title: Jonny Craig

text: He was put into the school choir as a default elective but was ultimately kicked out. As a child, he says that he "had a hard time keeping out of trouble" and that "high school wasn't for him." He would explain later that that was the reason he left high school and attained his G.E.D, then focused on music full-time. "I just wanted an escape from a lot of the things when I was a child I guess. I just wanted to get away from a lot of the problems that I was dealing with at home and stuff", Craig states in an interview with KLSU radio as his reason for starting his path in music.


title: Jonny Craig

text: After moving to America and attending high school in Washington state, Craig auditioned for bands but ultimately was not accepted into one. Craig then formed the band westerHALTS in 2000, a garage band from Tacoma, Washington. At age 15, Craig released his first known song with them titled "Change, Leisure, and Retirement" in 2001. In an Alternative Press Podcast he stated that the band was "...just something to help pay for weed, something I played over the weekends." He then joined as the lead vocalist for Tacoma-based pop punk band Ghost Runner on Third in 2002. Craig said that he met the guitarist of Ghost Runner on Third in high school. He received positive reviews with this band's debut EP, Speak Your Dreams, released on January 4, 2005. AllMusic stated that Craig was, "the band's secret weapon, a passionate vocalist. There's not a bad track to be found here, but Craig tends to outshine his bandmates throughout."


title: Jonny Craig

text: Early on in his career with Ghost Runner On Third it has been cited that overwhelming drug problems led to his departure, as told by Dance Gavin Dance in an old blog post concerning Craig after he was kicked out of the band. Though Craig has denied the statements made, Dance Gavin Dance has not backed off from those remarks, which they explain was the reason for all the band's problems and partly for his former band Ghost Runner on Third. Dance Gavin Dance has also partially blamed guitarist Sean O'Sullivan's departure on Craig's behavior, although there were other contributing factors. Despite their past differences, both past and present members of Dance Gavin Dance have since become friends. Consider the Thief (O'Sullivan's previous band), was also listed in Emarosa's "Relativity" album on the "special thanks" section of the info-booklet.


title: Jonny Craig

text: Jonny Craig's singing in Dance Gavin Dance's debut EP Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean and debut full-length album, Downtown Battle Mountain, received positive reviews from critics. Allmusic stated that "co-frontman Jonny Craig's regularly hysterical yelping may change your mind forever."


title: Jonny Craig

text: In March 2007, it was explained that Jonny Craig came up with the name "Dance Gavin Dance" and had planned to name his previous band, "Ghost Runner On Third", by that name. After being kicked out of Dance Gavin Dance after the "Saints and Sinners Festival" in New Jersey, Jonny Craig immediately filled in for A Skylit Drive's Lead Vocalist Jordan Blake while he was ill. The band said at shows, and on their website, that he was not the new lead singer and the situation would only be temporary. It had been only two weeks since he quit Dance Gavin Dance in which he joined Emarosa who was left without a lead singer.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On August 18, 2010, Dance Gavin Dance parted ways with vocalist Kurt Travis, and Jonny Craig, along with other original vocalist, Jon Mess, returned to the band to record a new album. The reunited lineup would also embark on a headlining run the following spring. Craig was to remain in Emarosa as well.


title: Jonny Craig

text: The rapper Game and DJ Skee sampled Craig's vocals on the song "Heels & Dresses" from their Break Lights mixtape album, which comes from the song "The Robot With Human Hair Pt. 1." Rapper Bizzy Bone also sampled Craig's vocals on the song "Bottled Up Like Smoke" from his Crossover EP and Crossroads album, using portions of "I Still Feel Her pt. III" from his debut solo album, "A Dream Is a Question You Don't Know How to Answer."


title: Jonny Craig

text: On April 11, 2011, Emarosa publicly announced that Jonny Craig would no longer be a member of the group. According to a statement made by the band, "This decision has been a hard one to make, but we feel it is in the best interest for the band going forward." "Jonny Craig" was the top trending topic on Twitter the day of the announcement.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On August 13, 2012, Jonny Craig was "kicked out" of Dance Gavin Dance yet again for reasons pertaining to Craig being "publicly scolded by the owner of Sumerian Records for multiple offenses". The news surfaced after Jonny released a statement on his personal Twitter.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In early September 2008, Chiodos and Cinematic Sunrise vocalist Craig Owens, announced that both he and Jonny Craig would be recording an EP record by the end of the year, also mentioning Vic Fuentes and others.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On December 15, 2008, Alternative Press officially announced and revealed the name and lineup of this new project, Isles & Glaciers. The band's first EP, The Hearts of Lonely People, was produced by Casey Bates in Seattle, Washington, was reworked in April 2009 in Michigan and was released March 9, 2010.


title: Jonny Craig

text: A tweet reading in part "...and people wonder why we won't do another I & G record." was sent out by Craig Owens in 2011, as the MacBook scandal was breaking. This suggests that Isles & Glaciers will be unlikely to release any further albums, at least with a lineup that includes Jonny Craig.


title: Jonny Craig

text: Jonny Craig talked about Isles and Glaciers in an interview stating he would be willing to participate in making a new record, but suspects tension with what he calls, "the more popular people in the group".


title: Jonny Craig

text: Jonny Craig released his debut solo album "A Dream Is a Question You Don't Know How to Answer" on August 18, 2009, through Rise Records. This is the first individual artist on the label. For promotional purposes he took press photos for the release in late 2009 with photographer Gage Young in Orlando, Florida. He further released three songs on his Myspace profile from the solo album, titled; "Istillfeelher III", "Children of Divorce" and "7 AM, 2 Bottles And The Wrong Road". Craig went on his first solo tour from November through December, supporting acts AFI, Cinematic Sunrise, and then headlining with support from Tides of Man and Sleeping With Sirens. He was headlining a tour with support from Tides of Man and Eye Alaska and will be playing The Bamboozle festival and SXSW.


title: Jonny Craig

text: Craig headlined the "White Boys With Soul" tour with Fight Fair, Breathe Electric, Mod Sun, and The Divine. Craig has also recently revealed that he is recording another solo album. In an interview at Warped Tour with MindEqualsBlown.net, Craig revealed he's attempting to work with Alex Deleon of The Cab on a B-side from his solo album. Craig announced on January 16, 2011 that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus to "pursue the filming of his documentary", stating that all his currently planned records and tours would be canceled. He later added that he would play out the tours with Dance Gavin Dance and Emarosa. On January 21, 2011, Craig announced that he would not actually be taking this hiatus, stating: "hate me all you want people I love what i do and im great at it. IM NEVER GONNA STOP. ["sic"]" He later stated that he was going to quit because he had been touring and recording "NON STOP" for seven years, and stated "Now i know there's nothing out in the world for me".


title: Jonny Craig

text: In November 2012, somebody hacked Craig's personal e-mail that contained some demos that circulated on the internet; Craig stated the leaked material will not be on his upcoming solo EP. From Craig's personal Twitter page: "don't trip the songs that leaked are not what my album is going to sound like. that was me just fucking around with some stuff."


title: Jonny Craig

text: Craig set up an account on Indiegogo where fans donated money to produce Craigs upcoming EP. He also confirmed in a recent interview that he has bought out his contract with Rise Records. He released his solo EP, Find What You Love and Let It Kill You, on September 24, 2013, as an independent release.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On November 26, 2013 Jonny has released the Special Edition of Find What You Love And Let It Kill You. The Special Edition includes a new song, which features two people that paid to be on the album from the Indiegogo campaign. He has also released a new song, "Dirty Christmas" which is available also on November 26, 2013. In an interview with rockforevernagazine, Jonny has said he wants to do "maybe one or two more tours(before recording), with me as like a third spot... Maybe a Circa tour?" He also said that his new second album may be coming out next year. He also has stated him and Kyle Lucas are making an album together. On January 15, Jonny stated he was starting a new band. The following day, he tweeted that the band's name would be Slaves. According to "Under the Gun Review", along with Craig as lead vocalist, Slaves will consist of guitarists Jason Mays, Alex Lyman, and Christopher Kim, drummer Tai Wright, and bassist Colin Vieira.


title: Jonny Craig

text: Artery Recordings have announced the signing of Jonny Craig's new band, Slaves, which also features members Alex Lyman and Christopher Kim (Hearts & Hands) with Tai Wright (Four Letter Lie). The band have released their debut album in the summer of 2014 via Artery. They've released a short video trailer, which features clips of the new music. The band's debut album entitled Through Art We Are All Equals, was released June 24, 2014 via Artery Recordings. The album features guest vocals from Kyle Lucas, Tyler Carter of Issues and Vic Fuentes of Pierce The Veil. Its lead single "The Fire Down Below" premiered April 22, 2014.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In early 2015, Craig released the albums "The Blueprint For Going In Circles", in collaboration with singer-songwriter Kyle Lucas, and "The Le Cube Sessions", respectively.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In 2017, Slaves released a new single entitled "I'd Rather See Your Star Explode" along with an accompanying music video. The group's third studio album, "Beautiful Death" was released on February 16, 2018. An acoustic EP called "Revision" was released on January 18, 2019.


