title: The Brothers Johnson

text: Louis Johnson recorded a gospel music album in 1981 with his own group Passage, which included his then-wife Valerie Johnson and former Brothers Johnson percussionist/singer Richard Heath. He played bass on Michael Jackson's "Thriller". In 1985 he recorded a single, "Kinky", on Capitol Records; it appears on his "Evolution" album which was exclusively released in Europe that year. Louis then made 3 instructional videotapes for the Starlicks video-distribution company in which he shared his bass-playing skills. The first was released in 1985. He then settled down to enjoy family life with his wife and son, but by 1988 his then-manager Diane Taren talked him into going back into the recording studio. He started his bass academy during the 1990s and gave workshop clinics via his own Website. Louis Johnson died on May 21, 2015, age 60. His last performance was in 2013.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: George Johnson released one single in 1985, "Back Against the Wall", on Quincy Jones' own Qwest label. A complete album (recorded but unreleased) came from that session, as George confirmed when he and Louis were interviewed around 1987/88 for "Blues & Soul Magazine" in the United Kingdom (see link below). George also delivered guitar work for Steve Arrington's album "Dancing in the Key of Life" (1985) and had ad-libbed vocals on the track "Think Back And Remember" from the "Galaxian" album by the Jeff Lorber Fusion, released in 1981 on Arista Records.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: In 1984 the brothers reunited in the recording studio. The resulting Leon Sylvers-produced LP, "Out of Control", did not equal their past success, but it did garner them another R&B hit with "You Keep Me Coming Back". They teamed up again in 1988 to record "Kickin"', the title track of which ("Kick It to the Curb") was a collaboration with their then-neighbor Irene Cara. Although "Kick It to the Curb" became a minor hit, the album's success was even more limited.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: Between the two albums, both George and Louis released their aforementioned solo material and also appeared on "Street Shadows", an album by keyboardist/arranger David Diggs, who had provided horn and string arrangements for "Winners", "Blast!", and Louis' "Passage". "Last Night", "Street"s opening track showcases George's bass-guitar playing. He previously showed his bass skills on tracks like "Teaser" from "Winners" and "The Great Awakening" from "Blast", the same way Louis shows his guitar skills on the duo's various compositions.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: Also during this time, the band's song "Tomorrow" (originally an instrumental on the B-side of "Get the Funk Out Ma Face") was recorded with vocals by Tevin Campbell for Quincy Jones' "Back on the Block" release in 1989. This album also included Jones' hit remake of the Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", featuring Ray Charles and Chaka Khan.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: Besides the brothers' brief appearance in Japan around 1994 and George guest-appearing at a Graham Central Station concert in Japan (including a released double-CD), the duo launched an expanded US tour in 2002 which got positive, wide exposure. It was visited by many fans and various artists in the entertainment business. Along with a website and discussion-forum, online visitors could share their experiences of the shows by wandering through the Land of Ladies and reliving Funkadelia's heyday. A few years later, a combi-release of live-CD + DVD was released under the name "Strawberry Letter 23: Live".


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: In 2006, Louis gave a duo-show with a drummer on the "Poetry in Motion 1 Festival" in Maryland. In late 2007 George performed with his own band at a Detroit festival, including a persona called Sir Nose. These days George performs with a special band, an initiative of Michael Henderson that includes Adina Howard, Cherrelle, Ray Parker Jr., and others.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: Louis Johnson was found dead at his home in Las Vegas, May 21, 2015. The cause of death was gastrointestinal bleeding of the esophagus.


title: The Brothers Johnson

text: In 2022, the brothers' song "Ain't We Funkin' Now" was sampled in singer Harry Styles' song 'Daydreaming" from his third album "Harry's House".


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan national cricket team. A member of the International Cricket Council since 1952, it represents the country's men's and women's national teams in international cricket tournaments played under the ICC.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: Following the establishment of Pakistan as an independent dominion of the British Empire in 1947, professional and amateur cricket commenced in the same year, seeing as local infrastructure had already been established when the country was part of the British Raj. Cricket matches were arranged informally until 1948, when a Board of Control was formally instituted. Pakistan was admitted to the Imperial Cricket Conference (currently known as International Cricket Council) in July 1952, and has since been a full member, playing Test cricket. The team's first Test series took place in India between October and December 1952.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The Pakistan Cricket Board was inaugurated on 1 May 1949 as the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP). The first meeting, held in the committee rooms of Lahore Gymkhana, saw HE Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot, the Nawab of Mamdot, made president and chairman, with Justice A. R. Cornelius as one of three vice-presidents. The following year, Cornelius became chairman of the working committee, until he relinquished his connection with the board in early 1953.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The working chairman was always one of the three vice-presidents. In April 1957, Ayub Khan imposed three more new vice-presidents (himself being one of them). Then between December 1958 and September 1969 the post of vice-president disappeared.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The response to turmoil within the board has on four occasions been to suspend the rules and appoint an ad hoc committee. The first ad hoc committee was appointed in September 1960 and did not disband until May 1963 having created a new constitution. The President of Pakistan would now nominate the board president who would in turn nominate the other members of the executive committee to sit for a period of three years. Representatives of the four provincial cricket associations and Government departments formed the executive committee.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The BCCP was re-organised in the 1970s and was headed by former cricketers, professional administrators and trustees, who were often businessmen. In November 1976 players' demands for increased salaries reached a crisis and the Pakistan Sports Board took over running the B.C.C.P.'s affairs. Long-serving president, the formidable Kardar, was in the thick of the dispute. The revolt against Kardar forced him to resign in May 1977 and led to a new Ad Hoc Committee replacing the Board Council in 1978 running Pakistan cricket and again changing the constitution. Provincial Cricket Associations were eliminated and divisional and city CAs became members, giving most of the influence to the city Cricket Association of Lahore and Karachi.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The Board now governed a network of teams sponsored by corporations and banks, city associations and clubs. There is no province-based official team type organisation of domestic cricket in Pakistan and Lahore and Karachi cities are the two top tiers of all cricket, including reservoirs of fresh talent.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: Pakistan cricket was involved by dissension and controversies over the national team's poor performance during the tour of India and a public uproar forced the end of the Ad Hoc Committee. The chairman and team captain Asif Iqbal had to step down. Air Marshal Nur Khan now became chairman and he saw the banks and other organisations increase their participation on the Board Council in the face of protests from the zonal organisations.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: A third ad hoc committee under Javed Burki took charge of BCCP affairs in January 1994 and made a new constitution including giving a new name, the Pakistan Cricket Board (P.C.B.) It introduced a chairman and chief executive.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: After taking heavy criticism on the grounds of corruption and match fixing, the Board was taken over by a fourth Ad Hoc Committee formed on 17 July 1999 which remains in place despite undertakings from Musharraf to bring it to an end. The Pakistan Cricket Board re-emerged by taking the initiative to sponsor the hugely successful 2004 tour of Pakistan by their rivals India. The Pakistan Cricket Board has competed and has associated itself with the Twenty20 cricket form and has also proven popular and hopes to similarly revive popular interest in domestic games. However, Pakistan's early exit from the 2007 World Cup cast a shadow and later Dr. Nasim Ashraf's resigned at the end of 2008.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: Ejaz Butt was named the PCB Chairman in October 2008. Zaka Ashraf took over from Butt in October 2011.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: On 28 May 2013, Zaka Ashraf was suspended as PCB Chairman by Islamabad High Court due to a dubious election. The newly sworn in Government of Nawaz Sharif named Najam Sethi as acting PCB Chairman. On 15 October 2013, the governing council of the Pakistan Cricket Board was dissolved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, and an interim five man management committee was named consisting of acting chairman Najam Sethi‚ Shahryar Khan, two former players (Zaheer Abbas and Haroon Rasheed, and former team manager Naveed Cheema.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: On 15 January 2014, Zaka Ashraf was reinstated as PCB Chairman. The PML-N Government was unhappy with the reinstatement (since Ashraf was a PPP appointee), and this led to Ashraf's sacking. In February, PCB Governing Board was dissolved and an eight-member management committee (comprising Shakil Sheikh, Shaharyar Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Iqbal Qasim, Naveed Akram Cheema, Yusaf Naseem Khokar and Faridullah Khan, the secretary IPC). Najam Sethi was elected as chairman by the management committee.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The structure of domestic cricket in Pakistan at the highest level has changed many times since 1947 with the latest restructure being enforced in 2019. Previously domestic cricket operated with departmental, city and regional teams - a set up encouraged by Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Since 1947, the domestic first class cricket system has varied considerably per year with teams ranging from 7 to 26 and tournament matches operating under different formats (often changes occurred every year). With the advent of domestic List A and T20 forms of cricket in the 1970s and 2000s, there has been no consistent set up (as has been noted for first class cricket in Pakistan). Historically, school and club cricket has also suffered due to inconsistencies in top tier domestic cricket. The consistent changes in the domestic structure and the gradual introduction of departmental teams was encouraged as it provided permanent jobs to players. Matches were rarely televised due to lack of quality cricket and lack of interest in departmental cricket. This inconsistent system was widely criticised on the basis of low quality cricket and reduced competition.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: In 2019, six regional teams were created on provincial lines. The teams would compete in the principal competitions in all three formats of the game: the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (First Class), Pakistan Cup (List A) and National T20 Cup (Domestic T20). The PCB's rationale in reducing the number of teams in domestic cricket was to concentrate talent in order to increase competition and improve the quality of cricket. The new structure also consisted of corresponding second XI, under-19, under-16 and under-13 competitions, and live television coverage of top level matches. The restructuring also reorganised district level cricket into a three tier bottom-up system, with 90 city cricket associations supervising school and club cricket at grassroots level, and inter-city tournaments providing a stepping-stone to the six elite regional teams.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The six regional teams (operated by respective six cricket associations) ensure that the affairs of the associations at city level are regulated. They frame policies that will develop cricket at the grassroots, manage club cricket in collaboration with the 90 city associations and also oversee intra-city competitions. The teams are responsible for revenue generation through sponsorship, marketing and strategic collaborations with business conglomerates. Each of the six regional teams have a chief executive officer and a management committee that has been tasked with supervising all cricketing activities. These changes have been made by the PCB in order to decentralise the administrative body so that it can limit itself to a supervisory role by delegating responsibilities related to the development of the sport to the provincial associations. This tiered structure has been enshrined in the PCB constitution.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The PCB headquarters are located near the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. All PCB Officials sit there during the weekdays from 9AM to 5PM.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: Pakistan Cricket Board for the first time held inaugural awards in 2012. This new PCB initiative is meant to recognize, acknowledge and honour Pakistan's prime cricketing talent that has consistently stood out on the field of play.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The Australian Higher Commissioner to Pakistan, Peter Heyward, visited the PCB headquarters at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on 3 September 2012. He appreciated the board's efforts to bring cricket back in Pakistan. He further said he always love to see the Australian team playing against Pakistan in front of Pakistani people and on their home grounds.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: The Asian Cricket Council Development Committee meeting was held in Islamabad on 24 September 2012 and was chaired by Zaka Ashraf. The Chairman PCB called on the members to come over to Pakistan to play cricket. ACC members assured the then Chairman of their support and Chief Executive of ACC Syed Ashraful Haq said they felt no security concern in Pakistan and considered playing cricket here to be safe as anywhere in the world.


