title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: After the wedding, Kabir helps the families when Laxminandan falls into a coma. Kabir is secretly working for Saras's stepmother Ghuman to create problems between Danny, Kusum and Saras in order to gain Laxminandan's wealth. Actually he is pretending to help Ghuman to take revenge from her. Kumud finds out Kabir's truth. Kumud learns about Ghuman's elder sister Menaka and Ghuman's secret. Kumud goes to that place where Ghuman used to work as a dancer before marrying Laxminandan. Kumud is kidnapped and again rescued by Saras. Ghuman's friend Sunanda reveals to Saras and Kumud that Ghuman had paid a governess to kill a baby 21 years earlier. Vidyachatur's younger sister Dugba who was Saraswati's friend tells Saras and Kumud after that Saraswati was pregnant for a second time but she suffered a miscarriage and Laxminandan blamed her for the miscarriage, that's why she killed herself. Then she searches in that hospital in which Saraswati was admitted at the time of her delivery. She learns that her baby was alive and was swapped with a stillborn baby and Dugba tells this to Saras and Kumud. They doubt Ghuman. Saras and Kumud confront Menaka for her and Ghuman's secret and Menaka reveals Kabir's identity as Saras's younger brother, thought to have died in infancy, and that he is actually seeking vengeance on Ghuman for separating him from his family. He was raised by Menaka because Menaka wanted to take revenge from Ghuman and to take her property. Ghuman learns of this and has Kabir kidnapped in London, with Saras and Kumud going to save him. Meanwhile, Ghuman uses Kalika to try to separate Danny and Kusum. Kalika reveals the truth and is divorced and disowned by Yash. Ghuman tries to kill Saras, Kumud and Kabir, but they are saved. Laxminandan awakens and disowns Ghuman, who is arrested. Saras and Kabir both reconcile with their father.


title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: Saras and Kumud move to Mumbai for a business project for six months. Their landlord Prashant Tyagi becomes obsessed with Kumud, who is a look-alike of his girlfriend he murdered. The landlord kidnaps them both and tries to murder Saras, but they find evidence and have him arrested.


title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: During Kabir's wedding to Kusum's friend Anushka, a young man attempts to kill Saras and Kumud, extorting Anushka's cooperation because he had kidnapped her younger brother Avinash and blackmailed her. Saras is hospitalized saving Kumud and Kabir breaks off the engagement. Kabir and Danny save Avinash, and Kabir forgives Anushka. Ghuman is revealed to be behind the plot.


title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: Ghuman feigns mental illness and is transferred from jail to a mental asylum, where she finds her rival, Saras's mother Saraswati who is alive and suffering amnesia. Ghuman informs Kumud but still tries to take revenge. Kumud helps Saraswati regain her memory and mental health, and the family is reunited. Ghuman is returned to jail. Saras and Kumud have their first child.


title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: The grand set of the series and the production cost ₹5.5 crore (55 million rupees). Initial scenes were shot in Dubai and Rajkot. In August 2013, Sphere Origins took over the production of the series from Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films Pvt Ltd, after which, in January 2014, the storyline deviated from the novel as Saras and Kumud marry.


title: Saraswatichandra (TV series)

text: The series garnered an average rating of 2.5 TVR in its first episode and 2.1 TVR in the premiere week. However, the following weeks it improved.


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: Kashmira Pardeshi is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil and Kannada language films. She made her acting debut with the Telugu film "Nartanasala" (2018), and Tamil with "Sivappu Manjal Pachai" (2019).


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: Pardeshi hails from a Marathi family. She went to school at St. Anne's School in Pune and went to college at Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce. She studied fashion design at National Institute of Fashion Technology in Mumbai.


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: Pardeshi was acted in several commercials before she made her film debut with a Telugu film "Nartanasala" (2018), opposite Naga Shaurya. The film was a commercial failure at the box-office, but her performance in it earned her a role in the Hindi film "Mission Mangal" (2019), where she was cast as Vidya Balan and Sanjay Kapoor's daughter. The film was a major commercial success at the box-office. And same year She made her Marathi film debut with Ravi Jadhav's "Rampaat". Director Sasi came across her advertisements and her performance in "Nartanasala" and signed her up for the Tamil film "Sivappu Manjai Pachai," opposite G.V. Prakash Kumar. Pardeshi hired a Tamil tutor to help her prepare for the role. The film was an average hit at the box-office.


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: Her only release on 2021 was "Rider" (2021), marking her debut on Kannada cinema, opposite Nikhil Kumar. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audience, and was a decent hit at the box-office.


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: In 2022, her first release was "Anbarivu", opposite Hip Hop Tamizha. The film opt a theatrical release, and released directly via Disney+ Hotstar, with receiving mixed to positive reviews from critics". Anbarivu" was declared as an commercially successful film on OTT platform. Her last release was "Varalaru Mukkiyam", opposite Jiiva. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audience, and was a flop at the box-office.


title: Kashmira Pardeshi

text: As of January 2023, Pardeshi is shooting for her upcoming films including "Vasantha Mullai," opposite Bobby Simha, and a Telugu film "Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha," opposite Kiran Abbavaram, and a Tamil film "Paramporul", alongside Sarath Kumar and Amitash Pradhan. She is also signed an untitled Tamil film opposite Hip Hop Adhi, marking her second collobration with him after "Anbarivu" (2022).


title: James Thurber

text: James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in "The New Yorker" and collected in his numerous books.


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber was one of the most popular humorists of his time and celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people. His works have frequently been adapted into films, including "The Male Animal" (1942), "The Battle of the Sexes" (1959, based on Thurber's "The Catbird Seat"), and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (adapted twice, in 1947 and in 2013).


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes "Mame" (née Fisher) Thurber on December 8, 1894. Both of his parents greatly influenced his work. His father was a sporadically employed clerk and minor politician who dreamed of being a lawyer or an actor. Thurber described his mother as a "born comedian" and "one of the finest comic talents I think I have ever known." She was a practical joker and, on one occasion, pretended to be disabled and attended a faith healer revival, only to jump up and proclaim herself healed.


title: James Thurber

text: When Thurber was seven years old, he and one of his brothers were playing a game of William Tell, when his brother shot James in the eye with an arrow. He lost that eye, and the injury later caused him to become almost entirely blind. He was unable to participate in sports and other activities in his childhood because of this injury, but he developed a creative mind, which he used to express himself in writings. Neurologist V. S. Ramachandran suggests that Thurber's imagination may be partly explained by Charles Bonnet syndrome, a neurological condition that causes complex visual hallucinations in people who have had some level of visual loss. (This was the basis for the piece "The Admiral on the Wheel".)


title: James Thurber

text: From 1913 to 1918, Thurber attended Ohio State University where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and editor of the student magazine, the Sundial. It was during this time he rented the house on 77 Jefferson Avenue, which became Thurber House in 1984. He never graduated from the university because his poor eyesight prevented him from taking a mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) course. In 1995 he was posthumously awarded a degree.


title: James Thurber

text: From 1918 to 1920, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the United States Department of State, first in Washington, D.C. and then at the embassy in Paris. On returning to Columbus, he began his career as a reporter for "The Columbus Dispatch" from 1921 to 1924. During part of this time, he reviewed books, films, and plays in a weekly column called "Credos and Curios", a title that was given to a posthumous collection of his work. Thurber returned to Paris during this period, where he wrote for the "Chicago Tribune" and other newspapers.


title: James Thurber

text: In 1925, Thurber moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, obtaining a job as a reporter with the "New York Evening Post". He joined the staff of "The New Yorker" in 1927 as an editor, with the help of E. B. White, his friend and fellow "New Yorker" contributor. His career as a cartoonist began in 1930 after White found some of Thurber's drawings in a trash can and submitted them for publication; White inked-in some of these earlier drawings to make them reproduce better for the magazine, and years later expressed deep regret he had done such a thing. Thurber contributed both his writings and his drawings to "The New Yorker" until the 1950s.


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber married Althea Adams in 1922, although the marriage, as he later wrote to a friend, devolved into “a relationship charming, fine, and hurting.” The marriage ended in divorce in May 1935. They lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with their daughter Rosemary (b. 1931). He married Helen Wismer (1902–1986) in June 1935. After meeting Mark Van Doren on a ferry to Martha's Vineyard, Thurber began summering in Cornwall, Connecticut, along with many other prominent artists and authors of the time. After three years of renting Thurber found a home, which he referred to as "The Great Good Place."


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber's behavior became erratic and unpredictable in his last year. At a party hosted by Noël Coward, Thurber was taken back to the Algonquin Hotel at six in the morning. Thurber was stricken with a blood clot on the brain on October 4, 1961, and underwent emergency surgery, drifting in and out of consciousness. Although the operation was initially successful, Thurber died a few weeks later, on November 2, aged 66, due to complications from pneumonia. The doctors said his brain was senescent from several small strokes and hardening of the arteries. His last words, aside from the repeated word "God", were "God bless... God damn", according to his wife, Helen.


