title: Yue Fei

text: Scholars were always welcome in Yue Fei's camp. He allowed them to come and tell stories and deeds of past heroes to bolster the resolve of his men. This way he was able to teach them about the warriors that he had constructed his own life after. He also hoped that one of these scholars would record his own deeds so he would become a peer amongst his idols. He is recorded in saying that he wished to be considered the equal of Guan Yu and other such famous men from the Three Kingdoms period. Yue succeeded in this endeavor since later "official mythology" placed him on the same level as Guan Yu.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue was careful to conduct himself as the ideal Confucian gentleman at all times for fear that any misconduct would be recorded and criticized by people of later dynasties. However he had his faults. He had a problem with alcohol during the early part of his military career. Yue drank in great excess because he believed it fitted the image of heroes of old. However once he nearly killed a colleague in a drunken rage, the emperor made him promise not to drink any more until the Jurchen invaders had been driven away.


title: Yue Fei

text: According to "Shuo Yue Quanzhuan", Yue had five sons and one daughter. The "History of Song" records that Yue Yun (; 1119–1142) was adopted by Yue Fei at the age of 12 whilst others claim he was his biological son; Yue Lei (), the second, succeeded to his father's post; Yue Ting () was the third; Yue Lin () was the fourth; and Yue Zhen (), the fifth, was still young at the time of his father's death. Yue Yinping was Yue Fei's daughter. The novel states she committed suicide after her father's death and became a fairy in heaven. However, history books do not mention her name and therefore she should be considered a fictional character. Yue Fei married the daughter of Magistrate Li in 1119 when he was 16 years old. However, the account of his marriage is fictional.


title: Yue Fei

text: The "Biography of Yue Fei" states that Yue left his ailing mother with his first wife while he went to fight the Jin armies. However she "left him (and his mother) and remarried". He later took a second wife and even discussed "affairs" pertaining to his military career with her. He truly loved her, but his affection for her was second to his desire to rid China of the Jurchen invaders. Her faithfulness to him and his mother was strengthened by the fear that any infidelity or lacking in her care of Lady Yue would result in reprisal.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue forbade his sons from having concubines, although he almost took one himself. Even though she was presented by a friend, he did not accept her because she laughed when he asked her if she could "share the hardships of camp life" with him. He knew she was liberal and would have sex with the other soldiers.


title: Yue Fei

text: Though not mentioned in the memoir written by Yue Fei's grandson, some scholarly sources claim Yue had a younger brother named Yue Fan (). He later served in the army under his brother and died in battle in 1132.


title: Yue Fei

text: The son of an impoverished farmer from northern China, Yue Fei joined the Song military in 1122. Yue briefly left the army when his father died in 1123, but returned in 1126. After reenlisting, he fought to suppress rebellions by local Chinese warlords responsible for looting in northern China. Local uprisings had diverted needed resources away from the Song's war against the Jin. Yue participated in defending Kaifeng during the second siege of the city by the Jin in 1127. After Kaifeng fell, he joined an army in Jiankang tasked with defending the Yangtze. This army prevented the Jurchens from advancing to the river in 1129. His rising reputation as a military leader attracted the attention of the Song court. In 1133, he was made the general of the largest army near the Central Yangtze. Between 1134 and 1135, he led a counteroffensive against Qi, a puppet state supported by the Jin, and secured territories that had been conquered by the Jurchens. He continued to advance in rank, and to increase the size of his army as he repeatedly led successful offensives into northern China. Several other generals were also successful against the Jin dynasty, and their combined efforts secured the survival of the Song dynasty. Yue, like most of them, was committed to recapturing northern China.


title: Yue Fei

text: "Stone Lake: The Poetry of Fan Chengda 1126–1193" states, "...Yue Fei ([1103]-1141)...repelled the enemy assaults in 1133 and 1134, until in 1135 the now confident Song army was in a position to recover all of north China from the Jin dynasty ... [In 1140,] Yue Fei initiated a general counterattack against the Jin armies, defeating one enemy after another until he set up camp within range of the Northern Song dynasty's old capital city, Kaifeng, in preparation for the final assault against the enemy. Yet in the same year Qin [Hui] ordered Yue Fei to abandon his campaign, and in 1141 Yue Fei was summoned back to the Southern Song capital. It is believed that the emperor then ordered Yue Fei to be hanged."


title: Yue Fei

text: In 1126, several years before Yue became a general, the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty invaded northern China, forcing the Song dynasty out of its capital Kaifeng and capturing Emperor Qinzong of Song, who was sent into captivity in Huining Prefecture. This marked the end of the Northern Song dynasty, and the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty under Emperor Gaozong.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue fought a long campaign against the invading Jurchen in an effort to retake northern China. Just as he was threatening to attack and retake Kaifeng, officials advised Emperor Gaozong to recall Yue to the capital and sue for peace with the Jurchen. Fearing that a defeat at Kaifeng might cause the Jurchen to release Emperor Qinzong, threatening his claim to the throne, Emperor Gaozong followed their advice, sending 12 orders in the form of 12 gold plaques to Yue Fei, recalling him back to the capital. Knowing that a success at Kaifeng could lead to internal strife, Yue submitted to the emperor's orders and returned to the capital, where he was imprisoned and where Qin Hui would eventually arrange for him to be executed on false charges.


title: Yue Fei

text: There are conflicting views on how Yue died. According to "The History of China: (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)" and other sources, Yue died in prison. The "Chronicle of Yue, Prince of E of Song" says he was killed in prison. "Shuo Yue Quanzhuan" states he was strangled to death. It reads, "...[Yue Fei] strode in long steps to the Pavilion of Winds and Waves ... The warders on both sides picked up the ropes and strangled the three men [Yue Fei, Yue Yun, and Zhang Xian (), Yue's subordinate] without further ado ... At the time Lord Yue was 39 years of age and the young lord Yue Yun 23. When the three men returned to Heaven, suddenly a fierce wind rose up wildly and all the fires and lights were extinguished. Black mists filled the sky and sand and pebbles were blown about."


title: Yue Fei

text: The "Secrets of Eagle Claw Kung Fu: Ying Jow Pai" comments, "Finally, [Yue Fei] received the 'Twelfth Golden Edict' [from the emperor calling him back to the capital], which if ignored meant banishment. Patriotism demanded that he obey. On his way back to the capital he stopped to rest at a pavilion. Qin Hui anticipated Yue Fei's route and sent some men to lie in wait. When Yue Fei arrived, Qin's men ambushed and murdered him. Just 39 years old, Yue Fei like many good men in history, had a swift, brilliant career, then died brutally while still young."


title: Yue Fei

text: According to "A Chinese Biographical Dictionary", "[Father and son] had not been two months in confinement when Qin Hui resolved to rid himself of his enemy. He wrote out with his own hand an order for the execution of Yue Fei, which was forthwith carried into effect; whereupon he immediate reported that Yue Fei had died in prison", which meant that Qin Hui had Yue and his son executed but reported they both died in captivity.


title: Yue Fei

text: Other sources say he was poisoned to death. Still, a great number simply say he was executed, murdered, or "treacherously assassinated".


title: Yue Fei

text: After Yue's execution, a prison officer, Wei Shun (), who admired Yue's character, stole his body and secretly buried it at the Nine Song Cong Temple () located outside the Song capital.


title: Yue Fei

text: "Shuo Yue Quanzhuan" states after having Yue Fei, Yue Yun, Zhang Xian arrested under false charges, Qin Hui and his wife, Lady Wang (), were sitting by the "eastern window", warming themselves by the fire, when he received a letter from the people calling for the release of Yue Fei. Qin was worried because after nearly two months of torture, he could not get Yue to admit to treason and would eventually have to let him go. However, after a servant girl brought fresh oranges into the room, Lady Wang devised a plan to execute Yue. She told Qin to slip an execution notice inside the skin of an orange and send it to the judge presiding over Yue's case. This way, Yue and his companions would be put to death before the emperor or Qin himself would have to rescind an open order of execution. This conspiracy became known as the "East Window Plot". A novel about this incident, titled "Dong Chuang Ji" (; "Tale of the Eastern Window"), was written during the Ming dynasty by an anonymous writer.


title: Yue Fei

text: When confronted by Han Shizhong on what crime Yue had committed, Qin Hui replied, "Though it isn't sure whether there is something that he did to betray the dynasty, maybe there is." The phrase "perhaps there is", "no reason needed", "groundless", or "baseless" () has entered Chinese language as a proverb to refer to fabricated charges, which also means 'trumped-up charge', 'setup', 'frameup', or 'concocted charge', in English language. There is a poem hanging on the gate surrounding the statues that reads, "The green hill is fortunate to be the burial ground of a loyal general, the white iron was innocent to be cast into the statues of traitors."


title: Yue Fei

text: Decades later, his grandson, Yue Ke (), had retrieved documentary evidence of his grandfather's achievements, and published an adulatory biography of him. In 1162 Emperor Xiaozong of Song posthumously pardoned and rehabilitated his honours. For their part in Yue's death, iron statues of Qin Hui, Lady Wang, and two of Qin's subordinates, Moqi Xie () and Zhang Jun (), were made to kneel before Yue Fei's tomb (located by the West Lake, Hangzhou). For centuries, these statues have been cursed, spat and urinated upon by people. The original castings in bronze were damaged, but later were replaced by images cast in iron, but these were similarly damaged. However now, in modern times, these statues are protected as historical relics. Emperor Xiaozong's court gave proper burial to his remains after Wei Shun's family revealed its location; Wei Shun was then posthumously honored at Yue Fei's hometown at Tangyin County, and a statue of him was made standing at its Yue Fei Temple. A [tomb] was put up in his memory, and he was designated "Wumu" (; "Martial and Stern"). In 1179 he was canonized as "Zhongwu" (; "Loyal and Martial").