title: Pakistan Cricket Board

text: David Richardson, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council, visited National Cricket Academy on 12 January 2013. He said that Pakistan Cricket Board is working very hard to bring International Cricket back to Pakistan and it is our role to support Pakistan Cricket Board in its efforts to revive international cricket whenever it is possible.


title: John Torode

text: John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's "This Morning", he started presenting a revamped "MasterChef" on BBC One in 2005. He is a restaurateur; former owner of the Luxe and a second restaurant, Smiths of Smithfield. He has also written a number of cookbooks, including writing some with fellow "MasterChef" presenter and judge, Gregg Wallace.


title: John Torode

text: John Douglas Torode was born on 23 July 1965 as the youngest of three boys in Melbourne, Victoria, but between the ages of four (when his mother died) and ten he lived in Maitland, New South Wales, with his brother Andrew, and his grandmother who taught him to cook. He then lived in Edithvale, Melbourne, with his father and his brothers, though his father was frequently away from home because of work.


title: John Torode

text: His early cooking career started at Le Coq Au Vin restaurant in Aspendale and his later apprenticeship was at several establishments in Beaumauris, both in Melbourne. He has said that the food in his childhood was fairly normal, and roast chicken remains one of his favourite dishes because of the connection to his childhood, although his favourite meal at that time was crumbed lamb cutlets. He has also said that one of the first books he enjoyed at school was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.


title: John Torode

text: He began his cooking career at the age of 16, after leaving school to attend catering college. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1991. A year later he began working at Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglino's as a sous chef for the Conran Group under Terence Conran. While working at Quaglino's, Torode first met Gregg Wallace, whose company supplied the vegetables for the restaurant.


title: John Torode

text: He cooked on ITV's "This Morning" in 1996, and continued in that role until 2000. In 1998, his cookbook "The Mezzo Cookbook" won the James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Food Photography". He opened his former restaurant in Smithfield, London in 2000, called "Smiths of Smithfield". After a year, he opened a second restaurant, called Cafeteria, near Notting Hill Gate. Its closure made way for larger projects.


title: John Torode

text: Torode has presented a show for the Good Food channel in the UK alongside former "Celebrity MasterChef" contestant Hardeep Singh Kohli, called "New British Kitchen". The show aimed to feature the impact of imported cuisines in Britain. Other television work has included an appearance on the BBC's "The Magicians", which saw Torode and Wallace participate in a stunt by magicians Barry and Stuart which hung the pair off the side of the Tate Modern in London.


title: John Torode

text: He presented the 2014 series "John Torode's Australia"; the 10 episodes retrace the flavours of John Torode's childhood and the people that inspired his passion for food as he travels the country to go back in time. It has been hosted on BBC Good Food and has so far had three reruns. "John Torode's Australia" was also recorded as having the largest viewing figures on BBC Good Food in 2014. In 2015, he presented "John Torode's Argentina" as part of the BBC Two series "A Cook Abroad", looking specifically at the country's production, cooking and consumption of beef. The episode explored the history and culture behind Argentina's great beef production and included Torode joining a group of gauchos on a working livestock ranch, before ending at a restaurant in Mendoza where cooking beef is regarded as being an art form.


title: John Torode

text: Torode was featured on BBC News as one of the people behind the project 'Come..Eat Together!' The project encourages the elderly to get together in the community and enjoy food together, encouraging a better social existence and an air of security in their lives.


title: John Torode

text: Torode's 2016 show, "John Torode's Malaysian Adventure", aired on the Good Food channel throughout the early part of 2016. The 10-part series, filmed throughout Malaysia and the UK, and was commissioned as a result of the success of "John Torode's Australia". In the programme, Torode explores the vibrant and varied cuisine of Malaysia, and travels throughout the country from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi Island off the northern coast. He cooks with local chefs, meets celebrity restaurateurs, visits night markets and explores the impact of history and culture on the evolution of Malaysian food.


title: John Torode

text: The "Korean Food Tour" (2017, Good Food Channel) sees Torode travel around South Korea, to the mountains, the cities, the countryside and the coast and work his way through some of the nation's top 100 dishes then creating his own version of Korean classics with a modern twist.


title: John Torode

text: Torode's recent food tours led to his 2017/2018 culinary adventure "John Torode's Asia". This recently premiered on the Good Food channel, achieving the highest viewing figures for the channel since March 2013. Commissioned by Good Food's Luke Hale and UKTV's Sally Quick, the series is funded in partnership with a number of organisations including the Hong Kong Tourism Board.


title: John Torode

text: In each location, Torode looks for the most inspiring cooks, discovering the distinctive flavours of their country's cuisine. Cooking on location with local chefs, each episode sees several dishes created, popular and typical of their region. This includes eating in an underwater restaurant, discovering a street food market on the banks of the Yangtze River and making traditional dumplings with a Beijing family, ultimately inspiring the viewer to bring the cuisine of Asia into cooking.


title: John Torode

text: In 2018, "John Torode's Middle East" (10 x 30 minutes) produced by Blink Films, featured the chef as he travelled across the region to find delicious eats.


title: John Torode

text: In March 2019, Torode, along with actress and food writer Lisa Faulkner, was given his own weekend cooking show. They host "John And Lisa's Weekend Kitchen" on Sunday mornings on ITV.


title: John Torode

text: John Torode has signed on for two years as ambassador of The Kimberley through APT, one of Australia’s leading companies in the tourism industry. Torode said: “The Kimberley was a region I was aware of but even as an Aussie I hadn’t considered it as a holiday destination. Coming on board as APT’s ambassador and visiting for the first time this year, just wow – it blew me away.”


title: John Torode

text: On 21 July 2022, "John Torode's Ireland" premiered on "Food Network", the six-part series sees the chef discovering Ireland's varied cuisine.


title: John Torode

text: In 2005, the BBC television show "MasterChef" was relaunched with an updated format and with Torode and Wallace as presenters replacing Gary Rhodes. Torode was chosen instead of food critic AA Gill. By 2011, the show had been sold to 25 countries. Torode has said in interviews that he enjoys that the show is unscripted and that the cameras are just there to capture the genuine interactions between the judges and the contestants. The show subsequently spawned a spin-off, also hosted by Torode and Wallace, called "Celebrity MasterChef". In October 2009, Torode opened a restaurant in Spitalfields market, Commercial street, London, called "The Luxe". He sold his shares and moved on from the two restaurants, but under his leadership, turnover at the Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield reached £9.2 million.


title: John Torode

text: He has also co-presented "Junior MasterChef", initially along with Nadia Sawalha, the former winner of "Celebrity MasterChef", and more recently alongside Donal Skehan.


title: John Torode

text: Torode has been a guest several times on BBC One's "The One Show", "" and "The Graham Norton Show", and on ITV's "Loose Women" and "This Morning". On 23 July 2014 (as a keen cyclist) Torode was a guest on ITV4's "The Cycle Show".


title: John Torode

text: Torode has four children. He was married to Jessica, in 2000, the mother of his son and daughter but was divorced in 2014 after separating in 2011. He also has two other children from previous relationships.


title: John Torode

text: Torode has been in a relationship with actress and "Celebrity Masterchef" winner Lisa Faulkner since 2015. The couple married on 24 October 2019 at Aynhoe Park, Oxfordshire.


title: John Torode

text: Torode was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to food and charity.


title: John Torode

text: During a 2018 series of "MasterChef", Torode received significant criticism from Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean people when Malaysian contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin was eliminated. Although John correctly commented that the meat should be “falling off the bone”, Gregg Wallace had commented that her contesting rendang dish served with nasi lemak "wasn't crispy enough".