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber also became well known for his simple, outlandish drawings and cartoons. Both his literary and his drawing skills were helped along by the support of, and collaboration with, fellow "New Yorker" staff member E. B. White, who insisted that Thurber's sketches could stand on their own as artistic expressions. Thurber drew six covers and numerous classic illustrations for "The New Yorker".


title: James Thurber

text: Many of Thurber's short stories are humorous fictional memoirs from his life, but he also wrote darker material, such as "The Whip-Poor-Will", a story of madness and murder. His best-known short stories are "The Dog That Bit People" and "The Night the Bed Fell"; they can be found in "My Life and Hard Times", which was his "break-out" book. Among his other classics are "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "The Catbird Seat", "The Night the Ghost Got In", "A Couple of Hamburgers", "The Greatest Man in the World", and "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox". "The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze" has several short stories with a tense undercurrent of marital discord. The book was published the year of his divorce and remarriage.


title: James Thurber

text: Although his 1941 story "You Could Look It Up", about a three-foot adult being brought in to take a walk in a baseball game, has been said to have inspired Bill Veeck's stunt with Eddie Gaedel with the St. Louis Browns in 1951, Veeck claimed an older provenance for the stunt.


title: James Thurber

text: In addition to his other fiction, Thurber wrote over seventy-five fables, some of which were first published in "The New Yorker" (1939), then collected in "Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated" (1940) and "Further Fables for Our Time" (1956). These were short stories that featured anthropomorphic animals (e.g. "The Little Girl and the Wolf", his version of Little Red Riding Hood) as main characters, and ended with a moral as a tagline. An exception to this format was his most famous fable, "The Unicorn in the Garden", which featured an all-human cast except for the unicorn, which doesn't speak. Thurber's fables were satirical, and the morals served as punch lines as well as advice to the reader, demonstrating "the complexity of life by depicting the world as an uncertain, precarious place, where few reliable guidelines exist." His stories also included several book-length fairy tales, such as "The White Deer" (1945), "The 13 Clocks" (1950) and "The Wonderful O" (1957). The latter was one of several of Thurber's works illustrated by Marc Simont.


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber's prose for "The New Yorker" and other venues included numerous humorous essays. A favorite subject, especially toward the end of his life, was the English language. Pieces on this subject included "The Spreading 'You Know'," which decried the overuse of that pair of words in conversation, "The New Vocabularianism", and "What Do You Mean It "Was" Brillig?". His short pieces – whether stories, essays or something in between – were referred to as "casuals" by Thurber and the staff of "The New Yorker".


title: James Thurber

text: Thurber wrote a five-part "New Yorker" series, between 1947 and 1948, examining in depth the radio soap opera phenomenon, based on near-constant listening and researching over the same period. Leaving nearly no element of these programs unexamined, including their writers, producers, sponsors, performers, and listeners alike, Thurber republished the series in his anthology, "The Beast in Me and Other Animals" (1948), under the section title "Soapland." The series was one of the first to examine such a pop-culture phenomenon in depth.


title: James Thurber

text: The last twenty years of Thurber's life were filled with material and professional success in spite of his blindness. He published at least fourteen books in that era, including "The Thurber Carnival" (1945), "Thurber Country" (1953), and the extremely popular book about "New Yorker" founder/editor Harold Ross, "The Years with Ross" (1959). A number of his short stories were made into movies, including "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in 1947.


title: James Thurber

text: While Thurber drew his cartoons in the usual fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, his failing eyesight later required changes. He drew them on very large sheets of paper using a thick black crayon (or on black paper using white chalk, from which they were photographed and the colors reversed for publication). Regardless of method, his cartoons became as noted as his writings; they possessed an eerie, wobbly feel that seems to mirror his idiosyncratic view on life. He once wrote that people said it looked like he drew them under water. Dorothy Parker, a contemporary and friend of Thurber, referred to his cartoons as having the "semblance of unbaked cookies". The last drawing Thurber completed was a self-portrait in yellow crayon on black paper, which was featured as the cover of "Time" magazine on July 9, 1951. The same drawing was used for the dust jacket of "The Thurber Album" (1952).


title: Egoism

text: Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normative forms. That is, they may be interested in either describing that people "do" act in self-interest or prescribing that they "should". Other definitions of egoism may instead emphasise action according to one's will rather than one's self-interest, and furthermore posit that this is a truer sense of egoism.


title: Egoism

text: The "New Catholic Encyclopedia" states of egoism that it "incorporates in itself certain basic truths: it is natural for man to love himself; he should moreover do so, since each one is ultimately responsible for himself; pleasure, the development of one's potentialities, and the acquisition of power are normally desirable." The moral censure of self-interest is a common subject of critique in egoist philosophy, with such judgments being examined as means of control and the result of power relations. Egoism may also reject that insight into one's internal motivation can arrive extrinsically, such as from psychology or sociology, though, for example, this is not present in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.


title: Egoism

text: The term egoism is derived from the French , from the Latin (first person singular personal pronoun; "I") with the French ("-ism").


title: Egoism

text: The descriptive variants of egoism are concerned with self-regard as a factual description of human motivation and, in its furthest application, that all human motivation stems from the desires and interest of the ego. In these theories, action which is self-regarding may be simply termed "egoistic".


title: Egoism

text: The position that people "tend" to act in their own self-interest is called default egoism, whereas psychological egoism is the position that "all" motivations are rooted in an ultimately self-serving psyche. That is, in its strong form, that even seemingly altruistic actions are only disguised as such and are always self-serving. Its weaker form instead holds that, even if altruistic motivation is possible, the willed action necessarily becomes egoistic in serving one's own will. In contrast to this and philosophical egoism, biological egoism (also called evolutionary egoism) describes motivations rooted solely in reproductive self-interest (i.e. reproductive fitness). Furthermore, selfish gene theory holds that it is the self-interest of genetic information that conditions human behaviour.


title: Egoism

text: Theories which hold egoism to be normative stipulate that the ego ought to promote its own interests above other values. Where this ought is held to be a pragmatic judgment it is termed rational egoism and where it is held to be a moral judgment it is termed ethical egoism. The "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" states that "ethical egoism might also apply to things other than acts, such as rules or character traits" but that such variants are uncommon. Furthermore, conditional egoism is a consequentialist form of ethical egoism which holds that egoism is morally right if it leads to morally acceptable ends. John F. Welsh, in his work "Max Stirner's Dialectical Egoism: A New Interpretation", coins the term dialectical egoism to describe an interpretation of the egoist philosophy of Max Stirner as being fundamentally dialectical.


title: Egoism

text: Normative egoism, as in the case of Stirner, need not reject that some modes of behavior are to be valued above others—such as Stirner's affirmation that non-restriction and autonomy are to be most highly valued. Contrary theories, however, may just as easily favour egoistic domination of others.


title: Egoism

text: The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche has been linked to forms of both descriptive and normative egoism. Nietzsche, in attacking the widely held moral abhorrence for egoistic action, seeks to free higher human beings from their belief that this morality is good for them. He rejects Christian and Kantian ethics as merely the disguised egoism of slave morality.


title: Egoism

text: In his "On the Genealogy of Morals", Friedrich Nietzsche traces the origins of master–slave morality to fundamentally egoistic value judgments. In the aristocratic valuation, excellence and virtue come as a form of superiority over the common masses, which the priestly valuation, in "ressentiment" of power, seeks to invert—where the powerless and pitiable become the moral ideal. This upholding of unegoistic actions is therefore seen as stemming from a desire to reject the superiority or excellency of others. He holds that all normative systems which operate in the role often associated with morality favor the interests of some people, often, though not necessarily, at the expense of others.


title: Egoism

text: Nevertheless, Nietzsche also states "in the same book" that there is no 'doer' of any acts, be they selfish or not:


title: Egoism

text: Jonas Monte of Brigham Young University argues that Nietzsche doubted if any 'I' existed in the first place, which the former defined as "a conscious Ego who commands mental states".


title: Egoism

text: In 1851, French philosopher Auguste Comte coined the term altruism (; , ) as an antonym for egoism. In this sense, altruism defined Comte's position that all self-regard must be replaced with only the regard for others.


title: Egoism

text: While Friedrich Nietzsche does not view altruism as a suitable antonym for egoism, Comte instead states that only two human motivations exist, egoistic and altruistic, and that the two cannot be mediated; that is, one must always predominate the other. For Comte, the total subordination of the self to altruism is a necessary condition to both social and personal benefit. Nietzsche, rather than rejecting the practice of altruism, warns that despite there being neither much altruism nor equality in the world, there is almost universal endorsement of their value and, notoriously, even by those who are its worst enemies in practice. Egoist philosophy commonly views the subordination of the self to altruism as either a form of domination that limits freedom, an unethical or irrational principle, or an extension of some egoistic root cause.


title: Egoism

text: In evolutionary theory, biological altruism is the observed occurrence of an organism acting to the benefit of others at the cost of its own reproductive fitness. While biological egoism does grant that an organism may act to the benefit of others, it describes only such when in accordance with reproductive self-interest. Kin altruism and selfish gene theory are examples of this division. On biological altruism, the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" states: "Contrary to what is often thought, an evolutionary approach to human behaviour does not imply that humans are likely to be motivated by self-interest alone. One strategy by which ‘selfish genes’ may increase their future representation is by causing humans to be "non"-selfish, in the psychological sense." This is a central topic within contemporary discourse of psychological egoism.


title: Egoism

text: The history of egoist thought has often overlapped with that of nihilism. For example, Max Stirner's rejection of absolutes and abstract concepts often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. The popular description of Stirner as a moral nihilist, however, may fail to encapsulate certain subtleties of his ethical thought. The "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" states, "Stirner is clearly committed to the non-nihilistic view that certain kinds of character and modes of behaviour (namely autonomous individuals and actions) are to be valued above all others. His conception of morality is, in this respect, a narrow one, and his rejection of the legitimacy of moral claims is not to be confused with a denial of the propriety of all normative or ethical judgement." Stirner's nihilism may instead be understood as cosmic nihilism. Likewise, both normative and descriptive theories of egoism further developed under Russian nihilism, shortly giving birth to rational egoism. Nihilist philosophers Dmitry Pisarev and Nikolay Chernyshevsky were influential in this regard, compounding such forms of egoism with hard determinism.


