title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: Spanking was prominent in pornography in Victorian Britain with erotica such as "Lady Bumtickler's Revels" and "Exhibition of Female Flagellants" being consumed.


title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: In "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", published in 1927 and written by British physician and sexual psychologist Havelock Ellis, he describes cultural sexual characteristics of the buttocks. He says:


title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: Emphasis on the female buttocks as a sexual characteristic has increased in recent times according to Ray B. Browne, who attributes the change to the popularization of denim jeans:


title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: While female buttocks are often eroticized in heterosexual erotica, men's buttocks are considered erogenous by many women, and are also eroticized in male homosexuality which often centers on anal intercourse.


title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: Since the early 2000s, songs about the female buttocks have proliferated, especially in the hip-hop, reggae/dancehall, and R&B genres.


title: Cultural history of the buttocks

text: A buttock fetish or buttock partialism is a condition wherein the buttocks become a primary focus of sexual attention. It may be associated with coprophilia, panty fetishism, eproctophilia, and sadomasochistic corporal punishment involving the buttocks. Pygophilia is sexual arousal caused by the buttocks.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The title refers to the practice of "racial passing", and is a key element of the novel. Clare Kendry's attempt to pass as white for her husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is a significant depiction in the novel and a catalyst for the tragic events.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Larsen's exploration of race was informed by her own mixed racial heritage and the increasingly common practice of racial passing in the 1920s. Praised upon publication, the novel has since been celebrated in modern scholarship for its complex depiction of race, gender, and sexuality, and the book is the subject of considerable scholarly criticism. As one of only two novels that Larsen wrote, the novel has been significant in placing its author at the forefront of several literary canons.


title: Passing (novel)

text: The story is written as a third person narrative from the perspective of Irene Redfield, a black woman with a European or near-European appearance, who lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Part One of the book, titled "Encounter," opens with Irene receiving a letter from Clare Kendry, causing her to recall a chance encounter she had had with her, at the roof restaurant of the Drayton Hotel in Chicago, during a brief stay in the city. Irene does not answer Clare's attempts to reconnect written in the letters. The women grew up together but lost touch when Clare's biracial father died and she was taken to live with her two paternal white aunts. Irene learns that the beautiful Clare, who appears European, "passes" for white, living primarily in Europe with her unsuspecting, rich, white husband and their daughter. Although Irene tries to avoid further engagement with Clare, she never is able to fully exclude her from her life as she later visits Clare for tea along with another childhood friend, Gertrude Martin. Toward the end of the visit, Clare's white husband John (Jack) Bellew arrives. Unaware that all three women have black ancestry, Jack enthusiastically affirms his hatred of black people, making the women uneasy. In a startling passage, he also reveals his pet name for Clare, "Nig." Although Jack does not suspect that his wife has black ancestry (and, in fact, believes that his "Nig" hates black people as much as he does), he gave her that name because he perceives that Clare, who was "white as a lily" when they were married, has been "gettin' darker and darker." Irene and Gertrude say nothing in response, in part to maintain Clare's secret identity. Afterwards, Irene receives a letter of apology from Clare but destroys it in an effort to forget about Clare and excise her from Irene's life. Irene seeks instead to focus on her own life with her husband, Brian, and her two sons, Theodore and Junior.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Part Two of the book, "Re-encounter," returns to the present, with Irene having received the new letter from Clare. After Irene ignores Clare's letter, Clare visits in person so Irene reluctantly agrees to see her. When it is brought up that Irene serves on the committee for the "Negro Welfare League" (NWL) Clare invites herself to their upcoming dance despite Irene's advice against it for fear that Jack will find out. Clare attends the dance and enjoys herself without her husband finding out, which encourages her to continue spending time in Harlem. Irene and Clare resume their childhood companionship, and Clare frequently visits Irene's home.


title: Passing (novel)

text: The third and final part of the novel begins before Christmas, as Irene's relationship with her husband has become increasingly fraught. Aware of her friend's attractiveness, Irene becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair with Clare. During a shopping trip with her visibly black friend, Felise Freeland, Irene encounters Clare's white husband, Jack, by chance. Although Jack recognizes Irene and attempts to greet her, Irene pretends not to know him. Nevertheless, as Irene fully understands, this chance meeting carries the potential to expose Clare's secret. Irene considers warning Clare about Jack's new-found knowledge but decides against it, worried in part that the pair's divorce might encourage her husband to leave her for Clare. Later, Clare accompanies Irene and Brian to a party hosted by Felise. The gathering is interrupted by Jack, who accuses Clare of being a "damned dirty nigger!" Irene rushes to Clare, who is standing by an open window. Suddenly, Clare falls out of the window from the top floor of the building to the ground below, where she is pronounced dead by the guests who eventually gather at the site. Whether she has fallen accidentally, was pushed by either Irene or Bellew, or committed suicide, is unclear. The book ends with Irene's fragmented anguish at Clare's death.


title: Passing (novel)

text: As early as 1925, Nella Larsen had decided that she wanted to be among the "New Negro" writers receiving considerable attention at the time. Initially writing short stories that were sold early in 1926 to a ladies magazine, she was rumored that year to be writing a novel. In a letter to her friend, Carl Van Vechten, she acknowledges, "it is the awful truth. But, who knows if I'll get through with the damned thing. Certainly not I." In April 1927, Larsen and her husband, Elmer Imes, moved from Jersey City, New Jersey to Harlem to be closer to the cultural phenomenon. The following year, Larsen published her first novel "Quicksand" with New York-based publisher Knopf, and its favorable critical reception encouraged her ambitions to become known as a novelist.


title: Passing (novel)

text: The 1920s in the United States was a period marked by considerable anxiety and discussion over the crossing of racial boundaries, the so-called "color line" between blacks and whites. This anxiety was exacerbated by the Great Migration, in which hundreds of thousands of Blacks left the rural south for northern and midwestern cities, where, together with new waves of immigrants, they changed the social makeup. The practice of persons "crossing the color line"—attempting to claim recognition in another racial group than the one they were believed to belong to—was known as "passing". As many African Americans had European ancestry in varying proportions, some appeared visibly European. The legacy of slavery, with its creation of a racial caste, and the imposition in the 20th century of the so-called one-drop rule (by which someone with even one ancestor of sub-Saharan-African origin was considered black) led to a hardening of racial lines that had historically been more fluid; at any time, the concept of race was "historically contingent." Although the exact numbers of people who passed is, for obvious reasons, not known, many estimates were made at the time. The sociologist Charles S. Johnson (1893–1956) calculated that 355,000 blacks had passed between 1900 and 1920.


title: Passing (novel)

text: A significant precedent for Larsen's depiction of Clare and Jack's relationship was the 1925 legal trial known as the "Rhinelander Case" (or "Rhinelander v. Rhinelander"). On the urging of his family, Leonard Kip Rhinelander, a wealthy white man, sued his wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, for annulment and fraud; he alleged that she had failed to inform him of her "colored" blood. The case concerned not only race but also status and class, as he had met her when she was working as a domestic. Although the jury eventually returned a verdict for Alice (she contended that her mixed race was obvious, and she had never denied it), it came at a devastating social cost for both parties; intimate exchanges between the couple were read out in court, and Alice was forced to partially disrobe in front of the jury in the judge's chambers in order for them to assess the darkness of her skin.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Larsen refers to the case near the end of the novel, when Irene wonders about the consequences of Jack discovering Clare's racial status: "What if Bellew should divorce Clare? Could he? There was the "Rhinelander" case." The case received substantial coverage in the press of the time, and Larsen could assume that it was common knowledge to her readers.


title: Passing (novel)

text: "Passing" has been described as "the tragic story of a beautiful light-skinned mixed-race woman passing for white in high society." The tragic mulatto (also "mulatta" when referring to a woman) is a stock character in early African-American literature. Such accounts often featured the light-skinned offspring of a white slaveholder and his black slave, whose mixed heritage in a race-based society means that she is unable to identify or find a place with either blacks or whites. The resulting feeling of exclusion was portrayed as variably manifested in self-loathing, depression, alcoholism, sexual perversion, and attempts at suicide.


title: Passing (novel)

text: On the surface, "Passing" conforms to that stereotype in its portrayal of Clare Kendry, whose passing for white has tragic consequences; however, the book resists the conventions of the genre, as Clare refuses to feel the expected anguish at the betrayal of her black identity and socializes with blacks for the purposes of excitement rather than racial solidarity. Scholars have more generally considered "Passing" as a novel in which the major concern is not race. For instance, Claudia Tate describes the issue as "merely a mechanism for setting the story in motion, sustaining the suspense, and bringing about the external circumstances for the story's conclusion."