title: Yue Fei

text: According to the novel "Xi You Bu", a satire of "Journey to the West", written in 1641 by the scholar Dong Ruoyu (also known as Dong Yue, 1620–1686), the Monkey King enthusiastically serves in hell as the trial prosecutor of Qin Hui, while Yue Fei becomes the Monkey King's third master (by teaching the latter Confucian methods). At one point, the Monkey King asks the spirit of Yue Fei if he would like to drink Qin's blood, but he politely declined.


title: Yue Fei

text: The two styles most associated with Yue are Eagle Claw and Xingyi boxing. One book states Yue created Eagle Claw for his enlisted soldiers and Xingyi for his officers. Legend has it that Yue studied in the Shaolin Monastery with a monk named Zhou Tong and learned the "elephant" style of boxing, a set of hand techniques with great emphasis on "qinna" (joint-locking). Other tales say he learned this style elsewhere outside the temple under the same master. Yue eventually expanded elephant style to create the "Yibai Lingba Qinna" (; "108 Locking Hand Techniques") of the "Ying Sao" (Eagle Hands) or "Ying Kuen" (Eagle Fist). After becoming a general in the imperial army, Yue taught this style to his men and they were very successful in battle against the armies of the Jin dynasty. Following his wrongful execution and the disbandment of his armies, Yue's men supposedly traveled all over China spreading the style, which eventually ended right back in Shaolin where it began. Later, a monk named Li Quan () combined this style with Fanziquan, another style attributed to Yue, to create the modern day form of Northern Ying Jow Pai boxing.


title: Yue Fei

text: According to legend, Yue combined his knowledge of internal martial arts and spearplay learned from Zhou Tong (in Shaolin) to create the linear fist attacks of Xingyi boxing. One book claims he studied and synthesized Buddhism's Tendon Changing and Marrow Washing qigong systems to create Xingyi. On the contrary, proponents of Wudangquan believe it is possible that Yue learned the style in the Wudang Mountains that border his home province of Henan. The reasons they cite for this conclusion are that he supposedly lived around the same time and place as Zhang Sanfeng, the founder of t'ai chi; Xingyi's five fist attacks, which are based on the Five Chinese Elements theory, are similar to tai-chi's "Yin-yang theory"; and both theories are Taoist-based and not Buddhist. The book "Henan Orthodox Xingyi Quan", written by Pei Xirong () and Li Ying'ang (), states Xingyi master Dai Longbang


title: Yue Fei

text: ... wrote the 'Preface to Six Harmonies Boxing' in the 15th reign year of the Qianlong Emperor [1750]. Inside it says, '... when [Yue Fei] was a child, he received special instructions from Zhou Tong. He became extremely skilled in the spear method. He used the spear to create methods for the fist. He established a method called Yi Quan" [意拳]." Mysterious and unfathomable, followers of old did not have these skills. Throughout the Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties few had his art. Only Ji Gong had it. ()


title: Yue Fei

text: The "Ji Gong" mentioned above, better known as "Ji Jike" () or "Ji Longfeng" (), is said to have trained in Shaolin Monastery for ten years as a young man and was matchless with the spear. As the story goes, he later traveled to Xongju Cave on Mount Zhongnan to receive a boxing manual written by Yue Fei, from which he learned Xingyi. However, some believe Ji actually created the style himself and attributed it to Yue Fei because he was fighting the Manchus, descendants of the Jurchens who Yue had struggled against. Ji supposedly created it after watching a battle between an eagle and a bear during the Ming dynasty. Other sources say he created it while training in Shaolin. He was reading a book and looked up to see two roosters fighting, which inspired him to imitate the fighting styles of animals. Both versions of the story (eagle / bear and roosters) state he continued to study the actions of animals and eventually increased the cadre of animal forms.


title: Yue Fei

text: Several other martial arts have been attributed to Yue Fei, including Yuejiaquan (Yue Family Boxing), Fanziquan (Tumbling Boxing), and Chuōjiǎo quan (Feet-Poking Boxing), among others. The "Fanzi Boxing Ballad" says: "Wumu has passed down the Fanziquan which has mystery in its straightforward movements." "Wumu" () was a posthumous name given to Yue after his death. One Chuojiao legend states Zhou Tong learned the style from its creator, a wandering Taoist named Deng Liang (), and later passed it onto Yue Fei, who is considered to be the progenitor of the style.


title: Yue Fei

text: Besides martial arts, Yue is also said to have studied traditional Chinese medicine. He understood the essence of Hua Tuo's "Wu Qin Xi" (; "Five Animal Frolics") and created his own form of "medical qigong" known as the "Ba Duan Jin" (; "Eight Pieces of Brocade"). It is considered a form of "Waidan" (; "External Elixir") medical qigong.


title: Yue Fei

text: He taught this qigong to his soldiers to help keep their bodies strong and well-prepared for battle. One legend states that Zhou Tong took young Yue to meet a Buddhist hermit who taught him "Emei Dapeng" Qigong (). His training in Dapeng Qigong was the source of his great strength and martial arts abilities. Modern practitioners of this style say it was passed down by Yue.


title: Yue Fei

text: According to "Shuo Yue Quanzhuan", Lin Chong and Lu Junyi of the 108 outlaws in "Water Margin" were former students of Yue's teacher Zhou Tong. One legend states Zhou learned Chuōjiǎo boxing from its originator Deng Liang () and then passed it onto Yue Fei, who is sometimes considered the progenitor of the style. Chuojiao is also known as the "Water Margin Outlaw style" and "Yuanyang Tui" (; "Mandarin Duck Leg"). In chapter 29 of "Water Margin", titled "Wu Song beats Jiang the Door God in a drunken stupor", it mentions Wu Song, another of Zhou's fictional students, using the "Jade Circle-Steps with Duck and Drake feet". A famous folklore Praying Mantis manuscript, which describes the fictional gathering of eighteen martial arts masters in Shaolin, lists Lin Chong (#13) as a master of "Mandarin ducks kicking technique". This creates a folklore connection between Yue and Mantis boxing.


title: Yue Fei

text: Lineage Mantis master Yuen Man Kai openly claims Zhou Tong taught Lin Chong and Lu Junyi the "same school" of martial arts that was later combined with the aforementioned seventeen other schools to create Mantis fist. However, he believes Mantis fist was created during the Ming dynasty, and was therefore influenced by these eighteen schools from the Song dynasty. He also says Lu Junyi taught Yan Qing the same martial arts as he learned from Zhou Tong. Yuen further comments that Zhou Tong later taught Yue Fei the same martial art and that Yue was the originator of the mantis move "Black Tiger Stealing Heart".


title: Yue Fei

text: At the age of 30, Yue supposedly wrote his most celebrated poem, "Man Jiang Hong" ("Entirely Red River") with a subtitle of "Xie Huai" ("Writing about What I Thought"). This poem reflects the raw hatred he felt towards the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty, as well as the sorrow he felt when his efforts to recoup northern lands lost to Jin were halted by Southern Song officials of the "Peace Faction". However, several modern historians, including the late Princeton University Prof. James T. C. Liu, believe certain phrasing in the poem dates its creation to the early 16th century, meaning Yue did "not" write it.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue Fei is also the author of at least two other poems, "Xiao Chong Shan" ("Small Hills") and another "Man Jiang Hong" with a subtitle of "Deng Huang He Lou You Gan" ("My Feelings When I Was Climbing the Yellow Crane Pavilion").


title: Yue Fei

text: Among Yue Fei's descendants was Yue Shenglong () and his son the Qing dynasty official Yue Zhongqi, who served as Minister of Defence and Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor. Yue Zhongqi conquered Tibet for the Qing during the Dzungar–Qing War and attacked the Dzungars at Ürümqi in Xinjiang. The Oirats were battled against by Yue Zhongqi. Yue Zhongqi lived at the Ji Xiaolan Residence.


title: Yue Fei

text: Another notable descendant of Yue Fei was Yue Yiqin, a flying ace of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.


title: Yue Fei

text: In 2011, two Yue descendants, Yue Jun and Yue Haijun, with six members of their clan, protested Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum's Qin Hui statue, which indicates that even after centuries, the Yue family still hates Qin Hui and his conspirators for their ancestors' plights. It is also reportedly that the Yue family members were not allowed to marry anyone whose surname was also Qin until 1949, and hardly anyone break this rule prior to it being nulled. By 2017, it is reported that Yue Fei's descendants are 1.81 million people in China, and only Yue Fei's descendants in Anhui Province have grown to more than 1.003 million.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue Fei's stature in Chinese history rose to that of a national folk hero after his execution. Qin Hui, and in some cases Emperor Gaozong, were blamed by later historians for their supposed role in Yue Fei's execution and conciliatory stance with the Jin dynasty. The allegations that Qin Hui conspired with the Jin to execute Yue Fei are popular in Chinese literature, but have never been proven. The real Yue Fei differed from the later myths that grew from his exploits. The portrayal of Yue as a scholar-general is only partially true. He was a skilled general, and may have been partially literate in Classical Chinese, but he was not an erudite Confucian scholar. Contrary to traditional legends, Yue was not the sole Chinese general engaged in the offensive against the Jurchens. He was one of many generals that fought against the Jin in northern China, and unlike Yue Fei, some of his peers were genuine members of the scholarly elite. Many of the exaggerations of Yue Fei's life can be traced to a biography written by his grandson, Yue Ke. Yue Fei's status as a folk hero strengthened in the Yuan dynasty and had a large impact on Chinese culture. Temples and shrines devoted to Yue Fei were constructed in the Ming dynasty. A Chinese World War II anthem alludes to lyrics said to have been written by Yue Fei.