title: Egoism

text: Max Stirner's philosophy strongly rejects modernity and is highly critical of the increasing dogmatism and oppressive social institutions that embody it. In order that it might be surpassed, egoist principles are upheld as a necessary advancement beyond the modern world. The "Stanford Encyclopedia" states that Stirner's historical analyses serve to "undermine historical narratives which portray the modern development of humankind as the progressive realisation of freedom, but also to support an account of individuals in the modern world as increasingly oppressed". This critique of humanist discourses especially has linked Stirner to more contemporary poststructuralist thought.


title: Egoism

text: Since normative egoism rejects the moral obligation to subordinate the ego to society-at-large or a ruling class, it may be predisposed to certain political implications. The "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" states:


title: Egoism

text: In contrast with this however, such an ethic may not morally obligate against the egoistic exercise of power over others. On these grounds, Friedrich Nietzsche criticizes egalitarian morality and political projects as unconducive to the development of human excellence. Max Stirner's own conception, the union of egoists as detailed in his work "The Ego and Its Own", saw a proposed form of societal relations whereby limitations on egoistic action are rejected. When posthumously adopted by the anarchist movement, this became the foundation for egoist anarchism.


title: Egoism

text: Stirner's variant of property theory is similarly dialectical, where the concept of ownership is only that personal distinction made between what is one's property and what is not. Consequentially, it is the exercise of control over property which constitutes the nonabstract possession of it. In contrast to this, Ayn Rand incorporates capitalist property rights into her egoist theory.


title: Egoism

text: Egoist philosopher Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevskii was the dominant intellectual figure behind the 1860–1917 revolutionary movement in Russia, which resulted in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II eight years before his death in 1889. Dmitry Pisarev was a similarly radical influence within the movement, though he did not personally advocate political revolution.


title: Egoism

text: Philosophical egoism has also found wide appeal among anarchist revolutionaries and thinkers, such as John Henry Mackay, Benjamin Tucker, Émile Armand, Han Ryner Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers, Renzo Novatore, Miguel Giménez Igualada, and Lev Chernyi. Though he did not involve in any revolutionary movements himself, the entire school of individualist anarchism owes much of its intellectual heritage to Max Stirner.


title: Egoism

text: Egoist philosophy may be misrepresented as a principally revolutionary field of thought. However, neither Hobbesian nor Nietzschean theories of egoism approve of political revolution. Anarchism and revolutionary socialism were also strongly rejected by Ayn Rand and her followers.


title: Egoism

text: The philosophies of both Nietzsche and Stirner were heavily appropriated by fascist and proto-fascist ideologies. Nietzsche in particular has infamously been misrepresented as a predecessor to Nazism and a substantial academic effort was necessary to disassociate his ideas from their aforementioned appropriation.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The coat of arms of Australia, officially called the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, is the formal symbol of the Commonwealth of Australia. A shield, depicting symbols of Australia's six states, is held up by the native Australian animals, the kangaroo and the emu. The seven-pointed Commonwealth Star surmounting the crest also represents the states and territories, while floral emblems appear below the shield.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The first arms were authorised by King Edward VII on 7 May 1908, and the current version by King George V on 19 September 1912, although the 1908 version continued to be used in some contexts, notably appearing on the reverse of the sixpenny coin.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The escutcheon is the focal point of the coat of arms, contained within is the badge of each Australian state, the whole surrounded by an ermine border representing the federation of the states.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: In the top half, from left to right, the states represented are: New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. In the bottom half, from left to right: South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Above the shield is the seven-pointed Commonwealth Star or "Star of Federation" above a blue and gold wreath, forming the crest. Six of the points on the star represent the original six states, while the seventh point represents the combined territories and any future states of Australia. In its entirety the shield represents the federation of Australia.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The red kangaroo and emu that support the shield have never been designated as official animal emblems of the nation. They owe their unofficial recognition to the fact that they are endemic Australian fauna (found only on that continent), and likely chosen because they are the most well-known native Australian animals large enough to be positioned together in scale holding up the shield. They were chosen to symbolise a nation moving forward, based on the fact that neither animal can move backwards easily – i.e. symbolising progress. It has been claimed that the kangaroo is, and must be seen to be, male.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: In the background is wreath of golden wattle, the official national floral emblem, though the representation of the species is not botanically accurate. At the bottom is a scroll that contains the name of the nation. Neither the wreath of wattle nor the scroll are technically part of the design, because they are not described on the Royal Warrant that grants the armorial design.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The official blazon of the Commonwealth was included within a Royal Warrant of King George V on 19 September 1912, making the Arms officially adopted. The blazon is as follows:


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: Following the federation of Australia, the first official coat of arms of Australia was granted by King Edward VII on 7 May 1908. The original design is thought to have been inspired by the 1805 Bowman Flag, which showed the rose, shamrock and thistle supported by a kangaroo and emu.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: It consisted of a shield in the centre, the seven pointed star on a wreath as the crest above it, and a kangaroo and an emu using its foot to help the kangaroo to support the shield, all on a bed of green grass with a scroll containing the motto "Advance Australia". The selection of the kangaroo, the emu and the words, "Advance Australia" was tied together symbolically. The shield had a white background, with a red cross of Saint George, blue lines outside the cross, and a blue border containing six inescutcheons featuring a red chevron on white, representing the six states. The Scottish Patriotic Association was vocally opposed to the shield's design, noting that it should display the Union Jack to represent British and Irish settlers. These arms were used by the government and appeared on the sixpence coin from 1910 until 1963, and the threepence, shilling and florin from 1910 to 1936.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The 1908 arms were redesigned in 1911, and officially granted by George V on 19 September 1912. The redesign spurred much debate in Parliament. The Member for Wentworth, Willie Kelly, said:


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: "The emu and kangaroo are so built that they hardly fit into the heraldic atmosphere, and I think we make ourselves ridiculous when we endeavour to carry on the traditions of the Old World with some of the wild creations of our Australian fauna."


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: Despite objections, the kangaroo and emu now not having its leg up remained the shield bearers in the new coat of arms and were modified to appear more realistic. The principal reason for the redesign was the concern that Australia's states were not individually represented; that was achieved by showing each state's heraldic badge on the shield. The new coat of arms removed the bed of grass beneath the shield and changed the scroll to read simply "Australia". The colours in the wreath were also changed from blue and white to blue and gold. A background of two sprays of golden wattle was added, but it has never been an official part of the armorial bearings, even though the golden wattle was proclaimed Australia's national flower on 19 August 1988 by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The use of each state's badge had been a feature of the first Great Seal of Australia, introduced on 21 January 1904, where they surrounded the UK Royal Arms; according to Charles R. Wylie, badges were used because South Australia and Western Australia did not yet have coats of arms.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The Commonwealth Coat of Arms is the formal symbol of the Commonwealth of Australia that signifies Commonwealth authority and ownership. The Arms are used by Australian Government departments and agencies, statutory and non-statutory authorities, the Parliament and Commonwealth courts and tribunals. Senators and Federal Members of the Australian Parliament may also use the Arms in the course of their duties as Parliamentarians. The coat of arms should never be used where it could wrongly imply a formal guarantee, sponsorship or endorsement by the Commonwealth. Use of the arms by private citizens or organisations is rarely permitted; however, there are provisions for use by sporting bodies and in educational publications. Use of the coat of arms without permission may be in breach of Sections 53 (c) (d) and (e) of the "Trade Practices Act 1974", Section 145.1 of the "Criminal Code Act 1995" or Section 39(2) of the "Trade Marks Act 1995". The import of goods bearing the arms is also illegal according to the "Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations".


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: There is a full colour version and nine heraldically correct official versions exist for single-colour reproduction.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The coat of arms is the basis of the King's Personal Australian Flag, and since 1973 a slightly modified version has formed the basis of the Great Seal of Australia.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The coat of arms has appeared on Australian coinage since the coins for the Australian pound were minted in the early 20th century. Until 1936, the 1908 coat of arms featured on the reverse of all silver coins in regular circulation(3d, 6d, 1'/, 2'/). After 1936, the current coat of arms was featured on the reverse of the Florin (2'/), while the 1908 arms remained on the sixpence (6d). Since decimalisation in 1966, the current coat of arms has featured on the reverse of both variants of the 50-cent coin.


title: Coat of arms of Australia

text: The coat of arms is used as badge of rank for Warrant Officers Class 1 (Army) and Warrant Officer (Navy and Air Force). A more stylised version is used as a badge of rank for Warrant Officer of the Navy, Regimental Sergeant Major of the Army and Warrant Officer of the Air Force.


title: Agent 355

text: 355 (died after 1780) was the code name of a female spy during the American Revolution, part of the Culper Ring. She was one of the first spies for the United States, but her real identity is unknown. The number 355 could be decrypted from the system the Culper Ring used to mean "lady."


title: Agent 355

text: The only direct reference to 355 in any of the Culper Ring's missives (1778–1780) appears in a letter from Abraham Woodhull ("Samuel Culper Sr.") to General George Washington, where Woodhull describes her as "one who hath been ever serviceable to this correspondence."


title: Agent 355

text: The true identity of 355 remains unknown, but some facts about her seem clear. She worked with the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War as a spy, and was likely recruited by Woodhull into the spy ring. The way the code is constructed indicates that she may have had "some degree of social prominence." She was likely living in New York City at the time, and at some point had contact with Major John André and Benedict Arnold. One person who has been named as the possible identity of Agent 355 was Anna Strong, Woodhull's neighbor. Strong allegedly helped the Culper Ring by signaling to its members the location of Caleb Brewster, who raided British shipments in his whaleboat around Long Island Sound after he was given a secure location by Strong.


