title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Although the vinyl top was standard, for a short time a unique paisley-patterned vinyl top in a burgundy color was available as an option on burgundy-painted cars. It has been rumored that this top had actually been overprinted on waste "Mod Top" patterned vinyl, which had been available on some 1969 and 1970 model year Dodge and Plymouth cars, but according to Jeffrey Godshall, a Chrysler designer and frequent contributor to the magazine "Collectible Automobile", this was not the case. With exposure to the elements, the burgundy overprint faded, and the pattern began to show through in a purple "paisley" pattern. Chrysler replaced many affected tops with either white or black standard vinyl, but some survive.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Evolutionary styling was the basis for completely new sheetmetal for the 1972 model year, giving the cars a bigger and heavier all-around appearance. A somewhat more rounded side profile without a character line down the side and chrome trim on the top seams of the fenders from the rear windows forward appeared. The front fascia was all new and imposing-looking, and the rear featured vertical teardrop taillights for the first time, with side marker lights in the form of shields with eagles on them. Sales increased to 15,796. Two all-black LeBaron sedans were delivered to the US Secret Service, which then turned them over to Hess and Eisenhardt, which converted them into limos for Presidential use. Both cars were used as late as 1981, and carried Ronald Reagan and his staff to Capitol Hill for his presidential swearing-in ceremony in January 1981.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The 1973 model year saw new federal bumper standards to prevent damage. This meant the Imperials gained large rubber over-riders front and rear, adding to the car's length, making it the longest production car in North America for that year and the longest postwar (non-limousine) production car at . The front bumper ends revived a Woodlite headlamp appearance which was a popular, extra cost item during the 1930s. As 1973 was in general a good year for the auto industry, 16,729 of the 1973 Imperials were built and sold.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: With future sales forecasts likely to remain low, Chrysler had planned on discontinuing the Imperial at the end of the 1973 model year. While image and appearance were an important part of luxury car appeal, without sales Chrysler could not afford to build an Imperial with a unique bodyshell. Yet without one, it would be difficult to compete with rivals Cadillac and Lincoln. For 1974, the Crown Coupe nameplate returned as the most expensive model to compete with the Cadillac Eldorado and the Continental Mark IV with a list price of $7,856 ($ in dollars ).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: A front-end design envisioned for the next Imperial penned by Chrysler/Imperial exterior studio senior stylist Chet Limbaugh came to the attention of Elwood Engel. It featured a "waterfall" grille with thin vertical chrome bars separated by a body-colored band running through the center, which started on top of the nose and flowed down.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Engel showed the design to Chrysler president John Riccardo and convinced him to use it on an Imperial. To save money the 1974 model would use the same body panels as the Chrysler New Yorker except for the front end clip and trunk lid. This meant that for the first time as a separate marque, the Imperial would share the same wheelbase as a production Chrysler.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: With the full effects of the 1973 oil crisis being solidly felt, a bad year for both the U.S. economy and its auto industry was in store for 1974 - cruel timing for Chrysler's 50th anniversary year. The 1974 Imperial was the first regular American passenger car to offer 4-wheel disc brakes since the 1949–1954 Chrysler Imperials, the 1950–1952 Crosleys and the 1965-on Chevrolet Corvettes. The "by Chrysler" script was removed from the car for 1974. The Imperial's electronic ignition system was a U.S. market first, as was the optional car alarm. In addition to the two regular LeBaron models, a 50th Anniversary 2-door LeBaron Crown Coupe was also produced. Finished in Golden Fawn, only 57 were built. While total sales were down from 1973, Chrysler was pleased with the 14,483 Imperials produced, given the poor economy in 1974 and a retail price of $7,230 for the sedan ($ in dollars ).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: A bolder waterfall grille appeared in 1975, one of the few changes for the model year. The front bumper received slots to aid in engine cooling, and a few other detail improvements were made.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: This was to be the last model year of the independent Imperial marque, with only 8,830 1975 models sold. The last Imperial, a black LeBaron hardtop, rolled out of the factory on 12 June 1975. However, only the name disappeared, as the same basic car was offered rather more cheaply, less some of the Imperial’s features, as the Chrysler New Yorker Brougham for model years 1976 through 1978.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: With divisional cost-savings having forced the Imperial to share basically everything but some trim and badging with the Chrysler New Yorker (and the same platform as all Chryslers and full-sized Dodges and Plymouths), justifying the price differential over a high-end New Yorker had proven increasingly hard for prospective customers to do, given that the four-door hardtop was listed at $9,046 ($ in dollars ). Compounding this the costs of maintaining and marketing a separate poorly selling marque became too high for the limited return, even at the expense of sacrificing Chrysler's most prestigious automobile.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Hoping to revive not merely the brand, or the division, but all of Chrysler, the company recruited former top Ford executive Lee Iacocca for its helm. He had proven successful in upscaling the 1967 Thunderbird into the 1969 Continental Mark III positioned on the highest end of the personal luxury car market, and sought to repeat a variant of the formula with the Imperial. Only this time the car would be downsized and de-featured instead of the other way around.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Although Chrysler was facing bankruptcy, Iacocca argued that "a new flagship would assure the public that Chrysler had a future." However, when the car finally appeared, a 2-door coupé riding on an intermediate J platform, it was marketed simply as "Imperial", and, harking to Imperial's days as an independent marque of the manufacturer, the Chrysler name did not even appear on the car.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: There was no four door or full-sized option, the J-platform being shared the second generation Chrysler Cordoba and Dodge Mirada. The bustle-back appearance and prominent grille was an attempt to revive the 1930s and 1940s luxury car appearances that were briefly popular during the early 1980s, as with the second generation Cadillac Seville. Chrysler designers drew inspiration from the 1937–1939 Chrysler Imperial sedans.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The traditional Imperial eagle logo was not used, as it had been moved to the Chrysler LeBaron model in 1977. Instead, it bore a Chrysler Pentastar hood ornament made of Cartier crystal.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Competing models such as the Cadillac Eldorado and the Continental Mark VI had been downsized by 1981, so the Imperial was of comparable size to its competitors with a listed retail price of $18,311 ($ in dollars ). A marketing effort for the new model included commercials and magazine ads featuring singer Frank Sinatra, a personal friend of Iacocca whom Sinatra jokingly referred to as "the other chairman of the board." Sinatra even recorded special songs to promote the new Imperial. In addition, Sinatra agreed to work for Chrysler for $1 a year because he believed that more performers should get involved in helping to save jobs in the United States (though his union later forced him to accept scale pay instead).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The Imperial's front suspension featured transverse-mounted torsion bars; the rear suspension included asymmetric multiple-leaf, "S"-shaped springs, anti-sway bar, and telescopic shock absorbers. Extensive use of rubber isolators contributed to the Imperial's virtually silent ride on top of Goodyear polyester steel-belted Arriva tires. The Imperials carried a market-leading 24-month/30,000-mile limited warranty which covered all labor, maintenance, and parts (except tires).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: For the new Imperial, a special quality-assurance center had been built adjacent to the Windsor plant where the car was assembled. Here, after assembly, each individual Imperial, which had already been subjected to countless inspections, was then given additional examinations. After an underbody fluid-leak inspection utilizing a high-pressure water spray, the car was checked for front-end alignment and given a 5.5-mile road test over a special track that included various types of terrain. At each inspection step, the Imperial received a sign-off if everything was in order.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: "Imperial is a special car for a special owner," said Tom Pappert, Chrysler's Vice President of U.S. Automotive Sales. "It is designed to appeal to the personal luxury car buyer seeking the highest level of prestige, advanced styling, engineering and special features, extended warranty, and VIP recognition in both the showroom and service areas."


