title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh Kishan (born 2 July 1980), known mononymously as Ganesh, is an Indian actor and television presenter known for his work in Kannada cinema. Through his career in films and television shows, he has become one of the most popular celebrities and highest-paid actors in Kannada cinema. He is the recipient of several awards, including two Filmfare Awards.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh shot to fame with the film "Mungaru Male" (2006), which set a record in Kannada cinema. In theatres, it was speculated to have collected over 75 crore by the end of its record-breaking 865-day theatrical run. It was the first movie to be screened continuously for one year in a multiplex in any language in India. The success of "Mungaru Male" brought Ganesh the nickname, "Golden Star".


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh won two consecutive Best Actor awards at Filmfare for the romantic comedy-drama "Gaalipata" (2008) and in the romantic drama "Maleyali Jotheyali" (2009). His other major success was "Cheluvina Chittara" (2007) after "Mungaru Male". He then acted in "Krishna" (2007), "Romeo" (2012), "Shravani Subramanya" (2013), "Zoom" (2016) and "Chamak" (2017).


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh was born on 2 July 1980 in Adakamaranahalli, a village in Nelamangala of Bangalore Rural district in Karnataka. His father's name is Kishan and mother's name is Sulochana. He has two younger brothers, Mahesh and Umesh; Mahesh debuted as an actor in the Kannada film "Namak Haraam" (2016).


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh received primary education at Basaveshwara English School in Nelamangala and secondary education in Standard English School in Dasarahalli, Bangalore. According to Ganesh, he was "mischievous and was always made to kneel down outside the classroom, but was also the darling of the teachers due to the active participation in cultural activities". While in college, he participated actively in inter-collegiate drama skits.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: After completing his diploma degree in electronics, Ganesh became more inclined towards acting and approached some Kannada theatre troupes like Ranga Sampada and Ranga Shikshana Kendra where he acted in plays like "Sadarame" and "Kadadida Neeru". He moved to Bangalore in 2002 and joined a diploma course in acting amidst appearing for several screen tests for acting assignments.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh began his career as an actor in several television series and a tele-film which remains unreleased till date. He, then landed up as show host for a comedy talk-show named "Comedy Time" aired in Udaya TV. His popularity in the show was noted by director B. Suresha who cast him for the film "Tapori" (2002) for a villain role. His stint as a supporting actor continued until he was cast in the lead role in the film "Mungaru Male" (2006).


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: "Guttu" was Ganesh's first ever on-camera project. Though it was made as a telefilm in Karnataka, it ran into difficulties getting a timeslot to air, and the frustrated producers played it as a feature in festivals and select theatres in the US. Ganesh played the hero, Deepak, a helpless software systems analyst, who gets caught up in the ambitious adventure of an NRI woman (played by Chaya Singh) who visits India to try and re-trace her family tree. His flair for comedy and knack for timing showed through in this first role.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: He acted in several TV serials, including "Yadva Tadva", "Vataara" (directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar) and "Pa Pa Pandu" (directed by Sihi Kahi Chandru).


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: As a TV artist he popularized the television program "Comedy Time". The program was telecast on Udaya TV from Monday to Friday at 5:00–5:30pm in the beginning and later at 5:30–6:00pm. The program concept was unique: Viewers would write a letter to the anchor describing their family and mentioning their telephone number. Then the anchor would call their number, disguising himself as someone else and fool them. After reading each letter a comedy scene from a chosen Kannada film was telecast in the interim. His unique style of greeting the viewers at the start and end of the program was popular, especially with children.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: His first film was "Guttu", a telefilm directed by India's youngest female film director, Priyabharati Joshi, an NRI who came to India with the intention of entering the Indian film industry. Priyabharati offered Ganesh "Guttu" just as he was about to graduate from Adarsh Film Institute, against the advice of industry insiders who criticised her choice of a newcomer. "Guttu" was Ganesh's first time facing the camera, before moving on to his TV career and later, feature films. He made his beginnings as a background actor, particularly playing the role of the lead character's friend in a few films.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: His first feature film role was of a villain character in the film "Tapori" (2002) which was directed by B. M. Suresha. Portraying the character was a "gory" experience for Ganesh, since "the hero was supposed to hit on face and hit so hard that (his) nose started bleeding". Following this, in 2003, he played side-kick roles in three films out of which M. D. Sridhar's "Game For Love" was noteworthy while the other two under-performed at the box-office. He continued such roles in the years 2004 and 2005 starring in films such as Dayal Padmanabhan's "Baa Baaro Rasika" (2004) playing Sunil Raoh's friend, V. Ravichandran's "Aham Premasmi" (2005) and Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's "Amrithadhare" (2005) co-starring Dhyan, Ramya which also had a guest role played by Amitabh Bachchan.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh's first feature wide-release film, "Chellata", was a moderate success and ran up to 125 days in some theatres. Rekha Vedavyas, who had already acted in quite a few films, acted opposite Ganesh in this film.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Then came the 2006 film "Mungaru Male", which was a roaring success. The film was directed by Yogaraj Bhat. Ganesh had been involved in the script development process and was curious to act in the movie. He got director Bhat to meet E. Krishnappa. Since Krishnappa knew Ganesh (both hails from Adakamaranahalli, Nelamangala), he agreed to finance the film. Since Yogaraj Bhat could not get dates from any Kannada actress, he signed a relatively unknown actress, Pooja Gandhi. The film's lyrics were penned by Jayant Kaikini and music was composed by part-time music director Mano Murthy. Jayant Kaikini, son of renowned writer late Gourish Kaikini, was a well-known columnist and writer. The film was mainly shot during the rainy season in places like Madikeri, Sakaleshpura, Jog Falls and Gadag. On 2007, starred in "Krishna" film opposite "Mungaru Male" fame Pooja Gandhi, which became sensational hit at the box office, completing 100-days in main centres of Karnataka.


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: His third film as hero, "Hudugaata", was released on 8 June 2007. His subsequent films have included "Cheluvina Chithara" (2007), "Gaalipata" (2008), "Krishna" (2007), "Aramane" (2008), "Bombaat" (2008), "Sangama" (2008), "Circus" (2009), "Ullasa Utsaha", "Maleyali Jotheyali" (2009), "Eno Onthara" (2010), "Kool" (2011), "Maduve Mane" (2011), "Shyloo" (2011), "Munjane", "Romeo" (2012), "Shravani Subramanya" (2013), "Mungaru Male 2" (2016), "Sakath" (2021) and "Gaalipata 2" (2022).


title: Ganesh (actor)

text: Ganesh was signed as the Brand Ambassador of Reliance Mobile (2009-2011), Coca-Cola (2010-2011), Rim-Jim product from Coca-Cola (2022).