title: Agent 355

text: Another theory is that 355 may have been Robert Townsend's common-law wife. Stories about Townsend state that he was in love with 355. John Burke and Andrea Meyer have made a different case for 355's involvement in the spy ring, using circumstantial evidence that she may have been close to Major John André and also to Benjamin Tallmadge, thereby protecting Woodhull from accusations of being a spy. Other possible candidates for 355 include Sarah Horton Townsend and Elizabeth Burgin.


title: Agent 355

text: It is also occasionally believed that there was no Agent 355 at all, but rather that the code indicated a woman who had useful information but was not "formally connected to the ring." The code itself may have referred to "a woman," not an agent who was a woman.


title: Agent 355

text: 355 is thought to have played a major role in exposing Arnold as a defector and in the arrest of André, who was hanged in Tappan, New York. She may have been a member of a prominent Loyalist family, which would have put her within easy reach of British commanders.


title: Agent 355

text: The then pregnant 355 was arrested in 1780 when Benedict Arnold defected to the Loyalists. She was imprisoned on , a prison ship, where she may have given birth to a boy named Robert Townsend Jr. She later died on the prison ship. However, Alexander Rose disagrees with this narrative, stating that "females were not kept aboard prison ships," and that "there's no record whatsoever of a birth." Strengthening the idea that Agent 355 may have been Anna Strong is the fact that Anna's husband, Selah Strong, was imprisoned on "Jersey" and she was supposedly allowed to bring him food. Her presence on the ship may have led to the legend that Agent 355 was herself imprisoned there.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier ("The Love Parade", "Love Me Tonight", "The Merry Widow" and "One Hour With You") and Nelson Eddy ("Naughty Marietta", "Rose-Marie", and "Maytime"). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars ("The Love Parade", "One Hour with You", "Naughty Marietta" and "San Francisco"), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald was born Jeannette Anna McDonald on June 18, 1903, at her family's Philadelphia home at 5123 Arch Street. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Anna May (née Wright) and Daniel McDonald, a factory foreman and a salesman for a contracting household building company, respectively, and the younger sister of character actress Blossom Rock (born Edith McDonald), who was most famous as "Grandmama" on the 1960s TV series "The Addams Family". She was of Scottish, English, and Dutch descent. The extra N in her given name was later dropped for simplicity's sake, and A added to her surname to emphasize her Scottish heritage. She began dancing lessons with local dance instructor Caroline Littlefield, mother of American ballerina/choreographer Catherine Littlefield, when very young, performing in juvenile operas, recitals, and shows staged by Littlefield around the city, including at the Academy of Music. She later took lessons with Al White and began touring in his kiddie shows, heading his "Six Little Song Birds" in Philadelphia at the age of nine.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In November 1919, MacDonald joined her older sister Blossom in New York. She took singing lessons with Wassili Leps and landed a job in the chorus of Ned Wayburn's "The Demi-Tasse Revue", a musical entertainment presented between films at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway. In 1920, she appeared in two musicals: Jerome Kern's "Night Boat" as a chorus replacement, and "Irene" on the road as the second female lead; future film star Irene Dunne played the title role during part of the tour, and Helen Shipman played the title role during the other part of the tour. In 1921, MacDonald played in "Tangerine" as one of the "Six Wives." In 1922, she was a featured singer in the Greenwich Village revue "Fantastic Fricassee", for which good press notices brought her a role in "The Magic Ring" the next year. MacDonald played the second female lead in this long-running musical which starred Mitzi Hajos. In 1925, MacDonald again had the second female lead opposite Queenie Smith in "Tip Toes", a George Gershwin hit show.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: The following year, 1926, found MacDonald still in a second female lead in "Bubblin' Over", a musical version of "Brewster's Millions". She finally landed a starring role in "Yes, Yes, Yvette" in 1927. Planned as a sequel to producer H.H. Frazee's "No, No, Nanette", the show toured extensively, but failed to please the critics when it arrived on Broadway. MacDonald also played the lead in her next two plays: "Sunny Days" in 1928 in her first show for the producers Lee and J.J. Shubert, for which she received rave reviews; and "Angela" (1928), which the critics panned. Her last play was "Boom Boom" in 1929, with her name above the title; the cast included young Archie Leach, who would later become Cary Grant.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: While MacDonald was appearing in "Angela", film star Richard Dix spotted her and had her screen-tested for his film "Nothing but the Truth". The Shuberts, however, would not let her out of her contract to appear in the film, which starred Dix and Helen Kane (the "Boop-boop-a-doop girl"). In 1929, famed film director Ernst Lubitsch was looking through old screen tests of Broadway performers and spotted MacDonald. He cast her as the leading lady in "The Love Parade", his first sound film, which starred Maurice Chevalier.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In the first rush of sound films during 1929 and 1930, MacDonald starred in six films—the first four for Paramount Studios. Her first, "The Love Parade" (1929), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Maurice Chevalier, was a landmark of early sound films, and received a Best Picture nomination. MacDonald's first recordings for RCA Victor were two hits from the score: "Dream Lover" and "March of the Grenadiers." "The Vagabond King" (1930) was a lavish two-strip Technicolor film version of Rudolf Friml's hit 1925 operetta. Broadway star Dennis King reprised his role as 15th-century French poet François Villon, and MacDonald was Princess Katherine. She sang "Some Day" and "Only a Rose." The UCLA Film and Television Archive owns the only known color print of this production.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: 1930 was an extremely busy year for Paramount and MacDonald. "Paramount on Parade" was an all-star revue, similar to other mammoth sound revues produced by major studios to introduce their formerly silent stars to the public. MacDonald's footage singing a duet of "Come Back to Sorrento" with Nino Martini was cut from the release print due to copyright reasons with Universal Studios, which had recently acquired the copyright to the song for an upcoming movie, "King of Jazz". "Let's Go Native" was a desert-island comedy directed by Leo McCarey, co-starring the likes of Jack Oakie and Kay Francis. "Monte Carlo" became another highly regarded Lubitsch classic, with British musical star Jack Buchanan as a count who disguises himself as a hairdresser in order to woo a scatterbrained countess (MacDonald). MacDonald introduced "Beyond the Blue Horizon," which she recorded three times during her career, including performing it for the Hollywood Victory Committee film "Follow the Boys".


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In hopes of producing her own films, MacDonald went to United Artists to make "The Lottery Bride" in 1930. Despite music by Rudolf Friml, the film was not successful. MacDonald next signed a three-picture deal with the Fox Film Corporation, a controversial move in Hollywood; every other studio was far superior in the eyes of many, from their budgets to the fantastical entertainment of their films. "Oh, for a Man!" (1930) was more successful; MacDonald portrayed a temperamental opera singer who sings Wagner's "Liebestod" and falls for an Irish burglar played by Reginald Denny. In 1931, "Don't Bet on Women" was a non-musical drawing-room comedy in which a playboy (Edmund Lowe) bets his happily married friend (Roland Young) that he can seduce his friend's wife (MacDonald). "Annabelle's Affairs" (1931) was a farce, with MacDonald as a sophisticated New York playgirl who does not recognize her own miner husband, played by Victor McLaglen, when he turns up five years later. Although highly praised by reviewers at the time, only one reel of this film survives.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald took a break from Hollywood in 1931 to embark on a European concert tour, performing at the Empire Theater in Paris (Mistinguett and Morris Gest were said to have been in the crowd) and at London's Dominion Theatre, and was invited to dinner parties with British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and French newspaper critics. She returned to Paramount the following year for two films with Chevalier. "One Hour with You" in 1932 was directed by both George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch, and simultaneously filmed in French with the same stars, but a French supporting cast. Currently, no surviving print of "Une Heure près de toi" ("One Hour With You") is known. Rouben Mamoulian directed "Love Me Tonight" (1932), considered by many film critics and writers to be the perfect film musical. Starring Chevalier as a humble tailor in love with a princess played by MacDonald, much of the story is told in sung dialogue. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the original score, which included the standards "Mimi," "Lover," and "Isn't It Romantic?"


