prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Are Werther and The Odyssey both operas?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Encounter with Werther
Encounter with Werther (German: Begegnung mit Werther) is a 1949 West German historical drama film directed by Karl-Heinz Stroux and starring Horst Caspar, Heidemarie Hatheyer and Paul Klinger  It is based on the writing of the 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  It was released to commemorate the writer's second hundredth birthday in August 1949 
It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich and on location in Limburg, Wetzlar and Marburg an der Lahn 
The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Markwitz 

Cast
Horst Caspar as Werther
Heidemarie Hatheyer as Lotte
Paul Klinger as Albert
Rudolf Reiff as Amtmann as Lotte's Father
Paul Dahlke as Napoleon
Walter Kottenkamp as Goethe
Fritz Odemar as Graf
Harald Mannl as Gesandter
Christiane Felsmann as Frl  von Bassenheim
Arthur Mentz as Bauernbursche
Friedrich Siemers as Schreiber Heinrich
Karl Lieffen as Bediensteter Bursche
Passage 2:
Piano Quartet No  3 (Brahms)
The Piano Quartet No  3 in C minor, Op  60, completed by Johannes Brahms in 1875, is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello  It is sometimes called the Werther Quartet after Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther  The premiere took place in Vienna on November 18th 1875 to an anxious public  Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima were in attendance 

Structure
The quartet is in four movements:

Analysis
First movement
The first movement is a sonata-form movement in C minor in triple meter  It begins with the piano playing bare octaves on C  The violin, viola, and violoncello then play the first theme, consisting of two sighing gestures of a descending minor second, followed by a descending theme  Some have speculated that the sighing motive is a musical utterance of the name "Clara", in reference to Clara Schumann, the composer, pianist, and lifelong friend and love interest of Brahms  More clear is Brahms's transposed version of Robert Schumann's "Clara theme", found in various pieces such as his Bunte Blätter, Op  99 (1841), on which both Clara and Brahms wrote sets of piano variations  The Clara theme (C–B–A–G♯–A, often transposed: here E♭–D–C–B–C) was first detected by Eric Sams in his essays and books on Schumann and Brahms  In his 1971 essay “Brahms and his Clara Themes”, Sams writes on the “Clara content” in op  60: “The first sentence of that autobiographical work is doubly expressive of Clara  Furthermore, there is direct evidence that this melodic form actually embodied her, for Brahms as for Schumann ”After the first statement of the theme, the piano plays octaves on B♭  The opening motives, again played by the strings, becomes more chromatic and unsettling, until finally coming to rest on the dominant of C, G major  The viola and violin play pizzicato octaves on E♮ before the strings cascade down the C harmonic minor scale that ushers in the first theme, stated forte  After a brief development of this theme, an ascending gesture based on sixteenth-notes alternating between the notes of a minor second serves as the transition to the second theme in the relative major of C minor, E♭ major  This second theme is an uplifting eight-measure theme stated initially in the piano alone  Brahms then uses the technique of theme and variations to construct four variations on this theme, each eight measures long  A short idea based on the opening theme closes the exposition, which is not repeated 
The development section begins by restating the theme from measures 32–35 in E♭ minor  This moves to B major for a new fortissimo idea (perhaps a variation) based on the same theme  The quartet's opening sighing motives become developed in an E minor passage that incorporates a triplet figure on the second beat of the measure, and eventually the previous B major idea is restated identically in G major  The second theme from the exposition is then treated in imitative (almost canonic) counterpoint in C minor  After the beginning of the third contrapuntal treatment of this theme, a dominant pedal is sustained in octaves on G  This resolves unexpectedly to an A♭ major chord that is quickly brought down to C minor by the opening sighing motive in the piano 
The sighing motive indicates the beginning of the recapitulation  Rather than affirming the tonic of C minor, however, Brahms takes the recapitulation in a different direction: the opening section again ends on a dominant pedal on G with the violin and viola playing pizzicato octaves on E♮, but the E♮ is used to turn the music to E minor  Chromatic descent is employed to bring the music to a half-cadence on D, leading to the second theme in G major  This is perhaps the only sonata form movement in the minor mode in which the recapitulation features the second subject in the key of the major dominant  The second theme is first stated by the viola, which is then followed by three new variations (the first being played by the violin, the second and third by the piano), and one of the same variations as the exposition  A fifth variation leads to a short digression in C major but becomes chromatic and ends with a development the first theme, coming to a cadence on C  This is followed by a brief coda that expands on the first motives heard in the piece  Nevertheless, the key of C minor is arguably not clearly established by the recapitulation (the key signature of C minor is present at the end of the movement for less than two complete pages)  The movement ends with a clear tonic–dominant–tonic perfect cadence, stated piano  The expansive and exploratory nature of the movement, along with the quiet closing dynamic, helps make the conventional final cadential progression appear mysterious 

Second movement
The second movement is a tempestuous scherzo (ternary form) in compound duple meter in C minor, the same key as the first movement  Donald Francis Tovey argues that Brahms puts the scherzo in the same key as the first movement because the first movement does not sufficiently stabilize its own tonic and requires the second movement to "[furnish] the tonal balance unprovided for by the end of the first movement " Although it is the shortest scherzo of Brahms's piano quartets, it is formally and tonally very complex 
The movement begins with an opening motif of a descending octave on G and a rising minor second to A♭ stated by the piano, followed by a falling diatonic line accompanied by the strings  The first theme, which clearly derives from the opening motif, is immediately by the solo piano played after this and Brahms uses the technique of developing variation to expand this theme  Most melodic ideas can be traced to the opening motif or the ascending minor second of the opening motif, which, notably, is the inversion of the descending sighs of the introduction of the first movement  This scherzo is very chromatic and unstable tonally, although it does actually move to a secondary phrase on the dominant and returns to the tonic with frequency  The scherzo ends with a pedal on the tonic C minor 
The middle section is not demarcated by the title of trio as are the middle sections of the scherzi from Brahms's previous two piano quartets  Moreover, this middle section serves more as a section of contrasting material than as a structural contrast—it maintains the same key signature, time signature, and tempo as the scherzo, is not musically marked off in any clear way, and even develops the same themes as the scherzo  One may argue whether it is in fact a trio at all, as nineteenth century composers knew it  Nonetheless, the middle section begins with a new theme, an ascending line in quarter notes in the strings, accompanied by a descending triplet figure played by the piano  This instrumentation is soon reversed and earlier themes from the scherzo become further developed  The transition back to the scherzo develops and rhythmically diminishes the opening motif of the scherzo and is the most chromatic, rhythmically complex, loud, and dramatic section of the movement  The scherzo is repeated almost entirely, however, the section immediately preceding the tonic pedal is omitted and replaced with a climactic dominant chord in a very high register in the strings, ending with a tierce de picardie on C major with three loud declamations of the tonic major chord 

Third movement
The Andante is in a modified ternary form: ABCA′ with a coda  This is the only movement of the quartet that is not in C minor, and it is in the key of E major, a remote key in the context of C minor  This can be explained by its origin as the slow movement to a piano quartet in C-sharp minor, which Brahms revised and published as Op  60 in C minor  The key of E major is easily explained in the tonal context of C♯ minor, but the key choice of this movement was not revised as was the first movement; it should also be noted that the slow movement to Brahms's Symphony No  1 in C minor is also in E major 
The Andante begins with a luscious melody played by the violoncello in its upper register (Theme A) with only the piano as accompaniment, clearly inspired by Schumann's Piano Quartet, where a similarly sumptuous melody opens the slow movement  The opening thematic material of this melody is a sequence of descending thirds, a gesture frequently used by Brahms (such as in his Op  119, No  1, and the opening to Symphony No  4, to name two examples)  The violin eventually joins in with a new melody over the cello  The viola enters later with a tutti descending stepwise idea  The A section, which is itself in a sort of AAB form, ends in the conventional dominant key of B major 
The B section (in ABAB form) begins with a syncopated ascending stepwise melodic line in the violin to be played molto dolce (Theme B)  The piano begins to gain prominence with a distorted version of the opening cello line, played symmetrically across the piano (Theme C)  Another theme developed in the B section is a falling line with dotted rhythms (Theme D) 
The third section begins in B major but is highly chromatic  The piano plays a version of Theme B in broken octaves under consistent eighth-notes played by the violin and viola  This figure ends with a version of Theme C in broken octaves in the piano  This alternates with the string section, which develops Theme C  The piano rejoins and develops Themes C and D with the strings in E minor, but soon the violin plays Theme D over the other strings  At this point, the strings alternate with the piano, which plays Theme D in an unstable harmonic palette in broken octaves, while the strings play a combination of Themes C and D  This passage of alternating instruments moves from E minor to C minor to G♯ minor back to E major in the reprise of the A section 
The only significant differences between the first and second A sections are that in the second, the piano moves in triplets, there is a full string texture almost entirely throughout (often using pizzicato), and the piano begins the theme (although it is soon replaced by the cello)  The coda is introduced by a new chord progression in the first tutti idea and by a solo cello line  Theme B is presented first by the viola and then by the violin, and the movement ends with the first measure of Theme A, stated first by the cello and then by the piano, concluding with a pianissimo affirmation of the tonic 

Fourth movement
The finale is a sonata-allegro in C minor in cut time with a secondary subject in E♭ major  The tempo is Allegro comodo and the exposition is repeated  The piano accompaniment for the first theme, stated immediately in measure 1, is derived from the opening piano line of Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor, Op  66, movement 1  Mendelssohn's Piano Trio also features a quotation of a chorale melody taken from the sixteenth-century Genevan psalter 'Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit' (“Before Your Throne I Now Appear”)  Vincent C  K  Cheung has also observed that the opening G–E♭ motion in the violin, coupled with the G–G–G–C in the piano greatly points toward the “Fate theme” in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony  Brahms's piece thus operates on multiple levels of reference (both literary and musical) and quotation 
The movement begins with the violin playing a theme above piano accompaniment  Both lines are separate themes that are developed individually throughout the movement, but they are similar in one major respect: both are constructed of three ascending notes preceded by a pickup, which go to a neighbor tone of the highest note and move back to that note  The essential notes of the violin theme are B–C–D–E♭–F–E♭, and the essential notes of the piano theme are: G–C–E♭–G–F♯–G (the rest of the piano theme is a descending sequence of ascending seconds: G–A♭–F–G–E♭–F–D–E♭)  Therefore, the violin line uses an upper neighbor tone while the piano line uses a lower neighbor tone  This is crucial for understanding Brahms's development of the thematic ideas of this movement 
The violin melody is halting and primarily diatonic, played over an energetic piano accompaniment  It moves from C minor to G minor, although it ends with a change of mode to G major  After this, the violin plays a descending stepwise melody, which under close inspection is revealed to be an inversion of its own original theme (from B–C–D–E♭–F–E♭ to G–F–E♭–D–C–B) in successive quarter notes  The viola and cello soon accompany this figure  This builds up until measure 39, where a thunderous theme erupts in all instruments  This moves quickly to an idea constructed in triplets  Tonally, this passage is in C minor, and the final progression ends with an alternation between B-diminished and A♭ major  The piano plays a broken A♭ major chord, followed by a broken A♭ minor chord that is used to make a transition to E♭ major 
The section in the relative major begins with a theme clearly composed from the theme of the piano's accompaniment, in this case stated by the violin and viola moving in unison over a piano accompaniment based on the previous broken chordal figure  This briefly exchanges with a cello countermelody  When the violin and viola soar to an unexpectedly high register, the piano interrupts by playing an explosive broken dominant seventh chord  The strings respond by a piano, homophonic, homorythmic theme to be played mezza voce (medium voice)  This idea is taken directly from the opening string theme of the first movement  Rather than accompanying this theme, the piano plays a descending broken chord after each utterance  The exposition ends in E-flat major, and Brahms indicates that it should be repeated 
The development begins with an exploration of the descending third that begins the violin's opening theme; when sequenced, this produces a series of descending thirds that recalls the opening theme of the third movement (G♯–E–C–A)  The piano accompanies this with its initial theme  Brahms quickly eliminates accidentals from the key signature as the piece progresses to D major and A minor  Interspersed are descending chromatic phrases played by the piano  In measures 117–118, the cello introduces a new four-note idea (E–F–D–E) played pizzicato underneath the piano  This idea is taken from the second half of the first piano theme (G–A♭–F–G)  The viola plays the opening of the piano's first theme, which resembles an inversion of the sequenced thirds developed moments earlier  Brahms repeats this pattern almost exactly, moving from A minor to E minor to B minor  In B minor, the piano develops its initial theme to a greater extent  This part of the development section is concluded by syncopated phrases by the viola and piano, which echo the second half of the piano's first theme in B minor 
Austrian musicologist and educator Karl Geiringer has shown that the next section (measures 155–188) is an insertion "in order to mitigate the excessive conciseness of this movement " Later insertions were atypical of Brahms because of his "striving after compression," and it seems that he "for once overshot the mark " The later addition explains the motion away from B minor, only to return to the key some thirty measures later  This section continues with the homorhythmic theme in G major, then in E♭ major  What follows is a quick (Tempo I) development of the initial piano theme in C minor, with all strings playing the opening four notes (moving in the often used progression i – I – iv)  This exact sequence is used again in the coda to turn the movement from the minor mode to major  A dominant seventh chord in C minor is used as a pivot chord to return to B minor (a similar progression is used in Brahms's Ballade, Op  118, No  3, in which a dominant seventh chord built on G moves abruptly to B major)  The violin develops its initial theme in B minor and then D minor with all three string instruments  The final notes of the theme (F–E♭) are sequenced and inverted repeatedly, recalling the significance of descending seconds in the first movement of this quartet  This moves from D minor to G minor to C minor  The end of the development section sees a very high and prolonged A♭, which parallels the end of the development section of the first movement 
The recapitulation, which reinstates the key signature of C minor, begins with the initial violin theme stated forte by all strings, accompanied by the piano playing broken octaves in triplets, outlining the main notes of its theme  After the first statement, the piano resumes its original accompaniment and the strings are reduced to a piano dynamic  This proceeds similarly to the exposition, albeit with the themes developed more extensively  Notably, the music turns toward G minor more strongly and the key signature changes to C major, as the relative major section from the exposition is in the tonic major in the recapitulation  The rest of the recapitulation is nearly identical to the exposition, ending in C major 
The coda begins at measure 311, with the piano loudly declaring the homorhythmic theme, alternating with the strings  The violin theme is then played by the strings in C major, but it soon shifts back to C minor (the key signature too returns)  The four-note idea from the development section comes back, this time with its first note removed  The chromatic descending scale in the piano, an abbreviation of the violin theme in the viola, the four-note theme, and the chord progression (i – I – iv) indicate that the coda draws more from the development section than from the exposition or recapitulation  The music quietly subsides into a tranquillo section in which the inversion of the violin theme (first stated in measures 21–22 from the exposition) is sequenced across the strings while the piano continues to develop its initial theme  The violin and cello eventually sustain the tonic C for a great amount of time while the piano and viola begin to lean toward the tonic major in a continuing I – iv progression  All instruments continue to die down as the piano plays one last descending chromatic scale, the violin and viola combine the piano's initial theme with the quarter note rhythm of the violin theme, and the cello sustains a low C  As the piano and strings reach their final notes, a C major chord stated pianissimo is held briefly, shining out of the mist  Two sudden forte C major chords complete this quartet 
Passage 3:
William Render
William Render (fl  1800), grammarian and translator, was a native of Germany  He was a fellow student at Giessen University with a brother of Charlotte (Werther's inamorata), and was well acquainted with Werther himself  In an appendix to his English version of Goethe's romance, Render relates a conversation he had with Werther at Frankfort-on-the-Main a few days before the latter's suicide Render was ordained to the Lutheran ministry  Subsequently he acted as 'traveling guardian to the son of a distinguished personage'  He then traveled in western Germany with 'several English gentlemen', one of whom may have been Francis, afterwards the Marquis Hastings, to whom, as Earl of Moira, he dedicated his Tour through Germany  Render came to England about 1790, and settled in London  He taught German and other languages 'in several families of distinction ' Towards the end of the century he also became 'teacher of German' at Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh  In 1798 he published an English version of Kotzebue's play Count Benyowsky, which reached a second edition within the year  
In 1800, Render further translated The Robbers, Don Carlos, Maria Stuart, and The Armenian of Schiller  In the following year appeared his version of The Sorrows of Werther, the first translation into English made direct from the original German  In the preface he speaks of 'his friend the baron Goethe', whom he may have met at Frankfurt  Render's Tour through Germany, particularly along the Banks of the Rhine, Mayne, also appeared in 1801  A vocabulary of familiar phrases in German and English is annexed for the benefit of travelers  The remainder of Render's publications were educational manuals  The chief of these, A concise Practical Grammar of the German Tongue (1799), was very successful  
A fifth edition, corrected and augmented with improvements made by the Berlin Academy, was issued in 1817  As a token of his appreciation of the work, Alexander I of Russia ordered Woronzow, his ambassador in England, to present Render with a ring and an autograph letter  Render also published German Exercises, a Pocket Dictionary in English and German, and other manuals of instruction in German 
Passage 4:
Werther, North Rhine-Westphalia
Werther is a town in the district of Gütersloh in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany  It is located near the Teutoburg Forest, approximately 10 km (6 miles) north-west of Bielefeld  It is best known for the Werther's Original caramel sweets, which are nowadays produced in the nearby city of Halle  Werther has one Gesamtschule and one Gymnasium, which has an exchange partnership with a Yarm School, an independent school in Yarm, England 

