title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Shangri-Las' "tough girl" persona set them apart from other girl groups. Having grown up in a rough neighborhood of Queens, New York, they were less demure than their contemporaries. Rumors about supposed escapades have since become legend; for example, the story that Mary Weiss attracted the attention of the FBI for transporting a firearm across state lines. In her defense, she said someone tried to break into her hotel room one night and for protection she bought a pistol. Whatever truth the stories may have, they were believed by fans in the 1960s, and they helped cement the group's bad-girl reputation. According to Weiss, that persona helped fend off advances from musicians on tours.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Shangri-Las continued to chart with fairly successful U.S. hit records, specializing in adolescent themes such as alienation, loneliness, abandonment, and premature death. Singles included "Give Him a Great Big Kiss", "Out in the Streets", "Give Us Your Blessings", the top ten hit "I Can Never Go Home Anymore", "Long Live Our Love" (a rare example of a song dedicated to the men at the time fighting overseas in Vietnam), "He Cried" and the spoken-word "Past, Present, and Future", featuring a musical backdrop inspired by Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Noteworthy B-sides included "Heaven Only Knows", "The Train from Kansas City", "Dressed in Black" and "Paradise" (written by Harry Nilsson).


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Among titles in favorites lists is "I Can Never Go Home Anymore", the story of a girl who leaves home for a boy; her pride keeps her from returning to her mother who ""grew so lonely in the end/the angels picked her for their friend"". Lines from "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" include ""When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, L-U-V"", and ""Well I hear he's bad." "Hmm, he's good-bad, but he's not evil."" "Past, Present, and Future" has been said to be about rape, something Weiss disagrees with. She has said it is about "teenage angst," heartbreak, and "being hurt and angsty and not wanting anyone near you."


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The group appeared on several TV shows and continued to tour the US, but in 1966, two of three releases on Red Bird failed to crack the U.S. top 50, though the group remained popular in England and Japan. Mary Ann Ganser left, but returned early in 1967 when Marge–the most outspoken member, sometimes considered the leader – left. Red Bird Records had folded. The group recorded more tracks with Shadow Morton producing (some of which remain unreleased) and signed with Mercury Records. However, Morton had begun working with Janis Ian and Vanilla Fudge, and Mercury had little enthusiasm for the group. During their Mercury stint, the Shangri-Las had no further hits; in 1968, they disbanded, amid litigation.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: All the Shangri-Las withdrew from the spotlight. Morton said, "The Shangri-Las vacated, they vanished". Reportedly they were angry that they had received few royalties despite the millions of records they had sold.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Mary Weiss moved to New York's Greenwich Village and then to San Francisco. Returning to Manhattan a few years later and prevented from recording because of lawsuits, she worked as a secretary while taking college classes. She then went into the architectural industry, working in the accounting department of a New York architectural firm. Weiss moved up to be the chief purchasing agent and later ran the commercial furniture dealership. In the late eighties, she managed a furniture store and was an interior designer. By 2001, she was a furniture consultant to New York businesses.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: She married in 1974, but the marriage ended in 1988; she married again several years later, and her second husband now manages her music career.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Betty Weiss had a daughter in 1964, necessitating her absence from the group during this period. She was the only member of the group to have a child (who was raised with the help of Betty's brother George Weiss, who died in 1998). Betty Weiss also married and held several jobs and now lives and works on Long Island.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Mary Ann Ganser began having problems with drug and alcohol addiction in 1968. She died in Queens on March 15, 1970, aged 22, of a drug overdose. (This may have been a heroin overdose as mentioned in a contemporary newspaper report and on her death certificate, or a barbiturate overdose as related later by her mother to a journalist) Her death has been incorrectly reported as having been caused by encephalitis, or by a seizure disorder.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Marge Ganser reportedly returned to school in the late 1960s. By the early 1970s, she married (changing her name to Marguerite Ganser Dorste), worked for NYNEX in Valley Stream, New York, and died of breast cancer on July 28, 1996, at age 48.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The group declined offers to perform throughout the 1970s, although they did have a few live performances. Following the successful re-issue of "Leader of the Pack" in the UK in 1976, which renewed interest in the group, Mary and Betty Weiss and Marge Ganser reunited. Contacting Seymour Stein of Sire Records, they spent summer 1977 in New York with producer Andy Paley. Paley said the sessions went well, but they weren't satisfied with all the material, and declined to release the record. The tapes are now owned by the Warner Music Group. They did, however, give a live performance at CBGB; Paley put together a band, including Lenny Kaye, and after two hours of rehearsal, the Shangri-Las returned to the stage for the first time in a decade. Although the Sire sessions came to naught, the group toyed with signing to another label; however, they were put off by the insistence of record executives that they be a disco vocal group, the musical trend of the day. Mary said she envisioned the Shangri-Las like punk singer Patti Smith. Eventually, the Shangri-Las split up again.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Since the 1980s, a trio has been performing under the name the Shangri-Las, although unconnected with the original group. The copycat act was put together by Dick Fox, who claimed to have bought the rights to the name, and resulted in legal action from both sides, largely due to a video tape of the new Shangri-Las claiming in public to be the original group. The original group performed for the last time at a reunion show hosted by Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow) in East Rutherford, New Jersey on June 3, 1989.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: In March 2007, Norton Records released a solo album by Mary Weiss (backed by garage rockers The Reigning Sound) titled "Dangerous Game". She performed in the United States, Spain, and France.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The streetwise image of the Shangri-Las – initially a promotional device for "Leader of the Pack" – contrasted with other "girl groups" of the 1960s, and they were cited as an influence by 1970s punk rock-era acts such as the New York Dolls and Blondie; the latter covered "Out in the Streets" twice. The Go-Go's have been performing "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" live ever since their early punk rock days in Los Angeles clubs.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The opening line from "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" – ""When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, L-U-V"" – was used by the New York Dolls on their 1973 recording "Looking for a Kiss". It is also used by the English pop trio SOHO in the beginning of their song "Nuthin' on My Mind" from their album, "Goddess". The New York Dolls' guitarist Johnny Thunders included a cover of "...Great Big Kiss" on his first solo album "So Alone". Ian Svenonius also used the line at the beginning of "Today I Met the Girl I'm Going to Marry" by his band Nation of Ulysses on the album "13-Point Program to Destroy America". More recently, Ryan Adams (and the Cardinals) paid homage to that line in their song "Beautiful Sorta" off the album "Cold Roses", but they changed it to ""When I say L-U-V, you better believe me L-U-V. Give me a beer!"" In 2005, Julian Cope parodied the famous line in "Dying to Meet You" from his album "Citizen Cain'd". He's heard to say ""When I say I'm dead, you best believe I'm dead, D-E-A-D"" during the outro. In an outtake of "Careless" from their album "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash", The Replacements opened with the line ""When I say I'm in debt, you best believe I'm in debt, D-E-T!""


title: The Shangri-Las

text: In 1972, "Leader of the Pack" was performed by Bette Midler on her debut album "The Divine Miss M". The opening from "Leader of the Pack" – ""Is she really going out with him?"" – was recycled both as the opening lines of 1976's "New Rose" by the Damned, the first British punk rock single, and of "Kill" by the parody punk group Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, as well as the title of the 1979 hit song by Joe Jackson.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Aerosmith released a more rock-style version of "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" featuring uncredited backing vocals by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las as a single in 1980. It can be found on both their "Greatest Hits" album and on their "Night in the Ruts" album, and charted on the Hot 100 at 67.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain cited the Shangri-Las as an early influence. In 1985, the band's guitarist William Reid stated: "We all love the Shangri-Las, and one day we're going to make Shangri-Las records."


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Shangri-Las are referenced in John Mellencamp's 1985 single "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." from his third album "Scarecrow". They were also referenced by Paul McCartney in a "McCartney II" sessions track, "Mr H Atom" / "You Know I'll Get You Baby", recorded in 1979, but not released until 2011.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: "Past, Present, and Future" was covered in 2004 by ex-ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog on her album, "My Colouring Book".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Australian artist Rowland S. Howard included a version of "She Cried" on his album "Teenage Snuff Film" (1999).


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Although most covers and remakes of the Shangri-Las material focus on the hit singles, some express the group's influence on them by recording songs from the Shangri-Las which were never released as singles by the group. Among these, the Los Angeles rock group Redd Kross covered "Heaven Only Knows," an album cut from the Shangri-Las' second album "Shangri-Las '65". Superchunk, Belle and Sebastian, The Shop Assistants and Neko Case recorded versions of "The Train from Kansas City", which was a b-side, and an album cut from the Shangri-Las debut album, "Leader of the Pack".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: British singer Amy Winehouse cited the Shangri-Las as an influence and occasionally integrated the hook lyrics from "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" into the bridge of her song "Back to Black" during live performances. Winehouse has called "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" the "saddest song in the world."