title: Passing (novel)

text: Catherine Rottenberg argues that Larsen's novella is a prime example of race and gender norms portrayed in the US. The main characters, Irene and Clare, and their struggle with their own identification problems in the novel, help readers understand the difference between gender and race norms. These two central characters are able to pass as white women even though Irene does not fully pass over, and Rottenberg argues the difference between Clare and Irene by re-evaluating the idea of desire/identification. The mis-identification Clare deals with stems from her re-connection with Irene after twelve years of not speaking. Seeing Irene sparked a desire in Clare for her to get back in touch with her African-American culture. Irene's identification trouble is associated with her need to feel safe and in control in her life, the main reason Irene chooses to pass over only on occasion. Irene doesn't want to put herself into a dangerous situation.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Race is not the only primary concern in Nella Larsen's "Passing". Class is also a major aspect that is simultaneously developed. Both of the main characters Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry present a strong sense of class. They also demonstrate how they cross clearly defined class borders in order to obtain more power in their life.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholarly critics such as Mary Wilson have examined the character of Irene's maid Zulena, who demonstrates the middle-class African-American family in the 1920s. Irene opposed the idea of discrimination and racism towards the blacks but when it came to maintaining her social class she preferred domesticity and servitude even if it was from the people from her own black race. Domesticity in the South was often associated with the black woman but Irene decides to maintain the power and class through the servitude of another black woman. Wilson examines that the differences in class were not just embedded in the black versus white society but also within the single black race. Such difference can be seen as a conflict between Irene's ideology and her actions when it comes to maintaining her status as a middle-class African-American. The class privilege is well-defined through the skin color as Zulena is described as a "mahogany-colored creature" which meant that she had no chance to pass like Irene as, if not "white", than something other than African-American, and it automatically decides the role for the black colored woman to serve as a maid and belong to the inferior class. Although Irene calls herself black, having an ability to pass as white makes her behave like a white privileged woman because she happily accepts the servitude complicating the issue of race and class. Larsen introduces Zulena in the story as a "colored creature", primarily from Irene's perspective, suggesting that Irene considers her servant as from an inferior class and therefore decides to keep a certain distance from her.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Clare Kendry crosses social class binaries. Clare does not inhabit any particular social class but rather lives as both a working-class and a middle-class woman in the novel. Clare is born in a working-class family where her father is a janitor of the building that she lives in. In adulthood, she passes during her marriage to obtain the lifestyle of an upper-middle-class woman. Despite having the luxury and comfort that she has always wanted but never had had in her childhood, Clare still longs for her childhood experiences and constantly visits Irene and her maid Zulena. Because Clare shares many experiences of the working-class, she feels very comfortable when talking to Zulena, going further than Irene by perceiving her as an equal and friend. Clare's desire to live in both social classes at the same time shows how these class boundaries are fluid.


title: Passing (novel)

text: While Clare demonstrates her class binaries, Irene is very protective towards her own status quo. Irene grew up as a middle-class person and continues to live as such after marrying a doctor. Irene is more hesitant to cross between middle-class and working-class; she isolates herself and avoids all of the circumstances that she might be mistaken for a lower-class person. For example, during Irene's attempt to pass to become an elite white woman at Drayton hotel, she makes a clear distinction between herself and working-class individuals by showing her desire to be separated from the "sweating masses". Irene is also concerned that people at the Negro League Dance might mistake Clare for a prostitute. Throughout the novel, Irene seems comfortable living in a higher social class while Clare constantly crosses between the two classes.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholar Sami Schalk argues that the notion of eugenic ideology emerges in the novel. Eugenic ideology assigns specific behavioral and physical traits to different distinctions of race, class, gender, and sexual identity. Both physical and behavioral features of this ideology are discussed by the main characters in "Passing", Irene and Clare. For example, several times in the novel, Irene acknowledges the way white people racially designate physical traits to African Americans in order to identify them. The concept of eugenic ideology also emerges when Clare's aunts assign her to a domestic servant role believing this would align with her skin color. Thus, the aunt's perceptions of Clare's work are distinctly categorized through race.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Schalk further suggests that the novel resists these notions of eugenic ideology by emphasizing how characters pass fluidly between racial identities and resist clear categories of identity. In the novel, Clare Kendry hides her racial identity from her husband and is able to travel to places where African Americans are not allowed entry because no one can denote her black heritage from her behavior. In addition, Irene notes several times in the novel that the physical traits white people assign to African Americans are ridiculous. She, too, is able to pass in places where African Americans are not allowed entry and therefore defies racial categorization. The novel resists eugenic distinctions by highlighting the fluid transitions between races.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholars have treated "sexuality" with caution and reticence especially during the Harlem Renaissance because of the history of slavery and the objectification of black women. Black novelists, especially female black novelists, had to be more discreet when writing about the sexuality of their characters. During this time, women, especially black women, were used as sexual objects. Due to sexual objectification, black novelists wanted to overcome the legacy of rape. They wanted to end the stereotypes of black women as "sexual objects" and to return to the "timidity and modesty" of Negro womanhood. The writers didn't want to repeat the experience of women's oppression, especially African-American women. McDowell believes that during the Harlem Renaissance female sexuality was acknowledged only in the advertising, beauty, and fashion industries, and "sexual pleasure, especially for black women, leads to the dangers of domination in marriage, repeated pregnancy, or exploitation and loss of status."


title: Passing (novel)

text: According to scholar Deborah McDowell, Larsen wanted to tell the story of black women with sexual desires, but the novelist also had to be constrained in that she wanted to establish "black women as respectable" in black middle-class terms. As an example, in the novel, Irene is portrayed as sexually repressed. Irene has a tenuous relationship with her husband Brian. In fact, they have separate rooms. McDowell believes that Irene is confused by her sexual feelings for Clare, which are much more apparent. McDowell argues that the story is about "Irene's awakening sexual desire towards Clare".


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholars have identified a homoerotic subtext between Irene and Clare, centered on the erotic undertones in Irene's descriptions of Clare and appreciation of her beauty. As scholar Deborah McDowell's writes "the idea of bringing sexual attraction between two women to full narrative expression is, likewise, too dangerous a move, which helps to explain why critics have missed this aspect of the novel". In that interpretation, the novel's central metaphor of "passing" under a different identity "occurs at a surprisingly wide variety of levels," including sexual. This suggests that there are other forms of "passing" that take place in the novel that is not just based on race. Larsen has a clever way of "deriving its surface theme and central metaphor-passing", disguising the plots "neatly" and "symmetrically". The apparently sexless marriage between Brian and Irene (their separate bedrooms and identification as co-parents rather than sexual partners) allow Larsen to "flirt, if only by suggestion, with the idea of a lesbian relationship between [Clare and Irene]." In the novel, these sexual innuendos appear when Irene first lays eyes on Clare at the rooftop of the Drayton Hotel. The novel describes Clare as "a sweetly scented woman in a fluttering dress of green chiffon whose mingled pattern of narcissuses, jonquils, and hyacinths was a reminder of pleasantly chill spring days". These flowers symbolize the attraction Irene has for Clare. Jonquils and narcissus, both represent an excessive interest in one's physical appearance. This alludes to Irene's obsession and physical attraction for Clare. As the novel states, "from the very beginning of their re-encounter, Irene is drawn to Clare like a moth to a flame".


title: Passing (novel)

text: The character of her husband, Brian, has been subject to a similar interpretation: Irene's labeling of him as and his oft-expressed desire to go to Brazil, a country then widely thought to be more tolerant of homosexuality than the United States was, are given as evidence. It is also shown that Brazil is considered to be a place with more relaxed ideas about race. Irene begins to believe that Clare and Brian are having an affair to hide or distract from her own feelings for Clare. McDowell writes, "the awakening of Irene's erotic feelings for Clare coincides with Irene's imagination of an affair between Clare and Brian". Although she had no reason to accuse him, Irene did so to protect herself from her own sexual desires.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholars such as Claudia Tate and Helena Michie suggest there is a theme of jealousy throughout the novel. Both point to Irene's jealousy in terms of her appreciation for Clare's charisma and desirable appearance in the novel. As Clare meets Irene to go to the Negro Welfare League dance, Irene feels "dowdy and commonplace" in comparison to Clare, who she sees as "exquisite, golden, fragrant, flaunting." The scholars stress that there are two aspects to this jealousy, with Irene exhibiting both bitterness in her perception of Clare, and simultaneously, feelings of affection and desire for her. Helena Michie categorizes the relationship as "sororophobic", a term she defines as a "fear of one's sister." While Irene expresses jealousy in her admiration of Clare's beauty and social charms, she is also susceptible to their seduction and eventually begins to suspect that her husband Brian might be influenced by them as well. In her intensifying suspicions, Irene's jealousy develops into a fear of losing her family, and with it, the identity she has built for herself as a middle class black woman. Irene displays it here when deciding whether to expose Clare or not "She was caught between two allegiances, different, yet the same. Herself. Her race. Race! The thing that bound and suffocated her. Whatever steps she took, or if she took none at all, something would be crushed. A person or the race. Clare, herself, or the race. Or, it might be, all three. Nothing, she imagined, was ever more completely sardonic." Larsen uses jealousy as the main source of conflict in the novel, and uses race as a vehicle for Irene to potentially rid herself of Clare. At this point in the story Irene realizes she can expose Clare's true racial identity to remove Clare from her life, and regain that security she desires more than anything. Albeit she feels jealousy and fear, out of loyalty for her race, Irene does not follow through with her thoughts of exposing Clare.