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The 1981 Imperial came with a long list of standard features including air conditioning with thermostatic temperature control, electronic fuel injection, power windows, power door locks, power seats, power outside mirrors, power trunk release, tilt steering column, automatic speed control, garage door opener, and other conveniences. Options included a cost-free choice of wheels (color-coordinated 'snowflake' cast-aluminum wheels or steel wire wheel covers), upholstery choices including Mark Cross leather (see below) and Yorkshire cloth, sound systems choice, 40-band CB radio, power moon roof, and the Frank Sinatra Edition package (see below).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Unique for the Imperial was the first fully electronic digital instrumentation ever provided in a production-built American automobile. The Imperial's electronic information center was manufactured at Chrysler's Huntsville, Alabama Electronics Division, which was also a prime contractor in America's Redstone and Saturn Apollo space programs. Located in the center of the instrument panel were nine push-buttons the driver was to touch to operate Imperial's information center. The buttons were: 1) Mode-U.S./Met. A touch converts the reading on the speedometer, odometer and fuel displays to metric; 2) Clock-Date.; 3) Clock-E.T.; 4) Odometer-Trip.; 5) Odometer-Avg. Speed.; 6) Fuel-Range.; 7) Fuel-Present.; 8) Fuel-Trip.; 9) Reset-Zero. The instrument panel displayed an electronic blue-green VFD readout which also featured gear selection.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The Imperial for this year offered a choice of eleven exterior colors (Sterling Silver Crystal Coat; Day Star Blue Crystal Coat; Nightwatch Blue; Light Auburn Crystal Coat; Mahogany StarMist; Light Seaspray Green Crystal Coat; Spice Tan Starmist; Manila Cream; Morocco Red; Pearl White; Formal Black), and six cloth and seven leather interior colors (Dark Blue; Green; Red; Mahogany; Heather; Cashmere; White for leather only). In all, thirty-five interior color and trim combinations were available.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The Imperial continued to offer an extensive list of standard luxury and convenience items for 1982 although some changes were made. Imperial's "floating cushion" velour seats were replaced with ones of Kimberly velvet one-piece construction. New "Quartz-Lock" electronically tuned radios (ETR) were added to the options list while the power moonroof was no longer available.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Following significant price increases during the 1981 and 1982 model years, due in part to high inflation at the time, the Imperial's base price was cut back close to its original introductory level. The hood ornament, while similar in appearance, was changed from Cartier crystal to plastic. The Frank Sinatra Edition package was no longer available. A suspension upgrade Touring Edition package was added.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Overall, the sixth generation Imperial did not meet Chrysler management's sales and reliability expectations. It had innovations such as the fuel injection system and electronic instrument cluster, and Chrysler tried to use it as a showcase for technology and quality. Unfortunately the fuel injection system proved troublesome and many 1981 models were retrofitted under warranty (or later on owner initiative) with carburetors.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The V8, was the only available engine. 1981 models came standard with a Chrysler-built throttle-body EFI system, replaced by a carburetor for 1982 and 1983 models. The automatic transmission was a wide-ratio TorqueFlite equipped with lock-up torque converter, with the final drive ratio 2.2:1 in 1981 and 1983; 2.4:1 in 1982.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The Imperial had an unusual distinction for 1981 and 1982 as it was offered with an optional special edition named after a celebrity. The Imperial fs was a rare example of automotive history, as it was one of only a handful of regular production cars bearing a celebrity's name. This limited edition Imperial was available only in "Glacier Blue Crystal" paint - Chrysler advertising claimed it matched the color of Sinatra's eyes - and had special "fs" (lowercase) external badging, with a large glovebox placard proclaiming "Frank Sinatra Signature Edition". Inside, 16 cassette tapes of Sinatra titles were presented in a specially made Mark Cross leather case which were stored in a special locking console below the dashboard. 148 1981 and 279 1982 fs edition cars were manufactured and cost $1,078 ($ in dollars ) above the normal sticker price of $20,988 ($ in dollars ).


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Aside from the "fs" edition available for purchase by the public, Chrysler president Lee Iacocca commissioned a 1982 Imperial converted by ASC (American Sunroof Corporation) outside Detroit, Michigan, using the front doors from a 1979-81 Chrysler Fifth Avenue sedan into a limousine with a stretch, and presented it to Frank Sinatra as a gift. A similar Imperial limousine also built by ASC is also used in the 1984 movie "Cannonball Run II" driven by Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, as well as the movies "Sharky's Machine" and "Stick" both directed by and starring Reynolds.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: All 1981 to 1983 model year Imperials had Cartier crystals strategically placed on the exterior opera lights and steering wheel, and each crystal displayed 'Cartier.' In addition, each Imperial came with a Cartier crystal key in the Mark Cross Gift Set.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: All 1981 to 1983 model year Imperials had the interior designed by Mark Cross, maker of fine leather goods. The seating came in either Kimberly cloth or Leather. Upon purchasing a new Imperial, Chrysler shipped the new owner a Mark Cross Gift Set consisting of an umbrella, leather portfolio, leather key fob, uncut Cartier key, and a 'Sounds of Stereo' music cassette. These were exclusive Mark Cross items not available for sale in a Mark Cross showroom.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: A few race teams built NASCAR spec racecars with Imperial sheetmetal and raced them on the "NASCAR" circuit from 1981 through the 1985 season, though mostly only on the superspeedways. They were driven by Buddy Arrington, Rick Baldwin, Cecil Gordon, Phil Goode, and Maurice Randall. The cars did not distinguish themselves to any great degree, however a "Buddy Arrington" owned and driven Imperial finished in sixth place in the summer 1982 race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. The Imperial-based cars were used in competition as it was determined to be far more aerodynamic (and capable of higher speeds) than the Dodge Mirada at the time. The car had a drag coefficient of 0.41, which was better than contemporary Corvette (0.45), and performed well on the big high speed tracks, with Morgan Shepherd (driving Buddy Arrington's Imperial) qualifying for the 1985 Daytona 500 at a speed of 197 mph, despite the lack of suitable high-performance race engines. One of Arrington's Imperials is in the Talladega, Alabama NASCAR museum.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: The first 1981 Imperial rolled off the assembly line on August 11, 1980. Imperial production ended on April 29, 1983. Chrysler had originally planned to cap production at 25,000 units.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: For 1955 and 1956, an Imperial Crown limousine model was also offered. With an extra and of wheelbase in 1955 and 1956 respectively, and seating eight (three in the front including the driver, three in the rear, and two on rearward-facing fold-down jump seats), these replaced the long-wheelbase offerings in all Chrysler marques. A total of 172 were built for (model year) 1955, with 226 for 1956. They were the last Chrysler-branded limousines built entirely in Detroit. Color choices were limited to dark green, dark blue, maroon or black with wire wheels being the only optional equipment offered.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: From 1957 through 1965, long-wheelbase Imperial Crown cars would be finished by Ghia in Italy and was formally introduced January 2, 1957. The earlier models used two-door hardtop bodies mounted on the more rigid convertible chassis; these would be shipped across the Atlantic, cut apart, lengthened by and reworked. Later models were built from four-door models to the same specification. Each took a month to build and carried a high price for the time of US$18,500 in 1963-64 ($ in dollars ). They sold in limited numbers against the Cadillac Series 75 that was less expensive at US$9724–$9960 in 1963-64 ($ in dollars ), and had an established reputation among limousine buyers, as well as against competing coachbuilders building on the Cadillac commercial chassis. Packard had ended production in 1957 and both the Mercedes-Benz 300d and the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud had just been introduced. A total of 132 Imperial Crowns were manufactured for Chrysler by Ghia over 1957-65. An oddity is that these cars were often built as soon as the styling changed, and sold over a period of some years. All 1961 Imperial Crown Ghias used the 1960 styling front and rear, for example, and all 10 Ghia built Imperial Crowns sold during the 1965 model year were 1964s with 1965 exterior styling and consequently had a TorqueFlight pushbutton gear selector. At about curb weight the 1957-65 Ghia built Imperial Crowns are the heaviest standard production cars sold by an American firm since the 1930s.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Throughout her husband's term as U.S. President, Jacqueline Kennedy's personal car was a Ghia built 1961 Imperial Crown with 1960 model year styling. The car figured prominently in her various duties as First Lady. In President John F. Kennedy's funeral procession on November 25, 1963, near the front of the motorcade, carrying Jackie and her children, was her Imperial Crown.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: New York governor and heir to the Standard Oil fortune Nelson Rockefeller, later Vice President of the U.S. during the term of President Gerald Ford, also owned a 1960 Imperial Crown. It is one of 17 limousines made by Ghia in that year, and the only one with blind rear quarter treatment.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: In the 1974 movie "The Godfather Part II", a black Ghia built 1958 Imperial Crown was used by Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) while at the family compound near Reno, Nevada.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: While the "Imperial Crown" limousines ended in 1965, Imperial limousines continued to be made by other coachbuilders. After the last ten Ghia-built Imperial Crowns were completed, Ghia sold its tooling to Barreiros Coachbuilders of Spain. Barreiros built ten limousines, much like those built by Ghia and, similar to the last ten built by Ghia, built as 1965s with 1966 exterior styling, but with a wheelbase two inches longer. Build quality was poor by comparison, with the cars famous for having a wiring harness made from wires of the same color. This effort was made with Chrysler's cooperation, but Chrysler did not advertise them as official Crown Imperials; that model was not offered by the factory in 1966.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: For the model years 1967 through 1971, a total of 27 Imperial limousines were produced by Stageway Coachbuilders (ASC) of Fort Smith, Arkansas on a wheelbase, and were justifiably advertised as the largest luxury automobiles in the world. These were the official Imperial Crown models. Armbruster-Stageway was a well-established builder of such customized products as airport limousines, and Chrysler had been collaborating with the firm for years. The last of these was built in 1969, though leftover units were updated with 1970 and 1971 grilles and taillights, and sold during those model years. They closed out the Imperial Custom /Imperial Crown tradition in fine style.