People
August Oberwelland, entrepreneur, August Storck company founder
Passage 5:
Odyssey
The Odyssey (; Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, romanized: Odýsseia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer  It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences  As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books  It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War  After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed  In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage 
The Odyssey was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BC and, by the mid-6th century BC, had become part of the Greek literary canon  In antiquity, Homer's authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship predominantly assumes that the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed independently and that the stories formed as part of a long oral tradition  Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed by an aoidos or rhapsode and was more likely to be heard than read 
Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of nostos (νόστος; "return"), wandering, xenia (ξενία; "guest-friendship"), testing, and omens  Scholars still reflect on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature  This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the Iliad, which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War 
The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most significant works of the Western canon  The first English translation of the Odyssey was in the 16th century  Adaptations and re-imaginings continue to be produced across a wide variety of media  In 2018, when BBC Culture polled experts around the world to find literature's most enduring narrative, the Odyssey topped the list 

Synopsis
Exposition (books 1–4)
The Odyssey begins after the end of the ten-year Trojan War (the subject of the Iliad), from which Odysseus (also known by the Latin variant Ulysses), king of Ithaca, has still not returned because he angered Poseidon, the god of the sea  Odysseus' son, Telemachus, is about 20 years old and is sharing his absent father's house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and the suitors of Penelope, a crowd of 108 boisterous young men who each aim to persuade Penelope for her hand in marriage, all the while reveling in the king's palace and eating up his wealth 
Odysseus' protectress, the goddess Athena, asks Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Poseidon is absent from Mount Olympus  Disguised as a chieftain named Mentes, Athena visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father  He offers her hospitality, and they observe the suitors dining rowdily while Phemius, the bard, performs a narrative poem for them 
That night, Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince  The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the insolent suitors, who then scoff at Telemachus  Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as Mentor), the son of Odysseus departs for the Greek mainland to the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, who resided in Pylos after the war 
From there, Telemachus rides to Sparta, accompanied by Nestor's son  There he finds Menelaus and Helen, who are now reconciled  Both Helen and Menelaus also say that they returned to Sparta after a long voyage by way of Egypt  There, on the island of Pharos, Menelaus encounters the old sea-god Proteus, who tells him that Odysseus was a captive of the nymph Calypso  Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks at Troy: he was murdered on his return home by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus  The story briefly shifts to the suitors, who have only just realized that Telemachus is gone  Angry, they formulate a plan to ambush his ship and kill him as he sails back home  Penelope overhears their plot and worries for her son's safety 

Escape to the Phaeacians (books 5–8)
In the course of Odysseus' seven years as a captive of Calypso on the island Ogygia, she has fallen deeply in love with him, even though he spurns her offers of immortality as her husband and still mourns for home  She is ordered to release him by the messenger god Hermes, who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea  Odysseus builds a raft and is given clothing, food, and drink by Calypso  When Poseidon learns that Odysseus has escaped, he wrecks the raft, but helped by a veil given by the sea nymph Ino, Odysseus swims ashore on Scherie, the island of the Phaeacians  Naked and exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep 
The next morning, awakened by girls' laughter, he sees the young Nausicaä, who has gone to the seashore with her maids after Athena told her in a dream to do so  He appeals for help  She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents, Arete and Alcinous  Alcinous promises to provide him a ship to return him home without knowing the identity of Odysseus  He remains for several days  Odysseus asks the blind singer Demodocus to tell the story of the Trojan Horse, a stratagem in which Odysseus had played a leading role  Unable to hide his emotion as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity  He then tells the story of his return from Troy 

Odysseus' account of his adventures (books 9–12)
Odysseus recounts his story to the Phaeacians  After a failed raid against the Cicones, Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms  Odysseus visited the lotus-eaters who gave his men their fruit which caused them to forget their homecoming  Odysseus had to drag them back to the ship by force 
Afterward, Odysseus and his men landed on a lush, uninhabited island near the land of the Cyclopes  The men entered the cave of Polyphemus, where they found all the cheeses and meat they desired  Upon returning to his cave, Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and proceeded to eat Odysseus' men  Odysseus devised an escape plan in which he, identifying himself as "Nobody," plied Polyphemus with wine and blinded him with a wooden stake  When Polyphemus cried out, his neighbors left after Polyphemus claimed that "Nobody" had attacked him  Odysseus and his men finally escaped the cave by hiding on the underbellies of the sheep as they were let out of the cave 
As they escaped, however, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus and revealed himself  The Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon, asking him to curse Odysseus to wander for ten years  After the escape, Aeolus gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home  Just as Ithaca came into sight, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold  The winds flew out, and the storm drove the ships back the way they had come  Aeolus, recognizing that Odysseus had drawn the ire of the gods, refused to further assist him 

After the cannibalistic Laestrygonians destroyed all of his ships except his own, Odysseus sailed on and reached the island of Aeaea, home of witch-goddess Circe  She turned half of his men into swine with drugged cheese and wine  Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus an herb called moly, making him resistant to Circe's magic  Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back to their human forms and was seduced by her  They remained with her for one year  Finally, guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead  Odysseus summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias and was told that he may return home if he is able to stay himself and his crew from eating the sacred livestock of Helios on the island of Thrinacia and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his ship and his entire crew  He then meets his dead mother Anticleia and first learns of the suitors and what happened in Ithaca in his absence  Odysseus also converses with his dead comrades from Troy 
Returning to Aeaea, they buried Elpenor and were advised by Circe on the remaining stages of the journey  They skirted the land of the Sirens  All of the sailors had their ears plugged up with beeswax, except for Odysseus, who was tied to the mast as he wanted to hear the song  He told his sailors not to untie him as it would only make him drown himself  They then passed between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis  Scylla claimed six of his men 
Next, they landed on the island of Thrinacia, with the crew overriding Odysseus's wishes to remain away from the island  Zeus caused a storm that prevented them from leaving, causing them to deplete the food given to them by Circe  While Odysseus was away praying, his men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted the sacred cattle  Helios insisted that Zeus punish the men for this sacrilege  They suffered a shipwreck, and all but Odysseus drowned as he clung to a fig tree  Washed ashore on Ogygia, he remained there as Calypso's lover 

Return to Ithaca (books 13–20)
Having listened to his story, the Phaeacians agree to provide Odysseus with more treasure than he would have received from the spoils of Troy  They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca  Odysseus awakens and believes that he has been dropped on a distant land before Athena appears to him and reveals that he is indeed on Ithaca  She hides his treasure in a nearby cave and disguises him as an elderly beggar so he can see how things stand in his household  He finds his way to the hut of one of his own slaves, swineherd Eumaeus, who treats him hospitably and speaks favorably of Odysseus  After dinner, the disguised Odysseus tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself 
Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by the suitors  He disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and meets Odysseus  Odysseus identifies himself to Telemachus (but not to Eumaeus), and they decide that the suitors must be killed  Telemachus goes home first  Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus returns to his own house, still pretending to be a beggar  He is ridiculed by the suitors in his own home, especially Antinous  Odysseus meets Penelope and tests her intentions by saying he once met Odysseus in Crete  Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned something there of Odysseus's recent wanderings 
Odysseus's identity is discovered by the housekeeper Eurycleia when she recognizes an old scar as she is washing his feet  Eurycleia tries to tell Penelope about the beggar's true identity, but Athena makes sure that Penelope cannot hear her  Odysseus swears Eurycleia to secrecy 

Slaying of the Suitors (books 21–24)
The next day, at Athena's prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow  The man who can string the bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axe heads would win  Odysseus takes part in the competition, and he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot the arrow through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner  He then throws off his rags and kills Antinous with his next arrow  Odysseus kills the other suitors, first using the rest of the arrows and then by swords and spears  Once the battle is won, Telemachus also hangs twelve of their household maids whom Eurycleia identifies as guilty of betraying Penelope or having sex with the suitors  Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope  She is hesitant but recognizes him when he mentions that he made their bed from an olive tree still rooted to the ground  She embraces him and they sleep 
The next day, Odysseus goes to his father Laertes's farm and reveals himself  Following them to the farm is a group of Ithacans, led by Eupeithes, father of Antinous, who are out for revenge for the murder of the suitors  A battle breaks out, but it is stopped by Athena and Zeus 

Structure
The Odyssey is 12,109 lines composed in dactylic hexameter, also called Homeric hexameter  It opens in medias res, in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through flashbacks and storytelling  The 24 books correspond to the letters of the Greek alphabet; the division was likely made after the poem's composition, by someone other than Homer, but is generally accepted In the Classical period, some of the books (individually and in groups) were commonly given their own titles:

Book 1–4: Telemachy—the story focuses on the perspective of Telemachus 
Books 9–12: Apologoi—Odysseus recalls his adventures for his Phaeacian hosts 
Book 22: Mnesterophonia ('slaughter of the suitors'; Mnesteres, 'suitors' + phónos, 'slaughter') Book 22 concludes the Greek Epic Cycle, though fragments remain of the "alternative ending" of sorts known as the Telegony  The Telegony aside, the last 548 lines of the Odyssey, corresponding to Book 24, are believed by many scholars to have been added by a slightly later poet 

Geography
The events in the main sequence of the Odyssey (excluding Odysseus' embedded narrative of his wanderings) have been said to take place in the Peloponnese and in what are now called the Ionian Islands  There are difficulties in the apparently simple identification of Ithaca, the homeland of Odysseus, which may or may not be the same island that is now called Ithakē (modern Greek: Ιθάκη)  The wanderings of Odysseus as told to the Phaeacians, and the location of the Phaeacians' own island of Scheria, pose more fundamental problems, if geography is to be applied: scholars, both ancient and modern, are divided as to whether any of the places visited by Odysseus (after Ismaros and before his return to Ithaca) are real  Both antiquated and contemporary scholars have attempted to map Odysseus' journey but now largely agree that the landscapes, especially of the Apologia (Books 9 to 11), include too many mythological aspects as features to be unequivocally mappable  Classicist Peter T  Struck created an interactive map which plots Odysseus' travels, including his near homecoming which was thwarted by the bag of wind 