title: Yue Fei

text: At certain points in time, Yue Fei ceased to be a national hero, such as in 2002, when the official guidelines for history teachers said that he could no longer carry the title. This was because Yue Fei had defended China from the Jurchen people, who are presently considered to be a part of the Chinese nation. Therefore, concern for the "unity of nationalities" in China prevailed, as Yue Fei was seen as representing only one subgroup within China, and not the "entire Chinese nation as presently defined". However, both the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Minister of Defence deny such claims and still clearly address Yue Fei as a national hero of China. The Chinese Communist Party also continues to treat Yue Fei as a national hero of China.


title: Yue Fei

text: The ROCS "Yueh Fei" (FFG-1106), a "Cheng Kung"-class guided-missile frigate of the Republic of China Navy, is named after Yue.


title: Yue Fei

text: The author Guy Gavriel Kay cites Yue Fei as having inspired the character Ren Daiyan in his novel "River of Stars" (), which is set in a fantasy world based on Song Dynasty China.


title: Yue Fei

text: Yue Fei is one of the 32 historical figures who appear as special characters in the video game "Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI" by Koei.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved in conservative causes. Her father, billionaire Robert Mercer, said in November 2017 that he had sold his stake in the news site Breitbart to his daughters. In August 2018, she funded and co-founded the social networking service Parler.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer is the daughter of Diana Lynne (Dean) and billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer; Rebekah is the second of the Mercers' three daughters. She was raised in Yorktown Heights, a suburb of New York. Mercer enrolled at Cornell before transferring to Stanford University where she studied biology and mathematics and earned a master's degree in 1999 from Stanford in management science and engineering. She worked as a Wall Street trader at Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund her father has helped lead. Mercer and her sisters also purchased Ruby et Violette, which sells cookies and brownies through its website.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer first became widely known in conservative circles in 2012 after Mitt Romney's defeat in the presidential election. She spoke to a group of wealthy conservative donors at New York's University Club about what the GOP had done wrong in canvassing and technology operations during the election cycle.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer helped start Reclaim New York with Steve Bannon in 2013. The organization trains citizens to watch their government closely, and uses freedom of information laws to force the New York government to disclose public spending.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: A September 2016 "Politico" headline called her "the most powerful woman in GOP politics." She has been more aligned with the anti-establishment part of the GOP than most other big Republican donors. Newsmax Media owner Christopher Ruddy called her the "First Lady of the Alt-Right".


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer supported Mitt Romney in 2012 and Ted Cruz for the 2016 presidential election. After Trump won the GOP nomination, she and her father switched their support to him. Mercer supported Jeff Sessions for Secretary of State over Mitt Romney.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: During the 2016 U.S. presidential primaries, Mercer led Keep the Promise I, a Super PAC (political action committee) which was the largest outside benefactor of Ted Cruz.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In June 2016 after Trump won the primary, Mercer created the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, and ran the daily operations. The PAC was incorporated with the name Make America Number 1 at the Federal Election Commission and supported Donald Trump in the general election including making anti-Clinton ads.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Mercer proposed creating a searchable database for Hillary Clinton's e-mails in the public domain and then forwarded this suggestion to several people, including Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, who e-mailed a request to Julian Assange for Clinton's emails. Assange responded to the report by saying he denied Nix's request. Mercer worked with Steve Bannon to create the film "Clinton Cash". She has consulted extensively with former Democratic strategist and pollster Patrick Caddell on campaigns.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: The Mercers stood behind Trump after the famous Access Hollywood tape was leaked in late 2016, dismissing Trump's claim of grabbing women's genitals against their will as "locker room braggadocio."


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Although initially a supporter of Ted Cruz in the 2016 presidential election, Mercer aimed her support at GOP candidate Donald Trump in June 2016 after Cruz lost the primary. Mercer directs the Mercer Family Foundation and served on the Executive Committee of the transition team of United States President-elect Donald Trump.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In the Trump transition, Mercer helped in successfully lobbying against Mitt Romney as secretary of state and for Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general. People close to the transition said she had not favored Corey Lewandowski as possible Republican National Committee chair and that Lewandowski had reportedly resisted paying for services from data firm Cambridge Analytica–a company funded by the Mercers–early in the campaign, though a close associate of Mercer's denied the stories. Paul Manafort, Kellyanne Conway's predecessor as campaign director, was also said to be critical of Cambridge Analytica, which had worked for Ted Cruz and was financially backed by the Mercers. Conway reportedly said that after the inauguration, the expectation was that Mercer was likely to lead an outside group, funded by her father, aimed at bolstering Trump's agenda. It was assumed that Cambridge Analytica would also assist the group's efforts.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In 2010, Mercer bought six adjoining apartment units in Donald Trump's 41-story Heritage at Trump Place.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: The Mercers first introduced Steve Bannon to Trump. Mercer helped create the film "Clinton Cash" with Bannon, a top political adviser to Trump at the time. She has been one of Bannon's main financial contributors.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In late 2017, Bannon told several conservative donors that Mercer had pledged her financial support if he decided to run for president in 2020 against Trump. However, Mercer was frustrated by his comments to the media and disagreed with his public comments in support for Roy Moore, who was under fire for sexual misconduct allegations involving young girls. In January 2018 a person familiar with conversations between Mercer and Bannon said Mercer would no longer back Bannon financially. Mercer herself said that she had not spoken to Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, in many months and that she continued to support President Trump.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer and her father, Robert Mercer were key financial benefactors for Breitbart News. Larry Solov, the CEO of Breitbart, said in February 2017 that they are part-owners. Robert Mercer announced in November 2017 that he had sold his stake in the website to his daughters.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Cambridge Analytica was a privately held data mining and data analysis company with financial backing from the Mercers. The Mercers invested in the company after Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election. On May 1, 2018, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company filed for insolvency proceedings and closed operations. Alexander Tayler, a former director for Cambridge Analytica, was appointed director of Emerdata on March 28, 2018. Rebekah Mercer, Jennifer Mercer, Alexander Nix and who has links to Erik Prince are in leadership positions at Emerdata.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In May 2022, Mercer was credited with creating the RAM Veterans Foundation, named in honor of Robert Alexander Mercer who died in France during World War II. RAM Veterans Foundation is an organization that reviews and recommends veterans charities to donors at CharitiesForVets.com.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: In 2018, Mercer co-founded, and funded, the social media website Parler with John Matze and Jared Thomson. Mercer described herself in a Parler post as having "started Parler" with Matze.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: As of early February 2021, Mercer holds the majority shares and, "The Washington Post" reported "increasingly pulls the strings" at Parler, controlling two-thirds of its board, and appointing other directors.


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: The Mercer family has contributed $4 million to the American Museum of Natural History, and Rebekah Mercer sat on the museum board of directors from 2013 to 2019. In January 2018, a protest by the group "Revolting Lesbians" called for Mercer's removal from the board. The protest followed the release of a letter from over 200 academics and scientists calling for the board to "end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation."


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Tax records indicate that the Mercer family donated millions of dollars to organizations that reject the scientific consensus regarding climate change. In March 2018 a group called the "Clean Money Project" mounted a spoof campaign aimed at highlighting Mercer's positions on climate change and pressuring the museum to sever ties with her. In 2016, over 250 scientists penned an open letter calling for the museum to "end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation, and to have Rebekah Mercer leave the American Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees."


title: Rebekah Mercer

text: Mercer studied at Stanford University where she met Sylvain Mirochnikoff. The couple married in 2003. In 2010, she bought six adjoining apartment units in Donald Trump's 41-story Heritage at Trump Place. Mercer left her trading job to home-school her four children. In 2016, Mirochnikoff, a native of France, was a managing director at Morgan Stanley.


title: Eric

text: The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name "Eiríkr" (or "Eríkr" in Old East Norse due to monophthongization).


title: Eric

text: The first element, "ei-" may be derived from the older Proto-Norse "*aina(z)", meaning "one, alone, unique", "as in the form" "Æ∆inrikr" explicitly, but it could also be from "*aiwa(z)" "everlasting, eternity", as in the Gothic form "Euric". The second element "-ríkr" stems either from Proto-Germanic "*ríks" "king, ruler" (cf. Gothic "reiks") or the therefrom derived "*ríkijaz" "kingly, powerful, rich, prince"; from the common Proto-Indo-European root *h₃rḗǵs. The name is thus usually taken to mean "sole ruler, autocrat" or "eternal ruler, ever powerful". "Eric" used in the sense of a proper noun meaning "one ruler" may be the origin of "Eriksgata", and if so it would have meant "one ruler's journey". The tour was the medieval Swedish king's journey, when newly elected, to seek the acceptance of peripheral provinces.


title: Eric

text: "Eric" is one of the most commonly used Germanic names in the United States, along with Robert, William, Edward and others.


title: Eric

text: The most common spelling across Fennoscandia and in the Netherlands is "Erik". In Norway, another form of the name (which has kept the Old Norse diphthong) "Eirik" is also commonly used. The modern Icelandic version is "Eiríkur" , while the modern Faroese version is "Eirikur".