title: Passing (novel)

text: While the novel primarily focuses on Irene's feelings of jealousy, Clare is also shown to be envious of Irene. Unlike Irene, however, Clare exhibits jealousy towards Irene's lifestyle. Clare perceives Irene as being close to her blackness and her community, a state that Clare has previously chosen to leave behind but strives to experience again. As Clare and Irene converse during Clare's first visit to Irene's home, Clare expresses her loneliness to Irene, contrasting her view of Irene's condition to Clare's own feelings of isolation: "'How could you know? How could you? You're free. You're happy.'" Clare expresses her own jealousy outwardly, even as the novel centers on Irene's inner turmoil.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholars such as Catherine Rottenberg examine how Larsen's characters struggle against race and gender norms of "whiteness" in the United States. Rottenberg shows how the main characters in the novel confront normative characteristics of white culture. Clare chooses to identify with the white culture. Irene, who identifies as an African American, chooses to pass when she feels the need to blend into white culture. The essence of Rottenberg's scholarship shows how the novel's characters struggle against the desire for whiteness because of the positive stereotypes society has created around "white" identity. Clare's experience growing up with her white aunts, who treated her as a servant, directly impacts Clare's initial desire towards whiteness. Hence, she passes as a white woman, marries a white man, and forgets her African-American culture. Even though as a society the white race is the desirable race, Rottenberg explains how there are limitations put into place so the inferior race can never fully be white. For example, Clare has this desire to pass as a white woman because she believes that is the only way she will have a social power, but after reconnecting with her childhood friend Irene, she begins to struggle with her misplaced desire for whiteness and returns to her African-American identification. Seeing Irene sparks a desire in Clare to get back in touch with her African-American culture. Similarly, Irene identifies as black, but because she desires to feel safe and in control at all times in her life, she chooses to pass over only on occasion. Irene's desire to be white comes from her wanting the middle-class lifestyle because it will give her the security she needs. Irene doesn't want to put herself into a dangerous situation, which in a way, makes her feel like her marriage and the life she knows at risk. Throughout Larsen's novel Rottenberg explains how Clare has evolved from wanting to achieve whiteness to reconnecting with the African-American culture, while Irene still has a desire to achieve "whiteness" to feel secure.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Scholars such as Andrew W. Davis and Zahirah Sabir acknowledge Irene's psychology of safety and security, which likely originated from "the threat of racism" surrounding her family. In the novel, Irene states that she places security as the first priority in her life, on top of race and friendship in the novel.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Davis states that the reason that Irene prioritizes security is she wants to protect her children from the social prejudices of the time. In addition, Irene wants Brian, her husband, to stay in New York as a doctor to provide security for her children. When Brian desires to leave for Brazil, Irene is anxious due to the fact that New York is still a white society, and is a familiar to her as an African-American middle-class woman. Clare's presence in Irene's life is a threat to this security. It makes Irene sense the insecurity of her marriage with her husband, Brian. And, it makes her acknowledge the reality of questions of race and class that surround her and her children's life.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Although "Passing" focuses on race, the book also talks about motherhood. Both Irene and Clare are mothers. But Irene sees her sons, Junior and Theodore, differently from how Clare sees her daughter, Margery.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Irene views her children as her security; she sees them as the reason Brian would stay with her. Their child ties them together and thus would make Brian stay with Irene even if they have a fallout. Irene holds her children dear to her and would do whatever she can for them. Irene is also the more protective parent compared to Brian; she wants to shield the children from the bad things in the world, like the knowledge of lynching and racism. Irene wants what's best for her children even if it means acting like specific topics do not affect them although they do, like racism.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Meanwhile, Clare views motherhood as a requirement in her lifetime. She had Margery and no longer wants any more children as she cannot handle the suspense of discovering another baby's skin tone. She also mentions how "children aren't everything," which shows her priorities. We see circumstances where she leaves her daughter with her husband and instead socializes with the black community.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Unlike Irene, Clare actually rejects the thought of motherhood in fear that her identity might be revealed. Irene, on the other hand, is the devoted mother wanting the best for her boys, and always talking and thinking about them. Clare does not have the same attachments to Margery that Irene has to Junior and Ted, as Clare sees motherhood as a binding thing that forces her to stay in a marriage she feels trapped in, while Irene sees her marriage and children as her security.


title: Passing (novel)

text: "Passing" was published in April 1929 by Knopf in New York City. Sales of the book were modest: Knopf produced three small print runs each under 2,000 copies. While early reviews were primarily positive, it received little attention beyond New York City.


title: Passing (novel)

text: Comparing it to Larsen's previous novel "Quicksand", Alice Dunbar-Nelson's review in "The Washington Eagle" began by declaring that "Nella Larsen delights again with her new novel". Writer and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois hailed it as the "one of the finest novels of the year" and believed that its limited success was due to its treating a "forbidden subject," the marriage of a white man to a mixed-race girl who did not reveal her ancestry.


title: Passing (novel)

text: A common criticism of the novel is that it ends too suddenly, without a full exploration of the issues it raises. Mary Rennels, writing in the "New York Telegram", said, "Larsen didn't solve the problem [of passing]. Knocking a character out of a scene doesn't settle a matter." An anonymous reviewer for the "New York Times Book Review" similarly concluded that "the most serious fault with the book is its sudden and utterly unconvincing close", but otherwise considered it an effective treatment of the topic. On the other hand, Dunbar-Nelson found that the ending confirmed to the reader that "you have been reading a masterpiece all along."


title: Passing (novel)

text: In modern scholarship, Larsen is recognized as one of the central figures in the African-American, feminist and modernist canons, a reputation that is based on her two novels ("Passing" and "Quicksand") and some short stories. As of 2007, "Passing" is the subject of more than 200 scholarly articles and more than 50 dissertations, which offer a range of critical interpretations. It has been hailed as a text helping to "create a modernist psychological interiority ... challenging marriage and middle-class domesticity, complexly interrogating gender, race, and sexual identity, and for redeploying traditional tropes—such as that of the tragic mulatta—with a contemporary and critical twist." However, literary critic Cheryl Wall summarizes the critical response to "Passing" as less favorable than to Larsen's first novel "Quicksand", citing the views of Amaritjit Singh in "The Novels of the Harlem Renaissance" (99), of Robert Bone in "The Negro Novel in America" (102), and of Hoyt Fuller in his "Introduction" to "Passing" (14)." On one hand, the significance of sexual jealousy in the story has been seen to detract from the topic of racial passing; conversely, even if racial passing is accurately treated in the novel, it is considered a historically specific practice and so "Passing" appears dated and trivial.


title: Passing (novel)

text: According to Clark Barwick’s "A History of "Passing"," Larsen’s novel has been translated into numerous languages including Danish, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and Italian.


title: Passing (novel)

text: The novel was adapted into a 2021 film of the same name by director Rebecca Hall. It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2021, and was released by Netflix later in the year.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Lotus Elan is the name of two separate ranges of automobiles produced by Lotus Cars. The first series of cars was produced between 1962 and 1975 as a rear-wheel drive vehicle. The second series was produced between 1989 and 1995 as a front-wheel drive vehicle.


title: Lotus Elan

text: After the S2 was released the original Elan 1500 and Elan 1600 models were typically referred to as the S1 (Series 1) although the car was never explicitly marketed as such. Today, all models (S1-Sprint) are often cited collectively as the 1960s Elans.


title: Lotus Elan

text: This second model was also produced in South Korea by Kia Motors between 1996 and 1999, rebadged as the Kia Elan.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The Lotus Elan was the first Lotus road car to use a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body. This style of construction was to be repeated in subsequent Lotus models for nearly three decades. At approximately , the Elan embodied Colin Chapman's minimum weight design philosophy. The Elan was technologically advanced with a DOHC 1,558 cc engine, four-wheel disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, and 4-wheel independent suspension. Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1 supercar, reportedly said that his only disappointment with the McLaren F1 was that he could not give it the perfect steering of the Lotus Elan.


title: Lotus Elan

text: In 2004, "Sports Car International" named the Elan number six on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s. The original version of the car was designed by Ron Hickman who also designed the first Lotus Europa as part of Lotus' GT40 project bid and made his fortune having designed the Black & Decker Workmate.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Because of its successful design and rigorous attention to cost control on the body, chassis, engine and transmission, the Elan become Lotus' first commercial success and contributed to the funding of its achievements in racing over the next ten years. It revived a company stretched thin by the more exotic, expensive to build, and rather unreliable Lotus Elite, which used a fiberglass monocoque body/chassis and all aluminium Coventry Climax engine.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The original Elan 1500 was introduced in 1962 as a roadster. After a very short production run of just 22 cars the engine was enlarged and the car was re-designated the Elan 1600. An optional hardtop was also offered. The Elan 1600 of 1963 was replaced by the Elan S2 in 1964. In 1965 the Type 36, a fixed head coupé version of the car, was introduced while in 1966 the drop head coupé Type 26 was replaced by the Type 45. Both Types, 36 & 45, were offered initially in S3 form, followed in 1968 in S4 form, and finally in 1970 as the Elan Sprint.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Production of the Sprint ceased in 1973. The standard (Std) S2, S3 & S4 models were also available in a slightly more powerful and luxurious "Special Equipment" variant, generally referred to as the SE (e.g. Lotus Elan S3 SE).


title: Lotus Elan

text: In the UK the Elan was offered as a fully assembled vehicle and, for tax avoidance purposes, as a lower cost kit for final assembly by the customer.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The total production number for the Lotus Elan is not definitively known; however John Bolster, in his book "The Lotus Elan and Europa: A Collector's Guide", provides a number of 12,224 (S1-3: 7,895; S4: 2,976; Sprint: 1,353). This number was occasionally used by Lotus itself. See below for +2 production.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Meanwhile, Paul Robinshaw and Christopher Ross, in their book "The Original 1962–1973 Lotus Elan", assert that Lotus' somewhat erratic record keeping at the time meant that vehicle serial numbers were not entirely sequential or consistent. Their assessment suggests the actual count to be in the range 8,676-9,153 (S1: 900; S2: 1,250; S3: 2,650; S4: 2976-3,000; Sprint: 900-1353).


title: Lotus Elan

text: As of April 2018, the voluntary, and thus inevitably incomplete, Lotus Elan registry lists approximately 1,100 known remaining vehicles (including approximately 330 +2 models) in over 30 countries.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The basic structure of the Lotus Elan comprised a fabricated mild steel backbone chassis, similar to a double ended tuning fork, and a fibreglass body. The chassis was the primary stressed component, providing the necessary bending and torsional rigidity. The fibreglass body was solidly bolted to the chassis at 16 points, fitting over it like a saddle. While not highly stressed the body nevertheless added to the overall rigidity of the structure. As such, the chassis should more properly be considered a subframe - it is readily changeable and most Elans on the road today have had a new chassis fitted at some point, either due to accident or decay.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The engine & gearbox are located between the front fork arms and the differential between the rear fork arms. The front & rear suspensions attach to the ends of their respective arms (turrets at the end of the arms hold the suspension springs & dampers).