title: John Torode

text: "I like the rendang flavour, there's a coconut sweetness. However, the chicken skin isn't crispy. It can't be eaten and all the sauce is on the skin so I can't eat it," quoted co-judge Gregg Wallace during his judging of the dish, with Torode commenting that the dish was 'not really flavoursome'. Many responded to inform Gregg Wallace that rendang, which is a spicy stew normally made with chicken or beef of tender texture, doesn't consist of crispy outer skin. Subsequently, viewers took to Facebook and Twitter to comment about the rendang's actual texture and how the judges were at fault for eliminating the contestant, when the actual reason was based on Torode's professionalism of flavour enhancements, not Wallace's inexperience of how the dish should be cooked; hence Wallace's reference to a lack of 'crispy skin' including former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak who posted a picture of the dish on Instagram with the attached caption, "Who eats ‘crispy’ chicken rendang?" Torode responded to the criticism through Twitter by writing: "Maybe Rendang is Indonesian! Love this! Brilliant how excited you are all getting. Namaste", which resulted in further backlash.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted after her appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947–1952. Although she continued to work on Broadway in the 1950s, her blacklisting by the American film industry caused a drop in her income. Many praised Hellman for refusing to answer questions by HUAC, but others believed, despite her denial, that she had belonged to the Communist Party.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: As a playwright, Hellman had many successes on Broadway, including "Watch on the Rhine", "The Autumn Garden", "Toys in the Attic", "Another Part of the Forest", "The Children's Hour" and "The Little Foxes". She adapted her semi-autobiographical play "The Little Foxes" into a screenplay, which starred Bette Davis. Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett, who also was blacklisted for 10 years; the couple never married.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Beginning in the late 1960s, and continuing through to her death, Hellman turned to writing a series of popular memoirs of her colorful life and acquaintances. Hellman's accuracy was challenged in 1979 on "The Dick Cavett Show", when Mary McCarthy said of her memoirs that "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Hellman brought a defamation suit against McCarthy and Cavett, and during the suit, investigators found errors in Hellman's "Pentimento." They said that the "Julia" section of "Pentimento", which had been the basis for the Oscar-winning 1977 movie of the same name, was actually based on the life of Muriel Gardiner. Martha Gellhorn, one of the most prominent war correspondents of the twentieth century, as well as Ernest Hemingway's third wife, said that Hellman's remembrances of Hemingway and the Spanish Civil War were wrong. McCarthy, Gellhorn and others accused Hellman of lying about her membership in the Communist Party and of being a committed Stalinist.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: The defamation suit was unresolved at the time of Hellman's death in 1984; her executors eventually withdrew the complaint. Hellman's modern-day literary reputation rests largely on the plays and screenplays from the first three decades of her career, and not on the memoirs published later in her life.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Lillian Florence Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a Jewish family. Her mother was Julia Newhouse of Demopolis, Alabama, and her father was Max Hellman, a New Orleans shoe salesman. Julia Newhouse's parents were Sophie Marx, from a successful banking family, and Leonard Newhouse, a Demopolis liquor dealer. During most of her childhood she spent half of each year in New Orleans, in a boarding home run by her aunts, and the other half in New York City. She studied for two years at New York University and then took several courses at Columbia University.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: On December 31, 1925, Hellman married Arthur Kober, a playwright and press agent, although they often lived apart. In 1929, she traveled around Europe for a time and settled in Bonn to continue her education. She felt an initial attraction to a Nazi student group that advocated "a kind of socialism" until their questioning about her Jewish ties made their antisemitism clear, and she returned immediately to the United States. Years later she wrote, "Then for the first time in my life I thought about being a Jew."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Beginning in 1930, for about a year she earned $50 a week as a reader for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood, writing summaries of novels and periodical literature for potential screenplays. Although she found the job rather dull, it created many opportunities for her to meet a greater range of creative people while she became involved in more political and artistic scenes during that time. While there she met and fell in love with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. She divorced Kober and returned to New York City in 1932. When she met Hammett in a Hollywood restaurant, she was 24 and he was 36. They maintained their relationship off and on until his death in January 1961.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman's drama "The Children's Hour" premiered on Broadway on November 24, 1934, and ran for 691 performances. It depicts a false accusation of lesbianism by a schoolgirl against two of her teachers. The falsehood is discovered, but before amends can be made one teacher is rejected by her fiancé and the other commits suicide. Following the success of "The Children's Hour", Hellman returned to Hollywood as a screenwriter for Goldwyn Pictures at $2,500 a week. She first collaborated on a screenplay for "The Dark Angel", an earlier play and silent film.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Following that film's successful release in 1935, Goldwyn purchased the rights to "The Children's Hour" for $35,000 while it still was running on Broadway. Hellman rewrote the play to conform to the standards of the Motion Picture Production Code, under which any mention of lesbianism was impossible. Instead, one schoolteacher is accused of having sex with the other's fiancé. It appeared in 1936 under the title, "These Three". She next wrote the screenplay for "Dead End" (1937), which featured the first appearance of the Dead End Kids and premiered in 1937.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: On May 1, 1935, Hellman joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Dashiell Hammett, Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Frank Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I.F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, and Arthur Miller. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Also in 1935, Hellman joined the struggling Screen Writers Guild, devoted herself to recruiting new members, and proved one of its most aggressive advocates. One of its key issues was the dictatorial way producers credited writers for their work, known as "screen credit." Hellman had received no recognition for some of her earlier projects, although she was the principal author of "The Westerner" (1934) and a principal contributor to "The Melody Lingers On" (1935).


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In December 1936, her play "Days to Come" closed its Broadway run after just seven performances. In it, she portrayed a labor dispute in a small Ohio town during which the characters try to balance the competing claims of owners and workers, both represented as valid. Communist publications denounced her failure to take sides. That same month she joined several other literary figures, including Dorothy Parker and Archibald MacLeish, in forming and funding Contemporary Historians, Inc., to back a film project, "The Spanish Earth", to demonstrate support for the anti-Franco forces in the Spanish Civil War.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In March 1937, Hellman joined a group of 88 U.S. public figures in signing "An Open Letter to American Liberals" that protested an effort headed by John Dewey to examine Leon Trotsky's defense against his 1936 condemnation by the Soviet Union. The letter has been viewed by some critics as a defense of Stalin's Moscow Purge Trials. It charged some of Trotsky's defenders with aiming to destabilize the Soviet Union and said the Soviet Union "should be left to protect itself against treasonable plots as it saw fit." It asked U.S. liberals and progressives to unite with the Soviet Union against the growing threat of fascism and avoid an investigation that would only fuel "the reactionary sections of the press and public" in the United States. Endorsing this view, the editors of the "New Republic" wrote that "there are more important questions than Trotsky's guilt." Those who signed the "Open Letter" called for a united front against fascism, which, in their view, required uncritical support of the Soviet Union.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In October 1937, Hellman spent a few weeks in Spain to lend her support, as other writers had, to the International Brigades of non-Spaniards who had joined the anti-Franco side in the Spanish Civil War. As bombs fell on Madrid, she broadcast a report to the U.S. on Madrid Radio. In 1989, journalist and Ernest Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn, herself in Spain at that period, disputed the account of this trip in Hellman's memoirs and claimed that Hellman waited until all the witnesses were dead before describing events that never occurred. Nevertheless, Hellman had documented her trip in the "New Republic" in April 1938 as "A Day in Spain." Langston Hughes wrote admiringly of the radio broadcast in 1956.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman was a member of the Communist Party from 1938 to 1940, by her own account written in 1952, "a most casual member. I attended very few meetings and saw and heard nothing more than people sitting around a room talking of current events or discussing the books they had read. I drifted away from the Communist Party because I seemed to be in the wrong place. My own maverick nature was no more suitable to the political left than it had been to the conservative background from which I came."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Her play "The Little Foxes" opened on Broadway on February 13, 1939, and ran for 410 performances. The play starred Tallulah Bankhead as Regina, and after its success on Broadway the play toured extensively in the United States. The play was Hellman's personal favorite, and by far the most commercially and critically successful play she originated. However, she had an epic feud with Bankhead when Tallulah wanted to perform for a benefit for Finnish Relief, as the USSR had recently invaded Finland. Without thinking Hellman's approval was necessary, Bankhead and the cast told the press the news of the benefit. They were shocked when Hellman and Shumlin declined to give permission for the benefit performance, citing non-intervention and anti-militarism. Bankhead told reporters, "I've adopted Spanish Loyalist orphans and sent money to China, causes for which both Mr. Shumlin and Miss Hellman were strenuous proponents ... why should [they] suddenly become so insular?"