title: Eric

text: In Estonia and Finland (where Fenno-Swedish remains an official minority language), the standard Nordic name form "Erik" is found, but it may also be spelled phonetically as "Eerik" (), in accordance with Finnic language orthography, along with a slew of other unique Balto-Finnic variant forms including "Eerikki", "Eero", "Erki" and "Erkki".


title: Eric

text: Although the name was in use in Anglo-Saxon England, its use was reinforced by Scandinavian settlers arriving before the Norman conquest of England. It was an uncommon name in England until the Middle Ages, when it gained popularity, and finally became a common name in the 19th century. This was partly because of the publishing of the novel "Eric, or, Little by Little" by Frederic Farrar in 1858.


title: Eric

text: The Latin form of the name is "Euricus" or "Erīcus" (), which was also adopted into Old Swedish usage (for example, cf. 15th century Kalmar Swedish historian Ericus Olai). Whence come the Greek forms Ερίκος (Eríkos) or Ερρίκος (Erríkos) ( ), in addition to the direct Nordic borrowing Έρικ (Érik).


title: Eric

text: "Éric" () is used in French, "Erico" or "Errico" in Italian, "Érico" in Portuguese. (Note some phonetically simplified modern forms may be conflated with descendants of cognate name Henry via Henrīcus, Henrik, from Proto-Germanic Haimarīks, sharing the stem *rīks.)


title: Eric

text: Among Slavic languages, most using the Latin alphabet borrow "Erik", but there also exists Polish "Eryk". The name is adapted into Cyrillic as Russian Э́йрик (Éyrik) or Э́рик (Érik), and Ukrainian Е́рік (Érik). The Baltic languages use forms such as Latvian "Ēriks" and Lithuanian "Erikas".


title: Eric

text: And in Germany, "Eric", "Erik" and "Erich" are used. In South America, the most common spelling is "Erick".


title: Eric

text: In Norway, Sweden and Finland, the name day for derivations of Erik and Eirik is 18 May, commemorating the death of Saint King Eric IX of Sweden, founder of the royal House of Eric.


title: Eric

text: Eric, Erich, and Erik are very common given names. The below list is a sampling. See , , and for comprehensive lists.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways was founded as M40 Trains by a group of ex-British Rail managers backed by John Laing and 3i; in June 1996, it was announced that M40 Trains had been awarded the Chiltern Railways franchise. On 21 July 1996, it took over operations from British Rail. The company promptly commenced the redoubling of the Chiltern Main Line under the "Evergreen" initiative and ordered the Class 168 "Clubman" diesel multiple units (DMUs) to supplement its ex-British Rail fleet. Following the awarding of a 20-year franchise to Chiltern Railways in August 2000, Evergreen phase 2 works begun to raise line speeds around Beaconsfield, built two new platforms at its London Marylebone terminus. In January 2010, a £250 million upgrade package was agreed for Evergreen phase 3, remodelling the line and permitting 100 mph operations, thus greatly reducing journey times.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In August 2002, the John Laing Group became the sole owner of Chiltern Railways after buying out all other shareholders; shortly after John Laing's purchase by Henderson Equity Partners, the company was sold to the German publicly owned railway company Deutsche Bahn in January 2008. Chiltern Railways became a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains as a result of restructuring during early 2011. Around this time, Chiltern was considered one of the best railway operators in Britain, with Public Performance Measure (PPM) regularly over 90%. However, the introduction of new timetables during the 2010s was repeatedly received negatively by the travelling public. Severe disruption to Chiltern's services occurred following the collapse of Gerrards Cross Tunnel on 30 June 2005; an unplanned six week closure of the main line was forced, resulting in compensation being paid by Tesco to both Chiltern Railways and Network Rail.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways operates commuter/regional rail passenger services from its central London terminus at Marylebone along the M40 corridor to destinations in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, as well as long-distance services to the West Midlands along two routes. Services on the Chiltern Main Line run from London to , and , with some peak-hour services extended to . Chiltern Railways also runs trains on the London–Aylesbury line to (some of which continue on to ), and on the Princes Risborough to Aylesbury and Oxford to Bicester branch lines. From December 2010, Chiltern began operating the "Chiltern Mainline" service of two peak-hour locomotive-hauled services consisting of a Class 67 hauling a rake of modernised Mark 3 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways originated with a number of former British Rail managers who sought to conduct a management buyout on one of the soon-to-be-created rail franchises that would be produced as a part of the privatisation of British Rail. In April 1995, they were granted a licence by the railway regulator. However, the team recognised that they lacked the resources to successfully pursue a bid, thus they secured the backing of the infrastructure investment group John Laing and the venture capital specialist 3i.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In October 1995, "M40 Trains Limited" which was established; the various railway managers held a combined 51% shareholding in the business, while the John Laing Group and 3i held 26% and 23% stakes respectively. The company reportedly spent £38 million in its bid for the Chiltern Railways franchise. In June 1996, the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising awarded the franchise to M40 Trains for an initial period of seven years. It was the only franchise operator to have as many as 51% of its shared controlled by its directors.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: On 21 July 1996, the company commenced operations, taking over from the publicly owned British Rail. Chiltern Railways was the first railway franchise to order new rolling stock in the post-privatisation era in the form of the Class 168 "Clubman" diesel multiple units (DMUs). However, their introduction was marred by unreliability, in part due to their rushed entry into service in respond to booming passenger demand. By April 1999, the company claimed to employ 50% more staff than it had at the start of the franchise, and to be running 25% more services than had been operated by British Rail. Meanwhile, under the terms of the franchise agreement, the annual subsidy provided by the British government was gradually reduced.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During early 1999, the ownership of M40 Trains underwent substantial changes; the John Laing Group opted to increase its shareholding in the venture to 84% via the purchase of shares from their previous holders; the outstanding 16% of shares were owned by several members of the former British Rail management team.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During March 2000, the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced that both M40 Trains and the British transport group Go-Ahead had been shortlisted to bid for the next Chiltern franchise. In August 2000, M40 Trains was awarded the new franchise, which was set to run for 20 years, conditional on various investments being made across that period. On 3 March 2002, the new franchise period commenced.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In August 2002, John Laing acquired the remaining 16% of shares in M40 Trains that it did not already own. In September 2006, John Laing was purchased by the global investment firm Henderson Equity Partners in exchange for £887 million.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During December 2004, Chiltern Railways took over operation of passenger services on the to branch line from First Great Western Link. In June 2006, M40 Trains was invited by the Department for Transport to lodge a bid to operate the Snow Hill Lines, then operated by Central Trains, as part of the letting of the West Midlands franchise. However, this bid was not successful.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During mid-2005, Chiltern Railways' services were heavily disrupted by the collapse of Gerrards Cross Tunnel. In 1996, the British retailer Tesco sought to build a supermarket near Gerrards Cross railway station; despite the local council's initial objection to the scheme, it was approved by the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in July 1998. Due to a lack of available space, Tesco started building a tunnel over the active railway line to provide suitable land for the development. On 30 June 2005, the partially-constructed tunnel collapsed; nobody was injured, but a complete closure of the line was enacted for over six weeks before being permitted to reopen on 20 August 2005. Tesco paid an estimated £200million of compensation to both Chiltern Railways and Network Rail for the disruption; the retailer also pledged to fund a media campaign to win back passengers lost by the route's unplanned closure.. The tunnel's construction resumed in January 2009. In late November 2010, the completed store was opened.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In July 2007, Henderson Equity Partners announced that its intention to sell on Laing Rail along with the Chiltern Railways franchise. Amongst the parties to express interest in acquiring the company were the transport groups Arriva and Go-Ahead. However, by December 2007, only the German publicly owned railway company Deutsche Bahn and the Dutch transport company NedRail reportedly remained in the bidding contest. In January 2008, Laing Rail was purchased by Deutsche Bahn; accordingly Chiltern Railways became a part of the DB Regio group. During early 2011, the company was restructured, with DB Regio becoming a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During May 2011, Chiltern took over operating services on the Oxford–Bicester line from First Great Western. On 26 October 2015, the company opened two new stations, Oxford Parkway and Bicester Village, providing services between north Oxford and London Marylebone. In December 2016, Chiltern Railways started running train services from Oxford to London Marylebone.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways was one of several train operators impacted by the 2022 United Kingdom railway strike, which was the first national rail strike in the UK for three decades. Its workers were amongst those who participated in industrial action due to a dispute over pay and working conditions.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: The Chiltern Main Line is the core route for the majority of Chiltern Railways services and is one of two "mainline routes" operated by the company. The route links the major cities of London and Birmingham (Marylebone and Snow Hill stations respectively), passing through the towns of High Wycombe, Banbury, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick and Solihull. Chiltern Railways operates trains along the entire line, services ranging from stopping suburban trains (e.g. London Marylebone – Gerrards Cross) to express trains running the full length of the line between London and Birmingham. The fastest timetabled journey from Birmingham to London by this route is 99minutes (compared with 82minutes using Avanti West Coast services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston via the West Coast Main Line). In addition to the Chiltern Railways services, CrossCountry also operates regular services on the line north of Banbury, and West Midlands Trains operates regular services north of Dorridge.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: The London–Aylesbury line is the second "mainline route" operated by the company. The route links London (Marylebone) with Aylesbury via Amersham. All Chiltern Railways services on this route run the full length of the line between Marylebone and Aylesbury stations and call at all stations north of Amersham; most trains are extended one station further to Aylesbury Vale Parkway. The line runs alongside London Underground's Metropolitan line between (just north of Marylebone station) and Harrow-on-the-Hill, each operator running on separate tracks. Beyond Harrow-on-the-Hill, the tracks are shared between Chiltern Railways and Metropolitan line services. This is an example of National Rail services using non-Network Rail tracks, and it uses a unique unregulated track-access agreement with London Underground. Beyond Amersham (where the Metropolitan line terminates), all services are operated by Chiltern Railways only.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: The other three routes regularly served by the company are all branch lines. The Aylesbury–Princes Risborough line links Princes Risborough, on the Chiltern Main Line, with Aylesbury, on the London to Aylesbury Line. Most trains on the line continue beyond Princes Risborough to London Marylebone, which gives Aylesbury an alternative route to reach central London; however, a few services terminate at Princes Risborough. The Oxford–Bicester line branches off the Chiltern Main Line just south of Bicester and links the town with Oxford. The line is mostly served by express services to and from Marylebone. Until December 2016, the line terminated a few miles northeast of Oxford, at the nearby Oxford Parkway station; the line was then extended to the main Oxford station. The Leamington–Stratford line branches off the Chiltern Main Line at Hatton (a few miles west of Leamington Spa) and runs to Stratford-upon-Avon. The branch line is also operated by regular West Midlands Trains services.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: At peak times on weekdays, some services between London Marylebone and Birmingham are extended beyond the latter, to and from (via ). These trains run to Marylebone in the morning peak and return towards Kidderminster in the evening peak. The trains also call at some stations between Birmingham Moor Street and Kidderminster, although not all services have the same calling pattern.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: , there are four trains per day in each direction between Marylebone and Kidderminster, plus another one which is extended only as far as Stourbridge Junction. On Saturdays, there are also four morning trains from Kidderminster to Marylebone from the December 2017 return services in the evening were introduced. There were no Chiltern Railways service to Kidderminster on Sundays until the December 2017 timetable when two trains in each direction were introduced.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Regular trains between Birmingham Moor Street, Stourbridge Junction and Kidderminster are operated by West Midlands Trains as part of its "Snow Hill route" service.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: On certain Bank Holiday Mondays, services are extended from Aylesbury to the Buckinghamshire Railway Heritage Centre facilities at , a short way north of . However, this did not happen in 2019 and their future is uncertain. The link will continue to be used by freight services to Calvert.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Since winning the franchise, Chiltern has introduced "Route: High Wycombe" tickets for the Chiltern route between Birmingham and London that are considerably cheaper than "Route: Any Permitted" tickets, valid on the faster Avanti West Coast service to London Euston as well a number of other operators and routes. Chiltern offers only standard class, not standard and First Class as on Avanti services. However, Chiltern does offer a premium economy "Business Zone" carriage on a small number of peak-time trains between Birmingham or Oxford and London. Passengers pay an upgrade fee to sit in a larger first-class-style seat; and formerly, this upgrade came with complimentary refreshments but, since May 2017, refreshment services have been cut on all Chiltern Railways services, meaning the "Business Zone" no longer comes with complimentary refreshments.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways' early operations were subject to considerable criticism. During 1998, its poor performance figures in criteria such as reliability, punctuality, and customer approval has led to financial penalties being incurred by the company, some of which was in the form of refunds to its passengers.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: By the mid-2010s, Chiltern was considered one of the best railway operators in Britain, with Public Performance Measure (PPM) regularly over 90%, until the introduction of changes in November 2015, and infrastructure issues saw punctuality fall to 86% in December 2015. Chiltern's PPM is measured on stricter conditions than its long-distance rivals, such as Avanti West Coast, as Chiltern has a five-minute window for performance while others have a ten-minute window.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Performance figures published by Network Rail rate Chiltern Railways sixth in train operating companies in the UK at 89.4% (PPM – period 9) and 94.3% (MAA) for the year to 12 December 2015.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: A new timetable introduced in September 2011, combined with significant disruption caused by engineering work, caused a negative reaction from customers. A petition to have the service reviewed was started, and articles describing the disrupted journeys of commuters appeared in the local press.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: A new timetable introduced in December 2012 also met with frustration and opposition from some customers, particularly those using Saunderton and Princes Risborough stations.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Evergreen is the name given by Chiltern to the major infrastructure works that the company has committed to over the 20-year duration of its franchise to improve routes and services. This has been divided into three distinct phases.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: The main focus of phase 1 was the redoubling of the Chiltern Main Line between and , with work taking place during 1998, as well as between Bicester North and Aynho Junction during 2001. Furthermore, several stations were subject to reconstruction works. was rebuilt to have two operational platforms instead of a single platform; a new platform was also installed at . Finally, the line speed limit was raised following appropriate infrastructure improvements.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Phase 2 commenced shortly following the award of Chiltern's 20-year franchise period in August 2000. The most extensive works undertaken was the realignment of the route through , which permitted line speeds to be increased to . Further improvements in this phase included the enactment of signalling improvements between High Wycombe and Bicester, as well as between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury, two new platforms were constructed at London Marylebone on land formerly occupied by the carriage sidings, while a new depot was constructed at Wembley.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: The Department for Transport, Chiltern Railways and Network Rail agreed in January 2010 to a £250million upgrade of the Chiltern Main Line.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Phase 1 of the project, now complete, involved upgrading the Marylebone – Birmingham Chiltern Main Line to permit running on an additional of route. Junctions at Neasden, Northolt and Aynho were remodelled to permit higher speeds. The 'up' through track has been restored at , the existing 'up' line becoming a platform loop, a new turnback siding has been provided at , and a new, straighter 'down' through track built from Northolt Junction (where the original layout favoured the now little-used Paddington route) to Ruislip Gardens. The existing 'down' track continues to serve station. The former speed restrictions through have been removed to permit 100mph running. Two additional terminating platforms at Birmingham Moor Street were reopened in December 2010. Accelerated services were initially planned to start in May 2011, but there were delays and it was not until 5 September 2011 that Chiltern was able to introduce a new timetable to take advantage of the improvements.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: As a result of the speed increases, journey times have been reduced significantly. From Marylebone, the fastest peak-hour journey time to Birmingham Moor Street is now 90minutes, instead of 117minutes previously. Chiltern Railways former chairman Adrian Shooter stated: "This is the biggest passenger rail project for several generations not to call on the taxpayer for support. Working closely with Network Rail, we are going to create a new main-line railway for the people of Oxfordshire and the Midlands. This deal demonstrates that real improvements to rail services can be paid for without public subsidy by attracting people out of their cars and on to trains."