title: Lotus Elan

text: This design resulted in light weight, high rigidity (by contemporary standards), and easy driver/passenger access through wide door openings with low sills. Driver and passenger protection from front and rear impact was acceptable for its time, but side impact protection was minimal.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The engine, gearbox and differential were all sourced from Ford UK components. See below for details on the engine. The gearbox was a high volume unit used widely across the Ford range (Anglia, Cortina, etc.). Lotus offered regular and close ratio versions. The differential unit was also sourced from Ford but converted for independent rear suspension use (contemporary Ford cars used live rear axles). Three differential ratios were offered at various times during the production life of the vehicle: 3.55, 3.77 and 3.9. Most Elans were fitted with 3.77 differentials. 3.90 differentials, which provided the best acceleration, were often favored by purchasers of early cars, while 3.55 differentials became more common in later cars (especially the more powerful Sprints) to provide more relaxed cruising on newly built highways.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The final drive used four Rotoflex couplings to connect the differential output shafts to the rear hubs. These "rubber doughnut" couplings were widely used at the time for road vehicles (e.g. Hillman Imp, Triumph GT6) and racing (e.g. Ford GT40, Lotus 21), prior to the availability of constant velocity (CV) joints. In the case of the Elan, which had exceptionally supple rear suspension that allowed significant vertical wheel travel, the deformation of the Rotoflexes in operation resulted in some "wind up" of the couplings. This could be readily detected by the driver, especially at takeoff and during gear changes, and was slightly disconcerting when driving an Elan for the first time. In practice drivers typically adjusted their clutch technique within a few minutes and no longer noticed it. In recent years the uncertain quality of replacement Rotoflex couplings, combined with the availability of half-shafts built with CV joints, has resulted in many Elans being converted from Rotoflex to CV joint drive.


title: Lotus Elan

text: A notable feature of the drive train design was its use of standard, mass-produced components in combination with a minimal number of specialized aluminium castings to create a power unit and transmission suitable for a high performance sports car:


title: Lotus Elan

text: These three items were unique to the Elan (although the engine was subsequently used widely in other vehicles).


title: Lotus Elan

text: The 1,558 cc "Lotus TwinCam" engine was based on the Ford Kent Pre-Crossflow four-cylinder 1,498 cc engine, with a Harry Mundy-designed two-valve alloy chain-driven twin-cam head. The rights to this design was later purchased by Ford, which renamed it the "Lotus-Ford Twin Cam". It would go on to be used in a number of Ford and Lotus production and racing models.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Lotus reported different power outputs for the Twin Cam engine during the production of the Elan. Prior to the release of the Sprint the following outputs were reported in the Workshop Manual:


title: Lotus Elan

text: Lotus marketing material from the S3 period quoted the SE variant at , noting high lift cams, carburetor re-jetting and a four branch exhaust.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The final version of the Workshop Manual revised these numbers, as shown in the following tables. The increased power of the Sprint engine was primarily due to slightly larger inlet valves, so it was named the "Big Valve" engine (it has been widely reported that the combination of ‘hotter cams’, rejetting the carbs and big valves improved performance of the 115bhp SE by only 11 bhp. As a marketing exercise to increase sales of the new Sprint model, Chapman saw to it that published bhp figures for existing models be downgraded to increase the apparent improvement in performance):


title: Lotus Elan

text: The Elan utilized modern technologies for its suspension, steering and brakes. The overall design was simple and easily maintained. In common with many Lotus cars they were perhaps the Elan's most highly regarded features.


title: Lotus Elan

text: As with all Lotus cars, attention to minimizing weight was a major factor during the Elan's design and manufacture. Its diminutive size (while offering room for drivers over tall and practical luggage carrying capacity) provided the foundation for its low weight.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Lotus marketing material from the S1 period quoted the weight as "11 cwt" () and from the S3 period quoted as "from 1,232 lb" (558 kg).


title: Lotus Elan

text: Meanwhile, reported weights in magazine road tests varied from (Elan 1600, Cars Illustrated, August 1964) to (S4 FHC SE, Road & Track, January 1969).


title: Lotus Elan

text: The figures above show that the weight of the vehicle changed during its production lifetime, in general tending to increase. Additional features such as electric windows, more luxurious carpeting, and larger wheels and tyres all contributing to the gain.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The performance of the Elan was derived from the combination of its powerful engine (by contemporary standards) and light weight. The roadholding and agility of the car also meant that high speeds could be maintained on corners, which allowed for high average speeds.


title: Lotus Elan

text: "By contemporary standards, the Sprint was an exceptionally rapid car and quite lived up to its name. It embarrassed almost every other supercar at the time in terms of outright acceleration up to about 90 mph. This electrifying performance was accentuated by the brilliant handling and road holding, allied to the small size and weight of the Elan, which meant that a well driven Elan on a dry road could outclass any other non-Lotus road car."


title: Lotus Elan

text: Although performance results achieved by testers are affected by many variables (e.g. differential ratio, weather/road conditions, gross vehicle weight, DHC vs. FHC, etc.) the following tables provide an overview of the car's capabilities.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The Elan was widely admired and praised by customers and reviewers, noted for its exceptional handling, roadholding, steering, acceleration, braking and comfort:


title: Lotus Elan

text: Car and Driver: "The Elan very simply represents the sports car developed in tune with the state of the art. It comes closer than anything else on the market to providing a Formula car for ordinary street use. And it fits like a Sprite, goes like a Corvette, and handles like a Formula Junior. Driving it is very simply another sort of automotive experience altogether. Most people tend to come back from their first ride a little bit glassy-eyed..."


title: Lotus Elan

text: Road and Track: "The light and tactile steering, combined with supple suspension and a weird, physics-defying sense of zero weight transfer in corners, provides a sensation akin to flying just over the ground. I'm convinced there's a powerful pleasure center in the brain that remains untapped until you drive an Elan. It's almost a drug."


title: Lotus Elan

text: Motor Sport: "The tremendously responsive steering and handling requires similar qualities from the driver and the speeds achieved round corners and on the straight are deceptively fast. This, therefore, calls for a lot of concentration on the driver's part. Once mastered, however, the Elan is the nearest thing to a single-seater racing car one is likely to be able to drive comfortably on the road. To master the car and explore its tremendous handling potential along that delightfully twisty piece of road one knows so well is close on perfection for the sporting motorist."


title: Lotus Elan

text: While the structure of the Elan followed an entirely traditional approach for sports cars of the time - front engine, rear wheel drive - its design included novel ideas that found their way into the designs of other manufacturers' vehicles.


title: Lotus Elan

text: This generation of the two-seater Elan was famously driven by Diana Rigg in the character of Emma Peel in the 1960s British television series "The Avengers".


title: Lotus Elan

text: The reference to a car accident in the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" was apocryphally based on Tara Browne's fatal accident in his Lotus Elan.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Despite the fact that the Lotus Elan has been (and continues to be) used extensively for racing it was Lotus' first car that was not designed with racing in mind. (The earlier Lotus Elite was designed as a road car and also to compete in high-efficiency classes at Le Mans.) Nevertheless, because owners assumed that all Lotus cars were designed for racing, it soon found its way onto the track, however unsuitable. Lotus resisted modifying the car to make it more suitable for racing but eventually created a racing version of the Elan. Robinshaw/Ross quote Colin Chapman:""When we announced the Elan we said 'This is a touring car, it is not intended for racing and have done no competition development on it.' The fact that customers bought them and tried to race them was originally no concern of ours, but in the second year we thought, well, if these people insist on racing them then we'd better get down to some proper development. They were too softly sprung, too softly damped, tore their doughnuts apart and had all sorts of drama, but it was the name, and people thought they must be racing cars.""


title: Lotus Elan

text: The result of the "proper development" was the Type 26R version of the Elan, offered from 1964 at £1995 in kit form.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Motor Sport: "Mechanically, the 26R differed by featuring racing lightweight competition-spec wishbones, sliding spline driveshafts in place of rubber joints, bigger anti-roll bars and a degree of reinforcement around the suspension pick-up points. Pedals were repositioned to aid heel-and-toeing, dual circuit brakes with twin master cylinders and light alloy calipers coming as standard. As did a 140bhp Cosworth-tuned ‘four’ although up to 160bhp was offered in time."


title: Lotus Elan

text: Other changes included flared wheel arches, which allowed for larger wheels and tires, and a lighter body shell.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The table below provides a simplified summary of Elan updates and changes associated with each Series. It is notable that the fundamentals of the car changed very little during its eleven years of production.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Each Series provided a general refresh of the car, incorporating new, modern features (e.g. electric windows, larger tires, power washers & windows, hazard & reversing lamps) and updated cosmetics (e.g. improved sound proofing and carpeting, improved DHC hood (roof) design, Sprint color scheme).


title: Lotus Elan

text: However, as a low volume manufacturer, Lotus' processes were flexible enough to change the components used during construction at will. As a result, significant variations could exist between cars of the same Series.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Ongoing changes were frequently necessary for a variety of reasons: component availability from suppliers; price changes; the need to meet regulatory requirements (especially for Federal vehicles); model year enhancements; and the phase-in & phase-out of stock during the transition to the next Series.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Lotus promoted the potential variation between vehicles by stating in its documentation: "Lotus policy is one of continuous product improvement and the right is reserved to alter specifications at any time without prior notice."


title: Lotus Elan

text: The price of the Elan changed during its production lifetime. At announcement, in October 1962, the fully built cost was £1,499 (GBP), although between 1963–1966 the factory price was generally 5-10% lower. By the end of production, in April 1973, the fully built cost had increased to £2,436.