Influences
Scholars have seen strong influences from Near Eastern mythology and literature in the Odyssey  Martin West notes substantial parallels between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey  Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh are known for traveling to the ends of the earth and on their journeys go to the land of the dead  On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by Circe, who is located at the edges of the world and is associated through imagery with the sun  Like Odysseus, Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach the land of the dead from a divine helper: the goddess Siduri, who, like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth, whose home is also associated with the sun  Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt  Mashu, the high mountain from which the sun comes into the sky  West argues that the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the edges of the earth are the result of the influence of the Gilgamesh epic upon the Odyssey In 1914, paleontologist Othenio Abel surmised the origins of the Cyclops to be the result of ancient Greeks finding an elephant skull  The enormous nasal passage in the middle of the forehead could have looked like the eye socket of a giant, to those who had never seen a living elephant  Classical scholars, on the other hand, have long known that the story of the Cyclops was originally a folk tale, which existed independently of the Odyssey and which became part of it at a later date  Similar stories are found in cultures across Europe and the Middle East  According to this explanation, the Cyclops was originally simply a giant or ogre, much like Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh  Graham Anderson suggests that the addition about it having only one eye was invented to explain how the creature was so easily blinded 

Themes and patterns
Homecoming
Homecoming (Ancient Greek: νόστος, nostos) is a central theme of the Odyssey  Anna Bonafazi of the University of Cologne writes that, in Homer, nostos is "return home from Troy, by sea"  Agatha Thornton examines nostos in the context of characters other than Odysseus, in order to provide an alternative for what might happen after the end of the Odyssey  For instance, one example is that of Agamemnon's homecoming versus Odysseus'  Upon Agamemnon's return, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, kill Agamemnon  Agamemnon's son, Orestes, out of vengeance for his father's death, kills Aegisthus  This parallel compares the death of the suitors to the death of Aegisthus and sets Orestes up as an example for Telemachus  Also, because Odysseus knows about Clytemnestra's betrayal, Odysseus returns home in disguise in order to test the loyalty of his own wife, Penelope  Later, Agamemnon praises Penelope for not killing Odysseus  It is because of Penelope that Odysseus has fame and a successful homecoming  This successful homecoming is unlike Achilles, who has fame but is dead, and Agamemnon, who had an unsuccessful homecoming resulting in his death 

Wandering
Only two of Odysseus's adventures are described by the narrator  The rest of Odysseus' adventures are recounted by Odysseus himself  The two scenes described by the narrator are Odysseus on Calypso's island and Odysseus' encounter with the Phaeacians  These scenes are told by the poet to represent an important transition in Odysseus' journey: being concealed to returning home Calypso's name comes from the Greek word kalúptō (καλύπτω), meaning 'to cover' or 'conceal', which is apt, as this is exactly what she does with Odysseus  Calypso keeps Odysseus concealed from the world and unable to return home  After leaving Calypso's island, the poet describes Odysseus' encounters with the Phaeacians—those who "convoy without hurt to all men"—which represents his transition from not returning home to returning home Also, during Odysseus' journey, he encounters many beings that are close to the gods  These encounters are useful in understanding that Odysseus is in a world beyond man and that influences the fact he cannot return home  These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near the Cyclopes, whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, Eurymedon, and the grandson of Poseidon  Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are the cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon; Circe, a sorceress who turns men into animals; and the cannibalistic giants, the Laestrygonians 

Guest-friendship
Throughout the course of the epic, Odysseus encounters several examples of xenia ("guest-friendship"), which provide models of how hosts should and should not act  The Phaeacians demonstrate exemplary guest-friendship by feeding Odysseus, giving him a place to sleep, and granting him many gifts and a safe voyage home, which are all things a good host should do  Polyphemus demonstrates poor guest-friendship  His only "gift" to Odysseus is that he will eat him last  Calypso also exemplifies poor guest-friendship because she does not allow Odysseus to leave her island  Another important factor to guest-friendship is that kingship implies generosity  It is assumed that a king has the means to be a generous host and is more generous with his own property  This is best seen when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, begs Antinous, one of the suitors, for food and Antinous denies his request  Odysseus essentially says that while Antinous may look like a king, he is far from a king since he is not generous According to J  B  Hainsworth, guest-friendship follows a very specific pattern:
The arrival and the reception of the guest 
Bathing or providing fresh clothes to the guest 
Providing food and drink to the guest 
Questions may be asked of the guest and entertainment should be provided by the host 
The guest should be given a place to sleep, and both the guest and host retire for the night 
The guest and host exchange gifts, the guest is granted a safe journey home, and the guest departs Another important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and also promising their safety while they are a guest within the host's home 

Testing
Another theme throughout the Odyssey is testing  This occurs in two distinct ways  Odysseus tests the loyalty of others and others test Odysseus' identity  An example of Odysseus testing the loyalties of others is when he returns home  Instead of immediately revealing his identity, he arrives disguised as a beggar and then proceeds to determine who in his house has remained loyal to him and who has helped the suitors  After Odysseus reveals his true identity, the characters test Odysseus' identity to see if he really is who he says he is  For instance, Penelope tests Odysseus' identity by saying that she will move the bed into the other room for him  This is a difficult task since it is made out of a living tree that would require being cut down, a fact that only the real Odysseus would know, thus proving his identity Testing also has a very specific type scene that accompanies it  Throughout the epic, the testing of others follows a typical pattern  This pattern is:
Odysseus is hesitant to question the loyalties of others 
Odysseus tests the loyalties of others by questioning them 
The characters reply to Odysseus' questions 
Odysseus proceeds to reveal his identity 
The characters test Odysseus' identity 
There is a rise of emotions associated with Odysseus' recognition, usually lament or joy 
Finally, the reconciled characters work together 

Omens
Omens occur frequently throughout the Odyssey  Within the epic poem, they frequently involve birds  According to Thornton, most crucial is who receives each omen and in what way it manifests  For instance, bird omens are shown to Telemachus, Penelope, Odysseus, and the suitors  Telemachus and Penelope receive their omens as well in the form of words, sneezes, and dreams  However, Odysseus is the only character who receives thunder or lightning as an omen  She highlights this as crucial because lightning, as a symbol of Zeus, represents the kingship of Odysseus  Odysseus is associated with Zeus throughout both the Iliad and the Odyssey Omens are another example of a type scene in the Odyssey  Two important parts of an omen type scene are the recognition of the omen, followed by its interpretation  In the Odyssey, all of the bird omens—with the exception of the first—show large birds attacking smaller birds  Accompanying each omen is a wish which can be either explicitly stated or only implied  For example, Telemachus wishes for vengeance and for Odysseus to be home, Penelope wishes for Odysseus' return, and the suitors wish for the death of Telemachus 

Textual history
Composition
The date of the poem is a matter of some disagreement among classicists  In the middle of the 8th century BC, the inhabitants of Greece began to adopt a modified version of the Phoenician alphabet to write down their own language  The Homeric poems may have been one of the earliest products of that literacy, and if so, would have been composed some time in the late 8th century BC  Inscribed on a clay cup found in Ischia, Italy, are the words "Nestor's cup, good to drink from " Some scholars, such as Calvert Watkins, have tied this cup to a description of King Nestor's golden cup in the Iliad  If the cup is an allusion to the Iliad, that poem's composition can be dated to at least 700–750 BC Dating is similarly complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed regularly by rhapsodes for several hundred years  The Odyssey as it exists today is likely not significantly different  Aside from minor differences, the Homeric poems gained a canonical place in the institutions of ancient Athens by the 6th century  In 566 BC, Peisistratos instituted a civic and religious festival called the Panathenaia, which featured performances of Homeric poems  These are significant because a "correct" version of the poems had to be performed, indicating that a particular version of the text had become canonised 

Textual tradition
The Iliad and the Odyssey were widely copied and used as school texts in lands where the Greek language was spoken throughout antiquity  Scholars may have begun to write commentaries on the poems as early as the time of Aristotle in the 4th century BC  In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, scholars affiliated with the Library of Alexandria—particularly Zenodotus and Aristarchus of Samothrace—edited the Homeric poems, wrote commentaries on them, and helped establish the canonical texts The Iliad and the Odyssey remained widely studied and used as school texts in the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages  The Byzantine Greek scholar and archbishop Eustathios of Thessalonike (c  1115 – c  1195/6 AD) wrote exhaustive commentaries on both of the Homeric epics that became seen by later generations as authoritative; his commentary on the Odyssey alone spans nearly 2,000 oversized pages in a twentieth-century edition  The first printed edition of the Odyssey, known as the editio princeps, was produced in 1488 by the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles, who had been born in Athens and had studied in Constantinople  His edition was printed in Milan by a Greek printer named Antonios Damilas Since the late 19th century, many papyri containing fragments of the Odyssey have been found in Egypt, some with content different from later medieval versions 
In 2018, the Greek Cultural Ministry revealed the discovery of a clay tablet near the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, containing 13 verses from the Odyssey's 14th book  While it was initially reported to date from the 3rd century AD, the date is unconfirmed 

English translations
George Chapman's English translations of the Odyssey and the Iliad, published together in 1616 but serialised earlier, were the first to enjoy widespread success  The texts had been published in translation before, with some translated not from the original Greek  Chapman worked on these for a large part of his life  In 1581, Arthur Hall translated the first 10 books of the Iliad from a French version  Chapman's translations persisted in popularity, and are often remembered today through John Keats' sonnet  "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816)  Years after completing his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope began to translate the Odyssey because of his financial situation  His second translation was not received as favourably as the first Emily Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, notes that as late as the first decade of the 21st century, almost all of the most prominent translators of Greek and Roman literature had been men  She calls her experience of translating Homer one of "intimate alienation " Wilson writes that this has affected the popular conception of characters and events of the Odyssey, inflecting the story with connotations not present in the original text: "For instance, in the scene where Telemachus oversees the hanging of the slaves who have been sleeping with the suitors, most translations introduce derogatory language ("sluts" or "whores") [   ] The original Greek does not label these slaves with derogatory language " In the original Greek, the word used is hai, the feminine article, equivalent to "those female people" 

Legacy
The influence of the Homeric texts can be difficult to summarise because of how greatly they have impacted the popular imagination and cultural values  The Odyssey and the Iliad formed the basis of education for members of ancient Mediterranean society  That curriculum was adopted by Western humanists, meaning the text was so much a part of the cultural fabric that it became irrelevant whether an individual had read it  As such, the influence of the Odyssey has reverberated through over a millennium of writing  The poem topped a poll of experts by BBC Culture to find literature's most enduring narrative  It is widely regarded by western literary critics as a timeless classic and remains one of the oldest works of extant literature commonly read by Western audiences 

Literature
In Canto XXVI of the Inferno, Dante Alighieri meets Odysseus in the eighth circle of hell, where Odysseus appends a new ending to the Odyssey in which he never returns to Ithaca and instead continues his restless adventuring  Edith Hall suggests that Dante's depiction of Odysseus became understood as a manifestation of Renaissance colonialism and othering, with the cyclops standing in for "accounts of monstrous races on the edge of the world", and his defeat as symbolising "the Roman domination of the western Mediterranean" Irish poet James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses (1922) was significantly influenced by the Odyssey  Joyce had encountered the figure of Odysseus in Charles Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses, an adaptation of the epic poem for children, which seems to have established the Latin name in Joyce's mind  Ulysses, a re-telling of the Odyssey set in Dublin, is divided into 18 sections ("episodes") which can be mapped roughly onto the 24 books of the Odyssey  Joyce claimed familiarity with the original Homeric Greek, but this has been disputed by some scholars, who cite his poor grasp of the language as evidence to the contrary  The book, and especially its stream of consciousness prose, is widely considered foundational to the modernist genre Modern writers have revisited the Odyssey to highlight the poem's female characters  Canadian writer Margaret Atwood adapted parts of the Odyssey for her novella, The Penelopiad (2005)  The novella focuses on Penelope and the twelve female slaves hanged by Odysseus at the poem's ending, an image which haunted Atwood  Atwood's novella comments on the original text, wherein Odysseus' successful return to Ithaca symbolises the restoration of a patriarchal system  Similarly, Madeline Miller's Circe (2018) revisits the relationship between Odysseus and Circe on Aeaea  As a reader, Miller was frustrated by Circe's lack of motivation in the original poem and sought to explain her capriciousness  The novel recontextualises the sorceress' transformations of sailors into pigs from an act of malice into one of self-defence, given that she has no superhuman strength with which to repel attackers 

Film and television
L'Odissea (1911) is an Italian silent film by Giuseppe de Liguoro 
Ulysses (1954) is a film adaptation starring Kirk Douglas as Ulysses, Silvana Mangano as Penelope and Circe, and Anthony Quinn as Antinous 
L'Odissea (1968) is an Italian-French-German-Yugoslavian television miniseries praised for its faithful rendering of the original epic 
Nostos: The Return (1989) is an Italian film about Odysseus' homecoming  Directed by Franco Piavoli, it relies on visual storytelling and has a strong focus on nature 
Ulysses' Gaze (1995), directed by Theo Angelopoulos, has many of the elements of the Odyssey set against the backdrop of the most recent and previous Balkan Wars 
The Odyssey (1997) is a television miniseries directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and starring Armand Assante as Odysseus and Greta Scacchi as Penelope 
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) is a crime comedy drama film written, produced, co-edited and directed by the Coen brothers and is very loosely based on Homer's poem 

Opera and music
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, first performed in 1640, is an opera by Claudio Monteverdi based on the second half of Homer's Odyssey 
Rolf Riehm composed an opera based on the myth, Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens (Sirens – Images of Desire and Destruction), which premiered at the Oper Frankfurt in 2014 
Robert W  Smith's second symphony for concert band, The Odyssey, tells four of the main highlights of the story in the piece's four movements: "The Iliad", "The Winds of Poseidon", "The Isle of Calypso", and "Ithaca" 