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman countered her star: "I don't believe in that fine, lovable little Republic of Finland that everyone gets so weepy about. I've been there and it seems like a little pro-Nazi Republic to me." Bankhead, who hated Nazism and had become a strong critic of Communism since the mid 1930s Great Purge and for what she saw as a communist betrayal of the Second Spanish Republic, was outraged by Hellman's actions and thought Hellman a moral hypocrite. Hellman had never been to Finland. Bankhead and the cast suspected that Hellman's refusal was motivated by her fanatical devotion to the Stalinist regime in Soviet Russia. Hellman and Bankhead became adversaries as a result of the feud, not speaking to each other for a quarter of a century afterwards.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman had aggravated the matter further by claiming that the real reason for turning down the benefit was because when the Spanish Republican government fell to Franco's fascists, Hellman and Shumlin requested that Bankhead put on a benefit for the Spanish loyalists fleeing to neighboring France, and the actress and company refused. Bankhead was further incensed by these comments, as she had helped many Spanish Republican fighters and families to flee the Spanish Civil War in 1937, after they had been turned on by Stalinist fighters behind their own Republican lines. Hellman and Bankhead would not speak again until late 1963. Years later, drama critic Joseph Wood Krutch recounted how he and fellow critic George Jean Nathan had shared a cab with Hellman and Bankhead:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Bankhead said: "That's the last time I act in one of your god-damned plays". Miss Hellman responded by slamming her purse against the actress's jaw. ... I decided that no self-respecting Gila monster would have behaved in that manner.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: On January 9, 1940, viewing the spread of fascism in Europe and fearing similar political developments in the United States, she said at a luncheon of the American Booksellers Association:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Her play "Watch on the Rhine" opened on Broadway on April 1, 1941, and ran for 378 performances. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. She wrote the play in 1940, when its call for a united international alliance against Hitler directly contradicted the Communist position at the time, following the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939. Early in 1942, Hellman accompanied the production to Washington, D.C., for a benefit performance where she spoke with President Roosevelt. Hammett wrote the screenplay for the movie version that appeared in 1943.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In October 1941, Hellman and Ernest Hemingway co-hosted a dinner to raise money for anti-Nazi activists imprisoned in France. New York Governor Herbert Lehman agreed to participate, but withdrew because some of the sponsoring organizations, he wrote, "have long been connected with Communist activities." Hellman replied: "I do not and I did not ask the politics of any members of the committee and there is nobody who can with honesty vouch for anybody but themselves." She assured him the funds raised would be used as promised and later provided him with a detailed accounting. The next month she wrote him: "I am sure it will make you sad and ashamed as it did me to know that, of the seven resignations out of 147 sponsors, five were Jews. Of all the peoples in the world, I think, we should be the last to hold back help, on any grounds, from those who fought for us."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1942, Hellman received an Academy Award nomination for her screenplay for the film version of "The Little Foxes". Two years later, she received another nomination for her screenplay for "The North Star", the only original screenplay of her career. She objected to the film's production numbers that, she said, turned a village festival into "an extended opera bouffe peopled by musical comedy characters", but still told the "New York Times" that it was "a valuable and true picture which tells a good deal of the truth about fascism". To establish the difference between her screenplay and the film, Hellman published her screenplay in the fall of 1943. British historian Robert Conquest wrote that it was "a travesty greater than could have been shown on Soviet screens to audiences used to lies, but experienced in collective-farm conditions."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In April 1944, Hellman's "The Searching Wind" opened on Broadway. Her third World War II project, it tells the story of an ambassador whose indecisive relations with his wife and mistress mirror the vacillation and appeasement of his professional life. She wrote the screenplay for the film version that appeared two years later. Both versions depicted the ambassador's feckless response to anti-Semitism. The conservative press noted that the play reflected none of Hellman's pro-Soviet views, and the communist response to the play was negative.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman's applications for a passport to travel to England in April 1943 and May 1944 were both denied because government authorities considered her "an active Communist", although in 1944 the head of the Passport Division of the Department of State, Ruth Shipley, cited "the present military situation" as the reason. In August 1944, she received a passport, indicative of government approval, for travel to Russia on a goodwill mission as a guest of VOKS, the Soviet agency that handled cultural exchanges. During her visit from November 5, 1944, to January 18, 1945, she began an affair with John F. Melby, a foreign service officer, that continued as an intermittent affair for years and as a friendship for the rest of her life.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In May 1946, the National Institute of Arts and Letters made Hellman a member. In November of that year, her play "Another Part of the Forest" premiered, directed by Hellman. It presented the same characters twenty years younger than they had appeared in "The Little Foxes". A film version to which Hellman did not contribute followed in 1948.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1947, Columbia Pictures offered Hellman a multi-year contract, which she refused because the contract included a loyalty clause that she viewed as an infringement on her rights of free speech and association. It required her to sign a statement that she had never been a member of the Communist Party and would not associate with radicals or subversives, which would have required her to end her life with Hammett. Shortly thereafter, William Wyler told her he was unable to hire her to work on a film because she was blacklisted.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In November 1947, the leaders of the motion picture industry decided to deny employment to anyone who refused to answer questions posed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Following the Hollywood Ten's defiance of the committee, Hellman wrote an editorial in the December issue of "Screen Writer", the publication of the Screen Writers Guild. Titled "The Judas Goats", it mocked the committee and derided producers for allowing themselves to be intimidated. It said in part:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Melby and Hellman corresponded regularly in the years following World War II while he held State Department assignments overseas. Their political views diverged as he came to advocate containment of communism while she was unwilling to hear criticism of the Soviet Union. They became, in one historian's view, "political strangers, occasional lovers, and mostly friends." Melby particularly objected to her support for Henry Wallace in the 1948 presidential election.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1949, she adapted Emmanuel Roblès' French-language play, "Montserrat", for Broadway, where it opened on October 29. Again, Hellman directed it. It was revived again in 1961.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: The play that is recognized by critics and judged by Hellman as her best, "The Autumn Garden", premiered in 1951.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1952, Hellman was called to testify before House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which had heard testimony that she had attended Communist Party meetings in 1937. She initially drafted a statement that said her two-year membership in the Communist Party had ended in 1940, but she did not condemn the party nor express regret for her participation in it. Her attorney, Joseph Rauh, opposed her admission of membership on technical grounds because she had attended meetings, but never formally become a party member. He warned that the committee and the public would expect her to take a strong anti-communist stand to atone for her political past, but she refused to apologize or denounce the party. Faced with Hellman's position, Rauh devised a strategy that produced favorable press coverage and allowed her to avoid the stigma of being labeled a "Fifth Amendment Communist". On May 19, 1952, Hellman authored a letter to HUAC that one historian has described as "written not to persuade the Committee, but to shape press coverage." In it she explained her willingness to testify only about herself and that she did not want to claim her rights under the Fifth Amendment–"I am ready and willing to testify before the representatives of our Government as to my own actions, regardless of any risks or consequences to myself." She wrote that she found the legal requirement that she testify about others if she wanted to speak about her own actions "difficult for a layman to understand." Rauh had the letter delivered to the HUAC's chairman Rep. John S. Wood on Monday.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In public testimony before HUAC on Tuesday, May 21, 1952, Hellman answered preliminary questions about her background. When asked about attending a specific meeting at the home of Hollywood screenwriter Martin Berkeley, she refused to respond, claiming her rights under the Fifth Amendment and she referred the committee to her letter by way of explanation. The Committee responded that it had considered and rejected her request to be allowed to testify only about herself and entered her letter into the record. Hellman answered only one additional question: she denied she had ever belonged to the Communist Party. She cited the Fifth Amendment in response to several more questions and the committee dismissed her. Historian John Earl Haynes credits both Rauh's "clever tactics" and Hellman's "sense of the dramatic" for what followed the conclusion of Hellman's testimony. As the committee moved on to other business, Rauh released to the press copies of her letter to HUAC. Committee members, unprepared for close questioning about Hellman's stance, offered only offhand comments. The press reported Hellman's statement at length, its language crafted to overshadow the comments of the HUAC members. She wrote in part:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Reaction divided along political lines. Murray Kempton, a longtime critic of her sympathy for communist causes, praised her: "It is enough that she has reached into her conscience for an act based on something more than the material or the tactical ... she has chosen to act like a lady." The FBI increased its surveillance of her travel and her mail. In the early 1950s, at the height of anti-communist fervor in the United States, the State Department investigated whether Melby posed a security risk. In April 1952, the department stated its one formal charge against him: "that during the period 1945 to date, you have maintained an association with one, Lillian Hellman, reliably reported to be a member of the Communist Party," based on testimony from unidentified informants. When Melby appeared before the department's Loyalty Security Board, he was not allowed to contest Hellman's Communist Party affiliation or learn who informed against her, but only to present his understanding of her politics and the nature of his relationship with her, including the occasional renewal of their physical relationship. He said he had no plans to renew their friendship, but never promised to avoid contact with her.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In the course of a series of appeals, Hellman testified before the Loyalty Security Board on his behalf. She offered to answer questions about her political views and associations, but the board only allowed her to describe her relationship with Melby. She testified that she had many longstanding friendships with people of different political views and that political sympathy was not a part of those relationships. She described how her relationship with Melby changed over time and how their sexual relationship was briefly renewed in 1950 after a long hiatus: "The relationship obviously at this point was neither one thing nor the other: it was neither over nor was it not over." She said that:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: The State Department dismissed Melby on April 22, 1953. As was its practice, the board gave no reason for its decision.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1954, Hellman declined when asked to adapt Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" (1952) for the stage. According to writer and director Garson Kanin, she said that the diary was "a great historical work which will probably live forever, but I couldn't be more wrong as the adapter. If I did this it would run one night because it would be deeply depressing. You need someone who has a much lighter touch" and recommended her friends, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman made an English-language adaption of Jean Anouilh's play, "L'Alouette", based on the trial of Joan of Arc, called "The Lark". Leonard Bernstein composed incidental music for the first production, which opened on Broadway on November 17, 1955. Hellman edited a collection of Chekhov's correspondence that appeared in 1955 as "The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov".


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Following the success of "The Lark", Hellman conceived of another play with incidental music, based on Voltaire's "Candide". Bernstein convinced her to develop it as a comic operetta with a much more substantial musical component. She wrote the spoken dialogue, which many others then worked on, and wrote some lyrics as well for what became the often-revived, "Candide". Hellman hated the collaboration and revisions on deadline that "Candide" required: "I went to pieces when something had to be done quickly, because someone didn't like something, and there was no proper time to think it out ... I realized that I panicked under conditions I wasn't accustomed to."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: "Toys in the Attic" opened on Broadway on February 25, 1960, and ran for 464 performances. It received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. In this family drama set in New Orleans, money, marital infidelity, and revenge end in a woman's disfigurement. Hellman had no hand in the screenplay, which altered the drama's tone and exaggerated the characterizations, and the resulting film received bad reviews. Later that year she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: A second film version of "The Children's Hour", less successful both with critics and at the box office, appeared in 1961 under that title, but Hellman played no role in the screenplay, having withdrawn from the project following Hammett's death in 1961. In the 1961 version of "The Children's Hour", however, despite the continued existence of the Motion Picture Production Code, the lead characters (played by Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine) were explicitly accused of lesbianism.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1961, Brandeis University awarded her its Creative Arts Medal for outstanding lifetime achievement and the women's division of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University gave her its Achievement Award. The following year, in December 1962, Hellman was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and inducted at a May 1963 ceremony.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Another play, "My Mother, My Father, and Me", proved unsuccessful when it was staged in March 1963. It closed after 17 performances. Hellman adapted it from Burt Blechman's novel "How Much?"


