title: Rofecoxib

text: The authors of the study, including the non-Merck authors, responded by claiming that the three additional heart attacks had occurred after the prespecified cutoff date for data collection and thus were appropriately not included. (Utilizing the prespecified cutoff date also meant that an additional stroke in the naproxen population was not reported.) Furthermore, they said that the additional data did not qualitatively change any of the conclusions of the study, and the results of the full analyses were disclosed to the FDA and reflected on the Vioxx warning label. They further noted that all of the data in the "omitted" table were printed in the text of the article. The authors stood by the original article.


title: Rofecoxib

text: "NEJM" stood by its editorial, noting that the cutoff date was never mentioned in the article, nor did the authors report that the cutoff for cardiovascular adverse events was before that for gastrointestinal adverse events. The different cutoffs increased the reported benefits of Vioxx (reduced stomach problems) relative to the risks (increased heart attacks).


title: Rofecoxib

text: Some scientists have accused the "NEJM" editorial board of making unfounded accusations. Others have applauded the editorial. Renowned research cardiologist Eric Topol, a prominent Merck critic, accused Merck of "manipulation of data" and said "I think now the scientific misconduct trial is really fully backed up". Phil Fontanarosa, executive editor of the prestigious "Journal of the American Medical Association", welcomed the editorial, saying "this is another in the long list of recent examples that have generated real concerns about trust and confidence in industry-sponsored studies".


title: Rofecoxib

text: On May 15, 2006, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that a late night email, written by an outside public relations specialist and sent to "Journal" staffers hours before the Expression of Concern was released, predicted that "the rebuke would divert attention to Merck and induce the media to ignore the "New England Journal of Medicine"s own role in aiding Vioxx sales."


title: Rofecoxib

text: "Internal emails show the New England Journal's expression of concern was timed to divert attention from a deposition in which Executive Editor Gregory Curfman made potentially damaging admissions about the journal's handling of the Vioxx study. In the deposition, part of the Vioxx litigation, Dr. Curfman acknowledged that lax editing might have helped the authors make misleading claims in the article." The "Journal" stated that "NEJM"s "ambiguous" language misled reporters into incorrectly believing that Merck had deleted data regarding the three additional heart attacks, rather than a blank table that contained no statistical information; "the "New England Journal" says it didn't attempt to have these mistakes corrected." Investigations revealed that Merck had several years worth of information suggesting an elevated risk of cardiac events, and Vice President Edward Scolnick took much of the blame for the suppression of this information.


title: Rofecoxib

text: The FDA reviewers were aware of the potential for cardiovascular risk in 1999and it was argued that Merck had manipulated their EKG tests one week after the external review board provided their consultation to specifically exclude high risk factors from the trial subjects to avoid finding effect then predated the changes to their trials to almost three months earlier.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2000 and 2001, Merck conducted several studies of rofecoxib aimed at determining if the drug slowed the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Merck has placed great emphasis on these studies on the grounds that they are relatively large (almost 3000 patients) and compared rofecoxib to a placebo rather than to another pain reliever. These studies found an elevated death rate among rofecoxib patients, although the deaths were not generally heart-related. However, they did not find any elevated cardiovascular risk due to rofecoxib. Before 2004, Merck cited these studies as providing evidence, contrary to VIGOR, of rofecoxib's safety.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2001, Merck commenced the APPROVe (Adenomatous Polyp PRevention On Vioxx) study, a three-year trial with the primary aim of evaluating the efficacy of rofecoxib for the prophylaxis of colorectal polyps. Celecoxib had already been approved for this indication, and it was hoped to add this to the indications for rofecoxib as well. An additional aim of the study was to further evaluate the cardiovascular safety of rofecoxib.


title: Rofecoxib

text: The APPROVe study was terminated early when the preliminary data from the study showed an increased relative risk of adverse thrombotic cardiovascular events (including heart attack and stroke), beginning after 18 months of rofecoxib therapy. In patients taking rofecoxib, versus placebo, the relative risk of these events was 1.92 (rofecoxib 1.50 events vs placebo 0.78 events per 100 patient years). The results from the first 18 months of the APPROVe study did not show an increased relative risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Moreover, overall and cardiovascular mortality rates were similar between the rofecoxib and placebo populations.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In summary, the APPROVe study suggested that long-term use of rofecoxib resulted in nearly twice the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke compared to patients receiving a placebo.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Pre-approval Phase III clinical trials, like the APPROVe study, showed no increased relative risk of adverse cardiovascular events for the first eighteen months of rofecoxib usage (Merck, 2004). Others have pointed out that "study 090", a pre-approval trial, showed a three-fold increase in cardiovascular events compared to placebo, a seven-fold increase compared to nabumetone (another [NSAID]), and an eight-fold increase in heart attacks and strokes combined compared to both control groups. Although this was a relatively small study and only the last result was statistically significant, critics have charged that this early finding should have prompted Merck to quickly conduct larger studies of rofecoxib's cardiovascular safety. Merck notes that it had already begun VIGOR at the time Study 090 was completed. Although VIGOR was primarily designed to demonstrate new uses for rofecoxib, it also collected data on adverse cardiovascular outcomes.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Several very large observational studies have also found elevated risk of heart attack from rofecoxib. For example, a recent retrospective study of 113,000 elderly Canadians suggested a borderline statistically significant increased relative risk of heart attacks of 1.24 from Vioxx usage, with a relative risk of 1.73 for higher-dose Vioxx usage. (Levesque, 2005). Another study, using Kaiser Permanente data, found a 1.47 relative risk for low-dose Vioxx usage and 3.58 for high-dose Vioxx usage compared to current use of celecoxib, though the smaller number was not statistically significant, and relative risk compared to other populations was not statistically significant. (Graham, 2005).


title: Rofecoxib

text: Furthermore, a more recent meta-study of 114 randomized trials with a total of 116,000+ participants, published in JAMA, showed that Vioxx uniquely increased risk of renal (kidney) disease, and heart arrhythmia.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2005, the FDA issued a memo concluding that along with the other approved COX-2 selective NSAIDs available at the time (i.e., celecoxib, and valdecoxib), rofecoxib was associated with an increased risk of serious adverse CV events compared to placebo. They also noted that the available data did not permit a rank ordering of these drugs with regard to CV risk.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Regulatory authorities worldwide now require warnings about cardiovascular risk of COX-2 inhibitors still on the market. For example, in 2005, EU regulators required the following changes to the product information and/or packaging of all COX-2 inhibitors:


title: Rofecoxib

text: Since the withdrawal of Vioxx it has come to light that there may be negative cardiovascular effects with not only other COX-2 inhibitiors, but even the majority of other NSAIDs. It is only with the recent development of drugs like Vioxx that drug companies have carried out the kind of well executed trials that could establish such effects and these sort of trials have never been carried out in older "trusted" NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, diclofenac and others. The possible exceptions may be aspirin and naproxen due to their anti-platelet aggregation properties.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Analyses in 2011 and 2013 by McGettigan and the Coxib and traditional NSAID Trialists (CNT) Collaborators, respectively, demonstrated that the risk of serious CV events was a dose dependent effect of COX-2 selective and nonselective NSAIDs, with the possible exception of naproxen, and high therapeutic doses of nonselective NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen 2400 mg/day, diclofenac 150 mg/day) carried similar CV risk when compared to a combined group of therapeutic and supra-therapeutic doses of COX-2 selective  NSAIDs (such as rofecoxib).


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2014, Patrono and Baigent, summarizing all of the currently available data in a review article in Circulation, concluded that with the exception of GI toxicity, neither the efficacy nor the major cardiorenal complications of COX-2 selective NSAIDs appear to be influenced by their level of COX-2 selectivity. They concluded that the CV risk associated with NSAIDs was dependent on dose and duration.


title: Rofecoxib

text: This conclusion was further reinforced by the 2016 results of the celecoxib PRECISION trial, which showed no difference in CV event rates between the COX-2 selective NSAID celecoxib and the non-selective NSAIDs ibuprofen and naproxen.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Due to the findings of its own APPROVe study, Merck publicly announced its voluntary withdrawal of the drug from the market worldwide on September 30, 2004.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In addition to its own studies, on September 23, 2004, Merck apparently received information about new research by the FDA that supported previous findings of increased risk of heart attack among rofecoxib users (Grassley, 2004). One FDA analyst estimated that, based upon his mathematical model, Vioxx may have caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks, 30 to 40 percent of which were probably fatal, in the five years the drug was on the market. Senior FDA officials were quick to note, however, that this estimate was based solely on a mathematical model, and must be interpreted with caution.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On November 5, 2004, the medical journal "The Lancet" published a meta-analysis of the available studies on the safety of rofecoxib (Jüni "et al.", 2004). The authors concluded that, owing to the known cardiovascular risk, rofecoxib should have been withdrawn several years earlier. "The Lancet" published an editorial which condemned both Merck and the FDA for the continued availability of rofecoxib from 2000 until the recall. Merck responded by issuing a rebuttal of the Jüni "et al." meta-analysis that noted that Jüni omitted several studies that showed no increased cardiovascular risk.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2005, Merck spent $21 million US to retain John S. Martin Jr., a former US District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and colleagues at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, to investigate Vioxx study results and communications conducted by Merck. The report, which Merck called the "Martin Report", was published in February 2006. The report found that Merck's senior management acted in good faith, and that the confusion over the clinical safety of Vioxx was due to the sales team's overzealous behavior. The report that was filed gave a timeline of the events surrounding Vioxx and stated that Merck intended to operate honestly throughout the process. Any mistakes that were made regarding the mishandling of clinical trial results and withholding of information were described as the result of oversight, not malicious behavior. The report did conclude that the Merck's marketing team exaggerated the safety of Vioxx and replaced truthful information with sales tactics. Merck was satisfied with the findings of the report it had commissioned, and promised to consider the recommendations. The report was criticised in the press as self-serving. Merck insisted that the report was independent and Merck "had no effect at all on the findings and the conclusions". Merck hoped that the report would improve public perception of Merck.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2005, advisory panels in both the US and Canada encouraged the return of rofecoxib to the market, stating that Rofecoxib's benefits outweighed the risks for some patients. The FDA advisory panel voted 17-15 to allow the drug to return to the market despite being found to increase heart risk. The vote in Canada was 12-1, and the Canadian panel noted that the cardiovascular risks from rofecoxib seemed to be no worse than those from ibuprofen—though the panel stated that further study was needed for all NSAIDs to fully understand their risk profiles. Notwithstanding these recommendations, Merck has not returned rofecoxib to the market.