Sciences
Psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wrote two books, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character  (1994) and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002), which relate the Iliad and the Odyssey to posttraumatic stress disorder and moral injury as seen in the rehabilitation histories of combat veteran patients  
Passage 6:
Albert Odyssey (Super Famicom game)
Albert Odyssey (アルバートオデッセイ, Arubaato Odessei) is a tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Sunsoft and released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan in March 1993  The game features strategy-based combat in addition to traditional role-playing game elements in two-dimensional environments  It is the first game in the Albert Odyssey series, and was followed by two sequels, Albert Odyssey 2: Jashin no Taidou in 1994, and Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean in 1996   On June 12, 1996, Albert Odyssey was made available as a full game download on the Satellaview add-on as BS Albert Odyssey (BSアルバートオデッセイ, BS Arubaato Odessei), and the original Albert Odyssey was re-released for Satellaview in March 1998 Players assume the role of Albert, the young heroic swordsman who lives in a fantasy world filled with monsters and mythical creatures  While much of the world remains in relative peace following a great war many years before, a military faction led by the dark magician Globus has emerged to conquer the newly pacified nations and expand their empire  With the help of Albert's friends as well as hired mercenaries, the player must travel the world and eventually confront Golbus and his forces to prevent another large-scale conflict 

Gameplay
Albert Odyssey is a role-playing video game with strategy elements where players must travel through a fantasy environment battling monsters and other enemies to advance the story  The game uses two-dimensional character sprites and environments accompanied by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's Mode 7 graphics capabilities that give the impression of three dimensions  Players move their characters from a top-down perspective through towns and other peaceful areas, while the game's overworld and dungeons are rendered as large battlefields laden with enemies  Throughout the game, players take part in the story by interacting with non-player characters and performing story-driven quests that continually expand the game's narrative 
Using a turn-based system, both the player and computer opponent take turns moving and attacking across the field  A player may choose to move, attack, perform magic, use an item in their possession to aid themselves, or retreat to the nearest safe area to rest or restock supplies  Once two characters come in contact with one another, a battle sequence ensues where the attacking character deals damage to the opponent, lowering their health  When the player or enemy's health reaches zero, they are defeated and ejected from the field  Player's advance by confronting and defeating enemies, gaining experience points in the process that go towards making characters stronger and learn new abilities  A character can be further augmented with progressively more powerful weapons and equipment can be purchased in towns or found on defeated enemies  Progress is recorded by using save points found in set areas throughout the game that utilize the Famicom's battery backup-up system  If all of a player's characters are defeated at any time, they are forced to restart the game from the last recorded save file 

Audio
The music for Albert Odyssey was written and programmed by Sunsoft in-house composer Naoki Kodaka, with the game being his first Super Famicom and role-playing endeavor  On June 25, 1993, Sunsoft released an official soundtrack titled All Sounds of Albert Odyssey in Japan published by Datam Polystar featuring all background music and jingles from the game   Later that year, selected music from Albert Odyssey was performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the third Game Music Concert series in Tokyo, Japan, later made available as a commercial album the following December  The two tracks represented were "The Road Walked by Heroes" and "Hometown Tibelis", retitled as "Albert Odyssey Theme" and "God's People" respectively 

Sequel
Albert Odyssey 2: Jashin no Taidou (アルバートオデッセイ2 邪神の胎動, Aruberto Odesei Tsu Jashin no Taidou, lit  Albert Odyssey 2: Sign of the Devil) is a tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Sunsoft for the Super Famicom and released in December 1994  It is the sequel to the original Albert Odyssey and retains many of the same gameplay and story elements while featuring enhanced graphics and battle features 
The game is set ten years after the previous title and follows the story of Dean, a young warrior who is enthralled by the exploits of the hero Albert who saved the world a decade earlier from an evil magician   Setting off on his own journey to investigate the conflict, Dean becomes entangled in an adventure of his own while meeting characters from the previous game  He soon learns that the world is once again in danger from an ancient evil god known as Okutoba, and must become a hero himself to stop him from throwing the world into darkness 

Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Albert Odyssey 2 is a traditional strategy-based role-playing video game featuring two-dimensional character and background graphics  While towns and other safe areas are presented in a top-down fashion where players can move about freely, the game's overworld and dungeons take the appearance of a grid-like strategy board filled with monsters and other enemies   Using the Super Famicom's Mode 7 graphics function, environments can scroll and zoom smoothly based on the player's point of view, and give the appearance of three-dimensions  Players advance the game's story by taking part in large-scale battles and interacting with non-player characters 
The battle system in Albert Odyssey 2 has been modified slightly from the original   While players can still move in eight directions to engage opponents, the size of many battlefields, as well as the number of enemies represented, has been reduced, with the entire system becoming more streamlined  Characters move about the battle environment using a turn-based system where enemies and the player's party take turns attacking in phases, with one entire side acting before another  On a player's turn, characters may move, fight, use a magic attack, use an item from their inventory, or retreat to a nearby safe location  Battle are won when an entire enemy party has been defeated, yielding experience points that allow characters to gain levels and become stronger as well as give access to new abilities   Players record their progress using the game cartridge's built-in battery back-up system by accessing preset save points during gameplay 
Passage 7:
Sorrows of Werther
"Sorrows of Werther" is a satirical poem by William Makepeace Thackeray written in response to the enormous success of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther 


== Text ==
Passage 8:
Werther (film)
Werther is an opera by Jules Massenet 
Werther may also refer to:

Places
Werther, North Rhine-Westphalia, a town in western Germany
Werther, Thuringia, a municipality in eastern Germany

People with the surname
Gustav Werther (1815–1869), German chemist
Heinrich Wilhelm von Werther (1772–1859), Prussian diplomat and politician

Arts
The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that the opera Werther is loosely based on
Werther (1986 film), a Spanish film based on the novel
Werther (1927 film), a Czech film

Others
Werther's Original, a toffee-and-cream candy
The New Werther, by the statistician Karl Pearson
Passage 9:
Werther
Werther is an opera (drame lyrique) in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont)  It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, which was based both on fact and on Goethe's own early life  Earlier examples of operas using the story were made by Kreutzer (1792) and Pucitta (1802) 

Performance history
Massenet started composing Werther in 1885, completing it in 1887  He submitted it to Léon Carvalho, the director of the Paris Opéra-Comique, that year, but Carvalho declined to accept it on the grounds that the scenario was too serious  With the disruption of the fire at the Opéra-Comique and Massenet's work on other operatic projects (especially Esclarmonde), it was put to one side, until the Vienna Opera, pleased with the success of Manon, asked the composer for a new work  Werther received its premiere on 16 February 1892 (in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck) at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna The French-language premiere followed in Geneva on 27 December 1892  The first performance in France was given by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 16 January 1893, with Marie Delna as Charlotte and Guillaume Ibos in the title role, conducted by Jules Danbé, but was not immediately successful Werther entered the repertoire at the Opéra-Comique in 1903 in a production supervised by Albert Carré, and over the next half-century the opera was performed over 1,100 times there, Léon Beyle becoming a distinguished interpreter of Werther The United States premiere with the Metropolitan Opera took place in Chicago on 29 March 1894 and then in the company's main house in New York City three weeks later  The UK premiere was a one-off performance at Covent Garden, London, on 11 June 1894 with Emma Eames as Charlotte, Sigrid Arnoldson as Sophie, and Jean de Reszke in the title role 
Werther is still regularly performed around the world and has been recorded many times  Although the role of Werther was written for a tenor, Massenet adjusted it for a baritone, when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902  It is very occasionally performed in this version, in which the changes affect only the vocal line for the title character  There are no other changes to the words, to the lines for other characters, or to the orchestration 

Roles
Instrumentation
2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo),
2 oboes (doubling English horns),
2 clarinets in B-flat and A,
alto saxophone,
2 bassoons,
4 horns in F,
2 cornets in B-flat and A,
3 trombones,
tuba,
timpani,
percussion (1) (bass drum, triangle),
harp,
strings 

Synopsis
Time: Within the period July to December, in an undefined year in the 1780s 
Place: Wetzlar in Germany 

Act 1
In July, the widowed Bailiff (a Magistrate, rather than one who comes to seize property), is teaching his six youngest children a Christmas carol ("Noël! Jésus vient de naître")  His drinking companions, Johann and Schmidt, arrive as Charlotte, the eldest daughter, dresses for a ball  Since her fiancé Albert is away, she is to be escorted by Werther, whom the Bailiff and his companions find gloomy  Werther arrives ("O Nature, pleine de grâce"), and watches as Charlotte prepares her young siblings' supper, just as her mother had before she died  He greets her and they leave for the ball  Albert returns unexpectedly after a six-month trip  He is unsure of Charlotte's intentions and disappointed not to find her at home, but is reassured and consoled by Charlotte's younger sister Sophie  He leaves after promising to return in the morning  After an orchestral interlude, Werther and Charlotte return very late; he is already enamoured of her  His declaration of love is interrupted by the announcement of Albert's return  Charlotte recalls how she promised her dying mother she would marry Albert  Werther is in despair 

Act 2
It is three months later, and Charlotte and Albert are now married  They walk happily to church to celebrate the minister's 50th wedding anniversary, followed by the disconsolate Werther ("Un autre est son époux!")  First Albert and then Sophie ("Du gai soleil, plein de flamme") try to cheer him up  When Charlotte exits the church, he speaks to her of their first meeting  Charlotte begs Werther to leave her, though she indicates that she would be willing to receive him again on Christmas Day  Werther contemplates suicide ("Lorsque l'enfant revient d'un voyage")  He encounters Sophie but the tearful girl does not understand his distressing behavior  Albert now realizes that Werther loves Charlotte 

Act 3
Charlotte is at home alone on Christmas Eve  She spends time rereading the letters that she has received from Werther ("Werther! Qui m'aurait dit     Ces lettres!"), wondering how the young poet is and how she had the strength to send him away  Sophie comes in and tries to cheer up her older sister ("Ah! le rire est béni"), though Charlotte is not to be consoled ("Va! laisse couler mes larmes")  Suddenly Werther appears, and while he reads to her some poetry of Ossian ("Pourquoi me réveiller?"), he realizes that she does indeed return his love  They embrace for a moment, but she quickly bids him farewell  He leaves with thoughts of suicide  Albert returns home to find his wife distraught  Werther sends a messenger to Albert, requesting to borrow his pistols, explaining he is going on an extended trip  After the servant has taken them, Charlotte has a terrible premonition and hurries to find Werther  An orchestral intermezzo ("La nuit de Noël") leads without a break into the final Act 

Act 4
"The death of Werther": At Werther's apartment, Charlotte has arrived too late to stop him from shooting himself; he is dying  She consoles him by declaring her love  He asks for forgiveness  After he dies, Charlotte faints  Outside children are heard singing the Christmas carol 

Noted arias
Recordings
A well-regarded recording of the complete opera was made in January 1931 by French Columbia with a French cast and the orchestra and chorus of the Opéra-Comique under the direction of Élie Cohen  Henry Fogel of Fanfare magazine, writing in 1992, counted 14 complete recordings and considered it the finest of the lot  His colleague, James Camner, reviewing the Opera d'Oro reissue in 2003, called it "one of the treasures of recorded opera      Unfortunately, the transfer is over filtered  The high frequencies are lost, giving the performance an unwarranted flatness  Happily, Naxos offers the same recording expertly transferred by Ward Marston, and acquiring it is a must " Alan Blyth, while giving a very positive review of the reissue of the recording with Albert Lance as Werther and Rita Gorr as Charlotte in 2004, nevertheless pointed out that "neither quite has the ideal subtlety of the best Massenet singers, such as Vallin and Thill on the classic, pre-war set, now on Naxos" In addition, many of the greatest French and Italian singers of the past century or more have recorded individual arias from Massenet's masterwork 
Passage 10:
The Novel of Werther
The Novel of Werther (French: Le Roman de Werther) is a 1938 French historical drama film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Annie Vernay and Jean Galland  It is based on the 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe The film was made by Nero Film, a company run by German exiles who had left following the Nazi rise to power 

Cast
Pierre Richard-Willm as Werther
Annie Vernay as Charlotte
Jean Galland as Albert
Paulette Pax as Aunt Emma
Jean Périer as President
Edmond Beauchamp as murderer
Georges Bever as chamberlain
Geno Ferny as portraitist
Fernand Blot as Werther's colleague
Denise Kerny as the right one
Henri Guisol as Schertz, the clerk
Roger Legris as Franz, valet
Jean Buquet as little Gustave
Maurice Schutz as le sonneur
Léonce Corne asle majordome
Philippe Richard as Grand Duke
Charles Nossent as le cocher
Léon Larive as comedian
Georges Vitray as bailiff
Génia Vaury as girl
Henri Beaulieu
Henri Darbrey
Pierre Darteuil
Maurice Devienne
Martial Rèbe
Robert Rollis
Context 2: Passage 1:
Richie Ginther
Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther (Hollywood, California, August 5, 1930 – September 20, 1989 in France) was a racecar driver from the United States  During a varied career, the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix saw Ginther take Honda's first Grand Prix victory, a victory which would also prove to be Ginther's only win in Formula One  Ginther competed in 54 World Championship Formula One Grand Prix races and numerous other non-Championship F1 events 