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Sandman (Wesley Dodds) is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first of several DC characters to bear the name Sandman, he was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman. Attired in a green business suit, a fedora, and a World War I gas mask, the Sandman used a gun emitting a sleeping gas to sedate criminals. He was originally one of the "mystery men" to appear in comic books and other types of adventure fiction in the 1930s, but later was outfitted with a unitard/cowl costume and developed into a proper superhero, acquiring sidekick Sandy and founding the Justice Society of America.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Like most DC Golden Age superheroes, the Sandman fell into obscurity in the 1940s and eventually other DC characters took his name. During the 1990s, when writer Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" (featuring Morpheus, the anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams) was popular, DC revived Dodds in "Sandman Mystery Theatre", a pulp/noir series set in the 1930s. "Wizard Magazine" ranked Wesley Dodds among the Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time, and he is the oldest superhero in terms of continuity to appear on the list.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Artist Bert Christman and writer Gardner Fox are generally credited as co-creating the original, Wesley Dodds version of the DC Comics character the Sandman. While the character's first appearance is usually given as "Adventure Comics" #40 (cover-dated July 1939), he also appeared in DC Comics' 1939 "New York World's Fair Comics" omnibus, which historians believe appeared on newsstands one to two weeks earlier, while also believing the "Adventure Comics" story was written and drawn first. Each of the two stories' scripts were credited to the pseudonym "Larry Dean"; Fox wrote the untitled, 10-page story in "New York World's Fair" #1, while he simply plotted, and Christman scripted, the untitled, six-page story, generally known as "The Tarantula Strikes", in "Adventure" #40. Creig Flessel, who drew many early Sandman adventures, has sometimes been credited as co-creator on the basis of drawing the Sandman cover of "Adventure" #40, but no other evidence has surfaced.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Following these two first appearances, the feature "The Sandman" continued to appear in the omnibus "Adventure Comics" through #102 (February–March 1946). One of the medium's seminal "mystery men", as referred to at the time, the Sandman straddled the pulp magazine detective tradition and the emerging superhero tradition by dint of his dual identity and his fanciful, masked attire and weapon: an exotic "gas gun" that could compel villains to tell the truth, as well as put them to sleep. Unlike many superheroes, he frequently found himself the victim of gunshot wounds, both in the Golden Age and in stories in DC's modern-day Vertigo imprint, and he would continue fighting in spite of his injuries.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In his early career, Dodds (the character's surname was given as "Dodd" in his first four appearances; he became "Dodds" in "Adventure Comics" #44) was frequently aided by his girlfriend, Dian Belmont, who is aware of his dual identity. Unlike many superhero love interests, Belmont was often, though not always, portrayed as an equal partner of the Sandman, rather than a damsel in distress. Later stories would reveal that the two remained together for the duration of their lives, though they never married.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: The Sandman was one of the original members of the Justice Society of America when that superhero team was introduced in "All Star Comics" #3, published by All-American Comics, one of the companies that would merge to form DC.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In "Adventure Comics" #69 (December 1941), Dodds was given a yellow-and-purple costume by writer Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris, as well as a yellow-clad kid sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy, nephew of Dian Belmont. Later that year, the celebrated team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took over this version of the character. In 1942, Dodds enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as an anti-aircraft gunner during World War II.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Reintroduced in the Silver Age in "Justice League of America" #46 (July 1966), the Sandman made occasional appearances in the annual teamups between that superhero group and the JSA.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In 1981 DC began publishing "All-Star Squadron", a retelling of the Earth-Two mystery-men during WWII. Although not a main character, Sandman does appear in its pages. Of note is issue #18 which gives an explanation of why Dodds changed costumes from the cloak and gas mask to the yellow-and-purple outfit; Dian wore his costume while he was fighting elsewhere and she was killed in a fray. Dodds decided to wear the new costume, of Dian's design, until he could bring himself to wear the original in which she had died.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Later, this explanation would be changed again when Dian Belmont was retconned to have never died, and a new explanation was given: Sandy convinced Dodds to switch to the more colorful costume to gain the support of regular people, who preferred the more traditional superhero look to his older, pulp-themed costume.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: An acclaimed film noir-inspired retelling of the original Sandman's adventures, "Sandman Mystery Theatre", ran from 1993 to 1998 under DC Comics' "Vertigo" mature-reader imprint. Although as a whole its continuity within the DC Universe is debatable, several elements of the series – the more nuanced relationship between Dodds and Dian Belmont; the Sandman's appearance (wearing a trench coat and World War I gas mask instead of the cape and the custom-made gas mask); and Dodds' pudgier appearance and wearing of glasses – have been adopted into regular continuity. The series ran for 70 issues and 1 annual.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In "Sandman Midnight Theatre" (1995) a one-shot special by Neil Gaiman (author of the Modern Age supernatural series "The Sandman"), Matt Wagner (co-author of "Sandman Mystery Theatre"), and Teddy Kristiansen, depicts an interaction between the two characters, with the original visiting Great Britain and encountering the imprisoned Dream, the protagonist of Gaiman's series. A minor retcon by Gaiman suggested that Dodds' chosen identity was a result of Dream's absence from the realm the Dreaming, and that Dodds carries an aspect of that mystical realm. This explains Dodds' prophetic dreams.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Dodds is one of a number of Justice Society members who finds themselves in the "Ragnarok Dimension" during the early Modern Age of comic books. The "Last Days of the Justice Society of America Special" (1986) wrote the post-"Crisis" tale of a time-warped wave of destruction ready to engulf the world. Dodds and his JSA teammates enter into a limbo to engage in an eternal battle that would allow the universe to continue its existence. This was later revealed to be a simulation created by Odin, which he intended to give to Dream as a bribe. Dodds, Dream's protege, and Hawkman, the grandfather of Dream's appointed successor are the only JSA members who were seen at that time. This lasted only until 1992 when DC published "Armageddon: Inferno". This mini-series ended with the JSA members leaving limbo and entering the 'real' world. "Justice Society of America" (1992–1993) showed how the JSA members handled returning to normal life. For the Sandman, the series depicted him as an old, thin man with a balding scalp and a sharp wit. Starting with issue #1 his physical condition became important as writer Len Strazewski had him suffer a stroke at the first sign of a villainous attack. Both his age and his physical limitations became a theme writers would use in this character's post-"Crisis" stories.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: During "Zero Hour", Dodds is returned to his proper age by the Extant. Later, Wesley Dodds is shown as retired and living with Dian Belmont though occasionally coming out of it, most notably in a team-up with Jack Knight, the son of Dodds' JSA teammate Starman. When Dian is diagnosed with a terminal disease, the two travel the world together until her death.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Towards the end of his life, Dodds' prophetic dreams alert him to the identity and location of the new Doctor Fate, prompting him to contact the Gray Man, a being created from the residue of others' dreams, as well as his old friend Speed Saunders to instruct them to warn his former teammates about what he has discovered. Waiting on a clifftop, he is subsequently confronted by the powerful villain Mordru, who intends to force Dodds to tell him the identity of the new Doctor Fate, only for Dodds to distract Mordru with his gas-gun long enough to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff rather than allow Mordru to torture him into submission. His last thoughts were that his final slumber would be free of nightmares as he is reunited with Dian. While his former teammates attended his funeral, they were alerted to the threat of Mordru and his quest for the new Doctor Fate, the subsequent struggle prompting the Justice Society to officially reform.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Dodd's youthful but now grown-up sidekick Sandy the Golden Boy becomes known simply as Sand and takes his mentor's place as a member of the Justice Society of America as well as his prophetic dreams; Sand not only serves as the new team's initial chairman, but offers to fund the organisation and provide Dodds' home as a base, observing that Dodds and Dian had left him enough money to fund a small country. Eventually, he takes the name of Sandman.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Wesley Dodds makes a comeback via flashback images in the 2006 limited series "Sandman Mystery Theatre: Sleep of Reason".


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Dodds is reanimated as a Black Lantern in the "Blackest Night" storyline. He and several other fallen JSAers attack the Brownstone, seeking the hearts of the living within.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", Lois Lane finds a flash-drive at the Daily Planet. It shows her footage of Sandman and the rest of the Justice Society.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In the pages of "", the Prime-Earth version of Sandman was revealed to be entombed at the Valhalla Cemetery. Batman later revived him with a Black Lantern Ring.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Dodds has prophetic dreams which come to him as cryptic, ambiguous visions of crimes. Originally of unexplained origin, these dreams were later ascribed to an encounter between Dodds and the entity known as Dream via retcon. The visions haunt Dodds, who uses his keen intellect and amateur detective skills to properly interpret them. He is also a talented chemist and inventor, creating the sand-like substance and the Silicoid Gun ultimately responsible for transforming Sandy the Golden Boy into a Silicon-based life-form. In the early years of his career, Wesley Dodds possesses the strength level of a man who engages in regular exercise, and was a fine hand-to-hand combatant. As he grows older, his strength level diminishes in relative proportion to his age. As hobbies, Dodds enjoys reading, writing, poetry, origami and philosophy. Through an unknown process, Dodds passes his power of prophetic visions on to his former ward, Sandy Hawkins upon the moment of his own death.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Wesley Dodds' costume consists of a basic green business suit, fedora, a World War I era gas mask, a gas gun, and a specially designed "wirepoon" gun, which fires a length of thin, steel cable. The gas mask protects Dodds from the effects of the gas emitted from his gas gun. The gas gun, a handheld device fitted with cartridges containing concentrated sleeping gas, is Wesley Dodds' only known weapon. Pressing the trigger on the gun releases a cloud of green dust rendering all within the Sandman's immediate vicinity unconscious. An upgraded canister dispenser for the gun is provided for him by his close friend and confidant Lee Travis. Dodds is also known to conceal smaller knockout gas capsules in a hollow heel on his shoe. These prove ideal when placed in situations where his gas gun is not readily available.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In the early days of his career, the Sandman drives a black 1938 Plymouth coupe. The car is enhanced with various features to aid Dodds in his crusade against crime.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: Dodds appears as an infirm old man at the beginning of "Kingdom Come", plagued with visions of the impending apocalyptic battle between various factions of metahumans. Before his death, he relates his visions, interpreted through passages from the Book of Revelation, to his friend Norman McCay, who later witnesses the events in the company of the Spectre.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: On Earth 40, Wesley Dodds meets with to give information about the Trigger, a device that causes every nuclear reactor in the world to detonate in a nuclear explosion. The Sandman arranges for The Unholy Three to meet with The Lantern, who has information on where the Trigger is located.


title: Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

text: In "The New 52" (a reboot of DC Comics), a new Earth-2 version of Sandman appears. While he does wear a gas mask and wield a gas gun, he is also equipped with a teleporter. When Washington DC is attacked by Solomon Grundy, Commander Wesley Dodds, along with his Sandmen paramilitary force, is sent to retrieve and save President Lightfoot. They are later assigned by Commander Khan in a special and unofficial mission to infiltrate Terry Sloane's secret facility, where they confront and subdue a mind-controlled Michael Holt.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Although primarily residential in character, its focus is the shopping area of Shepherd's Bush Green, with the Westfield London shopping centre a short distance to the north. The main thoroughfares are Uxbridge Road, Goldhawk Road and Askew Road, all with small and mostly independent shops, pubs and restaurants. The Loftus Road football stadium in Shepherd's Bush is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 2011, the population of the area was 39,724.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The district is bounded by Hammersmith to the south, Holland Park and Notting Hill to the east, Harlesden and Kensal Green to the north and by Acton and Chiswick to the west. White City forms the northern part of Shepherd's Bush. Shepherd's Bush comprises the Shepherd's Bush Green, Askew, College Park & Old Oak, and Wormholt and White City wards of the borough.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The name "Shepherd's Bush" is thought to have originated from the use of the common land here as a resting point for shepherds on their way to Smithfield Market in the City of London. An alternative theory is that it could have been named after someone in the area, because in 1635 the area was recorded as "Sheppard's Bush Green".