title: Rofecoxib

text: Following the 2005 FDA Advisory Committee, the FDA issued a memo concluding that data from large long-term controlled clinical trials do not clearly demonstrate that COX-2 selective agents (including rofecoxib) have a greater risk of serious cardiovascular events than non-selective NSAIDs.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In 2015, the FDA reinforced this conclusion, stating that the available data support a dose and duration dependent class effect of an increased risk of serious adverse cardiovascular events for COX-2 selective and non-selective NSAIDs.


title: Rofecoxib

text: By March 2006, there were over 10,000 cases and 190 class actions filed against Merck over adverse cardiovascular events associated with rofecoxib and the adequacy of Merck's warnings. The first wrongful death trial, "Rogers v. Merck", was scheduled in Alabama in the spring of 2005, but was postponed after Merck argued that the plaintiff had falsified evidence of rofecoxib use.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On August 19, 2005, a jury in Texas voted 10–2 to hold Merck liable for the death of Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old man who allegedly died of a rofecoxib-induced heart attack. Merck argued that the death was due to cardiac arrhythmia, which had not been shown to be associated with rofecoxib use. The jury awarded Carol Ernst, widow of Robert Ernst, $253.4 million in damages. This award was capped at no more than US$26.1 million because of punitive damages limits under Texas law. Merck appealed and the verdict was overturned in 2008.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On November 3, 2005, Merck won the second case "Humeston v. Merck", a personal injury case, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The plaintiff experienced a mild myocardial infarction and claimed that rofecoxib was responsible, after having taken it for two months. Merck argued that there was no evidence that rofecoxib was the cause of Humeston's injury and that there is no scientific evidence linking rofecoxib to cardiac events with short durations of use. The jury ruled that Merck had adequately warned doctors and patients of the drug's risk.


title: Rofecoxib

text: The first federal trial on rofecoxib, "Plunkett v. Merck", began on November 29, 2005, in Houston. The trial ended on December 12, 2005, when Judge Eldon E. Fallon of U.S. District Court declared a mistrial because of a hung jury with an eight to one majority, favoring the defense. Upon retrial in February 2006 in New Orleans, where the Vioxx multidistrict litigation (MDL) is based, a jury found Merck not liable, even though the plaintiffs had the "NEJM" editor testify as to his objections to the VIGOR study.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On January 30, 2006, a New Jersey state court dismissed a case brought by Edgar Lee Boyd, who blamed Vioxx for gastrointestinal bleeding that he experienced after taking the drug. The judge said that Boyd failed to prove the drug caused his stomach pain and internal bleeding.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In January 2006, "Garza v. Merck" began trial in Rio Grande City, Texas. The plaintiff, a 71-year-old smoker with heart disease, had a fatal heart attack three weeks after finishing a one-week sample of rofecoxib. On April 21, 2006 the jury awarded the plaintiff $7 million compensatory and $25 million punitive. The Texas Courts of Appeals in San Antonio later ruled Garza's fatal heart attack probably resulted from pre-existing health conditions unrelated to his taking of Vioxx, thus reversing the $32 million jury award.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On April 5, 2006, a jury held Merck liable for the heart attack of 77-year-old John McDarby, and awarded McDarby $4.5 million in compensatory damages based on Merck's failure to properly warn of Vioxx safety risks. After a hearing on April 11, 2006, the jury also awarded Mr. McDarby an additional $9 million in punitive damages. The same jury found Merck not liable for the heart attack of 60-year-old Thomas Cona, a second plaintiff in the trial, but was liable for fraud in the sale of the drug to Cona.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In March 2010, an Australian class-action lawsuit against Merck ruled that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attacks, and that Merck had breached the Trade Practices Act by selling a drug which was unfit for sale.


title: Rofecoxib

text: By November 2007 Merck announced that it agreed on a mass tort settlement of $4.85 billion between Merck and the lawyers of 27,000 individual lawsuits with a try-every-case strategy as opposed to a class action lawsuit if "85 percent of the plaintiffs sign up". After the settlement, the lawyers for the case disputed the $315 million awarded in legal fees. Ultimately, the judge determined how the fees would be awarded to the plaintiff's attorneys. Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana additionally ordered the plaintiff lawyers to cap their fees at 32% of the settlement amount.


title: Rofecoxib

text: The above dispute over lawyer fees has caused scholars and observers to consider tort reform throughout the country. Articles on the subject include "The Vioxx Litigation: A Critical Look at Trial Tactics, the Tort System, and the Roles of Lawyers in Mass Tort Litigation" and "10 Years of Tort Reform in Texas Bring Fewer Suits, Lower Payouts."


title: Rofecoxib

text: In November 2011, Merck announced a civil settlement with the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, and individually with 43 US states and the District of Columbia, to resolve civil claims relating to Vioxx. Under the terms of the settlement, Merck agreed to pay two-thirds of a previously recorded $950 million reserve charge in exchange for release from civil liability. Litigation with seven additional states remains outstanding. Under separate criminal proceedings, Merck pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge relating to the marketing of the drug across state lines, incurring a fine of $321.6 million.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In November 2017, Massachusetts-based Tremeau Pharmaceuticals announced its plan to return rofecoxib (TRM-201) to market as a treatment for hemophilic arthropathy (HA). Tremeau announced that the FDA had granted an orphan designation for TRM-201 (rofecoxib) for the treatment of HA, and that they had received FDA feedback on their development plan. HA is a degenerative joint disease caused by recurrent intra-articular bleeding. It is the largest cause of morbidity in patients with hemophilia and has no currently approved treatment options in the United States. Traditional NSAIDs are avoided in this population due to their effects on platelet aggregation and risk of gastrointestinal ulcers, and high potency opioids are the current standard of care in treating HA.


title: Rofecoxib

text: In March 2019 Tremeau announced that they had hired as chief development officer a former Merck employee who had been a product development team leader and also was responsible for executive oversight for numerous clinical trials for the COX-2 inhibitor VIOXX (rofecoxib). Tremeau also announced an upcoming clinical trial for rofecoxib and were seeking investigators.


title: Rofecoxib

text: On February 15, 2022, California-based BriOri Biotech announced that it had been issued a patent covering topical formulations of rofecoxib.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan (, ; ) is a city in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about E.S.E. of Tangier. In the 2014 Moroccan census, the city recorded a population of 380,787 inhabitants. It is part of the administrative division Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.


title: Tétouan

text: The city has witnessed many development cycles spanning over more than 2,000 years. The first settlements, discovered a few miles outside of the modern city limits, belonged to Mauretanian Berbers and date back to the 3rd century BC. A century later, Phoenicians traded there and after them the site—known now as the ancient town of Tamuda—became a Roman colony under Emperor Augustus.


title: Tétouan

text: In the late 13th century, the Berber Marinids started by building a casbah and mosque in what is now the old city. Soon after in 1305, the scale of the settlement was expanded by sultan Abu Thabit Amir, who fortified the place. Around the early 15th century, the Castilians destroyed the settlement in retaliation for piracy.


title: Tétouan

text: The modern history of the city starts around the late 15th century. It was re-built and fortified by Ali al-Mandri, who emigrated from the Nasrid city of Granada in the decade before it fell in the hands of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile as the War of Granada was completed in 1492. Thousands of Muslims and Jews from Andalusia settled in the north of Morocco and on the ruins of the city of Tétouan. The city went through a prosperous period of reconstruction and growth in various fields and became a center for the reception of Andalusian civilization. It is often linked to Granada and is nicknamed "Granada's Daughter"; some families still keep keys belonging to their old homes in Granada. It is also nicknamed "Pequeña Jerusalén" (Little Jerusalem) by Sephardi Jews. The vast majority of the population are Muslims and small Christian and Jewish communities also exist, although their presence has declined sharply in recent decades.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1913, Tétouan became the capital of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, which was governed by the Khalifa (Moroccan prince serving as Viceroy for the Sultan), and the Spanish "Alto Comisario" accredited to him. It remained the capital until 1956, when Morocco regained its full independence.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan is a renowned multicultural center. The medina of Tétouan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. It has also been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the area of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017.


title: Tétouan

text: The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Before its foundation in the late 13th century, small fortifications existed here with the name Tittawin. The current name is first mentioned in 9th-century Arabic chronicles, after the death of Idris II. The official name of the Marinid city was "Afrag" ('(royal) tent' in Berber). Unofficial documents kept referring to it as Tétouan.


title: Tétouan

text: According to Leo Africanus, the name comes after the Goths bestowed the government of the town upon a woman with one eye and that the inhabitants called it "Tetteguin", meaning "eye" in their language.