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In 1933, MacDonald left again for Europe, and while there signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first MGM film was "The Cat and the Fiddle" (1934), based on the Jerome Kern Broadway hit. Her co-star was Ramón Novarro. The plot about unmarried lovers shacking up just barely slipped through the new Production Code guidelines that took effect July 1, 1934. Despite a Technicolor finale—the first use of the new three-color Technicolor process other than Disney cartoons—the film was not a huge success. It lost $142,000. In "The Merry Widow" (1934), director Ernst Lubitsch reunited Maurice Chevalier and MacDonald in a lavish version of the classic 1905 Franz Lehár operetta. The film was highly regarded by critics and operetta lovers in major U.S. cities and Europe, but failed to generate much income outside urban areas, losing $113,000. It had a huge budget of $1.6 million, partially because it was filmed simultaneously in French as "La Veuve Joyeuse", with a French supporting cast and some minor plot changes.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: "Naughty Marietta" (1935), directed by W. S. Van Dyke, was MacDonald's first film in which she teamed with newcomer baritone Nelson Eddy. Victor Herbert's 1910 score, with songs like "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life," "I'm Falling in Love with Someone," "'Neath the Southern Moon," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and "Italian Street Song," enjoyed renewed popularity. The film won an Oscar for sound recording, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It was voted one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1935 by the New York film critics, was awarded the "Photoplay" Gold Medal Award as Best Picture of 1935 (beating out "Mutiny on the Bounty", which won the Oscar), and in 2004 was selected to the National Film Registry. MacDonald earned gold records for "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" and "Italian Street Song." The following year, MacDonald starred in two of the highest-grossing films of that year. In "Rose-Marie", MacDonald played a haughty opera diva who learns her young brother (pre-fame James Stewart) has killed a Mountie and is hiding in the northern woods; Eddy is the Mountie sent to capture him. Nelson Eddy and she sang Rudolf Friml's "Indian Love Call" to each other in the Canadian wilderness (actually filmed at Lake Tahoe). Eddy's definitive portrayal of the steadfast Mountie became a popular icon. When the Canadian Mounties temporarily retired their distinctive hat in 1970, photos of Eddy in his "Rose Marie" uniform appeared in thousands of U.S. newspapers. "San Francisco" (1936) was also directed by W.S. Van Dyke. In this tale of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, MacDonald played a hopeful opera singer opposite Clark Gable as the extra-virile proprietor of a Barbary Coast gambling joint, and Spencer Tracy as his boyhood chum who has become a priest and gives the moral messages.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In the summer of 1936, filming began on "Maytime", co-starring Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, and Paul Lukas, produced by Irving Thalberg. After Thalberg's untimely death in September, production was shut down and the half-finished film scrapped. A new script was filmed with a different storyline and supporting actors (including John Barrymore, whose relationship with MacDonald was strained due to his alcoholism). The 'second' "Maytime" (1937), was the top-grossing film worldwide of the year, and is regarded as one of the best film musicals of the 1930s. "Will You Remember" by Sigmund Romberg brought MacDonald another gold record.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: "The Firefly" (1937) was MacDonald's first solo-starring film at MGM with her name alone above the title. Rudolf Friml's 1912 stage score was borrowed, and a new song, "The Donkey Serenade," added, adapted from Friml's "Chanson" piano piece. With real-life Americans rushing to fight in the ongoing revolution in Spain, this historical vehicle was constructed around a previous revolution in Napoleonic times. MacDonald's co-star was tenor Allan Jones, who she demanded get the same treatment as she would, such as an equal number of close-ups. The MacDonald/Eddy team had split after MacDonald's engagement and marriage to Gene Raymond, but neither of their solo films grossed as much as the team films, and an unimpressed Mayer used this to point out why Jones could not replace Eddy in the next project. "The Girl of the Golden West" (1938) was the result, but the two stars had little screen time together, and the main song, "Obey Your Heart," was never sung as a duet. The film featured an original score by Sigmund Romberg, and reused the popular David Belasco stage plot (also employed by opera composer Giacomo Puccini for "La fanciulla del West").


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Mayer had promised MacDonald the studio's first Technicolor feature, and he delivered with "Sweethearts" (1938), co-starring Eddy. In contrast to the previous film, the co-stars were relaxed onscreen and singing frequently together. The film integrated Victor Herbert's 1913 stage score into a modern backstage story scripted by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. MacDonald and Eddy played a husband-and-wife Broadway musical-comedy team who are offered a Hollywood contract. "Sweethearts" won the "Photoplay" Gold Medal Award as Best Picture of the Year. Mayer dropped plans for the team to co-star in "Let Freedom Ring", a vehicle first announced for them in 1935. Only Eddy starred, whereas MacDonald and Lew Ayres co-starred in "Broadway Serenade" (1939) as a contemporary musical couple who clash when her career flourishes while his founders. MacDonald's performance was subdued, and choreographer Busby Berkeley, just hired away from Warner Bros., was called upon to add an over-the-top finale in an effort to improve the film. "Broadway Serenade" did not entice audiences in a lot of major cities, with "Variety" claiming that New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles' cinema attendances were "sad," "slow,"and "sour."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Following "Broadway Serenade", and not coincidentally right after Nelson Eddy's surprise elopement with Ann Franklin, MacDonald left Hollywood on a concert tour and refused to renew her MGM contract. Months later she summoned her manager Bob Ritchie from London to help her renegotiate. After initially insisting that she wanted to film "Smilin' Through" with James Stewart and Robert Taylor, MacDonald finally relented and agreed to film "New Moon" (1940) with Eddy, which proved to be one of MacDonald's more popular films. Composer Sigmund Romberg's 1927 Broadway hit provided the plot and the songs: "Lover, Come Back to Me," "One Kiss," and "Wanting You," plus Eddy's version of "Stout Hearted Men." This was followed by "Bitter Sweet" (1940), a Technicolor film version of Noël Coward's 1929 stage operetta, which Coward loathed, writing in his diary about how "vulgar" he found it. "Smilin' Through" (1941) was MacDonald's next Technicolor project, the third adaptation filmed in Hollywood, with Brian Aherne and Gene Raymond. Its theme of reunion with deceased loved ones was enormously popular after the devastation of World War I, and MGM reasoned that it should resonate with audiences during World War II, but it failed to make a profit. MacDonald played a dual role—Moonyean, a Victorian girl accidentally murdered by a jealous lover, and Kathleen, her niece, who falls in love with the son of the murderer.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: "I Married an Angel" (1942), was adapted from the Rodgers & Hart stage musical about an angel who loses her wings on her wedding night. The script by Anita Loos suffered serious censorship cuts during filming that made the result less successful. MacDonald sang "Spring Is Here" and the title song. It was the final film made by the team of MacDonald and Eddy. After a falling-out with Mayer, Eddy bought out his MGM contract (with one film left to make) and went to Universal, where he signed a million-dollar, two-picture deal. MacDonald remained for one last film, "Cairo" (1942), a cheaply budgeted spy comedy co-starring Robert Young as a reporter and Ethel Waters as a maid, whom MacDonald personally requested. Within one year, beginning in 1942, L.B. Mayer released his four highest-paid actresses from their MGM contracts; Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Jeanette MacDonald. Of those four stars, MacDonald was the only one whom Mayer would rehire.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: After opening the Metropolitan Opera's membership campaign, MacDonald appeared as herself in "Follow the Boys" (1944), an all-star extravaganza about Hollywood stars entertaining the troops. The more than 40 guest stars included Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields, Sophie Tucker, and Orson Welles. MacDonald is shown during a concert singing "Beyond the Blue Horizon," and in a studio-filmed sequence singing "I'll See You in My Dreams" to a blinded soldier. She returned to MGM after five years off the screen for two films. "Three Daring Daughters" (1948) co-starred José Iturbi as her love interest. MacDonald plays a divorcée whose lively daughters (Jane Powell, Ann E. Todd, and Elinor Donahue) keep trying to get her back with her ex, but she has secretly remarried. The song "The Dickey Bird" made the hit parade. "The Sun Comes Up" (1949) teamed MacDonald with Lassie in an adaptation of a short story by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. MacDonald played a widow who has lost her son, but warms to orphan Claude Jarman Jr. It would prove to be her final film.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: She frequently attempted a comeback movie, even financing and paying a screenwriter. One of the possible film reunions with Nelson Eddy was to be made in England, but Eddy pulled out when he learned MacDonald was investing her own funds. Eddy preferred to publicly blame the proposed project as mediocre, when in fact MacDonald was uninsurable due to her heart condition. A reunion with Maurice Chevalier was also considered. Other thwarted projects with Eddy were "The Rosary", "The Desert Song", and a remake of "The Vagabond King", plus two movie treatments written by Eddy for them, "Timothy Waits for Love" and "All Stars Don't Spangle". Offers continued to come in, and in 1962, producer Ross Hunter proposed MacDonald in his 1963 comedy "The Thrill of It All", but she declined. 20th Century Fox also toyed with the idea of MacDonald (Irene Dunne was briefly considered) for the part of Mother Abbess in the film version of "The Sound of Music". It never moved beyond the discussion stages partly because of MacDonald's failing health.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: An annual poll of film exhibitors listed MacDonald as one of the top-10 box-office draws of 1936, and many of her films were among the top-20 moneymakers of the years they were released. In addition, MacDonald was one of the top-10 box-office attractions in Great Britain from 1937 to 1942. During her 39-year career, MacDonald earned two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for films and recordings) and planted her feet in the wet concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In the mid-1950s, MacDonald toured in summer-stock productions of "Bitter Sweet" and "The King and I". She opened in "Bitter Sweet" at the Iroquois Amphitheater, Louisville, Kentucky, on July 19, 1954. Her production of "The King and I" opened August 20, 1956, at the Starlight Theatre. While performing there, she collapsed. Officially, it was announced as heat prostration, but in fact it was a heart seizure. She began limiting her appearances, and a reprisal of "Bitter Sweet" in 1959 was her last professional stage appearance.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald and her husband Gene Raymond toured in Ferenc Molnár's "The Guardsman". The production opened at the Erlanger Theater in Buffalo, New York, on January 25, 1951, and played in 23 Northeastern and Midwestern cities until June 2, 1951. Despite less-than-enthusiastic comments from critics, the show played to full houses for virtually every performance. The leading role of "The Actress" was changed to "The Singer" to allow MacDonald to add some songs. While this pleased her fans, the show closed before reaching Broadway.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In the 1950s, talks with respect to a Broadway return occurred. In the 1960s, MacDonald was approached about starring on Broadway in a musical version of "Sunset Boulevard". Harold Prince recounts in his autobiography visiting MacDonald at her home in Bel Air to discuss the proposed project. Composer Hugh Martin also wrote a song for the musical, entitled "Wasn't It Romantic?"