title: Jonny Craig

text: The following Thursday, January 24, 2019, in a message posted on the band's official Twitter account, Slaves announced that they had removed Jonny Craig from the band. The message stated, in part, “We all have struggles in our daily life, but for some, those struggles are personally and physically dangerous. It is no secret that Jonny has battled with addiction in his personal life, sometimes those battles are won, and most recently lost. It's also unfair for a band to rely on someone who just can't rely on themselves. Addiction is a disease, and we hope Jonny gets the help that he needs. Unfortunately, Jonny chose his addiction over the band and left them high & dry while checking in for their international flight while he boarded a plane back home.”


title: Jonny Craig

text: Currently, Jonny Craig remains a solo artist, with his second and most recent solo album release being "The Places We'll Never Be" on September 10, 2021.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In February 2011, several of Craig's fans accused him of being involved in an internet scam. According to the alleged victims, Craig would claim to be selling a used MacBook through his Twitter account. After accepting an online payment on average between 600 and 800 dollars for the product from at least 16 individuals, Craig was reported to have discontinued communication with the buyers, and the people who had purchased the MacBooks never received them. He initially denied the accusations and claimed that his Twitter had been hacked and he had no involvement. However, the following week it was announced that Craig had dropped off his current tour in Emarosa with Chiodos to enter detox in order to treat his ongoing battles with heroin addiction. Rise Records and the Artery Foundation assumed financial responsibility for the internet scam and intended to reimburse anyone who had been victimized. Tilian Pearson, formerly of Tides of Man, substituted for Craig during his absence from Dance Gavin Dance. A public apology was issued by Craig after his detox treatment was completed on March 8, 2011.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In October 2011, Craig was jailed for two counts of possession of narcotics, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, and one count of failure to appear on a felony charge with bail set at US$15,000. As a result of this incident, Dance Gavin Dance cancelled their upcoming tour and went on hiatus. Craig was released from jail a few weeks later and was scheduled to enter a court-ordered rehabilitation facility. His follow-up hearing was scheduled for April 30, 2012. Dance Gavin Dance went on with their tour as planned but without Craig. He completed a 30-day court-ordered detox and was released March 30, 2012.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On April 2, 2014, Craig was accused of using narcotics again by an ex-girlfriend. Craig addressed the issue in a now-deleted video where he took a drug test on screen. He is quoted saying, "just woke up to a nice surprise from the ex. So I'm headed right down to the office to prove to you guys without a doubt I'm not using and that those videos are old. She's crossed a line and needs to get it through her head that this isn't the way you deal with someone not loving you anymore. So let's go! I have nothing to hide".


title: Jonny Craig

text: On April 14, 2016, a few days following Slaves' split, Craig posted an open letter via the band's official Facebook page, confessing that he was continuing to struggle from his addiction and will seek the help he needs following his already booked solo tour. The tour consisted of the US and a few European dates with Slaves (with select members). On May 20, 2016, Jonny announced on Slaves's Facebook page that the band was going through difficult times but had not broken up. Jonny and Colin were the only members remaining at this point.


title: Jonny Craig

text: On January 24, 2019, in a Twitter post made by the official account for Slaves, it was announced that Jonny Craig had been kicked out of the band. The message said in part, "We all have struggles in our daily life, but for some, those struggles are personally and physically dangerous. It is no secret that Jonny has battled with addiction in his personal life, sometimes those battles are won, and most recently lost. It's also unfair for a band to rely on someone who just can't rely on themselves. Addiction is a disease, and we hope Jonny gets the help that he needs. Unfortunately, Jonny chose his addiction over the band and left them high & dry while checking in for their international flight while he boarded a plane back home.”


title: Jonny Craig

text: The Bristol UK show after this post was cancelled, but the tour resumed with Matt McAndrew, a former contestant from "The Voice", as a temporary choice for his replacement. Matt then became their permanent addition, and in 2020 they announced they would be permanently changing their name from "Slaves" after the release of their newest album, further showing their progression as a group.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In 2015, Slaves were kicked off the Warped Tour after Craig allegedly sexually harassed a female merchandise worker.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In 2017, numerous ex-girlfriends accused Craig of sexual assault which led to Slaves being dropped from their record label, Artery Recordings, shortly before the scheduled release of their third album "Beautiful Death".


title: Jonny Craig

text: In 2019, Craig was accused of sexual assault and domestic violence from his ex-girlfriend, Taylor Nicole Dean, in a video posted to her YouTube channel. Craig threatened his accusers and their family members with legal action. She also accused him of being the one who introduced her to heroin and opened up about the abusive relationship and the dangerous behavior of Craig after and during her recovery and past relationship.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In a 2013 acoustic set with music magazine "Alternative Press", Jonny Craig explained the story behind his single "Children of Divorce." Craig said his then girlfriend had become pregnant, and after an admission by Craig months later that he didn't love her, she left. He said he never heard from her again and was unable to see his child.


title: Jonny Craig

text: Jonny is also father to his son, Storm Parker-Monroe Craig, his first child with ex-fiancée Sydney England, as they revealed their pregnancy on March 27, 2020 and announced their son's birth on July 13 2020. Craig and England's relationship subsequently broke down following a series of intervention from the authorities, including Jonny's arrest for alleged domestic battery, and the admittance of their infant son into child protective custody, where he remains in state care.


title: Jonny Craig

text: In an interview, Craig proceeded to describe himself as an atheist with a Christian background especially in music. He states that all of his music is soulful and has some kind of meaning mainly because his music career began as a child singing gospel music with his church/school. Jonny Craig gives all credit for his musical talent to his grandmother (Ruth Lyons) who he says, "taught me everything I know about music, she was super Christian, super gospel. Her husband was a preacher. She taught me everything I know about music and despite the fact that I may not believe in her beliefs, I believe in what she taught me."


title: Jonny Craig

text: Craig is inspired by soul music, mainly artists Aretha Franklin, Boyz II Men, and Craig David. He has also mentioned Motown acts and the band Mewithoutyou as influences. Craig has performed live covers of the songs "Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake, Marvins Room by Drake and "Fuck You" by Cee Lo Green.


title: Jonny Craig

text: "Hollywood Music Magazine" stated of Craig, "The guy's a legend and if you've yet to hear him sing you have been missing out."


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The Hobbit is a 1977 American animated musical television special created by Rankin/Bass, a studio known for their holiday specials, and animated by Topcraft, a precursor to Studio Ghibli. The film is an adaptation of the 1937 book of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien, and was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on Sunday, November 27, 1977.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: A Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins lives in his hobbit-hole. The wizard Gandalf informs him he is looking for someone to share an adventure, and introduces thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. They invite themselves in, eat dinner, and play music. The magic in the music makes Bilbo suddenly long for adventure.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Thorin explains Bilbo is to be a lucky number fourteen for them, and tells how his dwarves were driven out of the Lonely Mountain by the dragon Smaug, who stole their treasure. Gandalf accepts the mission before the Hobbit can speak.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The company discovers a camp of three trolls, who capture all but Gandalf and Bilbo. Bilbo hides while Gandalf uses his magic to bring the sunrise, which turns the trolls to stone. In the troll's cave, Bilbo discovers some stolen treasure, which the dwarves claim. They find two swords, and a dagger for Bilbo.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Gandalf shows Thorin a map of the Lonely Mountain and a key, given to him by Thorin's father. The map shows a secret passage.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Travelling through the Misty Mountains, all but Gandalf are captured by goblins. Gandalf kills the Great Goblin, and the dwarves escape. Bilbo loses the group; he finds an underground lake, where he discovers a ring, and meets the monster Gollum, who hunts him. Bilbo, discovering the ring grants invisibility, follows Gollum to the door, and escapes.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The goblins, riding Wargs, pursue the company into a pine forest, setting it ablaze. The Lord of the Eagles rescues the company, and carries them to Mirkwood; Gandalf leaves. Bilbo and the dwarves are captured by giant spiders, but Bilbo puts on his ring and drives off the spiders with his dagger. The dwarves are apprehended by the wood elves. Bilbo escapes using his ring. After weeks of searching, Bilbo pilfers a sleeping guard's keys, and floats the dwarves in barrels down the river into Laketown.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The people of Laketown nurse the company back to health. The fourteen reach the Lonely Mountain, and follow the map's instructions to enter. Bilbo goes in first, and meets Smaug, using the ring to hide. He and Smaug converse; the dragon assumes Bilbo must be a Laketowner. Bilbo discovers a patch of skin on Smaug not covered by protective scales. When Smaug attacks him for stealing, he escapes, mocking the dragon. In a rage, Smaug flies off to take revenge on Laketown. Bilbo sends a thrush to tell Bard about the bare patch, and Bard shoots Smaug with his family's black arrow. Smaug destroys Laketown in his death throes.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The Dwarves reclaim their treasure, only to find that the Lakemen and the Elves have arrived, wanting recompense for Smaug's many damages over the years. Thorin refuses to share, and declares war. Bilbo rebukes him, as they are outnumbered; Thorin is angered. Thorin's cousin, Dain, brings more dwarves. Gandalf arrives, warning that the Goblins are coming. Men, elves, and dwarves unite, and Bilbo uses his ring to hide as battle rages. The Eagles join the fight.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Bilbo finds a wounded Bombur, who informs him that the battle has been won. Only seven of the thirteen dwarves are left, and is led by Gandalf to the dying Thorin, who forgives him. Bilbo accepts two small chests of gold and his dagger as payment. Gandalf escorts him home. Gandalf warns him that the adventure is only just beginning, thanks to the ring he has found.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The film was produced and directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass of Rankin/Bass Productions in New York City, and was adapted for the screen by Romeo Muller, with Rankin taking on the additional duties of production designer. When interviewed for the film, Rankin declared that he would add nothing to the story that wasn't in the original. "The New York Times" reported that "The Hobbit" cost $3 million to produce.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: In a 2003 interview, Rankin stated, "I love the Tolkien work," and explained that he was able to make the film because "The Hobbit" was still in the public domain at the time, despite claims to the contrary from the copyright holders.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The story's protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is voiced by Orson Bean, backed up by noted Hollywood director and actor John Huston as the voice of Gandalf. In supporting roles, the comedian and performance artist Brother Theodore was chosen for the voice of Gollum, and Thurl Ravenscroft performed the baritone singing voices of the goblins. The gravelly voice of the dragon Smaug was provided by Richard Boone, with Hans Conried as Thorin Oakenshield, rounding out the cast of primarily American voice actors. The film was the final Rankin/Bass project to star the Australian actor Cyril Ritchard, here playing the voice of Elrond.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "The Hobbit" was animated by Topcraft in Tokyo, a now-defunct Japanese animation studio whose animation team re-formed as Studio Ghibli under Hayao Miyazaki, while some of the animators went to establish Pacific Animation Corporation. Topcraft successfully partnered with Rankin/Bass on several other productions in traditional animation, including "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (1974), "The Stingiest Man in Town" (1978) and "The Last Unicorn" (1982). According to Rankin, the visual style of the film took its basic cue from the early illustrations of Arthur Rackham.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: While Topcraft produced the animation overseas, the concept artwork was completed at the Rankin/Bass studio under the direction of Arthur Rankin. Rhode Island artist Lester Abrams did the initial designs for most of the characters; Rankin had seen Abrams' illustrations to an excerpt from "The Hobbit" in "Children's Digest". Principal artists included coordinating animator Toru Hara; supervising animator/character designer Tsuguyuki Kubo; character and effects animators Hidetoshi Kaneko and Kazuko Ito; and background designer Minoru Nishida. The same studio and crew members were also used for "The Return of the King".