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Two 1972 models with 1973 model year grilles were built by the Hess and Eisenhardt Company of Fairfield, Ohio for the United States Secret Service and were used by Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and finally Reagan on his swearing-in day. One 1974 model year Imperial was produced into a limo also by ASC. The final Imperial limousines were 1981–83 bodied cars, two of which were stretched by and five were lengthened by .


title: Imperial (automobile)

text: Imperial Crown limousines should not be confused with the Imperial Crown and Crown Coupe models. The "Crown Imperial Limousine" was the top of the line, and fitted with LeBaron trim or better, while the Imperial Crown was the middle-tier line through 1968 and bottom of the Imperial line in 1969 and 1970.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Stigmata is a 1999 supernatural horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was written by Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage. Its story follows an atheist hairdresser from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is afflicted with stigmata after acquiring a rosary formerly owned by a deceased Italian priest who himself had suffered from the phenomenon. It stars Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, and Rade Šerbedžija.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: The film was produced by FGM Entertainment and was released on September 10, 1999. It grossed $18.3 million during its opening weekend and $89.4 million worldwide, against a budget of $29 million. It received generally negative reviews and has a 22% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its negative reviews, "Stigmata" more than tripled its budget.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: In the Brazilian village of Belo Quinto, Father Andrew Kiernan, a former scientist and a Jesuit priest who investigates supposed miracles, examines a statue of the Virgin Mary weeping blood at the funeral of Father Paulo Alameida, who had previously experienced stigmata. While Andrew is collecting evidence, a young boy steals a rosary from the father's hand. The boy later sells it to a woman in a marketplace, who sends it to her daughter, Frankie Paige, living in Pittsburgh.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Shortly afterward, Frankie is attacked by an unseen force while bathing, and receives two deep wounds on her wrists. As the wounds are treated, doctors cannot find the cause. Frankie asks a priest if he is Andrew Kiernan, the scientist, priest and investigator. When the priest says he is Father Derning, the lights in the train flash and Frankie is whipped from behind by an unseen force. While Frankie is hospitalized again, the priest sends security tapes showing the attack to the Vatican, and Andrew is sent to investigate.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Andrew interviews Frankie, believing her wounds may also be stigmata. When she tells him she is an atheist, Andrew tells her that stigmata is when the deeply devoted are struck with the five wounds that Jesus received during the crucifixion. Frankie begins to research on her own what the cause could be. Her head begins to bleed, the third stigmata wound caused by the Crown of Thorns. Frankie runs home, where Andrew is waiting, and then runs into an alley. As Andrew pursues her, Frankie smashes a glass bottle and uses the shards to carve symbols on the hood of a car: when Andrew approaches her, she yells at him in another language.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Andrew takes Frankie to Father Derning's church, and the Vatican translates what she was yelling in Aramaic. The next morning, Andrew returns to her apartment to find her writing on the wall, now covered in Aramaic. Frankie talks in a male voice, speaking Italian. Wounds appear in her feet, the fourth wound of stigmata. Andrew emails photographs of Frankie's apartment wall to the Vatican, where Brother Delmonico recognizes the words and deletes the pictures. He tells Andrew the words are from a document the church found that looked to be an entirely new gospel. Father Dario shows the pictures to Cardinal Daniel Houseman, who also recognizes them. Delmonico phones Marion Petrocelli and tells him the missing gospel has been found in Pittsburgh.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Andrew goes to Frankie's apartment to find the wall she wrote on painted over, and Frankie attempts to seduce him. When Andrew rejects her, she attacks him and denounces his beliefs in a male voice, ending with Frankie levitating off the bed, crying tears of blood. Houseman and Dario arrive with Derning and take Frankie to another church, sending Andrew to Derning's. At Derning's church, Andrew meets Petrocelli, who tells him the words Frankie has been writing are part of a document found outside Jerusalem they believed to be a gospel in the exact words of Jesus. Petrocelli, Delmonico and Alameida were assigned to translate it, but Houseman ordered them to stop. Alameida refused and stole the document to continue translating it alone, having been excommunicated by Houseman.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Petrocelli tells Andrew that the document was Jesus telling his disciples that the Kingdom of God is in all of us and not confined to churches. Petrocelli tells Andrew that Alameida suffered from stigmata. Andrew races to the church where Frankie is, while Houseman and Dario attempt to perform an exorcism on Frankie. Frankie shouts at them in a male voice, and Houseman attempts to strangle her. Andrew stops him, and the room is set on fire. Now believing Frankie is possessed by Alameida's spirit, Andrew offers to be Alameida's messenger instead. He walks unharmed through the fire to retrieve Frankie, bidding Alameida's spirit to depart in peace. Some time later, Andrew returns to Belo Quinto and finds the original documents for the lost gospel in Alameida's church.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Text just before the end credits describes the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, stating that the Catholic Church refuses to recognize the document as a gospel and considers it heresy.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: An international co-production film between The United States and Mexico. Development was first announced in January 1998, when Frank Mancuso Jr. announced his intention to produce a supernatural thriller helmed by Rupert Wainwright


title: Stigmata (film)

text: "Stigmata", produced on a $29 million budget, premièred at the box office in the number one position, earning $18.3 million in its first weekend, becoming the first film in five weekends to outgross "The Sixth Sense" at the box office. In the United States, "Stigmata" earned $50,046,268. Internationally the film earned $39,400,000 for a total worldwide gross $89,446,268.


title: Stigmata (film)

text: The film received poor reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 22% approval rating, based on 91 reviews (20 positive, 71 negative). The website's consensus reads, "The story is unconvincing and the acting is weak."


title: Stigmata (film)

text: Roger Ebert called it "possibly the funniest movie ever made about Catholicism — from a theological point of view." Gabriel Byrne was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performances in both this film and "End of Days", where he lost to Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks in "".


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara's impersonations included a naval surgeon, a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. One teaching job led to six months in prison.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: There are not many facts that have been proven about Demara, only speculation, as there are only a few articles and movies about him that were created during his lifetime. Demara was said to possess a true photographic memory and was widely reputed to have an extraordinary IQ. He was apparently able to memorize necessary techniques from textbooks and worked on two cardinal rules: "The burden of proof is on the accuser" and "When in danger, attack." He described his own motivation as "Rascality, pure rascality".


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara, known locally as 'Fred', was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1921, at 40 Texas Avenue in the lower southwest Tower Hill Neighborhood. His father, Ferdinand Waldo Demara Sr., was born in Rhode Island and worked in Lawrence's old Theatre District as a motion picture operator. Demara Sr. was financially well-off, and the family lived on Jackson St. in Lawrence, an upper-class neighborhood. Demara Sr.'s brother Napoleon Demara Sr. owned many of the theatres in Lawrence, in which Demara Sr. was an active union member. Early in the Great Depression, Fred's father became financially insolvent, forcing the family to move from the Tower Hill neighborhood to the poorer section in the city.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: During this financially troubled time, Demara Jr. ran away from home at age 16 to join the Trappist monks in Rhode Island. After two years, he was told he wasn't suited to being a Trappist and was sent instead to a Brothers of Charity home near Montreal, Canada. He was then transferred to a Brothers of Charity boys home in West Newbury, Massachusetts, where he taught fourth grade.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: After running away from the Brothers of Charity after an argument with his superior, he joined the United States Army in 1941.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: The following year, Demara began his new lives by borrowing the name of Anthony Ignolia, an army buddy, and going AWOL. He joined the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky under his assumed identity. However, he met an acquaintance from his first Trappist monastery, and so he left before his true identity could be revealed. He then moved to the New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa, before finally returning home. His father encouraged his son to turn himself in to the military police for his desertion but he did not.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: He then joined the Navy where he trained as a hospital corpsman. He did not reach the position he wanted, faked his suicide and borrowed another name, Robert Linton French, and became a religion-oriented psychologist. "Dr French" then presented himself at the New Subiaco Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Arkansas, as a would-be Catholic convert. However, after a few weeks "he was summoned to the abbot's office, where he was accused of having forged his documents". He denied the accusations but left the monastery. He travelled to Chicago where he joined the Clerics of Saint Viator, before moving on to the Order of St. Camillus in Milwaukee. After once more arguing with his superiors, this time over his lack of cooking skills, he left and moved to New Jersey where he joined the Paulist novitiate in Oak Ridge.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: As "Dr French", he applied for various jobs at Catholic college and was eventually employed to teach psychology at Gannon College (now a university) in Erie, Pennsylvania. Being made dean of the School of Philosophy, he taught general psychology, industrial psychology and abnormal psychology, and published a "well-received booklet" titled "How to Bring Up Your Child". He left after "an unfortunate incident involving forged checks". He was briefly a member of the Benedictine Saint Bede's Abbey, Peru, Illinois, before joining the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Afterwards, Demara served as an orderly in a Los Angeles sanitarium, and served as an instructor in St. Martin's College (now a university) in the state of Washington. The FBI captured him, and he served 18 months at the Naval Disciplinary Barracks, San Pedro, California, for desertion.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: After his release he assumed a fake identity and studied law at night at Northeastern University, then joined the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Maine, a Roman Catholic order.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: While at the Brothers of Christian Instruction, he became acquainted with a young Canadian surgeon named Joseph C. Cyr.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: That led to his most famous exploit, in which he masqueraded as Cyr, working as a trauma surgeon aboard HMCS "Cayuga", a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, during the Korean War. He managed to improvise successful major surgeries and fend off infection with generous amounts of penicillin. His most notable surgical practices were performed on some sixteen Korean combat injuries who were loaded onto the "Cayuga". All eyes turned to Demara, the only "surgeon" on board, as it became obvious that several of the injured soldiers would require major surgery or certainly die. After ordering personnel to transport these variously injured patients into the ship's operating room and prep them for surgery, Demara disappeared to his room with a textbook on general surgery and proceeded to speed-read the various surgeries he was now forced to perform, including major chest surgery. None of the soldiers died as a result of Demara's surgeries. Apparently, the removal of a bullet from a wounded man ended up in Canadian newspapers. One person reading the reports was the mother of the real Joseph Cyr; her son at the time of "his" service in Korea was actually practicing medicine in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. When news of the impostor reached the "Cayuga," still on duty off Korea, Captain James Plomer at first refused to believe Demara was not a surgeon (and not Joseph Cyr). However, faced with the embarrassment of having allowed an impostor into the navy's ranks, Canadian officials chose not to press charges. Instead, Demara was quietly dismissed from the Royal Canadian Navy and forced to return to the United States. The "MASH" episode Dear Dad... Again included a one time character Captain Adam Casey, likely inspired by Demara's exploits, who performs several surgeries, but turns out not to be a real surgeon.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara told his biographer he was successful in his roles because he was able to fit into positions which no one else had previously occupied. Demara explained it in the following excerpt from his biography:


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara referred to it as 'expanding into the power vacuum,' and described as such; 'if you come into a new situation (there's a nice word for it) don't join some other professor's committee and try to make your mark by moving up in that committee. You'll, one, have a long haul and two, make an enemy.' Demara's technique was to find his own committee. 'That way there's no competition, no past standards to measure you by. How can anyone tell you aren't running a top outfit? And then there's no past laws or rules or precedents to hold you down or limit you. Make your own rules and interpretations. Nothing like it. Remember it, expand into the power vacuum!'