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald also made a few nightclub appearances. She sang and danced at The Sands and The Sahara in Las Vegas in 1953, The Coconut Grove in Los Angeles in 1954, and again at The Sahara in 1957, but she never felt entirely comfortable in their smoky atmospheres.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Starting in 1931 and continuing through the 1950s, MacDonald engaged in regular concert tours between films. Her first European tour was in 1931, where she sang in both France and England. Her first American concert tour was in 1939, immediately after the completion of "Broadway Serenade". MacDonald performed at the Mayo Civic Auditorium in Rochester, Minnesota on April 19, 1939, to open that venue before an audience. She sang several times at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. When America joined World War II in 1941, MacDonald co-founded the Army Emergency Relief and raised funds on concert tours. When she was home in Hollywood, she held an open house at her home on Sunday afternoons for GIs. On one occasion, at the request of Lt. Ronald Reagan, she was singing for a large group of men in San Francisco who were due to ship out to the fierce fighting in the South Pacific. She closed with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and 20,000 voices spontaneously joined in. She auctioned off encores for donations and raised almost $100,000 for the troops (over $1.5 million, adjusted for inflation). President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who considered MacDonald and Eddy two of his favorite film stars, awarded her a medal. She also did command performances at the White House for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Unlike Nelson Eddy, who came from opera to film, MacDonald in the 1940s yearned to reinvent herself in opera. She began training for this goal with Lotte Lehmann, one of the leading opera stars of the early 20th century. "When Jeanette MacDonald approached me for coaching lessons," wrote Lehmann, "I was really curious how a glamorous movie star, certainly spoiled by the adoration of a limitless world, would be able to devote herself to another, a higher level of art. I had the surprise of my life. There couldn't have been a more diligent, a more serious, a more pliable person than Jeanette. The lessons which I had started with a kind of suspicious curiosity turned out to be sheer delight for me. She studied Marguerite with me—and lieder. These were the ones which astounded me most. I am quite sure that Jeanette would have developed into a serious and successful lieder singer if time would have allowed it."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald made her opera debut singing Juliette in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" in Montreal at His Majesty's Theatre (May 8, 1943). She quickly repeated the role in Quebec City (May 12), Ottawa (May 15 and 17), Toronto (May 20 and 22), and Windsor (May 24). Her U.S. debut with the Chicago Opera Company (November 4, 11 and 15, 1944) was in the same role. She also sang Marguerite in Gounod's "Faust" with the Chicago Opera. In the summer of 1945, she appeared with the Cincinnati Opera as Juliette in two performances of "Roméo et Juliette" (July 10 and 25) and one as Marguerite in "Faust" (July 15). That November, she did two more performances of "Roméo et Juliette" and one of "Faust" in Chicago. On December 12, 1951, she did one performance of "Faust" with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company at the Academy of Music.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Claudia Cassidy, the music critic of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote, "Her Juliet is breathtakingly beautiful to the eye and dulcet to the ear." The same critic reviewed "Faust": "From where I sit at the opera, Jeanette MacDonald has turned out to be one of the welcome surprises of the season ... her Marguerite was better than her Juliet ... beautifully sung with purity of line and tone, a good trill, and a Gallic inflection that understood Gounod's phrasing ... You felt if Faust must sell his soul to the devil, at least this time he got his money's worth."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald's extensive radio career may have begun on a 1929 radio broadcast of the "Publix Hour". She was on the Academy Awards ceremony broadcast in 1931. She hosted her own radio show, "Vicks Open House", from September 1937 to March 1938, for which she received $5,000 a week. However, the time demands of doing a weekly live radio show while filming, touring in concerts, and making records proved enormously difficult, and after fainting on-air during one show, she decided not to renew her radio contract with Vicks at the end of the 26-week season. Thereafter, she stuck to guest appearances.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald appeared in condensed radio versions of many of her films on programs such as Cecil B. DeMille's "Lux Radio Theater", often with Nelson Eddy, and the "Railroad Hour", which starred Gordon MacRae. These included "The Merry Widow", "Naughty Marietta", "Rose Marie", "Maytime", "Sweethearts", "Bitter Sweet", "Smilin' Through", and "The Sun Comes Up", plus other operettas and musicals such as Victor Herbert's "Mlle Modiste", "Irene", "The Student Prince", "Tonight or Never" with Melvyn Douglas, "A Song for Clotilda", "The Gift of the Magi", and "Apple Blossoms". Other radio shows included "The Prudential Family Hour", "Screen Guild Playhouse", and "The Voice of Firestone", which featured the top opera and concert singers of the time. In 1953, MacDonald sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, broadcast on both radio and TV.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald sang frequently with Nelson Eddy during the mid-1940s on several "Lux Radio Theater" and "The Screen Guild Theater" productions of their films together. She also appeared as his guest several times on his various radio shows such as "The Electric Hour" and "The Kraft Music Hall". He was also a surprise guest when she hosted a war-bonds program called "Guest Star", and they sang on other World War II victory shows together. The majority of her radio work in the mid to late 1940s was with Eddy. Her 1948 Hollywood Bowl concert was also broadcast over the air, in which she used Eddy's longtime accompanist, Theodore Paxson.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald appeared on early TV, most frequently as a singing guest star. She sang on "The Voice of Firestone" on November 13, 1950. On November 12, 1952, she was the subject of Ralph Edwards' "This Is Your Life". Her surprise guests included her sisters, a sailor she danced with at the Hollywood Canteen, her former English teacher, her husband and the clergyman who married them, and Nelson Eddy appeared as a voice from her past, singing the song he sang at her wedding; his surprise appearance brought her to tears. Shortly thereafter, she appeared as the mystery guest on the December 21, 1952, episode of "What's My Line?" After the panelists guessed her identity, she told John Daly she was in New York for the holidays and would have a recital at Carnegie Hall on January 16. On February 2, 1956, MacDonald starred in "Prima Donna", a television pilot for her own series, written for her by her husband Gene Raymond. The initial show featured guest stars Leo Durocher and Larraine Day, but it failed to find a slot. In December 1956, MacDonald and Eddy made their first TV appearance as a team on the "Lux Video Theatre Holiday Special". In 1957, Eddy and she appeared on Patti Page's program "The Big Record", singing several songs. On "Playhouse 90" (March 28, 1957), MacDonald played Charley's real aunt to Art Carney's impersonation in "Charley's Aunt."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: When MacDonald was born, her father quickly doted on her. Although he had hoped for a son who would pursue "an American dream" life that he believed he had failed to live himself, he advised his three daughters to do this instead. MacDonald was the only daughter in the family that had inherited both her father's red hair and blue-green eyes, although she often admired her sisters' beauty, such as Blossom's dimples and her elder sister Elsie's (1893—1970) blonde hair and blue eyes. Elsie could play the piano, and taught toddler MacDonald a variety of popular waltzes and Stephen Foster's compositions. At this time, MacDonald discovered that she was an extrovert who enjoyed socializing with friends and performing for others, admitting that "[I] needed people to watch and applaud me as much as I needed food and drink." At the end of her first performance in the local church as a child, "I paused ever so slightly and then, when I realized they needed prodding, I promptly began clapping my hands and said to the congregation, 'Now everybody's got to clap!'"