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Faris Badwan of The Horrors has listed the Shangri-Las as an influence in The Horrors' sound and lyrics, and had added a reworked version of "He Cried" to "She Cried" into The Horrors' song, "Who Can Say," using the lines, ""And when I told her I didn’t love her anymore, she cried/and when I told her, her kisses were not like before, she cried/and when I told her another girl had caught my eye, she cried/and I kissed her, with a kiss that could only mean goodbye,"" in spoken-word with a drum beat similar to that the Shangri-Las used. The song is also originally "She Cried" by Jay and the Americans, another (if slight) influence over The Horrors.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Black Lips, an Atlanta band, called their 2007 album "Good Bad Not Evil", after the line in "Give Him a Great Big Kiss".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Sonic Youth referenced the "very, very close" lyric of "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" on the Kim Gordon/Kim Deal duet "Little Trouble Girl" in 1995. Early punk band The Slits also reference the song in "Love Und Romance" on the 1979 album "Cut".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Bat for Lashes song "What's a Girl to Do?" has been widely acknowledged as a Shangri-Las pastiche.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Kathleen Hanna of the electropunk group Le Tigre has mentioned that the "one girl calling another" motif and the opening sound of seagulls on the track "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" were inspired by the Shangri-Las.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Shangri-Las were imitated by groups like The Nu-Luvs, who had a hit with "So Soft, So Warm", which was originally recorded by the Shangri-Las as "Dressed In Black" and used as the b-side to Jay and the Americans' original, "He Cried". Others included the Pussycats and the Whyte Boots, who scored big with their single "Nightmare", originally intended for the Shangri-Las, and written, produced and performed by Lori Burton and Pam Sawyer. The Goodees had a hit in early 1969 with "Condition Red", a "Leader of the Pack"-inspired tale about a girl who wants to be with her long-haired, bearded boyfriend despite her parents' objections.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The Detergents had hits with "Leader of the Laundromat" and "I Can Never Eat Home Any More", both of which were parodies of Shangri-Las records.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Giddle Partridge and Boyd Rice recorded a cover of "Past, Present, and Future" in 1989. Alex Chilton often played it in concert.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Finnish rock band HIM used "Dressed in Black" as an intro song for their tour promoting their album "".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: Marianne Faithfull released a cover of "Past, Present, and Future" on her 2011 album "Horses and High Heels".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: The bridge of "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" and the background vocals of "Leader of the Pack" are heavily sampled in the track "No" from the 2012 album "Dusty Rainbow from the Dark" by French hip hop artist Wax Tailor.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: While recording her 2017 album "Lust for Life", American singer Lana Del Rey was heavily influenced by The Shangri-Las.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: In the 2015 documentary "Wider Horizons", David Gilmour, guitarist for Pink Floyd, cited the Shangri-Las as an influence, saying their music "painted aural pictures".


title: The Shangri-Las

text: In the eighth episode of "RuPaul's Drag Race"'s 14th season, drag queens Bosco, Daya Betty, and Willow Pill performed an original song "Bad Boy Baby" as "The Shang"ru"-Las", both parodying and paying homage to the music and style of The Shangri-Las.


title: The Shangri-Las

text: In TV Girl's 2016 album "Who Really Cares", the song "For You" starts with a sample of their Good Taste Tips


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" is a song sung by actress and singer Marilyn Monroe on May 19, 1962, for President John F. Kennedy at a gala held at Madison Square Garden for his 45th birthday, 10 days before the actual date (May 29). The event was co-hosted by Arthur B. Krim and Anna M. Rosenberg, who sat next to the President during the star-studded event.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Monroe sang the traditional "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics in a sultry, intimate voice, with "Mr. President" inserted as Kennedy's name. She continued the song with a snippet from the classic song, "Thanks for the Memory", for which she had written new lyrics specifically aimed at Kennedy.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Afterwards, as a large birthday cake was presented to him, President Kennedy came on stage and joked about Monroe's version of the song, saying, "I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way," alluding to Monroe's delivery, skintight dress, and image as a sex symbol.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: The performance was one of Monroe's last major public appearances before her death less than three months later on August 4, 1962. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who rarely attended Democratic Party events, instead spent the day at the Loudon Hunt Horse Show with her children, John and Caroline. Monroe was accompanied by jazz pianist Hank Jones.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: President Kennedy's birthday celebration was held at the third Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, and more than 15,000 people attended, including numerous celebrities. The event was a fundraising gala for the Democratic Party.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Monroe attended the event during the production of "Something's Got to Give", resulting in her receiving a hand-delivered note stating that she had violated her contract with 20th Century Fox and eventual firing in June 1962.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Monroe's dress was made of a sheer and flesh-colored marquisette fabric, with 2,500 shimmering rhinestones sewn into it. The dress was so tight-fitting that Monroe had difficulty putting it on; she wore nothing under it. It was designed by Jean Louis. Monroe's hair was styled by Kenneth Battelle and her makeup was done by Marie Irvine.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Monroe was accompanied to the event by her publicist Patricia Newcomb and her former father-in-law Isidore Miller, with whom she had remained very close. Peter Lawford was at the event that night to introduce Monroe. He made a play on the actress's reputation for tardiness by giving her a number of introductions throughout the night, after which she did not appear on stage. When Monroe finally appeared in a spotlight, Lawford introduced her as the "late Marilyn Monroe". Monroe peeled off her white ermine fur coat, revealing the dress, and the audience gasped.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In the 1992 film "Wayne's World", Mike Myers puts on a bra and does an impression of Monroe singing the song as his character, Wayne, while his girlfriend Cassandra (Tia Carrere) is on the phone. In 1994, Mathilda (Natalie Portman) reenacted Myers's scene in "". At the time, she had never seen Monroe's performance.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: On the January 16, 1993, episode of "Saturday Night Live" the musical guest, Madonna, parodied the song as "Happy Inauguration, Mr. President", alluding to Bill Clinton's January 20 presidential inauguration.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Spice Girl Geri Halliwell performed the song in 1998 for Prince Charles' 50th birthday celebration, replacing the line "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" with "Happy Birthday, Your Royal Highness".


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In a season two episode of "Breaking Bad", "Mandala" (2009), Skyler White sings the song to her boss Ted Beneke for his birthday. Fran Felstein sings it in The Sopranos season 5 episode "In Camelot" (2004).


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In 2012, American musician Lana Del Rey reenacted the performance in the music video for her song "National Anthem", with herself as Monroe and ASAP Rocky as President Kennedy.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In 2016, a trailer for the second season of the alternate history series "The Man in the High Castle" shows Monroe singing the song for Adolf Hitler, with the line "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" replaced with "Happy Birthday, Mein Führer".


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Monroe's iconic dress was designed by costume designer Bob Mackie who was hired to sketch the design for the leading fashion designer of the time, Jean Louis who paid $1,440.33 (equivalent to $ in ) for its construction. The dress sold in 1999 at an auction in New York City for over $1.26 million (equivalent to $ in ). Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison subsequently purchased the dress on November 17, 2016, at a Los Angeles auction for $4.8 million.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In 2022, reality TV star Kim Kardashian wore Monroe's Happy Birthday Mr. President dress for the Met Gala. Kardashian had lost in three weeks to fit into the dress. Kardashian remains the only person other than Monroe to have been known to have worn the dress. Kardashian wore Monroe's original dress for approximately five minutes, only to walk up the runway, and then changed into an exact replica so as to not cause any more unnecessary strain to the dress.


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: However, because the dress was tailored specifically for Monroe's exact measurements, despite Kardashian losing weight for her to wear the dress, additional materials had to be incorporated onto the dress for her to fit in it. Displeased with both Kardashian and the current owner, Ripley Entertainment, Bob Mackie (who first sketched the design in 1962 at the age of 23) said in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", "I thought it was a big mistake.. [Marilyn] was a goddess. A crazy goddess, but a goddess. She was just fabulous. Nobody photographs like that. And it was done for her. It was designed for her. Nobody else should be seen in that dress."


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: Within the same interview, the host for Turner Classic Movies Alicia Malone expressed her worries by saying, "There are all the issues with the actual preservation of the dress and things like oxygen can affect a dress.. Usually, these outfits are kept very much in controlled environments. So, it was quite alarming that she was able to wear it. I personally wish she wore a replica instead of the real thing."


title: Happy Birthday, Mr. President

text: In an interview with BBC in June 2022, a senior lecturer in cultural studies at Falmouth University, Dr Kate Strasdin, remarked, "You can't even handle a dress like that without damaging it in some way, let alone wear it, so it was inevitable that there was going to be significant damage just by even wearing it on the red carpet... there will have been oils in her skin, there will have been all of that chemical reaction with a silk that is fragile". It is also noted that an Instagram account dedicated to 'The Marilyn Monroe Collection', a company which claims to hold 'the world's largest privately held collection of Marilyn Monroe's personal property,' managed by owner Scott Fortner's team, posted a comparison image of the dress which showed significant irreversible damage which occurred after the gala event.


title: Western gorilla

text: The western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) is a great ape found in Africa, one of two species of the hominid genus "Gorilla". Large and robust with males weighing around , the hair is significantly lighter in color than the eastern gorilla, "Gorilla beringei", and geographically isolated from them in a region at the midwest of the African continent. Two subspecies are recognised, "Gorilla gorilla diehli" (Cross River gorilla) is limited to a smaller range in the north at the border of Cameroon and Nigeria, both are listed Critically Endangered.


title: Western gorilla

text: A formal description of the species was provided by Thomas Savage in 1847, allying the new species to an earlier description of the chimpanzee as "Troglodytes gorilla" in a group of eastern simians he referred to as "orangs". The author selected the specific epithet for the name given by Hanno to "wild men" he had noted on the east coast of Africa, presumed by Savage to be a species of orang. The population is recognised as two subspecies:


title: Western gorilla

text: Nearly all of the individuals of this taxon belong to the western lowland gorilla subspecies, whose population is approximately 95,000 individuals. Only 250 to 300 of the only other western gorilla subspecies, the Cross river gorilla, are thought to remain.