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Evidence of human habitation can be traced back to the Iron Age. Shepherd's Bush enters the written record in the year 704 when it was bought by Waldhere, Bishop of London as a part of the "Fulanham" estate.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: A map of London dated 1841 shows Shepherd's Bush to be largely undeveloped and chiefly rural in character, with much open farmland, compared with fast-developing Hammersmith. Residential development began in earnest in the late 19th century, as London's population expanded relentlessly. In 1904 the Catholic Church of Holy Ghost and St Stephen, built in the Gothic style with a triple-gabled facade of red brick and Portland stone, was completed and opened to the public.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Like other parts of London, Shepherd's Bush suffered from bomb damage during World War II, especially from V-1 flying bomb attacks (known as "doodlebugs" or "buzzbombs"), which struck randomly and with little warning.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: On 13 April 1963, the Beatles recorded their first-ever BBC Television broadcast at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The group returned in 1964 for a further recording. Lime Grove Studios was demolished in 1994 to make way for residential accommodation.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: More recently, the White City bus station is housed in the redeveloped Dimco Buildings (1898), Grade II listed red brick buildings which were originally built in 1898 as a shed for a London Underground power station. The Dimco buildings were used as a filming location for the 'Acme Factory' in the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and later served as the interior of the British Museum in "The Mummy Returns".


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The area's focal point is Shepherd's Bush Green (also known as Shepherds Bush Common), a triangular area of about of open grass surrounded by trees and roads with shops, with Westfield shopping centre to its north.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The Green is a hub on the local road network, with four main roads radiating from the western side of the green and three roads approaching its eastern apex, meeting at the large Holland Park Roundabout. This position makes it an important node of the bus network, with eighteen bus routes arriving there. It is also served by five London Underground stations (see "Transport" below): Shepherd's Bush and White City both on the Central line, and Shepherd's Bush Market, Goldhawk Road and Wood Lane all on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: To the east, Shepherd's Bush is bounded by the physical barrier of the West London railway line and the grade-separated West Cross Route (part of the aborted 1960s London Motorway Box scheme); the Holland Park Roundabout and the small Addison Bridge to the south are the only ways to cross this barrier from Shepherds Bush.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Most of the areas to the east of the barrier differ significantly in character, being associated with the more affluent Holland Park and Notting Hill; although the Edward Woods Estate just to the north-east of the roundabout is part of and is managed by the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Originally built in the 1970s with a rooftop car park and connecting bridge to the station, the older West 12 Shepherds Bush shopping centre was significantly redeveloped in the 1990s. The bridge was removed, and the centre now houses several chain stores, a 12-screen cinema, gym, pub, restaurants, a medical practice and a supermarket.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The small shops continue along many of the most popular roads within Shepherd's Bush, such as Uxbridge Road. Many of these establishments cater for the local ethnic minority communities. For example, a relatively large proportion of the local shops on Goldhawk Road (south of the Green) are dedicated to Ethiopian culture, whether that be through food, clothing or barbershops. (see "Demographics").


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Running parallel to, and partly under, an elevated section of the Hammersmith & City line there is a large permanent market, the Shepherd's Bush Market, selling all types of foodstuffs, cooked food, household goods, clothing and bric-à-brac.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: As well as the offices within the Television Centre on Wood Lane, opposite this is Network House, 1 Ariel Way, a building that was let by Frost Meadowcroft on behalf of Westfield to Zodiak Entertainment in September 2009 and in Rockley Road is the Shepherds Building where Endemol another TV company are based and where Jellycat, a soft toy company, relocated their head office to in February 2010. The same building also houses Escape Studios, a digital art school providing computer graphics training for the visual effects industry in London.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The residential areas of Shepherd's Bush are primarily located to the west of the Green, either side of Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road to the southwest, and about as far as Askew Road in the west. Much of the housing in this area consists of three- or four-storey terraces dating from the late 19th century, and subsequently divided up into small flats.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush is also home to the White City Estate, a housing estate that was originally constructed in the 1930s and further extended after the war in the early 1950s. It was built on the site of the grounds of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition and close to the White City Stadium and has given its name to the northern part of Shepherd's Bush which is now better known as White City.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Significant communities from Australia and New Zealand exist in Shepherd's Bush. Street names in the area suggest links to South Africa but these were inspired by places and personalities from the Boer War or by their proximity to the former position of the South Africa Pavilion in the White City exhibition area. There is a Polish community, with a community centre in nearby Hammersmith. There are also Afro-Caribbean, Somali, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian, Irish, Algerian, Moroccan and Afghan communities that exist in Shepherd's Bush.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush is a major transport interchange in west London. Five London Underground stations serve the area, including:


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The Central line links the area to Ealing and areas of north-west London, such as Greenford and Ruislip. To the east, the line links Shepherd's Bush to London's West End, the City, and Stratford.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The Circle and Hammersmith & City lines share the same route through the area, with direct services southbound to nearby Hammersmith. To the north, the lines curve eastwards towards Latimer Road and Ladbroke Grove. The lines then run directly to key destinations such as Paddington, King's Cross, Moorgate in the city, and the East End.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush railway station is served by National Rail trains, operated by London Overground () and Southern. There are direct services from Shepherd's Bush to Kensington, and Clapham Junction and Balham, both of which are based in the south west of London, and Croydon in the south east of London. Northbound Southern services link the area to Wembley, Watford, Hemel Hempstead, and Milton Keynes. London Overground services running northbound travel towards Willesden Junction, where services continue towards West Hampstead, Camden, Hackney, and Stratford in east London. The station is an out-of-station interchange with Shepherd's Bush tube station on the Central line, and is situated on the western side of Holland Park Roundabout.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: London Buses routes 31, 49, 72, 94, 95, 148, 207, 220, 228, 237, 260, 272, 283, 295, 316, 607, N72, N207, and C1 serve Shepherd's Bush Green and the southern side of the Westfield shopping centre.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush was also the proposed terminus of the West London Tram, an on-street light rail line running to Uxbridge via Acton, Ealing and Southall. This project was cancelled in 2007 in favour of an enhanced bus service and the development of Crossrail.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Cycle lanes run around the southern rim of the Holland Park Roundabout on the eastern side of Shepherd's Bush. This provides cyclists with traffic-free access from Holland Park Avenue to Shepherd's Bush Green.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Transport for London (TfL) proposes that a cycle spur will link the roundabout to Cycleway 9, which is intended to run along Kensington High Street.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The Santander Cycles bicycle-sharing system operates around Shepherd's Bush, with docking stations near Westfield, Wood Lane station, and Shepherd's Bush Road.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The A3220/West Cross Route runs along the eastern rim of the district. Until 2000, the route was the M41 motorway, part of the abandoned Ringways network of orbital roads in London. Despite not retaining motorway status, pedal cycles are prohibited from using the route northbound. The A3220 links Shepherd's Bush with the A40/Westway to the north. This provides the area with a dual-carriageway link to Paddington and Marylebone to the east, and westbound to Acton and the M40 motorway. Southbound, the A3220 is named Holland Road and links the area to Earl's Court, the A4, and Chelsea.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The junkyard in the sitcom "Steptoe & Son" was situated at the fictional 24 Oil Drum Lane, Shepherd's Bush. It is often humorously referred to in the popular BBC series "Absolutely Fabulous" where the main character, Edina Monsoon, owns her home but prefers to say she lives in the more favourable, upscale Holland Park nearby.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The BBC used to have many offices in Shepherd's Bush, but many have now been closed or moved. They included the Lime Grove Studios on the site of previous film studios Gaumont and Gainsborough Pictures. Sulgrave House, Threshold and Union Houses and Kensington House—now a hotel. The BBC's presence in the Bush is now concentrated in two huge sites on Wood Lane, Television Centre and the White City building. The Media Village was built next to the White City building in the mid-1980s on the former site of the White City Stadium. It is used by the BBC and other media companies including Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast, now a private company). Television Centre was the national home of BBC Television, and it is from there that BBC TV and radio news, the BBC website and a host of TV drama and light entertainment were broadcast. The BBC moved all of its news operations from Television Centre to Broadcasting House in central London in 2012.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush Green The newly regenerated green in 2012–13 was the site for the public sculptures Goaloids by Fine Artist Elliott Brook. This Inspire Mark (awarded by LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) making it part of the Cultural Olympiad) artwork was installed on Shepherd's Bush Green for the duration of London 2012 and the Paralympic Games. These large unique rotating football related sculptures commemorated the history of Shepherd's Bush and White City, which hosted the 1908 Summer Olympics football. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is the only Borough to have three football teams playing Premier League Football.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Bush Theatre is one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. Situated on the green it has international reputation for discovering, nurturing and producing the best new theatre writers from the widest range of backgrounds, and for presenting their work to the high standards.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush Empire is a music venue and former television studio, and has played host to some very popular acts and TV programmes, including David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, "The Old Grey Whistle Test", "Wogan", "That's Life!", "Crackerjack", and "This Is Your Life".