title: Tétouan

text: A few miles outside of the city limits lies the ancient town of Tamuda. Early settlements at the outskirts of the actual city by Mauretanian Berbers date back to the 3rd century BC. Artifacts from both the Phoenician and the Roman era have been found at the site of Tamuda. It became a Roman colony under Emperor Augustus.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1286, the Marinids built a casbah and mosque there. The first large-scale building project took place in 1305 when the settlement was expanded by the Marinid king Abu Thabit Amir. He fortified the place and had it serve as a base for attacks on Ceuta, which had recently come under the rule of a rebellious member of the Marinid dynasty. In 1431, it was destroyed by the Castilians, because pirates used it for their attacks. The Portuguese were already occupying the neighboring Ceuta and in 1436, its commander Pedro de Menezes, 1st Count of Vila Real dispatched a detachment of his garrison under his son Duarte de Menezes to raid Tétouan - which was recovering from the Castillian destruction - in order to prevent it from becoming a threat to future Portuguese operations.


title: Tétouan

text: By the end of the 15th century, it was rebuilt by refugees from the Reconquista (reconquest of Spain, completed by the fall of Granada in 1492), when the Andalusian Moors, led by Ali al-Mandri, a captain of the troops loyal to Boabdil, the last king of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, took refuge in the ruined city. They first raised the walls and then filled the enclosure with houses. These Andalusians came into conflict with the Berber Beni Hozmar tribe settling in Jebala lands, after which they asked the Wattasid sultan for protection. In response, he sent 80 soldiers (according to one chronicle, 40 natives of Fez and 40 Riffians). In turn, the Andalusians paid a large amount of mithqal, thus insuring their autonomy. Instantly, the Andalusians, assisted by tribes from the surrounding mountains, started harassing the Spanish possessions on the Moroccan coast. These attacks led to the destruction of the city's harbor by the Spanish in 1565. During this time, the city was governed by the Andalusian Abu Hassan al-Mandri and the city remained autonomous from the Saadi sultans, with the Saadis constantly trying to assert their power.


title: Tétouan

text: As early as the 1530s and 1540s, at the time when Spain and the Ottoman Empire were disputing control over the western part of the Mediterranean, piracy was spreading and soon Tétouan became one of the main centers of piracy in the region. Corsairs considered it as a form of retaliation against the Spanish Reconquista that led to the loss of their homes back in al-Andalus, especially that the timing coincided with the first Morisco influx to Tétouan due to the forced conversions they faced in Spain between 1501 and 1526. Their collaborators included English and Dutch renegades who were mostly Protestants, although a few had converted to Islam.


title: Tétouan

text: While the harbor served as a port from where piracy missions were launched, captives were taken to dungeons. There were underground prison complexes with a series of connected excavated caves called "Mazmorras". The captives were faced with being sold to the slavery market if ransoms were not paid. These subterranean installations were rediscovered in the early 20th century. A chapel of 90 square meters and a few altars were also uncovered. The sacred site, named "Nuestra Señora de los Dolores" (Our Lady of Sorrows), was used by the captives and redeemers like their relatives or Spanish Franciscans and Portuguese Jesuits who used to make frequent visits to negotiate the Christian captives' freedom.


title: Tétouan

text: Miguel De Cervantes, himself a captive in Algiers, Algeria between 1575 and 1580, refers to "Mazmorras" in "" (The Divorce Judge), where the protagonist compares his marriage to "captivity in Tetouan's caves." He also mentions it in "Don Quixote", in addition to talking about Tétouan in "", "" and "La ilustre fregona". It is believed that he had contact with some prisoners who told him about the hardness of the dungeons of Tétouan. Diplomat and explorer Leo Africanus, while visiting the city, mentions in his book "Description of Africa" that there were 3,000 captives, although some historians dispute that figure. Other accounts came from captives themselves such as , who spoke of horrible conditions lived inside those "mazmorras" in the late 17th century. Piracy continued and in 1829, the Austrian Empire bombarded the city in reprisal.


title: Tétouan

text: The underground prison was explored in 1922 by Cesar Luis de Montalban, based on a report by archeologist Manuel Gómez-Moreno Martínez. The Spanish Protectorate administration then commissioned architect Carlos Ovilo to study the site but they found out that no excavation could be possible without taking the risk of damaging the housing above the site. Since then, no excavation has taken place, although recently, some researchers and civil associations have called for the authorities to extend exploration and restoration before opening it to the public.


title: Tétouan

text: In the 17th century, the city was governed by the wealthy al-Naksis family. At the end of the century, the city was taken by the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, who encountered fierce resistance. Tétouan remained fragile, until it was taken by Ahmad al-Riffi, the Alaouite governor of Tangier and leader of the Berber army Jaysh al-Rifi that had occupied Tangier after the English had evacuated the possession. Al-Riffi ushered in a period of stability in Tétouan, building many of the city's landmarks such as the Meshwar palace and the Pasha mosque, the oldest standing mosque in Tétouan. After his death, the city again rebelled and was only nominally controlled by the central government.


title: Tétouan

text: Elements of military constructions can be found in the original fortifications such as the three forts, the seven gates, and the large outer walls that surround the old medina. They have survived despite the changes that occurred through the expansions known to the city during multiple periods.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan received a number of Algerian immigrants following the French invasion of Algiers in 1830. They introduced baklava, coffee, and the "warqa" pastry now used in pastilla. For Gil Marks, it was rather the Sephardic Jews who introduced the Ottoman warqa, which the Moroccans substituted for the Spanish pastry.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1844, Morocco lost a war against the French and in 1856, it signed the "Anglo-Moroccan treaties of Friendship" with the British. The Spaniards saw the Moroccan defeat in 1844 and the treaties signed in 1865 as a sign of their weakness. Spurred by a national passion for African conquest, Spain declared war on Morocco in 1859 after a conflict over the borders of Ceuta.


title: Tétouan

text: After a few months, Tétouan was taken on 4 February 1860 under the command of General Leopoldo O'Donnell, who was a descendant of an old Irish royal family, the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell. He was made hereditary Duke of Tetuán, and later served as Prime Minister of Spain. However, two years later the Spanish evacuated in May 1862.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1913, it became the capital of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, which was governed by the Khalifa (Moroccan prince, serving as Viceroy for the Sultan), and the Spanish "Alto Comisario" accredited to him, and it remained its capital until 1956.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan was one of the most active Moroccan cities in resisting colonialism. The nationalist movement in Tétouan was led by the charismatic leader Abdelkhalek Torres and other personalities such as Abdessalam Bennuna and historian Mohammed Daoud. The movement was part of the pan-Arab nationalist movements. They established deep ties with Arab nationalist leaders such as former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Druze prince and intellectual Shakib Arslan. When Arsalan wanted to visit Morocco in August 1930, he was not given a permit by the French protectorate so instead he went to Tangier, which then had international status under foreign colonial powers, and from there to Tétouan, where he met the group. Many of the members later joined the National Party for Istiqlal. Others joined some other nationalist parties, of which many members were women.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan has been home to a significant Sephardi Jewish community which immigrated from Spain after the Reconquista and the Spanish Inquisition. This Jewish Sephardi community spoke a form of Judaeo-Spanish known as Haketia. According to the World Jewish Congress there were only 100 Moroccan Jews remaining in Tétouan by 2015.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1790, a pogrom occurred, started by Sultan Yazid. The mellah, where the Jews lived, was pillaged and many women raped. At this point there was an emigration of Tetouani Jews to Gibraltar, where the large Jewish population maintains links with the community in Tetouan.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1807, Sultan Slimane relocated the mellah south of the medina to build a large mosque at its previous location inside the medina.


title: Tétouan

text: The "Mellah" of Tetuan was sacked in the Hispano-Moroccan War of 1860, when there were 16 to 18 synagogues. This was followed by appeals in the European Jewish press to support Jewish communities like the one in Tetuan, leading to an international effort called "The Morocco Relief Fund." The Paris-based international Jewish organization "Alliance Israélite Universelle", along with Rabbi Isaac Ben Walid of Tetuan, then opened its first school in Tetuan in 1862.


title: Tétouan

text: Following the exodus of Jews from Morocco after 1948, there were very few Jews left in Tétouan. By 1967, only 12 remained (López Álvarez, 2003). During that period, many emigrated to South America and much later to Israel, Spain, France, and Canada. Today, the only synagogue remaining is the Rabbi Isaac Bengualid Synagogue, which serves as a museum.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan was further expanded when it became the capital of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco between 1913 and 1956. The Spanish administration built several new neighborhoods outside the walled medina. The city underwent an intense urban transformation for which its new neighborhoods and buildings, called "" (meaning extension), acquired an image very similar to those of other Spanish cities of the time. Its structure was organized around a large circular plaza, now called 'Plaza Mulay el Mehdi' (formerly Plaza Primo de Rivera). The influence of the protectorate has remained important even after the independence of the country in 1956.


title: Tétouan

text: In January 1984, and in the midst of the Years of Lead under the reign of King Hassan II (died 1999), a revolt spread into several cities for a number of days due to price hikes for basic goods following the implementation of the IMF's and the World Bank's structural adjustment programme. The revolt was thwarted by a military intervention. Twenty people were killed in Tétouan and many others were arrested and received heavy sentences.


title: Tétouan

text: Many people in the city still speak Spanish. On road signs, names are often written both in Spanish and in Arabic, though many signs are in Arabic and French, the second language of modern Morocco.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan is famed for its fine craftsmanship and musical delicacy and has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the area of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017. Its cultural heritage is the product of the interaction between different cultural influences throughout centuries. It is mainly characterized by its Andalusian style and way of living, but Berber, Jewish, and colonial Spanish influences are present too.