title: Western gorilla

text: Western lowland gorillas are generally lighter colored than eastern gorillas. Western lowland gorillas have black, dark grey or dark brown-grey hair with a brownish forehead. Males average although reaching a height up to , with males having an average weight of and females weighing . Captive western gorillas average in males and in females. Another source describes the weight of wild male western lowland gorillas as . The Cross River gorilla differs from the western lowland gorilla in both skull and tooth dimensions.


title: Western gorilla

text: Western lowland gorillas live in groups that vary in size from two to twenty individuals. Such groups are composed of at least one male, several females and their offspring. A dominant male silverback heads the group, with younger males usually leaving the group when they reach maturity. Females transfer to another group before breeding, which begins at eight to nine years old; they care for their young infants for the first three to four years of their lives. The interval between births, therefore, is long, which partly explains the slow population growth rates that make the western lowland gorilla so vulnerable to poaching. Due to the long gestation time, long period of parental care, and infant mortality, a female gorilla will only give birth to an offspring that survives to maturity every six to eight years. Western lowland gorillas are long-lived and may survive for as long as 40 years in the wild. A group's home range may be as large as , but is not actively defended. Wild western lowland gorillas are known to use tools.


title: Western gorilla

text: Western lowland gorillas' diets are high in fiber, including leaves, stems, fruit, piths, flowers, bark, invertebrates, and soil. The frequency of when each of these are consumed depends on the particular western lowland gorilla group and the season. Furthermore, different groups of western lowland gorillas eat differing numbers and species of plants and invertebrates, suggesting they have a food culture. Fruit comprises most of the western lowland gorillas' diets when it is abundant, directly influencing their foraging and ranging patterns. There is a correlation between the amount of time a western lowland gorilla travels and the season in which fruits are available. The western lowland gorillas spend more time traveling and feeding during the seasons when fruits are abundant compared to when there is less fruits available. Fruits of the genera "Tetrapleura", "Chrysophyllum", "Dialium", and "Landolphia" are favored by the western lowland gorillas. Low-quality herbs, such as leaves and woody vegetation, are only eaten when fruit is scarce. In the dry season from January to March, when fleshy fruits are few and far between, more fibrous vegetation such as the leaves and bark of the low-quality herbs "Palisota" and "Aframomum" are consumed. Of the invertebrates consumed by the western lowland gorillas, termites and ants make up the majority. Caterpillars, grubs, and larvae are also consumed in rarity.


title: Western gorilla

text: Some ethnographic and pharmacological studies have suggested a possible medicinal value in particular foods consumed by the western lowland gorilla. The fruit and seeds of multiple "Cola" species are consumed. Given the low protein content, the main reason for their consumption may be the stimulating effect of the caffeine in them. Western lowland gorillas inhabiting Gabon have been observed consuming the fruit, stems, and roots of Tabernanthe iboga, which, due to the compound ibogaine in it, acts on the central nervous system, producing hallucinogenic effects. It also has effects comparable to caffeine. There is also evidence for medicinal value for the seed pods of "Aframomum melegueta" in western lowland gorillas' diets, which seem to have some sort of cardiovascular health benefit for western lowland gorillas, and are a known part of the natural diets for many wild populations.


title: Western gorilla

text: A study published in 2007 announced the discovery of this species fighting back against possible threats from humans. They "found several instances of gorillas throwing sticks and clumps of grass". This is unusual, because western lowland gorillas usually flee and rarely charge when they encounter humans.


title: Western gorilla

text: One mirror test in Gabon shows that western lowland gorilla silverbacks react aggressively when faced with a mirror, although refusing to look fully at their reflection.


title: Western gorilla

text: The World Conservation Union lists the western gorilla as critically endangered, the most severe denomination next to global extinction, on its 2007 Red List of Threatened Species. The Ebola virus might be depleting western gorilla populations to a point where their recovery might become impossible, and the virus reduced populations in protected areas by 33% from 1992 to 2007, which may be equal to a decline of 45% for a period of just 20 years spanning 1992 to 2011. Poaching, commercial logging and civil wars in the countries that compose the western gorillas' habitat are also threats. Furthermore, reproductive rates are very low, with a maximum intrinsic rate of increase of about 3% and the high levels of decline from hunting and disease-induced mortality have caused declines in population of more than 60% over the last 20 to 25 years. Rather, under the optimistic estimate scenarios, population recovery would require almost 75 years. Yet within the next thirty years, habitat loss and degradation from agriculture, timber extraction, mining and climate change will become increasingly larger threats. Thus, a population reduction of more than 80% over three generations (i.e., 66 years from 1980 to 2046) seems likely. In the 1980s, a census taken of the gorilla populations in equatorial Africa was thought to be 100,000. Researchers adjusted the figure in 2008 after years of poaching and deforestation had reduced the population to approximately 50,000.


title: Western gorilla

text: Surveys conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2006 and 2007 found around 125,000 previously unreported gorillas have been living in the swamp forests of Lake Tele Community Reserve and in neighbouring Marantaceae (dryland) forests in the Republic of the Congo. This discovery could more than double the known population of the animals, though the effect that the discovery will have on the gorillas' conservation status is currently unknown. With the new discovery, the current population of western lowland gorillas could be around 150,000–200,000. However, the gorilla remains vulnerable to Ebola, deforestation, and poaching.


title: Western gorilla

text: Estimates on the number of Cross River gorillas remaining is 250–300 in the wild, concentrated in approximately 9-11 locations. Recent genetic research and field surveys suggest that there is occasional migration of individual gorillas between locations. The nearest population of western lowland gorilla is some away. Both loss of habitat and intense hunting for bushmeat have contributed to the decline of this subspecies. In 2007, a conservation plan for the Cross River gorilla was published, outlining the most important actions necessary to preserve this subspecies. The government of Cameroon has created the Takamanda National Park on the border with Nigeria, as an attempt to protect these gorillas. The park now forms part of an important trans-boundary protected area with Nigeria's Cross River National Park, safeguarding an estimated 115 gorillas—a third of the Cross River gorilla population—along with other rare species. The hope is that these gorillas will be able to move between the Takamanda reserve in Cameroon over the border to Nigeria's Cross River National Park.


title: New Providence

text: New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246,329 at the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (2016) is 274,400.


title: New Providence

text: The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed little interest in developing the island (and the Bahamas as a whole). Nassau, the island's largest city, was formerly known as Charles-town, but it was burned to the ground by the Spanish in 1684. It was laid out and renamed Nassau in 1695 by Nicholas Trott, the most successful Lord Proprietor, in honour of the Prince of Orange-Nassau who became William III of England.


title: New Providence

text: The three branches of Bahamian Government: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary, are all headquartered on New Providence. New Providence functions as the main commercial hub of the Bahamas. It is also home to more than 400 banks and trust companies, and its hotels and port account for more than two-thirds of the four million-plus tourists who visit the Bahamas annually.


title: New Providence

text: Other settlements on New Providence include Grants Town, Bain Town, Fox Hill, Adelaide, Yamacraw, South Beach, Coral Harbour, Lyford Cay, Paradise Island, Sea Breeze, Centreville, The Grove (South) and The Grove (West Bay), Cable Beach, Delaporte, Gambier, Old Fort Bay, Carmichael Road, and Love Beach.


title: New Providence

text: The name New Providence Island is derived from a 16th‐century governor who gave thanks to Divine Providence for his survival after a shipwreck. The "New" was added later to distinguish it from Providencia in Western Caribbean (now Colombia) used by pirates.


title: New Providence

text: After 1670, Bermudian salt rakers gathering sea salt in Grand Turk and Inagua became regular visitors to the island. The first lasting European settlement was on Eleuthera in 1648, and then New Providence in 1666.


title: New Providence

text: By 1670, there were over 900 people on the settlement of Charles-Town. Due to ineffective governors, Charles-Town was attacked by the French and Spanish navies, became a home base for pirates, and was eventually destroyed by a Spanish attack in 1684. However, two years later in 1686, new English colonists from Jamaica came and settled. They were called back by the governor of Jamaica, but they ignored this order. In 1695, Governor Nicolas Trott rebuilt the town and added a fort, both were called Nassau. However, the fort was heavily damaged in a Spanish attack in 1700 and the colonists eventually abandoned the fort in 1703 after a French and Spanish attack. Due to the lack of cannon and soldiers in the fort, New Providence soon became a home base for pirates. By 1713, there were over 1000 pirates in Nassau and they outnumbered the 400–500 law-abiding inhabitants; pirate Thomas Barrow even declared himself "Governor of New Providence". In 1718, Governor Woodes Rogers (sent by King George I of Great Britain) came in and offered a pardon for any pirate willing to give up their ways. Using his intelligence and threatening to execute them if they did not take the pardon, Rogers was eventually able to rid Nassau of pirates.


title: New Providence

text: In February 1776, American Esek Hopkins led a squadron of over seven ships in an effort to raid the British-held island in order to secure supplies and munitions. In an event known as the Battle of Nassau, on March 3 and 4, Hopkins landed the first-ever amphibious assault by American military forces consisting of 250 Marines and sailors. Under the covering fire of the "Providence" and "Wasp", the attackers overwhelmed Fort Montague. The British retreated to Fort Nassau, but then surrendered to Continental forces. The Americans managed to secure 88 cannon and 15 mortars, but most of the much desired gunpowder was evacuated before capture. Hopkins spent two weeks loading his ships with the booty before finally returning home.