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During October 2012, the Secretary of State for Transport granted permission for work to begin on Phase 2 of the Evergreen 3 project, with services between London Marylebone and Oxford. Under Phase 2, a quarter-of-a-mile double track has been constructed joining the Oxford–Bicester line at to the Chiltern Main Line, allowing a new Oxford to London Marylebone service to operate. A new station, , has been constructed at Water Eaton; the service between Oxford Parkway and London started on 26 October 2015, with the link from Oxford Parkway to becoming operational on 12 December 2016. All signalling on the route (including the new platforms at Oxford) is controlled by the Marylebone Signalling Centre.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: As part of Phase 2, the Oxford to Bicester Village service transferred from First Great Western to Chiltern in May 2011. Part of the line between Wolvercote Tunnel (on the outskirts of Oxford) and Bicester Village was restored to double track, and the scheme included additional platforms at Oxford, and Bicester Village.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Network Rail provided the capital for the upgrade and will recover this through a facility charge over the subsequent 30 years, initially payable by Chiltern until its franchise expires, and then by the next franchisee. The infrastructure upgrade was carried out by main contractor BAM Nuttall, in partnership with Jarvis and WS Atkins.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Oxfordshire County Council supported the scheme, but required convincing of the benefits of the new Oxford Parkway station at Water Eaton, which is in the Green Belt. In November 2011, there was a further setback to the project when a planning inspector withheld approval due to the discovery of bats roosting in Wolvercote Tunnel. Great crested newts also had a breeding habitat close to the route. In early 2012, the "bat problem" was apparently resolved.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern Railways inherited a fleet of 34 Class 165 "Turbos" diesel multiple units (DMUs) from British Rail. From the franchise's onset in July 1996, the company publicly promised to introduce new rolling stock. During December 2004, a further five Class 165s were transferred from First Great Western Link. Between 2003 and 2005, all 39 Class 165s were overhauled by Bombardier at Ilford EMU Depot; during this work, air conditioning units were installed throughout the fleet, while the hopper opening windows were removed; a first-class seating area was also implemented. As the fleet had been designed for suburban use, rather than InterCity travel, the Class 165s tend to be concentrated on services to Aylesbury and Banbury, although this stock can also be found operating the service between Birmingham and Leamington Spa.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Chiltern ordered several batches of Class 168 "Clubman" DMUs. Between 1998 and 2004, these entered revenue service, the company eventually operated nine three-car and ten four-car sets. These operate across the network.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During April 2003, Chiltern restored a single Class 121 "Bubble Car" for use on the to shuttles. In May 2011, a second Class 121 followed after being overhauled at Tyseley TMD. During March 2013, a third Class 121 (121032) was acquired from Arriva Trains Wales for use as a spare parts donor. On 19 May 2017, the Chiltern Bubble cars ran for the last time, as their age made spare parts increasingly difficult to obtain.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In January 2008, Chiltern ordered four two-coach Class 172 "Turbostars"; these entered service during June 2011. Because they cannot be fitted with the tripcock safety equipment necessary to operate on London Underground lines, none of the Class 172s can operate via unless attached to a Class 165 or Class 168 DMU. Although initially intended for use on all-stations services out of London, they frequently operated as far afield as Birmingham. During mid-2021, all of Chiltern's Class 172s were leased to West Midlands Trains for use with their existing Class 172 fleet pending the delivery of British Rail Class 196 DMUs. In December 2021, it was later announced that the Class 172/1 fleet would not be returning to Chiltern once the Class 196s enter service with WMT.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Starting in December 2010, Chiltern began operating two peak-hour loco-hauled services consisting of a Class 67 diesel locomotive hauling a rake of Mark 3 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer. A single set was initially hired from fellow DB Regio subsidiary Wrexham & Shropshire to operate a Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone service while another was made up of some DB-Regio-owned Mark 3s painted in British Rail blue/grey and Virgin Trains livery and operated from to London Marylebone.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: After Wrexham & Shropshire ceased operations in January 2011, Chiltern started using a second ex-Wrexham & Shropshire set from May 2011. For the introduction of Chiltern's new timetable in September 2011, these sets had a "Mainline" logo and blue stripes added to their silver livery. Motive power continued to be provided by several Class 67s, including 67010, 67012-015 and 67018, all of which had been modified to operate with Driving Van Trailers.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During 2012, the ex-Wrexham & Shropshire Mark 3 coaches were overhauled and fitted with sliding plug doors (similar to those fitted to South West Trains' Class 444 "Desiros") and toilet retention tanks by Wabtec's Doncaster Works. Once this work was completed, a further ten Mark 3s were overhauled by Wabtec to create a fifth set and to extend the existing sets up to six coaches. In 2012, the DB-Regio-owned Mark 3s used on the peak-hour Banbury service were given a light overhaul at LNWR, Bristol, and the Virgin-liveried examples repainted into British Rail blue/grey. To allow Class 168s to be cascaded to the new Oxford services as part of Evergreen 3, more Mark 3s are to be returned to service in the future.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Between 2015 and 2016, Class 170 "Turbostars" with First TransPennine Express transferred to Chiltern Railways. Chiltern took five of the First TransPennine Class 170s from May 2015 and the remaining four in July 2016. Upon delivery, the Class 170s were modified to allow them to be used with Chiltern's existing Class 168s, and reclassified as Class 168/3s.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In early 2014, Chiltern Railways agreed a sub-lease from Direct Rail Services (DRS) for six Class 68 locomotives for use on its London Marylebone to Birmingham service to replace the existing fleet of Class 67s. Maintenance and commissioning for the new fleet is assisted by DRS.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: During 2017, Chiltern Railways entered into an agreement with Artemis Intelligent Power and the Rail Safety and Standards Board to provide one of its redundant DVTs as a donor vehicle for conversion into a new type of diesel locomotive.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In July 2021, Chiltern Railways converted a single Class 168 unit (168329) into a Battery Hybrid train, referred to as "HybridFlex"; during February 2022, it was first run on services between London and Aylesbury. The company promoted the HybridFlex as increasing acceleration while reducing fuel consumption, vibration, and noise emissions, along with lessening the environmental impact of rail travel.