Early career
Richie Ginther was born in Hollywood but his family moved to Ohio for his father's work before moving back to California and to Santa Monica, the same Californian town as future Formula One World Champion Phil Hill, and it was through Hill, a friend of Ginther's older brother, George, that he first began to race  After finishing school in 1948, Ginther followed in his father's footsteps and went to work for Douglas Aircraft, initially in the tool and die shop  In his spare time he helped Hill to repair, maintain and race his collection of old cars and hot rods, as Hill's racing career began to gather pace  Ginther made his race debut at Pebble Beach in 1951, driving a Ford-engined MG T-type sports car However, Ginther's career was put on hold shortly after, when he was drafted for two years of national service during the Korean War  During this time he received training and experience working in aircraft and engine mechanics, skills which he would later put to good use during his driving career  On emergence from the military, Hill requested that Ginther join him, principally as a riding mechanic, in driving a privately entered 4 1-liter Ferrari in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana  The pair ran high in the rankings until Hill lost control, crashed, and wrote off the car  Both Ginther and Hill were unharmed and returned in 1954 to take second place, beaten only by the works Ferrari of Umberto Maglioli 
Nineteen fifty-four was also the year that Ginther returned to race driving himself, mostly in a self-prepared Austin-Healey  His results were impressive enough that the following year VW and Porsche dealer John von Neumann hired him to drive a Porsche in domestic competitions  When von Neumann started dealing in Ferrari cars in 1956, Ginther also got the chance to drive these  In between working in von Neumann's Ferrari dealership — including trips to the Ferrari factory in Italy to sort customer problems — Ginther began to build an impressive racing reputation on the West Coast  This, and his choice of Ferrari mounts, brought him to the attention of the East Coast Ferrari franchise-holder, three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans-winner, Luigi Chinetti  Aside from importing Ferrari road cars, Chinetti also operated a successful race team, soon to metamorphose into Ferrari's official motorsport presence in North America: NART  Ginther first raced for Chinetti in 1957 and with him made his first appearances in international-level events, first in the 12 Hours of Sebring and then driving a two-liter Ferrari 500 TR in the 1957 Le Mans race 
Also in 1957, Ginther was signed to drive the Aston Martin of Joe Lubin and over the next three years would continue to compete in many sports car racing events in both Aston and Ferrari machinery, with great success  That June, he won a 15-lap GT race at the new Lime Rock Park, and won the opening race of the national championship in his Ferrari  In early-1958, he piloted a two-liter Ferrari to victory at the County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California, averaging 83 8 mph (134 9 km/h), and won in a three-liter GT in a five-lap qualifying preliminary for the SCCA Pacific Coast Championship  By the end of the year Ginther had captured the Pacific Coast Sports Car Championship outright  He triumphed by a wide margin at Pomona at the opening sports car race of 1959, in a von Neumann 4 1-liter Ferrari, and in June 1959, won in a three-liter Ferrari TR in the first Hourglass road races in San Diego, California  Throughout this period he continued to mix his race driving with a steady job at von Neumann's dealership, and by late 1959 the strain was beginning to show 

Formula One
Ferrari
Ginther made his F1 debut at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix driving for Ferrari, which he stayed with through 1961  In the September 1960 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, he placed second to Hill  Ginther led from the start until the 25th lap when Hill passed him and led until the finish Following the 1960 season the Ferrari team gave up 1000 cc in engine size  The 2500 cc engine,
permitted the previous year, was replaced by a 1 5-liter rear-engine model, with 110 less horsepower  However, the newer engine was superior in both "profiling" and handling  The conservative Enzo Ferrari was the last major Formula 1 race car manufacturer to make the transition to cars with engines in the rear 
In 1961, Ginther was the No  3 Ferrari driver, behind No  1 Wolfgang Von Trips and No  2 Hill  Giancarlo Baghetti occasionally piloted a fourth car  The team manager was Romulo Tavoni On May 14, 1961, Ginther finished second to Stirling Moss at the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, 3 6 seconds behind, a few hundred feet  He was driving a new rear-engine Ferrari with a 120-degree V-6 which had a lower center of gravity  Ginther had qualified second, just ahead of Hill, with an average speed of 70 7 mph (113 8 km/h), and a qualifying time of 1:39 3  He eclipsed the previous course record of 1:39 6, before Moss took pole position the day after In August 1961, Ginther and Baghetti were teammates at the Pescara Grand Prix, a world auto manufacturers' championship event  Their Ferrari was leading on the 10th lap when it stopped on a straight stretch with a flat tire  Ginther averaged more than 133 mph (214 km/h) on the 6 2-mile (10 0 km) Autodromo Nazionale Monza in September 1961, to lead the first day of qualifying for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix  Von Trips qualified first with Ginther taking the third starting position after Ricardo Rodriguez  Ginther retired in the race  Von Trips died in a spectacular crash on the second lap, which also killed eleven spectators, when his Ferrari climbed a 5-foot-high (1 5 m) earth embankment  
It brushed a wire fence employed to restrain a portion of the crowd and struck the spectators  Some who were injured eventually succumbed and brought the total to 15 deaths  The Ferrari team ceased competition until January 1, 1962, as a mark of respect to Von Trips 

BRM and Honda
In 1962, Ginther switched to the British-based BRM team to race alongside Graham Hill  The highlight of his time at BRM was finishing equal-second (with Hill) in the 1963 World Championship  Ginther scored more points than his British teammate over the whole season, but only a driver's six best scores were counted towards the championship 
His reputation as a solid "team player" and excellent test and development driver earned him an invitation to join the works Honda F1 team for 1965, for whom he scored his one and only GP win, at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix  The win was also Honda's first in Formula 1  Ginther averaged 151 7 kilometres per hour (94 3 mph) over the curving 5 kilometres (3 1 mi) track in the 65 lap Mexico City event  His speed eclipsed the previous course record of 150 185 km/h (93 321 mph) established by Dan Gurney in 1964  It was the first time Honda had entered the Mexican Grand Prix  Honda reentered international competition in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix  The team was three years old and had encountered difficulty in the preparation of a larger engine  Ginther led in Italy before his car crashed into a retaining wall and he broke his collarbone  He signed with the Eagle F1 team in 1967 and raced in the Race of Champions  His last race entered was the Monaco Grand Prix, but he failed to qualify 
Ginther won one race, achieved 14 podiums, and scored a total of 107 championship points 
He appeared in an uncredited role in the 1966 film Grand Prix as John Hogarth, a driver in the Japanese funded "Yamura" team  He also acted as one of the technical racing advisors for the movie 
While making an attempt to qualify for the 1967 Indianapolis 500, Ginther broke a fuel line in his American Eagle Indy Car   A mix of ethanol and gasoline, was sprayed down his back   This experience, along with the recent fiery death of close friend Lorenzo Bandini, along with other factors, led to his sudden retirement He participated in a rally with sixty-five other competitors, including actor James Garner, in June 1969  The California Sports Car Club event was three hours cross country from Los Angeles to Huntington Beach  It benefited students from the Braille Institute 
Ginther managed a Porsche 911S with two American drivers during the 39th 24 hours of Le Mans, in June 1971 

Death
Ginther died of a heart attack while on vacation with his family in France, in Touzac, near Bordeaux, on September 20, 1989 

Awards
He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2008 

Biography
In 2020, to mark what would have been Ginther's 90th birthday, a biography was released about Richie's life and career by Richard Jenkins, published by Performance Publishing  "Richie Ginther: Motor Racing's Free Thinker" won the RAC Motoring Book of the Year Award for its depth of research and previously unpublished information

Racing record
Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Non-Championship Formula One results
(key)

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap )

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes 

Footnotes
Passage 2:
Bobby Santos III
Robert Santos III (born October 3, 1985) is an American professional racing driver from Franklin, Massachusetts  He graduated in 2004 from Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School  Santos, nicknamed "Bobby New England", is the grandson of Bobby Santos, a former modified racer   His sister, Erica Santos, is also a racecar driver  He is the cousin of former University of New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos 

Early career
Before stock cars, Santos was a successful midget racer  He raced in the Northeastern Midget Association, USAC, PRA Big Car, and ISMA   He had the most wins of any driver in the USAC National Midget Tour in 2006, collecting five wins, including a win at O'Reilly Raceway Park on the Night Before the 500  He was signed to Bill Davis Racing 

ARCA career
In 2006, Santos made his stock car debut at Iowa Speedway for Bill Davis Racing in the #02 Dodge  He started 10th and finished 6th   Bobby returned to ARCA in 2007 for Bill Davis, now in a Toyota Camry  He won Toyota's first stock car pole at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida   While leading the race, he was involved in an incident with a lapped car and did not finish  He returned at Nashville Superspeedway, but had a mid-pack run  At Kansas Speedway, Bobby started second, but a blown engine relegated him to another DNF   Santos broke his dry spell at Kentucky Speedway when he started fourth and finished third, behind Erik Darnell and Erin Crocker   Santos placed third in the next race at Kentucky, as well   The third-generation racer won a pole at Pocono Raceway in early August and qualified fifth at Talladega Superspeedway, but was unable to back up either with a strong finish 

NASCAR career
In 2007, Santos made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at Richmond International Raceway for the new Riley D'Hondt Motorsports team  He qualified seventh in his #91 Toyota but faded back to a thirtieth-place finish after running in the top 10 at the beginning of the race  He also qualified fourth for the Camping World 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and was running in the top 10 before being hit by a lapped car  He ran two additional races for RDHM but did not finish better than 30th 
Santos has also participated in the Whelen Modified Tour, collecting his first two wins at Thompson International Speedway in October 2007, and the Ice Breaker, also at Thompson International Speedway, in April 2010  He parlayed his season-opening Icebreaker win into the 2010 Whelen Modified Tour championship, collecting a total of four wins and four poles on the season Santos ran the 2011 Nationwide Series opener for Jimmy Means in what was a back-up JR Motorsports car after wrecking the 52 in practice; the Earnhardt family has a long friendship with the independent owner and former driver  Santos finished 17th after vowing to run the race in its entirety 

Current career
After his stint in stock car racing, Santos returned to his roots, racing the full NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for Bob Garbarino's Mystic Missile Racing team and a limited schedule in all three USAC divisions  Santos also made select appearances in the NEMA ranks in 2009   Santos' post-NASCAR career has been highlighted by wins in many of the nation's largest midget races, including the Turkey Night Grand Prix and Copper World Classic  He also won the 2020 Little 500 USAC Sprint car race at Anderson Speedway He will drive part-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2012 for Tommy Baldwin Racing and will continue to compete on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour behind the wheel of the Tinio Corporation No  44 
Santos registered back-to-back Musket 250 wins in 2019 and 2020 

Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time  Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time  * – Most laps led )

Nationwide Series
Camping World Truck Series
1 Ineligible for series points

Whelen Modified Tour
ARCA Re/Max Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time  Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time  * – Most laps led )

Superstar Racing Experience
(key) * – Most laps led  1 – Heat 1 winner  2 – Heat 2 winner 

* Season still in progress
Passage 3:
1971 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1971 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mosport Park on September 19, 1971  It was race 10 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers  
During a Formula Ford preliminary race, one of the twenty drivers of the field spun at Turn 1 involving four other competitors and a group of marshals  Four of them suffered severe injuries and were taken to hospital  One lap later, Wayne Kelly, a 37‐year‐old driver from Ottawa, was killed instantly when he crashed into a stationary ambulance parked on the outside of Turn 1 whose crew was helping the injured marshals and competitors  
The events of the Formula Ford race meant that the Grand Prix was delayed, and when it did start, it was raining and thick fog had arrived  Jackie Stewart took the win after the race was stopped after 64 laps of the scheduled 80 due to the weather  American Mark Donohue finished third on his F1 debut 
This was the first ever Formula One race to be red flagged 

Qualifying
Qualifying classification
Race
Classification
Championship standings after the race

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings 
Passage 4:
Peter Ryan (racing driver)
Peter Barry Ryan (June 10, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States – July 2, 1962 in Paris, France) was an American-born Canadian racecar driver from Mont-Tremblant, Quebec  He had a short Formula One career  He participated in one Grand Prix, the 1961 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, finishing ninth  He scored no championship points  However, he became the first Canadian ever to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix 