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: In his later years he joined the Los Angeles Adventurers Club, was noted as the only person to lie their way into the club.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: During Demara's impersonation as Brother John Payne of the Christian Brothers of Instruction (also known as Brothers of Christian Instruction), Demara decided to make the religious teaching order more prominent by founding a college in Alfred, Maine. Demara proceeded on his own, and actually got the college chartered by the state. He then promptly left the religious order in 1951, when the Christian Brothers of Instruction offended him by not naming him as rector or chancellor of the new college and chose what Demara considered a terrible name for the college. The college Demara founded, LaMennais College in Alfred, Maine, began in 1951 (when Demara left); in 1959 it moved to Canton, Ohio, and in 1960, became Walsh College (now Walsh University).


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: After this episode, he sold his tale to "Life" and worked in short-term jobs, since he had become widely known. Only after he returned to his old tricks and possessed fake credentials could he get another job at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. According to his biographer, Demara's past became known and his position untenable when an inmate found a copy of "Life" with an article about the impostor.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: On November 5, 1959, Demara appeared on the surrealistic game show hosted by Ernie Kovacs, "Take a Good Look". The object was for one of the three celebrity panelists to guess his identity. One week later on November 12, 1959, he appeared on an episode of the TV quiz show "You Bet Your Life", with Groucho Marx. Demara recounted his exploits, and said the $1,000 he earned on the program was going to be donated to the 'Feed and Clothe Fred Demara Fund'.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara continued to use new aliases but, as a result of his self-generated publicity, it became much harder to accomplish impersonations than before. In 1960, as a publicity stunt, Demara was given a small acting role in the horror film "The Hypnotic Eye." He appears briefly in the film as a (genuine) hospital surgeon. By this point, Demara's girth was so notable that he could not avoid attracting attention. Demara had already been considerably overweight during his impersonation of Joseph C. Cyr.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: In the early 1960s, Demara worked as a counselor at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles. In 1967 Demara received a graduate certificate from Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. His first ministerial assignment was as a pastor of the Cherry Grove Baptist Church in Gaston, Oregon. He was very well liked but soon plagued with rumors about his old life, causing him to resign the position. Many parishioners felt this was yet another con, though many others felt he was taking the position seriously and had legitimate credentials. Demara then served as pastor of Toutle Lake Community Bible Church in Toutle, Washington for several years. Following that, he moved to Friday Harbor, Washington in the San Juan Islands where he worked as a school bus driver. He was a guest on the Tom Snyder show where he discussed his life, and his occupation as a chaplain.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara had various friendships with a wide variety of notable people during his life, including a close relationship with actor Steve McQueen, to whom Demara delivered last rites in November 1980. Tony Curtis, on the Tom Snyder television show, claimed that his favorite role was not the "Boston Strangler", nor his role in the renowned comedy "Some Like it Hot", but his role in the movie "The Great Imposter", portraying Demara.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: When Demara's past exploits and infamy were discovered in the late 1970s, he was almost dismissed from the Good Samaritan Hospital of Orange County in Anaheim, California, where he worked as a visiting chaplain. Chief of Staff Philip S. Cifarelli, who had developed a close personal friendship with Demara, personally vouched for him and Demara was allowed to remain as chaplain. Demara was a very active and appreciated minister, serving a variety of patients in the hospital. Few of those with whom he interacted at the hospital knew of his colorful past. Due to limited financial resources and his friendships with Cifarelli and Jerry Nilsson, one of the major owners of the hospital, Demara was allowed to live in the hospital until his death, even after illness forced him to stop working for them in 1980.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara died on June 7, 1982, at the age of 60 due to heart failure and complications from his diabetic condition, which had required both of his legs to be amputated. According to his obituary in "The New York Times", he had been living in Orange County, California, for eight years. He died at Nilsson's home in Anaheim, California.


title: Ferdinand Waldo Demara

text: Demara's story was recounted in the 1960 book, "The Great Impostor", written by Robert Crichton and published by Random House. The book was a "New York Times" bestseller and adapted into a 1961 film by the same name starring Tony Curtis as Demara. A second book by Crichton, "The Rascal and the Road", recounted Demara and Crichton's experiences together as Crichton conducted research for "The Great Impostor".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Since the 18th century, the United Kingdom has been one of the world's largest tea consumers, with an average annual per capita supply of . Originally an upper-class drink in Europe, tea gradually spread through all classes, eventually becoming a common drink. It is still considered an important part of the British identity and is a prominent feature of British culture and society.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, tea-drinking blends and preferences vary. Although typically served with milk, it is also common to drink certain varieties black or with lemon. Sugar is a popular addition to any variety. Everyday tea, such as English breakfast tea, served in a mug with milk and sugar is a popular combination. Sandwiches, crumpets, scones, cake, or biscuits often accompany tea, which gave rise to the prominent British custom of dunking a biscuit into tea.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The rise in popularity of tea between the 17th and 19th centuries had major social, political, and economic implications for the Kingdom of Great Britain. Tea defined respectability and domestic rituals, supported the rise of the British Empire, and contributed to the rise of the Industrial Revolution by supplying both the capital for factories and calories for labourers. It also demonstrated the power of globalisation and its ability to transform a country and reshape its society.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Ukers argues in "All About Tea: Volume I" that tea gained popularity in Great Britain due to its reputation as a medicinal drink and its burgeoning presence in coffeehouses where elite men congregated. As for the popularity of tea among women, he briefly acknowledges that Princess Catherine of Braganza, the future queen consort of England, made tea fashionable among aristocratic women, but largely attributes its popularity to its ubiquity in the medical discourse of the 17th century. In "Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World", authors Ellis, Coulton and Mauger trace tea's popularity back to three distinct groups: virtuosi, merchants, and elite female aristocrats. They argue that the influence of these three groups combined launched tea as a popular beverage in Britain.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Smith, in his article "Complications of the Commonplace: Tea, Sugar, and Imperialism", differs from the beliefs of the previous writers. He argues that tea only became popular once sugar was added to the drink and that the combination became associated with a domestic ritual that indicated respectability. Mintz, in both "The Changing Roles of Food in the Story of Consumption" and "Sweetness and Power", agrees to an extent with Smith, acknowledging that sugar played a monumental role in the rise of tea, but he contradicts Smith's connection of tea to respectability. While Smith argues that tea first became popular in the home, Mintz claims that tea was drunk during the workday for its warm sweetness and stimulating properties, elaborating that it was later that tea entered the home and became an "integral part of the social fabric".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The history of European interactions with tea dates back to the mid-16th century. The earliest mention of tea in European literature was by Giambattista Ramusio, a Venetian explorer, as Chai Catai, or "Tea of China", in 1559. Tea was mentioned several more times in various European countries afterwards, but Jan Hugo van Linschooten, a Dutch navigator, was the first to write a printed reference of tea in English in 1598 in his "Voyages and Travels".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: However, it was several years later, in 1615, that the earliest known reference to tea by an Englishman took place. In a letter, Mr. R. Wickham, an agent for the East India Company stationed at Japan, asked a Mr. Eaton, who was stationed in then-Portuguese Macao, China, to send him "a pot of the best sort of chaw", phonetically an approximation of , the local Cantonese dialect word for tea. Another early reference to tea appears in the writings of trader Samuel Purchas in 1625. Purchas described how the Chinese consumed tea as "the powder of a certaine herbe called chia of which they put as much as a walnut shell may contain, into a dish of Porcelane, and drink it with hot water". In 1637, Peter Mundy, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fujian, China, wrote, ""chaa" – only water with a kind of herb boyled in it".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Though there were a number of early mentions, it was several more years before tea was actually sold in England. Green tea exported from China was first introduced in the coffeehouses of London shortly before the 1660 Stuart Restoration.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Thomas Garway, a tobacconist and coffee house owner, was the first person in England to sell tea as a leaf and beverage at his London coffeehouse in Exchange Alley in 1657. He had to explain the new beverage in a pamphlet. Immediately after Garway began selling it, the Sultaness Head Coffee House began selling tea as a beverage and posted the first newspaper advertisement for tea in "Mercurius Politicus" on 30 September 1658. The announcement proclaimed, "That Excellent, and by all Physicians approved, "China" drink, called by the "Chinese", "Tcha", by other nations "Tay alias Tee", ...sold at the Sultaness-head, ye "Cophee-house" in Sweetings-Rents, by the Royal Exchange, "London"".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In London, "[c]offee, chocolate and a kind of drink called "tee"" were "sold in almost every street in 1659", according to Thomas Rugge's "Diurnall". However, tea was still mainly consumed by upper and mercantile classes. Samuel Pepys, curious for every novelty, tasted the new drink on 25 September 1660 and recorded the experience in his diary, writing, "I did send for a cup of tee, (a China drink) of which I had never had drunk before".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The East India Company made its first order for the importation of tea in 1667 to their agent in Bantam, who then sent two canisters of tea weighing in 1669. In 1672, a servant of Baron Herbert in London sent his instructions for tea making, and warming the delicate cups, to Shropshire:


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The directions for the tea are: a quart of spring water just boiled, to which put a spoonful of tea, and sweeten to the palate with candy sugar. As soon as the tea and sugar are in, the steam must be kept in as much as may be, and let it lie half or quarter of an hour in the heat of the fire but not boil. The little cups must be held over the steam before the liquid be put in.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The earliest English equipages for making tea date to the 1660s. Small porcelain tea bowls were used by the fashionable and were occasionally shipped with the tea itself.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The first factor that contributed to the rise in popularity of tea was its reputation as a medicinal drink. Tea first became labelled as a medical drink in 1641 by the Dutch physician and director of the Dutch East India Company Nikolas Dirx, who wrote under the pseudonym Nicolaes Tulp; in his book "Observationes Medicae", he claimed that "nothing is comparable to this plant" and that those who use it are "exempt from all maladies and reach an extreme old age". Dirx went into considerable detail on the specific merits of tea, such as curing "headaches, colds, ophthalmia, catarrh, asthma, sluggishness of the stomach, and intestinal troubles". Thomas Garway, the first English shopkeeper praised the medical benefits of tea in a broadsheet published in 1660 titled "An Exact Description of the Growth, Quality, and Vertues of the Leaf TEA". Garway claims that "the Drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until extreme Old Age", as well as "maketh the body active and lusty", "helpeth the Headache", "taketh away the difficulty of breathing", "strengtheneth the Memory", and "expelleth infection".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: There were many more published works on the health benefits of tea, including those by Samuel Hartlib in 1657, Cornelis Bontekoe in 1678, Thomas Povey in 1686, and Thomas Tryon in the 1690s; one satirist of the time asked if the Royal College of Physicians could debate whether any of the exotic new hot drinks would "agree with the Constitutions of our "English" bodies". In 1667, Pepys noted that his wife was taking tea on medical advice – "a drink which Mr Pelling the Pottecary tells her is good for her colds and defluxions". English philosopher John Locke developed a fondness for tea after spending time with Dutch medical men in the 1680s. These men are the "virtuosi" referred to by Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger: scientists, philosophers, and doctors who first took an interest in tea and contributed to its early popularity as a pharmaceutical. However, as with Dirx, some of these men may have been influenced by the Indies trading companies and merchants who wished to create a market for tea. Nevertheless, these writings about the perceived health benefits of tea contributed to the rise of the drink's popularity in England.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: A 2022 study found that rising tea consumption during the 18th century in England had the unintended impact of reducing mortality rates, as it led more people to boil their water, thus reducing their vulnerability to waterborne diseases.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: According to Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger, "tea was six to ten times more expensive than coffee" in the 1660s, making it a costly and luxurious commodity. The proliferation of works on the health benefits of tea came at a time when people in the upper classes of English society began to take an interest in their health, further bolstering its popularity.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In 1660, and of tea bought from Portugal were formally presented to Charles II of England by the East India Company. The drink, already common in Europe, was a favourite of his new Portuguese bride, Catherine of Braganza. She introduced it at Domus Dei in Portsmouth during her wedding to Charles II in 1662 and made it fashionable among the ladies of the court as her temperance drink of choice. Catherine of Braganza's use of tea as a court beverage rather than a medicinal drink influenced its popularity in literary circles around 1685. Whenever it was consumed in the court, it was "conspicuously on display" so as to show it off.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Accordingly, tea drinking became a central aspect of aristocratic society in England by the 1680s, particularly among women who drank it while visiting in the home. Catherine of Braganza's tea-drinking habit made tea an acceptable drink for both gentlemen and ladies. Wealthy ladies' desire to show off their luxurious commodities in front of other ladies also increased demand for tea and made it more popular. The addition of sugar was yet another factor that made tea desirable among the elite crowd, as it was another luxurious commodity already well-established among the upper classes.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: While tea slowly became more common in coffee houses during the second half of the 17th century, the first tea shop in London did not open until the early 18th century. Thomas Twining's tea shop has been claimed as the first, opening in 1706, where it remains at 216 Strand, London; however, 1717 has also been given as the date for the first tea shop. In between tea's earliest mentions in Britain and its widespread popularity just over a century later, many factors contributed to the craze for this previously unknown foreign commodity.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea would not have become a British staple if not for the increase in its supply that made it more accessible. Between 1720 and 1750, the imports of tea to Britain through the East India Company more than quadrupled. By 1766, exports from Canton stood at on British boats, compared with 4.5 on Dutch ships, 2.4 on Swedish, 2.1 on French. Veritable "tea fleets" grew up. Tea was particularly interesting to the Atlantic world, not only for its ease of cultivation but also its ease of preparation and its reputed medical benefits.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: When tea was first introduced to Britain, the East India Company was not directly trading with China, and merchants relied on tea imports from Holland. Because this tea was so expensive and difficult to get, there was very little demand for it, except among the elite who could afford it and made special orders. It was not until after 1700 that the East India Company began to trade regularly with China and ordered tea for export, though not in large quantities. Smith argues that the tea trade was actually a side effect of the silk and textile trade, the most desired Chinese commodities of the time. In 1720, however, Parliament banned the importation of finished Asian textiles, and traders began to focus on tea instead. This new focus marked a turning point for the British tea trade and is arguably why tea became more popular than coffee. Once the East India company focused on tea as its main import, tea soon attained price stability. Conversely, the price of coffee remained unpredictable and high, allowing tea to grow in popularity before coffee became more accessible. Furthermore, the rising demand for tea and sugar was easily met with increased supply as the tea industry grew in India, which prevented sharp price increases that would have discouraged people from buying it.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Because of the use of tea bowls, tea-drinking spurred the search for a European imitation of Chinese porcelain, which was first successfully produced in Britain at the Chelsea porcelain manufactory, established around 1743–1745 and quickly imitated.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: By the 1770s, all tea from foreign countries would first be imported and bought by London wholesalers or merchants before being exported by them. However, the taxes of importing tea to Britain were very high, resulting in tea being smuggled into Europe in significant quantities, forming an important aspect of the tea trade. Historians found that, regarding the British tea trade before 1784, the estimated quantity of tea smuggled was roughly per year, although some believe the amount to be between .


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In the late 1770s, the owner of the Charleston Tea Plantation exported Chinese tea plants to his farm in Charleston, South Carolina, with the intention of producing a number of varieties of tea, including green tea, black tea and oolong tea, a successful strategy resulting in significant sales to the British population.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Though tea was gaining popularity on its own at the beginning of the 18th century, the addition of sugar to the drink aided its rise in popularity further, as the British began adding sugar to their tea between 1685 and the early 18th century. At this time, sugar was already used to enhance the flavour of other foods among the upper classes and had a reputation as an ostentatious luxury. Because both tea and sugar had status implications, it made sense to drink them together, and the growth in the import of tea parallels that of sugar in the 18th century, which itself was booming due to the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: However, the upper classes of Britain began to care more about their health, and starting in the late 17th century, literature on the unhealthiness of sugar began to circulate. Adding sugar to tea, however, was seen as an acceptable way to consume sugar, as it suggested that "one had the self-control to consume sugar in a healthy way." Sugar also masked the bitterness of tea, and made it more desirable to drink; as the supply of both tea and sugar grew during the early 18th century, the combination of the two became more universal, and increased popularity and demand for both products. Black tea overtook green tea in popularity in the 1720s when it became more common for both sugar and milk to be added to tea, a practice originating outside of China.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: When the popular English patriotic ballad The Roast Beef of Old England was written in 1731, it portrayed tea (as well as coffee) as foreign and un-English, noting that they were rare during the time of Elizabeth I.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Because tea began in Britain as a luxury for the upper classes, it had a reputation in the 18th century as a high-class commodity; however, as prices slowly fell, more people at the middle levels of society had access to it. Accordingly, drinking tea became associated with respectability among upwardly mobile middle-class people. When people drank tea, they were expected to possess certain manners and behave in a particular way. Soon, drinking tea became a domestic ritual among families, colleagues, and friends who were just wealthy enough to afford it, which also increased demand. The association between tea and respectability became so ingrained in both British and Irish culture that it reached a point where it could not go out of fashion. Tea drinking among these groups was also soon considered patriotic.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Because the East India Company had a monopoly over the tea industry in Britain, tea became more popular than coffee, chocolate, and alcohol. Tea was seen as inherently British, and its consumption was encouraged by the British government because of the revenue gained from taxing tea. Unlike coffee and chocolate, which came from the colonies of Britain's rivals in various regions of the world, tea was produced in a single massive colony and served as a means of profit and colonial power. Mintz goes so far as to argue that the combination of ritualization and increased production in the British colonies was how tea became inherently British.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: As the British continued to import more and more tea throughout the 18th century, tea slowly went from a respectable commodity consumed by the well-mannered classes in domestic rituals to an absolute necessity in the British diet, even among the poor working classes. John Hanway, an 18th-century social reformer, observed the widespread consumption of tea by the poor in 1767. He described "a certain lane ... where beggars are often seen ... drinking their tea", as well as "laborers mending their roads drinking their tea" and tea "in the cups of haymakers". Just two centuries after the first appearance of tea in British society as a beverage for aristocrats, tea had become so widely popular and available that those at the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy were consuming it as their beverage of choice. It was at this point that tea became universal among all levels of society. Fernand Braudel asked, "is it true to say the new drink replaced gin in England?"