title: Chiltern Railways

text: In addition to the completed Evergreen initiatives, other potential enhancements for Chiltern's route have been discussed, but had not progressed as at the end of 2017. These include:


title: Chiltern Railways

text: Since successful completion of Project Evergreen 3 has fulfilled Chiltern Railways' obligation to invest in infrastructure, there is no clear road to completion for these projects.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: Mindless Behavior was an American boy band who were best known for the singles "My Girl" and "Mrs. Right", produced by Walter Millsap. The band was put together in Los Angeles in 2008, by Keisha Gamble, Vincent Herbert and Walter Millsap. The band trained in dance and singing for two years before releasing a recording in Japan Music. The members were all in their early teens when the band was created.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: Shortly after, lead singer Crippen separated himself from the group, leaving behind the original three members. The group would then introduce two other members, singer EJ and Mike.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: They performed "My Girl" on "The Today Show" in November 2010. Their debut album, "#1 Girl", was released on September 20, 2011. It debuted on the US "Billboard" 200 album chart at number seven.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: Mindless Behavior toured with the Backstreet Boys, Justin Bieber, Jason Derülo, and was the opening act for Janet Jackson's 2011 tour. Mindless Behavior also headlined the first BET Closer to My Dreams Tour alongside Diggy Simmons, Lil Twist, Tyga, Trevante, and Jawan Harris. In 2011, Mindless Behavior headlined the SCREAM Tour with Diggy Simmons featuring OMG Girlz, Jacob Latimore, and Hamiliton Park. They have been predicted as Future Stars by This Must Be Pop.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In July 2012, they embarked their own 25-city tour, (#1 Girl Tour) with opening acts Jacob Latimore, Lil Twist, and rising star Kayla Brianna.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In March 2013, the band released their second studio album, "All Around the World" on March 12, 2013 and their feature film documentary, "". Mindless Behavior announced the All Around The World Tour starting in July 2013.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: On June 17, 2016, they released the music video for their third single, #OverNightBag. They announced that they were going on a tour their third album "No Parents Allowed Tour" but was cancelled soon after for unexplained reasons and are getting ready to release an independent movie titled "Misguided Behavior”. In February 2017, rumors started spreading around that the group had disbanded after Princeton announced it after answering a fan question as he claimed that the group wasn't getting the rights to their music and the members decided that they wanted to do solo careers.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: The group experienced a lot of adjustments since their formation in 2008 that included original members Prodigy, Princeton, Ray Ray and Roc Royal.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In November 2013, it was announced that lead singer Prodigy left the group to pursue a solo career, which he proved to be untrue. He left the group because of bullying and mistreatment received from the camp. This left Princeton, Ray Ray and Roc Royal as a trio.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In December 2014, Roc Royal was fired from the group due to his ill-mannered behavior. This included beating up a drug addict over money, having a baby at an early age and accusations of him stealing a producer's car. This in turn prompted Prodigy to return to the group to replace Roc Royal, who served a two-year sentence in prison for battery and robbery.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In June 2015, Prodigy left the group again, and it turned out that Prodigy was only a placeholder in the group to keep it a quartet. He left when Mike (who was the actual replacement of Roc Royal) joined the group.


title: Mindless Behavior

text: In September 2015, Ray Ray decided to leave the group to pursue a solo career. This left EJ, Mike and Princeton (who was the only original member of the group left) as a trio until the disbandment of the group in February 2017.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: William Dudley Pelley (March 12, 1890 – June 30, 1965) was an American fascist leader, occultist, spiritualist and writer.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: He came to prominence as a writer, winning two O. Henry Awards and penning screenplays for Hollywood films. His 1929 essay "Seven Minutes in Eternity" marked a turning point in Pelley's career, earning a major response in "The American Magazine" where it was published as a popular example of what would later be called a near-death experience. His antisemitism led him to found the Silver Legion of America in 1933, a fascist paramilitary league. He ran for president of the United States in 1936 as the candidate for the Christian Party.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition in 1942, and released in 1950. Upon his death, "The New York Times" assessed him as "an agitator without a significant following".


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, William Dudley Pelley grew up in poverty, the son of William George Apsey Pelley and his wife, Grace (née Goodale). His father was initially a Southern Methodist Church minister, and was later a small businessman and shoemaker.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Largely self-educated, Pelley became a journalist and gained respect for his writing skills; his articles eventually appeared in national publications like "The Chicago Tribune". Two of his short stories received O. Henry awards: "The Face in the Window" in 1920 and "The Continental Angle" in 1930. He was hired by the Methodist Centenary to study Methodist missions around the world. He joined the Red Cross in Siberia, where he helped the White Russians during the Russian Civil War. His opposition to Communism grew, and he began to subscribe to the conspiracy theory of Jewish Communism. Upon returning to the United States in 1920, Pelley wrote novels and short stories in addition to his journalism, and went to Hollywood, where he became a screenwriter, writing the Lon Chaney films "The Light in the Dark" (1922) and "The Shock" (1923). Pelley became disillusioned with the film industry. What he regarded as unfair treatment by Jewish studio executives increased his antisemitic inclinations. He moved to New York, and then to Asheville, North Carolina in 1932, and began publishing magazines and essays detailing his new religious system, the "Liberation Doctrine".


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: In May 1928, Pelley gained notoriety when he claimed he had an out-of-body experience in which he travelled to other planes of existence devoid of corporeal souls. He described his experience in an article titled "My Seven Minutes in Eternity", published in book form in 1933 as "Seven Minutes in Eternity: With the Aftermath", originally probably appearing in "The American Magazine" in the late 1920s. In later writings, he described the experience as "hypo-dimensional". He wrote that during this event, he met with God and Jesus, who instructed him to undertake the spiritual transformation of America. He later claimed that the experience gave him the ability to levitate, see through walls, and have out-of-body experiences at will. His metaphysical writings greatly boosted his public visibility. Some of the early members of the original Ascended Master Teachings religion, the "I AM" Activity, were recruited from the ranks of Pelley's organization, the Silver Legion. Pelley's religious system was a mixture of theosophy, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and pyramidism. He considered it to be a perfected form of Christianity, in which "Dark Souls" (Jews, Communists and Papists) represented the forces of evil.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: When the Great Depression struck America in 1929, Pelley became active in politics. After moving to Asheville, Pelley founded Galahad College in 1932. The college specialized in correspondence courses on "Social Metaphysics" and "Christian Economics." He also founded Galahad Press, which he used to publish various political and metaphysical magazines, newspapers, and books. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Pelley, an admirer of Hitler, founded the Silver Legion, an antisemitic organization whose members, known as Silver Shirts and Christian Patriots, wore Nazi-style silver uniform shirts. Their insignia was a scarlet L, emblazoned on their flags and uniforms. Biographer Scott Beekman noted that Pelley was "one of the first Americans to create an organization celebrating the work of Adolf Hitler."