title: New Providence

text: The frigate "South Carolina", of the South Carolina Navy, arrived at Havana on 12 January 1782. At Havana, after negotiations between Alexander Gillon and the Spanish, the "South Carolina" joined a force of 59 vessels carrying Spanish forces under the overall command of Bernardo de Galvez. On 22 April the expedition sailed to capture New Providence. By May 6 the whole fleet had reached New Providence and on 8 May the British colony surrendered. This was the third capture of New Providence by a foreign force during the American Revolutionary War.


title: New Providence

text: After the American Revolution, several thousand Loyalists and their slaves emigrated to New Providence and nearby islands, hoping to re-establish plantation agriculture. The shallow soils and sparse rainfall doomed this activity to failure, and by the early 19th century the Bahamas had become a nearly vacant archipelago. Salt raking continued here and there, wreck gleaning was profitable in Grand Bahama, but New Providence was the only island with any prosperity because of the large British military establishment. The fortresses began to crumble and were abandoned by 1850. New Providence afterwards had two periods of high economic success: during the American Civil War of 1861–65, when it was a highly popular port for blockade-runners serving the Confederate States of America; and during Prohibition, when it was a smuggling centre for distilled spirits.


title: New Providence

text: By the late 19th century New Providence had begun billing itself as the "sanitarium of the western hemisphere". Testimonials by residents and visitors emphasized its extremely mild climate with minimal daily temperature fluctuations (often as little as in any given 12-hour period) and warm winters (a typical winter morning in the range of , excellent drainage, ample variety and number of Christian (Protestant) churches, well-tended and rectilinear roads, modern luxurious facilities, and native English-speakers. Steam ships plied between the coastal southern United States, Cuba, and Nassau, and the popularity of the destination proceeded to grow.


title: New Providence

text: By the late 1920s, New Providence had become well-established especially as an American vacation destination with many tourist facilities, including a deepened harbour for short-visit cruise ship visitors and hotels offering gambling. Two-thirds of the approximately 400,000 Bahamians live on New Providence, although this proportion has fallen somewhat with the development of Freeport on Grand Bahama.


title: Pen India Limited

text: Pen Studios (formerly Pen India Limited) is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Dr. Jayantilal Gada on 31 March 1987. Based in Mumbai, it mainly produces and distributes Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films.


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 1992, the business was restructured under the name Popular Entertainment Network, and began to acquire video rights for movies to be distributed over various media such as video cassettes, satellites, terrestrial platforms, etc. The company subsequently forayed into theatrical and distribution rights of movies.


title: Pen India Limited

text: In the past few years, Pen Studios has produced films such as "Kahaani and Shivaay", with many A-listers, that have been a huge success at the box office. The company, now, is also expanding by focusing on producing good regional content.


title: Pen India Limited

text: Gearing up for the next major growth spurt in the media and entertainment industry, Pen is setting up its own digital media platforms, and will offer unique services at reasonable prices for Indian consumers.


title: Pen India Limited

text: Pen India Limited launched a new Television Channel named WOW. WOW's content library is full of various Bollywood music and old classic Bollywood movies to new Hindi, Gujarati, Hindi dubbed (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam) films, and TV series such as "Mahabharat".


title: Pen India Limited

text: Dr. Jayantilal Gada started as a small-time entrepreneur with a video library called Popular Video Cassette Co in 1984. Later, he went into trading of video rights and distribution of VHS tapes across India by establishing Asia's biggest video shop, "Popular Video", at Lamington Road, Mumbai.


title: Pen India Limited

text: Restructured and formed Popular Entertainment Network Limited (with brand name 'PEN') in 1992 and started dealing in copyrights of Hindi feature films viz. video, satellite and Doordarshan (DD).


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 1995, PEN created another landmark by telecasting "Sholay" 20 years after its theatrical release on Doordarshan and creating a record with the highest ever Television viewing ratings (76 TRPs) with about 7.5 crore revenues.


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 1996, Sony TV telecast "Sholay" to celebrate its first anniversary and gained the number-one position among satellite channels, beating Zee TV for the first time.


title: Pen India Limited

text: Daughter Bhavita Jayantilal Gada also joined PEN in 2006 and started an animation division with mega projects like "Mahabharat".


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 2009, son Dhaval Gada, after completing his course at Whistling Woods International Institute, joined PEN to streamline production activities.


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 2013, PEN released three projects: "Issaq", released all over India in 900 theatres. "Singh Saab the Great" on 1970 screens in India. "Mahabharat 3D" animation feature film also released in 300 theatres.


title: Pen India Limited

text: In 2014, PEN completed and finally released "Sholay 3D" in 780 theatres in India. PEN also co-produces and distributes Nagesh Kukunoor's Art House film "Lakshmii" on 82 screens, "Entertainment" in 3,200 screens worldwide. PEN also distributed and released "Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami" on 490 screens and Ketan Mehta's "Rang Rasiya" on 890 screens.


title: Pen India Limited

text: PEN has been associated in the past with films such as "Sauda (1995)", "Kohram" (1999), "Lal Baadshah" (1999), "Kitne Door Kitne Paas" (2002), "Shararat" (2002), and "Yeh Mera India" (2009) as rights=holders and not as a production.


title: Photographic film

text: Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the film.


title: Photographic film

text: The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph. In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to ultraviolet light, X-rays, gamma rays, and high-energy particles. Unmodified silver halide crystals are sensitive only to the blue part of the visible spectrum, producing unnatural-looking renditions of some colored subjects. This problem was resolved with the discovery that certain dyes, called sensitizing dyes, when adsorbed onto the silver halide crystals made them respond to other colors as well. First orthochromatic (sensitive to blue and green) and finally panchromatic (sensitive to all visible colors) films were developed. Panchromatic film renders all colors in shades of gray approximately matching their subjective brightness. By similar techniques, special-purpose films can be made sensitive to the infrared (IR) region of the spectrum.


title: Photographic film

text: In black-and-white photographic film, there is usually one layer of silver halide crystals. When the exposed silver halide grains are developed, the silver halide crystals are converted to metallic silver, which blocks light and appears as the black part of the film negative. Color film has at least three sensitive layers, incorporating different combinations of sensitizing dyes. Typically the blue-sensitive layer is on top, followed by a yellow filter layer to stop any remaining blue light from affecting the layers below. Next comes a green-and-blue sensitive layer, and a red-and-blue sensitive layer, which record the green and red images respectively. During development, the exposed silver halide crystals are converted to metallic silver, just as with black-and-white film. But in a color film, the by-products of the development reaction simultaneously combine with chemicals known as color couplers that are included either in the film itself or in the developer solution to form colored dyes. Because the by-products are created in direct proportion to the amount of exposure and development, the dye clouds formed are also in proportion to the exposure and development. Following development, the silver is converted back to silver halide crystals in the "bleach step". It is removed from the film during the process of "fixing" the image on the film with a solution of ammonium thiosulfate or sodium thiosulfate (hypo or fixer). Fixing leaves behind only the formed color dyes, which combine to make up the colored visible image. Later color films, like Kodacolor II, have as many as 12 emulsion layers, with upwards of 20 different chemicals in each layer. Photographic film and film stock tend to be similar in composition and speed, but often not in other parameters such as frame size and length. Silver halide photographic paper is also similar to photographic film.


title: Photographic film

text: In order to produce a usable image, the film needs to be exposed properly. The amount of exposure variation that a given film can tolerate, while still producing an acceptable level of quality, is called its exposure latitude. Color print film generally has greater exposure latitude than other types of film. Additionally, because print film must be printed to be viewed, after-the-fact corrections for imperfect exposure are possible during the printing process.


title: Photographic film

text: The concentration of dyes or silver halide crystals remaining on the film after development is referred to as optical density, or simply density; the optical density is proportional to the logarithm of the optical transmission coefficient of the developed film. A dark image on the negative is of higher density than a more transparent image.


title: Photographic film

text: Most films are affected by the physics of silver grain activation (which sets a minimum amount of light required to expose a single grain) and by the statistics of random grain activation by photons. The film requires a minimum amount of light before it begins to expose, and then responds by progressive darkening over a wide dynamic range of exposure until all of the grains are exposed, and the film achieves (after development) its maximum optical density.


title: Photographic film

text: Over the active dynamic range of most films, the density of the developed film is proportional to the logarithm of the total amount of light to which the film was exposed, so the transmission coefficient of the developed film is proportional to a power of the reciprocal of the brightness of the original exposure. The plot of the density of the film image against the log of the exposure is known as an H&D curve. This effect is due to the statistics of grain activation: as the film becomes progressively more exposed, each incident photon is less likely to impact a still-unexposed grain, yielding the logarithmic behavior. A simple, idealized statistical model yields the equation , where "light" is proportional to the number of photons hitting a unit area of film, "k" is the probability of a single photon striking a grain (based on the size of the grains and how closely spaced they are), and "density" is the proportion of grains that have been hit by at least one photon. The relationship between density and log exposure is linear for photographic films except at the extreme ranges of maximum exposure (D-max) and minimum exposure (D-min) on an H&D curve, so the curve is characteristically S-shaped (as opposed to digital camera sensors which have a linear response through the effective exposure range). The sensitivity (i.e., the ISO speed) of a film can be affected by changing the length or temperature of development, which would move the H&D curve to the left or right ("see figure").