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Harry N. Abrams published a large, illustrated coffee table edition of the book featuring concept art and stills.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Jules Bass primarily adapted Tolkien's original lyrics for the film's musical interludes, drawn primarily from the songs that feature prominently in the book. He also assisted Maury Laws, Rankin/Bass's composer and conductor-in-residence, in the composition of an original theme song, "The Greatest Adventure (The Ballad of the Hobbit)", sung by Glenn Yarbrough as the sole original song written for the film. This folk ballad came to be associated with Yarbrough, who reprised it in the soundtrack to 1980 animated film "The Return of the King".


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: In 1978, Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for his teleplay for "The Hobbit". The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to "Star Wars". A few days before its first airing, John J. O'Connor wrote in "The New York Times" that "Rankin and Bass Productions have now carefully translated "The Hobbit" into film. The result is curiously eclectic, but filled with nicely effective moments. … The drawings frequently suggest strong resemblances to non-Tolkien characters… The goblins could have stepped out of a Maurice Sendak book. But … the Dragon and Gollum the riddle aficionado bring some clever original touches… Whatever its flaws, this television version of "The Hobbit" warrants attention."


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Criticism primarily focused on adaptation issues, including the unfamiliar style of artwork used by the Japanese-American co-production team, whereas some Tolkien fans questioned the appropriateness of repackaging the material as a family film for a very young audience. Douglas A. Anderson, a Tolkien scholar, called the adaptation "execrable" in his own introduction to "The Annotated Hobbit", although he did not elaborate; and a few critics said it was confusing for those not already familiar with the plot. The author Baird Searles criticized the adaptation, calling it an "abomination" and an attempt that had "failed miserably". He singled out the quality of animation, the omission of key plot points such as Beorn and the Arkenstone, and the soundtrack.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "IGN" gave the film 7 out of 10 recommending it to fans of the novel. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 69% based on reviews from 16 critics.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Before "The Hobbit" aired on NBC, Rankin/Bass and its partner animation houses were preparing a sequel. Meanwhile, United Artists released "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" in 1978, an animated adaptation directed by Ralph Bakshi, originally intended as the first part in a two-part film. United Artists's sequel would soon be cancelled after a disagreement with Bakshi.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: Taking elements from the last volume of "The Lord of the Rings", they developed the musical "The Return of the King", featuring most of the voice artists and production team as "The Hobbit". "The Return of the King" used a framing device in which both "The Hobbit" and "The Return of the King" begin and end with Bilbo's stay at Rivendell.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "The Return of the King" is often mistaken as a sequel to Bakshi's "The Lord of the Rings". After Rankin/Bass became defunct in 1987, Warner Bros. acquired the rights to "King" for home video distribution and chose to market the film, along with "The Hobbit", as instalments of an animated Tolkien trilogy, with "The Lord of the Rings" (by then also owned by Warner Bros., from United Artists) acting as the middle chapter. This false promotion led to rumours that Rankin/Bass had originally decided to produce "The Return of the King" upon hearing that Bakshi's sequel to "The Lord of the Rings" had been cancelled. However, Rankin/Bass had always planned on making "The Return of the King" as a follow-up to their production of "The Hobbit", even before the release of Bakshi's film.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "The Hobbit" first aired as an animated television special in 1977 with the goal of producing an accompanying tie-in storybook and song recordings for children, as in other Rankin/Bass productions.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "The Hobbit" was released on LP with the soundtrack and dialogue from the film was also released in 1977 by Disney through its Buena Vista Records label, and an edited version, along with accompanying "storyteller read-alongs", was later issued for the Mouse Factory's Disneyland Records imprint. A second music album by Glenn Yarbrough of music "inspired" by "The Hobbit" was also released.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: "The Hobbit" was released by ABC Video Enterprises in the early 1980s on Betamax and VHS by Sony, and CED by RCA. Warner Home Video released the film on VHS in 1991, again in 1996 (as part of the "Warner Bros. Classic Tales" VHS line), and on DVD in 2001 (through Warner Bros. Family Entertainment). Parade Video released the film on DVD and VHS in 2004. The earlier 1980s and 1990s videocassette releases contain sound effects that were edited out of the 2001 DVD without explanation.


title: The Hobbit (1977 film)

text: The film was also released on DVD by Warner Bros. as part of the DVD trilogy boxed set, which includes Ralph Bakshi's "The Lord of the Rings" and the Rankin Bass production of "The Return of the King". A remastered deluxe edition DVD was released on July 22, 2014. Sound effects missing in previous DVD releases are absent from this release as well.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: "Curiosity killed the cat" is a proverb used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation. It also implies that being curious can sometimes lead to danger or misfortune. The original form of the proverb, now little used, was "Care killed the cat". In this instance, "care" was defined as "worry" or "sorrow for others."


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The earliest printed reference to the original proverb appears in the 1598 play, "Every Man in His Humour", written by the English playwright Ben Jonson:


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The play was first performed by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Shakespeare used a similar quote in his circa 1599 play, "Much Ado About Nothing":


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The proverb remained the same until at least 1898. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer included this definition in his "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable":


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The origin of the modern variation is unknown. It is found in an Irish newspaper from 1868: "They say curiosity killed a cat once." An early printed reference to the actual phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" is in James Allan Mair's 1873 compendium "A handbook of proverbs: English, Scottish, Irish, American, Shakesperean, and scriptural; and family mottoes", where it is listed as an Irish proverb on page 34.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: In the 1902 edition of "Proverbs: Maxims and Phrases", by John Hendricks Bechtel, the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" is the lone entry under the topic "Curiosity" on page 100.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: O. Henry's 1909 short story "Schools and Schools" includes a mention that suggests knowledge of the proverb had become widespread by that time:


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: On the fifth floor of the apartment house at 203 West 130th street lives Miss Mable Godfrey. When she came to the house about seven months ago she brought Blackie, a cat of several years' experience of life.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The cat seldom left the apartment. He was a hearth cat, not a fence cat, and did not dearly love to sing. In other respects he was normal and hence curious.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: Last Tuesday afternoon when Miss Godfrey was out Blackie skipped into the grate fireplace in a rear room. He had done this many times before. But he had not climbed up the flue to the chimney. This he did Tuesday. Blackie there remained, perched on the top of the screen separating the apartment flue from the main chimney, crying for assistance. Miss Godfrey, returning, tried to induce her pet to come down. If you are experienced in felinity, you know that Blackie didn't come down.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: On Wednesday the cat, curiosity unsatisfied, tried to climb higher—and fell to the first floor. His cries could still be heard by Miss Godfrey; who, to effect Blackie's rescue, communicated with the following departments:


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: Thursday morning, just before noon, a plumber opened the rear wall back of the chimney. Blackie was taken out. His fall had injured his back. Ten minutes later Blackie died.</poem>


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: Despite these earlier appearances, the proverb has been wrongly attributed to Eugene O'Neill, who included the variation, "Curiosity killed a cat!" in his play "Diff'rent" from 1920:


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back" is a variation that includes the rejoinder "but satisfaction brought it back." Although the original version was used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation, the addition of the rejoinder indicates that the risk would lead to resurrection because of the satisfaction felt after finding out. The resurrection element may be a reference to the "multiple lives" of a cat.