title: Lotus Elan

text: However, throughout its production the Elan was also available in the UK in "kit" form. This was provided for tax avoidance reasons and required the customer to complete the final assembly of the vehicle. The tax savings were considerable, the prices above being reduced to £1,095 and £2,044 respectively.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Kit versions of the Elan were as complete as possible while adhering to tax regulations. The entire chassis, body, electrical systems, final drive/suspension and all trim were delivered fully assembled to the customer. Final construction involved installation of:


title: Lotus Elan

text: When complete the owner would take the car to a Lotus dealer who, after checking that the assembly had been performed correctly, initiated the warranty period. This feature of Elan purchase was quite heavily promoted by Lotus, with print advertisements showing how simple and rewarding it was to complete the construction.


title: Lotus Elan

text: 'The Motor' magazine regularly printed prices for all UK cars. A partial extract from its pages provides comparative pricing for several sports cars of the Elan S1 period. The table also shows that the Elite was significantly more expensive than the Elan:


title: Lotus Elan

text: 1960s/70s Elans are now passing half a century old and, as a well respected Lotus and a fine example of Colin Chapman's design philosophy, are valued today as collectors' vehicles. In the UK they have an almost cult-like status among auto enthusiasts, commanding higher prices than elsewhere in the world.


title: Lotus Elan

text: An undocumented number of right hand drive (UK market) Elans have been privately exported to Japan, where they are admired by collectors. As with many English sports cars of the period there are dedicated enthusiasts around the world, especially in Australia, Canada and the USA.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The simple design of the car, with nearly all parts being readily replaceable, makes it well suited for the collector market. New chassis, bodies and drive train components are all available. There are numerous suppliers of Elan parts and restoration services, worldwide. Conveniently, the fiberglass body is immune to rust.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Current values vary widely around the world, so the following table provides approximate figures for the UK, based on condition. Early cars (S1 & S2) and Sprints are more highly valued than S3s, which are more highly valued than S4s.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Generally, Drop Head Coupés have been more highly valued than Fixed Head Coupés and in the past it was not uncommon to convert FHCs to DHCs, making FHCs rarer. This has tended to stabilize the value of FHC cars.


title: Lotus Elan

text: An Elan +2 was introduced in 1967 with a longer wheelbase and wider track, and two small rear seats, suitable for children. While the Elan was a two-seater sports car marketed to the single man/woman or young couple, the +2 was larger and considerably more luxurious vehicle marketed to the established family with children. Reviews reflected this new marketplace for Lotus. Motor Sport magazine reported the design goal as: "it was decided to increase the interior dimensions considerably to meet the car's maxim that it "must be capable of transporting two adults and two children 1,000 miles in comfort with their luggage"".


title: Lotus Elan

text: In 1971 Colin Chapman bought Moonraker Marine / JCL and in 1974 Brian Davey working with the Naval Architect Don Shead on a new boat design was asked to help redesign the replacement for the Elan. This was finally designed by Giugiaro of Italdesign and called the Esprit which started production in 1976.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Aside from the increase in size necessary to accommodate two additional seats, the design of the Elan +2 was extremely similar to the two seater Elan. The concept of a backbone chassis with fibreglass body, powered by a Ford UK-derived drive train was maintained. Double wishbone and Chapman Strut front/rear suspension of identical design was also used, with some components (e.g. rear hubs) shared with the two seater Elan and others (e.g. wishbones) increased in size. Power assisted brakes were standard, dual circuit in some markets.


title: Lotus Elan

text: In 1971 +2S was upgraded to include the Big Valve engine, and then named the +2S 130. Later models of the +2S 130 were provided with a 5-speed Austin Maxi based gearbox, which greatly improved its high speed cruising capabilities, named +2S 130/5.


title: Lotus Elan

text: As with the two seater Elan, the exact number of +2s produced is unknown. The estimated total is approximately 5,200. However, John Bolster's "The Lotus Elan and Europa: A Collector's Guide" provides a number of 3,300. Fewer than 1,200 of these cars remain on the roads today.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The Lotus M100 series Elan was launched in August 1989, reviving the Elan nameplate after 14 years. A two-seater convertible sports car with front-wheel drive, designed in-house by Lotus, it featured an engine and manual transmission supplied by Isuzu, and was built with the development and testing resources of General Motors. Around £35 million (about $55 million) was invested in its development, more than any other car in Lotus history. Its design, featuring a fibreglass composite body over a rigid steel backbone chassis, was true to Lotus founder Colin Chapman's original philosophy of achieving performance through low weight, and the name "Elan" connected the car with its 1960s ancestor.


title: Lotus Elan

text: In 1986 the purchase of Lotus by General Motors provided the financial backing to develop a new, small, affordable car in the same spirit as the original Elan (last built in December 1972). A development prototype, the M90 (later renamed the X100) had been built a few years earlier, using a fibreglass body designed by Oliver Winterbottom and a Toyota-supplied 1.6-litre engine and transmission. Lotus was hoping to sell the car through Toyota dealerships worldwide, badged as a Lotus Toyota, but the project never came to fruition and the prototype was shelved (although Lotus' collaboration with Toyota had some influence on the design of the Toyota MR2).


title: Lotus Elan

text: The idea of a small roadster powered by an outsourced engine remained, however, and in late 1986 Peter Stevens's design for the Type M100 was approved and work began by Lotus engineers to turn the clay styling buck into a car that could be built. This process was completed in just under three years, a remarkably short time from design to production car.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The new Elan was conceived as a mass-market car and in particular one that would appeal to US buyers. Consequently, Lotus put an enormous effort (for such a small firm) into testing the car; over a two-year period 19 crash cars and 42 development vehicles were built, logging nearly a million test miles in locations from Arizona to the Arctic. The Elan was driven at racing speeds for 24 hours around the track at Snetterton. Finally each new car was test-driven for around at Lotus' Hethel factory to check for any manufacturing defects before being shipped to dealers.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The choice of front-wheel drive is unusual for a sports car, but according to Lotus sales literature, "for a given vehicle weight, power and tyre size, a front wheel drive car was always faster over a given section of road. There were definite advantages in traction and controllability, and drawbacks such as torque steer, bump steer and steering kickback were not insurmountable." This was the only front-wheel-drive vehicle made by Lotus. Every model made since the M100 Elan, such as the Lotus Elise, has been rear-wheel drive.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The M100 Elan's cornering performance was undeniable (on release the Elan was described by "Autocar" magazine as "the quickest point to point car available"). Press reaction was not uniformly positive, as some reviewers found the handling too secure and predictable compared to a rear-wheel-drive car. However, the Elan's rigid chassis minimised roll through the corners and has led to many critics describing it as 'the finest front wheel drive [car] bar none'. Unlike the naturally aspirated version, the turbocharged SE received power steering as standard, as well as tyres with a higher ZR speed rating.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The M100 Elan used a 1,588 cc double overhead camshaft (DOHC) I4 16-valve engine, sourced from the Isuzu Gemini and extensively modified by Lotus (a third generation of this engine was later used in the Isuzu Impulse), which produced in turbocharged form. 0–60 mph acceleration time was measured by "Autocar" and "Motor" magazine at 6.5 seconds, and a top speed of was recorded.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Significant differences in the Isuzu-Lotus engine from the original include a new exhaust system, re-routed intake plumbing for better thermodynamic efficiency, improved engine suspension, and major modifications to the engine control unit to improve torque and boost response. Almost all models featured an IHI turbocharger.


title: Lotus Elan

text: The Majority of the suspension items for the M100 Elan (both S1 and S2) were manufactured and supplied by Portland Engineering based in Dorset in the UK. The parts they supplied included front and read brake discs, rear suspension arms, front and rear hub carriers along with numerous other components. The rear brakes had an unusual design in that the read hub was incorporated within the brake disc.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Two variants were available at launch, the Elan 1.6 (retailing at £17,850) and the Turbo SE (£19,850). Initial sales were disappointing, due to the debut of the more affordable "nostalgic" Mazda MX-5 which was arguably similar in concept to the 1960s Elan, in contrast to the M100's deliberately futuristic cant. The Elan was very expensive to make (the cost to design and produce the dashboard alone was more than the total cost of the Excel production line), and sales figures were too low to recoup its huge development costs.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Altogether just 3,855 Elans were built between November 1989 and July 1992, including 129 normally aspirated (non-turbo) cars. A mere 559 of them were sold in the US, featuring a 'stage 2 body' which had a different rear boot spoiler arrangement together with a lengthened nose to accommodate a USA-compliant crash structure and airbag, and 16-inch wheels (optional in most markets, standard in the U.S.) instead of 15-inch as on the UK model. A coupe version of the Elan, to replace the Excel, had also been in the pipeline, but this too was shelved, and there was no direct successor to the Excel, which was also discontinued in 1992.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Two years after the end of the original production run, a limited edition of 800 Series 2 (S2) M100 Elans was released during the Romano Artioli era (produced June 1994–September 1995) when it was discovered that enough surplus engines were available to make this possible. It was only for the UK market. According to Autocar magazine, the S2 addressed some of the concerns over handling, but power was reduced to and the 0–60 mph acceleration time increased to 7.5 seconds, due to the legislative requirement to fit a catalytic converter in all markets. The S2s have very similar performance to the USA vehicles, having an identical engine management system calibration and a slightly lower overall vehicle weight.


title: Lotus Elan

text: After the final production run of the Elan in 1995, Lotus sold its production rights to Kia Motors, which produced its own version. Outwardly, the Kia Elan looks almost identical to the original. The most obvious difference are the Kia-designed taillights which replaced the Renault Alpine GTA rear lights of the original.


title: Lotus Elan

text: Kia Motech (Kia Motor-technology) produced the car in Ansan, South Korea from 1996 to 1999 as the Kia Elan for the Korean market, using a 1.8 L T8D engine instead of the Isuzu 1.6 turbo-charged unit. In the Japanese market, the car was sold as the Vigato. A total of 1,056 were produced.


title: Lotus Elan

text: A new Lotus Elan was announced at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. It was hoped to be in production by 2013, but the project was cancelled before the car entered production. The car was to have featured a 4.0-litre V6 engine and was to have weighed roughly .