title: Photographic film

text: If parts of the image are exposed heavily enough to approach the maximum density possible for a print film, then they will begin losing the ability to show tonal variations in the final print. Usually those areas will be considered overexposed and will appear as featureless white on the print. Some subject matter is tolerant of very heavy exposure. For example, sources of brilliant light, such as a light bulb or the sun, generally appear best as a featureless white on the print.


title: Photographic film

text: Likewise, if part of an image receives less than the beginning threshold level of exposure, which depends upon the film's sensitivity to light—or speed—the film there will have no appreciable image density, and will appear on the print as a featureless black. Some photographers use their knowledge of these limits to determine the optimum exposure for a photograph; for one example, see the Zone System. Most automatic cameras instead try to achieve a particular average density.


title: Photographic film

text: Color films can have many layers. The film base can have an antihalation layer applied to it or be dyed. This layer prevents light from reflecting from within the film, increasing image quality. If applied to the back of the film, it also serves to prevent scratching, as an antistatic measure due to its conductive carbon content, and as a lubricant to help transport the film through mechanisms. The antistatic property is necessary to prevent the film from getting fogged under low humidity, and mechanisms to avoid static are present in most if not all films. If applied on the back it is removed during film processing. If applied it may be on the back of the film base in triacetate film bases or in the front in PET film bases, below the emulsion stack. An anticurl layer and a separate antistatic layer may be present in thin high resolution films that have the antihalation layer below the emulsion. PET film bases are often dyed, specially because PET can serve as a light pipe; black and white film bases tend to have a higher level of dying applied to them. The film base needs to be transparent but with some density, perfectly flat, insensitive to light, chemically stable, resistant to tearing and strong enough to be handled manually and by camera mechanisms and film processing equipment, while being chemically resistant to moisture and the chemicals used during processing without losing strength, flexibility or changing in size.


title: Photographic film

text: The subbing layer is essentially an adhesive that allows the subsequent layers to stick to the film base. The film base was initially made of highly flammable cellulose nitrate, which was replaced by cellulose acetate films, often cellulose triacetate film (safety film), which in turn was replaced in many films (such as all print films, most duplication films and some other specialty films) by a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic film base. Films with a triacetate base can suffer from vinegar syndrome, a decomposition process accelerated by warm and humid conditions, that releases acetic acid which is the characteristic component of vinegar, imparting the film a strong vinegar smell and possibly even damaging surrounding metal and films. Films are usually spliced using a special adhesive tape; those with PET layers can be ultrasonically spliced or their ends melted and then spliced.


title: Photographic film

text: The emulsion layers of films are made by dissolving pure silver in nitric acid to form silver nitrate crystals, which are mixed with other chemicals to form silver halide grains, which are then suspended in gelatin and applied to the film base. The size and hence the light sensitivity of these grains determines the speed of the film; since films contain real silver (as silver halide), faster films with larger crystals are more expensive and potentially subject to variations in the price of silver metal. Also, faster films have more grain, since the grains (crystals) are larger. Each crystal is often 0.2 to 2 microns in size; in color films, the dye clouds that form around the silver halide crystals are often 25 microns across. The crystals can be shaped as cubes, flat rectangles, tetradecadedra, flat hexagons or be flat and resemble a triangle with or without clipped edges; this type of crystal is known as a T-grain crystal. Films using T-grains are more sensitive to light without using more silver halide since they increase the surface area exposed to light by making the crystals flatter and larger in footprint instead of simply increasing their volume.


title: Photographic film

text: The exact silver halide used is either silver bromide or silver bromochloroiodide, or a combination of silver bromide, chloride and iodide.


title: Photographic film

text: In color films, each emulsion layer has a different color dye forming coupler: in the blue sensitive layer, the coupler forms a yellow dye; in the green sensitive layer the coupler forms a magenta dye, and in the red sensitive layer the coupler forms a cyan dye. Color films often have an UV blocking layer. Each emulsion layer in a color film may itself have three layers: a slow, medium and fast layer, to allow the film to capture higher contrast images. The color dye couplers are inside oil droplets dispersed in the emulsion around silver halide crystals, forming a silver halide grain. Here the oil droplets act as a surfactant, also protecting the couplers from chemical reactions with the silver halide and from the surrounding gelatin. During development, oxidized developer diffuses into the oil droplets and combines with the dye couplers to form dye clouds; the dye clouds only form around unexposed silver halide crystals. The fixer then removes the silver halide crystals leaving only the dye clouds: this means that developed color films may not contain silver while undeveloped films do contain silver; this also means that the fixer can start to contain silver which can then be removed through electrolysis. Color films also contain light filters to filter out certain colors as the light passes through the film: often there is a blue light filter between the blue and green sensitive layers and a yellow filter before the red sensitive layer; in this way each layer is made sensitive to only a certain color of light.


title: Photographic film

text: The color couplers may be colorless and be chromogenic or be colored. Colored couplers are used to improve the color reproduction of film. The first coupler which is used in the blue layer remains colorless to allow all light to pass through, but the coupler used in the green layer is colored yellow, and the coupler used in the red layer is light pink. Yellow was chosen to block any remaining blue light from exposing the underlying green and red layers (since yellow can be made from green and red). Each layer should only be sensitive to a single color of light and allow all others to pass through. Because of these colored couplers, the developed film appears orange. Colored couplers mean that corrections through color filters need to be applied to the image before printing. Printing can be carried out by using an optical enlarger, or by scanning the image, correcting it using software and printing it using a digital printer.


title: Photographic film

text: Kodachrome films have no couplers; the dyes are instead formed by a long sequence of steps, limiting adoption among smaller film processing companies.


title: Photographic film

text: Black and white films are very simple by comparison, only consisting of silver halide crystals suspended in a gelatin emulsion which sits on a film base with an antihalation back.


title: Photographic film

text: Many films contain a top supercoat layer to protect the emulsion layers from damage. Some manufacturers manufacture their films with daylight, tungsten (named after the tungsten filament of incandescent and halogen lamps) or fluorescent lighting in mind, recommending the use of lens filters, light meters and test shots in some situations to maintain color balance, or by recommending the division of the ISO value of the film by the distance of the subject from the camera to get an appropriate f-number value to be set in the lens.


title: Photographic film

text: Examples of Color films are Kodachrome, often processed using the K-14 process, Kodacolor, Ektachrome, which is often processed using the E-6 process and Fujifilm Superia, which is processed using the C-41 process. The chemicals and the color dye couplers on the film may vary depending on the process used to develop the film.


title: Photographic film

text: Film speed describes a film's threshold sensitivity to light. The international standard for rating film speed is the ISO#ISO scale, which combines both the ASA speed and the DIN speed in the format ASA/DIN. Using ISO convention film with an ASA speed of 400 would be labeled 400/27°. A fourth naming standard is GOST, developed by the Russian standards authority. See the film speed article for a table of conversions between ASA, DIN, and GOST film speeds.


title: Photographic film

text: Common film speeds include ISO 25, 50, 64, 100, 160, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400. Consumer print films are usually in the ISO 100 to ISO 800 range. Some films, like Kodak's Technical Pan, are not ISO rated and therefore careful examination of the film's properties must be made by the photographer before exposure and development. ISO 25 film is very "slow", as it requires much more exposure to produce a usable image than "fast" ISO 800 film. Films of ISO 800 and greater are thus better suited to low-light situations and action shots (where the short exposure time limits the total light received). The benefit of slower film is that it usually has finer grain and better color rendition than fast film. Professional photographers of static subjects such as portraits or landscapes usually seek these qualities, and therefore require a tripod to stabilize the camera for a longer exposure. A professional photographing subjects such as rapidly moving sports or in low-light conditions will inevitably choose a faster film.


title: Photographic film

text: A film with a particular ISO rating can be push-processed, or "pushed", to behave like a film with a higher ISO, by developing for a longer amount of time or at a higher temperature than usual. More rarely, a film can be "pulled" to behave like a "slower" film. Pushing generally coarsens grain and increases contrast, reducing dynamic range, to the detriment of overall quality. Nevertheless, it can be a useful tradeoff in difficult shooting environments, if the alternative is no usable shot at all.


title: Photographic film

text: Instant photography, as popularized by Polaroid, uses a special type of camera and film that automates and integrates development, without the need of further equipment or chemicals. This process is carried out immediately after exposure, as opposed to regular film, which is developed afterwards and requires additional chemicals. See instant film.


title: Photographic film

text: Films can be made to record non-visible ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiation. These films generally require special equipment; for example, most photographic lenses are made of glass and will therefore filter out most ultraviolet light. Instead, expensive lenses made of quartz must be used. Infrared films may be shot in standard cameras using an infrared band- or long-pass filters, although the infrared focal point must be compensated for.


title: Photographic film

text: Exposure and focusing are difficult when using UV or IR film with a camera and lens designed for visible light. The ISO standard for film speed only applies to visible light, so visual-spectrum light meters are nearly useless. Film manufacturers can supply suggested equivalent film speeds under different conditions, and recommend heavy bracketing (e.g., "with a certain filter, assume ISO 25 under daylight and ISO 64 under tungsten lighting"). This allows a light meter to be used to estimate an exposure. The focal point for IR is slightly farther away from the camera than visible light, and UV slightly closer; this must be compensated for when focusing. Apochromatic lenses are sometimes recommended due to their improved focusing across the spectrum.