title: Tétouan

text: The city has produced many scholars in different disciplines throughout centuries. One of the first newspapers in Morocco, "El Eco de Tetuan", was published in the city in 1860. In the colonial period, whereas France took measures to censor publications in Arabic in the area under its control, Tetuan, the capital of the northern Spanish area, became a center of publishing and the capital of Moroccan literary life. Many historic newspapers were published in Tetuan, including the first nationalist publication in Morocco, "as-Salaam" October 1933, followed by "al-Hurriya" and others. These were published by members of this intellectual circle in Tetuan that included figures like Abdesalam Bennuna, Muhammad Daoud, Abdelkhaleq Torres, and Abdellah Guennoun.


title: Tétouan

text: The vast majority of the population are Muslims and small Christian and Jewish communities also exist, although their presence has declined sharply in recent decades. Notable spiritual leaders include Sufi saint Ahmad ibn Ajiba and Jewish Rabbis Yosef Maimon and Isaac Ben Walid. Tetuan also had a vibrant Sephardi Jewish community with ties to Al-Andalus.


title: Tétouan

text: The streets are fairly wide and straight, and many of the houses belonging to aristocratic families, descendants of those expelled from Al-Andalus by the Spanish Reconquista, possess marble fountains and have groves planted with orange trees. Within the houses and riads the ceilings are often exquisitely carved and painted in Hispano-Moresque designs, such as are found in the Alhambra of Granada, and the tilework for which Tétouan is known may be seen on floors, pillars, and dados. The city has seven gates which were closed at night up until the early 20th century. Many Sufi Zawiyas are scattered inside the walled old city.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan has rich culinary traditions unique within Moroccan cuisine. and the influence of Berber ("Amazigh"), Arab, Andalusi, Algerian and Spanish cuisines is noted in the variety of dishes and pastries.


title: Tétouan

text: Amazigh and Arab cuisine are present in staples of Moroccan cuisine such as cuscus and "rafissa" or "thrid", respectively.


title: Tétouan

text: As in other Moroccan cities like Salé and Fes, Tétouan inherited Andalusi culinary traditions through the waves of migration terminating with the arrival of the expelled Moriscos 1609–1614. This manifests itself in classic dishes such as "pastilla". However, the pastilla traditionally made in Tetuan is more savory than sweet, with more preserved lemon and no sugar or almonds.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan has been also influenced by Algerian and Ottoman cuisine, and this is due to the wave of migrants from Algeria following the French conquest of Algeria. This influence manifests itself prominently in the sweets of Tetuan, which include "qatayef" and baklava.


title: Tétouan

text: Traditional craftsmanship is concentrated in the old medina where every industry has its own quarter with the same name where workshops and shops are found. Among them are Zellige (tilework), pottery, plaster engravings, embroidery, inlaying with silver wire, the manufacture of thick-soled yellow slippers, much-esteemed flintlocks, and artistic towels used as capes and skirts by Jebala women in rural areas.


title: Tétouan

text: The Lucas Museum of Religious Heritage () is housed in the historic Madrasat Lucas in Tetuan. In addition to archaeological, traditional, and modern art museums, as well as an archival library, Tétouan hosts a school of music and many artisan schools. Different music genres of local or regional origins can be found in Tétouan. Traditional Andalusian classical music is the most popular and folk singers such as Abdessadeq Cheqara are widely known in Morocco. Other popular local genres like Taktoka Jabaliya also exist and are usually played at weddings.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan hosts many international festivals such as the International Mediterranean Film Festival, and the International Oud and Women's Voice (أصوات نسائية) Festival.


title: Tétouan

text: On November 20, 2013, the city's "Centro de Arte Moderno" (Center of Modern Art) was launched and currently holds between 180 and 200 artworks from both self-trained artists and graduates of the city's National Institute of Fine Arts.


title: Tétouan

text: The city has its own dialect, a particular "citadin" variant of non-Hilalian Arabic which is distinct from Jeblia. However, Jeblia, which is a dialect of Darija, is predominant since people from the neighboring rural areas settled in the city during the 20th-century rural flights. The use of Spanish and French is still widespread, especially among businessmen and intellectual elites, due to past colonial ties and the geographic proximity to Europe.


title: Tétouan

text: The city is situated about 60 km east of the city of Tangier and 40 km south of the Strait of Gibraltar. To the south and west of the city, there are mountains. Tétouan is situated in the middle of a belt of orchards that grow oranges, almonds, pomegranates, and cypress trees. The Rif Mountains are nearby, as the city is located in the Martil Valley. It is picturesquely situated on the northern slope of a fertile valley down which flows the Martil river, with the harbour of Tétouan, Martil, at its mouth. Behind rise rugged masses of rock, the southern wall of the Anjera country, once practically closed to Europeans; across the valley are the hills which form the northern limit of the still more impenetrable Rif.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan features a Mediterranean climate with Köppen climate classification of "Csa". Located along the Mediterranean Sea, the weather in Tétouan is mild, cold, and rainy during the winter, hot and dry in the summer months.


title: Tétouan

text: During the 1920s, activists belonging to the national movement in northern Morocco, especially in Tétouan under Spanish protectorate, made science and education a supreme goal of their struggle to combat colonialism. In 1924, and after considerable effort and determination, they established a primary school and named it the "Al Madrasa al-Ahliyah" (Arabic: المدرسة الأهلية meaning National School). Among them were historian Mohammed Daoud, Abdel Salam Bennouna, and Mustafa Afilal. To this end, members of the National Movement carried out a popular campaign under the leadership of the Special Education Committee established in 1934. In the summer of 1935, a group of activists met at the house of Mustafa Afilal, and after a long debate about educational dimensions, material resources, and other things, the group concluded by approving the establishment of a special secondary educational institution. The name of the institution remained suspended until the end of the year. After additional meetings, nationalist leader and Professor Abdelkhalek Torres, being impressed with the role played by the "free men" in the era of the Second Spanish Republic, said to his colleagues: "most of the men of science, thought and liberation in Spain, graduated from Madrid's "Instituto Libre". Therefore, I hope and suggest that you call our institute the Free Institute (Arabic: المعهد الحر)". After this was approved, the Free Institute was established on November 5, 1935.


title: Tétouan

text: The students of the Institute were among the first to demonstrate and protest against the Spanish administration. The year 1948, in which bloody events took place between the citizens demanding independence and the Spanish colonialism, in which a student of the institute was killed by colonial agents, was a milestone in its history. The Spanish administration began to take over the institute. All the staff were arrested and imprisoned in Ceuta. However, weeks later, historian Tuhami al-Wazzani, who was then the director of the elementary school, joined the institute and asked the college students to help teach the younger ones so that the institute would not stop teaching altogether. Since then, secondary education has ceased and has been limited to primary education up to this day. Many graduates continued their higher education in Spain, Cairo, and Baghdad.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan is home to "l'Institut National des Beaux-Arts" (National Institute of Fine Arts), the only national arts institution of higher education in Morocco. It was founded in 1945. Its promoter and first director was the Spanish Orientalist painter . The city also hosts the "Ecole Nationale d'Architecture", a public architecture school.


title: Tétouan

text: Tétouan's public Abdelmalek Essaâdi University was founded in 1993. The 16th-century Moroccan sultan Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi is the university's namesake. The university has a student body of 86,000, one of the largest in Morocco. The Faculty of Theology (Arabic : كلية أصول الدين) was established in 1963 and was an affiliate of the prestigious Al Quaraouiyine University in Fez until 2015, when it was annexed to Abdelmalek Essaâdi University.


title: Tétouan

text: The economy of the city is based mainly on tourism and commerce. Other sectors of income include fishing and agriculture. Tétouan's civil airport Sania Ramel Airport, which became an international airport that operates flights to western Europe, is operated by the Moroccan Airports Authority and is located 6 km (4 mi) to the east.


title: Tétouan

text: The Ceuta-Tetuán railway line () was the first Spanish international railway line that would unite the cities of Ceuta and Tétouan. It was inaugurated on March 17, 1918, by Carlos de Borbón and Khalifa . The line is no longer in use. Tétouan is linked to Tangier, Larache, Chefchaouen, Bab Sebta (border with Ceuta), and Al Hoceima via modern national motorways. The 28 km Tetouan–Fnideq expressway was completed in 2005.


title: Tétouan

text: The coastal area is a major tourist destination during the summer period. It stretches from Fnideq, a small city near Ceuta, to the beaches of the small village of El Jebha on the route to Al Hoceima. Several marinas and beach resorts are spread between different villages along the coast. The M'diq port is the main fishing port serving the city. M'diq has another port dedicated to leisure. Both have been expanded recently in order to improve tourist offerings and to increase the harbour's capacity. Boats up to 50 metres long with a depth of nearly five metres can be moored.


title: Tétouan

text: Cultural tourism has also been developed during recent years. Many historical sites and monuments are found within and outside the old city (medina).


title: Tétouan

text: During the 20th century, Tétouan had a few flourishing industries such as paper manufacturing, which was led by the "Papelera de Tetuán" company. The company was later merged with its competitor "Cellulose du Maroc", having its operations stopped in Tétouan and its headquarters transferred to Casablanca.