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: By the 19th century, tea had reached the working class, and it was soon considered an everyday necessity among poor labourers. According to the Scottish historian David MacPherson, tea had become cheaper than beer by the early 19th century. Furthermore, sugar had also become extremely cheap by this time, and the two were almost always consumed together. Though the price of coffee had decreased by this point, tea was the preferred drink because, unlike coffee, it still tasted good when diluted, which is often how the poor consumed it to save money.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea had other attractions as well. Drinking a hot, sweet beverage helped the meals of the lower classes, which generally consisted of dry bread and cheese, go down more easily. The warm beverage was especially appealing given Britain's cold and wet climate. Additionally, tea helped alleviate some of the consequences of industrial urbanization, as drinking tea required boiling the water, thereby killing water-borne diseases like dysentery, cholera, and typhoid.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: However, the poor consumed tea very differently from the well-mannered ritual adopted by the upper classes. According to Mintz, "tea-drinking among the poor probably began in connection with work, not in the home". Day labourers brewed their tea out in the open and brought their tea equipment with them to work, as opposed to the private, domestic ritual that had previously surrounded tea-drinking. Afternoon tea possibly became a way to increase the number of hours labourers could work; the stimulants in the tea, accompanied by the calorie boost from the sugar and accompanying snacks, would give workers energy to finish the day's work.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The popularity of tea occasioned the furtive export of slips, a small shoot for planting or twig for grafting to tea plants, from China to British India and its commercial cultivation there, beginning in 1840. Between 1872 and 1884, the supply of tea to the British Empire increased with the expansion of the railway to the east. The demand, however, was not proportional, which caused prices to rise. Nevertheless, starting in 1884, innovations in tea preparation caused the price of tea to drop and remained relatively low through the first half of the 20th century. Soon afterwards, London became the centre of the international tea trade. With high tea imports also came a large increase in the demand for porcelain. The demand for teacups, pots, and dishes increased to go along with the popular new drink.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In 2003, "DataMonitor" reported that regular tea drinking in the United Kingdom was on the decline. There was a 10.25% decline in the purchase of normal teabags in Britain between 1997 and 2002. Sales of ground coffee also fell during the same period. Britons were instead drinking health-oriented beverages, like fruit or herbal teas, consumption of which increased 50% from 1997 to 2002. A further unexpected statistic is that the sales of decaffeinated tea and coffee fell faster than the sale of more common varieties during this period. Declining tea sales were matched by an increase in espresso sales. Nevertheless, tea remains an extremely popular drink and is still ingrained in British culture and society.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Even semi-formal events can be reason enough to use cups and saucers rather than mugs. A typical British tea ritual might run as follows (the host performing all actions unless noted):


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: The pot will normally hold enough tea so that some remains after filling the cups of all the guests. If this is the case, the tea cosy is replaced after everyone has been served. Hot water may be provided in a separate pot and is used only for topping up the pot, never for individual cups.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Whether to put milk into the cup before or after the tea has been a matter of debate since at least the mid-20th century; in his 1946 essay "A Nice Cup of Tea", author George Orwell wrote, "tea is one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country and causes violent disputes over how it should be made". Whether to put the tea in the cup first and add the milk after or do the opposite has split public opinion, with Orwell stating, "indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject".


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Another aspect of the debate is the claims that adding milk at different times alters the flavour of the tea (for instance, see ISO 3103 and the Royal Society of Chemistry's "How to make a Perfect Cup of Tea"). Some studies suggest that heating milk above when adding milk after the tea is poured does cause denaturation of the lactalbumin and lactoglobulin. Other studies argue that brewing time has a greater importance. Regardless, when milk is added to tea, it may affect the flavour. In addition to considerations of flavour, the order of these steps is thought to have been, historically, an indication of class. Only those wealthy enough to afford good-quality porcelain would be confident of its being able to cope with being exposed to boiling water unadulterated with milk.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: A further point of discussion on when to add milk is how it affects the time taken for the liquid to reach a drinkable temperature. While adding milk first will cause an initial drop in temperature, which leads to a more shallow cooling curve and slower cooling while also increasing volume (which would slightly increase the surface area through which the tea could lose heat), one study noted that adding milk first leads to the tea retaining heat out of all proportion with these effects. The major mechanism by which hot tea cools is not conduction or radiation, but evaporative loss, which is affected by the physical properties of the milk. The study concluded that lipids in milk prevent water from evaporating rapidly, thus retaining heat longer.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Britons also hold opinions as to the proper manner in which to drink tea when using a cup and saucer. Historically, during the 1770s and 1780s, it was fashionable to drink tea from saucers. Saucers were deeper than is the current fashion, and therefore more similar to bowls like their Chinese antecedents. If one is seated at a table, the proper manner to drink tea is to raise the teacup only, placing it back into the saucer in between sips. When standing or sitting in a chair without a table, one holds the tea saucer with the off-hand and the teacup in the dominant hand. When not in use, the teacup is placed back in the tea saucer and held in one's lap or at waist height. In either event, the teacup should never be held or waved in the air. Fingers should be curled inwards; despite popular belief in the United States, no finger should extend away from the handle of the cup.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea rooms resulted from societal concerns about the working class's consumption of alcohol. One response to the perception of widespread dissolution was the temperance movement, which promoted tea as a healthful alternative to alcohol of any sort. From the 1830s many new cafes and coffeehouses opened, as a place to socialise that was not a pub or an inn.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In 1864, the Aerated Bread Company opened the first of what would grow to be known as A.B.C. Tea Shops. The idea came from a London-based "manageress" at ABC "who'd been serving gratis tea and snacks to customers of all classes, [and] got permission to put a commercial public tea room on the premises". By 1923, the A.B.C. tea shops had 250 branches, second only to J. Lyons and Co. Lyons Corner Houses started in 1894 and soon became the leading chain of tea rooms; their waitresses were known as "nippies" for the speed of their work.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In 1878, Catherine Cranston opened the first of what became a chain of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms in Glasgow, providing elegant, well-designed social venues which, for the first time, provided for well-to-do women socialising without male company. They proved to be widely popular. She engaged up-and-coming designers and became a patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He designed the complete building of the Willow Tearooms, which featured a strikingly modern exterior and a series of interesting interior designs. Similar establishments became popular throughout Scotland. The Glasgow Willow Tearooms building was fully restored between 2014 and its reopening in July 2018.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea rooms were also significant since they provided a place where women in the Victorian era could take a meal without a male escort, without risk to their reputations. Roger Fulford argues that tea rooms benefitted women in that these neutral public spaces were instrumental in the "spread of independence" for women and their struggle for the vote. Paul Chrystal characterises tea rooms as "popular and fashionable, especially with women", providing them with a dignified and safe place to meet, eat, and strategise on political campaigns.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: There is a long tradition of tea rooms within London's hotels. For example, Brown's Hotel has been serving tea for over 170 years. Since the 1880s, fine hotels in both the UK and the US featured tea rooms and tea courts, and by 1910 they had begun to host afternoon tea dances as dance crazes swept both countries.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea rooms of all kinds were widespread in Britain by the 1950s, but in the following decades cafés became more fashionable, and tea rooms became less common. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of places that offer the opportunity to enjoy afternoon tea, a luxurious light meal of savoury snacks (tea sandwiches) and small pastries. A less formal alternative is a cream tea, particularly popular in the West Country, featuring a scone with jam and clotted cream. Another possibility is the high tea, hot savoury food as the day's final (but relatively early) meal. There are plenty of regional variations. In Scotland, for instance, teas are usually served with scones, pancakes, crumpets, and other cakes.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: British workers, by law, have the right to a minimum of a twenty-minute break in a shift of six hours; government guidelines describe this as "a tea or lunch break". When taken in the morning, this may be informally referred to as elevenses, served around A mug of builder's tea is a common beverage seen in a quick tea break in the working day.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: "Tea" is not only the name of the beverage but also of a light meal. Anna Maria, Duchess of Bedford, is credited with its creation, circa 1840. The notion of cakes or a light meal with tea passed to teahouses or tea rooms. In the West Country, cream teas are a speciality: scones, clotted cream and jam accompany the drink. Afternoon tea, in contemporary British usage, usually indicates a special occasion, perhaps in a hotel dining room, with savoury snacks (tea sandwiches) as well as small sweet pastries. Queen Victoria was known to enjoy sponge cake with her afternoon tea – after the invention of baking powder by Alfred Bird in 1843 which allowed the sponge to rise higher in cakes, a patriotic cake, Victoria sponge, was created, named after the Queen.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Tea or high tea can also refer to a savoury, hot, early evening meal. This usage is common in working-class British English and in Northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Internationally, it has also seen usage in Ireland and Australia.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: In the United Kingdom, a number of varieties of loose tea sold in packets from the 1940s to the 1980s contained tea cards. These were illustrated cards roughly the same size as cigarette cards and intended to be collected by children. Some of the best known were Typhoo tea and Brooke Bond cards, the latter of whom also provided albums for collectors to keep their cards in. In the brand named "Brooke Bond Dividend D", the card was a dividend ("divvy") against the cost of the tea.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: Some renowned artists were commissioned to illustrate the cards, including Charles Tunnicliffe. Many of these card collections are now valuable collectors' items.