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Moby Dick is a 1956 color film adaptation of Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby-Dick". It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury. The film starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: In 1841, a sailor named Ishmael wanders to the New England town of New Bedford, Massachusetts to sign on a whaling ship. In the inn where he is staying for the night, he is forced to share his room with a Pacific Islander and harponeer named Queequeg, whom he befriends after a tense first meeting. The next morning, the two of them hire onto a whaling ship named "Pequod", which is commanded by grim Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with hunting and killing a legendary white-skinned whale named Moby Dick, who was responsible for severing Ahab's left leg. Just before their departure, Ishmael and Queequeg encounter a man named Elijah, who delivers an ominous warning about Ahab and that all but one of the crew who follow him will find their deaths on this voyage.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: As the ship casts off, and for some time afterwards, Ahab remains unseen until he finally appears to align his crew to the hunt for Moby Dick and sets course for the Bikini Atoll, where the whale is said to dwell. While the crew reaps a fair bounty of oil on their journey, Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick remains foremost in his mind. When the captain of a passing ship, who recently lost his hand to the white whale, informs Ahab of Moby Dick's latest whereabouts near the coast of Madagascar, Ahab immediately breaks off a particularly successful hunt, unsettling his crew, particularly his chief mate Starbuck. Starbuck suggests to his fellow officers Stubb and Flask to wrest command of the "Pequod" from Ahab, which the two refuse.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: As the "Pequod" nears the atoll, a man falls from the ship's mast into the sea and disappears. Right afterwards, the "Pequod "is stuck in slack water for days. Casting bones to read his future, Queequeg foresees his death and orders the ship's carpenter to make him a coffin, before he sits down to await his demise. When one of the crew prepares to cut Queequeg's skin for fun, Ishmael rises to his friend's defense, prompting Queequeg to break his death reverie and defend Ishmael. Just then, Moby Dick briefly appears before the ship and escapes before the "Pequod" crew can attack him.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: After rowing the ship out of the becalmed area, Ahab resumes the hunt. They encounter the "Rachel", another whaler from New Bedford, whose captain, Gardiner, asks Ahab to help search for his son, who was carried off by Moby Dick. Ahab refuses his aid and departs. When the "Pequod" hits a typhoon, Ahab uses the gale to speed the chase, endangering the ship. Starbuck decides to depose Ahab by force, but relents when in a rare humane moment Ahab reminisces about his self-destructive obsession for revenge.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Right after this conversation, a strange omen portends the fulfillment of Elijah's baleful prophecy, which Ishmael recounts to Ahab. The captain seems affected, but shakes off his doubts when Moby Dick reappears moments later. The "Pequod" crew sets out in their boats to bring him down. In the chaotic altercation, Moby Dick destroys Ahab's boat, but Ahab climbs onto the whale's back and stabs him until Moby Dick submerges, entangling Ahab in the harpoon lines on his back and drowning him. Instead of calling off the hunt, Starbuck orders the men to continue. Moby Dick attacks the boats, smashing them and killing the men; he then rams and sinks the "Pequod" before disappearing. Ishmael, the only survivor, manages to cling onto Queequeg's coffin until he is found and picked up by the "Rachel".


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston himself should have played Ahab. Huston had long wanted to make a film of "Moby-Dick", and had intended to cast his own father, actor Walter Huston as Ahab, but he had died in 1950. Peck went on to play the role of Father Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Welles later used the salary from his appearance to fund his own stage production of "Moby Dick", in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Gregory Peck, comparing his performances in this film and the 1998 "Moby Dick" miniseries, said he liked the miniseries better because it was more faithful to the novel and had a greater sense of adventure.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: During a meeting to discuss the screenplay, Ray Bradbury informed John Huston that regarding Melville's novel, he had "never been able to read the damned thing". According to the biography "The Bradbury Chronicles", there was much tension and anger between the two men during the making of the film, allegedly due to Huston's bullying attitude and attempts to tell Bradbury how to do his job, despite Bradbury being an accomplished writer. Bradbury's novel "Green Shadows, White Whale" includes a fictionalized version of his writing the screenplay with John Huston in Ireland. Bradbury's short story "Banshee" is another fictionalized account of what it was like to work with Huston on this film. In the television adaptation of the story for "The Ray Bradbury Theater" the Huston character was played by Peter O'Toole and the Bradbury surrogate by Charles Martin Smith.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The film's reference to Bikini Atoll as the home of Moby Dick is not in the novel; Ahab instead plans to engage the whale during "the Season-on-the-Line". This peculiar twist seems to be a reference to the recent Castle Bravo nuclear bomb test at the atoll. This insertion by Bradbury relates to his atomic bomb short story "There Will Come Soft Rains".


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The film was bankrolled by brothers Walter, Harold, and Marvin Mirisch, who financed Huston's "Moulin Rouge". The Mirisches made a deal with Warner Bros. in order to release the film. Under the agreement, WB would distribute "Moby Dick" for seven years, after which all rights would revert to the Mirisch brothers' company, Moulin Productions.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The film began shooting in Wales at Fishguard and Ceibwr Bay, Fishguard at Huston's request. Parts of the movie were shot at the sea in front of Caniçal, a traditional whaling parish in Madeira Islands, Portugal, with real action of whaling, done by whalers of Madeira Island. It was also filmed in Las Canteras beach, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Captain Alan Villiers commanded the ship for the film.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: In order to create a visual effect reminiscent of old whaling prints, a black and white print was superimposed on a color print. Many exterior scenes set in New Bedford were shot on location in Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland. The town has a public house, originally called Linehan's and at that time owned by Paddy Linehan, whose exterior appears in the movie. It was renamed Moby Dick's shortly after filming by Linehan. It is still owned and run by the Linehan family and boasts a fine collection of photographs taken of the cast and crew during the making of the film. While there, John Huston used the bar as his headquarters to plan each day's filming. The town's harbor basin, in front of Moby Dick's bar, was used to stand in as New Bedford's harbor, and some local people appear as extras in the ship's departure scene. Youghal's nineteenth century lighthouse also appears in a scene of the "Pequod" putting to sea (at sunset) on her fateful voyage.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: A myth that was put to rest in cinematographer Oswald Morris' autobiography, "Huston, We Have a Problem", is that no full-length whale models were ever built for the production. Previous accounts have claimed that as many as three 60-foot rubber "white whales" were lost at sea during filming, making them "navigational hazards". In fact the titular whale shown in the film was constructed by Dunlop in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Moby Dick was 75 ft long and weighed 12 tons, and required 80 drums of compressed air and a hydraulic system in order to remain afloat and operational. However the artificial whale came loose from its tow-line and drifted away in a fog. Peck confirmed in 1995 that he was aboard the prop. According to Morris, after the prop was lost the "Pequod" was followed by a barge with various whale parts (hump, back, fin, tail). Ninety percent of the shots of the white whale are various size miniatures filmed in a water tank in Shepperton Studios in Surrey, near London. Whales and longboat models were built by a special effects man, August Lohman, working in conjunction with art director Stephen Grimes. Studio shots also included a life-size Moby jaw and head - with working eyes. The head apparatus which could move like a rocking horse was employed when actors were in the water with the whale. Gregory Peck's last speech is delivered in the studio while riding the white whale's hump (a hole was drilled in the side of the whale so Peck could conceal his real leg).


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The "Pequod" was portrayed by, appropriately, the "Moby Dick". Built in England in 1887 as the "Ryelands", the ship came into the hands of the film industry in the 50s, and was also used in "Treasure Island". It was destroyed by fire in Morecambe, England in 1972. The schooners used were "Harvest King" and "James Postlethwaite", both from Arklow, Ireland.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The film went overbudget, from $2 million to around $4.4 million, which crippled Moulin Productions; "Moby Dick" was ultimately sold to United Artists in order to recoup some of the Mirisch brothers' debt (Warner Bros. still distributed the film, corresponding to their original licensing agreement; when the agreement ended, United Artists took over the film's distribution rights. After UA was acquired by MGM in 1981, the latter studio assumed distribution and holds the film's copyright). "Moby Dick" did not recoup its budget upon its initial release.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Peck and Huston intended to shoot Herman Melville's "Typee" in 1957, but the funding fell through. Not long after, the two had a falling-out. According to one biography, Peck discovered to his disappointment that he had not been Huston's choice for Ahab, but in fact was thrust upon the director by the Mirisch brothers to secure financing. Peck felt Huston had deceived him into taking a part for which Peck felt he was ill-suited. Years later, the actor tried to patch up his differences with the director, but Huston, quoted in Lawrence Grobel's biography "The Hustons", rebuked Peck ("It was too late to start over", said Huston) and the two never spoke to each other again. Nevertheless, Huston's daughter Anjelica confirmed in a 2003 "Larry King Live" interview that her father had "adored" Peck.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: In the documentary accompanying the DVD marking the 30th anniversary of the film "Jaws", director Steven Spielberg states his original intention had been to introduce the Ahab-like character Quint (Robert Shaw), by showing him watching the 1956 version of the film and laughing at the inaccuracies therein. However, permission to use footage of the original film was denied by Gregory Peck as he was uncomfortable with his performance.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: At the age of four, Anjelica Huston met Peck dressed as Ahab when she visited the set of her father's film. Decades later, she and Peck would meet again and become close friends with each other until the latter's death.