title: Tétouan

text: The historic center is equipped with a subterranean piping system for water distribution through its streets. In fact, until the early 1970s, drinking water supply in the old medina was mainly provided through this traditional network called "Skoundo" (El Abdellaoui, 1986). It was developed around the 16th century in parallel with the construction of the first houses during its renewal by Andalusian refugees. It penetrates the ancient city from the far north to the far south. It starts at the top of Mount Dersa and extends underground under channels and pipes made of clay. Although it is not the only ancient water system in Morocco, others having been located in Fez and Chefchaouen, it remains the only one still operating. However, the bad state of the clay pipes combined with neglect and other technical issues makes the water undrinkable, although some restorations are underway. Skoundo had a clear impact on various socio-economic charts of the city. The system did not only serve houses but also mosques, public toilets, hammams, tanneries, and public mural fountains found in each neighborhood in the old medina.


title: Tétouan

text: Since a few decades, and because of the proximity of the city to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, many people have been relying on contraband activities. Residents of Tétouan do not need a visa to enter Ceuta. Before the 1990s, no passport was needed and a Moroccan ID card was sufficient. In recent years, the border has known many incidents such as stampedes. Human rights groups have often criticized the situation in which women carry heavy loads of goods - giving rise to the epithet "Mule women"- before cases of investigation were opened.


title: Tétouan

text: In 1917, Tetouan saw the appearance of its first football clubs, "Sporting of Tetuán" and "el Hispano-Marroquí" ("The Spanish-Moroccan"). One year later, these two clubs, and a third one called "el Radio", merged and that gave the birth to the "Athletic Club Tetuán". The new club was established in 1922 by Basque Atlético Madrid fans who lived in Tétouan. In the early days, it was known as Athletic Club Tetuan—based on the Spanish spelling of the city. After the Spanish Civil War and according to General Franco's demands (banning non-Spanish names), it became known as Club Atlético Tetuan. This is why the team has always played in red and white stripes and blue shorts, just like their counterparts from Madrid they were supposed to emulate. Under the Spanish Protectorate of Northern Morocco, Tetuán was a part of the Spanish Liga for 33 years until independence was achieved in 1956. The highlights of that era were their surprising win of the Spanish Segunda División (the southern group) in the 1950–51 season and their promotion to the Primera Division of 1951–52. The club remains, to this day, the only African team ever to play in a top division in Europe.


title: Tétouan

text: Today, the city has one professional football club, Moghreb Athletic Tétouan, which competes in the Botola, the top-tier of Moroccan football. The team plays their home games at the Saniat Rmel stadium, the oldest football stadium in Africa. As of the 2018–19 season, the team will play at the new Tétouan Stadium, which will have a seating capacity of more than 41,000. Moghreb Athletic Tétouan won its first league title in the 2011–12 Botola League season, becoming the first Chamali club to ever win the league title. Today, MAT is considered one of the five biggest football clubs in Morocco along with Raja Casablanca, Wydad Casablanca, FAR Rabat, and Maghreb Fès. A new football stadium in the Mediterranean city of Tétouan is currently being built across 36 hectares north of the residential areas, along the new A6 highway. It will occupy former farmlands and become the central sports arena of the agglomeration, replacing the severely dated Stade Saniat Rmel. The stadium is meant to seat 60,000 spectators; original plans called for a capacity of 40,000 but this was increased to 60,000 in order to meet latest FIFA regulations. Construction on the Grand Stade De Tétouan, which was designed by Moroccan architect Nawfal Bakhat, began in 2015 and was initially scheduled for completion in 2018. The project has stalled a number of times, been mired in controversy regarding the authorship of its design plans, and the completion date has been postponed as well. As of January 2020, it is still not finished. The Kingdom of Morocco has submitted a bid to FIFA to host the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in three different countries.


title: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

text: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum () is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film starring Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Esha Deol. This is the first film where Roshan and Khan act together. The film was directed by Arjun Sablok and produced by Future Group owner Kishore Biyani. The title of the film was taken from a song of Roshan's debut film "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai" (2000). Upon release, it met with highly negative reviews and was a box office disaster despite having a stellar cast.


title: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

text: Esha Malhotra is a bright, spirited girl who has just left college. She finds a note from a past student of her school that coincides with her own feelings of love. She calls into a radio station and requests a song, repeating the words left on the note. An anonymous man calls in soon after, stating that he is the one who had written the letter and he would like to meet her someday since they seem to have the same feelings about love and other aspects in life. The radio announcer sets up a date and time for their meeting at the radio station. The man arrives but finds only a letter waiting for him. The letter does not state her name or address, only a post box number to which she requests him to write so that they can be friends. The correspondence begins. The man turns out to be a photographer and commercial pilot Rahul Sharma. They do not meet, exchange numbers, or tell their names but continue to write to each other. Fate brings the two together when Esha hires Rahul to be their photographer for a campaign. Of course, she didn't know it was him nor he did that it was her.


title: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

text: Esha's grandfather wants her to get married and thus he arranges for her to meet Akshay Kapoor, a flirt and womaniser who also happens to be Rahul's best friend. Esha has fallen in love with her pen pal and does not want to marry Akshay. However, Akshay is falling for Esha. A lovestruck Rahul arranges to meet the one to whom he writes letters. Much to his shock though, he finds out it is Esha. Because of his friendship with Akshay, who is deeply in love with Esha, Rahul decides to forget her. Esha, unable to contact her anonymous love, agrees to wed Akshay. Rahul leaves for Vancouver the day before the wedding, vowing never to be seen again.


title: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

text: Four years later, in a mall in Canada, Rahul meets Akshay, who now has a son. Rahul thinks he is about to meet Esha but instead meets Akshay's former girlfriend Tanya, who is now his wife. Akshay explains that he could not marry Esha in the end because she still loves her mystery writer. Suddenly, a group of workers in the mall carry in a large portrait of Esha, and Akshay realises that Rahul is the mystery writer Esha fell in love with. He urges Rahul to hurry back to India so Rahul does so and reunites with Esha.


title: Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

text: According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 9,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fifteenth highest-selling.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The Bowery Boys (vernacular Bowery Bhoys) were a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish criminal gang based in the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City in the early-mid-19th century. In contrast with the Irish immigrant tenement of the Five Points, one of the worst city slums in the United States, the Bowery was a more prosperous working-class community. Despite its reputation as one of the most notorious street gangs of New York City at the time, the majority of the Bowery Boys led law-abiding lives for the most part. The gang was made up exclusively of volunteer firemen—though some also worked as tradesmen, mechanics, and butchers (the primary trade of prominent leader William "Bill the Butcher" Poole)—and would fight rival fire companies over who would extinguish a fire. The Bowery Boys often battled multiple outfits of the infamous Five Points, most notably the Dead Rabbits, with whom they feuded for decades. The uniform of a Bowery Boy generally consisted of a stovepipe hat in variable condition, a red shirt, and dark trousers tucked into boots—this style paying homage to their firemen roots.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: In the Antebellum Period, the population of single working men living in lower Manhattan increased significantly. These young men were drawn to the city by rising wages for laborers, brought about by growing technology and industrialization that followed the War of 1812. Typically firemen or mechanics, b'hoys spent their free time in the theaters and bars that surrounded their living wards around the Bowery. The Bowery B'hoys were also known for their gang activity, engaging in fights and riots with members of opposing gangs such as the Dead Rabbits.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: “You might see him ‘strutting along like a king’ with his breeches stuck in his boots, his coat on his arm, his flaming red shirt tied at the collar with a cravat such as could be seen nowhere else...None so ready as he for a fight, none so quick to resent the intrusion of a respectable man into his haunts.”


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The term B'hoy was also widely used to describe a young man of the working-class who enjoyed drinking, seeking out adventure, and finding fun.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: According to one historian, "it would be a mistake to identify the Bowery Boys as a specific group at a specific time . . .there were several gangs who referred to themselves as the Bowery Boys at various times under different leaders during the antebellum years." Mike Walsh was largely considered the leader of the one of the first incarnations of the Bowery Boys. Walsh acted as a political figure to the Bowery Boys and even became an elected official. He reached the peak of his popularity in 1843, when he created the political clubhouse he called the "Spartan Association", which consisted of factory workers and unskilled laborers. Walsh felt that political leaders were treating the poor unfairly and wanted to make a difference by becoming a leader himself. Walsh was sentenced to jail twice, but the Bowery Boys became so powerful that they were able to bail him out during his second trip to jail. The front page of "The Subterranean" on April 4th read, "We consider the present infamous persecution of Mike Walsh a blow aimed at the honest laboring portion of this community". Due to the threat of violence in the streets, Walsh was let out midway through his sentence. Walsh was considered by many to be the "champion of the poor man's rights". Walsh was eventually taken to Tammany Hall and was nominated for a seat in the state legislature, and even earned the support of poet Walt Whitman. Walsh eventually died in 1859 and his obituary in an edition of "The Subterranean" read that the leader of the Bowery Boys was an "original talent, rough, full of passionate impulses... but he lacked balance, caution-the ship often seemed devoid of both ballast and rudder". The obituary was thought to be written by Whitman.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: During the New York Draft Riots of 1863, the Bowery Boys reached the height of their power taking part in the looting of much of New York City while fighting with rival gangs, the New York Police, and the Union Army. By the end of the decade, however, the gang had split into various factions as the Bowery Boys gradually disappeared.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Appearance was of great importance to Bowery B'hoys, who dressed for both flair and convenience. A typical Bowery B'hoy wore: “[a] black silk hat, smoothly brushed, sitting precisely upon the top of his head, hair well oiled, and lying closely to the skin, long in front, short behind, cravat a-la sailor, with the shirt collar turned over it, vest of fancy silk, large flowers, black frock coat, no jewelry, except in a few instances, where the insignia of the engine company to which the wearer belongs, as a breastpin, black pants, one or two years behind the fashion, heavy boots, and a cigar about half smoked, in the left corner of his mouth, as nearly perpendicular as it is possible to be got. He has a peculiar swing, not exactly a swagger, to his walk, but a swing, which nobody but a Bowery boy can imitate.”George Foster, a travel writer, wrote in 1850:


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: “Who are the b’hoys and g’hals of New York?...sometimes a stout clerk in a jobbing-house, oftener a junior partner at a wholesale grocery, and still more frequently a respectable young butcher with big arms and broad shoulders, in a blue coat with a silk hat and a crape wound about its base, and who is known familiarly as a ‘Bowery Boy!'”<br>


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The Bowery Boys were known to frequent theaters in New York City. Richard Butsch in "The Making Of American Audiences" notes, "they brought the street into the theater, rather than shaping the theater into an arena of the public sphere". The Bowery Theatre, in particular, was a favorite among the Bowery Boys. The Bowery Theatre was built in 1826 and soon became a theater for the working man. Walt Whitman described the theater as "packed from ceiling to pit with its audience, mainly of alert, well-dressed, full-blooded young and middle aged men, the best average of American-born mechanics". Plays even began to appear in theaters frequented by the Bowery Boys with shows about Bowery Boys themselves, particularly, a character named Moses whom many Bowery Boys deemed "the real thing". It was not uncommon for men to drink, smoke, and meet with prostitutes in the theater. The Bowery Boys dominated the theater in the early 19th century and theater was considered to be a "male club".