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman wrote another screenplay in 1965 for "The Chase", starring Marlon Brando, based on a play and novel by Horton Foote. Although Hellman received sole credit for the screenplay, she worked from an earlier treatment, and producer Sam Spiegel made additional changes and altered the sequence of scenes. In 1966, she edited a collection of Hammett's stories, "The Big Knockover". Her introductory profile of Hammett was her first exercise in memoir writing.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman wrote a reminiscence of gulag-survivor Lev Kopelev, husband of her translator in Russia during 1944, to serve as the introduction to his anti-Stalinist memoirs, "To Be Preserved Forever", which appeared in 1976. In February 1980, she, John Hersey, and Norman Mailer wrote to Soviet authorities to protest retribution against Kopelev for his defense of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. Hellman was a long-time friend of author Dorothy Parker and served as her literary executor after her death in 1967.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman published her first volume of memoirs that touched upon her political, artistic, and social life, "An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir", in 1969, for which she received the U.S. National Book Award in category Arts and Letters, which was an award category from 1964 to 1976.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In the early 1970s, Hellman taught writing for short periods at the University of California, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Hunter College in New York City. Her second volume of memoirs, "Pentimento: A Book of Portraits", appeared in 1973. In an interview at the time, Hellman described the difficulty of writing about the 1950s:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman published her third volume of memoirs, "Scoundrel Time", in 1976. These writings illustrated not only the exciting artistic time, but also depicted an influential tone, closely associated with the beginning of the feminist movement. In 1976, she posed in a fur coat for the Blackglama national advertising campaign "What Becomes a Legend Most?". In August of that year she was awarded the prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal for her contribution to literature. In October, she received the Paul Robeson Award from Actors' Equity.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1976, Hellman's publisher, Little Brown, canceled its contract to publish a book of Diana Trilling's essays because Trilling refused to delete four passages critical of Hellman. When Trilling's collection appeared the next year, in 1977, the "New York Times" critic felt the need to posit his own preference for the "simple confession of error" Hellman made in "Scoundrel Time" for her "acquiescence in Stalinism" to what he described as Trilling's excuses for her own behavior during McCarthyism. Arthur L. Herman, however, later described "Scoundrel Time" as "breathtaking dishonesty".


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman presented the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film at a ceremony on March 28, 1977. Greeted by a standing ovation, she said:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: The 1977 Oscar-winning film "Julia" was based on the "Julia" chapter of "Pentimento". On June 30, 1976, as the film was going into production, Hellman wrote about the screenplay to its producer:


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In a 1979 television interview, author Mary McCarthy, long Hellman's political adversary and the object of her negative literary judgment, said of Hellman that "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Hellman responded by filing a US$2,500,000 defamation suit against McCarthy, interviewer Dick Cavett, and PBS. McCarthy in turn produced evidence she said proved that Hellman had lied in some accounts of her life. Cavett said he sympathized more with McCarthy than Hellman in the lawsuit, but "everybody lost" as a result of it. Norman Mailer attempted unsuccessfully to mediate the dispute through an open letter he published in the "New York Times". At the time of her death, Hellman was still in litigation with McCarthy; her executors dropped the suit.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1980, Hellman published a short novel, "Maybe: A Story". Though presented as fiction, Hellman, Hammett, and other real-life people appeared as characters. It received a mixed reception and was sometimes read as another installment of Hellman's memoirs. Hellman's editor wrote to the "New York Times" to question a reviewer's attempt to check the facts in the novel. He described it as a work of fiction whose characters misremember and dissemble.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1983, New York psychiatrist Muriel Gardiner claimed she was the basis for the title character in "Julia" and that she had never known Hellman. Hellman denied the character was based on Gardiner. As the events Hellman described matched Gardiner's account of her life and Gardiner's family was closely tied to Hellman's attorney, Wolf Schwabacher, some critics believe that Hellman appropriated Gardiner's story without attribution.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman died on June 30, 1984, aged 79, from a heart attack near her home on Martha's Vineyard and is buried beneath a pine tree on a rise at one end of Abels Hill/Chilmark Cemetery, Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman's papers are held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Her archive includes an extensive collection of manuscript drafts, contracts, correspondence, scrapbooks, speeches, teaching notes, awards, legal documents, appointment books, and honorary degrees.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Institutions that awarded Hellman honorary degrees include Brandeis University (1955), Wheaton College (1960), Mt. Holyoke College (1966), Smith College (1974), Yale University (1974), and Columbia University (1976).


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman is the central character in Peter Feibleman's 1993 play "Cakewalk", which depicts his relationship with Hellman, based in turn on Feibleman's 1988 memoir of their relationship, "Lilly", which described "his tumultuous time as her lover, caretaker, writing partner and principal heir."


title: Lillian Hellman

text: In 1999, Kathy Bates directed a television film, "Dash and Lilly", based on the relationship between Hellman and Hammett.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: Hellman's feud with Mary McCarthy formed the basis for Nora Ephron's 2002 play "Imaginary Friends", with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Craig Carnelia.


title: Lillian Hellman

text: William Wright wrote "The Julia Wars", based on the legal battle between Hellman and McCarthy. Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Tell-All" (2010) was described by Janet Maslin in the "New York Times" as "a looney pipe dream that savages Lillian Hellman". Dorothy Gallagher wrote a biography of Hellman, "".


title: NBA on TNT

text: NBA on TNT is a branding used for broadcasts of the National Basketball Association (NBA) games, produced by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, the sports division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Sports subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and televised on TNT since 1989. TNT's NBA coverage includes the "Inside the NBA" studio show, weekly doubleheaders throughout the regular season on Tuesdays and Thursdays (the latter of which starts in the winter to avoid clashing with the National Football League's Thursday Night Football), a majority of games during the first two rounds of the playoffs, and one conference finals series.


title: NBA on TNT

text: TNT airs many of the NBA's marquee games (the NBA All-Star Game, a full Conference Final, Opening Night games, and the vast majority of playoff games). In recent years, fans have reckoned it as what NBC was doing throughout that network's coverage of the league. From 2003 to 2005, TNT aired the Conference Final with the most interest from the national media (Pistons-Nets in 2003, Lakers-Wolves in 2004 and Pistons-Heat in 2005). TNT also airs most of the big games during the regular season (TNT aired a Lakers-Heat game for the third straight year in 2007), and TNT studio content is streamed to NBA.com via the "TNT Overtime" section.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Ernie Johnson has been TNT's NBA studio host since the 1990–1991 season. Currently, Johnson is joined by Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley. The NBA postgame show which features the four, Inside the NBA, has gained popularity in recent years for the chemistry and banter they have. Occasionally, Johnson, O'Neal, Smith and Barkley are joined by Draymond Green.


title: NBA on TNT

text: TNT's playoff coverage is nicknamed "40 Games in 40 Nights". During the first round, TNT airs games from Sunday to Thursday nights, with occasional broadcasts on Saturdays. In the second round, TNT airs playoff games from Sunday to Wednesday nights.


title: NBA on TNT

text: In previous years, TNT and TBS aired doubleheaders opposite each other on each night of the first round of the playoffs, with one network airing a doubleheader at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and the other network airing a doubleheader at 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (all times Eastern).


title: NBA on TNT

text: TNT also carries exclusive coverage of one NBA Conference Final. Since the 2004 NBA playoffs, TNT has aired the Eastern Conference Finals in odd-number years and the Western Conference Finals in even-number years, a pattern which will continue until the expiration of its television contract. ESPN airs the other Conference Final, with weekend coverage of the ESPN-covered series and the Finals being broadcast on ABC.


title: NBA on TNT

text: For the first round, TNT's coverage of the playoffs is not exclusive; regional sports networks can still carry a local call and presentation of their team's games. After the first round, only national coverage from TNT or ESPN/ABC is produced.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Starting in 2000, the NBA spread out playoff series so that only two series would play per day (so as to avoid TNT and TBS competing for ratings). TNT would air doubleheaders on most weekdays, while TBS would air one doubleheader per week (in 2002, TBS aired doubleheaders every Tuesday night of the playoffs until the Conference Finals).


title: NBA on TNT

text: With the advent of the new NBA television deal in 2003 (which ended TBS's coverage), TNT has aired playoff games alone, including (in 2003 only) some weekday tripleheaders. The tripleheaders, which were criticized by both fans and many in the media, consisted of one game at 6:00 p.m., another at 8:30 p.m., and a final game at 11:00 p.m. After 2003, the NBA and TNT discontinued the tripleheaders, instead settling for a doubleheader on TNT and a single game on NBA TV simultaneously. However, when Turner Sports acquired NBA TV in 2008, the network abandoned airing the lone non-national Thursday game, instead leaving it up to the local sports networks. However, TBS may still air the start of the second game in case the ongoing first game on TNT extends beyond the tip-off time of the second game.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Other than their regular Thursday schedule, TNT also airs NBA regular season games on Martin Luther King Day, during which tripleheaders were still used. However, in 2011, ESPN opted to air one matinee game on MLK Day, and NBA TV on the second matinee, leaving TNT to air the remaining two night games. In 2008, TNT broadcast on Christmas Day for the first time as Marv Albert, Mike Fratello and Craig Sager broadcast the game between the Washington Wizards and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Quicken Loans Arena and Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Cheryl Miller broadcast the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers in Rose Garden. TNT broadcast on Christmas Day again in , when it broadcast the game between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the very first game of the , as a result of a lockout. Albert (himself a former Knicks broadcaster) and Steve Kerr called the game.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Due to TNT's part in coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament beginning in March 2011, the league shifted over what would have been the Thursday night games in the third week of that month to Monday nights and they aired as part of ESPN's coverage instead. In addition, NBA TV's 'Fan Night' games gave way to TNT on select Tuesday nights.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Normally the studio crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley would stay in the TNT Atlanta studios for all of the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs. However, in the 2010-11 NBA season the studio crew started taking their pre-game, halftime and "Inside the NBA" shows on the road in the regular season, specifically select games involving the Miami Heat on TNT, due to the heightened media coverage surrounding the Heat's acquisitions of LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The substitute studio hosts will also be on hand for "Inside the NBA" and the other game's pre-game and halftime presentations; the "backup" crew at the time consisted of Matt Winer, Chris Webber and Kevin McHale.