title: Photographic film

text: Film optimized for detecting X-ray radiation is commonly used for medical radiography and industrial radiography by placing the subject between the film and a source of X-rays or gamma rays, without a lens, as if a translucent object were imaged by being placed between a light source and standard film. Unlike other types of film, X-ray film has a sensitive emulsion on both sides of the carrier material. This reduces the X-ray exposure for an acceptable image – a desirable feature in medical radiography. The film is usually placed in close contact with phosphor screen(s) and/or thin lead-foil screen(s), the combination having a higher sensitivity to X-rays. Because film is sensitive to x-rays, its contents may be wiped by airport baggage scanners if the film has a speed higher than 800 ISO. This property is exploited in Film badge dosimeters.


title: Photographic film

text: Film has a number of disadvantages as a scientific detector: it is difficult to calibrate for photometry, it is not re-usable, it requires careful handling (including temperature and humidity control) for best calibration, and the film must physically be returned to the laboratory and processed. Against this, photographic film can be made with a higher spatial resolution than any other type of imaging detector, and, because of its logarithmic response to light, has a wider dynamic range than most digital detectors. For example, Agfa 10E56 holographic film has a resolution of over 4,000 lines/mm—equivalent to a pixel size of 0.125 micrometers—and an active dynamic range of over five orders of magnitude in brightness, compared to typical scientific CCDs that might have pixels of about 10 micrometers and a dynamic range of 3–4 orders of magnitude.


title: Photographic film

text: Lith films used in the printing industry. In particular when exposed via a ruled-glass screen or contact-screen, halftone images suitable for printing could be generated.


title: Photographic film

text: Some film cameras have the ability to read metadata from the film canister or encode metadata on film negatives.


title: Photographic film

text: Negative imprinting is a feature of some film cameras, in which the date, shutter speed and aperture setting are recorded on the negative directly as the film is exposed. The first known version of this process was patented in the United States in 1975, using half-silvered mirrors to direct the readout of a digital clock and mix it with the light rays coming through the main camera lens. Modern SLR cameras use an imprinter fixed to the back of the camera on the film backing plate. It uses a small LED display for illumination and optics to focus the light onto a specific part of the film. The LED display is exposed on the negative at the same time the picture is taken. Digital cameras can often encode all the information in the image file itself. The Exif format is the most commonly used format.


title: Photographic film

text: In the 1980s, Kodak developed DX Encoding (from Digital indeX), or DX coding, a feature that was eventually adapted by all camera and film manufacturers. DX encoding provides information on both the film cassette and on the film regarding the type of film, number of exposures, speed (ISO/ASA rating) of the film. It consists of three types of identification. First is a barcode near the film opening of the cassette, identifying the manufacturer, film type and processing method ("see image below left"). This is used by photofinishing equipment during film processing. The second part is a barcode on the edge of the film ("see image below right"), used also during processing, which indicates the image film type, manufacturer, frame number and synchronizes the position of the frame. The third part of DX coding, known as the DX Camera Auto Sensing (CAS) code, consists of a series of 12 metal contacts on the film cassette, which beginning with cameras manufactured after 1985 could detect the type of film, number of exposures and ISO of the film, and use that information to automatically adjust the camera settings for the speed of the film.


title: Photographic film

text: The earliest practical photographic process was the daguerreotype; it was introduced in 1839 and did not use film. The light-sensitive chemicals were formed on the surface of a silver-plated copper sheet. The calotype process produced paper negatives. Beginning in the 1850s, thin glass plates coated with photographic emulsion became the standard material for use in the camera. Although fragile and relatively heavy, the glass used for photographic plates was of better optical quality than early transparent plastics and was, at first, less expensive. Glass plates continued to be used long after the introduction of film, and were used for astrophotography and electron micrography until the early 2000s, when they were supplanted by digital recording methods. Ilford continues to manufacture glass plates for special scientific applications.


title: Photographic film

text: The first flexible photographic roll film was sold by George Eastman in 1885, but this original "film" was actually a coating on a paper base. As part of the processing, the image-bearing layer was stripped from the paper and attached to a sheet of hardened clear gelatin. The first transparent plastic roll film followed in 1889. It was made from highly flammable cellulose nitrate film.


title: Photographic film

text: Although cellulose acetate or "safety film" had been introduced by Kodak in 1908, at first it found only a few special applications as an alternative to the hazardous nitrate film, which had the advantages of being considerably tougher, slightly more transparent, and cheaper. The changeover was completed for X-ray films in 1933, but although safety film was always used for 16 mm and 8 mm home movies, nitrate film remained standard for theatrical 35 mm films until it was finally discontinued in 1951.


title: Photographic film

text: Hurter and Driffield began pioneering work on the light sensitivity of photographic emulsions in 1876. Their work enabled the first quantitative measure of film speed to be devised. They developed H&D curves, which are specific for each film and paper. These curves plot the photographic density against the log of the exposure, to determine sensitivity or speed of the emulsion and enabling correct exposure.


title: Photographic film

text: Early photographic plates and films were usefully sensitive only to blue, violet and ultraviolet light. As a result, the relative tonal values in a scene registered roughly as they would appear if viewed through a piece of deep blue glass. Blue skies with interesting cloud formations photographed as a white blank. Any detail visible in masses of green foliage was due mainly to the colorless surface gloss. Bright yellows and reds appeared nearly black. Most skin tones came out unnaturally dark, and uneven or freckled complexions were exaggerated. Photographers sometimes compensated by adding in skies from separate negatives that had been exposed and processed to optimize the visibility of the clouds, by manually retouching their negatives to adjust problematic tonal values, and by heavily powdering the faces of their portrait sitters.


title: Photographic film

text: In 1873, Hermann Wilhelm Vogel discovered that the spectral sensitivity could be extended to green and yellow light by adding very small quantities of certain dyes to the emulsion. The instability of early sensitizing dyes and their tendency to rapidly cause fogging initially confined their use to the laboratory, but in 1883 the first commercially dye-sensitized plates appeared on the market. These early products, described as "isochromatic" or "orthochromatic" depending on the manufacturer, made possible a more accurate rendering of colored subject matter into a black-and-white image. Because they were still disproportionately sensitive to blue, the use of a yellow filter and a consequently longer exposure time were required to take full advantage of their extended sensitivity.


title: Photographic film

text: In 1894, the Lumière Brothers introduced their Lumière Panchromatic plate, which was made sensitive, although very unequally, to all colors including red. New and improved sensitizing dyes were developed, and in 1902 the much more evenly color-sensitive Perchromo panchromatic plate was being sold by the German manufacturer Perutz. The commercial availability of highly panchromatic black-and-white emulsions also accelerated the progress of practical color photography, which requires good sensitivity to all the colors of the spectrum for the red, green and blue channels of color information to all be captured with reasonable exposure times.


title: Photographic film

text: However, all of these were glass-based plate products. Panchromatic emulsions on a film base were not commercially available until the 1910s and did not come into general use until much later. Many photographers who did their own darkroom work preferred to go without the seeming luxury of sensitivity to red—a rare color in nature and uncommon even in man-made objects—rather than be forced to abandon the traditional red darkroom safelight and process their exposed film in complete darkness. Kodak's popular Verichrome black-and-white snapshot film, introduced in 1931, remained a red-insensitive orthochromatic product until 1956, when it was replaced by Verichrome Pan. Amateur darkroom enthusiasts then had to handle the undeveloped film by the sense of touch alone.


title: Photographic film

text: Experiments with color photography began almost as early as photography itself, but the three-color principle underlying all practical processes was not set forth until 1855, not demonstrated until 1861, and not generally accepted as "real" color photography until it had become an undeniable commercial reality in the early 20th century. Although color photographs of good quality were being made by the 1890s, they required special equipment, separate and long exposures through three color filters, complex printing or display procedures, and highly specialized skills, so they were then exceedingly rare.


title: Photographic film

text: The first practical and commercially successful color "film" was the Lumière Autochrome, a glass plate product introduced in 1907. It was expensive and not sensitive enough for hand-held "snapshot" use. Film-based versions were introduced in the early 1930s and the sensitivity was later improved. These were "mosaic screen" additive color products, which used a simple layer of black-and-white emulsion in combination with a layer of microscopically small color filter elements. The resulting transparencies or "slides" were very dark because the color filter mosaic layer absorbed most of the light passing through. The last films of this type were discontinued in the 1950s, but Polachrome "instant" slide film, introduced in 1983, temporarily revived the technology.


title: Photographic film

text: "Color film" in the modern sense of a subtractive color product with a multi-layered emulsion was born with the introduction of Kodachrome for home movies in 1935 and as lengths of 35 mm film for still cameras in 1936; however, it required a complex development process, with multiple dyeing steps as each color layer was processed separately. 1936 also saw the launch of Agfa Color Neu, the first subtractive three-color reversal film for movie and still camera use to incorporate color dye couplers, which could be processed at the same time by a single color developer. The film had some 278 patents. The incorporation of color couplers formed the basis of subsequent color film design, with the Agfa process initially adopted by Ferrania, Fuji and Konica and lasting until the late 70s/early 1980s in the West and 1990s in Eastern Europe. The process used dye-forming chemicals that terminated with sulfonic acid groups and had to be coated one layer at a time. It was a further innovation by Kodak, using dye-forming chemicals which terminated in 'fatty' tails which permitted multiple layers to coated at the same time in a single pass, reducing production time and cost that later became universally adopted along with the Kodak C-41 process.


title: Photographic film

text: Despite greater availability of color film after WWII during the next several decades, it remained much more expensive than black-and-white and required much more light, factors which combined with the greater cost of processing and printing delayed its widespread adoption. Decreasing cost, increasing sensitivity and standardized processing gradually overcame these impediments. By the 1970s, color film predominated in the consumer market, while the use of black-and-white film was increasingly confined to photojournalism and fine art photography.


