to royal weddings having a negative impact on inbound tourism. He noted that the number of visitors to Britain was down significantly in July 1981, when Prince Charles and Diana were married, from the same period in other years, and also July 1986, when Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were married, was down from July 1985.


text: On 16 and 17 February, three sets of guest lists were sent out in the name of the Queen. Many guests or their successors in office, who were invited to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer were not invited to William's wedding. The first list, consisting of about 1,900 people, attended the ceremony in the abbey; the second list of approximately 600 people were invited to the luncheon reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by the Queen; and the final list, of about 300 names, was for the evening dinner hosted by the Prince of Wales.


text: More than half of the guests to attend the wedding itself were family and friends of the couple, though there was a significant number of Commonwealth leaders (including the governors-general who represent the Queen in Commonwealth realms other than the UK, prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms, and heads of government of other Commonwealth countries), members of religious organisations, the diplomatic corps, several military officials, members of the British Royal Household, members of foreign royal families, and representatives of William's charities and others with whom William has worked on official business. Although St James's Palace declined to publish the names of those invited, a breakdown of guests was published by category; the list made no mention of foreign heads of state. The invitation of Seán Cardinal Brady, Primate of All Ireland, to the event, and its acceptance, were described as "unprecedented" by a spokesman for Ireland's Catholic bishops. The spokesman attributed the invitation to Cardinal Brady's contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process.


text: The route of the groom and his party to the ceremony went between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, by The Mall, passing Clarence House, by Horse Guards Road, Horse Guards Parade, through Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, the south side of Parliament Square, and Broad Sanctuary. After the ceremony, the bridal couple returned along the same route by carriage. At 6.00 am, roads in and around the processional route were closed to traffic. From 8.15 am, the main congregation, governors-general, prime ministers of Commonwealth realms, and diplomats all arrived at the abbey.


text: Princes William and Harry, who had stayed at Clarence House, left for the ceremony at 10.10 am in a Bentley State Limousine and arrived at 10.18 am, followed by representatives of foreign royal families, the Middleton family, and, lastly, the Royal Family (the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall; the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence; the Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Eugenie; and the Earl and Countess of Wessex). The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were the last members of the Royal Family to leave Buckingham Palace, as is tradition, arriving at the abbey for 10.48 am. The bridal party, who had spent the night at the Goring Hotel, left for the ceremony in the former number one state Rolls-Royce Phantom VI at 10.52 am, in time for the service to begin at 11.00 am.


text: The service finished at 12.15 pm, after which the newly married couple travelled to Buckingham Palace in the 1902 State Landau. They were followed by Prince Harry, Pippa Middleton, and the bridesmaids and page boys, who travelled in two of the Ascot Landaus; the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Mr and Mrs Middleton, who travelled in the Australian State Coach; and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who travelled in the Scottish State Coach. At 1.25 pm, the couple appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flypast of an Avro Lancaster bomber, a Supermarine Spitfire fighter, and a Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, followed by two Typhoons from RAF Coningsby and two Tornado GR4s from RAF Leuchars in a flat diamond formation.


text: Westminster Abbey, founded in AD 960, has a particular status and is known as a Royal Peculiar. Although the abbey has been the traditional location for coronations since 1066, not until the 20th century did it become the church of choice for royal weddings; prior to 1918, most royal weddings took place in the royal chapels, such as the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace and St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The abbey, which has a usual seating capacity of 2000, has been the venue for most royal weddings in the last century, including those of William's grandparents (Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip) in 1947, William's great-aunt Princess Margaret in 1960, William's first cousin twice removed Princess Alexandra in 1963, William's aunt Princess Anne in 1973, and William's uncle Prince Andrew in 1986. It was also the setting for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. A prominent decorative addition inside the abbey for the ceremony was an avenue of 20-foot tall trees, six field maple and two hornbeams, arranged on either side of the main aisle.