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald cited the number thirteen as her lucky number. Her characters always had a name beginning with M, the first letter of her surname and the 13th letter of the English alphabet, a ritual upon which she had insisted. Interestingly, thirteen became a recurring number throughout her life, such as the thirteen-year gap between her overseas tours in Europe; principal photography for "The Merry Widow" had taken thirteen weeks to film; her first movie, "The Love Parade", was the number-one box-office draw for 13 weeks; MacDonald performed opera for the first time for a screen test thirteen years after meeting Newell (who was also on set); the thirteen-year gap between her and sister Blossom's death; and husband Gene Raymond's birthday was August 13.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: On sets, MacDonald would never lip-sync, instead singing along to song playbacks during filming, which Lew Ayres discovered when he starred alongside her in "Broadway Serenade", whereupon he was supplied with earplugs after the volume nauseated him.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: A recurrent issue throughout MacDonald's career was her health. Her handwritten letter from August, 1929 indicates that MacDonald, age 26, had recently suffered a heart attack. She also suffered from stage fright throughout her life to the point that her therapist told her to imagine that all of the members of the audience were lettuce. Due to her heart condition, she could not carry a pregnancy to term; she had blackouts and fainting spells, became stressed to the point of not being able to eat, and was frequently in and out of hospitals and trying different treatments (one being massage therapy), which only worked for a limited time. A few years before her death, MacDonald became a Religious Scientist. Her illnesses would not allow her to perform early morning filming shoots, much to her colleagues' annoyance.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald was a Republican, but she mostly avoided commenting on politics. When approached by the House Un-American Activities Committee about whether she had heard any gossip about Communist activity in Hollywood, she replied, "As at any focal point, there are some belligerents, but they are no more numerous than in any other community." Neither she nor Gene Raymond were ever considered or subpoenaed for a HUAC hearing; in a radio interview, MacDonald was quoted as saying, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" in response to what her opinion was on the investigations. She fired her manager Charles Wagner for anti-Semitic abuse of her Jewish friend Constance Hope, and declared during the 1940 presidential election, "I sing for Democrats and Republicans, black and white, everyone, and I just can't talk politics."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald met Jack Ohmeis (1901-1967) at a party during her appearance in "Tangerine". He was an architecture student at New York University and the son of a successful bottle manufacturer. His family was hesitant about the relationship, assuming that MacDonald was a gold-digger, but accepted her after they met. She and Ohmeis became engaged a year later, but their future plans and aspirations forced them to go their separate ways; the sudden death of MacDonald's father was another factor in the break-up. Unfortunately, the Ohmeis family would lose a lot of their fortune after the Wall Street Crash, so MacDonald loaned money to Jack, and he repaid her as soon as he could, which was as late as the 1950s. MacDonald next dated Irving Stone (1901-1968) from around 1926–28; they met when she was touring in Chicago in "The Magic Ring". Stone, who lived in Milwaukee, was the nephew of the founder of the Wisconsin Boston Store, and worked in the family business. Few details were known of Stone's romance with MacDonald until the discovery of hundreds of pages of handwritten love letters she wrote to him that were found in his apartment after his death, which happened three years after her death.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald eventually dated a Wall Street rep named Robert Ritchie (died 1972), 12 years her senior, who claimed that he was the son of a fallen millionaire. They traveled with MacDonald's family to Hollywood, and he became a press agent for MGM. Rumors circulated that they were engaged and/or secretly married, since Ritchie was by MacDonald's side during her European tour and they lived together—MacDonald even signing her return address as "JAR" (Jeanette Anna Ritchie) and referring to him as her "darling husband." Despite Ritchie's family claiming that he was married to MacDonald but the marriage had been annulled in 1935, he never confirmed the claims. He later relocated to Europe as an MGM representative, becoming responsible for recruiting Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, and Luise Rainer.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald married Gene Raymond in 1937. She met him at a Hollywood party two years earlier at Roszika Dolly's home; MacDonald agreed to a date, as long as it was at her family's dinner table. Despite the strong relationship, Raymond's mother did not like MacDonald, attempting to snub her a few times (such as arranging her son with Janet Gaynor as a plus-one at a charity ball), and did not attend the wedding. The Raymonds lived in a 21-room Mock Tudor mansion named Twin Gables with their pet dogs and their horse White Lady, which Raymond gave to MacDonald as a birthday present; after MacDonald's death, it was briefly owned by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and Papas. MacDonald often worried about her husband's self-esteem; his acting career was constantly shaky, and RKO Pictures eventually sold out his contract when he had two movies left to make with them in the 1950s. Although she appreciated his support, MacDonald wished that their success was equal.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Raymond was sometimes mistaken for Nelson Eddy by MacDonald's fans and passersby, which MacDonald later admitted that she never liked: "Of course we always laughed it off—sometimes Gene even obliged by signing Nelson's name—but no one will ever know the agonies I suffered on such occasions. More than anything else in the world those days, I wanted to see him receive as much acclaim as I, to spare him these humiliations." When she reunited with Chevalier in 1957, he asked her why she had retired from films, to which she replied, "Because for exactly twenty years I've played my best role, by his [Raymond's] side. And I'm perfectly happy."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald died at the Houston Methodist Hospital from heart failure on January 14, 1965, with Raymond by her hospital bed. Two years before, she had been assigned Dr. Michael DeBakey, who had recently operated successfully on the Duke of Windsor, in the hope that he could save her. Despite the surgery, MacDonald became ill with pleurisy the week after, and was in Houston Methodist Hospital for over a month. In December 1964, her condition worsened and she was rushed to UCLA Medical Center. DeBakey suggested open-heart surgery, and Raymond brought MacDonald into the hospital January 12. On the afternoon of the 14th, Raymond was at her bedside massaging her feet when she died. He said that their last conversation was when MacDonald said, "I love you," and he replied, "I love you too;" she then sighed deeply, and her head hit the pillow.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: The funeral took place on January 18. Along with close family and widower Raymond, it was notably attended by a handful of MacDonald's costars (such as Eddy, Allan Jones, Chevalier, Joe E. Brown, Spencer Tracy, Lloyd Nolan, etc.), representatives of her fan club, former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Senator George Murphy, former vice-president Richard Nixon, future governor & president Ronald Reagan, and Mary Pickford; Dr. Gene Emmet Clark of the Church of Religious Science officiated. Newsreel footage shows Nelson Eddy as the last person to exit the church, with Lauritz Melchior and other celebrities offering him condolences. MacDonald was interred in a pink-marbled crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, which reads "Jeanette MacDonald Raymond." Hers is next to Nat King Cole, and George Burns and Gracie Allen.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald was crowned as the Queen of the Movies in 1939 with Tyrone Power as her king. The ceremony was filmed and presented by Ed Sullivan.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald was named Philadelphia's Woman of the Year in 1961. Of the award, she said, "It is strange how awards, decorations, doctorates, etc., can be conferred from various parts of the country, and even the world. And yet, the funny satisfaction of being recognized in one's home town seems to be a more gratifying recognition than all."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Shortly after MacDonald's death, surviving classmates from her high school contributed a $150 donation in her name to the Children's Heart Hospital of Philadelphia.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: A bronze plaque for MacDonald was unveiled in March 1988 on the Philadelphia Music Alliance's Walk of Fame in Raymond's presence.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald began developing an autobiography in the 1950s. She wanted her readers to both be inspired by her career and understand how she had coped with balancing a public and personal life. In one early version she intended to candidly discuss Nelson Eddy but dropped that idea when Eddy feared public fallout. She hired and fired other ghostwriters and wrote a manuscript solo but it was rejected by the publisher for being "too genteel"; MacDonald refused to include many personal details about Eddy and she deleted already typed pages admitting to one single pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Her last ghost writer, Fredda Dudley Balling, noted that MacDonald was too ill to work more than a couple hours a day, so a final draft was never completed. The unfinished manuscript was published and annotated in 2004. MacDonald said that publishers wanted her to spice up her story. She refused to gossip about her colleagues and said she did not live that kind of life. In the last year of her life, despite declining health, she still was trying to find a publisher. An early version of the book, written with James Brough, is in the Cinematic Arts Library, Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Despite public denials from the stars themselves of any personal relationship between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, documentation shows otherwise. In a handwritten 1935 letter by Nelson to "Dearest Jeanette," written on his letterhead, Nelson Eddy writes: "I love you and will always be devoted to you."


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: In the biography "Sweethearts" by Sharon Rich, the author presents MacDonald and Eddy as continuing an adulterous affair after their marriages. Rich, who was a close friend of MacDonald's older sister Blossom Rock, also knew Gene Raymond, and documents that the relationship lasted—with a few breaks—until MacDonald's death. Newsreel footage from MacDonald's funeral shows Eddy as the last person exiting the chapel, circled by other celebrities, such as Lauritz Melchior, who offer him condolences.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald had a reported eight pregnancies by Eddy, the first while they were filming "Rose Marie". This was before she had an intimate relationship with Gene Raymond. Raymond was physically unable to father children, and MacDonald alluded to this fact in her unfinished autobiography, writing that she returned from her Hawaii honeymoon with Raymond with the knowledge and accurate admittance that "The MacRaymonds had no children." Nevertheless, MacDonald had additional, later, documented and visible pregnancies while married to Raymond, all of which ended in miscarriage.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Rich's findings also included documentation that Raymond physically and emotionally abused MacDonald, and had affairs as early as their honeymoon when MacDonald allegedly discovered Raymond in bed with Buddy Rogers. Raymond was arrested three times, the first in January 1938, as verified by a court document, and also in England during his army service, for his behavior. Raymond's wedding to MacDonald, orchestrated by Louis B. Mayer, forced MacDonald to become Raymond's "beard," and the 1938 arrest resulted in Mayer blacklisting him in Hollywood for almost two years.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Biographer E. J. Fleming also alleged that Eddy had confronted Raymond for abusing MacDonald, who was visibly pregnant with Eddy's child while filming "Sweethearts", which ended with Eddy attacking him and leaving him for dead, though newspapers reported Raymond was recovering from a fall down the stairs.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: At that time Mayer adamantly refused to allow MacDonald to annul her marriage and elope. The situation ended with MacDonald losing her baby at nearly 6 months. The boy was named Daniel Kendrick Eddy, and Nelson buried him (or his ashes) on private property in Ojai, California.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Over the decades, MacDonald and Eddy privately occupied several homes together. In 1938, they had a small Burbank house located at 812 S. Mariposa Street in Burbank. In the 1940s, Nelson leased and remodeled for himself and MacDonald the old cowboy bunkhouse at 1330 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills. Starting in 1947, they used 710 N. Camden Drive, which had been the home of MacDonald's mother until her death. They also alternately stayed at favorite hotels and homes across the country owned by celebrity friends including Lily Pons and Irene Dunne. In 1963, MacDonald and Raymond moved into two adjoining apartments at the Wilshire Comstock in Westwood, on the 8th floor in the East building. Nelson Eddy had his own apartment on the 7th floor of the West building, and allowed MacDonald to decorate it; they used it as a rendezvous spot until she was too weak to walk the few yards over to his building. (After Eddy's death, his widow Ann learned of the apartment and moved into it.)


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: Forbidden to marry early on by MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, MacDonald and Eddy performed a mock wedding ceremony at Lake Tahoe while filming Rose Marie. They considered that "by God's laws" they were married, although they were never able to do so legally. Every autumn, they returned to Lake Tahoe to renew their vows. As late as 1948, MacDonald's desk diary has a "Lake Tahoe" entry. After their 1943 visit, Eddy wrote a lengthy diary entry about their trip and his love for her, calling her "my wife," which he did in private to the end of her life.


title: Jeanette MacDonald

text: MacDonald performed and recorded more than 50 songs during her career, working exclusively for RCA Victor in the United States. She also did some early recordings for HMV in England and France while she was there on a concert tour in 1931. She earned three gold records, one for the LP album, "Favorites in Stereo" that she did with Nelson Eddy in 1959.


title: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

text: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 is the second studio album by American rapper Jay-Z. It was released on November 4, 1997, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAA, selling over 138,000 copies in its first week of release. "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1" also served as Jay-Z's first album release following the sudden death of fellow Brooklyn rapper and collaborator The Notorious B.I.G. in March 1997.


title: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

text: The album features guest contributions by Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Babyface, Blackstreet, Teddy Riley, Too $hort, Sauce Money and Puff Daddy. Producers for "Reasonable Doubt" such as DJ Premier and Ski contribute to a limited number of beats on this album, though the majority of the production is handled by Puff Daddy's production team The Hitmen from the Bad Boy label, giving the album a generally glossier sound than its predecessor. It displayed a shift from the mafioso rap themes of "Reasonable Doubt" to the so-called "jiggy" era of late 90s hip-hop, often credited to videos and albums from Puff Daddy and his Bad Boy record label's roster of artists including Notorious B.I.G. (the first two singles from his second album were both huge pop hits) and Mase. ""Reasonable Doubt" was like an introduction," Jay-Z told MTV News. "Like, you know, meeting somebody out on the street... Everything, your whole conversation is very general, not too much detail and things like that. Its just that 'In My Lifetime' is more detailed, more in-depth. Much more personal".