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" called it "a rolling and thundering color film that is herewith devoutly recommended as one of the great motion pictures of our times ... Space does not possibly permit us to cite all the things about this film that are brilliantly done or developed, from the strange, subdued color scheme employed to the uncommon faithfulness to details of whaling that are observed."


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Likewise "Time" was laudatory of the film and rest of the cast, but felt the star ill suited: "What emerges is a brilliant film both for Melville enthusiasts and for those who have tried to read the book and lost their way. The most difficult role, Ahab, is unfortunately handed to the actor probably least able to cope with it ... But his failure is only a measure of the high success of the rest of the cast."


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: "Variety" wrote, "Essentially it is a 'chase' picture with all the inherent interest thereby implied and yet not escaping the quality of sameness and repetition which often dulls the chase formula." The review also found that "Peck often seems understated and much too gentlemanly for a man supposedly consumed by insane fury." Edwin Schallert of the "Los Angeles Times" found the film to be "something less than really great," although it "has great moments, and is amazingly individual in its art, various phases of its drama, and notably in characters." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" called it "one of the rare ones, the sort of picture people will remember and rank as one of the screen's classics ... Not only is the film immensely exciting in purely screen terms, it is a haunting philosophical study." "Harrison's Reports" praised the "excellence of the production values" but noted, "It is not until the last few reels, where a violent battle to the death takes place between the whale and the crew, that the action becomes highly exciting. This fierce combat with the whale has been staged in thrilling fashion and is the highlight of the film, but it is not enough to compensate for the lack of excitement in the preceding reels." John McCarten of "The New Yorker" called it "a fine, big, elementary job that misses the mystical Melville by several nautical miles but affords us an almost completely satisfactory tour of the bounding main."


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote, "The physical excitements of the adventure story which is the superstructure of Melville's book are all admirably done. Where Huston has failed is in suggesting the mysticism of the book and the ominous influence of Moby Dick himself. The great white whale is no 'portentous and mysterious monster ... the gliding great demon of the seas of life'; he is often, only too clearly made of plastic and electronically controlled. Without this presence and motivation much of the story loses its significance." "TimeOut" says "the great white whale is significantly less impressive when lifting bodily out of the sea to crush the Pequod than when first glimpsed one moonlit night...a pitifully weak Starbuck. But there are marvelous things here...[such as] nearly all the whaling scenes. Lent a stout overall unity by...the intelligent adaptation (and) by color grading which gives the images the tonal quality of old whaling prints..it is often staggeringly good.;"


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: The film has rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that "It may favor spectacle in place of the deeper themes in Herman Melville's novel, but John Huston's "Moby Dick" still makes for a grand movie adventure."


title: Moby Dick (1956 film)

text: Despite being a Warner Bros. film, United Artists distributed the VHS format through MGM on November 12, 1996 as part of the latter studio's Vintage Classics lineup, which was available exclusively through Warner Home Video worldwide. Kino Lorber released the DVD version on September 15, 2015. The now-sold out limited Blu-ray was released on November 15, 2016 by Twilight Time.


title: Lorenz curve

text: In economics, the Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of the distribution of income or of wealth. It was developed by Max O. Lorenz in 1905 for representing inequality of the wealth distribution.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The curve is a graph showing the proportion of overall income or wealth assumed by the bottom "x"% of the people, although this is not rigorously true for a finite population (see below). It is often used to represent income distribution, where it shows for the bottom "x"% of households, what percentage ("y"%) of the total income they have. The percentage of households is plotted on the "x"-axis, the percentage of income on the "y"-axis. It can also be used to show distribution of assets. In such use, many economists consider it to be a measure of social inequality.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The concept is useful in describing inequality among the size of individuals in ecology and in studies of biodiversity, where the cumulative proportion of species is plotted against the cumulative proportion of individuals. It is also useful in business modeling: e.g., in consumer finance, to measure the actual percentage "y"% of delinquencies attributable to the "x"% of people with worst risk scores.


title: Lorenz curve

text: Points on the Lorenz curve represent statements such as, "the bottom 20% of all households have 10% of the total income."


title: Lorenz curve

text: A perfectly equal income distribution would be one in which every person has the same income. In this case, the bottom "N"% of society would always have "N"% of the income. This can be depicted by the straight line "y" = "x"; called the "line of perfect equality."


title: Lorenz curve

text: By contrast, a perfectly unequal distribution would be one in which one person has all the income and everyone else has none. In that case, the curve would be at "y" = 0% for all "x" < 100%, and "y" = 100% when "x" = 100%. This curve is called the "line of perfect inequality."


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Gini coefficient is the ratio of the area between the line of perfect equality and the observed Lorenz curve to the area between the line of perfect equality and the line of perfect inequality. The higher the coefficient, the more unequal the distribution is. In the diagram on the right, this is given by the ratio "A"/("A"+"B"), where "A" and "B" are the areas of regions as marked in the diagram.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Lorenz curve is a probability plot (a P–P plot) comparing the distribution of a variable against a hypothetical uniform distribution of that variable. It can usually be represented by a function "L"("F"), where "F", the cumulative portion of the population, is represented by the horizontal axis, and "L", the cumulative portion of the total wealth or income, is represented by the vertical axis.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The curve "L" need not be a smoothly increasing function of "F", For wealth distributions there may be oligarchies or people with negative wealth for instance.


title: Lorenz curve

text: For a discrete distribution of Y given by values "y", ..., "y" in non-decreasing order ( "y" ≤ "y") and their probabilities formula_1 the Lorenz curve is the continuous piecewise linear function connecting the points ( "F", "L" ), "i" = 0 to "n", where "F" = 0, "L" = 0, and for "i" = 1 to "n":


title: Lorenz curve

text: For a continuous distribution with the probability density function "f" and the cumulative distribution function "F", the Lorenz curve "L" is given by:


title: Lorenz curve

text: where formula_5 denotes the average. The Lorenz curve "L"("F") may then be plotted as a function parametric in "x": "L"("x") vs. "F"("x"). In other contexts, the quantity computed here is known as the length biased (or size biased) distribution; it also has an important role in renewal theory.


title: Lorenz curve

text: Alternatively, for a cumulative distribution function "F"("x") with inverse "x"("F"), the Lorenz curve "L"("F") is directly given by:


title: Lorenz curve

text: The inverse "x"("F") may not exist because the cumulative distribution function has intervals of constant values. However, the previous formula can still apply by generalizing the definition of "x"("F"):


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Lorenz curve for a probability distribution is a continuous function. However, Lorenz curves representing discontinuous functions can be constructed as the limit of Lorenz curves of probability distributions, the line of perfect inequality being an example.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The information in a Lorenz curve may be summarized by the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz asymmetry coefficient.


title: Lorenz curve

text: A Lorenz curve that never falls beneath a second Lorenz curve and at least once runs above it, has Lorenz dominance over the second one.


title: Lorenz curve

text: Note however that a Lorenz curve for net worth would start out by going negative due to the fact that some people have a negative net worth because of debt.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Lorenz curve is invariant under positive scaling. If X is a random variable, for any positive number "c" the random variable "c" X has the same Lorenz curve as X.


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Lorenz curve is flipped twice, once about F = 0.5 and once about "L" = 0.5, by negation. If X is a random variable with Lorenz curve "L"("F"), then −X has the Lorenz curve:


title: Lorenz curve

text: The Lorenz curve is changed by translations so that the equality gap "F" − "L"("F") changes in proportion to the ratio of the original and translated means. If X is a random variable with a Lorenz curve "L"("F") and mean "μ", then for any constant "c" ≠ −"μ", X + "c" has a Lorenz curve defined by:


title: Lorenz curve

text: For a cumulative distribution function "F"("x") with mean "μ" and (generalized) inverse "x"("F"), then for any "F" with 0 < "F" < 1 :


title: Brahmaji

text: Brahmaji (born 25 April 1965) is an Indian actor best known for his work in Telugu cinema. He is a regular actor in director Krishna Vamsi's films. Brahmaji appeared in an important role in Krishna Vamsi's debut film as a director, "Gulabi".


title: Brahmaji

text: He appeared in Krishna Vamsi's second film "Ninne Pelladata". Krishna Vamsi made him hero with the movie Sindhooram. Later Brahmaji continued as a character artist. He appeared in lead roles in films such as "Samakka Sarakka", "Inspector, Kaki", "Idea", "Andariki Vandanalu", "Adhyakshaa", "Dhoom Dham", "Abbo Vaada", "Kumbakonam", and "N.H-5". He received 'Santosham Allu Ramalingaiah Smarakam Award' at 16th Santosham Film Awards in 2018 for his comic roles in various Telugu films.


title: Brahmaji

text: During Brahmaji's college days, he was a big fan of superstar Krishna. Brahmaji's father used to work as a Tahsildar in Nellore, when J. V. Somayajulu a renowned stage actor, who was also a Deputy Collector, acted in the Telugu classic movie Sankarabharanam. For his performance in the movie, his co-workers from the Revenue department felicitated J. V. Somayajulu. Being Tahsildar's son, Brahmaji got a chance to see J. V. Somayajulu closely in the felicitation ceremony. All his father's co-workers have lined up on the stage to take blessings from J. V. Somayajulu.


title: Brahmaji

text: Brahmaji claims he was spellbound at the respect J. V. Somayajulu received for acting in just one movie. At that point, Brahmaji decided that someday he would also act in movies and become a great actor like J. V. Somayajulu. This incident changed his life forever and after his Intermediate, Brahmaji went to Madras to fulfill his acting dreams. For over three decades now, he has been acting in movies.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Forever Young is a 1992 American fantasy romantic drama film directed by Steve Miner and starring Mel Gibson, Elijah Wood, and Jamie Lee Curtis. The screenplay was written by Jeffrey Abrams from an original story named ""The Rest of Daniel"".