title: NBA on TNT

text: In July 2011, it was announced that Shaquille O'Neal would join as an analyst and he signed a multi-year agreement.


title: NBA on TNT

text: For the 2012–13 season and several seasons afterward, Charles Barkley occasionally filled in as a game analyst for select games. During his studio absences, Chris Webber normally served as an interim studio analyst. On April 11, 2013, TNT experimented with a three-man booth, but without a play-by-play announcer, for the game between the Warriors and the Thunder. Webber, Reggie Miller, and Steve Kerr, fresh off calling the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship Game for CBS Sports the Monday before, worked that game. That would end up being a lead-in to TNT broadcasting games with only former NBA and WNBA players calling them in 2017. For the 2014–15 season, TNT updated their graphics package.


title: NBA on TNT

text: For the 2015–16 season, the NBA and Turner Sports partnered with NextVR to stream the Warriors vs. Pelicans, the first-ever game to be broadcast live in virtual reality.


title: NBA on TNT

text: For the 2016–17 season, TNT announced that it would air a new series of Monday-night doubleheaders during the later half of the season, beginning on January 16, 2017. Monday night games from February 27 to March 27 were branded as "Players Only" broadcasts, featuring only former NBA players and without a traditional play-by-play announcer. Additionally, TNT announced that it would hold a "Road Show" tour in various cities throughout the season, which would feature fan experiences and festivities, and a live broadcast of "Inside the NBA" on-location. The tour began in Cleveland outside the Quicken Loans Arena, host of TNT's opening night game featuring the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: NBA on TNT

text: TNT normally aired NBA Christmas Day games only if it falls on a Thursday (except during the 2011–12 season). However, the network announced that they would air a Christmas Day game on December 25, 2017 (a Monday) featuring the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Lakers. It also marked the first time that the "Inside the NBA" crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal called an NBA regular-season game together. TNT also announced that the "Players Only" games would now air every Tuesday starting January 23; the franchise also expanded to include Tuesday night games on NBA TV during the first half of the season.


title: NBA on TNT

text: For the 2019–20 season, Stan Van Gundy joined the network as a color commentator. TNT also announced plans to reformat its Tuesday games, dropping the "Players Only" concept. The pre-game and halftime shows will have a larger focus on social media interaction, "culture", and "style", while Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, Shaquille O'Neal, and Bleacher Report's Adam Lefkoe will serve as panelists. The new studio panel was originally intended to premiere with a doubleheader on January 28, 2020. However, due to the death of Kobe Bryant the previous Sunday (which led to the postponement of a Clippers-Lakers game scheduled to be televised as part of the doubleheader), the premiere was delayed to February 4, and the remaining game was instead preceded by a special edition of "Inside the NBA" from Staples Center, covering the aftermath of Bryant's death. The Tuesday postgame shows initially carried the "Inside the NBA" brand, but the 2020–21 season saw the program rebrand simply as the "NBA on TNT Postgame Show".


title: NBA on TNT

text: During the 2020 NBA Bubble, lead voice Marv Albert opted out of TNT's coverage due to his advanced age, citing possible risk of illness caused by COVID-19. With secondary voice Kevin Harlan and backup announcer Ian Eagle leaving the bubble in September to join CBS' NFL coverage, TNT chose Brian Anderson to call that season's Western Conference Finals.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Lead play-by-play voice Marv Albert announced his retirement at the end of the 2021 NBA playoffs. Albert's final assignment with TNT took place in the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Starting with the 2021–22 season, TNT's flagship doubleheaders and "Inside the NBA" moved to Tuesday nights during the NFL regular season. Despite scheduling a Thursday night doubleheader on opening week, TNT would not air another Thursday night doubleheader until January. TNT will continue to air Tuesday night doubleheaders after the NFL season ends, but with the secondary studio team (feat. Adam Lefkoe, Candace Parker and Dwyane Wade) hosting its pregame and postgame shows instead of the usual "Inside the NBA" crew. In recent years, TNT's Thursday night NBA games ran opposite Thursday Night Football during the autumn, and after the NFL signed network television contracts with CBS, NBC and Fox to carry the package alongside NFL Network, TNT booked less desirable matchups in its Thursday night slate to avoid competing with football. Even though "TNF" moved to an internet-exclusive broadcast (except on local stations of the featured teams) on Amazon Prime in 2022, TNT did not change its newly-implemented schedule of not airing NBA games (except on opening week) on Thursdays during the NFL season. With the NFL moving one of their Super Wild Card games to Monday Night, TNT reduced its Martin Luther King Jr. slate to a doubleheader to avoid competition, with NBA TV airing the nightcap. TNT also added a special Sunday night doubleheader on the final day of the regular season.


title: NBA on TNT

text: During the course of the season, TNT anointed Kevin Harlan as its new lead play-by-play voice, assigning him to call the 2022 NBA All-Star Game and the Western Conference Finals.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Although TNT does not broadcast in Canada, "NBA on TNT" games are regularly shown on TSN, Sportsnet, and NBA TV Canada. However, if the Toronto Raptors are featured, then the Canadian broadcast of the game is shown.


title: NBA on TNT

text: The current "NBA on TNT" commentating roster includes Kevin Harlan, Brian Anderson, Ian Eagle, and Spero Dedes for play-by-play. Harlan and Anderson normally calls Thursday games, while the latter also usually works Tuesday games with Eagle. Dedes usually fills in occasionally for both Tuesday and Thursday games, but mainly call games for TNT during the NBA Playoffs.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Reggie Miller is the main color commentator, and is assigned to work Thursday games along with Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy, Jim Jackson and Grant Hill contribute as the main game analysts for Tuesday games.


title: NBA on TNT

text: As of the 2021-22 season, the sideline reporter role is rotated between Allie LaForce, Stephanie Ready, Jared Greenberg, and Chris Haynes. Rebecca Haarlow, Nabil Karim, Dennis Scott, and Matt Winer join the rotation for the NBA Playoffs.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Ernie Johnson controls the main studio hosting duties on Thursdays, with Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe serving that role on Tuesdays. Occasionally, whenever Johnson is away for other assignments, most notably March Madness, or personal reasons, Lefkoe, Matt Winer, Nabil Karim, or Kevin Frazier will fill in for Johnson, and vice versa for Lefkoe. Studio coverage is usually contributed by Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley on Thursdays, with O’Neal, Candace Parker, and Dwyane Wade contributing on Tuesdays. Parker and Wade, along with Draymond Green and other analysts will contribute to the studio show at times.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Prior to his death on December 15, 2016, Craig Sager served a variety of roles on TNT, most prominently as a sideline reporter. Sager was usually paired with Cheryl Miller on most doubleheaders from 1997 to 2013.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Before he was hired as head coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2014, Steve Kerr was the primary game analyst on TNT. Kerr served that role from 2003 to 2006, and again from 2010 to 2014; in between he served as general manager of the Phoenix Suns.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Prior to leaving Turner before the 2021 NBA playoffs, Hall of Fame forward Chris Webber had been tapped as a co-lead analyst, and fill-in studio analyst from 2008-2021. Webber and Turner had parted ways without any contract renewal negotiations. A contributing factor may have been the fact that Turner bosses were angered with Webber, after he let them know very late that he wanted to opt out of working the 2021 NCAA tournament, which Turner has shared rights to with CBS Sports. Because of that, Turner and CBS did not have the announcements of its broadcast teams during their press conference to preview the NCAA Tournament like they usually did in years past.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Doug Collins used to be the secondary analyst on TNT; he was also the lead analyst in his first stint with the network from 1989 to 1995, pairing with the likes of Bob Neal, Ron Thulin and Pete Van Wieren. In his second stint from 2003 to 2010, he was usually paired with Harlan during the regular season, but was also paired with Albert during the NBA All-Star Game and the Conference Finals.


title: NBA on TNT

text: The original voice of the "NBA on TNT" was Bob Neal, who worked with the network from 1989 to 1995; he was also the original voice of the "NBA on TBS". Other announcers who worked for TNT include Rick Barry, Hubie Brown, Dick Stockton, Verne Lundquist, Chuck Daly, Danny Ainge, Reggie Theus, Rex Chapman, John Thompson, Jeff Van Gundy, P. J. Carlesimo, Gary Bender, Matt Devlin, Joel Meyers and Kevin Calabro.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Several prominent NBA analysts have chosen TNT over ABC or ESPN, such as Collins and Charles Barkley (Barkley was not only approached by ABC about an NBA studio job in 2002, but as also rumored to have been approached for a job on "Monday Night Football"). Reggie Miller was also sought out by ABC and ESPN, only to go to TNT.