title: Tea in the United Kingdom

text: A related phenomenon arose in the early 1990s when PG Tips released a series of tea-based pogs with pictures of cups of tea and chimpanzees on them. Tetley's tea released competing pogs but never reached the popularity of the PG Tips variety.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta (; 13 June 1808 – 17 October 1893) was a French general and politician, with the distinction of Marshal of France. He served as Chief of State of France from 1873 to 1875 and as President of France from 1875 to 1879.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon led the main French army in the war against the Germans in 1870. He was trapped and wounded at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, in part because of his confused and indecisive strategic planning. The army, including MacMahon and Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Germans. Thus France lost the war and the Emperor went into exile. After convalescing, MacMahon was appointed head of the Versailles Army, which suppressed the Paris Commune revolt in May 1871 and set the stage for his political career. MacMahon was a devout conservative Catholic, and a traditionalist who despised socialism and strongly distrusted the mostly secular Republicans. He kept to his duty as the neutral guardian of the Constitution and rejected suggestions of a monarchist "coup d'état", but refused to meet with Gambetta, the leader of the Republicans. He moved for a parliamentary system in which the assembly selected the ruling government of the Third Republic, but he also insisted on an upper chamber. He later dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in public outrage and a Republican electoral victory. Soon after MacMahon resigned and retired to private life.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: The MacMahon family is of Irish origin. They were Lords of Corcu Baiscind in Ireland and descended from Mahon, the son of Muirchertach Ua Briain, High King of Ireland. After losing much of their land in the Cromwellian confiscations of 1652, a branch moved to Limerick for a time. They supported the deposed King James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and settled in France during the subsequent reign of King William III. They applied for French citizenship in 1749; after the definitive installation of the family in France, their nobility was recognised by the patent letter of King Louis XV of France.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: A military family (14 members of the house of de Mac Mahon were in the Army), they settled in Autun, Burgundy, at the Chateau de Sully, where Patrice de Mac Mahon was born on 13 June 1808, sixteenth and the second-youngest son of Baron (1754–1831), Baron of Sully, Count de Mac Mahon and de Charnay, and Pélagie de Riquet de Caraman (1769–1819), a descendant of Pierre-Paul Riquet.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Patrice de MacMahon (as he was usually known before being elevated to a ducal title in his own right) was born in Sully near Autun, in the "département" of Saône-et-Loire. He was the 16th of 17 children of a family already in the French nobility; his grandfather Knight Lord Overlord Jean-Baptiste de MacMahon, was named Marquis de MacMahon and 1st Marquis d'Éguilly (from his wife Charlotte Le Belin, Dame d'Éguilly) by King Louis XV, and the family in France had decidedly royalist politics.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In 1820, MacMahon entered the Petit Séminaire des Marbres at Autun; then completed his education at Lycée Louis-le-Grand at Paris. He then entered the Special Military School at Saint-Cyr on 23 October 1825. He then joined the application school at the General Staff Headquarters on 1 October 1827, for a period of two years.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Following his graduation from Saint-Cyr, MacMahon entered the French Army in 1827. He was assigned to the 4th Hussars Regiment in 1830. MacMahon subsequently participated in the French conquest of Algeria as a sous-lieutenant in the . He was commended for his capacity and bravery during the seizure of Algiers. On 24 November 1830, MacMahon further distinguished himself while serving with his regiment, during the , during the . He was awarded the Knight Order of the Legion d'honneur.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Recalled to France, MacMahon participated in 1832 to the Ten Days' Campaign where he was noticed again during the Siege of Antwerp.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: He became a captain in 1833, and returned to Algeria, this time, in 1836 where he was placed under the orders of General Bertrand Clausel, and then General Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont. He led several audacious cavalry raids across tribal occupied plains and distinguished himself during the Siege of Constantine, in 1837, where he was slightly wounded. In 1840, he left Africa (Algeria) and upon his return to France, he learnt that he had been promoted to chef d'escadron (cavalry squadron chief).


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In May 1841, he returned again to Algeria at the head of the with whom he distinguished himself, in April, at the Battle of Bab el-Thaza and against the troops of Emir Abdelkader, on 25 May.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: On 31 December 1842, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel at the 2nd Regiment of the French Foreign Legion 2 R.E.L.E. In 1843, he assumed the functions of regimental commander, by replacing the ill holder, a command which he kept until 1845.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon distinguished himself again during the battle of Chaab el-Gitta and the battle of Aïn Kebira on 14 October and 17 October 1844.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Since 1848, MacMahon was nominated at the head of the subdivision of Tlemcen, where he was designated as a général de brigade on 12 June of the same year.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In 1849, he became a Commander of the Order of the Legion d'honneur, and served under General Aimable Pélissier, chief of the general staff of the Oran Province.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In 1852 MacMahon organized in Algeria the plebiscite of legitimation by universal suffrage destined to approve the French coup d'état of 1851. In March the same year he was appointed commandment of the , before being promoted to Général de division, in July.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: During the Crimean War, he was given command of the 1st Infantry Division of the 2nd Orient Army Corps and, in September 1855, he won a victory at the Battle of Malakoff during the Siege of Sevastopol. During the battle he is reputed to have said: "Here I am; here will I stay!" ()


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: After his return to France, he received a number of honours and was appointed Senator. Desiring a more active life, he refused a senior position in the French metropolitan army, and returned to Algeria. In Algeria, he served in a campaign against the Kabyle people. On his return to France, he voted as senator against a new law on general security, proposed after the failed assassination attempt of Felice Orsini against Emperor Napoleon III; the law (which passed) allowed easier government action against "enemies of the Empire" and those suspected of political crimes, and made anyone who did not pledge allegiance to Napoleon III ineligible for the legislature.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon distinguished himself during the Italian Campaign of 1859. He advanced his troops without having received orders at a critical moment during the Battle of Magenta, which assured French victory.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: For his military services, he was appointed a Marshal of France by Emperor Napoleon III, and awarded the title of Duke of Magenta.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In 1861 MacMahon represented France at the coronation of William I as King of Prussia. In 1864, he was named as Governor General of Algeria.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon did not distinguish himself in this appointment. While he initiated several reforms, numerous complaints were made against him. During the first half of 1870, he submitted his resignation to Napoleon III. When the Olivier cabinet was formed, the Emperor abandoned his Algerian projects and MacMahon was recalled.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon led the main French army in the Franco-Prussian War where he suffered several defeats in Alsace. He was seriously wounded during the Battle of Sedan. In 1871 the French army surrendered, and the Germans had clearly won the war. Overall his strategic planning was confused and marked by indecision. He, along with the rest of the army including the Emperor, was made prisoner during the capitulation of Sedan on 1 September.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In 1871, he became the head of the army of the French Third Republic, under President Adolphe Thiers, and in May led the Semaine Sanglante. the bloody week-long military campaign which defeated the Paris Commune and placed the city under the authority of the Third Republic.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In May 1873, MacMahon was elected President of the French Third Republic, by the royalist and conservative majority in the National Assembly. Only one vote was cast against him. Renowned for his popularity, Mac Mahon was elected following the unsuccessful election of Adolphe Thiers on 24 May 1873. He replaced Prime Minister Jules Armand Dufaure with Duke Albert, 4th duc de Broglie, a monarchist. With Duke Broglie as Prime Minister, he adopted a series of measures to install a new conservative "moral order".


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon favoured a restoration of the monarchy but when this project failed, accepted a seven-year mandate which the Assembly gave him on 9 November 1873. Mac Mahon deemed himself responsible to the country than to parliament, which brought him into conflict with the Chamber of Deputies.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In his still unpublished memoirs, MacMahon described his political convictions: "By family tradition, and by the sentiments towards the royal house which were instilled in me by my early education, I could not be anything but a Legitimist." Nevertheless, in November 1873, he refused to meet with the Bourbon claimant to the throne, Henri, Count of Chambord, as he thought this incompatible with his duties as President of the Republic. On 4 February 1874, MacMahon declared that he would respect the established legal order. Preferring to remain "au-dessus des partis" (on top of the parties), he observed rather than took part in the procedures which in January and February 1875 led to the French Constitutional Laws of 1875, which established the French Third Republic as the government of France.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: During the night of 23–24 June 1875 the Garonne region suffered heavy flooding. While visiting the inundated cities and villages he declared "que d'eau… que d'eau !… " (nothing but water…only water!…). The prefect of the department responded to him: "Et encore, Monsieur le Président, vous n'en voyez que le dessus!" (Then again, Mr. President, you are only seeing what's above the surface!").


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In September 1875, he stayed at Vernon for several days, in order to prepare the grand maneuvers of the third army. Following the 1876 French legislative election, which resulted in a republican majority, he agreed with great reluctance to the formation of governments under prime ministers Jules Dufaure and Jules Simon, which were dominated by Republicans.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In order to contain and destabilize France, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought to promote republicanism in France by strategically and ideologically isolating MacMahon's clerical-monarchist supporters. Bismarck's containment policy almost got out of hand in 1875 during the "War in Sight" crisis. There was a war scare in Germany and France when the German press reported that influential Germans, alarmed by France's rapid recovery from defeat in 1871 and its rearmaments program, were talking of launching a preemptive attack on France. Britain and Russia made it clear that they would not tolerate such aggression. Bismarck did not seek war either, but the unexpected crisis forced him to take into consideration the alarm that his aggressive policies, plus Germany's fast-growing power, were causing among its neighbors.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: The 16 May 1877 crisis heightened MacMahon's conflict with the Chamber of Deputies. After the bishops of Poitiers, Nimes and Nevers had ensured Pius IX of the French government's support in the Roman question, the Chamber passed a resolution that asked the government to "suppress the ultramontanism manifestations". Twelve days later, he dismissed Prime Minister Jules Simon and again appointed Albert de Broglie. Hoping for a conservative victory, MacMahon then convinced the Senate to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, and campaigned across the country, while protesting that he had no intention of overthrowing the Republic. On 15 August 1877, Léon Gambetta declared: "Le Président n'a que ce choix: il lui faut se soumettre ou se démettre." ("The President has only but one choice: he must submit or resign.")