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: In 1939, Captain Daniel McCormick is a United States Army Air Corps test pilot. After a successful run and subsequent crash landing in a prototype North American B-25 Mitchell bomber at Alexander Field in Northern California, McCormick is greeted by his longtime friend, scientist Harry Finley. Finley confides that his latest experiment, "Project B", has succeeded in building a prototype chamber for cryonic freezing. The following day, just as McCormick is about to propose to his girlfriend, Helen, she goes into a coma following an automobile accident, with doctors doubting she will ever recover. McCormick insists he be put into suspended animation for one year, so he will not have to watch Helen die.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Fifty-three years later in 1992, ten-year-old airplane-enthusiast Nat Cooper and his friend Felix are playing inside the military storage warehouse housing the chamber, accidentally activating it and waking McCormick, leaving Nat’s coat behind. McCormick awakens and escapes before realizing what year it is. He first approaches the military about his experiences, but they dismiss him as crazed; McCormick becomes more determined to learn what happened to him.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: McCormick follows the address on the jacket back to Nat, befriending him. While hiding in Nat's treehouse, he rescues Nat’s mother Claire from her abusive ex-boyfriend Fred, slightly injuring his hand in the process. Claire fixes up his wound and a bond develops between the two; she allows McCormick to stay, and he and Nat later build a simulated bomber-plane cockpit in Nat's treehouse so that McCormick can teach Nat how to fly. McCormick passes out and is hospitalised, where he discovers his body is failing as his age begins to catch up to him.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: McCormick tracks down Finley’s daughter Susan, who informs him her father died in a fire before she was born. She gives McCormick her father’s journals, detailing the cryogenic process, and Finley's notes disclose that the rapid aging is irreversible. Susan also reveals that Helen is still alive, but they escape before the FBI, who is now after McCormick, catch up to them.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Claire drives McCormick to an air show and commandeers a B-25 bomber to fly to Helen's seaside-lighthouse home, with Nat stowing away on board. Claire gives Harry’s journals to the FBI, for their plans to replicate and modernize the experiment. McCormick suffers another ageing attack, forcing Nat (who is now slightly familiar with the plane's controls after his simulated-training session with McCormick) to land the plane in the field near Helen’s house. The now-elderly McCormick reunites with the also-gray-and-wrinkled Helen and asks her to marry him; she happily accepts, proving that true love does indeed last forever. McCormick introduces Nat to Helen, and the film ends with the three joining hands and going for a seaside stroll together.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Gibson described the script as having "a real innocence and charm" and had praised Abrams's previous script which was made in to the film Regarding Henry. Gibson originally wanted the lead role, which eventually went to Harrison Ford and insisted on seeing his next film script, which was for Forever Young.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: In November 1990, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to ""The Rest of Daniel"" for $2 million, the most ever paid for a screenplay. Ostensibly purchased as a star vehicle for Gibson, he turned down the opportunity to direct the feature.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: A North American B-25J Mitchell known as "Photo Fanny" (from the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California) is featured prominently in the film, both as the B-25 prototype and later as the restored warbird McCormick flies to his beloved.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Initial film shooting started in February 1992 through to April 1992. Film producers were reluctant to release too much information about the film to the media, particularly the ending, while photograph releases to print media were limited. Among various locations used included on location in Mendocino County, where shooting took place from March 29 to April 2. A purpose-built set was built at the Stornetta Ranch, near the lighthouse in Point Arena. Although the film made use of real rain for some exterior scenes, artificial rainmakers were also utilized to maintain a consistency in downpours for the cameras.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Curtis had never met Gibson prior to working with him on the film. During an interview, she notes the cast members would frequently play pranks on each other but that "it was a fun set, this was the fun place to be." It was the first film where Curtis had played a mother. Gibson had to spent 2 hours each day to have the latex ageing make-up applied to make him appear as an 80-year-old.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: In the scene where Wood sings You Are My Sunshine to the girl in the tree house, it was originally going to be a different song which according to director Steve Miner, would have been very expensive to use, whereas the song used in the film was already freely available in the public domain. The film was completed for around $20 million.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Critically, "Forever Young" met with mixed reviews, Roger Ebert noted, "["Forever Young"] is not one of the most inspired (of the time travel movies), even though it has its heart in the right place." "Box Office" characterized it as "gooey sentiment and melodrama", playing on Gibson's name. Rita Kempley from the "Washington Post" dismissed the film as "A pablum of schmaltz and science fiction ..." Neill Caldwell from "The Dispatch" described the movie as "an old-school romantic comedy" that was "oh-so-predictable at times", while praising Wood and Gorman as delivering the best performances, suggesting that "the kids practically carry the movie." Laura Ustaszewski, writing for "The Marion Star", praised the movie's acting and its strong supporting cast, noting that the film did not require special effects or explosions to be a "winner".


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 54% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10.


title: Forever Young (1992 film)

text: Despite the lukewarm reviews, mostly focused on the script, the film did well with audiences, and took in $127,956,187 worldwide. "Forever Young" opened to a first weekend gross of $5,609,875 and went on to gross $55,956,187 in the domestic market. It grossed approximately $72,000,000 in the foreign market. A Hollywood premiere was turned into a fund-raiser for two of Gibson's charities, the West Hollywood Alcohol and Drug Recovery Center and the Santa Monica Homeless Drop-in Center. A total of $70,000 was raised for both charities.


title: Howler monkey

text: Howler monkeys (genus Alouatta, monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropics and are among the largest of the platyrrhines along with the muriquis ("Brachyteles"), the spider monkeys ("Ateles") and woolly monkeys ("Lagotrix"). These monkeys are native to South and Central American forests. They are famous for their loud howls, which can travel more than a mile through dense rain forest. Fifteen species are recognized. Previously classified in the family Cebidae, they are now placed in the family Atelidae. They are primarily folivores but also significant frugivores, acting as seed dispersal agents through their digestive system and their locomotion. Threats include human predation, habitat destruction, and capture for pets or zoo animals.


title: Howler monkey

text: Howler monkeys have short snouts and wide-set, round nostrils. Their noses are very keen, and they can smell out food (primarily fruit and nuts) up to 2 km away. Their noses are usually roundish snout-type, and the nostrils have many sensory hairs growing from the interior. They range in size from , excluding their tails, which can be equally long; in fact in some cases the tail has been found to be almost five times the body length. This is a prime characteristic. Like many New World monkeys, they have prehensile tails, which they use while picking fruit and nuts from trees. Unlike other New World monkeys, both male and female howler monkeys have trichromatic color vision. This has evolved independently from other New World monkeys due to gene duplication. They have lifespans of 15 to 20 years. Howler species are dimorphic and can also be dichromatic (i.e. "Alouatta caraya"). Males are typically 1.5 to 2.0 kg heavier than females.


title: Howler monkey

text: Males experience an evolutionary trade off between investments in precopulatory traits, larger hyoids but smaller testes, or post-copulatory traits, larger testes and smaller hyoids.The hyoid of "Alouatta" is pneumatized, one of the few cases of postcranial pneumaticity outside the Saurischia. The volume of the hyoid of male howler monkeys is negatively correlated with the dimensions of their testes, and with the number of males per group. Larger hyoids decrease space between formant, and offers impression of larger body size. They have a flat cranial shape due to a folivorous diet and an advanced vocal system. Their brain growth is posterior rather than superior or inferior as in other platyrrhines.


title: Howler monkey

text: Howler monkeys generally move quadrupedally on the tops of branches, usually grasping a branch with at least two hands or one hand and the tail at all times. Their strong prehensile tails are able to support their entire body weight. Fully grown adult howler monkeys do not often rely on their tails for full-body support, but juveniles do so more frequently. A significant amount of their travel is done through the ground, with sitting and resting being their most frequent postures.


title: Howler monkey

text: Most howler species live in groups of six to 15 animals, with one to three adult males and multiple females. Mantled howler monkeys are an exception, commonly living in groups of 15 to 20 individuals with more than three adult males. The number of males in a given group is inversely correlated with the size of their hyoids and is positively correlated with testes size. This results in two distinct groups, wherein one male with a larger hyoid and smaller testes copulates exclusively with a group of females, suggesting precopulatory vocal competition. The other group has more males, which have smaller hyoids, and larger testes. The larger the number of males, the smaller the hyoid, and the larger the testes. Female howler monkeys breed with multiple males within their group, with males in neighboring groups, and with solitary males. Central males tie up fellowship with cycling females. Unlike most New World monkeys, in which one sex remains in natal groups, juveniles of both sexes emigrate from their natal groups, such that howler monkeys could spend the majority of their adult lives in association with unrelated monkeys.


title: Howler monkey

text: Physical fighting among group members is infrequent and generally of short duration, but serious injuries can result. Both males and females rarely fight with each other, but physical aggression is even more rare between sexes. Group size varies by species and by location, with an approximate ratio of one male to four females.


title: Howler monkey

text: As their name suggests, vocal communication forms an important part of their social behavior. They each have an enlarged basihyal or hyoid bone, which helps them make their loud vocalizations. Group males generally call at dawn and dusk, as well as interspersed times throughout the day. Their main vocals consist of loud, deep, guttural growls or "howls". Howler monkeys are widely considered to be the loudest land animals. According to "Guinness Book of World Records", their vocalizations can be heard clearly for . The function of howling is thought to relate to intergroup spacing and territory protection, as well as possibly to mate-guarding. Howlers call usually when they are in areas with major feeding sites, which in some sort lead to advertise major feeding sites and their willingness to defend locally available fruit trees. Black howler monkeys incorporate information on resource availability along with neighbors’ current location. And the abundance of flowers are found to be an important factor that influenced behavior. Neighbors are more likely to move towards these calls when resource are scarce, and the reverse is true.