title: Photographic film

text: Photographic lenses and equipment are designed around the film to be used. Although the earliest photographic materials were sensitive only to the blue-violet end of the spectrum, partially color-corrected achromatic lenses were normally used, so that when the photographer brought the visually brightest yellow rays to a sharp focus, the visually dimmest but photographically most active violet rays would be correctly focused, too. The introduction of orthochromatic emulsions required the whole range of colors from yellow to blue to be brought to an adequate focus. Most plates and films described as orthochromatic or isochromatic were practically insensitive to red, so the correct focus of red light was unimportant; a red window could be used to view the frame numbers on the paper backing of roll film, as any red light which leaked around the backing would not fog the film; and red lighting could be used in darkrooms. With the introduction of panchromatic film, the whole visible spectrum needed to be brought to an acceptably sharp focus. In all cases a color cast in the lens glass or faint colored reflections in the image were of no consequence as they would merely change the contrast a little. This was no longer acceptable when using color film. More highly corrected lenses for newer emulsions could be used with older emulsion types, but the converse was not true.


title: Photographic film

text: The progression of lens design for later emulsions is of practical importance when considering the use of old lenses, still often used on large-format equipment; a lens designed for orthochromatic film may have visible defects with a color emulsion; a lens for panchromatic film will be better but not as good as later designs.


title: Photographic film

text: Film remained the dominant form of photography until the early 21st century, when advances in digital photography drew consumers to digital formats. The first consumer electronic camera, the Sony Mavica was released in 1981, the first digital camera, the Fuji DS-X released in 1989, coupled with advances in software such as Adobe Photoshop which was released in 1989, improvements in consumer level digital color printers and increasingly widespread computers in households during the late 20th century facilitated uptake of digital photography by consumers.


title: Photographic film

text: The initial take up of digital cameras in the 1990s was slow due to their high cost and relatively low resolution of the images (compared to 35mm film), but began to make inroads among consumers in the point and shoot market and in professional applications such as sports photography where speed of results including the ability to upload pictures direct from stadia was more critical for newspaper deadlines than resolution. A key difference compared to film was that early digital cameras were soon obsolete, forcing users into a frequent cycle of replacement until the technology began to mature, whereas previously people might have only owned one or two film cameras in their lifetime. Consequently photographers demanding higher quality in sectors such as weddings, portraiture and fashion where medium format film predominated were the last to switch once resolution began to reach acceptable levels with the advent of 'full frame' sensors, 'digital backs' and medium format digital cameras.


title: Photographic film

text: Film camera sales based on CIPA figures peaked in 1998, before declining rapidly after 2000 to reach almost zero by the end of 2005 as consumers switched en masse to digital cameras (sales of which subsequently peaked in 2010). These changes foretold a similar reduction in film sales. Figures for Fujifilm show global film sales, having grown 30% in the preceding five years, peaked around the year 2000. Film sales then began a period of year-on-year falling sales, of increasing magnitude from 2003 to 2008, reaching 30% per annum before slowing. By 2011, sales were less than 10% of the peak volumes. Similar patterns were experienced by other manufacturers, varying by market exposure, with global film sales estimated at 900 million rolls in 1999 declining to only 5 million rolls by 2009. This period wreaked havoc on the film manufacturing industry and its supply chain optimised for high production volumes, plummeting sales saw firms fighting for survival. Agfa-Gevaert's decision to sell off its consumer facing arm (Agfaphoto) in 2004, was followed by a series of bankruptcies of established film manufacturers: Ilford Imaging UK in 2004, Agfaphoto in 2005, Forte in 2007, Foton in 2007, Polaroid in 2001 and 2008, Ferrania in 2009, and Eastman Kodak in 2012 (the latter only surviving after massive downsizing whilst Ilford was rescued by a management buyout). Konica-Minolta closed its film manufacturing business and exited the photographic market entirely in 2006, selling its camera patents to Sony, and Fujifilm successfully moved to rapidly diversify into other markets. The impact of this paradigm shift in technology subsequently rippled though the downstream photo processing and finishing businesses.


title: Photographic film

text: Although modern photography is dominated by digital users, film continues to be used by enthusiasts. Film remains the preference of some photographers because of its distinctive "look".


title: Photographic film

text: Despite the fact that digital cameras are by far the most commonly-used photographic tool and that the selection of available photographic films is much smaller than it once was, sales of photographic film have been on a steady upward trend. Kodak (which was under bankruptcy protection from January 2012 to September 2013) and other companies have noticed this upward trend: Dennis Olbrich, President of the Imaging Paper, Photo Chemicals and Film division at Kodak Alaris, has stated that sales of their photographic films have been growing over the past 3 or 4 years. UK-based Ilford have confirmed this trend and conducted extensive research on this subject matter, their research showing that 60% of current film users had only started using film in the past five years and that 30% of current film users were under 35 years old. Annual film sales, which were estimated to reach a low of 5 million rolls in 2009, have since doubled to around 10 million rolls in 2019. A key challenge for the industry is that production relies on the remaining coating facilities that were built for the peak years of demand, but as demand has grown capacity constraints in some of the other process steps which have been downscaled, such as converting film, have caused production bottlenecks for companies such as Kodak.


title: Photographic film

text: In 2013 Ferrania, an Italy-based film manufacturer which ceased production of photographic films between the years 2009 and 2010, was acquired by the new Film Ferrania S.R.L taking over a small part of the old company's manufacturing facilities using its former research facility, and re-employed some workers who had been laid off 3 years earlier when the company stopped production of film.


title: Photographic film

text: In November of the same year, the company started a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising $250,000 to buy tooling and machines from the old factory, with the intention of putting some of the films that had been discontinued back into production, the campaign succeeded and in October 2014 was ended with over $320,000 being raised. In February 2017, Film Ferrania unveiled their "P30" 80 ASA, Panchromatic black and white film, in 35mm format.


title: Photographic film

text: Kodak announced on January 5, 2017, that Ektachrome, one of Kodak's most well known transparency films that had been discontinued between 2012 and 2013, would be reformulated and manufactured once again, in 35 mm still and Super 8 motion picture film formats. Following the success of the release, Kodak expanded Ektachrome's format availability by also releasing the film in 120 and 4x5 formats.