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Bush Hall is another, rather smaller, venue at 310 Uxbridge Road, built in 1904 as a dance hall. It predominantly showcases smaller acoustic performers.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush Walkabout was a popular music and live sports venue located on the western end of the green. On Australian and New Zealand national holidays, big sporting events such as the Australian Football League grand final, and memorial days such as Anzac Day the Shepherd's Bush Walkabout became very busy. The live music was usually a mixture of up and coming local acts, and cover bands who played Australian and New Zealand classic songs and contemporary popular music. Shepherd's Bush Walkabout closed in early October 2013 and it was announced the site would be redeveloped into a hotel.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The casting agency 2020 Casting, which supplies extras for film shoots, is based in Hopgood Street, just off Shepherd's Bush Green.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Some important rock and roll groups have roots in Shepherd's Bush. The Who infused much of their work with the youth culture of Shepherd's Bush during the 1960s and 1970s. Steve Jones, guitarist of punk legends the Sex Pistols, was born in Shepherd's Bush, and Pistols drummer Paul Cook grew up here. The Clash's early work is infused with the culture of Shepherd's Bush and the Westway. Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty moved to Shepherd's Bush at age 16. Tony Butler, bass-player with 1980s band Big Country and others, was born in Shepherd's Bush. Bands Bush and Symposium hail from Shepherd's Bush, the former taking their name from the area.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: In the Westfield shopping centre area at White City, the grade II listed Dimco buildings (1898), now redeveloped as a bus station, were used as the location for the 'Acme Factory' in the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Shepherd's Bush is home to Queens Park Rangers football club, who play their home games in Loftus Road.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: Olympic gold medal winner Linford Christie also grew up in Shepherd's Bush and lived in Loftus Road as a child. A stadium on nearby Wormwood Scrubs is named the Linford Christie Stadium in his honour. Some of the football games in the 1908 Olympics were hosted in Shepherd's Bush. Shepherds Bush F.C. were the local side until 1915.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has created the Shepherd's Bush Conservation Area in order to promote the protection of local buildings of historic interest, and improve the character of the neighbourhood.


title: Shepherd's Bush

text: At Westminster, Shepherd's Bush is represented by Andy Slaughter, the Labour Party MP for the constituency of Hammersmith, which includes Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith and North Fulham.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Dodge Charger (1966), also known as Dodge Charger (B-body), is a mid-size automobile that was produced by Dodge from 1966 to 1978, and was based on the Chrysler B platform.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: During the early 1960s, automakers were exploring new ideas in the personal luxury and specialty car segments. Chrysler, slow to enter the specialty car market, selected their Dodge Division to enter the marketplace with a mid-size B-bodied sporty car to fit between the "pony car" Ford Mustang and "personal luxury" Ford Thunderbird. The intention was to create a fastback look while sharing as much existing company hardware as possible. utilizing lessons learned from the luxury coupe Chrysler 300.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Coronet-based Charger that resulted was introduced in mid-season of the 1966 model year in response to the Rambler Marlin, Ford Mustang, and Plymouth Barracuda. The styling was generally a departure from the Dodge's mainstream cars. The 1965 Marlin, along with the Charger that arrived during the 1966 model year, were two cars which set a new standard for radical fastback design in American mid-size automobiles. According to Richard M. Langworth, "because it was an intermediate like the Rambler Marlin, the Charger could have been an aesthetic disaster, but long side windows prevented its sweeping roof from looking too heavy."


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Burt Bouwkamp, Chief Engineer for Dodge during the 1960s and one of the men behind the Charger, related his experience during a speech in July 2004.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Lynn Townsend was at odds with the Dodge Dealers and wanted to do something to please them. So in 1965 he asked me to come to his office - for the second time. He noted that one of the Dodge Dealer Council requests was for a Barracuda type vehicle. The overall dealer product recommendation theme was the same - we want what Plymouth has. The specific request for a Mustang type vehicle was not as controversial to Lynn. His direction to me was to give them a specialty car but he said 'for God's sake don't make it a derivative of the Barracuda': i.e. don't make it a Barracuda competitor.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: "We built a Charger 'idea' car which we displayed at auto shows in 1965 to stimulate market interest in the concept. It was the approved design but we told the press and auto show attendees that it was just an "idea" and that we would build it if they liked it. It was pre-ordained that they would like it."


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger made its debut in mid-1966. Sharing its chassis and front-end sheet-metal with the mid-sized Coronet, the Charger was positioned to take on AMC’s conceptually similar Rambler Marlin. It was better looking, but somewhat more expensive, $2,850 to $3,100 ($ in dollars ) to ($ in dollars ).


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Significantly, the Charger's interior was different from all other cars, with a full-length center console and "all bucket seating" front and rear, inspired by the 1960-1962 Chrysler 300, and was similar to the 1964 Pontiac 2+2. The rear's pseudo-buckets could be folded down to create interior space accessible via the rear hatch. The Charger was not intended to compete head-to-head in performancy with pony cars, but was available with Chrysler's famed 426 Hemi V8.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: On January 1, 1966, viewers of the Rose Bowl were first introduced to the new "Leader of the Dodge Rebellion", the 1966 Charger. The Charger's debut also followed by a half model year the introduction of a new street version of the Chrysler Hemi engine. With the Charger, Dodge had a new model to build a performance image to go along with this engine.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Designed by Carl "CAM" Cameron, the Charger introduced a fastback roofline and pot-metal "electric shaver" grille, complete with fully rotating headlights, a feature not seen on a Chrysler product since the 1942 DeSoto. In the rear, the fastback design ended over a full-width six-lamp taillight with chromed "CHARGER" lettering.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Inside, the standard Charger featured a simulated wood-grain steering wheel, four individual bucket seats with a full-length console from front to rear. The rear seats and rear center armrest pad also folded forward while the trunk divider dropped back, which allowed for cargo room. Numerous interior features were exclusive to the Charger including door panels, courtesy lights, as well as premium trim and vinyl upholstery. The instrument panel did not use regular bulbs to light the gauges, but rather electroluminescence lit the four chrome-ringed circular dash pods, needles, radio, shifter-position indicator in the console, as well as clock and air conditioning controls if equipped. The dash housed a 0 to 6000 rpm tachometer, a 0 to speedometer, as well as alternator, fuel, and temperature gauges as standard equipment.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Engine selections consisted of only V8s. 1966 transmissions included a three-speed steering-column mounted manual with the base engine, a console mounted four-speed manual, or three-speed automatic. In 1966, four engines were offered: the base-model 2-barrel, the 2-barrel, the 4-barrel, and the new 426 Street Hemi. Only 468 Chargers were built with the 426.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In 1966, Dodge took the Charger into NASCAR in hopes that the fastback would make their car a winner on the high-banks. However, the car proved difficult to handle on the faster tracks because its body generated lift. Drivers would later claim that "it was like driving on ice." To solve this problem Dodge installed a small lip spoiler on the trunk lid that improved traction at speeds above . This was made a dealer-installed option in late-1966 and in 1967, because of NASCAR rules, made the 1966 Charger the first U.S. production vehicle to offer a spoiler. (Small quarter panel extensions were added in 1967.) The addition of the spoiler helped David Pearson, driving the #6 Cotton Owens-prepared Dodge cars, to win the NASCAR Grand National championship in 1966 with 15 first-place finishes, though only one, the Capital City 300 in Richmond, VA, was achieved using the Charger.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1967 model year Charger received minor changes. Outside, new fender-mounted turn signals were introduced and this would serve as the main external identifier between a 1966 and 1967 Charger. A vinyl roof became available. Inside, the full-length console was eliminated to satisfy customer complaints about the difficulty for entry and exit from the back seats. It was replaced with a regular-sized console. Bucket seats were standard, but a folding armrest/seat and steering column transmission shifter was an option allowing three people to sit in the front.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 440 "Magnum" was added and the V8 was replaced by a engine. The 440 was rated at with a single 4-barrel carburetor. The 318 two-barrel "LA" Chrysler LA engine was now the base engine with wedge-shaped combustion chambers, unlike the previous 1966 polyspherical (or "poly") design, it was rated at . The 383 4-barrel rated at and the 426 Street Hemi rated at remained as options. A total of 118 Chargers were built with the 426 engines in 1967, 58 cars were built with a four-speed transmission and 59 cars were built with the automatic transmission. The R/T package was also introduced in 1967.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Sales of the 1967 Chargers dropped to half of the previous introductory half-year with a total of 15,788 units. According to automotive historian Patrick Foster, both the AMC Marlin and the very similar looking first generation Dodge Charger "flopped on the market as sporty car buyers were showing their preference for compact pony cars."