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: On 10 August 1905, "The Galveston Daily News" newspaper (page 6) printed the following quotation without the word "satisfaction":


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: On 23 December 1912, the earliest known printed reference to this variation of the proverb is found in "The Titusville Herald" newspaper (page 6):


title: Curiosity killed the cat

text: The album "New Values" (1979) by Iggy Pop contains the song "Curiosity" written by Iggy Pop and Scott Thurston. The song includes the following lines:


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, Blackmun ultimately became one of the most liberal justices on the Court. He is best known as the author of the Court's opinion in "Roe v. Wade."


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Blackmun graduated from Harvard Law School in 1932. He practiced law in the Twin Cities, representing clients such as the Mayo Clinic. In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. After the defeat of two previous nominees, President Nixon successfully nominated Blackmun to the Supreme Court to replace Associate Justice Abe Fortas. Blackmun and his close friend, Chief Justice Warren Burger, were often called the "Minnesota Twins", but Blackmun drifted away from Burger during their tenure on the court. He retired from the Court during President Bill Clinton's administration and was succeeded by Stephen Breyer.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Aside from "Roe v. Wade", notable majority opinions by Blackmun include "Bates v. State Bar of Arizona", "Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia", and "Stanton v. Stanton". He joined part of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's opinion in "Planned Parenthood v. Casey" but also filed a separate opinion, warning that "Roe" was in jeopardy. He wrote dissenting opinions in notable cases such as "Furman v. Georgia", "Bowers v. Hardwick", and "DeShaney v. Winnebago County".


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun was born on November 12, 1908, in Nashville, Illinois, to Theo Huegely (Reuter) and Corwin Manning Blackmun. Three years after his birth, his baby brother, Corwin Manning Blackmun Jr., died soon after birth; his sister Betty was born in 1917. Blackmun grew up in Dayton's Bluff, a working-class neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where his father owned a small store. He attended the same grade school as future Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. Blackmun was a Methodist.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun attended Mechanic Arts High School in Saint Paul, where he graduated fourth in his class of 450 in 1925. He expected to attend the University of Minnesota but received a scholarship to attend Harvard University, from which he graduated "summa cum laude" and Phi Beta Kappa with an Artium Baccalaureus degree in mathematics in 1929. At Harvard, Blackmun joined Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and sang with the Harvard Glee Club (with which he performed for President Herbert Hoover in 1929, Blackmun's first visit to Washington). He attended Harvard Law School (where future Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter was among his professors), graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1932. After graduating from law school, Blackmun returned to Minnesota, where he served in a variety of positions including private counsel, law clerk, and adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School and William Mitchell College of Law (then the St. Paul College of Law). Blackmun's practice as an attorney at the law firm now known as Dorsey & Whitney focused in its early years on taxation, trusts and estates, and civil litigation. He married Dorothy Clark in 1941 and they had three daughters. Between 1950 and 1959, Blackmun served as resident counsel for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He later called his time at Mayo "his happiest time" (while describing his later work on the judiciary as when he "performed his duty").


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In the late 1950s, Blackmun's close friend Warren E. Burger, then an appellate judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, repeatedly encouraged Blackmun to seek a judgeship. Judge John B. Sanborn Jr. of the Eighth Circuit, whom Blackmun had clerked for after graduating from Harvard, told Blackmun of his plans to assume senior status. He said that he would recommend Blackmun to the Eisenhower administration if Blackmun wished to succeed him. After much urging by Sanborn and Burger, Blackmun agreed to accept the nomination, duly offered by Eisenhower and members of the Justice Department. On August 18, 1959, Eisenhower nominated Blackmun to the seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated by Sanborn. The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary gave Blackmun a rating of "exceptionally well qualified". He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 14, 1959 and received his commission on September 21. Over the next decade, Blackmun wrote 217 opinions for the Eighth Circuit. His service on the Court of Appeals ended on June 8, 1970 due to his appointment to the Supreme Court.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: President Richard Nixon nominated Blackmun as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court on April 15, 1970, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him on May 12, by a 94–0 vote. He was sworn into office on June 9, 1970. This was Nixon's third attempt to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Abe Fortas on May 14, 1969. His earlier failed nominees were Clement Haynsworth in September 1969 and G. Harrold Carswell in February 1970. Not since 1894, during the second Cleveland Administration, had a president had two Supreme Court nominees rejected by the Senate. This was also the longest vacancy on the court since 1873–74, during the Grant Administration391 days from Fortas's resignation to Blackmun's swearing-in.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: While on the Court, Blackmun served as Circuit Justice for the Eighth Circuit (June 9, 1970 – August 2, 1994) and for the First Circuit (August 7, 1990 – October 8, 1990).


title: Harry Blackmun

text: A lifelong Republican, Blackmun was expected to adhere to a conservative interpretation of the Constitution. The Court's Chief Justice at the time, Warren Burger, a longtime friend of Blackmun's and best man at his wedding, had recommended Blackmun for the job to Nixon. The two were often called the "Minnesota Twins" (a reference to the baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, in turn named after the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota) because of their common history in Minnesota and because they so often voted together. Indeed, Blackmun voted with Burger in 87.5% of the closely divided cases during his first five terms (1970 to 1975), and with William J. Brennan, the Court's leading liberal, in only 13%. In 1972, Blackmun joined Burger and Nixon's other two appointees in dissenting from "Furman v. Georgia", the decision that invalidated all capital punishment laws then in force in the United States, and in 1976, he voted to reinstate the death penalty in "Gregg v. Georgia", even the mandatory death penalty statutes. In both instances Blackmun indicated his personal opinion of the death penalty's shortcomings as a policy, but insisted his political opinions should have no bearing on the death penalty's constitutionality.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: That began to change, however, between 1975 and 1980, by which time Blackmun was joining Brennan in 54.5% of the divided cases, and Burger in 45.5%. Shortly after Blackmun dissented in "Rizzo v. Goode" (1976), William Kunstler embraced him and "welcom[ed] him to the company of the 'liberals and the enlightened.'"


title: Harry Blackmun

text: From 1981 to 1986, when Burger retired, the two men voted together in only 32.4% of close cases, whereas Blackmun joined Brennan in 70.6% of the close cases.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In 1973, Blackmun authored the majority opinion in "Roe v. Wade", invalidating a Texas statute that banned abortion except when a pregnant woman's life was in danger. The Court's judgment in the companion case of "Doe v. Bolton" held a less restrictive Georgia law to be unconstitutional as well. "Roe" was based on the right to privacy announced in "Griswold v. Connecticut" (1965), and it established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States. Blackmun's opinion in "Roe" made him a target for criticism by opponents of abortion, and he received voluminous negative mail and death threats because of it.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun became a passionate advocate for abortion rights, often delivering speeches and lectures promoting "Roe v. Wade" as essential to women's equality and criticizing "Roe"s critics. Defending abortion rights in "Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists", Blackmun wrote:


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun filed separate opinions in "Webster v. Reproductive Health Services" (1989) and "Planned Parenthood v. Casey" (1992), warning that "Roe" was in jeopardy: "I am 83 years old. I cannot remain on this Court forever, and when I do step down, the confirmation process for my successor well may focus on the issue before us today. That, I regret, may be exactly where the choice between the two worlds will be made."


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Ancillary to the primary right to abortion, Blackmun extended First Amendment protection to commercial speech in "Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia", a case where the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of an editor who ran an advertisement for an abortion referral service.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: After "Roe", Blackmun began to drift away from Burger's influence to increasingly side with Brennan in finding constitutional protection for unenumerated individual rights. For example, Blackmun wrote a dissent to the Court's opinion in "Bowers v. Hardwick" (1986). The Court's ruling in this case denied constitutional protection to homosexual sodomy. Burger's opinion in "Bowers" read: "To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching." In his dissent, Blackmun responded by quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: "[i]t is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past." Burger and Blackmun drifted apart, and as the years passed, their lifelong friendship degenerated into a hostile and contentious relationship.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: From the 1981 term through the 1985 term, Blackmun voted with Brennan 77.6% of the time, and with Thurgood Marshall 76.1%. From 1986 to 1990, his rate of agreement with the two most liberal justices was 97.1% and 95.8%.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun's judicial philosophy increasingly seemed guided by "Roe", even in areas where "Roe" was not apparently directly applicable. His concurring opinion in 1981's "Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County", a case that upheld statutory rape laws that applied only to men, did not directly implicate "Roe", but because the laws were justified on the basis that women would be subject to the "risk" of pregnancy, Blackmun had cause to discuss "Roe" further in his opinion.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Despite Blackmun's stated personal "abhorrence" of the death penalty in "Furman v. Georgia", he voted to uphold mandatory death penalty statutes at issue in "Roberts v. Louisiana" (1976) and "Woodson v. North Carolina" (1976), even though these laws would have automatically imposed the death penalty on anyone found guilty of first-degree murder. But on February 22, 1994, less than two months before announcing his retirement, Blackmun announced that he now saw the death penalty as always and in all circumstances unconstitutional by issuing a dissent from the Court's refusal to hear a routine death penalty case ("Callins v. Collins"), declaring that "[f]rom this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death." Subsequently, adopting the practice begun by Justices Brennan and Marshall, he issued a dissent from denial of certiorari in every death penalty case, citing and reiterating his "Callins" dissent. As Linda Greenhouse and others have reported, Blackmun's law clerks prepared what would become the "Callins" dissent well in advance of the case coming before the Court; Blackmun's papers indicate that work began on the dissent in the summer of 1993, and in a memo preserved in Blackmun's papers, the clerk writing the dissent wrote Blackmun that:


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun and his clerks then sought an appropriate case to serve as a "vehicle for [the] dissent," and settled on "Callins". That the case found the dissent, rather than the more traditional relationship of the dissent relating to the case, is underscored by the opinion's almost total omission of reference to the case it ostensibly addressed: Callins is relegated to a supernumerary in his own appeal, being mentioned but five times in a 42-paragraph opinion – three times within the first two paragraphs, and twice in footnote 2.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun also wrote an impassioned dissent in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which the Court upheld sodomy laws. He wrote, "This case is no more about 'a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy' any more than Stanley v. Georgia was about a fundamental right to view obscene movies or Katz v. United States was about a fundamental right to place interstate bets through a telephone booth. Rather, this case is about 'the right most valued by civilized men, namely the right to be let alone'." Blackmun criticized the Court for its "almost obsessive focus on homosexual activity", noting that the sodomy law nominally prohibited both homosexual and heterosexual sodomy. He concluded his dissent: "It took but three years for the Court to see the error in its analysis in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, and to recognize that the threat posed to national cohesion by the refusal to salute the flag was vastly outweighed by the threat to those same values posed by compelling such a salute. I can only hope that here, too, the Court will soon reconsider its analysis and conclude that depriving individuals of the right to choose for themselves how to conduct their intimate relationships posing a far greater threat to the values most deeply rooted in our Nation’s history than tolerance of nonconformity could ever do. Because I think the Court today betrays these values, I dissent", deliberately omitting the customary "respectfully" before "dissent".


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In his emotional dissent in "DeShaney v. Winnebago County" (1989), rejecting the constitutional liability of the state of Wisconsin for four-year-old Joshua DeShaney, who was beaten until brain-damaged by his abusive father, Blackmun famously opined, "Poor Joshua!" In his dissent in "Herrera v. Collins" (1993), where the Court refused to find a constitutional right for convicted prisoners to introduce new evidence of "actual innocence" for purposes of obtaining federal relief, Blackmun argued in a section joined by no other justice that "The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In "Stanton v. Stanton" (1975), a case striking down a state's definitions of adulthood (males reaching it at 21, women at 18), Blackmun wrote:


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Compared to other justices, Blackmun gave his law clerks great latitude in drafting opinions, such as his opinion in "Planned Parenthood v. Casey", which was written by Stephanie Dangel, then one of Blackmun's clerks and now a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Blackmun's "Casey" opinion draft included sharp criticism of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, which included, according to Dangel, a sarcastic reference to Rehnquist as "The Chief" rather than Chief Justice because "I have my doubts as to whether he deserves to be called 'justice' on this one." Dangel changed it to "Chief Justice" at Justice Anthony Kennedy's urging.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun also revealed in a 1995 oral history with Harold Koh that his dissent in "Bowers v. Hardwick" was written by a clerk, Pam Karlan. Blackmun said of the dissent, "[K]arlan did a lot of very effective writing, and I owe a lot to her and her ability in getting that dissent out. She felt very strongly about it, and I think is correct in her approach to it. I think the dissent is correct."


title: Harry Blackmun

text: When Blackmun's papers were released at the Library of Congress, his sometimes negative notations regarding fellow Justice Clarence Thomas came to light. But Thomas spoke positively of Blackmun when he appeared in 2001 at the dedication of the Harry A. Blackmun Rotunda at the St. Louis federal courthouse, mentioning that Blackmun drove a blue Volkswagen Beetle and would tell fast food patrons that he was "Harry. I work for the government."


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun and Justice Potter Stewart both followed baseball obsessively. In one oral argument on October 10, 1973, Stewart passed Blackmun a note that read, "V.P. AGNEW JUST RESIGNED!! METS 2 REDS 0." The game in question was the fifth and deciding game of the 1973 National League Championship Series, and the Mets won it 7–2, sending them to the 1973 World Series.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Blackmun announced his retirement from the Supreme Court in April 1994, four months before he officially left the bench, assuming retired status on August 3, 1994. By then, he had become the court's most liberal justice. In his place, President Bill Clinton nominated Stephen Breyer, whom the Senate confirmed, 87–9.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In 1995, Blackmun received the United States Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In 1997, Blackmun portrayed Justice Joseph Story in the Steven Spielberg film "Amistad", making him the only United States Supreme Court justice to play a judge in a motion picture.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: On February 22, 1999, Blackmun fell in his home and broke his hip. The next day, he underwent hip replacement surgery at Arlington Hospital in Arlington, Virginia, but he never fully recovered. Ten days later, on March 4, at the age of 90, he died at 1:00 A.M. from complications from the procedure. He lay in repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building, and was buried five days later at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife died seven years later on July 13, 2006, at the age of 95, and was buried next to him.


title: Harry Blackmun

text: In 2004 the Library of Congress released Blackmun's voluminous files. He had kept all the documents from every case, notes the justices passed between themselves, 10% of the mail he received, and numerous other documents. After Blackmun announced his retirement from the Court, he recorded a 38-hour oral history with one of his former law clerks, former Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, which was also released. In it, he discusses his thoughts on everything from his important Court cases to the Supreme Court piano, though some Supreme Court experts such as David Garrow have cast doubt on the accuracy of some of Blackmun's recollections, especially his thoughts on the Court's deliberations on "Roe v. Wade".


title: Harry Blackmun

text: Based on these papers, Linda Greenhouse of "The New York Times" wrote "Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun's Supreme Court Journey". Jan Crawford's "Supreme Conflict" also draws heavily from the papers.


title: Team17

text: Team17 Group plc is a British video game developer and publisher based in Wakefield, England. The venture was created in December 1990 through the merger of British publisher 17-Bit Software and Swedish developer Team 7. At the time, the two companies consisted of and were led by Michael Robinson, Martyn Brown and Debbie Bestwick, and Andreas Tadic, Rico Holmes and Peter Tuleby, respectively. Bestwick later became and presently serves as Team17's chief executive officer. After their first game, "Full Contact" (1991) for the Amiga, the studio followed up with multiple number-one releases on that platform and saw major success with Andy Davidson's "Worms" in 1995, the resulting franchise of which still remains as the company's primary development output, having developed over 20 entries in it.


title: Team17

text: Through a management buyout performed by Bestwick, both Robinson and Brown departed from Team17 in 2010, leaving Bestwick as the sole manager. In 2013, Team17 initiated a publishing venture focusing on indie games, which since occupies its own office in Nottingham. The first game to release of this venture was "Light" (2013). Following a large investment from Lloyds Development Capital in September 2016, Team17 sought corporate expansion through various actions, including the acquisition of Mouldy Toof Studios, the developer behind Team17-published "The Escapists" (2015), and the hiring of multiple new key staff. In May 2018, the company published their initial public offering and became a public company listed on the Alternative Investment Market, valued around . As of 2019, Team17 employs 200 people in its two offices.


title: Team17

text: In 1990, Wakefield-based entrepreneur Michael Robinson was the manager of Microbyte, a United Kingdom-wide computer retail chain, and 17-Bit Software, a video game publisher. Robinson had created 17-Bit Software as part of Microbyte in 1987 specifically to seek young, independent video game developers whose games he could publish through this label and distribute through his Microbyte stores. One of those developers was Andreas Tadic (a nineteen-year-old hobbyist programmer from Olofström, Sweden), who at the time was developing "HalfBright", a shoot 'em up for Amiga systems. According to Tadic, the game was "technically impressive, but shite-looking". Martyn Brown, a Microbyte employee, called up Tadic to introduce him to artist Rico Holmes; Tadic and Holmes subsequently became friends and, alongside another Swedish programmer, Peter Tuleby, founded a development team known as Team 7.


title: Team17

text: Team 7's first game was "Miami Chase", a "Miami Vice"-inspired racing game that was published by Codemasters in 1990, as a budget title for Amiga systems, and received an 82% review score from British Amiga-centric magazine "Amiga Power". Brown had followed the game's development closely, because of which he suggested to Robinson that they should not only publish but also develop games at 17-Bit Software, using Team 7 as their internal development team and himself as project manager. Robinson agreed to undergo the venture and moved Debbie Bestwick from her position as sales manager of Microbyte to commercial support for 17-Bit Software. Eventually, 17-Bit Software and Team 7 agreed to formally merge into one team, amalgamating the two teams' names as "Team17". Team17 was officially created on 7 December 1990.


title: Team17

text: Using Microbyte's experience in game retailing, Team17 was able to easily determine game genres that would sell well, while Team 7's expertise in game development enabled Team17 to also develop games in those genres. Their first game was 1991's "Full Contact", a fighting game that, upon release, reached the top spot on British game sales charts. Further Team17 games followed "Full Contact" success; by 1993, 90% of the studio's games, including "Alien Breed" (1991), "Project-X" (1992) and "Superfrog" (1993), reached the top spot on sales charts, while all Team17 products combined generated half of all Amiga game sales. At the 1993 Golden Joystick Awards, Team17 and Electronic Arts jointly received the "Software House of the Year" award.