title: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

text: In a 1998 interview with MTV News, Jay-Z explained how the death of fellow Brooklyn rapper and collaborator The Notorious B.I.G. shaped parts of "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1". In the interview, he explained how the album was not as fun to record as his debut, "Reasonable Doubt" (1996), and that certain tracks, such as "The City is Mine", were influenced by the rapper's death.


title: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

text: In a contemporary review, Steve Jones of "USA Today" called "In My Lifetime" "a rock-solid set with both street and pop appeal". "Chicago Tribune" critic Soren Baker believed Jay-Z's lyrics "contain a finesse and insight few can articulate as succinctly", while writing that "his use of pop producers Teddy Riley and Sean 'Puffy' Combs will alienate listeners, even as Jay-Z establishes himself as that rare underground rhymer with commercial appeal". Robert Christgau gave the album a two-star honorable mention in his 2000 "Consumer Guide" book, indicating a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy". He named "(Always Be My) Sunshine" and "Real Niggaz" as highlights while calling Jay-Z "arrogant yet diffident, ruthless yet cute—a scary original". Chris Norris of "Spin" said Jay-Z's raps are often "in search of meaty ideas or distinctive charm—skills without pleasure", and was also critical of the production. "Without one sure, guiding vision," Norris wrote, "the Combs blueprint comes off as either mundane or embarrassing".


title: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

text: AllMusic editor John Bush wrote in a retrospective review, "Though the productions are just a bit flashier and more commercial than on his debut, Jay-Z remained the tough street rapper, and even improved a bit on his flow". According to Bush, he "struts the line between project poet and up-and-coming player" while balancing "both personas with the best rapping heard in the rap game since the deaths of 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.".


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion during the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The intellectual arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia, bigotry, pontification, abuses of women's rights and sectarianism.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: In the early years of Christianity, the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry emerged as one of the major critics with his book "Against the Christians", along with other writers like Celsus and Julian. Porphyry argued that Christianity was based on false prophecies that had not yet materialized. Following the adoption of Christianity under the Roman Empire, dissenting religious voices were gradually suppressed by both governments and ecclesiastical authorities - however Christianity did face theological criticisms from other Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Islam in the meantime, such as Maimonides who argued that it was idolatry. A millennium later, the Protestant Reformation led to a fundamental split in European Christianity and rekindled critical voices about the Christian faith, both internally and externally. With the Age of Enlightenment, Christianity was criticized by major thinkers and philosophers, such as Voltaire, David Hume, Thomas Paine, and the Baron d'Holbach. The central theme of these critiques sought to negate the historical accuracy of the Christian Bible and focused on the perceived corruption of Christian religious authorities. Other thinkers, like Immanuel Kant, launched systematic and comprehensive critiques of Christian theology by attempting to refute arguments for theism.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: In modern times, Christianity has faced substantial criticism from a wide array of political movements and ideologies. In the late eighteenth century, the French Revolution saw a number of politicians and philosophers criticizing traditional Christian doctrines, precipitating a wave of secularism in which hundreds of churches were closed down and thousands of priests were deported or killed. Following the French Revolution, prominent philosophers of liberalism and communism, such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, criticized Christian doctrine on the grounds that it was conservative and anti-democratic. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that Christianity fosters a kind of slave morality which suppresses the desires which are contained in the human will. The Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and several other modern revolutionary movements have also led to the criticism of Christian ideas.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: The formal response of Christians to such criticisms is described as Christian apologetics. Philosophers like Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas have been some of the most prominent defenders of the Christian religion since its foundation.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Biblical criticism, in particular higher criticism, covers a variety of methods which have been used since the Enlightenment in the early 18th century as scholars began to apply the same methods and perspectives which had already been applied to other literary and philosophical texts to biblical documents. It is an umbrella term which covers various techniques which are mainly used by mainline and liberal Christian theologians to study the meaning of biblical passages. It uses general historical principles, and it is primarily based on reason rather than revelation or faith. There are four primary types of biblical criticism:


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Within the abundance of biblical manuscripts exist a number of textual variants. The vast majority of these textual variants are the inconsequential misspelling of words, word order variations and the mistranscription of abbreviations. Text critics such as Bart D. Ehrman have proposed that some of these textual variants and interpolations were theologically motivated. Ehrman's conclusions and textual variant choices have been challenged by some conservative evangelical reviewers, including Daniel B. Wallace, Craig Blomberg, and Thomas Howe.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: In attempting to determine the original text of the New Testament books, some modern textual critics have identified sections as probably not original. In modern translations of the Bible, the results of textual criticism have led to certain verses being left out or marked as not original. These possible later additions include the following:


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: In "The Text Of The New Testament", Kurt and Barbara Aland compare the total number of variant-free verses, and the number of variants per page (excluding orthographic errors), among the seven major editions of the Greek NT (Tischendorf, Westcott-Hort, von Soden, Vogels, Merk, Bover and Nestle-Aland) concluding 62.9%, or 4999/7947, agreement. They concluded,Thus in nearly two-thirds of the New Testament text, the seven editions of the Greek New Testament which we have reviewed are in complete accord, with no differences other than in orthographical details (e.g., the spelling of names, etc.). Verses in which any one of the seven editions differs by a single word are not counted. This result is quite amazing, demonstrating a far greater agreement among the Greek texts of the New Testament during the past century than textual scholars would have suspected... In the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation the agreement is less, while in the letters it is much greater.With the discovery of the Hebrew Bible texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls, questions have been raised about the textual accuracy of the Masoretic text.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Inconsistencies have been pointed out by critics and skeptics, presenting as difficulties the different numbers and names for the same feature and different sequences for what is supposed to be the same event. Responses to these criticisms include the modern documentary hypothesis, two-source hypothesis (in various guises), and assertions that the Pastoral Epistles are pseudonymous. Contrasting with these critical stances are positions supported by traditionalists, considering the texts to be consistent, with the Torah written by a single source, but the Gospels by four independent witnesses, and all of the Pauline Epistles, except possibly the Hebrews, as having been written by Paul the Apostle.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: While consideration of the context is necessary when studying the Bible, some find the accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus within the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, difficult to reconcile. E. P. Sanders concludes that the inconsistencies make the possibility of a deliberate fraud unlikely: "A plot to foster belief in the Resurrection would probably have resulted in a more consistent story. Instead, there seems to have been a competition: 'I saw him,' 'So did I,' 'The women saw him first,' 'No, I did; they didn't see him at all,' and so on."


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Harold Lindsell points out that it is a "gross distortion" to state that people who believe in biblical inerrancy suppose every statement made in the Bible is true (opposed to accurate). He indicates there are expressly false statements in the Bible which are reported accurately (for example, Satan is a liar whose lies are accurately reported as to what he actually said). Proponents of biblical inerrancy generally do not teach that the Bible was dictated directly by God, but that God used the "distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers" of scripture and that God's inspiration guided them to flawlessly project his message through their own language and personality.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Those who believe in the inspiration of scripture teach that it is infallible (or inerrant), that is, free from error in the truths it expresses by its character as the word of God. However, the scope of what this encompasses is disputed, as the term includes 'faith and practice' positions, with some denominations holding that the historical or scientific details, which may be irrelevant to matters of faith and Christian practice, may contain errors. Other scholars take stronger views, but for a few verses these positions require more exegetical work, leading to dispute (compare the serious debate over the related issue of "perspicuity", attracting biblical and philosophical discussion).


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Infallibility refers to the original texts of the Bible, and all mainstream scholars acknowledge the potential for human error in transmission and translation; yet, through use of textual criticism modern (critical) copies are considered to "faithfully represent the original", and our understanding of the original language sufficiently well for accurate translation. The opposing view is that there is too much corruption, or translation too difficult, to agree with modern texts.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, Jewish prophets promised that a messiah would come. Judaism claims that Jesus did not fulfill these prophecies. Other skeptics usually claim that the prophecies are either vague or unfulfilled, or that the Old Testament writings influenced the composition of New Testament narratives. Christian apologists claim that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, which they argue are nearly impossible to fulfill by chance. Many Christians anticipate the Second Coming of Jesus, when he will fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy, such as the Last Judgment, the general resurrection, establishment of the Kingdom of God, and the Messianic Age (see the article on Preterism for contrasting Christian views).


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: Christian preachers reply to this argument by stating that these prophecies will be fulfilled by Jesus in the Millennial Reign after the Great Tribulation, according to New Testament prophecies, especially in the Book of Revelation.


title: Criticism of Christianity

text: The 16th-century Jewish theologian Isaac ben Abraham, who lived in Trakai, Lithuania, penned a work called "Chizzuk Emunah" ("Faith Strengthened") that attempted to refute the ideas that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament and that Christianity was the "New Covenant" of God. He systematically identified a number of inconsistencies in the New Testament, contradictions between the New Testament and the Old Testament, and Old Testament prophesies which remained unfulfilled in Jesus' lifetime. In addition, he questioned a number of Christian practices, such as Sunday Sabbath. Written originally for Jews to persuade them not to convert to Christianity, the work was eventually read by Christians. While the well-known Christian Hebraist Johann Christoph Wagenseil attempted an elaborate refutation of Abraham's arguments, Wagenseil's Latin translation of it only increased interest in the work and inspired later Christian freethinkers. "Chizzuk Emunah" was praised as a masterpiece by Voltaire.