title: Photographic film

text: Japan-based Fujifilm's instant film "Instax" cameras and paper have also proven to be very successful, and have replaced traditional photographic films as Fujifilm's main film products, while they continue to offer traditional photographic films in various formats and types.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The Corinth Canal () is an artificial canal in Greece, that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, arguably making the peninsula an island. The canal was dug through the Isthmus at sea level and has no locks. It is in length and only 24.6 metres (80.7 feet) wide at sea level, making it impassable for many modern ships. It is currently of little economic importance and is mainly a tourist attraction.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The canal was initially proposed in classical times and a failed effort was made to build it in the 1st century AD. Construction recommenced in 1881 but was hampered by geological and financial problems that bankrupted the original builders. It was completed in 1893, but, due to the canal's narrowness, navigational problems, and periodic closures to repair landslides from its steep walls, it failed to attract the level of traffic expected by its operators.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Several rulers of antiquity dreamed of digging a cutting through the isthmus. The first to propose such an undertaking was the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC. The project was abandoned and Periander instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland portage road, named the "Diolkos" or stone carriageway, along which ships could be towed from one side of the isthmus to the other. Periander's change of heart is attributed variously to the great expense of the project, a lack of labour or a fear that a canal would have robbed Corinth of its dominant role as an entrepôt for goods. Remnants of the "Diolkos" still exist next to the modern canal.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The Diadoch Demetrius Poliorcetes (336–283 BC) planned to construct a canal as a means to improve his communication lines, but dropped the plan after his surveyors, miscalculating the levels of the adjacent seas, feared heavy floods.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The philosopher Apollonius of Tyana prophesied that anyone who proposed to dig a Corinthian canal would be met with illness. Three Roman rulers considered the idea but all suffered violent deaths; the historians Plutarch and Suetonius both wrote that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar considered digging a canal through the isthmus but was assassinated before he could begin the project. Caligula, the third Roman Emperor, commissioned a study in 40 AD from Egyptian experts who claimed incorrectly that the Corinthian Gulf was higher than the Saronic Gulf. As a result, they concluded, if a canal were dug the island of Aegina would be inundated. Caligula's interest in the idea got no further as he too was assassinated before making any progress.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The emperor Nero was the first to attempt to construct the canal, personally breaking the ground with a pickaxe and removing the first basket-load of soil in 67 AD, but the project was abandoned when he died shortly afterwards. The Roman workforce, consisting of 6,000 Judean prisoners of war, started digging trenches from both sides, while a third group at the ridge drilled deep shafts for probing the quality of the rock (which were reused in 1881 for the same purpose). According to Suetonius, the canal was dug to a distance of four stades – approximately – or about a tenth of the total distance across the isthmus. A memorial of the attempt in the form of a relief of Hercules was left by Nero's workers and can still be seen in the canal cutting today. Other than this, as the modern canal follows the same course as Nero's, no remains have survived.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The Greek philosopher and Roman senator Herodes Atticus is known to have considered digging a canal in the 2nd century AD, but did not get a project under way. The Venetians also considered it in 1687 after their conquest of the Peloponnese but likewise did not initiate a project.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The idea of a canal was revived after Greece gained formal independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The Greek statesman Ioannis Kapodistrias asked a French engineer to assess the feasibility of the project but had to abandon it when its cost was assessed at 40 million gold francs—far too expensive for the newly independent country. Fresh impetus was given by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and, the following year, the government of Prime Minister Thrasyvoulos Zaimis passed a law authorizing the construction of a Corinth Canal. French entrepreneurs were put in charge but, following the bankruptcy of the French company that had attempted to dig the Panama Canal, French banks refused to lend money, and the company went bankrupt as well. A fresh concession was granted to the "Société Internationale du Canal Maritime de Corinthe" in 1881, which was commissioned to construct the canal and operate it for the next 99 years. Construction was formally inaugurated on 23 April 1882 in the presence of King George I of Greece.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The company's initial capital was 30,000,000 francs (US$6.0 million in the money of the day), but after eight years of work, it ran out of money, and a bid to issue 60,000 bonds of 500 francs each flopped when less than half of the bonds were sold. The company's head, István Türr, went bankrupt, as did the company itself and a bank that had agreed to raise additional funds for the project. Construction resumed in 1890, when the project was transferred to a Greek company, and was completed on 25 July 1893 after 11 years' work.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The canal experienced financial and operational difficulties after completion. The narrowness of the canal makes navigation difficult. Its high walls channel wind along its length, and the different times of the tides in the two gulfs cause strong tidal currents in the channel. For these reasons, many ship operators were unwilling to use the canal, and traffic was far below predictions. Annual traffic of just under 4 million net tons had been anticipated, but by 1906 traffic had reached only half a million net tons annually. By 1913, the total had risen to 1.5 million net tons, but the disruption caused by World War I resulted in a major decline in traffic.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Another persistent problem was the heavily faulted nature of the sedimentary rock, in an active seismic zone, through which the canal is cut. The canal's high limestone walls have been persistently unstable from the start. Although it was formally opened in July 1893 it was not opened to navigation until the following November, due to landslides. It was soon found that the wake from ships passing through the canal undermined the walls, causing further landslides. This required further expense in building retaining walls along the water's edge for more than half of the length of the canal, using 165,000 cubic metres of masonry. Between 1893 and 1940, it was closed for a total of four years for maintenance to stabilise the walls. In 1923 alone, 41,000 cubic metres of material fell into the canal, which took two years to clear out.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Serious damage was caused to the canal during World War II. On 26 April 1941, during the Battle of Greece between defending British troops and the invading forces of Nazi Germany, German parachutists and glider troops attempted to capture the main bridge over the canal. The bridge was defended by the British and had been wired for demolition. The Germans surprised the defenders with a glider-borne assault in the early morning of 26 April and captured the bridge, but the British set off the charges and destroyed the structure. Other authors maintain that German pioneers cut the detonation wires, and a lucky hit by British artillery triggered the explosion. The bridge was replaced by a combined rail/road bridge built in 25 days by the IV Ferrovieri Battalion, of the Royal Italian Army's Ferrovieri Engineer Regiment.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Three years later, as German forces retreated from Greece, the canal was put out of action by German "scorched earth" operations. German forces used explosives to trigger landslides to block the canal, destroyed the bridges and dumped locomotives, bridge wreckage and other infrastructure into the canal to hinder repairs. The United States Army Corps of Engineers began to clear the canal in November 1947 and reopened it for shallow-draft traffic by 7 July 1948, and for all traffic by that September.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Because the canal is difficult to navigate for large vessels, it is mostly used by smaller recreational boats. A notable exception occurred on 9 October 2019, when the cruise ship MS "Braemar" became the widest and longest ship to transit the canal.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The canal has been closed since the beginning of 2021 after a landslide. It re-opened in June 2022 until October 2022. After further safety measures, the canal is scheduled to reopen in 2023.


title: Corinth Canal

text: The canal consists of a single channel deep, excavated at sea level (thus requiring no locks), measuring long by wide at sea level and wide at the bottom. The rock walls, which rise above sea level, are at a near-vertical 80° angle. The canal is crossed by a railway line, a road and a motorway at a height of about . In 1988 submersible bridges were installed at sea level at each end of the canal, by the eastern harbour of Isthmia and the western harbour of Poseidonia.


title: Corinth Canal

text: Although the canal saves the journey around the Peloponnese, it is too narrow for modern ocean freighters, as it can accommodate ships only of a width up to and draft up to . In October 2019, with over 900 passengers on board, a wide and long Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines cruise ship successfully traversed the canal to set a new record for longest ship to pass through the canal. Ships can pass through the canal only one convoy at a time on a one-way system. Larger ships have to be towed by tugs. The canal is currently used mainly by tourist ships; around 11,000 ships per year travel through the waterway.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: The 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" () was an elite division of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, formed from the Standarten of the SS-TV. Its name, "Totenkopf", is German for "death's head"the skull and crossbones symboland it is thus sometimes referred to as the Death's Head Division.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: The division was formed through the expansion of Kampfgruppe Eicke, a battle group named – in keeping with German military practice – after its commander, Theodor Eicke. Most of the battle group's personnel had been transferred to the Waffen SS from concentration camp guard units, which were known collectively as "SS-Totenkopfverbände"; others were former members of "Selbstschutz": ethnic German militias that had committed war crimes in Poland.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: The division became notorious for its brutality, and committed numerous war crimes, including the Le Paradis massacre. The remnants of the division surrendered on 9 May 1945 to American forces in Czechoslovakia.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: The SS Division Totenkopf was formed in October 1939. The division had close ties to the camp service and its members. When first formed a total of 6,500 men from the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Camp SS) were transferred into the Totenkopf Division. The Totenkopf was initially formed from concentration camp guards of the 1st ("Oberbayern"), 2nd ("Brandenburg") and 3rd ("Thüringen") Standarten (regiments) of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, and men from the SS Heimwehr Danzig. Members of other SS militias were also transferred into the division in early 1940; these units had been involved in multiple massacres of Polish civilians, political leaders and prisoners of war. The division had officers from the "SS-Verfügungstruppe" (SS-VT), of whom many had already seen action in Poland. The division was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke. At the time of the Battle of France, the division was equipped with ex-Czech weapons.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: Totenkopf was initially held in reserve during the Battle of France and invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940. The division was committed on 16 May to the front in Belgium. Later, it was decided that Totenkopf would reinforce the breakthrough of Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division in the Cambrai area. Reaching the Bazuel area straddling both sides of the river it arrived on the front on 19 May, facing elements of the French 1st Moroccan Infantry Division, 5th North African Infantry Division, and 9th Motorized Division. Totenkopf suffered 16 dead and 53 wounded while killing 200 Moroccan soldiers in its first day in action. In its first major battle it captured the town of Catillon-sur-Sambre and its associated canal in fierce house-to-house fighting, blocking the exits of the town and trapping the Moroccan force in the center around the market square, eventually captured thousands of remaining troops. Soldiers from Totenkopf executed many captured Moroccans, due to Arabs being considered "racially inferior". On the morning of the next day, May 20 it contained a major Moroccan counter attack near Ribeauville, driving it back with its own counter attack, before crossing the Selle river and linking up with Rommel’s division in the outskirts of Cambrai. Overall in the actions around the Cambrai/Sambre area the division captured 16,000 troops.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: Whilst subsequently trying to drive through to the coast, Totenkopf was involved in the Battle of Arras. On 21 May units of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, supported by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, overran some of Totenkopf’s positions, their standard anti-tank gun, the 3.7 cm PaK 36, being no match for the British Matilda tank although they quickly halted the British. In the following days, the unit committed several large-scale massacres of French civilians, most notable the Berles-Monchel and Aubigny-en-Artois massacres. On 27 May, the 4 Company of the Totenkopf under the command of "Hauptsturmführer" Fritz Knöchlein, committed the Le Paradis massacre, where 97 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine-gunned after surrendering, with survivors killed with bayonets. Only two men survived.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: In April 1941, the division was ordered East to join Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb's Army Group North. Leeb's force was tasked with advancing on Leningrad and formed the northern wing of Operation Barbarossa. Totenkopf took part in the advance through Lithuania and Latvia, and by July had breached the Stalin Line. The division then advanced past Demyansk to Leningrad where it was involved in heavy fighting in August.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: During Soviet winter counter-offensive, the division was encircled for several months near Demyansk in what became known as the Demyansk Pocket. During the fighting in the pocket, it was re-designated "Kampfgruppe Eicke" due to its reduced size. In April 1942, the division broke out of the pocket. At Demyansk, about 80% of its men were killed, wounded or missing in action. The division was sent to France to be refitted in late October 1942. While there, the division took part in Case Anton, the takeover of Vichy France in November 1942. For this operation, the division was supplied with a tank battalion and redesignated 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf. The division remained in France until February 1943, when its previous commander, Theodor Eicke, resumed control.


title: 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

text: In February 1943 the division was moved back to the Eastern Front as part of Erich von Manstein's Army Group South. The division, as a part of SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser's II SS Panzer Corps, took part in the Third Battle of Kharkov, blunting the Soviet offensive. During this campaign, Theodor Eicke was killed when his spotter aircraft was shot down. Hermann Priess succeeded Eicke as commander. The SS Panzer Corps, including the division, was then shifted north to take part in Operation Citadel, the offensive aimed at reducing the Kursk salient. It was during February 1943 that the 3rd SS Panzer Regiment received a company of Tiger I heavy tanks.