title: Team17

text: Starting in 1992, Future Publishing-owned "Amiga Power" started criticising Team17's products more harshly than other gaming magazines. According to Stuart Campbell, deputy editor for the magazine at the time, "Overdrive", "Project-X", "F17 Challenge" and "Superfrog" were among the games that received negative reception from "Amiga Power" between 1992 and 1993. As a response to their reviews, Team17 began implementing derogatory Easter eggs into their games, which included the cheat code "AMIGAPOWER" unlocking a critical statement regarding the magazine's review policy in "" (1993) and the easiest-difficulty bot opponents in "Arcade Pool" (1994) being named after "Amiga Power" staff. However, when the magazine awarded Team17's "" and "Kingpin: Arcade Sports Bowling" scores of 38% and 47%, respectively, in 1995, Team17 issued a lawsuit against the magazine, demanding the reviews to be retracted and the issue withdrawn from sale. The lawsuit was not successful for the studio, and it instead turned to not sending review copies of their games to "Amiga Power" and making other Future Publishing-owned magazines not lend their review copies to "Amiga Power".


title: Team17

text: In 1994, programmer Andy Davidson created "Artillery", a game in the artillery game genre, for Amiga systems. He entered the game, under the title "Wormage" or "Total Wormage", into a contest held by the "Amiga Format" magazine. The game failed to make an impact, wherefore Davidson instead opted to take it to the 1994 European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in London, where he presented it to people at Team17's booth, where the game was signed for development as a commercial title. Bestwick stated they could not stop playing the game and as such realised that the game had potential, although that potential's dimensions were yet unknown. Following the deal struck between the two parties, Team17 promptly lost Davidson's contact details and were forced to call "Amiga Format" to retrieve them. Once they had retrieved his details, Team17 and Davidson started to jointly develop a commercial version of his game, though retitled "Worms", a title that appeared more straightforward.


title: Team17

text: At the time, Team17 had the strong feeling that the games market for Amiga was dying, therefore they decided to develop "Worms" across as many platforms as possible. However, the company had no publishing experience outside the Amiga market and needed to seek a third-party publisher; given the choice between Ocean Software and Virgin Interactive, they chose to go with Ocean Software. "Worms" was released in 1995 for Amiga and later ported to Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, MS-DOS, PlayStation, among various other platforms. Out of the 60,000 total sales estimated by Ocean Software before the game's release, the game shipped millions of copies within its first year. Bestwick considered the game to have saved Team17. However, following the game's success, Team17 became obsessed with replicating it: Between 1995 and 2010, the studio released a total of sixteen new "Worms" games. With Team17 turning into a "single intellectual property company", many developers felt fatigue and "creative stagnation".


title: Team17

text: In August 2010, Team17 announced that they had turned away from third-party publishers in favour of releasing their games themselves via digital distribution. The company hired Paul Bray and Alan Perrie to act as finance and operations director, and head of global marketing, respectively. Later that year, Team17 underwent a large internal restructuring, which included the management buyout of co-founders Brown and Robinson, making Bestwick, as chief executive officer, the company's sole manager. Bestwick stated that this move had "placed the company in a secure position for the future". Brown announced his departure in February 2011, stating that he would join handheld game developer Double Eleven.


title: Team17

text: In December 2011, Team17 acquired Iguana Entertainment, a company founded by Jason Falcus and Darren Falcus in 2009. All Iguana staff, including its founders, were effectively absorbed into Team17's Wakefield offices. In 2013, Bestwick and Bray sparked the idea of returning Team17 to its roots by adding an indie game publishing component to the company. An incubation programme was run that tasked two studios to co-develop what would later become "Beyond Eyes" (2015) and "Sheltered" (2016). "Light" by Brighton-based Just a Pixel became the first game to be announced and released through Team17's new venture. The activity was broadened to mobile game publishing in March 2014, with "Hay Ewe" by Rocket Rainbow announced to have been slated for a release on iOS in the second quarter of that year. To accommodate the publishing label's growth, Team17 opened a separate publishing office in Nottingham in May 2014. Bestwick stated that she despised the term "publisher" and preferred "label", as "[t]he term 'publisher' represents a way of doing business that's completely at odds with the new world of digital distribution". Team17 won the "Publishing Hero" award at 2015's Develop Awards.


title: Team17

text: One of the label's most successful titles was "The Escapists": The game, designed by Chris Davis, a former roofer and founder of Derby-based Mouldy Toof Studios, sold over a million copies within one year of release. On 1 September 2016, Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), the private equity division of Lloyds Banking Group, announced that they had invested into the development of Team17. In return, LDC was awarded a 33% stake in Team17. Using the investment, Team17 acquired Mouldy Toof Studios and "The Escapists" franchise for an undisclosed sum. In response to LDC's investment, Chris van der Kuyl of 4J Studios joined Team17 as non-executive chairman. As means of further corporate expansion, Team17 hired multiple new management staff by January 2017, including Justin Berenbaum as head of publishing and business development for Asia and the Americas, Matt Benson as business development manager and Ste Stanley as marketing and sales coordinator.


title: Team17

text: In March 2018, Team17 tasked stockbrokers from Berenberg and GCA Altium to prepare an initial public offering (IPO) valuing Team17 at . The company confirmed their intents to become a public company on 8 May 2018, announcing that a 50% stake in Team17 would be sold over the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange. The flotation was expected to value Team17 between and 230 million. Bestwick and LDC would each sell half of their shareholdings in the process, wherein Bestwick was expected to receive in windfall profit. Chris Bell, formerly chief executive of Ladbrokes Coral, was appointed chairman of Team17 to aid the IPO process. At this time, the company employed 120 people in the Wakefield development studio and another 20 in the Nottingham publishing offices. Team17 was expected to gain in gross profits based on 27,325,482 new shares and 37,849,200 existing shares. The shares became available for purchase via the AIM on 23 May 2018. Following the sale of shareholdings by Bestwick and LDC, they retained 22.2% and 16.6% stake ownerships in the company, respectively.


title: Team17

text: Through the first half of 2019, Team17's revenue rose significantly; 83% of its revenue was attributed to its publishing activities, of which 80% stemmed from games Team17 had co-developed internally. Notably successful were "Hell Let Loose" and "My Time at Portia", which were the best-performing games for the company in that time frame. Team17 announced that, with this funding, it would be looking into acquiring more development studios. The company's headcount also increased from 154 to 182 in that period, because of which Team17 moved its headquarters to new offices within Wakefield in November 2019. The number of staff further increased to 200 by the end of the year. In September 2019, Martin Hellawell was appointed non-executive director of Team17. In January 2020, Team17 acquired Manchester-based developer Yippee Entertainment for , a combination of in cash and 114,000 consideration shares, worth . The company bought out "Golf with Your Friends", which it had published, from developers Blacklight Interactive in January 2021, planning to release further downloadable content (DLC) for it. In July 2021, Team17 acquired TouchPress, the parent company of StoryToys, a developer of edutainment apps, for . In January 2022, Team17 acquired Astragon, a German game publisher focused on simulation video games, for £83 million.


title: Team17

text: In early 2022, Team17 announced MetaWorms, a non-fungible token (NFT) project to sell procedurally generated images of characters from "Worms" as digitally owned objects on a blockchain. The reaction to this project was swift and negative; the company cancelled it after multiple game development studios it had partnered with in the past, including Ghost Town Games, Playtonic, and Aggro Crab, condemned the project and vowed not to work with the publisher again. Eurogamer reported that many employees were unaware of the project and were blindsided by its announcement, including the social media team which suffered online abuse and harassment from the public. Others who had knowledge of the project voiced their opposition to NFTs but were ignored by upper management which went forward anyway.