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Pelley traveled throughout the United States, holding recruitment rallies, lectures, and public speeches. He founded Silver Legion chapters in almost every state in the country. Membership peaked at 15,000 in 1935, dropping to below 5,000 by 1938. His political ideology consisted of anti-Communism, antisemitism, patriotism, corporatism, isolationism, and British Israelism, themes which were the primary focus of his numerous magazines and newspapers which included "Liberation", "Pelley's Silvershirt Weekly", "The Galilean," and "The New Liberator". He became fairly well known as the 1930s went on. Sinclair Lewis mentioned him by name in his novel "It Can't Happen Here" (1935) about a fascist takeover in the U.S. Pelley is praised by the leader of the fictional movement as an important precursor.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Pelley opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. He founded the Christian Party in 1935, and ran an unsuccessful campaign as candidate for president in 1936, winning only 1,600 votes. He engaged in a long dispute with the United States House of Representatives' Dies Committee, predecessor to the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1940, federal marshals conducted a raid on Pelley's headquarters in Asheville, and they arrested his followers and seized his property.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Despite serious financial and material setbacks within his organization which resulted from lengthy court battles, Pelley continued to oppose Roosevelt, especially as diplomatic relations between the United States and the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany became strained in the early 1940s. Pelley accused Roosevelt of being a warmonger and advocated isolationism. Roosevelt enlisted J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to investigate Pelley. Subsequently, the FBI interviewed subscribers to Pelley's newspapers and magazines.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: Although the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led Pelley to disband the Silver Legion, he continued to attack the government in his magazine, "Roll Call", which alarmed Roosevelt, Attorney General Francis Biddle, and the House Un-American Activities Committee. After stating in one issue of "Roll Call" that the devastation of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was worse than the government claimed, Pelley was arrested at his new base of operations in Noblesville, Indiana, and in April 1942, he was charged with 12 counts of treason and sedition. One charge was dropped, but he was tried in Indiana and convicted of the other 11 charges, mostly for making seditious statements and for obstructing military recruiting and fomenting insurrection within the military. Pelley was sentenced to 15 years in prison. After serving eight years, he was paroled and released in 1950. While still incarcerated, he was one of 30 defendants in the "Mass Sedition Trial" of Nazi sympathizers which culminated in a mistrial after the death of the judge, Edward C. Eicher, in November 1944.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: In his final years, Pelley dealt with charges of securities fraud that had been brought against him while he was living in Asheville.


title: William Dudley Pelley

text: The terms of Pelley's parole stipulated that he remain in central Indiana, and desist from all political activity. He developed an elaborate religious philosophy called "Soulcraft" based on his belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials, and published "Star Guests" in 1950. Pelley died at his home in Noblesville, Indiana on June 30, 1965.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, (with Emeric Pressburger) and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the third and sixth highest-grossing film franchises ("Harry Potter" and "James Bond").


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The identity of the British film industry, particularly as it relates to Hollywood, has often been the subject of debate. Its history has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry. The career of the producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, the Rank Organisation attempted to do so in the 1940s, and Goldcrest in the 1980s. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily through their work in the United States.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom. UK box-office takings totalled £1.1 billion in 2012, with 172.5 million admissions.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking what they consider to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films. The annual BAFTA Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered to be the British equivalent of the Academy Awards.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The world's first moving picture was shot in Leeds by Louis Le Prince in 1888 and the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by British inventor William Friese Greene, who patented the process in 1890.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The first people to build and run a working 35 mm camera in Britain were Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres. They made the first British film "Incident at Clovelly Cottage" in February 1895, shortly before falling out over the camera's patent. Soon several British film companies had opened to meet the demand for new films, such as Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Although the earliest British films were of everyday events, the early 20th century saw the appearance of narrative shorts, mainly comedies and melodramas. The early films were often melodramatic in tone, and there was a distinct preference for story lines already known to the audience, in particular, adaptations of Shakespeare plays and Dickens novels.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The Lumière brothers first brought their show to London in 1896. In 1898 American producer Charles Urban expanded the London-based Warwick Trading Company to produce British films, mostly documentary and news.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1898 Gaumont-British Picture Corp. was founded as a subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company, constructing Lime Grove Studios in West London in 1915 in the first building built in Britain solely for film production. Also in 1898 Hepworth Studios was founded in Lambeth, South London by Cecil Hepworth, the Bamforths began producing films in Yorkshire, and William Haggar began producing films in Wales.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Directed by Walter R. Booth in 1901, "Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost" is the earliest film adaptation of Charles Dickens's festive novella "A Christmas Carol". Booth's "The Hand of the Artist" (1906) has been described as the first British animated film.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1902 Ealing Studios was founded by Will Barker, becoming the oldest continuously-operating film studio in the world.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1902 the earliest colour film in the world was made; like other films made at the time, it is of everyday events. In 2012 it was found by the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford after lying forgotten in an old tin for 110 years. The previous title for earliest colour film, using Urban's inferior Kinemacolor process, was thought to date from 1909. The re-discovered films were made by pioneer Edward Raymond Turner from London who patented his process on 22 March 1899.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1903 Urban formed the Charles Urban Trading Company, which produced early colour films using his patented Kinemacolor process. This was later challenged in court by Greene, causing the company to go out of business in 1915.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1903, Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow directed "Alice in Wonderland", the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1903 Frank Mottershaw of Sheffield produced the film "A Daring Daylight Robbery", which launched the chase genre.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1911 the Ideal Film Company was founded in Soho, London, distributing almost 400 films by 1934, and producing 80.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1913 stage director Maurice Elvey began directing British films, becoming Britain's most prolific film director, with almost 200 by 1957.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1914 Elstree Studios was founded, and acquired in 1928 by German-born Ludwig Blattner, who invented a magnetic steel tape recording system that was adopted by the BBC in 1930.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1915, the Kinematograph Renters’ Society of Great Britain and Ireland was formed to represent the film distribution companies. It is the oldest film trade body in the world. It was known as the Society of Film Distributors until it changed its name again to the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA).


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1920 Gaumont opened Islington Studios, where Alfred Hitchcock got his start, selling out to Gainsborough Pictures in 1927. Also in 1920 Cricklewood Studios was founded by Sir Oswald Stoll, becoming Britain's largest film studio, known for Fu Manchu and Sherlock Holmes film series.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1920 the short-lived company Minerva Films was founded in London by the actor Leslie Howard (also producer and director) and his friend and story editor Adrian Brunel. Some of their early films include four written by A. A. Milne including "The Bump", starring C. Aubrey Smith; "Twice Two"; "Five Pound Reward"; and "Bookworms".


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: By the mid-1920s the British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from the United States, which was helped by its much larger home market – in 1914 25% of films shown in the UK were British, but by 1926 this had fallen to 5%. The Slump of 1924 caused many British film studios to close, resulting in the passage of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927 to boost local production, requiring that cinemas show a certain percentage of British films. The act was technically a success, with audiences for British films becoming larger than the quota required, but it had the effect of creating a market for poor quality, low cost films, made to satisfy the quota. The "quota quickies", as they became known, are often blamed by historians for holding back the development of the industry. However, some British film makers, such as Michael Powell, learnt their craft making such films. The act was modified with the Cinematograph Films Act 1938 assisted the British film industry by specifying only films made by and shot in Great Britain would be included in the quota, an act that severely reduced Canadian and Australian film production.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Ironically, the biggest star of the silent era, English comedian Charlie Chaplin, was Hollywood-based.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Scottish solicitor John Maxwell founded British International Pictures (BIP) in 1927. Based at the former British National Pictures Studios in Elstree, the facilities original owners, including producer-director Herbert Wilcox, had run into financial difficulties. One of the company's early films, Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail" (1929), is often regarded as the first British sound feature. It was a part-talkie with a synchronised score and sound effects. Earlier in 1929, the first all-talking British feature, "The Clue of the New Pin" was released. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, starring Donald Calthrop, Benita Home and Fred Raines, which was made by British Lion at their Beaconsfield Studios. John Maxwell's BIP became the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) in 1933. ABPC's studios in Elstree came to be known as the "porridge factory", according to Lou Alexander, "for reasons more likely to do with the quantity of films that the company turned out, than their quality". Elstree (strictly speaking almost all the studios were in neighbouring Borehamwood) became the centre of the British film industry, with six film complexes over the years all in close proximity to each other.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: By 1927, the largest cinema chains in the United Kingdom consisted of around 20 cinemas but the following year Gaumont-British expanded significantly to become the largest, controlling 180 cinemas by 1928 and up to 300 by 1929. Maxwell formed ABC Cinemas in 1927 which became a subsidiary of BIP and went on to become one of the largest in the country, together with Odeon Cinemas, founded by Oscar Deutsch, who opened his first cinema in 1928. By 1937, these three chains controlled almost a quarter of all cinemas in the country. A booking by one of these chains was indispensable for the success of any British film.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: With the advent of sound films, many foreign actors were in less demand, with English received pronunciation commonly used; for example, the voice of Czech actress Anny Ondra in "Blackmail" was substituted by an off-camera Joan Barry during Ondra's scenes.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Starting with John Grierson's "Drifters" (also 1929), the period saw the emergence of the school of realist Documentary Film Movement, from 1933 associated with the GPO Film Unit. It was Grierson who coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film, and he produced the movement's most celebrated early films, "Night Mail" (1936), written and directed by Basil Wright and Harry Watt, and incorporating the poem by W. H. Auden towards the end of the short.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Music halls also proved influential in comedy films of this period, and a number of popular personalities emerged, including George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jessie Matthews and Will Hay. These stars often made several films a year, and their productions remained important for morale purposes during World War II.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Many of the British films with larger budgets during the 1930s were produced by London Films, founded by Hungarian "emigre" Alexander Korda. The success of "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933), made at British and Dominions Elstree Studios, persuaded United Artists and The Prudential to invest in Korda's Denham Film Studios, which opened in May 1936, but both investors suffered losses as a result. Korda's films before the war included "Things to Come", "Rembrandt" (both 1936) and "Knight Without Armour" (1937), as well as the early Technicolour films "The Drum" (1938) and "The Four Feathers" (1939). These had followed closely on from "Wings of the Morning" (1937), the UK's first three-strip Technicolour feature film, made by the local offshoot of 20th Century Fox. Although some of Korda's films indulged in "unrelenting pro-Empire flag waving", those featuring Sabu turned him into "a huge international star"; "for many years" he had the highest profile of any actor of Indian origin. Paul Robeson was also cast in leading roles when "there were hardly any opportunities" for African Americans "to play challenging roles" in their own country's productions.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1933, the British Film Institute was established as the lead organisation for film in the UK. They set up the National Film Library in 1935 (now known as the BFI National Archive), with Ernest Lindgren as its curator.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1934, J. Arthur Rank became a co-founder of British National Films Company and they helped create Pinewood Studios, which opened in 1936. Also in 1936, Rank took over General Film Distributors and in 1937, Rank founded The Rank Organisation. In 1938, General Film Distributors became affiliated with Odeon Cinemas.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Rising expenditure and over-optimistic expectations of expansion into the American market caused a financial crisis in 1937, after an all-time high of 192 films were released in 1936. Of the 640 British production companies registered between 1925 and 1936, only 20 were still active in 1937. Moreover, the 1927 Films Act was up for renewal. The replacement Cinematograph Films Act 1938 provided incentives, via a "quality test", for UK companies to make fewer films, but of higher quality, and to eliminate the "quota quickies". Influenced by world politics, it encouraged American investment and imports. One result was the creation of MGM-British, an English subsidiary of the largest American studio, which produced four films before the war, including "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1939).