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The entire B-body lineup for the 1968 model year was redesigned and the Charger was further differentiated from the Dodge Coronet models. Less upscale than the first generation, the new model featured coke bottle styling by Richard Sias, with curves around the front fenders and rear quarter panels. Front and rear end sheet metal was designed by Harvey J. Winn. The rear end featured a "kick up" spoiler appearance, inspired by Group 7 racing vehicles. The fastback roof was gone, in favor of a "flying buttress" similar to that of the 1966-67 Pontiac GTO. The Charger retained its full-width hidden headlight grille, but a vacuum-operated cover replaced the electric motor powered rotating headlights. The previous full-width taillights were replaced with dual circular units at the direction of Styling Vice President, Elwood P. Engel. Dual scallops were added to the doors and hood.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Inside, numerous "downscalings" were evident. A conventional fixed rear bench seat replaced the folding bucket seat design. The conventional trunk area included a vinyl mat, rather than the previous model's carpeted cargo area. The center console in the front remained, but there was no center armrest. The tachometer was now optional and the electroluminescent gauges were replaced with a conventional design.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Even the model's engine options ended up reduced midyear, when the standard 2-bbl V8, was replaced with Chrysler's basic slant-six. The 383-2 and 383-4 remained unchanged.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: A new high-performance package was added, the R/T ("Road/Track", not to be confused with the "Road & Track)" magazine). The R/T came standard with the previous year's 440 "Magnum", with the 426 Hemi optional. With either, the Charger had evolved into possibly the top Chrysler-made muscle car.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In 1968, Chrysler Corporation began a marketing campaign featuring a cartoon bee with an engine on its back promoting models called the "Scat Pack". The Coronet R/T, Super Bee, Dart GTS, and Charger R/T received bumble-bee stripes (of two thin stripes framing two thick ones). The stripes were standard on the R/Ts and came in red, white, or black, but could be deleted at no extra cost.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1968 film "Bullitt" helped popularize the Charger R/T for its notable car chase sequence alongside the titular character's 1968 Ford Mustang GT through the streets of San Francisco, which has been regarded as one of the most influential car chase scenes in movie history. In the film, a black Charger R/T 440 is chased by Steve McQueen's Ford Mustang GT, jumping on the San Francisco slopes. The 1968 model year Charger sales increased to 96,100, including over 17,000 Charger R/Ts.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1969 model year brought few modifications. Exterior changes included a new grille with a center divider and new longitudinal taillights, both designed by Harvey J. Winn. A new trim line called the Special Edition (SE) was added. This could be available by itself or together with the R/T, thus making an R/T-SE. The SE added leather inserts to the front seats only, chrome rocker moldings, a wood grain steering wheel, and wood grain inserts on the instrument panel. A sunroof was added to the options list, but was ordered on only 260 Chargers. The bumblebee stripes returned, but were changed slightly. Instead of four stripes, it now consisted of a wide stripe framed by two smaller stripes. In the middle of the stripe, an R/T cutout was placed. If the stripe was deleted, a metal R/T emblem was placed where the R/T cutout was. Total production was around 89,199 units.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: There were two different 383 engines available for the 1969 model year: 2-barrel and 4-barrel. The 2-barrel was rated at 290 hp. The four-barrel engine was rated at 330 hp and was identified on the air cleaner as "383 / FOUR BARREL". The 330-hp engine was unique to the Charger model in 1969. While this engine was available with an un-silenced air cleaner option, it differed internally from the 335-hp 383 "Magnum". Differences between the 330-hp 383 4-barrel and 335-hp 383 were mostly internal. Both versions used the Carter AVS carb and the larger exhaust manifolds from the 440 Magnum engines, but the Magnum had a windage tray in the oil pan, a different camshaft profile, and different valve springs. In 1969 the B-series engines were all painted Chrysler Engine Turquoise with the exception of the 4-barrel 383 four-speed and 440 Magnum engines which were painted Chrysler "High-Performance Orange". As usual, the 426 Hemi was painted "Street Hemi Orange". The 383 Magnum motor was used in Road Runners and Super Bees, but did not appear in a Charger body until 1971.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The television series "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979–1985) featured an orange-painted 1969 Charger named "The General Lee". "The General" sported the Confederate battle flag painted on the roof and the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door. The windows were always open, as the doors were supposedly welded shut for racing, and the actors would do a window slide to get in and out. The number "01" is painted on both doors. Also, when the horn button was pressed, it played the first 11 notes from the "de facto" Confederate States anthem "Dixie". The car performed spectacular jumps in almost every episode, and the show's popularity produced consumer interest in the car.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In 1968, the NASCAR inspired Charger R/T failed to beat the Ford cars (the Ford Torino Talladega and the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II) on the high-banks oval-tracks. Wind tunnel tests showed the tunneled rear window caused lift and the gaping mouth induced drag. As a result, Dodge made the rear window flush with the rest of the roof and put a 1968 Coronet grille in the front.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The original Charger 500 prototype was a 1968 Charger R/T with a 426 Hemi and automatic transmission. The prototype was painted in B5 Blue with a white stripe, as well as a white interior. The Charger 500 was one of three models introduced in September 1968. The standard engine was the 440 Magnum, but factory literature described the 426 Hemi was standard. The Charger 500 had the Torqueflite standard and the same equipment standard as the R/T.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: A total of 392 Charger 500s were made, of which only 67 had the 426 Hemi engine; 27 with a 4-speed and 40 with an automatic transmission.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Dodge was not satisfied with the results of the Charger 500. The car was not enough to beat the other aerocars on the NASCAR circuit. After months of research and development, including at the aftermarket shop, Creative Industries, the Charger Daytona was introduced on April 13, 1969. It quickly received over 1,000 orders.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Chrysler made many attempts at improving the aerodynamics of the 500 by adding noses rumored to be up to long. The Charger Daytona finally received an nose. The full-size Charger Daytona was tested with an nose at the Lockheed-Martin Georgia facility. The test was a success and the project was greenlighted. The nose piece was only part of the innovation. The Charger Daytona also received a tall wing in rear. This wing was bolted through the rear quarter panels and into the rear subframe. Although proven to be less effective than shorter wing designs, the engineer responsible for the development of the wing, John Pointer, chose the tall design so the wing would be in "clean air" to help increase the car's overall speed. That the tall wing prevents interference with the operation of the trunk lid can be considered a fortunate coincidence. The tall wing also helped in an unintended way, by giving the car directional stability due to its deeply splinted sides.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger Daytona engineering model was tested on the Chelsea, Michigan Chrysler Proving Grounds on July 20, 1969. Driven by Charlie Glotzbach and Buddy Baker, it was clocked at with a small 4-bbl. carb. The Charger Daytona's nose made 1,200 pounds of downforce and the wing made 600 pounds of downforce. The Dodge styling department wanted to make changes to the Charger Daytona as soon as they saw it, but was told by Bob McCurry to back off; he wanted function over finesse.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger Daytona introduced to the public had a fiberglass nose without real headlamps and a wing without streamlined fairings. The media and public loved the car, but were mystified by the reverse scoops on the front fenders. The PR representatives claimed it was for tire clearance. Actually, they reduced drag by 3% by ventilating trapped air out of the wheel wells.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger Daytona came standard with the 440 Magnum Engine with and of torque, A727 Torqueflite Automatic Transmission, and a 3.23 489 Case 8 3/4 Chrysler Differential. Optional was the 426 Hemi with and . The 426 Hemi was also available with the no cost option of the A833 4-Speed Manual. Only 503 Charger Daytona's were produced as U.S. cars. (An additional 40 were for Canada), Of the 503 U.S. cars produced, 433 were 440 Magnum, 139 4-Speed and 294 Torqueflite; 70 were 426 Hemi power, 22 4-Speed and 48 Torqueflite.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In the end, the Daytona was brought down by the decision to make the 1970 Plymouth Superbird the only Chrysler winged car for the model year. While Daytonas were raced through the 1970 season, only one Daytona was raced until 1971 (in the 1971 Daytona 500) when NASCAR decreed that engine displacement of wing cars would be limited to . That particular car, driven by Dick Brooks, finished in seventh place.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The very first 1969 Charger Daytona was hand-built by Chrysler engineers and was on display at the 1969 World fair in New York.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger was changed slightly for the 1970 model year. This was the last year of the 2nd generation Charger and featured a large wraparound chrome bumper and the grille was no longer divided in the middle. New electric headlight doors replaced the old vacuum style. The taillights were similar to those used in 69, but 500 and R/T models came with a new more attractive taillight panel. On the R/T, new rear-facing scoops with the R/T logo were mounted on the front doors, over the door scallops. A new 440 or HEMI hood cutout made the option list for this year only.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Dodge painted the hood scallop inserts black and put the silver engine callouts on top. New "High Impact" colors were given names, such as "Top Banana", and "Panther Pink".


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Interior changes included new high-back bucket seats, the door panels were also revised and the map pockets were now optional instead of standard. The ignition was moved from the dash to the steering column (as with all Chrysler products this year), and the glove box was now hinged at the bottom instead of the top as in 1968–69. The SE "Special Edition" trim option added luxury features and was available in the 500 SE and R/T SE versions. A new pistol grip shifter was introduced, along with a bench front seat, a first for the Charger since its debut.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: A new engine option made the Charger's list for the first time, the 440 Six Pack. With three two-barrel carburetors and a rating of , it was one of the most exotic setups since the cross-ram Max Wedge engines of the early 1960s. The Six Pack was previously used on the mid-year 1969 Dodge Super Bee and Plymouth Road Runner. Despite this new engine, production slipped again to 46,576 mainly due to the new E-body Dodge Challenger pony car, as well as rapidly increasing automobile insurance rates. In the 1970 NASCAR season, the 1970 Charger had ten wins, more than any other car, including the 1969 Charger Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds, thus giving Bobby Isaac the Grand National Championship. Buddy Baker, driving the blue #88 Engineering Daytona, was the first and only legal car to run over 200 mph in 1970. That record lasted for over 13 years.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The third generation Charger made its debut for the 1971 model year, with all new "fuselage" sheetmetal and a new split grille. The interiors were like those of the E-body and were now shared by the Plymouth B-body, the Plymouth Satellite Sebring, and Road Runner. The hidden headlights were now optional. A rear spoiler and a "Ramcharger" hood were new options. This hood featured a pop-up scoop mounted above the air cleaner controlled by a vacuum switch under the dash. On Plymouth Road Runners it was called the "Air Grabber" hood, and it was previously used on the Coronet R/T and Super Bee.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Dodge also merged its Coronet and Charger lines. From 1971, all four-door B-bodies were badged as Coronets and all two-door B-bodies as Chargers. Thus for one year only, the Super Bee became part of the Charger lineup, after which it was discontinued. From 1971 to 1974, Charger models used the Coronet's VIN prefix of "W".