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Higher wages brought higher standards of living for working-class citizens, which provided them both social mobility and the ability to indulge in entertainment. As Bowery B'hoys and similar characters made up a significant portion of theater audiences, theaters such as the Bowery Theater and the Chatham Theatre created their playbills to suit the audience's interests. Plays were done alongside other acts, such as popular songs and dances, Minstrelsy, and other sketches or demonstrations. Even Shakespeare's works, which gained popularity at the time, were altered to include colloquial language and popular music.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Rowdy Bowery B'hoy audiences mostly sat in the theater's pit, and often requested that songs, dances, and scenes be repeated multiple times or added impromptu to the performance, even taking over the stage and participating in the drama at times. Bowery B'hoys and other audience members threw food and booed or hissed performers they didn't enjoy.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Frances Trollope described similar behavior in Cincinnati audiences at the time, narrating, "the spitting was incessant; and the mixed smell of onions and whiskey was enough to make one feel even the Drakes acting dearly bought...the heels thrown higher than the head, the entire rear of the person presented to the audience...and when a patriotic fit seized them, and 'Yankee Doodle' was called for, every man seemed to think his reputation as a citizen depended on the noise he made."


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: “Walt Whitman warmly recalled the Bowery Theatre around the year 1840, where he could look up to the first tier of boxes and see ‘the faces of the leading authors, poets, editors, of those times,’ while he sat in the pit surrounded by the ‘slang, wit, occasional shirt sleeves, and a picturesque freedom of looks and manners, with a rude, good-nature and restless movement’ of cartmen, butchers, firemen, and mechanics.”


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The Bowery B'hoys, among other groups, participated in the Astor Place Riots of 1849, which were fueled by class tensions in New York City as well as a drawn-out feud between actors Edwin Forrest and William Macready.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Benjamin Baker's play "A Glance at New York", written in 1848, created popular depictions of a Bowery B'hoy and G'hal. Their sayings and the names of the characters, Mose and Liza, were picked up and used popularly to refer to b'hoys and g'hals outside of the production. Even travel writers used these characterizations to describe Bowery B'hoys and G'hals to tourists and readers abroad.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Based on grocer Moses Humphrey, this character was exemplary of a Bowery B'hoy of New York. He discusses theatre with Lize, his g'hal, goes on a fire call, and shows his heart when he's left with an orphaned baby by saying, "The fire boys may be a little rough outside, but they're all right."


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Written phonetically in the b'hoys' typical accent, Mose's dialogue includes sayings that were picked up by audience members and used in daily life. As described by the "New York Herald", "the lithographers are multiplying his likeness throughout the city. The boys in the street have caught his sayings.."


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: Throughout the play, Mose is ready to fight anyone who might oppose him or his companions. The play ends with an act of bravery on his part, as he leaves to help a fellow fireman, Sykesy, in a fight.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The Bowery G'hal was depicted in this play as Eliza Stebbins, or "Lize". George G. Foster writes on the character of Lize:


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: "The g'hal is as independent in her tastes and habits as Mose himself. Her very walk has a swing of mischief and defiance in it, and the tones of her voice are loud, hearty, and free." In a bonnet and mismatching styles, her outfit fits the g’hal sensibility to go against the current fashions of respectable society.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: The characters of Mose and Lize were revisited by other playwrights and writers, including Ned Buntline in his story, The Mysteries and Miseries of New York.


title: Bowery Boys (gang)

text: "With the exception of the single drama which Mr. Chanfrau, slight as is its plot and meager and commonplace as are its incidents, has been able by the force of his genius to confer a new character upon the stage, nothing has been adequately done to begin imparting to our literature the original and rich wealth lying latent in the life and history of Mose and Lize."


title: Carnegie library

text: A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and others in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Serbia, Belgium, France, the Caribbean, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Fiji.


title: Carnegie library

text: At first, Carnegie libraries were almost exclusively in places with which he had a personal connection—namely his birthplace in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, his adopted hometown. Yet, beginning in the middle of 1899, Carnegie substantially increased funding to libraries outside these areas. As Carnegie's library funding progressed, very few of the towns that requested a grant, committing to his terms for operation and maintenance, were refused. By the time the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them known as Carnegie libraries, as they were built with construction grants paid by Carnegie.


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie started erecting libraries in places with which he had personal associations. The first of Carnegie's public libraries, Dunfermline Carnegie Library, was in his birthplace, Dunfermline, Scotland. It was first commissioned or granted by Carnegie in 1880 to James Campbell Walker and would open in 1883.


title: Carnegie library

text: The first library in the United States to be commissioned by Carnegie was in 1886 in his adopted hometown of Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now the North Side of Pittsburgh). In 1890, it became the second of his libraries to open in the US. The building also contained the first Carnegie Music Hall in the world.


title: Carnegie library

text: The first Carnegie library to open in the United States was in Braddock, Pennsylvania, about 9 miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. In 1889, it was also the site of one of the Carnegie Steel Company's mills. It was the second Carnegie Library in the United States to be commissioned, in 1887, and was the first of the four libraries which he fully endowed. An 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States.


title: Carnegie library

text: Initially Carnegie limited his support to a few towns in which he had a personal interest. These were in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. In the United States, nine of the first 13 libraries which he commissioned are all located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Braddock, Homestead, and Duquesne libraries were owned not by municipalities, but by Carnegie Steel, which constructed them, maintained them, and delivered coal for their heating systems.


title: Carnegie library

text: In 1897, Carnegie hired James Bertram as his personal assistant. Bertram was responsible for fielding requests from municipalities for funds and overseeing the dispensing of grants for libraries. When Bertram received a letter requesting a library, he sent the applicant a questionnaire inquiring about the town's population, whether it had any other libraries, how large its book collection was, and what its circulation figures were. If initial requirements were met, Bertram asked the amount the town was willing to pledge for the library's annual maintenance, whether a site was being provided, and the amount of money already available.


title: Carnegie library

text: Until 1898, only one library was commissioned in the United States outside Southwestern Pennsylvania: a library in Fairfield, Iowa, commissioned in 1892. It was the first project in which Carnegie had funded a library to which he had no personal ties. The Fairfield project was part of a new funding model to be used by Carnegie (through Bertram) for thousands of additional libraries.


title: Carnegie library

text: Beginning in 1899, Carnegie's foundation funded a dramatic increase in the number of libraries. This coincided with the rise of women's clubs in the post-Civil War period. They primarily took the lead in organizing local efforts to establish libraries, including long-term fundraising and lobbying within their communities to support operations and collections. They led the establishment of 75–80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country.


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie believed in giving to the "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others." Under segregation, Black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the Southern United States. Rather than insisting on his libraries being racially integrated, Carnegie funded separate libraries for African Americans in the South. For example, in Houston he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library in Savannah, Georgia, opened in 1914 to serve Black residents, who had been excluded from the segregated White public library. The privately organized Colored Library Association of Savannah had raised money and collected books to establish a small Library for Colored Citizens. Having demonstrated their willingness to support a library, the group petitioned for and received funds from Carnegie. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his 2008 memoirs that he frequently used that library as a boy, before the public library system was desegregated.


title: Carnegie library

text: The library buildings were constructed in a number of styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and Spanish Colonial, to enhance their appearance as public buildings. Scottish Baronial was one of the styles used for libraries in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community. As the years went by James Bertram, Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of approving designs that were not to his taste. Edward Lippincott Tilton, a friend often recommended by Bertram, designed many of the buildings.


title: Carnegie library

text: The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase from the ground level. The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, most libraries had a lamp post or lantern installed near the entrance, meant as a symbol of enlightenment.


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie's grants were very large for the era, and his library philanthropy is one of the most costly philanthropic activities, by value, in history. Carnegie continued funding new libraries until shortly before his death in 1919. Libraries were given to towns and cities in Great Britain and much of the English-speaking world: Almost $56.2 million went for construction of 2,509 libraries worldwide. Of that, $40 million was given for construction of 1,670 public library buildings in 1,412 American communities. Small towns received grants of $10,000 that enabled them to build large libraries that immediately were among the most significant town amenities in hundreds of communities.


title: Carnegie library

text: Books and libraries were important to Carnegie, from his early childhood in Scotland and his teen years in Allegheny/Pittsburgh. There he listened to readings and discussions of books from the Tradesman's Subscription Library, which his father had helped create. Later in Pennsylvania, while working for the local telegraph company in Pittsburgh, Carnegie borrowed books from the personal library of Colonel James Anderson. He opened his collection to his workers every Saturday. Anderson, like Carnegie, resided in Allegheny.


title: Carnegie library

text: In his autobiography, Carnegie credited Anderson with providing an opportunity for "working boys" (that some people said should not be "entitled to books") to acquire the knowledge to improve themselves.