text: In a break with royal tradition, the groom had a best man—his brother, Prince Harry—rather than a supporter, while the bride chose her sister, Pippa, as maid of honour. There were four bridesmaids and two page boys:


text: The bridal dress, designed by the London-based designer Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, was made of ivory satin and featured an overlaid long-sleeved V-neck lace bodice and appliqued full skirt with box pleats, the back leading to a nine-foot train. The bodice incorporated machine-made lace, sourced from manufacturers in France and Britain. Floral motifs were cut from lengths of these and then appliquéd by hand onto silk net (tulle) by workers from the Royal School of Needlework. The motifs included roses, thistles, daffodils and shamrocks to represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


text: The veil was held in place by the Cartier Halo Tiara, made in 1936 and lent to her by the Queen. It was purchased by the Queen's father, the future King George VI, for his wife Elizabeth three weeks before his accession. Princess Elizabeth (later Queen received the tiara from her mother on her 18th birthday. In order to avoid her tiara falling off, as had happened for Lady Diana Spencer while wearing a Spencer family tiara during her 1981 wedding to the Prince of Wales, Catherine's stylists "backcombed the top [of her hair] to create a foundation for the tiara to sit around, then did a tiny plait in the middle and sewed it on."


text: For the customary bridal themes of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue", Middleton's gown and veil had lace appointments (the "old"); she was given custom-made diamond earrings by her parents (the "new") and the Queen's tiara (the "borrowed"); and a blue ribbon was sewn into the bodice (the "blue"). Middleton's point-toed pump shoes were also from Alexander McQueen and had a lace pattern matching the dress with appliques made by the Royal School of Needlework.


text: The bride's shield-shaped wired bouquet, designed by Derek Connolly, contained myrtle, lily of the valley, sweet William, ivy and hyacinth.


text: Middleton's hair was styled in loose curls for the occasion by hair dresser James Pryce of the Richard Ward Salon. She received private make-up lessons from Arabella Preston and the entire bridal party received "makeup artistry assistance" from Bobbi Brown make-up artist Hannah Martin prior to the event, but ultimately Middleton did her own makeup for the occasion. The look was described as a "soft smokey eye" with pink lips and cheeks. Her nails were painted by manicurist Marina Sandoval in a mixture of two polishes: a "barely there pink" and a "sheer beige" to complement her skin tone and gown.


text: Maid-of-honour Pippa Middleton also wore a gown by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. It has been described as being made of "heavy, ivory satin-based crepe, with a cowl front and with the same button detail and lace trims as the Bride's dress." Like her sister, she received "makeup artistry assistance" from Bobbi Brown make-up artist Hannah Martin, but it is unclear who actually put on her makeup for the wedding day. Her hair was loosely curled in a half-up, half-down style by the Richard Ward Salon with a deep side part and a hairpiece made of ivy and lily of the valley to match Catherine's bouquet.


text: The young bridesmaids wore dresses designed by Nicki Macfarlane, handmade with the help of Macfarlane's daughter Charlotte, in their homes at Wiltshire and Kent. The gowns echoed the bride's dress and were made with the same fabrics and button detail along the back. They were described as having a "ballerina-length, full, box pleated skirt" and were hand finished with English Cluny lace. Their ivy and lily-of-the-valley hair wreaths were influenced by Catherine's mother Carole's headdress at her 1981 wedding to Michael Middleton.


text: All of the bridesmaids wore satin Mary Jane style shoes with a Swarovski crystal buckle designed by Devon-based Rainbow Club. Their flowers were designed and made by Shane Connolly and replicated the flowers in Catherine's bouquet: lily-of-the-valley, sweet William, and hyacinth.


text: The pageboys' outfits were designed by Kashket and Partners in the style worn by a "Foot Guard officer at the time of the Regency (the 1820s)" with an insignia from the Irish Guards, whose Colonel is Prince William. The tunics are red with gold piping and have Irish shamrocks on the collars. The Pages wore a gold and crimson sash (with tassel) around their waists, as is tradition for officers in the Irish Guards when in the presence of a member of the Royal Family.


text: Prince William wore an Irish Guards mounted officer's uniform in Guard of Honour Order with a forage cap, rather than the bearskin hat. As a serving Royal Air Force flight lieutenant who also held the equivalent Royal Navy rank of lieutenant and army rank of captain in the Blues and Royals, William could have chosen to wear the uniform of any of these junior officer ranks. However, as he had been appointed colonel of the Irish Guards on 10 February 2011, he opted instead to wear the full dress uniform of that regiment. As a Knight of the Order of the Garter, he wore the order's star and blue riband, to which were affixed his RAF wings and Golden Jubilee Medal. William did not wear a sword in the church.


text: Prince Harry wore the uniform of a captain of the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons), with a forage cap. He wore aiguillettes, a cross-belt and gold waist belt with sword slings, but no sword. He wore the wings of the Army Air Corps and Golden Jubilee and Afghanistan Campaign medals.