Career
Ryan first came to prominence as a skier, winning the National Ski Association's junior downhill championship at Mount Rose, Nevada, in 1957  "Immediately after Ryan's victory, Americans protested that Canadians could not win an American championship " The protest was disallowed  His Olympic prospects were such that a dispute arose as to which country he should represent  The Americans asserted that he: "was born in the United States as were his father, the late Joseph P  Ryan, and his mother " Ryan expressed a preference for the Canadian team: "But while he would like to ski for Canada, he wouldn't care to give up his American citizenship " "An outstanding skier, Ryan shifted to auto racing in 1959 after a ski crackup in which both his legs were broken "On April 25, 1959, Denise McCluggage, writing in Competition Press, reported: "Peter Ryan of the Mont Tremblant Ryans bought Bernie Vihl's beautifully kept old 550 Porsche in which to take up racing-sports car racing that is  Peter at 19, is an old hand at ski racing being a downhill expert " Ryan's successes came in sports cars racing in Canada, the US and Nassau  On October 1, 1960, Ryan co-drove with Roger Penske in a Porsche RS60 to win the six-hour Sundown Grand Prix at Harewood, in Ontario, Canada  The next week Ryan was entered in the 230-mile Formula Libre road race at Watkins Glen, New York  In qualifying he was "the surprise of the day, taking the fifth position over England's Roy Salvadori " Ahead of him were Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Joakim Bonnier and Olivier Gendebien  He was driving Bill Sadler's Formula Libre special, known as "Formula Ferocious," a rear-engined single-seater device, when his motor blew on lap 56 
At Sebring on March 25, 1961, Ryan, teamed with Frances Bradley and Ludwig Heimrath, finished eighth overall in the Florida International 12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance, driving a Porsche RS  In June 1961 Ryan withdrew from a race at Mosport  He "was expected to give Moss his stiffest competition, but did not compete  He withdrew at the last minute  Ryan, a member of the Sports Car Club of America, feared he would lose his amateur status in the United States if he entered the race 
The S C C A  ordered its members not to compete in the Canadian race because prize money was being given " In July 1961 Peter Ryan (Comstock Sadler-Chevrolet) was leading the Meadowdale Grand Prix when Roger Penske (Maserati birdcage Telar Special): "banged into him from the rear on the 18th lap " Ryan clung on to the lead, but after spinning recovered to finish second  On August 6, 1961, Ryan won the Vanderbilt Cup for Formula Junior cars at Bridgehampton, New York, driving a Lotus 20, averaging 87 95 miles an hour Ryan was the winner of the inaugural Canadian Grand Prix, in a Lotus Monte Carlo-Climax, held at Mosport on September 30, 1961, when it was a non-Championship sports car race  Second that day was Pedro Rodriguez (Ferrari V12) and third Stirling Moss (Lotus Monte Carlo)  The win at Mosport led to an invitation from Colin Chapman to drive a Lotus in the 1961 United States Grand Prix 
In the first 3-hr Daytona Continental GT and sports car race at Daytona on February 11, 1962, Ryan finished 15th overall, sharing a Ferrari 3 0-litre with Ricardo Rodriguez  The previous day he had finished fifth in the Lurani Trophy Race for Formula Junior cars, driving a Lotus 20  At Sebring on March 24, 1962, Ryan, teamed with John Fulp, finished thirteenth overall in the Florida International 12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance, driving a Ferrari 248 SP for the North American Racing Team An offer of a factory-Lotus Formula Junior drive in Europe for 1962 did not materialise: "The young Canadian-American, bitterly disappointed, has gone to England to see what arrangements can be made for the coming season " "Placed under a three-year contract by Team Lotus he was lent to the Ian Walker Racing Team for the 1962 season,  " On May 27, 1962, Ryan was teamed with Paul Hawkins in an Ian Walker Racing Team Lotus 23 at the Nurburgring 1,000 km sports car race  The car suffered from overheating and was unplaced  At Monaco on June 2, 1962, Ryan won a heat race in an FJ Lotus, finishing eleventh in the final  Denis Jenkinson commented: "The driving of Ryan, the Canadian, and Spence, both in Ian Walker Lotus-Juniors, was very impressive,  " At Mallory Park, England, on June 11, 1962, Ryan drove an FJ Lotus: "The Formula Junior event saw Peter Ryan adding to his growing reputation in Europe by tailing Peter Arundell's works Lotus for the whole race, then nipping through on lap 28 to win by a second "Ryan made his Le Mans debut on June 23 and 24, 1962, partnered by John 'Buck' Fulp, driving the #18 NART Ferrari 250 TRI/61  The car completed 150 laps and 15 hours when it was crashed by Ryan  "Poor Peter Ryan put his Ferrari in the sandbank at Mulsanne and dug for ages before giving up,  "Ryan's last race was in the Coupe Internationale des Juniors Formula Junior race at Rheims, on July 2, 1962  "First of the heats, run at 10 a m  round an almost deserted circuit, began as a terrific scrap between Peter Ryan's Ian Walker Lotus, Bill Moss's Gemini, Gardner's Brabham with Love's Cooper and Arundell's Lotus lurking just behind  This struggle continued until the 5th lap, when Ryan's Lotus and Bill Moss's Gemini touched as they left the very fast right-hand bend past Gueux  Both cars left the road at high speed and were totally wrecked; Bill Moss escaped with minor injuries but Ryan was taken to hospital seriously hurt " He succumbed to his injuries in a Paris hospital where he was taken following the accident 
Peter Garnier, writing in Autocar, said of Peter Ryan: "During his all too-brief-spell on British and Continental circuits, he had proved himself to be extremely skilful and fast, with just that touch of fire which can often indicate the makings of a great driver "Peter Ryan was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame as one of the initial inductees in 1993 

Complete Formula One results
(key)
Passage 5:
Bob Drake (racing driver)
Phil Robert "Bob" Drake (December 14, 1919 – April 18, 1990) was an American racecar driver  He participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, on November 20, 1960  He scored no championship points  Drake was the last driver to race the famous Maserati 250F in a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1960 United States Grand Prix  The 250F was a 2 5 litre front-engined Grand Prix car that was considered obsolete in 1961 due to new engine rules 
Aside from being a race car driver, he was a naval diver, restaurateur, and stunt performer 

Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key)
Passage 6:
2010 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2010 Canadian Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2010) was the eighth round of the 2010 Formula One season  It was held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 13 June 2010  This was the first Grand Prix to be held on the North American continent since the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix  The race was won by McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, his second Canadian Grand Prix victory, ahead of teammate Jenson Button and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso 
This was McLaren's last 1-2 finish until the 2021 Italian Grand Prix and the last  one-two finish between British drivers until the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix 

Report
Background
After dominating the previous three races, it was widely expected that the Montreal circuit would not play to the Red Bull's strengths, with intense media speculation that the controversial crash between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber whilst fighting for the lead of the Turkish Grand Prix would only worsen the team's chances  However, while neither driver was prepared to accept full responsibility for causing the accident, both expressed a desire to forget about it and move on None of the teams planned to introduce major updates for the race, though several brought customised packages specifically for the high-speed, low-downforce circuit  Those who had developed an "F-duct" system for the previous race were still running it in the trial phase 

Free Practice
The Friday sessions passed without incident save for minor off-track excursions by several drivers and a spin by Pedro de la Rosa at l'Epingle  Lucas di Grassi was the only driver who failed to set a time in the first session after stopping on the circuit  While reigning World Champion Jenson Button set the fastest time of the first session, Hispania Racing improved dramatically, beating both the Virgins, while Karun Chandhok also beat the Lotus of Jarno Trulli  The session also showed the progress of the new teams as a whole, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing the session just over a second adrift of Jaime Alguersuari; the difference between the new and established teams had been as great as three seconds in the first race of the season  Kovalainen would go on to repeat his feat in the second session, finishing just over half a second behind Alguersuari and a full second ahead of Chandhok, the next-fastest driver 
The biggest story of the day was the extreme tyre degradation the drivers experienced while running on the super-soft compound  Several sections of the circuit had been resurfaced since Formula One's previous visit in 2008, with the net result being that they offered comparatively little grip compared to other circuits  Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone's director of motosport tyre development, commented that the problem was a result of the tyres being unable to reach their optimum operating temperature  With several teams expecting rain at some point during the weekend, the lack of grip and unpredictable conditions made setting the car up exceptionally difficult  Sebastian Vettel was the fastest driver in the session, narrowly outclassing the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg  Despite setting the fastest times of the first session, the McLarens both struggled, with Lewis Hamilton finishing seventh and Button only managing eleventh 
McLaren bounded back in time for the third session, with Hamilton comfortably setting the fastest time of both the session and the weekend, ahead of Webber, Alonso and Schumacher  Hamilton was sighted clipping the concrete walls lining the circuit as one point, as did Felipe Massa, but both were able to continue without damage  Pedro de la Rosa very nearly came unstuck at the same point, but Karun Chandhok was less fortunate, his Hispania F110 stopping on the circuit early on  Nico Rosberg was sidelined with a clutch problem for most of the session  The only other incident was Lucas di Grassi losing control under braking at l'Epingle and coming to rest in the gravel trap shortly after he recorded the fastest speed – 324 km/h (201 mph) – through the speed trap 

Qualifying
To compound the problems associated with heavy graining, overnight rain washed away whatever rubber had been laid down on the circuit during the Friday practice sessions, further reducing grip  With ambient temperatures being no higher than on Friday and the forecast predicting more of the same for the race, Bridgestone projected that a one-stop strategy in the race would be impossible with the harder prime compound losing up to seven seconds over half race distance, and the super-soft option tyres losing over sixteen seconds in the same window  With the rules dictating that drivers must start the race on the tyres they set their best qualifying time on, tyre selection for qualifying was therefore crucial 
On Saturday afternoon, qualifying started without rain on the track  The first qualifying session had no surprises when both drivers from HRT, Virgin Racing and Lotus failed to make the cut, they were joined by BMW Sauber pilot Kamui Kobayashi  The second qualifying session saw Michael Schumacher miss the cut as the only surprise elimination  With two more cars setting faster times, Schumacher started the race from thirteenth  Barrichello was the fastest of this group followed by Hülkenberg, Schumacher, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari and de la Rosa 

At the third and final session all eyes were on Lewis Hamilton as he had set the fastest time in both qualifying sessions  But it was Mark Webber who grabbed the lead early on  The teams were running different tyres, making the results unpredictable  On the very last lap, Hamilton snatched the pole from Webber who could not answer  With Hamilton ending Red Bull's run of pole positions after seven races, Webber was set to start second right in front of his teammate Sebastian Vettel  Fernando Alonso was fourth, Jenson Button fifth followed by Vitantonio Liuzzi, who qualified at a career-best sixth; Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Adrian Sutil and Nico Rosberg completed the top ten 
On the cool down lap, Hamilton was instructed by his team to slow down and stop on the circuit because the team realised he would not have enough fuel left in his tank for a sample to be taken by the FIA  Hamilton turned his car off and let it continue rolling down the back straight of the circuit  He undid his belts and sat higher up in the cockpit of his car, relaxed until his McLaren nearly came to a stop  Hamilton then got out and started to push his still rolling car down the back straight  A group of circuit marshalls finally came to help him and he was picked up by the course car and taken to the press conference  The FIA later handed Hamilton a reprimand and fined the McLaren team $10,000 for not completing the cool down lap in the given time, with Hamilton retaining his pole position 

Race
The race was the first of the season in which all twenty-four cars started on the grid; prior to the Montreal race, at least one car—usually from Virgin, Lotus or Hispania—was forced to start from the pit lane with a mechanical issue of some kind  Mark Webber was demoted from second place on the grid to seventh after Red Bull found iron filings in a sample of oil taken from the gearbox used in Webber's car during qualifying  This finding, which suggested damage to the internals of the gearbox and necessitated a gearbox change under parc ferme conditions, resulted in the five-place grid penalty 
The opening lap saw drama unfold before the field had even cleared the start gantry  While Lewis Hamilton won the drag race to the first corner, in the middle of the pack, Vitaly Petrov jumped the start and was forced onto the grassy verge as he attempted to go around the outside  This resulted in a spin that forced Pedro de la Rosa to take evasive action; Petrov earned two drive-through penalties in the space of one hundred metres for his efforts and spent the rest of the race fighting with the new teams  Felipe Massa and Vitantonio Liuzzi made contact three times in one corner, with the Italian getting spun around in the process and sliding down the order  As Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso established the running order, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hülkenberg tangled on the run into the final corners  While the Williams driver cut the chicane to avoid further contact, Kobayashi was not as lucky and he became the Wall of Champions' 2010 victim  He retired a lap later with accident damage  After avoiding the spinning Petrov at the start, Kobayashi's Sauber teammate Pedro de la Rosa joined him on the sidelines shortly thereafter and gave the team the unenviable record of eleven retirements from sixteen starts 

The predicted early round of stops passed without incident, although Red Bull elected to run their drivers on separate strategies; Mark Webber ran the harder prime compound back-to-back with a finish on the softer options, while Vettel ran the options in his middle stint and picked up the primes for the run to the finish  Every other driver except Robert Kubica had qualified on and subsequently started the race with the softer options  The tyre lottery produced an unlikely winner with Toro Rosso's Sébastien Buemi inheriting the lead for a lap before his stop, the first time a Toro Rosso had led a race since Sébastien Bourdais led three laps at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix  Elsewhere in the field, Hülkenberg proved to be his own worst enemy when he over-extended himself under brakes while attempting to pass Nico Rosberg at l'Epingle and damaging his front wing in the process  He was then flagged for speeding in the pit lane when he pitted to replace the wing, robbing himself of a potential points place as he was forced to serve a drive-through penalty 
An accident between Michael Schumacher and Robert Kubica was narrowly avoided as Schumacher emerged from the first of his scheduled stops  Schumacher refused to yield on the approach to the fourth corner and the two took a short trip across the grassy verge  The altercation damaged Kubica's undertray while the incident was investigated by the stewards  It was the first of many incidents involving Schumacher, with the Mercedes driver later tangling with Adrian Sutil and Felipe Massa  Massa's race was marked by a perpetual battle with the Force India drivers including several near-misses in the second corner, the scene of his first-lap tangle with Liuzzi  Massa would later force his way past Sutil as the two closed in on the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, the cars running three-abreast into turn six  His late altercation with former Ferrari teammate Schumacher required him to pit for a replacement front wing and, like Hülkenberg before him, the Brazilian driver was cited for speeding in the pit lane  Twenty seconds were added to his time after the race as punishment 

Webber's tyre strategy initially paid off but, as the race wore on, his tyres began to deteriorate rapidly  Hamilton, running second at the time, quickly reduced the Australian's lead and caught him with twenty laps to go, dragging the Ferrari of Alonso through in the process  Webber eventually pitted, emerging behind teammate Vettel in fifth place as Vettel struggled with an unspecified but serious problem that he had to nurse to the finish; the team later clarified this as being related to the gearbox  As Hamilton settled back into the lead, reigning World Champion Jenson Button took Alonso by surprise, passing him around the back half of the circuit and positioning McLaren for their second consecutive one-two finish  Button briefly attempted a run at his teammate, narrowing Hamilton's lead to just two seconds with ten laps to go, but Hamilton responded with a fast lap that dissuaded Button from making further attempts  The top five—Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Vettel and Webber—would remain in place until the very end with Vettel stopping on the circuit just after he crossed the finish line at the end of the race  Nico Rosberg fended off a late surge from Kubica to claim sixth while Buemi finished eighth and a lap down  Liuzzi and Sutil both found their way past Schumacher on the final lap—in Sutil's case this was in the final corner—as the Mercedes driver struggled with tyres that were almost completely out of grip and leaving the seven-time World Champion scoreless in what BBC commentator Martin Brundle later described as the German's "worst weekend of his career"  Kovalainen was the best of the new teams, two laps down and fighting off Petrov for the final phase of the race, while Karun Chandhok and Lucas di Grassi were the final cars home, four and five laps down respectively 