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie's personal experience as an immigrant, who with help from others worked his way and became wealthy, reinforced his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving in general. His libraries were the best-known expression of this philanthropic goal. In 1900, Carnegie granted funds to build the Anderson Memorial Library, in memory of Colonel James Anderson, at the College of Emporia.


title: Carnegie library

text: Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "the Carnegie formula," which required financial commitments for maintenance and operation from the town that received the donation. Carnegie required public support rather than making endowments because, as he wrote:


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie assigned the decisions to his assistant James Bertram. He created a "Schedule of Questions". The schedule included: Name, status and population of town, Does it have a library? Where is it located and is it public or private? How many books? Is a town-owned site available? Estimation of the community's population at this stage was done by local officials, and Bertram later commented that if the population counts he received were accurate, "the nation's population had mysteriously doubled".


title: Carnegie library

text: The effects of Carnegie's library philanthropy coincided with a peak in new town development and library expansion in the US. By 1890, many states had begun to take an active role in organizing public libraries, and the new buildings filled a tremendous need. It was also a time of rapid development of institutions of higher learning. Interest in libraries was also heightened at a crucial time in their early development by Carnegie's high profile and his genuine belief in their importance.


title: Carnegie library

text: In Canada in 1901, Carnegie offered more than $2.5 million to build 125 libraries. Most cities at first turned him down—then relented and took the money.


title: Carnegie library

text: In 1902, Carnegie offered funds to build a library in Dunedin in New Zealand. Between 1908 and 1916, 18 Carnegie libraries were opened across New Zealand.


title: Carnegie library

text: The Lawrenceville Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh signaled a break from the Richardsonian style of libraries which was popularized in the mid 1800s. The ALA discouraged Richardsonian characteristics such as alcoved book halls with high shelves requiring a ladder, as well as sheltered galleries and niches, reminiscent of sixteenth-century Europe, largely because modern librarians could not supervise such spaces efficiently.


title: Carnegie library

text: Bertram's architectural criteria included a lecture room, reading rooms for adults and children, a staff room, a centrally located librarian's desk, twelve-to-fifteen-foot ceilings, and large windows six to seven feet above the floor. No architectural style was recommended for the exterior, nor was it necessary to put Andrew Carnegie's name on the building. In the interests of efficiency, fireplaces were discouraged, since that wall space could be used to house more books.


title: Carnegie library

text: There were no strict requirements about furniture, but most of it came from the Library Bureau, established by Melvil Dewey in 1888. It sold standardized chairs, tables, catalogs, and bookshelves.


title: Carnegie library

text: The first five Carnegie libraries followed a closed stacks policy, the method of operation common to libraries at that time. Patrons requested a book from a library staffer, who would fetch the book from closed stacks off limits to the public, and bring it to a delivery desk.


title: Carnegie library

text: To reduce operating costs, Carnegie created a revolutionary open-shelf or self-service policy, beginning with the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches that opened after the main branch. This streamlined process allowed patrons to have open access to shelves. Carnegie's architects designed the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches so that one librarian could oversee each entire operation.


title: Carnegie library

text: Theft of books and other items was a major concern. This concern resulted in the placement of the library's circulation desk—which replaced the delivery desk used in traditional closed stacks libraries— in a strategic position just inside the front door. Bigger and more daunting than those used in modern libraries, these desks spanned almost the width of the lobby and acted as a physical and psychological barrier between the front entrance and the book room.


title: Carnegie library

text: The first of these 'open stack' branches was in the neighborhood of Lawrenceville, the sixth Carnegie library to open in America. The next was in the West End branch, the eighth Carnegie library in the US. Patricia Lowry describes


title: Carnegie library

text: located just beyond the lobby, the circulation desk—no longer a delivery desk—took center stage in Lawrenceville, flanked by turnstiles that admitted readers to the open stacks one at a time, under the librarian's watchful eye. To thwart thievery, the stacks were arranged in a radial pattern. On each side of the lobby were a general reading room and, for the first time in a library anywhere, a room for children... The reading rooms were separated by walls that became glass partitions above waist level—the better to see you with, my dear.


title: Carnegie library

text: Walter E. Langsam, an architectural historian and teacher at the University of Cincinnati, wrote "The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse ... People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read." This open stacks policy was later adopted by the libraries that previously had operated with closed stacks.


title: Carnegie library

text: While the libraries gifted by Carnegie were certainly a valuable cultural asset, they weren't without their critics. First secretary of the Iowa Library Commission, Alice S. Taylor, criticized the use of Carnegie funding for extravagant buildings rather than providing quality library services. In fact, the library building itself was all that Carnegie funding covered. Carnegie gifted library buildings to cities on the condition that the cities stocked and maintained them. As a result, small communities often struggled with maintenance costs associated with Carnegie libraries; towns were often happy to accept funding for new library buildings, but often unwilling to allocate taxes for upkeep. In fact, this was the most frequent complaint about Carnegie libraries in hindsight: gifting libraries to towns too small to support them actually slowed the development of cooperative regional libraries that those communities now rely on.


title: Carnegie library

text: There were also critics of Carnegie's libraries for social and political reasons. Some saw his massive donations as downright insulting to communities that would be content to fund their own public works. Others saw his push for public libraries as merely an attempt at social control, a way to tame the unruly lower classes. Mark Twain, a supporter of Carnegie, claimed that Carnegie used philanthropy as a tool to buy fame. William Jewett Tucker criticized Carnegie's philanthropy from a religious viewpoint, arguing that it did not offset his “immoral” accumulation of wealth, and that his contributions did not justify the “evils” Tucker claimed existed in capitalism itself. Carnegie's own steel workers echoed this sentiment, arguing that his wealth would be better spent on improving working conditions for his own employees, rather than on library buildings across the country. Carnegie's response to those criticisms and the ensuing Homestead Steel Strike was telling of what he thought of his workers' concerns: "If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner. But what you needed, though you didn't know it, was my libraries and concert halls."


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie's critics can be most efficiently summed up in the words of Finley Peter Dunne's parody of Carnegie himself: "Th' way to abolish poverty an' bust crime is to put up a brown-stone buildin' in ivry town in th' counthry." The idea that a building would be the panacea to cure all of society's ills, they argued, was simply not sustainable.


title: Carnegie library

text: A further issue was the impact on pre-existing church libraries. The church had for many years promoted learning through free libraries. Typically the United Presbyterian Library of Edinburgh, based on Lothian Road, in Edinburgh under Robert James Drummond, failed to see the total financial collapse of their own library following the opening of the huge Carnegie Library in the city centre.


title: Carnegie library

text: In addition to the criticisms of his philanthropic interests and motivations, the construction of libraries in the American South was a high contentious topic. State and local racial segregations laws across the South sought to bar African Americans access to public facilities, including libraries and when funding the construction of the Carnegie library in Atlanta in 1902, the proposed library, a segregated one, was fought by numerous activists of the period, including W. E. B. Du Bois. In the years following, as the American Library Association continued to ignore the systematic implementation of Jim Crow in the South, the Carnegie Corporation also continued to acquiesce to the social norms of the day and even required communities seeking grants to base their appropriations "only upon the White population of the towns."


title: Carnegie library

text: Carnegie established charitable trusts which have continued his philanthropic work. But they had reduced their investment in libraries even before his death. There has continued to be support for library projects, for example in South Africa.


title: Carnegie library

text: In 1992, "The New York Times" reported that, according to a survey conducted by George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the State University at Buffalo, 1,554 of the 1,681 original Carnegie library buildings in the United States still existed, and 911 were still used as libraries. He found that 276 were unchanged, 286 had been expanded, 175 had been remodeled, 243 had been demolished, and others had been converted to other uses.


title: Carnegie library

text: While hundreds of the library buildings have been adapted for use as museums, community centers, office buildings, residences, or other uses, more than half of those in the United States still serve their communities as libraries over a century after their construction. Many are located in what are now middle- to low-income neighborhoods. For example, Carnegie libraries still form the nucleus of the New York Public Library system in New York City, with 31 of the original 39 buildings still in operation. Also, the main library and eighteen branches of the Pittsburgh public library system are Carnegie libraries. The public library system there is named the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.


title: Carnegie library

text: In the late 1940s, the Carnegie Corporation of New York arranged for microfilming of the correspondence files relating to Andrew Carnegie's gifts and grants to communities for the public libraries and church organs. They discarded the original materials. The microfilms are open for research as part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Records collection, residing at Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Archivists did not microfilm photographs and blueprints of the Carnegie Libraries. The number and nature of documents within the correspondence files varies widely. Such documents may include correspondence, completed applications and questionnaires, newspaper clippings, illustrations, and building dedication programs.


title: Carnegie library

text: UK correspondence files relating to individual libraries have been preserved in Edinburgh (see the article List of Carnegie libraries in Europe).