title: NBA on TNT

text: The biggest acquisition TNT made, once sought out by ABC and ESPN, was Marv Albert. After the 2002 NBA Finals, Albert, along with Bob Costas, essentially a free agent, was a candidate for the lead spot on "The NBA on ABC" (which ultimately went to Brad Nessler). As Costas elected to remain with NBC, Albert, hired by TNT in 1999, decided to stay with the network. Some attributed this to TNT having given Albert his first chance to be on national television after the sex scandal that led to his firing at NBC. Albert and Mike Fratello—both of whom worked as a team in the "NBA on NBC"s early years—would ultimately reunite on TNT.


title: NBA on TNT

text: Hubie Brown and Jeff Van Gundy are currently the only former TNT announcers working for ESPN/ABC. Brown, whose role on TNT was going to be significantly reduced starting with the 2002–03 season, left in 2002 to coach the Memphis Grizzlies. After two seasons of coaching, he left Memphis in early 2004 (leading to the departure from TNT of lead analyst Mike Fratello, who replaced him in Memphis) and was quickly picked up by ABC. Jeff Van Gundy, who was fired by the Houston Rockets after they lost in the first round, joined ABC at the beginning of the Western Conference Finals. Doug Collins, who resigned from TNT to become the Philadelphia 76ers head coach in 2010, joined ESPN after resigning from the 76ers three years later and left ESPN in 2017 to work with the Chicago Bulls. Part-time TNT broadcaster Mike Breen is now the lead broadcaster for ABC and one-time TNT analyst Doc Rivers worked for ABC in 2004. Meanwhile, Pam Oliver, the then-lead sideline reporter for "Fox NFL", joined Turner Sports in 2004 as she would only be on during the NBA Playoffs, a role she fulfilled until 2009.


title: NBA on TNT

text: TNT's current NBA game theme was written by composer Trevor Rabin. Previous themes for TNT were composed by Edd Kalehoff, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.


title: NBA on TNT

text: The "NBA on TNT" is the network's longest-running regular program and sporting event, dating back to only a year after TNT's October 3, 1988 launch, with TNT also being the current longest-running NBA coverage partner. On October 6, 2014, Turner Sports and the NBA renewed their television and digital rights agreements through 2025.


title: NBA on TNT

text: In the video game "NBA 07", made by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 consoles, graphics for TNT's NBA games are seen when playing an exhibition, playoff, preseason, or seasonal game.


title: NBA on TNT

text: A direct copy of TNT's graphics can also be seen on Cartoon Network's weekly basketball program, "Run It Back", a program similar to "Inside Stuff".


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The estimated urban population of Toowoomba as of June 2021 was 140,303, having grown at an average annual rate of 1.02% over the preceding five years. Toowoomba is the second-most-populous inland city in the country after the national capital of Canberra and hence the largest city on the Darling Downs, and it is among the largest regional centres in Queensland. It is also referred to as the capital of the Darling Downs.


title: Toowoomba

text: The Toowoomba region is the home of two main Aboriginal language groups, the Giabal whose lands extend south of the city and Jarowair whose lands extend north of the city.


title: Toowoomba

text: The Jarowair lands include the site of one of Australia's most important sacred Bora ceremonial ground, the ‘Gummingurru stone arrangement’ dated to c.4000 BC. The site marked one of the major routes employed by many Aboriginal tribes to the south and southeast to participate in the triennial bunya nut feast. The feast was Australia's largest Indigenous event, and of cultural and spiritual significance.


title: Toowoomba

text: The first European knowledge of the area was recorded when English botanist Allan Cunningham explored the region in 1827 and named it after Ralph Darling, then Governor of New South Wales. British drays began arriving from 1840, enticed by the rich pastoral lands, and established the settlement of Drayton in 1842. During the War of Southern Queensland, violent conflict erupted as Indigenous tribes attempted to force drays from encroaching on the Darling Downs, with the Battle of One Tree Hill being fought near Toowoomba.


title: Toowoomba

text: William Horton founded the Royal Bull's Head Inn in 1847, and in 1852 he invested in a new hotel in the area known as ‘The Swamp’. A rivalry between this newfound settlement (later renamed to Toowoomba) and the previously established town of Drayton eventually ended when Toowoomba outgrew and absorbed Drayton as time went on. The town elected its first mayor in 1861, former convict William Henry Groom, and by 1867 it was connected by rail to Ipswich, which was also the first over the Great Dividing Range. In 1904 Toowoomba was declared a city, and saw the Austral Society founded there by the esteemed national poet George Essex Evans. Over the 20th century, Toowoomba expanded from a primarily agriculture-based economy to provide services with increasing demand such as advanced education and medical facilities.


title: Toowoomba

text: A university and cathedral city, Toowoomba is largely preserved of its Victorian era architecture and gardens of which there are more than 150 public parks including the historic Queens Park. The city hosts the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers each September and national championship events for the sports of mountain biking and motocross. Toowoomba is served by Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport and the smaller Toowoomba City Aerodrome. In recent years Toowoomba has seen high rise developments built to accommodate high population growth in the region.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, around above sea level. A few streets are on the eastern side of the edge of the range, but most of the city is west of the divide.


title: Toowoomba

text: The city occupies the edge of the range and the low ridges behind it. Two valleys run north from the southern boundary, each arising from springs either side of Middle Ridge near Spring Street at an altitude of around 680 m. These waterways, East Creek and West Creek, flow together just north of the CBD to form Gowrie Creek.


title: Toowoomba

text: Gowrie Creek drains to the west across the Darling Downs and is a tributary of the Condamine River, part of the Murray–Darling basin. The water flowing down Gowrie Creek makes its way some to the mouth of the Murray River near Adelaide in South Australia. Rain which falls on the easternmost streets of Toowoomba flows east to Moreton Bay a distance of around .


title: Toowoomba

text: The rich volcanic soil in the region helps maintain the 150 public parks that are scattered across the city. Jacaranda, camphor laurel and plane trees line many of the city streets. The city's reputation as 'The Garden City' is highlighted during the Australian Carnival of Flowers festival held in September each year. Deciduous trees from around the world line many of the parks, giving a display of autumn colour.


title: Toowoomba

text: Giabal and Jarowair are recognised as the two main Aboriginal language groups of the Toowoomba with Giabal extending south of the city while Jarowair extends north of the city. The Jarowair (also known as Yarowair, Yarow-wair, Barrunggam, Yarrowair, Yarowwair and Yarrow-weir) language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Toowoomba Regional Council, particularly Toowoomba north to Crows Nest and west to Oakey.


title: Toowoomba

text: This traditional landscape changed dramatically with the settlement of Drayton in the 1840s and the pastoral expansion west. Those Aboriginal Australians that survived the frontier conflict of this time were pushed to the fringe of society in camps and later moved to missions such as Deebing Creek, Durundur and later Barambah (now Cherbourg). There is evidence that local Aboriginal Australians were working on the properties to the west of Toowoomba in this contact period. Ceremonies such as the Bonye Bonye festival remained active until the late 19th century – groups from south east and south west Queensland as well as northern New South Wales gathered at Gummingurru, near Gowrie (west of Toowoomba) prior to attending the festival. The Gummingurru site is being restored and remains an important ceremonial place for not only the traditional groups but neighbouring groups.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba's colonial history traces back to 1816 when English botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham arrived in Australia from Brazil and in June 1827 discovered of rich farming and grazing land, which became known as the Darling Downs, bordered on the east by the Great Dividing Range and west of the settlement of Moreton Bay. Thirteen years later when George and Patrick Leslie established Toolburra Station south-west of Toowoomba the first settlers arrived on the Downs and established a township of bark-slab shops called The Springs which was soon renamed Drayton. Land for the town was first surveyed in 1849, then again in 1853.


title: Toowoomba

text: Towards the end of the 1840s Drayton had grown to the point where it had its own newspaper, general store, trading post and the Royal Bull's Head Inn, which was built by William Horton and still stands today. Horton is regarded as the true founder of Toowoomba despite not being the first European person to live there. Drovers and wagon masters spread the news of the new settlement at Toowoomba. By 1858 Toowoomba was growing fast. It had a population of 700, three hotels and many stores. Land selling at in 1850 was by then . Governor Bowen granted the wish of locals and a new municipality was proclaimed on 24 November 1860.


title: Toowoomba

text: The first town council election took place on 4 January 1861 and William Henry Groom won. The railway from Ipswich was opened in 1867, bringing with it business development. In 1892, the Under Secretary of Public Land proclaimed Toowoomba and the surrounding areas as a township and in 1904 Toowoomba was declared a city. Pastoralism replaced agriculture and dairying by the 1900s.


title: Toowoomba

text: In July 1902, 80 subdivided allotments of "The Lilley Estate" owned by the late Sir Charles Lilley, were advertised to be auctioned by Scholefield & Godsall. A map advertising the auction shows that the estate was bordered by Bridge, Mary and Lindsay Streets and overlooking and adjoining the Royal Agricultural Society's Showgrounds.


title: Toowoomba

text: During World War II, Toowoomba was the location of RAAF No.7 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), completed in 1942 and closed on 29 August 1944. Usually consisting of 4 tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the RAAF and the US Army Air Forces at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).


title: Toowoomba

text: On 10 January 2011, Toowoomba suffered a catastrophic flash flood. Unusually heavy rainfall had occurred in the preceding days, causing the city's waterways to become swollen. Around midday, an intense storm moved in from the northeast, completely overwhelming East Creek and West Creek which run through the CBD. fell in one day


title: Toowoomba

text: with rainfall peaking at over one 10-minute interval. The flood caused damage to properties and infrastructure, and resulted in the deaths of 2 people in Toowoomba.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba has a warm humid subtropical climate (with warm summers and cool winters). Compared to other parts of Queensland, Toowoomba experiences more frequent high winds, hail, frost and fog and is considered cooler than many other towns and cities in Queensland. The city is rather sunny, receiving 107.2 clear days annually.