The race was notably short of attrition compared to previous races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which have seen the safety car deployed so often that teams factor an accident into their strategies  However, the 2010 race was so short of retirements that it boasted the greatest number of finishers in the season to date with nineteen classified drivers  In addition to the dual retirements for BMW Sauber, Bruno Senna was once again the victim of a gearbox problem while Jarno Trulli stopped in the pit entry on lap forty-seven with terminal brake problems  Timo Glock retired due to a steering rack leak that crippled his VR-01 on lap fifty-five 
The final result meant that Hamilton leapfrogged both Button and Webber in the championship standings with six points covering the top three drivers  With McLaren claiming the lead of the constructors' championship from Red Bull in Turkey, their maximum points score in Montreal placed them a further twenty points clear of the Austrian team  The race was also the first time since the 1991 United States Grand Prix that three former drivers' champions stood on the podium and the last 1–2 finish for the McLaren team until the 2021 Italian Grand Prix  The race was also the last time until the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix where British drivers finished first and second on the podium 

Classification
Qualifying
Notes:

1 ^  – Mark Webber was demoted five places on the grid after the gearbox in his car was changed pre-race 
2 ^  – Karun Chandhok was given a five place penalty after the gearbox in his car was changed overnight  It did not affect his starting position 

Race
Notes

1 ^  – Felipe Massa was given a 20-second time penalty post-race for exceeding the pit lane speed limit in the closing stages of the race  However, as Massa finished one lap down and one lap clear of the next-placed car, the penalty did not affect his finishing position 

Championship standings after the race
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings 
Passage 7:
Kevin Cogan
John Kevin Cogan (born in Culver City, California on March 31, 1956) is a former race car driver who drove in Formula One from 1980 to 1981  Driving a RAM Williams in the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, he failed to qualify, suffering the same result driving for Tyrrell at the 1981 US GP West  He then moved over to Indy cars in 1982 but his career was cut short by a series of accidents 

Racing career
Cogan made his Indycar debut at the 1981 Indianapolis 500, driving the No  32 Sugaripe Prunes Phoenix PR-01-Cosworth DFX for Jerry O'Connell Racing, as part of the USAC Gold Crown Championship  Cogan qualified in 12th place and finished the race in fourth place with 197 laps completed  Despite this Cogan lost the Rookie of the Year Award to Josele Garza  Cogan then competed in the rival CART/PPG World Series for O'Connell  In his debut, the Gould Rex Mays Classic at the Milwaukee Mile, Cogan qualified in seventh place and finished in second  After the race, he was ranked fifth in points  Cogan participated in four more races that season with his best finish coming at the Los Angeles Times 500 at Riverside International Raceway  Cogan finished his first CART season 23rd in points 
In 1982 Cogan joined Team Penske to drive the No  4 Norton Spirit Penske PC-10-Cosworth DFX  At the season-opening Kraco Car Stereos 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, he qualified and finished in third place  The remainder of his season was inconsistent, highlighted by a second-place finish at the Domino's Pizza Pocono 500 at Pocono International Raceway to teammate Rick Mears  Cogan also had two pole positions at the Budweiser Cleveland 500 at Burke Lakefront Airport and the AirCal 500 at Riverside International Raceway  He finished the season sixth in points while Mears won the championship  Penske released Cogan at the end of the season 

1982 Indianapolis 500 controversy
During qualifying, Cogan set a new one-lap track record of 204 638 mph (329 333 km/h) and a record four-lap average of 204 082 mph (328 438 km/h)  He was beaten only by his teammate, Mears 
Cogan started from the middle of the front row, next to pole-sitter Mears, and A  J  Foyt  As the field approached the start-finish line to start the race, Cogan suddenly swerved right, touching and bouncing off Foyt's car, and directly into the path of and collecting Mario Andretti  The cars of Dale Whittington and Roger Mears, deeper in the field, were also damaged due to the field checking up  Bobby Rahal also reported getting hit from behind, but was undamaged  The race was immediately red-flagged 
Cogan's shocking accident took out four cars, including himself and Andretti  Foyt's team was able to make repairs and pushed his car out for the restart attempt  Meanwhile, Andretti and Foyt were furious and outspoken about their displeasure with Cogan  Andretti shunned Cogan's attempts to explain himself with a light shove 
Andretti on live radio and television said,  "This is what happens when you have children doing a man's job up front " Back in the garage area, Andretti complained about Cogan's abilities, claiming that Cogan was "looking for trouble", that he "couldn't handle the responsibilities of the front row" and that the Penske car he was driving was "too good for him" The commonly outspoken Foyt also chimed in during comments to ABC's Chris Economaki with, "   he ran right square into my goddamned left front   'Coogin' " Later, Foyt said back in the garage area,  of the crash and of Cogan that "It was a stupid deal  The guy had his head up his ass "
Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser later placed some blame for the accident on the polesitter Rick Mears, for bringing the field down at such a slow pace  Johncock, who went on to win the 1982 race, pointed out that Andretti had jumped the start, and could have avoided the spinning car of Cogan had he been lined up properly in the second row  Foyt wrote a memoir of his career in 1983 and when mentioning the crash, in a more analytic form, assigned some blame on Mears for the slow start, while assigning Cogan the rest of the responsibility 
At the end of the USAC Gold Crown season, Cogan finished 47th in points  The reason was that Cogan ran the 1981 race without a USAC Class I license and received no points for his 4th-place finish 

Aftermath
Cogan quickly fell out of favor following the humiliation stemming from the accident  It was followed by a noticeable "blacklisting" by fans and press  Cogan nearly had the dubious distinction of taking out two of the most famous American auto racing legends (Foyt and Andretti) in one move in the biggest race of the season  The incident also further rehashed a standing feud between Team Penske and Patrick Racing  A year earlier, Penske and Patrick were the key fixtures in the controversial 1981 race  In a post-wreck interview, Penske stood behind Cogan, although he also refused to confirm nor deny the broken CV-joint believed to be responsible  As a result, Cogan faced a firestorm of controversy that impacted the remainder of his career 
Cogan never managed to win a race in 1982, and was possibly fired by Roger Penske because of it and replaced by Al Unser in 1983 
The accident was never explained by the Penske team, however, several experts had differing opinions  Rodger Ward, working for the IMS Radio Network immediately believed the rear brakes locked up  It was a common practice for drivers in the turbocharged era to "ride the brakes" during warm up laps in order to engage the turbocharger  Others theorized it may have happened due to a broken CV joint  Some feel that Sam Posey on ABC-TV inadvertently may have added to the controversy when he proclaimed "absolutely no idea" to the question of how it could have happened, and saying "it was as if he turned the wheel intentionally " The comments led many to conclude that the accident may have been entirely of Cogan's doing  As soon as he climbed from the car, Cogan was observed looking at the rear end axle, suggesting that he thought something broke 

1983–1993
In 1983 Cogan began driving for Bignotti-Cotter Racing in the No  6 Master Mechanic/Caesar's Palace March 83C-Cosworth DFX (numbered 16 at Indianapolis only)  During the season results were hard to come by for Cogan with his best finish being a 5th place at the Indianapolis 500 where teammate Tom Sneva won  Helping neither Cogan nor Sneva was that Bignotti-Cotter began to develop the Theodore 83 rather than continue to use the proven March 83C  At the end of the season Cogan finished 15th in the CART standings and 6th in the USAC standings  At year's end, team co-owner George Bignotti retired and sold his share of the operation to co-owner Dan Cotter, who did not retain Cogan for 1984 
For 1984 Cogan was originally going to drive the No  98 Dubonnet/Curb Records Ligier LC02-Cosworth DFX for Curb Racing and the No  98 Dubonnet Eagle 84SB-Pontiac V8 for All American Racers each in select races  At the season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on the Streets of Long Beach Cogan would start 21st and finish in 28th place in the Ligier  At the Dana Jimmy Bryan 150 at Phoenix International Raceway Cogan would finish in 8th place aboard the Eagle  Then at the Indianapolis 500 Cogan returned to the Ligier  The car was off the pace at the beginning of practice and Cogan faced the possibility of failing to qualify  Cogan would eventually qualify for the race after Ligier and Curb parted ways and when Michael Chandler suffered career-ending injuries in the Eagle  During this time Mike Curb and Dan Gurney merged their teams to form Curb-All American Racers  In the race Cogan qualified in 27th place, setting a new speed record for stock block engines at Indianapolis  In the race Cogan retired to 20th place after suffering a frozen wheel after 137 laps  Cogan would leave Curb-All American Racers after the Budweiser Cleveland Grand Prix at Burke Lakefront Airport  Cogan would then start driving for Forsythe Racing in the No  33 Skoal Bandit March 84C-Cosworth DFX  Initially results were good as Cogan was able to start 5th and finish 8th in his debut for the team at the Michigan 500 at Michigan International Speedway and would follow it up with a 10th-place finish at the Provimi Veal 200 at Road America  During practice for the Domino's Pizza 500 at Pocono International Raceway Cogan would suffer season-ending injuries  Cogan would finish 24th in points 
In 1985 Cogan would begin to drive for Kraco Racing in the No  18 Kraco Car Stereo/Wolff Systems March 85C-Cosworth DFX  The season had its ups and downs uch as Cogan nearly failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, eventually starting in 32nd place and finishing 11th  Cogan would also get a 4th-place finish at the Detroit News 200 at Michigan International Speedway and a 5th-place finish at the Stroh's/G I  Joe's 200 at Portland International Raceway to get a 14th-place finish in points 
For 1986 Cogan joined Patrick Racing to drive the No  7 7-Eleven March 86C-Cosworth DFX  At the season opening Dana 200 for Special Olympics at Phoenix International Raceway Cogan scored his first Indycar win, leading 2nd place Tom Sneva by a lap  It was also the first time Cogan led the CART standings in his career  With 13 laps to go in the Indianapolis 500, Cogan made a bold move to pass Rick Mears and Bobby Rahal in less than a lap when both were held up by the slower car of Randy Lanier  Despite his car conspicuously oversteering in the turns, Cogan pulled away to a 3-second lead before a caution came out on lap 195 for a crash by Arie Luyendyk in turn four  Cogan did not get a good restart on lap 198 and was passed by Rahal, eventually finishing in 2nd place  Cogan still led the standings after Indianapolis but suffered retirements in seven of the fourteen remaining races and fell to 6th in the championship 
For 1987 Cogan would return with Patrick, making it the first team Cogan drove for in consecutive years, driving the No  7 Marlboro March 87C-Ilmor-Chevrolet Indy V8 265A  The season would turn out to be a disappointment as Cogan got a best finish of 5th at the Escort Radar Warning 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth Speedway to get a 16th-place finish in points 
In 1988 Cogan would begin to drive for Machinists Union Racing in the No  11 Schaefer Beer/Playboy Fashions March 88C-Cosworth DFX (although an 87C was used at the Miller High Life 200 at the Milwaukee Mile)  The season started off well as Cogan got a 3rd-place finish at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on the Streets of Long Beach  After seven rounds Cogan was ranked 11th in points when he was injured while competing at the Molson Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place  Cogan would miss four races but would still finish 13th in points on the strength of a 4th-place finish at the Nissan Indy Challenge at Tamiami Park 
For 1989 Cogan returned with the Machinists Union driving the No  11 Schaefer Beer/Playboy Fashions March 88C-Cosworth DFX  Another frustrating season saw Cogan finish 14th in points with a best finish of 8th at the Champion Spark Plug 300K at Laguna Seca Raceway  The only 'highlight' of Cogan's season was a major crash at the Indianapolis 500  At the end of the third lap, Cogan spun in turn four and hit the entrance to the pit lane  The car broke in half, rebounded and slammed into the end of the pit wall before finally sliding to a stop on its side in the pit lane  To everyone's surprise, Cogan immediately climbed from his destroyed car unharmed 
In 1990 Cogan could only get a drive for Indianapolis for Vince Granatelli Racing in the No  11 Tuneup Masters Penske PC18-Buick V6  In the race Cogan qualified in 15th place and finished in 9th place  Cogan would later get a second race at the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway for Stoops Racing in the No  17 Conseco Lola T9000-Cosworth DFS starting 13th and finishing 20th  Cogan would finish out the season 23rd in points 
In 1991 Cogan would join Team Menard to drive the No  9 Glidden/Menards Lola T9100-Buick V6 at the Indianapolis 500  During qualifying Cogan was unable to make an attempt due to rain and would have to wait for the second day  Cogan would easily qualify for the race in 16th place with a speed that would have placed him easily in the top ten along with other drivers, such as teammate Gary Bettenhausen, Arie Luyendyk, Emerson Fittipaldi and Stan Fox  In the race Cogan was involved in a crash with Roberto Guerrero on lap 25  In the wreck Cogan broke his arm and leg  Original television footage was inconclusive, and Cogan firmly assessed the blame on Guerrero, claiming that Guerrero cut down on him  An amateur home video shot from the grandstands surfaced, however, which showed that Cogan may have moved up into Guerrero  At the very least, the video showed that it may have been a simple racing accident, although Cogan still holds Guerrero responsible  As a result of the crash Cogan missed the remainder of the year (Menard wasn't going to do anymore races) and the next year  Cogan scored no points during the season 
For 1993 Cogan would drive for Galles-Kraco Racing in the No  11 Conseco Lola T9300-Ilmor-Chevrolet Indy V8 265A in a part-time schedule  At Cogan's debut for the year, the Indianapolis 500 Cogan was on the bubble on Bump Day and was nearly bumped by Bobby Rahal  Rahal was not successful and Cogan started in 14th place and would lead for four laps during pit stops, eventually finishing in 14th place  Cogan would drive in three more races for Galles-Kraco, getting a best finish of 13th at the Budweiser Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport  Cogan would again score no points towards the championship 
Cogan would retire from racing at the end of 1993 with 6th place in 1982 and 1986 being his best finish in the CART standings and his win at Phoenix in 1986 being his only win 