title: Team17

text: The conflict between management and employees over MetaWorms also revealed long-term complaints over low pay, long overtime hours, and increasing workloads since the company's 2018 IPO. Under pressure to sign and clear more publishing deals, various teams including quality assurance (QA) and user research felt that products were being shipped in an incomplete, rushed, or buggy state due to the time crunch. Staff felt underpaid relative to the salaries of equivalent roles at other studios and some complained of unpaid overtime work. They also pointed to their year-end bonus being cut in 2021, despite the company announcing a record profit that year. Another source of conflict was the human resources (HR) department, which was accused of covering for sexual harassers and manipulating the company's reviews on Glassdoor, a job search website. They likewise took issue with Bestwick's management as CEO, for being a major source of overtime pressure and for turning a blind eye to harassment in the company. Fanbyte corroborated these testimonies in its own reporting. Michael Pattison, who took over as CEO of the publishing company in October 2021, acknowledged the reports and committed to addressing the issues with underpay, overtime, and harassment in a company-wide meeting in February 2022. Bestwick remains as CEO of the overarching Team 17 Group.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages in the United States.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Most historical writings about West Hollywood begin in the late-18th century with European colonization when the Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho arrived offshore and claimed the already inhabited region for Spain. Around 5,000 of the indigenous inhabitants from the Tongva Indian tribe canoed out to greet the ship. The Tongva tribe was a nation of hunter-gatherers known for their reverence for dance and courage. By 1771, these native people had been severely ravaged by the diseases brought in by the Europeans from across wide oceans. The Spanish mission system changed the tribal name to "Gabrielinos", in reference to the Mission de San Gabriel. Early in 1770 Gaspar de Portola's Mexican expeditionary force stopped just south of the Santa Monica Mountains near what would become West Hollywood to draw pitch ("brea" in Spanish) from tar pits to waterproof their belongings and to say Mass. The Gabrielinos are believed to have burned the pitch for fuel.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: By 1780, what became the "Sunset Strip" was the major connecting road for El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and all ranches westward to the Pacific Ocean. This land passed through the hands of various owners during the next one hundred years, and it was called names such as "La Brea" and "Plummer" that are listed in historical records. Most of this area was part of the Rancho La Brea, and eventually it came to be owned by the Henry Hancock family.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: During the final decade years of the nineteenth century, the first large land reconstruction of the town of "Sherman" significantly accelerated the development of the region. In what would later become West Hollywood—the town of "Sherman"—was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, an interurban railroad line which later became part of the Pacific Electric Railway system. Sherman became the location of the railroad's main shops, railroad yards, and "car barns". Many working-class employees of the railroad settled in this town. It was during this time that the city began to earn its reputation as a loosely regulated, liquor-friendly (during Prohibition) place for eccentric people wary of government interference. Despite several annexation attempts, the town elected not to become part of the City of Los Angeles. In a controversial decision, in 1925 Sherman adopted "West Hollywood", "...a moniker pioneered earlier in the decade by the West Hollywood Realty Board" as its informal name, though it remained under the governance of Los Angeles County.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: For many decades, the area that is now the city of West Hollywood was an unincorporated area in the midst of Los Angeles. Because gambling was illegal in the city of Los Angeles, but still legal in Los Angeles County, the 1920s saw the proliferation of many casinos, night clubs, etc., along Sunset Boulevard (which starts near downtown Los Angeles and runs westward). These businesses were immune from the sometimes heavy-handed law-enforcement of the L.A. Police Department.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Some people connected with movie-making were attracted to this less-restricted area of the County, and a number of architecturally distinctive apartment buildings and hotels were built. Many interior designers, decorators and "to the trade" furnishing showrooms located in West Hollywood date back to the middle of the century.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Eventually, the area and its extravagant nightclubs fell out of favor. However, the Sunset Strip and its restaurants, saloons, and nightclubs continued to be an attraction for out-of-town tourists. During the late 1960s, the Sunset Strip was transformed again during the hippie movement which brought a thriving music publishing industry coupled with the "hippie" culture. Some young people from all over the country flocked to West Hollywood.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The most recent migration to West Hollywood came about after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to the city. A majority of the 5,000 to 6,000 Russian Jews settled in two major immigration waves, 1978–79 and 1988–92. Other than New York, West Hollywood's Russian-speaking community is the most concentrated single Russian-speaking region in United States.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The Gauntlet was a body piercing business founded by Jim Ward in West Hollywood that is considered the first business of its type in the United States and was the beginning of the body piercing industry. The Gauntlet began in November 1975, with its original location in Ward's West Hollywood home, but on the evening of Friday, November 17, 1978, it celebrated the grand opening of its first commercial location at 8720 Santa Monica Boulevard (also in West Hollywood).


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Due to the expiration of rent control protections in L.A., a coalition of gay men, Russian Jews, and the elderly successfully held a vote to officially incorporate the City of West Hollywood in 1984; by electing a city council with an openly gay majority and immediately passing a series of rent control measures to protect its longtime citizens. West Hollywood then immediately adopted one of the strongest rent control laws in the nation.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The city of West Hollywood gave the keys to the city to Stormy Daniels on "Stormy Daniels Day", May 23, 2018.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood is bounded by the city of Beverly Hills on the west, and by neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles: Hollywood Hills on the north, Hollywood on the east, the Fairfax District on the southeast, and Beverly Grove on the southwest. The city's irregular boundary is featured in its logo; it was largely formed from the unincorporated Los Angeles County area which had not become part of the surrounding cities.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood benefits from a very dense, compact urban form with small lots, mixed land use, and a walkable street grid. According to Walkscore, a website that ranks cities based on walkability, West Hollywood is the most walkable city in California with a Walkscore of 89. Commercial corridors include the nightlife and dining focused on the Sunset Strip, along Santa Monica Boulevard, and the Avenues of Art and Design along Robertson, Melrose, and Beverly Boulevard.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Residential neighborhoods in West Hollywood include the Norma Triangle, West Hollywood North, West Hollywood West, West Hollywood East, and West Hollywood Heights, all of which are only a few blocks long or wide. Major intersecting streets typically provide amenities within walking distance of adjacent neighborhoods.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood has a subtropical-semi-arid climate with year-round warm weather, although winter nights are cool. The record high temperature of 111 °F was recorded on September 26, 1963, while the record low of 24 °F was recorded on January 4, 1949. Rainfall is sparse (only 13 inches annually), and falls mainly during the winter months. Snow is extraordinarily rare in West Hollywood, with the last accumulation occurring in 1949.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that West Hollywood had a population of 34,399. The population density was . The racial makeup of West Hollywood was 28,979 (84.2%) White (77.9% Non-Hispanic White), 1,115 (3.2%) African American, 103 (0.3%) Native American, 1,874 (5.4%) Asian, 34 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 1,049 (3.0%) from other races, and 1,245 (3.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3,613 persons (10.5%).


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The census reported that 34,290 people (99.7% of the population) lived in households, 109 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: There were 22,511 households, out of which 1,141 (5.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,060 (13.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 852 (3.8%) had a female householder with no husband present, 431 (1.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,094 (4.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 1,321 (5.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 13,434 households (59.7%) were made up of individuals, and 2,606 (11.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.52. There were 4,343 families (19.3% of all households); the average family size was 2.42.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The population was spread out, with 1,578 people (4.6%) under the age of 18, 2,407 people (7.0%) aged 18 to 24, 16,228 people (47.2%) aged 25 to 44, 9,061 people (26.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 5,125 people (14.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 128.4 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 129.9 males.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: There were 24,588 housing units at an average density of , of which 4,976 (22.1%) were owner-occupied, and 17,535 (77.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.9%. 7,874 people (22.9% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 26,416 people (76.8%) lived in rental housing units.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: During 2009–2013, West Hollywood had a median household income of $52,649, with 15.8% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: , gay men were 33% of the city's population; a 2013 survey had estimated the gay male population at 39%.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 35,716 people, 23,120 households, and 5,202 families residing in the city. The population density was 18,992.7 inhabitants per square mile (7,335.1/km). There were 24,110 housing units at an average density of , making West Hollywood one of the most densely populated cities in the US. The racial makeup of the city was 86.4% White, 6.4% African American, 3.8% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.9% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.8% of the population.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: There were 23,120 households, out of which 5.8% had children under the age of eighteen, 16.4% were married couples living together, 4.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 77.5% were non-families. 60.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.0% included someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.53, and the average family size was 2.50.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 5.7% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 48.6% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 123.4 males. For every 100 females aged eighteen and older, there were 125.2 males.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The median income for a household in the city was $38,914, and the median income for a family was $41,463. Males had a median income of $45,598 versus $35,750 for females. The per capita income for the city was $38,302. About 7.3% of families and 11.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.0% of those under age 18 and 10.5% of those age 65 or over.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: According to the City's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Under the legalization of the sale and distribution of cannabis, the city plans to issue 40 licenses to either operate a dispensary, consumption lounge or delivery service. Eight licenses are planned in each of the following categories:


title: West Hollywood, California

text: State law does not allow local governments to regulate adults in growing, using, or transporting marijuana for personal use but commercial activities, such as growing, testing, and selling cannabis within their jurisdiction may be regulated by each city by licensing none or only some of these activities. West Hollywood's first four dispensaries, Alternative Herbal Health Services, Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group, Zen Healing and MedMen WeHo, were granted temporary extensions in June 2019 to operate as retail businesses through the remainder of the year.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: In July 2019, the West Hollywood Business License Commission approved a cannabis consumption license for Lowell Herb Co. In September 2019, opened with a menu of cannabis for consumption, THC-infused drinks and meals for cannabis-enhanced sense of taste and smell. It is the first cannabis cafe in the United States and will include the expertise of cannabis sommeliers, known as "budtenders" on site.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: On August 20, 2020, the Original Cannabis Cafe (previously known as The Lowell Cafe in West Hollywood) became America's first restaurant allowed to serve legal marijuana to open in California. It became one of eight establishments granted a cannabis consumption license in West Hollywood. There were reportedly over 300 applicants, and the Original Cannabis Cafe states it was granted the first license.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The West Hollywood Halloween Carnival is an event that takes place annually on October 31. The largest Halloween street party in the United States (spanning over of Santa Monica Boulevard from La Cienega Boulevard on the East to Doheny and the Beverly Hills border on the West), the 2007 Carnival was reported to have more than 350,000 people in attendance, with some traveling from other countries specifically for the event.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Christopher Street West is an LGBT pride parade and festival that was first held in June 1970 in Hollywood to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York. After incorporation, the event moved to West Hollywood and is typically held the second weekend in June.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The West Hollywood Book Fair has been held in the fall since 2001. Past participants have included Andrew McCarthy, Deepak Chopra, and Rocco DiSpirito.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The Oscars is a major event in the city with a majority of the large Academy Award party venues being located in the city. Many streets are closed and traffic swells on this day each year.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The City of West Hollywood sponsors an animal walk and pet appreciation days throughout the year, which have in the past featured pet psychics and dog activities. During Halloween the week prior to October 31, animals can participate in a costume contest in West Hollywood Park. West Hollywood is in close proximity to Runyon Canyon Park's hiking trail and dog park in Hollywood.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Party has traditionally been held at the Pacific Design Center. It is a multimillion-dollar fundraiser for the foundation.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood has many ongoing programs to celebrate the vibrant arts and unique culture of the city. The literary community is acknowledged with the year-round author series WeHo Reads, featuring new and noteworthy authors at the West Hollywood Library with a full day literary event each fall. An annual PowPow is presented by AIDS Project Los Angeles Red Circle Project and the City of West Hollywood. This event, held at Plummer Park promotes HIV awareness and prevention among the Native communities and features dance, music, food, and educational resources.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood inaugurated the first City Poet, Steven Reigns, during the regular City Council meeting on October 6, 2014.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: In 1984, West Hollywood became one of the first pro-gay municipality regions in the country, with traditions and their recognition of acceptance recognized by locals and visitors.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Approximately forty percent of the population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and the city has become a leader of communities in showcasing how to protect and advocate for equal rights for the LGBT community. West Hollywood has become one of the world’s top gay vacation spots for LGBT travelers and is at the center of gay California nightlife, including spas, shopping, and dining.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The city hosts expansive historical records of the LGBT community. The West Hollywood Library hosts an extensive collection of LGBT records, literature, and history, including the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, and the Ron Shipton HIV Information Center. According to an "LA Times" article, the ONE Archives Gallery and Museum is the first museum in Southern California exclusively dedicated to gay history.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The city government is headed by a five-member city council, including a mayor and a mayor pro tem who serve one-year terms. The positions of mayor and mayor pro tem are largely ceremonial positions which rotate between the council members, and both positions are largely not re-elected in concurrent terms, although council members serve multiple non-concurrent terms in both offices. Currently, the five Council Members are Mayor Lauren Meister, Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne, John D’Amico, John M. Erickson, and Lindsey P. Horvath.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood was the first city in the country to have a city council with a majority of gay members.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: On February 19, 2001, West Hollywood became the second city in the United States (after Boulder, Colorado) to change the term pet "owner" to pet "guardian" in their municipal codes.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: With West Hollywood being one of the most prominent gay-friendly cities in the United States, Proposition 8 had a higher rate of rejection than it did in any other city in Los Angeles County: 86% of the city voted against the amendment, which restricted marriage to heterosexual couples.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: On December 20, 2021, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission voted 14-0 in favor of a new state Assembly and Senate district maps and delivered those maps to the secretary of state on December 27, 2021. These maps take effect for California's 2022 state legislative elections, changing West Hollywood’s Assembly District to AD 51 and Senate District to SD 24.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The area is within Board District 4.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Most of West Hollywood is zoned to Bancroft Middle School. Some portions in the south are zoned to John Burroughs Middle School. Students living in the Los Angeles area known as Beverly Hills Post Office, usually attend West Hollywood Elementary but then go to Emerson Middle School.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: All of West Hollywood is zoned to Fairfax High School; some areas are jointly zoned to Fairfax High School and Hollywood High School.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Traffic congestion, public transport and parking are critical issues in the city due to its location between access to areas such as Greater Hollywood to the east and the San Fernando Valley to the north and the area of the Los Angeles West Side, with the Hollywood Hills creating a natural impediment to the north. Santa Monica Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard are critical east-west arteries in the metropolitan area, and Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a popular shortcut through the hills. Nearly 600 employees and 260 buses in the District 7 fleet of the LACMTA are based in a large facility on prime real estate near San Vicente Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. The K Line extension to the Hollywood/Highland station is likely to pass through, or along, the edge of West Hollywood.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: In August 2013, the City of West Hollywood launched a free Friday and Saturday night shuttle, the PickUp, connecting the eastern and western parts of the city. The goal of The PickUp is to provide an alternative to the automobile and bring an energetic and playful transit option to one of West Hollywood’s busiest nighttime districts. The Public Relations Society of America Los Angeles Chapter (PRSA-LA) has recognized the City of West Hollywood with a PRism Award of Excellence in the category of New Product/Service Launch for the city’s kick-off campaign for the PickUp.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: In June 2018, the City of West Hollywood launched a new free shuttle service called The Sunset Trip. This service focuses on shuttling riders on Sunset Boulevard, but also crosses the PickUp shuttle route to allow transfers.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Hollywood-Wilshire Health Center in Hollywood, serving West Hollywood.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Fire protection in West Hollywood is provided by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. LACoFD operates Station 7, the battalion headquarters, and Station 8, both in West Hollywood, as a part of Battalion 1.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood, with a gay male population of about 39%, has been disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic which has ravaged its gay male population since the early 1980s. The city funds or subsidizes an array of services for those living with HIV or AIDS. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation parks a Mobile HIV/STD testing van outside of the city's busiest nightclubs on Friday and Saturday nights, and again on Sunday afternoons. This outreach attempts to intervene with those young people most at-risk for HIV infection. Project Angel Food receives city funding to deliver hundreds of fresh lunches and dinners daily which are prepared under the supervision of a registered dietitian who tailors the meals to meet individual client's nutritional needs. AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) is a national leader for AIDS policy and advocacy issues and provides assistance to clients navigating the maze of available public benefits. APLA also provides free dental, psychotherapy and pharmaceutical services. Aid for AIDS provides direct financial support by assisting clients with rent, utility and pharmacy expenses. The city also subsidizes agencies that help clients train for a return to the workforce. The city permits all residents living with HIV/AIDS to have up to two pets in his or her home regardless of a landlord's specifications in the property's lease.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood subsidizes programs for its growing population of children through a partnership with the USDA and local schools. "Healthy Start West Hollywood" is a program of the city's Social Services division that introduces pre-Kindergarten through High School age kids to the benefits of good nutrition through such activities as collective vegetable gardens and yoga.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The special needs of senior citizens are addressed through a variety of programs. West Hollywood either funds or subsidizes agencies that offer adult day care, a roommate matching service, and nutritious meals. The West Hollywood Senior Center provides recreational programs, excursions, and socializing as well as counseling and case management.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: West Hollywood also seeks to address the health needs of residents who do not have adequate insurance by subsidizing the LA Free Clinic and The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Residents can access free medical, dental, legal and mental health services between these two sites.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The West Hollywood's Public Safety Division publishes guides on sexual assault prevention, nightclub safety, and how to access rape services.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: County of Los Angeles Public Library operates the West Hollywood Library at 625 North San Vicente Boulevard.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Until early September 2011, the library was based at 715 North San Vicente Boulevard in a building designed by architect Edward H. Fickett. On September 6, 2011, the City of West Hollywood demolished that building, which aroused controversy among some community members, including the architect's wife.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The current library building officially opened to the public on October 1, 2011. The building, which was designed by architects Steve Johnson and James Favaro, received a favorable review in the "Los Angeles Times" that ended by calling it "...a tremendously encouraging achievement". Exterior surfaces of the library building and adjacent parking structure are decorated with murals by Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf and Marquis Lewis (aka Retna), and the interior incorporates design work by Fairey and David Wiseman.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The issue of Paparazzi chasing celebrities is raised regularly and the city participates in meetings with other nearby municipalities such as Beverly Hills and Los Angeles to discuss the problem and possible actions to better control the activity. The epicenter of the Thirty Mile Zone lies just blocks to the south of the city, and is the basis for the name of TMZ on TV, a paparazzi footage-based program. TMZ moved their operations from Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards to Los Angeles.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: On May 28, 2018, Mayor John Duran announced that Stormy Daniels would receive the "Key to the City" alongside her attorney, Michael Avenatti. “In these politically tumultuous times, Stormy Daniels has proven herself to be a profile in courage by speaking truth to power even under threats to her safety and extreme intimidation from the current Administration”, said the mayor.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Actress Drew Barrymore grew up on Poinsettia Place until the age of 7, when she moved to Sherman Oaks; she moved back to West Hollywood at the age of 14.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Alta Loma Road is home to the Sunset Marquis Hotel with its famous 45-person Whisky Bar and NightBird Recording Studios, an underground music production facility. Alta Loma Road was one of the main locations for the film "Perfect". Actor Sal Mineo lived on Holloway Drive in the 1970s; he was murdered in his carport just around the corner from Alta Loma.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The western stretch of Melrose Avenue, between Fairfax Avenue and Doheny Drive, is notable for its trendy clothing boutiques, interior design shops, restaurants and antique stores. The west end of Melrose Avenue, near the Pacific Design Center, is especially known for its exclusive furniture.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: The area around Fountain Avenue, Harper Avenue and Havenhurst Drive contains a high concentration of landmark 1920s Spanish Revival and Art Deco apartment buildings by such noted architects as Leland Bryant. This historic district has been home to many celebrities and at one time the Sunset Tower at 8358 Sunset Boulevard was home to Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, the Gabor sisters, John Wayne and Howard Hughes.


title: West Hollywood, California

text: Sometime in the 1940s, a sign appeared over the bar at Barney's Beanery that said "FAGOTS – STAY OUT." The message so offended locals that "Life" magazine did an article on opposition to the sign in 1964, which included a photograph of the owner steadfastly holding on to it. The owner died in 1968, and efforts continued to have the sign removed. The Gay Liberation Front organized a zap of the restaurant on February 7, 1970, to push for its removal. The sign disappeared that day. The sign was put up and taken down several times over the next 14 years, but the practice ended in December 1984, days after the city voted itself into existence. The then-mayor, Valerie Terrigno, the entire city council and gay-rights activists marched into Barney's and relieved the wall of the offending sign. It was held by Morris Kight for many years and now rests in the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.