title: Toowoomba

text: Daily maximum temperatures in Toowoomba average in summer and in winter. Unlike most of inland Queensland, summer temperatures above are uncommon, whilst winter days rarely warm above . Winter nights seldom drop below freezing; however, in a situation unique among Queensland cities, snow has been reported on the higher parts of the city on several occasions. Light frost will be experienced several nights each winter in the city centre, more often in the western suburbs.


title: Toowoomba

text: According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the highest temperature ever recorded in Toowoomba was on 12 February 2017, while the lowest was on 12 July 1965.


title: Toowoomba

text: Average annual rainfall, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, is , which peaks in the warm season. Rainfall in the eastern suburbs along the Great Dividing Range nudges per year. The majority of Toowoomba's rain falls from November to March, with January and February being the peak rainy months. Like most of south-east Queensland, severe thunderstorms can be a threat and Toowoomba may occasionally be affected by ex-tropical cyclones.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba's history has been preserved in its buildings. Examples of architecture drawing from the city's wealthy beginnings include Toowoomba City Hall which was Queensland's first purpose-built town hall, the National Trust Royal Bull's Head Inn and many examples in the heritage-listed Russell Street. Immediately to the east of the CBD is the Caledonian Estate, an area of turn-of-the-20th-century housing, ranging from humble workers cottages to large stately homes, in the classic wooden Queenslander style.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is also home to the Empire Theatre, which was originally opened in June 1911, as a silent movie house. In February 1933, fire broke out, almost completely destroying the building. However, the Empire was rebuilt and reopened in November 1933. The architectural styling of the new Empire Theatre was art deco, in keeping with the trend of the 1930s. After years of neglect, the Empire Theatre was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, but retains much of its art deco architecture and decorations, especially the proscenium arch. Able to seat approximately 1,500 people, the Empire Theatre is now the largest regional theatre in Australia.


title: Toowoomba

text: The city also is home to the Cobb & Co Museum, hailing to the famous mail company's beginnings as a small mail run in the 1800s to transport mail and passengers to Brisbane and beyond. It also houses Australia's largest collection of horse-drawn vehicles. The museum has undergone a A$8 million redevelopment before reopening in September 2010.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba has many heritage-listed sites, with over fifty on the Queensland Heritage Register in addition to listings on other local heritage registers.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is the seat of the Toowoomba Region local government area. The city is represented in the Parliament of Queensland by three seats: Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Condamine. In the Commonwealth Parliament, Toowoomba forms part of the Division of Groom, which is held by Garth Hamilton for the Liberal National Party of Queensland.


title: Toowoomba

text: The current Mayor of Toowoomba is Paul Antonio, who was elected in 2012 and is currently serving his third term.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba has had a large amount of crime over the past years, but is still on average less than other parts of Queensland. In 2018, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland described Toowoomba as "one of Queensland's car theft hot spots", noting that there were insurance claims for over 3,000 cars stolen over a three-year period from Harristown alone.


title: Toowoomba

text: The Australian Defence Force is also present in the local community, with the city providing housing and amenities for many of the personnel based at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre (in Oakey, NW of Toowoomba) and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah to the city's North. The headquarters of Heritage Bank, which is Australia's largest mutual bank, FK Gardners and Wagners are located in Toowoomba.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is a major education centre with a strong presence of boarders from Western Queensland attending Schools such as Toowoomba Grammar, Fairholme College, Downlands College and The Glennie School.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is nationally renowned for the annual Carnival of Flowers, held each year in September. Many of the city's major parks and gardens are especially prepared for the carnival, including an important home garden competition and parade of flower floats. Buses bring people from around the nation, and a popular way to arrive at the carnival from Brisbane is on chartered antique steam and diesel trains, which captures the yester-year aspect of travel to Toowoomba with 19th-century wooden carriages.


title: Toowoomba

text: In 1953 the Carnival of Flowers was the subject of a sponsored film produced by the Queensland Minister for Lands and Irrigation. The "Carnival of Flowers" depicts the floral parade, the home gardens competition and the crowning of the Floral Queen and is a wonderful portrait of life in 1950s Queensland.


title: Toowoomba

text: In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Carnival of Flowers was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an "Events and festivals".


title: Toowoomba

text: The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers received the Gold Award for Major Festival and Event at the Queensland Tourism Awards in 2015, 2016 & 2017, and Australian Tourism Awards in 2016 & 2017. In 2017, 255,639 people recorded as having attended the event


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba also hosts 'First Coat Art and Music Festival'. First Coat is a street art festival, held annually in May. As a result of the festival, over 50 pieces of large-scale, public art exist throughout the Toowoomba CBD, which has led to a transformation of previously underutilised lane and alleyways, as well as a reduction in costs associated with graffiti management.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba was previously home to Easterfest (which was held annually over the Easter weekend.) The event has not continued after 2015.


title: Toowoomba

text: The "Food and Wine Festival", which usually spans for 3 days, happens every year at Carnival of flowers time. It provides entertainment, food and drinks and is a spectacle of the Carnival.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is also home to the Weis Bar (until 2020 when production ceases and moves to Minto, NSW), Home Ice Cream, Homestyle Bake and possibly the Lamington. Toowoomba has a thriving cafe and restaurant scene that is often compared to Melbourne in its maturity and depth.


title: Toowoomba

text: Rugby league is a popular sport in Toowoomba. A team representing Toowoomba used to compete in the Bulimba Cup tournament. Toowoomba currently does not host a team in any of the major national competitions but was home to the Toowoomba Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup state league.


title: Toowoomba

text: The Clydesdales were the feeder team for Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League (NRL) from 1999 to 2006. The Clysedales dropped out of the Queensland Cup after the 2006 season due to financial difficulties and are no longer a feeder club for the Brisbane Broncos. In 2018 a game will be held between the Gold Coast Titans and the St George Illawarra Dragons on Sunday, 25 March at the Toowoomba Sports Ground.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba features a semi-professional football club, South West Queensland Thunder, that has a large following within the community. Toowoomba is the headquarters of Football Darling Downs which administers football in Toowoomba and surrounding towns and regions. Toowoomba is home to 12 clubs including South West Queensland Thunder - Fairholme College, Garden City Raiders, Highfields, Rockville Rovers, St Albans, South Toowoomba Hawks, St Ursula's College, University of Southern Queensland, West Wanderers and Willowburn.


title: Toowoomba

text: Australian rules football is played by four senior teams in the AFL Darling Downs competition: Coolaroo, Toowoomba Tigers, University of Southern Queensland and South Toowoomba. The sport has gained popularity amongst juniors with eleven clubs in the region. The four Senior Toowoomba clubs compete with five other clubs in towns such as Dalby, Gatton, Goondiwindi, Highfields and Warwick. In 2006, Brad Howard became the first draftee from Toowoomba to the Australian Football League.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba has clubs for other sports including cricket (Toowoomba Cricket Inc), archery, swimming, tennis, softball, baseball, netball (Toowoomba Netball Association), hockey (Toowoomba Hockey Association), gridiron (Chargers) and basketball (Toowoomba Basketball Association). The city is also home to the Toowoomba Mountaineers basketball team, which participates in the Queensland Basketball League (QBL).


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba also shares two prestigious golf courses; Toowoomba Golf Club Middle Ridge, and City Golf Club Toowoomba. These two clubs, as well as several other clubs in the district, conduct an annual Pennant season. Each club take on each other in Match play and in several different divisions to be crowned the Pennant winners of the Year. City Golf Club also hosted the Queensland PGA Championship from 2009 to 2013.


title: Toowoomba

text: Sport at both junior and senior level in Toowoomba and surrounding areas is promoted by Sports Darling Downs, a non-profit organisation based in Toowoomba.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba is home to Clifford Park Racecourse. Clifford Park Racecourse was acquired as a block in 1861.


title: Toowoomba

text: The Toowoomba Turf Club was formed in 1882 and the first recorded Toowoomba Cup was run in 1919. In 1992, the club made Australian racing history by staging the first race ever run under electric lights: the Fosters Toowoomba Cup, which was won by Waigani Drive. In 1996 the club staged the first night race meeting in Australia.


title: Toowoomba

text: Toowoomba has a number of rugby union teams, including University of Southern Queensland Rugby Union Club, Toowoomba Rangers Rugby Union Club, Toowoomba City Rugby Club, which compete in the Darling Downs Rugby Union competition, against such teams as the Roma Echidnas, the Condamine Cods, the Dalby Wheatmen, the Goondiwindi Emus, the Warwick Water Rats and the University of Queensland Rugby Union Club (Gatton Campus).


title: Toowoomba

text: Cycling is a popular sport in Toowoomba. The Tour of Toowoomba in 2010 became a round of the Subaru National Road Series and attracted 15 teams. A proposal to stage a National Road Series event in Toowoomba was first presented to the Toowoomba Cycling Club in late 2009 by John Osborne OAM, a lifelong cycling enthusiast. The inaugural FKG Tour of Toowoomba was won by Patrick Shaw riding for the Virgin Blue RBS Morgan team. Patrick was later named Cycling Australia's Road Cyclist of the Year – 2010.


title: Toowoomba

text: Founded in 1950, the Toowoomba Auto Club ran races at the nearby Leyburn Airfield and Lowood Airfield Circuits in the 1950s and 1960s, and also ran races on the streets of Middle Ridge as part of the Carnival of Flowers in 1958, 1960 and 1961, with the feature races won by Glynn Scott, Alec Mildren and Arnold Glass respectively. The club built the Echo Valley facility, initially as a hillclimbing venue officially opened on 18 September 1966, with the facility now operating as a motocross track. The Australian Hillclimb Championship was held on Prince Henry Drive in 1955 and 1961.