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The new venture was initially based at Denham Studios. Korda himself lost control of the facility in 1939 to the Rank Organisation. Circumstances forced Korda's "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940), a spectacular fantasy film, to be completed in California, where Korda continued his film career during the war.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: By now contracted to Gaumont British, Alfred Hitchcock had settled on the thriller genre by the mid-1930s with "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), "The 39 Steps" (1935) and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938). Lauded in Britain where he was dubbed "Alfred the Great" by "Picturegoer" magazine, Hitchcock's reputation was beginning to develop overseas, with a "The New York Times" feature writer asserting; "Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not. Magna Carta, the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world." Hitchcock was then signed up to a seven-year contract by Selznick and moved to Hollywood.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Published in "The Times" on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war on Germany, George Bernard Shaw’s letter protested against a government order to close all places of entertainment, including cinemas. ‘What agent of Chancellor Hitler is it who has suggested that we should all cower in darkness and terror “for the duration”?’. Within two weeks of the order cinemas in the provinces were reopened, followed by central London within a month. In 1940, cinema admissions figures rose, to just over 1 billion for the year, and they continued rising to over 1.5 billion in 1943, 1944 and 1945.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Humphrey Jennings began his career as a documentary film maker just before the war, in some cases working in collaboration with co-directors. "London Can Take It" (with Harry Wat, 1940) detailed the Blitz while "Listen to Britain" (with Stewart McAllister, 1942) looked at the home front. The Crown Film Unit, part of the Ministry of Information took over the responsibilities of the GPO Film Unit in 1940. Paul Rotha and Alberto Cavalcanti were colleagues of Jennings. British films began to make use of documentary techniques; Cavalcanti joined Ealing for "Went the Day Well?" (1942),


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Many other films helped to shape the popular image of the nation at war. Among the best known of these films are "In Which We Serve" (1942), "We Dive at Dawn" (1943), "Millions Like Us" (1943) and "The Way Ahead" (1944). The war years also saw the emergence of The Archers partnership between director Michael Powell and the Hungarian-born writer-producer Emeric Pressburger with films such as "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943) and "A Canterbury Tale" (1944).


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Two Cities Films, an independent production company releasing their films through a Rank subsidiary, also made some important films, including the Noël Coward and David Lean collaborations "This Happy Breed" (1944) and "Blithe Spirit" (1945) as well as Laurence Olivier's "Henry V" (1944). By this time, Gainsborough Studios were releasing their series of critically derided but immensely popular period melodramas, including "The Man in Grey" (1943) and "The Wicked Lady" (1945). New stars, such as Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, emerged in the Gainsborough films.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Towards the end of the 1940s, the Rank Organisation became the dominant force behind British film-making, having acquired a number of British studios and the Gaumont chain (in 1941) to add to its Odeon Cinemas. Rank's serious financial crisis in 1949, a substantial loss and debt, resulted in the contraction of its film production. In practice, Rank maintained an industry duopoly with ABPC (later absorbed by EMI) for many years.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: For the moment, the industry hit new heights of creativity in the immediate post-war years. Among the most significant films produced during this period were David Lean's "Brief Encounter" (1945) and his Dickens adaptations "Great Expectations" (1946) and "Oliver Twist" (1948), Ken Annakin's comedy "Miranda" (1948) starring Glynis Johns, Carol Reed's thrillers "Odd Man Out" (1947) and "The Third Man" (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death" (1946), "Black Narcissus" (1947) and "The Red Shoes" (1948), the most commercially successful film of its year in the United States. Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet" (also 1948), was the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Ealing Studios (financially backed by Rank) began to produce their most celebrated comedies, with three of the best remembered films, "Whisky Galore" (1948), "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "Passport to Pimlico" (both 1949), being on release almost simultaneously. Their portmanteau horror film "Dead of Night" (1945) is also particularly highly regarded.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Under the Import Duties Act 1932, HM Treasury levied a 75% tariff on all film imports on 6 August 1947 which became known as Dalton Duty (after Hugh Dalton then the Chancellor of the Exchequer). The tax came into effect on 8 August, applying to all imported films, of which the overwhelming majority came from the United States; American film studio revenues from the UK had been in excess of US$68 million in 1946. The following day, 9 August, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that no further films would be supplied to British cinemas until further notice. The Dalton Duty was ended on 3 May 1948 with the American studios again exported films to the UK though the Marshall Plan prohibited US film companies from taking foreign exchange out of the nations their films played in.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Following the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was established as a British film funding agency.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The Eady Levy, named after Sir Wilfred Eady was a tax on box office receipts in the United Kingdom in order to support the British Film industry. It was established in 1950 coming into effect in 1957. A direct governmental payment to British-based producers would have qualified as a subsidy under the terms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and would have led to objections from American film producers. An indirect levy did not qualify as a subsidy, and so was a suitable way of providing additional funding for the UK film industry whilst avoiding criticism from abroad.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: In 1951, the National Film Theatre was initially opened in a temporary building at the Festival of Britain. It moved to its present location on the South Bank in London for the first London Film Festival on 16 October 1957 run by the BFI.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: During the 1950s, the British industry began to concentrate on popular comedies and World War II dramas aimed more squarely at the domestic audience. The war films were often based on true stories and made in a similar low-key style to their wartime predecessors. They helped to make stars of actors like John Mills, Jack Hawkins and Kenneth More. Some of the most successful included "The Cruel Sea" (1953), "The Dam Busters" (1954), "The Colditz Story" (1955) and "Reach for the Sky" (1956).


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: The Rank Organisation produced some comedy successes, such as "Genevieve" (1953). The writer/director/producer team of twin brothers John and Roy Boulting also produced a series of successful satires on British life and institutions, beginning with "Private's Progress" (1956), and continuing with (among others) "Brothers in Law" (1957), "Carlton-Browne of the F.O." (1958), and "I'm All Right Jack" (1959). Starring in "School for Scoundrels" (1960), the British Film Institute thought Terry-Thomas was "outstanding as a classic British bounder".


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Popular comedy series included the "Doctor" series, beginning with "Doctor in the House" (1954). The series originally starred Dirk Bogarde, probably the British industry's most popular star of the 1950s, though later films had Michael Craig and Leslie Phillips in leading roles. The Carry On series began in 1958 with regular instalments appearing for the next twenty years. The Italian director-producer Mario Zampi also made a number of successful black comedies, including "Laughter in Paradise" (1951), "The Naked Truth" (1957) and "Too Many Crooks" (1958). Ealing Studios had continued its run of successful comedies, including "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951) and "The Ladykillers" (1955), but the company ceased production in 1958, after the studios had already been bought by the BBC.


title: Cinema of the United Kingdom

text: Less restrictive censorship towards the end of the 1950s encouraged film producer Hammer Films to embark on their series of commercially successful horror films. Beginning with adaptations of Nigel Kneale's BBC science fiction serials "The Quatermass Experiment" (1955) and "Quatermass II" (1957), Hammer quickly graduated to "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957) and "Dracula" (1958), both deceptively lavish and the first gothic horror films in colour. The studio turned out numerous sequels and variants, with English actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee being the most regular leads. "Peeping Tom" (1960), a now highly regarded thriller, with horror elements, set in the contemporary period, was badly received by the critics at the time, and effectively finished the career of Michael Powell, its director.