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: The elections of 14 October gave the Republicans a majority of 120 seats, and prime minister Broglie accordingly resigned on 19 November. MacMahon attempted first to form a government under General Gaëtan de Rochebouët, but the Chamber refused to cooperate with him. Rochebouët resigned the next day, and the President recalled Dufaure to form a Republican government. On 5 January 1879, elections to the Senate also resulted in a Republican majority, depriving MacMahon of his last parliamentary support. Faced with a decree which revolved around confiscating and diminishing a number of military authorities and commands to certain generals, MacMahon preferred to resign on 30 January 1879.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: His presidency may be summarised thus: on the one hand, he allowed the Republic to establish itself; on the other hand, so far as his lawful prerogatives permitted, he restrained the political advance of parties hostile to the Catholic Church, convinced that the triumph of Radicalism would be to the detriment of the nation. MacMahon's government was mildly repressive toward the left. Newspapers were prosecuted, senior officials were removed if they were suspected of support for republicanism. Critical pamphlets were suppressed while the government circulated its own propaganda. The proprietors of meeting places were advised not to allow meetings of critics of the government. On the other hand, he gave no support to a coup d'état by monarchists. MacMahon truly believed that the National Assembly should rule France and not the president.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: From 1887 to 1893, he directed the "Société de secours aux blessés militaires" (S.S.B.M.—Rescue Society of Wounded Military), which in 1940 became the French Red Cross.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Patrice de MacMahon died on 17 October 1893, at the at Montcresson, after having written his memoirs. He was buried on 22 October at the Hôtel des Invalides after a state funeral and a religious mass at La Madeleine. The five cordons (ornamental cords) of the funeral chariot were held by General , Grand Chancellor of the Legion d'Honneur; Admiral Henri Rieunier, Ministère de la Marine; Général , Minister of War; Charles Merlin of the Senate; and M. Malvy from the Chamber of Deputies.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: Wounded four times: in 1837, at the Siege of Constantine, a bullet pierced his uniform; in 1840, a bullet pierced his sabre through the rib cage; in 1857 at the ; and finally seriously on 1 September 1870 at Sedan.


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: In his voluntary retirement he carried with him the esteem of all parties: Jules Simon, who did not love him, and whom he did not love, afterwards called him:


title: Patrice de MacMahon

text: MacMahon's line became widely quoted as an expression of defiance. P. G. Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster used it in response to pressure from his valet Jeeves to shave off his new moustache ('Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit' Ch.1).


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Noah Anthony Schiavone (, ; born November 7, 1957) is an American sports announcer, professional wrestling commentator and podcaster currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a play-by-play commentator and senior producer. He has previously worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Major League Wrestling (MLW). In addition to his work in wrestling, Schiavone has also worked as a broadcaster for the Gwinnett Braves/Stripers of Minor League Baseball and Georgia Bulldogs football.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: In 2013, WWE noted that, "At the height of the Monday Night War, veteran broadcaster Tony Schiavone's voice was as vital to the onscreen product of World Championship Wrestling as Jim Ross' Oklahoma growl was to WWE."


title: Tony Schiavone

text: In 2021, Schiavone announced a Kickstarter campaign for a biographical graphic novel titled "Butts in Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story". Tony Schiavone can be heard on his podcast "What Happened When?" with Conrad Thompson.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Schiavone broadcast alongside David Crockett starting in 1985 until 1989 on Superstation TBS. Together they hosted NWA's World Championship Wrestling live in front of a small in-studio audience in Atlanta. The show aired on TBS on Saturdays at 9am and 6:05pm and was used as a vehicle to promote live NWA arena events and introduce their stars to a national audience as TBS was the premier nationally broadcast cable station at the time.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: He was signed by Vince McMahon's WWF for a one-year contract from April 1989 through April 1990. During his time with the company, he was most notable for being the main play-by-play announcer for their SummerSlam 1989 and Royal Rumble 1990 pay-per-views alongside Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Other than Ventura (whom he would also frequently partner later in WCW), Schiavone commentated alongside others including Lord Alfred Hayes, Gorilla Monsoon, Hillbilly Jim, Rod Trongard, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Behind the scenes, Tony produced numerous home videos for Coliseum Video.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Schiavone returned soon afterwards to WCW, the former Crockett promotion by then owned by media mogul Ted Turner. However, he has remained on good terms with the McMahon family in the years since. Years after leaving the WWF he admitted that doing so was his biggest career mistake, and that he asked McMahon for his job back as soon as he realized what the Turner Broadcasting System had done to the former Jim Crockett Promotions upon acquiring it. McMahon turned him down, so that Schiavone would not have to move his young family again, but was open to working with him in the future.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Schiavone became the lead voice for WCW's flagship program, "Monday Nitro". He also served as the lead announcer of "Thunder", typically working alongside Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, and later with Mark Madden and Scott Hudson. Before the advent of "Nitro" and "Thunder", Schiavone hosted "WCW Saturday Night" and "WCW WorldWide". He made an appearance in the movie "Ready to Rumble". When WCW's main assets were bought by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF/now WWE) in 2001, he was not retained by WWE.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Two years later after WCW closed down, Schiavone made an appearance in NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA: TNA, later Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) in 2003, during one of their weekly pay-per-views. Schiavone interrupted an interview with Goldylocks and Percy Pringle and proceeded to cut a worked shoot promo in which he insulted both of them. Mike Tenay, TNA's lead broadcaster and Schiavone's former WCW colleague, then entered the ring and the two got into an argument over their careers and what happened during the last days of WCW, where both men lost their jobs. The promo ended when Vince Russo entered the ring and promised Schiavone a job with him. However, nothing ever came of that as Schiavone only made one more appearance in TNA, which was taped that same night after the first appearance.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: On October 5, 2017, Schiavone returned to professional wrestling at the inaugural event of the resurrected Major League Wrestling (MLW). At the show, Schiavone provided color commentary for the event's matches. He then continued to provide his commentary work for MLW's television show, "MLW Fusion". After taking a break in early 2019 from commentating due to conflicting schedules, he returned in July 2019. Schiavone noted on the November 20, 2019 "Clash of the Champions XIII" episode of "What Happened When" with Conrad Thompson that he would no longer be appearing for Major League Wrestling (MLW).


title: Tony Schiavone

text: In August 2019, it was reported that Schiavone had signed a contract with All Elite Wrestling. It is expected that Schiavone will continue to work with MLW while working for AEW. It was announced that Schiavone would join AEW as a commentator. Schiavone also began working as a senior producer for AEW live events.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: On March 25, 2020, due to significant delays with non-audiences, Schiavone filled in on play-by-play commentary for Jim Ross and Excalibur on "AEW Dynamite" with other substitute announcers Cody, Kenny Omega, Colt Cabana and Chris Jericho.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: As of 2022, Schiavone remains a member of the commentary team on AEW Dynamite, although having a bigger role conducting in-ring and backstage interviews with various professional wrestlers.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: After wrestling, Schiavone became the morning sports anchor for both WDUN in Gainesville and WSB-AM in Atlanta simultaneously, despite the two stations having different owners (WDUN has a partnership with Cox Media Group, which owns WSB-TV and WSB-AM.) Schiavone also has done morning sports reports for Cox sister stations WHIO AM/FM in Dayton, Ohio. Additionally, Schiavone is a writer for the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network and produced the Best of the Bulldogs, which won the AP Award for Best Sports Program in 2004. Along with being a writer for the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network, Schiavone also works one of the post game talk shows on the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network for home and away games alongside former University of Georgia quarterback David Greene.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: After a few years of work with the Braves system including pre-game and post-game radio coverage, and also spot duty as an official scorer for games, Schiavone returned to play-by-play duties on radio when the Gwinnett Braves began their first season in Lawrenceville, Georgia as Atlanta's AAA-level affiliate for the 2009–10 season.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Following cutbacks at WSB that resulted in Schiavone being let go in 2015, Schiavone took a part-time job at Starbucks to supplement his income while continuing to do other broadcasting work. Schiavone has stated he had no shame in working there and praised Starbucks for their excellent health insurance coverage for their employees. His time at Starbucks would be alluded to on multiple occasions by Britt Baker on AEW programming.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: On January 30, 2017, Schiavone began hosting the "What Happened When?" podcast with co-host Conrad Thompson on MLW Radio discussing stories from Schiavone's time with Jim Crockett Promotions, his stint in the WWF and his WCW tenure. Schiavone also co-hosts the "Pro Wrestling Wednesday" podcast with lifelong wrestling fan Beau Le Blanc for WZGC FM 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, a station in which he often does fill-in work for their sports flash updates. On February 20, 2020, All Elite Wrestling and TNT launched "AEW Unrestricted", a weekly podcast hosted by Schiavone and referee Aubrey Edwards.