title: Carnegie library

text: Beginning in the 1930s during the Great Depression, some libraries were meticulously measured, documented and photographed under the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program of the National Park Service. This was part of an effort to record and preserve significant buildings.. Other documentation has been collected by local historical societies. In 1935, the centennial of Carnegie's birth, a copy of the portrait of him originally painted by F. Luis Mora was given to libraries which he had helped fund. Many of the Carnegie libraries in the United States, whatever their current uses, have been recognized by listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The first, the Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, was designated as a National Historic Landmark in March 2012. Some Carnegie Libraries, have been replaced in name with that of city libraries such as the Epiphany library in New York City.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Street-Legal is the 18th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 15, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album was a departure for Dylan, who assembled a large pop-rock band with female backing vocalists for its recording.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: After receiving positive reviews on his previous album, "Desire", Dylan was met with a more lukewarm critical reception for "Street-Legal", though the album was still commercially successful, being certified as Gold in the US and Platinum in the UK. Many critics gave the album a more positive re-appraisal following its release in a remixed and remastered edition in 1999.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Dylan spent the first half of 1977 engaged in divorce proceedings and a custody battle with his first wife, Sara, while editing "Renaldo and Clara", an ill-fated film shot during the fall of 1975 on the first leg of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. With the summer approaching, Dylan took a break from the film and returned to his farm in Minnesota, where he was accompanied by his children and Faridi McFree, with whom Dylan had started a relationship. There he began writing a new set of songs, including "Changing of the Guards," "No Time to Think," and "Where Are You Tonight?" At least six of the nine songs ultimately included on "Street-Legal" were written during this time.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: His work was disrupted on August 16, 1977, when news broke that Elvis Presley had died at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "I went over my whole life," recalled Dylan. "I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Later that fall, another custody battle arose when Sara sought permission from the court to move to Hawaii with their children. The proceedings took Dylan's focus away from the world tour he had been planning, his first in twelve years. He had signed a five-year lease on an old three-story building on the corner of Ocean and Main in Santa Monica, California. Dubbed 'Rundown', the building was soon converted into a rehearsal space and studio. By September, the building was staffed by Joel Bernstein and Arthur Rosato, two engineers who had been in Dylan's road crew in 1976.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Before rehearsals could begin, Dylan had to assemble a band. He quickly contacted several musicians, including former Rolling Thunder Revue members Steve Soles, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner, and Howie Wyeth. Stoner recalls, "I thought the "Hard Rain" thing was the last I'd ever hear from Bob... Then suddenly I get this call - I think Bob called me up personally... and asked me to bring Howie, and a couple of other people, to L.A. to 'just try some things out.'"


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Soles, Mansfield, Stoner, Wyeth, pianist Walter Davis, Jr., and percussionist Otis Smith arrived in late November and early December. His players assembled, Dylan was still not ready to rehearse, with the custody battle over his children and the imminent release of "Renaldo and Clara" occupying most of his attention (he was still editing "Renaldo and Clara" up to the last minute.) "Bob kept us sitting around for a week or two," recalls Stoner. "He just never showed up... and [when he finally] drops in, he's distracted... He was really [stressed out]. He was always bummed out. He was chain-smoking and he was really in a bad mood. He was short with people. It just wasn't working out."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: A settlement in his custody battle was reached in late December, decreeing that his children would remain in California, with Dylan retaining partial custody. Fallout from the custody battle would keep Dylan and Sara from reaching amicable terms for several years. Meanwhile, "Renaldo and Clara" was released to widespread negative reviews. Though disappointed with the critical reaction, with the film released and his legal matters settled, Dylan was finally ready to rehearse.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Sessions soon began in earnest. On December 26, Dylan followed the day's rehearsals with a preview of his next album. Accompanying himself on piano, Dylan played his new batch of songs for Stoner, Soles, and Bernstein. Many of these songs had been written that summer at his farm in Minnesota. As rehearsals progressed, it soon became clear the band wasn't "picking up where the Rolling Thunder Revue left off," as Mansfield recalled. "I brought my steel guitar and I had it in rehearsal and every time I'd go to start unpacking it, Bob would go, 'We don't need that.' All of a sudden the instrument that I played all over the place in the previous band, he didn't want to see it, let alone hear it."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Howie Wyeth soon left the band. Wyeth had been struggling with a heroin addiction at the time, recalling, "I knew I couldn't get high once we'd left [for tour]... I realized I was either gonna get busted or I'd end up being tortured to death. So I literally had to just tell Bob one night, 'I can't do it.' That was terrible. He had his own problems. He felt bad that I wasn't gonna do it, and he called me up when I got home to New York and said, 'Are you sure?'"


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: After auditioning a number of drummers ("maybe ten or a dozen" by Bernstein's estimates), Dylan replaced Wyeth with Denny Seiwell, who briefly played with Paul McCartney and Wings.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: When rehearsal was held on December 30, the band now included Stoner, Mansfield, Soles, guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, and singers Katey Sagal, Debbie Dye Gibson, and Frannie Eisenberg. This rehearsal was mostly dedicated to rearrangements of classic Dylan compositions, drawing on adult contemporary pop. (Wayne Newton, Barry Manilow, Marvin Hamlisch). As biographer Clinton Heylin writes, "[Dylan] began to impose a grander vision on whatever sound the Revue veterans had initially conceived. With his love of fatback R&B, it should have come as no surprise that he hankered after a band with a saxophone player and female singers... The band he assembled in the two months before the 1978 world tour shares many similarities with the big band he had attempted to impose on "Desire". The girl singers/sax/keyboards combination also reflected elements of the extravagantly presented shows Presley had been playing in the 1970's."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: By mid-January 1978, Dylan was still unsatisfied with some aspects of the band. With the first leg of his world tour set for February in Japan, he quickly made some last-minute changes, removing Sagal and Eisenberg and replacing them with novice singer Helena Springs and seasoned professional Jo Ann Harris. (Sagal was not surprised by her dismissal. "I remember... he'd have three girls all sing a part that was not in our range," Sagal recalls, "and we were too terrified to say anything.")


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: In the meantime, Seiwell was let go; during his brief stint with Wings, he and the rest of Wings were busted for drug possession in Sweden, prompting Japanese officials to deny him an entry visa. A number of auditions were quickly arranged, and according to Stoner, they "settled" on former King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace. Although Wallace's drumming would become problematic ("The man had a beat like a cop," recalls Stoner), time had run out as the tour was almost upon them. The Danish/American guitarist Billy Cross was also brought in and eventually Dylan's touring band was solidified with Cross, Wallace, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, percussionist Bobbye Hall, and saxophonist Steve Douglas, Mansfield, Stoner, Soles, and the back-up singers.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: In the final two weeks of rehearsal Dylan began settling on new tour arrangements for his classic, earlier recordings. Rob Stoner recalls, "a telegram arrived from the Japanese promoter, and in it he had a manifest of the songs he expected Bob to do on this tour. In other words he was a jukebox, he was playing requests. "We don't want you coming here and doing like your new experimental material, or getting up there and jamming." As Heylin writes, "though the "idea" of a big band had always appealed to Dylan, the reality was a whole series of new arrangements, to make each song different and to highlight the band's demonstrable versatility..." Often the arrangement ideas came from the band. As Stoner observed, when they put these arrangements to Dylan, "Sometimes he'd like it and he'd use it, and other times he'd say, 'Forget it'."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: The band flew to Japan on February 16, 1978, and the tour drew considerable praise from the audience and press, in both Japan and Australia. Later documented on "Bob Dylan At Budokan", this tour was marked by bold new arrangements of classic Dylan recordings. During the course of these two-hour-plus shows, Dylan often recast familiar songs in more contemporary guise. However, some of the band members, including Stoner, were not entirely satisfied with Dylan's new sound. "He had in mind to do something like Elvis Presley," recalls Stoner. "That size band and the uniforms... he wasn't very sure about it, which is why he opened way out of town. I mean, we didn't go any place close to Europe or England or America [for] forever, man... and I don't blame him. I think he knew, subconsciously, he was making a big mistake."


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: The tour ended on April 1 at the Sydney Sportsground in Australia. When it was over, Stoner informed Dylan that he was leaving the band. Dylan was planning to record his next album upon returning to Los Angeles, but with Stoner gone, Dylan hired a new bass player, Jerry Scheff. Scheff was best known for his work with Elvis Presley in the 1970s as a member of his TCB Band, and on The Doors' final recordings.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: With Scheff replacing Stoner, Dylan began recording his new material with his touring band. Sessions were held at Rundown, with Dylan renting a mobile truck to record the proceedings. (The mobile truck was equipped with 24-track capabilities, something his studio didn't have.) "I didn't want to do it there," Dylan later recalled. "[I] couldn't find the right producer, but it was necessary to do it. So we just brought in the remote truck and cut it, [and] went for a live sound." Dylan would ultimately settle on Don DeVito as his producer, even though he had been dissatisfied with DeVito's work on "Desire".


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Dylan already had a European tour scheduled for June, but he still had enough time to record his album; over the course of just four days, Dylan would record nine of his own compositions. Dylan knew exactly which songs he wanted to record, and though three songs written by Helena Springs were also recorded during these sessions ("Coming from the Heart," "Walk Out in the Rain," "Stop Now"), there is no indication that these songs were ever serious contenders for the album.


title: Street-Legal (album)

text: Though the sessions lasted only four days, they were plagued with issues stemming from recording in a makeshift rehearsal space instead of a studio. "The biggest problem... was how it was recorded," recalls Mansfield, "with Bob getting impatient with the engineering assistants... baffling and checking levels and getting sounds in sync... and the recording crew just having to scramble to get mikes into place and get something on tape, while we were playing the thing the few times we were gonna play it. It really was sort of like Bob Dylan meets Phil Spector in the best way... as if it had [just] been recorded so the instruments sounded full and well-blended."