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Several other models were carried over from 1970, including the 500, R/T, and SE. Sales of the R/T declined due in part to higher insurance costs and gasoline prices. A total of 63 Hemi RTs were built that year, marking its last appearance in any production car, and 2,659 with other engines. The 1971 model year was also the last for the 440 Six-Pack engine, which could still be mated to a 4-speed manual transmission with an optional Hurst shifter, as well as the automatic. In the Super Bee's final year, the 340 became a $44 option over the standard, low-compression 383 V8.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1972 Charger introduced a new "Rallye" option to replace the R/T version. The SE was differentiated from other 1972 Chargers by a unique formal roof treatment and hidden headlights. The 383 engine was replaced with a lower compression 4-barrel 400, while the 440 engine was rated at a more realistic net instead of the previous gross. Beginning in 1972, all engines featured hardened valve seats to permit the use of regular leaded or unleaded gasoline rather than leaded premium fuel as in past years due to tighter emissions regulations. Though the 440+6 (designating a triple 2-barrel carb setup and was listed in the early 1972 sales literature, it was found in the August 1971 testing that this engine would not meet the new and more stringent 1972 emissions laws, although some early Dodge literature (August 1971 press) stated that this engine was available for 1972, and a few (six is the accepted number) factory installed six-pack Chargers were built, the engine was dropped out of production by September 1971. The optional Pistol-Grip 4-speed Hurst manual shifter could be coupled to the 340, 400, and 440 Magnum engines. The "Ramcharger" hood scoop was discontinued, as well as optional lower geared performance rear axle ratios and extra heavy-duty suspensions. It was also the final year for the Dana 60 differential and was available only in combination with the 440/4 speed, heavy-duty suspension, and the 3.54:1 rear axle ratio.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The only remaining "Hi-Impact" color choices were "Hemi Orange" (EV2) and "Top Banana" (FY1), the latter was available under different names through 1974.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: For the 1973 model year, Chargers received new sheet metal and were longer, wider, and slightly taller than the 1971-72 cars. Also new were vertically slatted taillights and new grilles. Hidden headlights were dropped, even as an option.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 318 was still standard, with the 340 (available only on the Rallye), 360 (2-barrel only), 400 (low power 2-barrel/single exhaust and high-performance 4-barrel/dual exhaust), and 440 remaining as options.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The SE models had a new roof treatment that had a "triple opera window" surrounded by a canopy-style vinyl roof. All other models had a new quarter window treatment, discontinuing its AMC Gremlin-style window in favor of a more conventional design.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Total sales this year were around 108,000 units, the highest ever for the 1971-74 Charger generation, though more than 60 percent of the cars had non-high performance engines. The 1973 Chargers, and all Chrysler products, were equipped with 5 mph bumpers, front and rear.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1974 model year saw minor changes that included new color choices, a softer grain pattern on interior surfaces, and a slight increase in the size of the rubber bumper tips. The 340 option was replaced with a 360 4-bbl as the small-block performance engine. All other engine options remained the same, including the 360 2-bbl designated by a K in the fifth symbol in the vehicle identification number. Several performance rear-end ratios, including a 3.23 "Sure Grip" rear end were available. A four-speed transmission was an option except with the 440 engine.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In spite of the Charger no longer being perceived as a performance model, sales rose as it veered towards being a personal luxury car. The muscle-car era came to a close, with 1974 as the final year for performance options.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1971-74 Charger based cars were campaigned in NASCAR, with Buddy Baker, Bobby Isaac, Dave Marcis, and Richard Petty scoring several wins. Richard Petty won 35 races with this body style between 1972 and 1977 as NASCAR allowed the Chargers to run a few years longer than normal because Chrysler did not have a replacement car. A 1974 bodied Charger driven by Neil Bonnett scored Dodge's last NASCAR victory (until 2001) at the December 1977 Los Angeles Times 500. Richard Petty has proclaimed this body style as his favorite car that he ran during his career because it was balanced.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1975 model year Charger picked up on the sales increase seen in 1974's move towards positioning it as a personal luxury car. Both the Charger and the new Chrysler Cordoba sibling shared the same body based on the B platform.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The Charger SE (Special Edition) was the only model offered. It was available with the "LA" series small block V8 and three versions of big-block V8. The standard engine was the 2-bbl small block. The code E58 4-bbl and dual exhaust high performance version (225 hp) were optional. Sales in 1975 totaled 30,812.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: Because of the extreme squareness of the body design, NASCAR teams were forced to rely on the previous years (1974) sheet metal for race-spec cars. In order for Dodge to be represented, NASCAR allowed the 1974 sheet metal to be used until January 1978, when the new Dodge Magnum was ready for race use. In 1976 a Charger was one of two NASCAR stock cars to compete in the 24hrs at LeMans, having been modified with head-lamps, tail-lamps, and windshield wipers. It was driven by Herschel and Doug McGriff and sponsored by Olympia Beer, earning the nickname "Oly Express"


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1976 model year Charger range was expanded to four models; base, Charger Sport (formerly the Dodge Coronet 2-door model, which appeared for just the previous model year only), Charger SE, and the Charger Daytona. The base and Sport models used a different body than the SE and Daytona, and were essentially a re-badging of what had been the 1975 Dodge Coronet 2-door models — and available with a Slant Six, which was not offered on the SE and Daytona. The Charger Daytona was introduced as an appearance package and was offered with either the 360 or 400 engine. Sales for 1976 increased slightly to 65,900 units.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: In 1977, the Charger Sport (which dated back to the former Coronet 2-door, which had appeared for only the 1975 model year only) and the base Charger were dropped as this body style became part of the newly named B-body Monaco line, and only the Charger SE and Charger Daytona were offered. Estimated production was 30,367 units.


title: Dodge Charger (1966)

text: The 1978 model year was a carry-over and the final use of the B-Body. A total of 2,735 Chargers were produced.


title: Salomon Group

text: Salomon Group is a French sports equipment manufacturing company based in Annecy, France. It was founded in 1947 by François Salomon in the heart of the French Alps and is a major brand in outdoor sports equipment. Salomon constitutes a part of Amer Sports, owned since 2019 by the Chinese group ANTA Sports with sister brands Wilson, Atomic, Sports Tracker, Suunto, Precor, Arc'teryx.


title: Salomon Group

text: Salomon was founded in 1947 in the city of Annecy in the heart of the French Alps. Francois Salomon launched the company by producing ski edges in a small workshop, with only his wife and son, Georges, to help. Georges Salomon is credited with taking the company and evolving it toward the global outdoor sports brand it is today.


title: Salomon Group

text: Today, Salomon produces products for various sports markets, including trail running, hiking, climbing, adventure racing, skiing, and snowboarding in over 40 countries on five continents. They used to manufacture inline skates, transferring technologies from their ski boot range, but have not released any in recent years.


title: Salomon Group

text: Salomon's current CEO is Franco Fogliato. Salomon is part of Amer Sports, headquartered in Helsinki (Finland).


title: Salomon Group

text: Salomon also sponsors and hosts many trail races throughout the world, including the Golden Trail Series. It also runs Salomon TV, a channel that tells inspirational stories about athletes, places and interesting characters from the world of skiing, trail running, and the outdoors.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (, née Domontovich, Домонто́вич;  – 9 March 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party and the first woman in history to become an official member of a governing cabinet.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: The daughter of an Imperial Russian Army general, Kollontai embraced radical politics in the 1890s and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1899. During the RSDLP ideological split, she sided with Julius Martov's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks. Exiled from Russia in 1908, Kollontai toured Western Europe and the United States and advocated against participation in the First World War. In 1915, she broke with the Mensheviks and became a member of the Bolsheviks.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Following the 1917 February Revolution which ousted the Tsar, Kollontai returned to Russia. She supported Lenin's radical proposals and, as a member of the party's Central Committee, voted for the policy of armed uprising which led to the October Revolution and the fall of Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government. She was appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the first Soviet government, but soon resigned due to her opposition to the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the ranks of the Left Communists. She was the only woman other than Maria Spiridonova to play a prominent role during the Russian Revolution.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In 1919, Kollontai founded the Zhenotdel, which worked to improve the status of women in the Soviet Union. She was a champion of women's liberation, and later came to be recognized as a key figure in Marxist feminism.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai was outspoken against bureaucratic influences over the Communist Party and its undemocratic internal practices. To that end, she sided with the left-wing Workers' Opposition in 1920, but was eventually defeated and sidelined, narrowly avoiding her own expulsion from the party altogether. From 1922 on, she was appointed to various diplomatic posts abroad, serving in Norway, Mexico and Sweden. In 1943, she was promoted to the title of ambassador to Sweden. Kollontai retired from diplomatic service in 1945 and died in Moscow in 1952.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai's father, General Mikhail Alekseevich Domontovich (1830–1902), descended from a Ukrainian family that traced its ancestry back to 13th-century and Daumantas of Pskov. Her father served as a cavalry officer in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). After his participation in the war, he was appointed Provisional Governor of the Bulgarian city of Tarnovo, and later Military Consul in Sofia. In May 1879, he was called back to St. Petersburg. He entertained liberal political views, favoring a constitutional monarchy like that of United Kingdom. In the 1880s he wrote a study of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. This study was confiscated by the Tsarist censors, presumably for showing insufficient Russian nationalist zeal. Alexandra's mother, Alexandra Alexandrovna Masalina (Massalina) (1848–1899), was the daughter of Alexander Feodorovich Masalin (Massalin) (1809–1859), a Finnish peasant who had made a fortune selling wood. Alexandra Alexandrovna Masalina became known as Alexandra Alexandrovna Masalina-Mravinskaya after her marriage to her first husband, Konstantin Iosipovich Mravinsky (originally spelled Mrovinsky) (1829–1921). Her marriage to Mravinsky was an arranged marriage which turned out to be unhappy, and eventually she divorced Mravinsky in order to marry Mikhail Domontovich, with whom she had fallen in love. Russian opera singer Yevgeniya Mravina (stage name) was Kollontai's half-sister via her mother. The celebrated Soviet-Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, music director of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra for fifty years (1938–1988), was the only son of Mravina's brother Alexander Kostantinovich and thus Kollontai's half nephew.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: The saga of her parents' long and difficult struggle to be together in spite of the norms of society would color and inform Alexandra Kollontai's own views of relationships, sex, and marriage.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Alexandra Mikhailovna Domontovich was born on in St. Petersburg. "Shura", as she was called growing up, was close to her father, with whom she shared an analytical bent and an interest in history and politics. Her relationship with her mother, for whom she was named, was more complex. She later recalled:


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Alexandra was a good student growing up, sharing her father's interest in history, and mastering a range of languages. She spoke French with her mother and sisters, English with her nanny, Finnish with the peasants at a family estate inherited from her maternal grandfather in Kuusa (in Muolaa, Grand Duchy of Finland), and was a student of German. Alexandra sought to continue her schooling at a university, but her mother refused her permission, arguing that women had no real need for higher education, and that impressionable youngsters encountered too many dangerous radical ideas at universities. Instead, Alexandra was to be allowed to take an exam to gain certification as a school teacher before making her way into society to find a husband, as was the custom.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In 1890 or 1891, Alexandra, aged around 19, met her cousin and future husband, Vladimir Ludvigovich Kollontai (9 July 1867 – July/August 1917), an engineering student of modest means enrolled at a military institute. Alexandra's mother objected bitterly to the potential union since the young man was so poor, to which her daughter replied that she would work as a teacher to help make ends meet. Her mother bitterly scoffed at the notion:


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Her parents forbade the relationship and sent Alexandra on a tour of Western Europe in the hope that she would forget Vladimir, but the pair remained committed to one another despite it all and married in 1893. Alexandra became pregnant soon after her marriage and bore a son, Mikhail, in 1894. She devoted her time to reading radical populist and Marxist political literature and writing fiction.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: While Kollontai was initially drawn to the populist ideas of restructuring society based upon the Mir commune, she soon abandoned this for other revolutionary projects. Marxism, with its emphasis on the class consciousness of factory workers, the revolutionary seizure of power, and the construction of modern industrial society, attracted Kollontai and many of her peers in Russia's radical intelligentsia. Kollontai's first activities were timid and modest, helping out a few hours a week with her sister Zhenia at a library that supported Sunday classes in basic literacy for urban workers, sneaking a few socialist ideas into the lessons. Through this library Kollontai met Elena Stasova, an activist in the budding Marxist movement in St. Petersburg. Stasova began to use Kollontai as a courier, transporting parcels of illegal writings to unknown individuals, which were delivered upon utterance of a password.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Years later, she wrote about her marriage, "We separated although we were in love because I felt trapped. I was detached, [from Vladimir], because of the revolutionary upsettings rooted in Russia." In 1898 she left little Mikhail with her parents to study economics in Zürich, Switzerland, with Professor Heinrich Herkner. She then paid a visit to England, where she met members of the British socialist movement, including Sidney and Beatrice Webb. She returned to Russia in 1899, at which time she met Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov, better known today as Vladimir Lenin.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai became interested in Marxist ideas while studying the history of working movements in Zürich, under Herkner, later described by her as a Marxist Revisionist.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: She became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1899 at the age of 27. In 1905, Kollontai was a witness to the popular uprising known as Bloody Sunday at Saint Petersburg in front of the Winter Palace. At the time of the split in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party between the Mensheviks under Julius Martov and the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in 1903, Kollontai did not side with either faction at first, and "offered her services to both factions". In 1906, however, disapproving of "the hostile position taken by the Bolsheviks towards the Duma" and despite her being generally a left-winger, she decided to join the Mensheviks.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: She went into exile, to Germany, in 1908 after publishing "Finland and Socialism", which called on the Finnish people to rise up against oppression within the Russian Empire. She traveled across western Europe and became acquainted with Karl Kautsky, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karl Liebknecht, among others.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: With Russian entry into World War I in 1914, Kollontai left Germany due to the German social democrats' support of the war. Kollontai was strongly opposed to the war and very outspoken against it, and in June 1915 she broke with the Mensheviks and officially joined the Bolsheviks, "those who most consistently fought social-patriotism". After leaving Germany, Kollontai traveled to Denmark, only to discover that the Danish social democrats also supported the war. The next place where Kollontai tried to speak and write against the war was Sweden, but the Swedish government imprisoned her for her activities. After her release, Kollontai traveled to Norway, where she at last found a socialist community that was receptive to her ideas. Kollontai stayed primarily in Norway until 1917. She travelled twice to the United States to speak about war and politics, and to renew her relationship with her son Mikhail; in 1916, she had arranged for him to avoid conscription by going to the United States to work on Russian orders from U.S. factories. In 1917, upon hearing of the February Revolution, Kollontai returned from Norway to Russia.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: When Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917, Kollontai was the only major leader of the Petrograd Bolsheviks who immediately voiced her full support for his radical and nonconformist new proposals (the so-called "April theses"). She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, and "for the rest of 1917, [she] was a constant agitator for revolution in Russia as a speaker, leaflet writer and worker on the Bolshevik women's paper "Rabotnitsa"". Following the July uprising against the Provisional Government, she was arrested along with many other Bolshevik leaders, but was given again her full freedom of movement in September: she was then a member of the party's Central Committee and as such she voted for the policy of armed uprising that led to the October Revolution. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 26 October, she was elected People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the first Soviet government, but she soon resigned in opposition to the Brest-Litovsk Peace. During the revolutionary period, at the age of 45, she married 28-year-old revolutionary sailor Pavel Dybenko, while keeping her surname from her first marriage.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: She was the most prominent woman in the Soviet administration and was best known for founding the Zhenotdel or "Women's Department" in 1919 . This organization worked to improve the conditions of women's lives in the Soviet Union, fighting illiteracy and educating women about the new marriage, education, and work laws put in place by the Revolution. It was eventually closed in 1930.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In political life, Kollontai increasingly became an internal critic of the Communist Party and, with an article published in "Pravda" on 28 January 1921, she publicly sided with the Workers' Opposition, a left-wing faction of the party that had its roots in the trade union milieu and was led by Shliapnikov and by Sergei Medvedev, both of working class extraction. Just three days earlier, on 25 January, after about a month delay, "Pravda" had finally published the faction’s platform for the upcoming Tenth Party Congress: it mainly advocated unionized workers' control over factories and generally over 'the management of the national economy', on the grounds that the construction of a communist society could only be carried out by the industrial proletariat itself through its class work in history and through the intelligence it would acquire in concrete economic experience.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In the run-up to the congress, scheduled for 8-16 March, at Shliapnikov's urgent request, Kollontai had a pamphlet printed with the title of "The Workers' Opposition": it expounded her personal views on the subjects under discussion, was intended to be distributed only to the delegates and has since remained probably her most famous work. "Kollontai’s propositions for reform mostly repeated those enumerated by the Workers’ Opposition, but she placed a greater emphasis on reducing 'bureaucratisation'," and denouncing petty-bourgeois or non-proletarian influences on Soviet institutions and on the party itself. Her language "conveyed much harsher criticism of the party and CC than did Shlyapnikov's language" in the official faction platform. Lenin was very upset about Kollontai joining the Workers' Opposition and, when he was given a copy of her pamphlet, he just 'leafed through' it and immediately castigated Kollontai. He stated she had written 'the platform of a new party', threatened to submit her pamphlet to the court of the Communist International, and said clearly to her face: "For this you should not only be excluded, but shot, as well".


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: The followers of the faction among the delegates, however, remained quite few and proved to be declining during the proceedings, when Lenin did not even hesitate to draw snickers from delegates by hinting at the amatory past of the Kollontai-Shliapnikov couple. On the last day, the congress passed, among others, two secret resolutions: one, specially aimed at the Workers' Opposition, condemned ‘Anarcho-syndicalist deviation’ within the party; the other ('On party unit') simply banned all factions. Thus, the Workers' Opposition was forcibly dissolved, and Kollontai was practically sidelined.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Nevertheless, despite subsequent misunderstandings with the former leaders of the Workers' Opposition and Kollontai's own resentment at their having renounced the pamphlet she had written to support the faction, on 5 July 1921 she tried again 'to help [them] by speaking on their behalf to the Third Congress of the Comintern'. In her speech, she bitterly attacked the New Economic Policy proposed by Lenin, warning that it 'threatened to disillusion workers, to strengthen the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie, and to facilitate the rebirth of capitalism'. Trotsky retorted by even likening her to "an Amazon", and Karl Radek loudly corrected: "Like a Valkyrie!"


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai's final political action as an oppositionist within the Communist Party was her co-signing of the so-called "letter of the Twenty Two", whereby several former members of the Workers' Opposition and other party members of working class origin appealed to the Communist International against the undemocratic internal practices in use within the Russian party. When 'Kollontai attempted to speak before the Comintern Executive on 26 February 1922 on behalf of the views expressed in the appeal,' Trotsky and Zinoviev had her name removed from the list of orators and insisted that she should not take the floor. When she 'proved recalcitrant, Trotsky forbade her to speak and issued a decree, in the name of the CC, ordering all members of the Russian delegation to "obey the directives of the party".' Predictably, the appeal of the 22 was unsuccessful. At the Eleventh Party Congress (March–April 1922), Kollontai, Shlyapnikov and Medvedev were charged with having insisted on factional work and a three-man commission, Stalin, Zinoviev and Dzerzhinsky, recommended the "unrepentant" three be purged from the party. In her defensive speech before the Congress, Kollontai emphasized her loyalty to the party and her devotion to giving the leading role in the party and outside it to the working class, she proclaimed her full observance of the previous year's decree on party unity, and concluded: 'If there is no place for this in our party, then exclude me. But even outside the ranks of our party, I will live, work and fight for the Communist party.' Eventually, a resolution was passed allowing the three to remain in the party unless they committed further violations of its discipline.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: After the Eleventh Congress, Kollontai became a political outcast. She was badly shaken by having teetered dangerously close to expulsion, and regarded the idea of being excluded from the 'revolutionary community of the elect' as a dreadful 'nightmare'. She even speculated she might be arrested. Italian writer and former communist leader Ignazio Silone later recounted that, on his departure from Moscow in 1922, Kollontai jokingly warned him not to believe any news of her being arrested for stealing Kremlin silverware, for such news could only mean that she was "not entirely in agreement with [Lenin] about some little problem of agricultural or industrial policy."


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: During this time, Kollontai was also in the process of a painful divorce from her second husband, Pavel Dybenko, which made her want a change of scenery. In the latter half of 1922 she wrote a "personal letter" to the newly appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee and her recent inquisitor, Joseph Stalin, asking to be sent on a mission abroad. Stalin granted her request and, starting from October 1922, she began to be entrusted with diplomatic appointments abroad and was thus prevented from playing any further political role at home. At first she hoped it was just a passing phase in her life and that she would soon return to her political work in the Zhenotdel, but eventually she had to realize that the diplomatic assignment had become a sort of exile.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Initially, she was sent as an attaché to the Soviet commercial mission in Norway, becoming one of the first women serving in diplomacy in modern times. In early 1924, Kollontai was first promoted to "Chargé d'affaires" and from August to Minister Plenipotentiary. As such, she later served in Mexico (1926–27), again in Norway (1927–30) and eventually in Sweden (1930–45), where she was finally promoted to Ambassador in 1943. When Kollontai was in Stockholm, the Winter War between Russia and Finland broke out; it has been said that it was largely due to her influence that Sweden remained neutral. After the war, she received Vyacheslav Molotov's praises. During late April 1943, Kollontai may have been involved in abortive peace negotiations with Hans Thomsen, her German counterpart in Stockholm. She was also a member of the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations. Kollontai retired in 1945.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In 1946 and 1947 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Scandinavian political circles (including the Finnish president and erstwhile ambassador to Moscow, Juho Kusti Paasikivi) on the grounds of "her diplomatic efforts to end war and hostilities between the Soviet Union and Finland during the negotiations in 1940-44."


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Being sent abroad in a sort of "de facto" exile for over twenty years, Kollontai gave up "her fight for reform and for women, retreating into relative obscurity" and bowing to the new political climate. She discarded her feminist concerns and "offered no objection to the patriarchal legislation of 1926 and the constitution of 1936, which deprived Soviet women of many of the gains they had achieved after the February and October Revolutions". The following words she allegedly pronounced in a private conversation with her friend in 1929 give a suggestion of her attitude towards advancing Stalinism: "Everything's changed so much. What can I do about this? One cannot go against the 'apparatus'. For my part, I have put my principles aside in a corner of my conscience and I pursue as best I can the policies they dictate to me".


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Three years earlier, in 1926, when she was requested to write her own autobiography for a series on famous women by Munich publisher Helga Kern, she deemed it necessary to completely revise the first draft of her work she had handed over to the publisher, by deleting practically all references to 'dangerous' topics, as well as the parts mentioning or just hinting at her former critical positions and those having a personal nature that might be regarded as forms of self-celebration. On asking the publisher to make the changes requested, Kollontai apologized with obvious embarrassment, inviting repeatedly to debit her all expenses and writing twice that, under current circumstances, it was not absolutely possible "to do otherwise".


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: In his memoirs, Leon Trotsky was contemptuously critical of Kollontai's political attitude, writing that 'In Russia, Kolontay took from the very first an ultra-left stand, not only toward me but toward Lenin as well. She waged many a battle against the "Lenin-Trotsky" regime, only to bow most movingly later on to the Stalin regime.' Yet, it could also be argued that she had just internalized for good the lesson Trotsky himself had taught her at the aforementioned 1922 meeting of the Comintern, when he had tamed her last remnants of recalcitrance, forcing her into bowing to party discipline. Kollontai herself had, as it were, countered in advance, in her 1927 article through which she finally aligned herself, once and for all, with the Stalinists:


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: The degree of her adherence to the prevailing ideas of the Stalinist regime, whether it was spontaneous or not, may be gauged from the opening of an article she wrote in 1946 for a Russian magazine. It bore the title "The Soviet Woman — a Full and Equal Citizen of Her Country", and praised the Soviet Union's advances of women's rights, while simultaneously emphasizing a view of the role of women in society at odds with her previous writings on women's liberation.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Alexandra Kollontai died in Moscow on 9 March 1952, less than a month from her 80th birthday, and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: She was the only member of the Bolsheviks' Central Committee that had led the October Revolution who managed to live into the 1950s, other than Stalin himself and his devoted supporter Matvei Muranov. She has sometimes been criticized and even held up to contempt for not raising her voice during the Stalinist purges, when, among countless others, her former husband, her former lover and fighting comrade, and so many friends of hers were executed. And, it has been noted, at the time she "was safe in her sumptuous Stockholm residence". Notwithstanding, it should also be pointed out that, even so, Kollontai did not enjoy a full liberty of action and had to worry about the possible fates of her family. It might not have been pure chance if both her only son and her musician half-nephew (whom she had much supported at the beginning of his career) also came unscathed through the persecution of the Stalinist regime, to the establishment of which she had, however, significantly contributed.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: The resurgence of radicalism in the 1960s and the growth of the feminist movement in the 1970s spurred a new interest in the life and writings of Alexandra Kollontai all around the world. A spate of books and pamphlets by and about Kollontai were subsequently published, including full-length biographies by historians Cathy Porter, Beatrice Farnsworth, and Barbara Evans Clements. In 1982 Rosa von Praunheim made the film "Red Love" based on a novella by Kollontai. For example, the film was shown in the Museum of Modern Art. Kollontai was the subject of the 1994 TV film, "A Wave of Passion: The Life of Alexandra Kollontai," with Glenda Jackson as the voice of Kollontai. A female Soviet diplomat in the 1930s with unconventional views on sexuality, probably inspired by Kollontai, had been played by Greta Garbo in the movie "Ninotchka" (1939).


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai is regarded as a key figure in Marxist feminism for her commitment to both women's liberation and Marxist ideals. She opposed the ideology of liberal feminism, which she saw as bourgeois. At the same time, Kollontai was a champion of women's liberation, believing that it "could take place only as the result of the victory of a new social order and a different economic system". She criticized bourgeois feminists for prioritizing political goals, such as women's suffrage, that would provide political equality for bourgeois women but would do little to address the immediate conditions of working-class women, and was further distrustful that bourgeois champions of feminism would continue to support their working class counterparts after succeeding in their struggle for "general women's" rights:


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai is known for her advocacy of free love. However, this does not mean that she advocated casual sexual encounters; indeed, she believed that due to the inequality between men and women that persisted under socialism, such encounters would lead to women being exploited, and being left to raise children alone. Instead she believed that true socialism could not be achieved without a radical change in attitudes to sexuality, so that it might be freed from the oppressive norms that she saw as a continuation of bourgeois ideas about property. A common myth describes her as a proponent of the "glass of water" theory of sexuality. The quote "...the satisfaction of one's sexual desires should be as simple as getting a glass of water" is often mistakenly attributed to her. This is likely a distortion of the moment in her short story "Three Generations" when a young female Komsomol member argues that sex "is as meaningless as drinking a glass of vodka [or water, depending on the translation] to quench one's thirst." In number 18 of her "Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations," Kollontai argued that "...sexuality is a human instinct as natural as hunger or thirst."


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Though Kollontai believed in the eventual obsolescence of the traditional family, she held that institution marriage could survive if it underwent a radical transformation. She advocated for a transformed marriage that would be compatible with many other social relations, such as friendship. Kollontai felt that by liberating women and men from their traditionally hierarchical roles, communism would free marriage from the "conjugal slavery of the past", allowing spouses to thrive in egalitarian marriages grounded in mutual love and trust. As Kollontai wrote in 1920:The workers’ state needs new relations between the sexes, just as the narrow and exclusive affection of the mother for her own children must expand until it extends to all the children of the great, proletarian family, the indissoluble marriage based on the servitude of women is replaced by a free union of two equal members of the workers’ state who are united by love and mutual respect. In place of the individual and egoistic family, a great universal family of workers will develop, in which all the workers, men and women, will above all be comrades. -- --Alexandra Kollontai (1920), "Communism and the Family"Kollontai's saw domestic labor as an impediment to her ideal of the "universal family". Rather than viewing the tasks that were traditionally reserved for women as productive labor, Kollontai believed that housework stood in the way of industrialization and modernization and that under a fully realized communist society, industrial mechanization would ultimately replace so-called women's work:All that was formerly produced in the bosom of the family is now being manufactured on a mass scale in workshops and factories. The machine has superseded the wife. What house- keeper would now bother to make candles, spin wool or weave cloth? All these products can be bought in the shop next door. Formerly every girl would learn to knit stockings. Nowa- days, what working woman would think of making her own? In the first place she doesn’t have the time. Time is money, and no one wants to waste time in an unproductive and useless manner. Few working women would start to pickle cucumbers or make other preserves when all these things can be bought in the shop.


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: -- Alexandra Kollontai (1920), "Communism and the Family" In this regard, Kollontai's critique of women's societal position under capitalism is both reminiscent of and distinct from the Marxist feminist Wages for Housework movement. While proponents of Wages for Housework argue that the domestic labor is productive labor worthy of monetary compensation, Kollontai devalued "women's work", believing it to be an antiquated vestige of the past. Unlike supporters of Wages for Housework who advocated for the integration of women into the public sphere, Kollontai questioned the status of working women:


title: Alexandra Kollontai

text: Kollontai's views on the role of marriage and the family under Communism were arguably more influential than her advocacy of "free love." Kollontai believed that, like the state, the family unit would wither away once the second stage of communism became a reality. She viewed marriage and traditional families as legacies of an oppressive, property-rights-based, and individualistic past in which women were simultaneously subjected to both wage labor outside the home and unpaid maternal and domestic labor within it.