Personal life
Since leaving IndyCar, Cogan has distanced himself from racing to concentrate on a real estate business in Los Angeles, Palos Verdes Estates LLC  Cogan declined invitations to be interviewed for the centennial era of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2009) in which many IndyCar legends and IndyCar drivers were interviewed by ESPN  Cogan also refused invitations to participate in Indianapolis 500 festivities during the 100th anniversary of the race in 2011 (9)
In 1988, ESPN reporter Jack Arute reported that Cogan was married, to Tracy, and had a son  The couple has since been divorced since 2004  In a 2015 interview with a news reporter, it was revealed that Cogan has 2 more children, a daughter and a son, since his retirement 

Racing record
SCCA National Championship Runoffs
Complete USAC Mini-Indy Series results
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key)

American open-wheel racing
(key)

CART
Indianapolis 500
24 Hours of Le Mans
Passage 8:
Mark Donohue
Mark Neary Donohue Jr  (March 18, 1937 – August 19, 1975), nicknamed "Captain Nice," and later "Dark Monohue," was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to set up his own race car as well as driving it to victories Donohue is probably best known as the driver of the 1500+ bhp "Can-Am Killer" Porsche 917-30 and as the winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1972  Cars that Donohue raced include: AMC Javelin, AMC Matador, Chevrolet Camaro, Eagle-Offy, Elva Courier, Ford GT40 MK IV, Ferrari 250LM, Ferrari 512, Lola T70, Lola T330, Lotus 20, McLaren M16, Porsche 911, Porsche 917/10, Porsche 917/30, Shelby Cobra, and Shelby Mustang GT350R 

Early life
Born in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Donohue grew up in Summit, graduated from the Pingry School in Hillside, and entered Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island  At the age of 22 while a senior at Brown, Donohue began racing his 1957 Corvette  He won the first event he entered, a hillclimb in Belknap County, New Hampshire  He graduated from Brown in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering Donohue won the SCCA national championship in an Elva Courier in 1961  Experienced race driver Walt Hansgen (who worked for Inskip Motors in New York & Rhode Island) recognized Donohue's ability and befriended him, eventually providing an MGB (through Inskip Motors in Providence, RI and prepped by their race shop Competition Engineering) for Donohue to race at the 1964 Bridgehampton 
500-mile (800 km) SCCA endurance event, which he won  Hansgen arranged for Donohue to become his teammate in 1965, co-driving a Ferrari 275 at the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race, which they finished in 11th place  That year, Donohue also won two divisional championships: in SCCA B Class in a GT350 and in SCCA Formula C in a Lotus 20B Donohue was hired on March 29, 1964, by Jack Griffith [Griffith Motors, Syosset, N Y /Plainview, N Y ] as design engineer for the Griffith, formerly TVR Grantura Mk III, powered by a Ford 289 cid (4 7l) V8 engine  He went on to assist TVR's David Hives in designing the Series 400 Griffith and then working on the ill-fated Bob Cumberford-designed, Intermeccanica-(Torino, Italy) produced Series 600 Griffith 
During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600 
During his tenure at Griffith Mark drove the Griffith-owned Shelby 289 Cobra making his mark on the SCCA circuit 
In February of '65 Donohue was named comptroller at Griffith Motors, but was soon lured from Griffith by Roger Penske early in 1966 
The Griffith company went defunct in November, 1966 

Ford GT40 and joining with Penske
In 1966, thanks to his friendship with Hansgen, word quickly spread to the Ford Motor Company about the young driver  Ford immediately signed Donohue to drive one of their GT-40 Mk II race cars campaigned at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the Holman & Moody racing team   Le Mans proved frustrating for Donohue   Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins   Donohue and Hawkins completed only twelve laps due to differential failure and finished 47th  Earlier that year, co-driving with Hansgen, Donohue finished third at the 24 Hours of Daytona and second at the 12 Hours of Sebring At Hansgen's funeral, Roger Penske spoke to Donohue about driving for him  In his first race for Penske, at Watkins Glen in June 1966, Donohue qualified well but crashed the car at the top of a hill, destroying it Donohue was invited back to Le Mans by Ford in 1967  Ford had developed a new GT, the Mark IV  Donohue co-drove in the No  4 yellow car with sports car driver and race car builder Bruce McLaren for Shelby American Racing  The two drivers disagreed on many aspects of racing and car setup, but as a team were able to muster a fourth-place finish in the endurance classic In 1967, Penske contacted Donohue about driving Penske's brand new Lola T70 spyder in the United States Road Racing Championship   Donohue dominated the 1967 race, driving a Lola T70 MkIII Chevrolet for Penske  Donohue raced in seven of the eight races that year, winning six (at Las Vegas, Riverside, Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Pacific Raceways, and Mid-Ohio) and finishing third at the Laguna Seca Raceway round behind Lothar Motschenbacher and Mike Goth 
In 1968, Donohue and Penske returned to defend their USRRC championship with the McLaren M6A Chevrolet  Donohue did not start the first race of the year at Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City due to problems getting the engine to start  Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A 

Trans-Am
Donohue began his Trans-Am series campaign in 1967, winning three of twelve races in a Roger Penske-owned Chevrolet Camaro  In 1967 and 1968, Trans-Am schedule included two of the most prized endurance races in the world, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring  Donohue finished fourth at Daytona and won the Trans-Am class at the 12 Hours of Sebring 
1968 would be a banner year for Donohue in the Trans-Am series, as he successfully defended his 12 Hours of Sebring victory by partnering with Craig Fisher and driving his Penske Chevrolet Camaro to victory  Donohue went on to win 10 of 13 races, a Trans-Am series record which would stand until Tommy Kendall went 11 for 13 in the 1997 Trans-Am championship, winning the first 11 races that year in his All-Sport liveried Mustang 
Donohue was considered a leading Trans-Am driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s  Had there been a Drivers' Championship in place at the time, he would have won three of them (his last in 1971) while driving Camaros in 1968 and 1969, and an AMC Javelin in 1971, all for Roger Penske Racing 
During their enormous success in Trans-Am, Penske and Donohue would begin to experiment with their Camaros  They discovered that using a drag racing trick of dipping a car in an acid bath would eat away small amounts of metal, which in turn made the car incrementally lighter, and allowed it to be driven faster  The 1967 Z-28 won its last race by lapping the entire field of cars, causing suspicion throughout the paddock During a post-race inspection, race stewards discovered that the car was 250 pounds lighter than the 2,800-pound minimum weight requirement  Donohue was about to have his race victory taken away for cheating, but Roger Penske stepped in  Penske warned that any disqualification would have the potential of motivating Chevrolet to pull all support for the Trans-Am series  After considering the potential consequences, the race stewards allowed Donohue's victory to stand, but the rules for the 1968 season incorporated a change whereby all cars would be weighed during the technical inspection before the race 
Penske and Donohue did not stop acid-dipping after this, however  Continuing the practice of reducing weight allowed them to place weights of certain sizes strategically in specific locations within the car, thus helping to balance the car while being driven on the limit  Acid-dipping car bodies was prevalent with competing Trans-Am teams also 
They continued to use the "lightweight" car in 1968, at the Sebring 12-hour race  They changed the grille and taillight to the 1968 model, and then painted both cars identically  They sent the legal weight car through the technical inspection with the number 15 and again with the number 16 on it  Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter  They won the race, finished third overall, and went on to win 10 out of 13 races that year 
They also acid-dipped the body on the Camaro and had to caution people not to lean against it, for fear it would dent  The lightweight car was featured on an episode of Dream Car Garage on Speed TV in 2005 
In 1970 new Javelin team owner Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue would breathe new life into the AMC team  Donohue drove the Javelin to three victories, with AMC finishing second overall in the Manufacturers' Championship  In 1971, of the ten races that the Over 2 5L Class cars participated in, Donohue won seven of them, including the final six races in a row, with AMC winning the Manufacturers' championship for the first time ever  In the final race of the season, Javelins finished in first, second and third place, with George Follmer becoming the only other Javelin driver to win besides Donohue 

Indianapolis 500
In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500, with Donohue finishing seventh, winning the rookie of the year award  Donohue raced at Indianapolis each year following, finishing second in 1970 and 25th in 1971 
Donohue won in 1972, driving for Penske  He finished the race in his McLaren-Offy setting a record speed of over 162 mph (261 km/h), which stood for twelve years  The victory was the first for Penske in the Indy 500 

NASCAR
Donohue raced in several NASCAR Grand American races and a NASCAR pony car division from 1968 until 1971  In the 1972–1973 season, driving an AMC Matador for Penske Racing in NASCAR's top division, the Winston Cup Series, Donohue won the season-opening event at Riverside  That race was Penske's first NASCAR win in a long history of NASCAR participation  Although photographs of Donohue with the more aerodynamic 1974 Matador coupe exist and are published, he did not drive it in competition 

Can-Am Porsche
Between 1971 and 1972, Penske Racing (along with Donohue as the primary test and development driver) was commissioned by Porsche to help develop the 917-10 to compete in the Can-Am series  During testing at Road Atlanta, Donohue recommended larger brake ducts, believing that more cooling would slow the brakes' degradation during a race 
The Porsche engineers obliged, but the new ducts interfered with the bodywork closure pins that attached body panels to the car  Coming out of turn seven at about 150 mph (240 km/h), the rear bodywork flew off the car, which became extremely unstable, lifted off the ground, and tumbled down the track  The front of the car was torn away, leaving Donohue, still strapped to his safety seat, with his legs dangling outside the car  Amazingly, Donohue only suffered an internal derangement of his knee with meniscus damage and limited cruciate plus collateral ligament damage  (He was operated on at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by Drs  J  Funk and J  L  Watts )  George Follmer, Donohue's old Trans-Am teammate, took over testing the 917-10 for Donohue, who said:

It just doesn't feel right  Seeing another man driving your car, a car you know so well  I imagine it must feel like watching another man in bed with your wife 

Porsche, Penske, and Donohue quickly started the development of the 917-30, complete with a reworked aerodynamic "Paris" body and a 5 4-liter turbocharged flat-12 engine whose output could be adjusted from about 1,100 to 1,500 bhp by turning a boost knob in the cockpit  During the development of this motor, the German Porsche engineers often asked Donohue if the motor finally had enough power  He answered, "It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear "
On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 917–30 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama  His average speed around the 2 66-mile (4 28 km) high-banked oval was 221 120 mph (355 858 km/h)  Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway 
The 917-30 is referred to as the "Can-Am killer"  as it dominated the competition, winning all but two races of the 1973 Can-Am championship (which is an untrue statement, because OPEC killed the Can-Am series in 1975–1976)  After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, it led the SCCA, IMSA and other race series to impose fuel limitations on motor sport racing as a whole, which hampered the performance of the 917/30, making it uncompetitive in the Can-Am series  Brian Redman drove it once in 1974, and that was it for the car as far as Penske campaigning it  The 917/30 generally is considered one of the most powerful and most dominant racing machines ever created 

First IROC champion
Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 1973–74, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs  In the four-race series, Donohue won the first and third of three races at Riverside and the final race of the year at Daytona  The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer  In winning the first IROC championship, Donohue beat the best racing drivers of that era from all of the major championships, such as Denny Hulme, Richard Petty, A  J  Foyt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Peter Revson, Bobby Unser, and Gordon Johncock 

Retirement and Formula One
The pressures of racing and designing the car took their toll on Donohue  By 1973, the "Captain Nice" nickname he had earned earlier in his career was being supplanted by the nickname "Dark Monohue"   Donohue announced that he would retire from racing after the 1973 Can-Am season  In addition, the horrific events at the 1973 Indianapolis 500 and the subsequent death of his friend, Swede Savage, pushed him to quit  His retirement was short-lived, however, as he was lured back to full-time competitive driving by Penske when he formed a Formula One team, Penske Cars Ltd, to compete in the final two events of the 1974 Formula One World Championship, and to continue competing in 1975 with the new Penske PC1 

Donohue previously had debuted in Formula One on September 19, 1971, with a Penske-sponsored McLaren at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park, finishing on the podium in third place  After coming out of retirement with his former boss, Penske, Donohue returned to Formula One, entering into the final two races of the 1974 Formula One season  Donohue finished in 12th place at the Canadian Grand Prix, but failed to finish at the United States Grand Prix 
A full season of racing for the 1975 Formula One season was planned  The 1975 season turned out to be a difficult one for Donohue and Penske   Donohue was able to muster fifth-place finishes at the Swedish Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix, but the new Penske PC1 chassis proved problematic, as evidenced by three retirements in the first six races  At the Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue's career, along with Roger Penske's Formula One aspirations, took a tragic turn 

Death
Midway through the 1975 F1 season, Penske abandoned the troublesome PC1 and started using the March 751  Donohue recently had arrived in Austria for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring race track following the successful closed-course speed record attempt at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama just a few days earlier  During a practice session for the race, Donohue lost control of his March after a tire failed, sending him into the catch fencing at the fastest corner on the track, Vöest Hügel Kurve  A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly  It is said that Donohue's head struck either a catch fencing post or the bottom of the wood frame for an advertising billboard located alongside of the racetrack  A headache resulted, however, and worsened  After going to the hospital in Graz the next day, Donohue lapsed into a coma from a cerebral hemorrhage and died  He was survived by his second wife and two sons from his first marriage  Donohue is buried at St  Teresa Cemetery in Summit, New Jersey 

Commemorations and legacy
In 2003, in commemoration of Penske Racing's 50th NASCAR win, Nextel Cup driver Ryan Newman drove a Dodge Intrepid painted to resemble Donohue's 1973 AMC (with a No  12 and current Alltel decals) at the fall Rockingham, North Carolina, race 
Penske's new Penske Racing complex in Mooresville, North Carolina is decorated with various murals of Donohue and his racing cars, most notably the AMC stock car and the various Porsche prototypes that Donohue drove through his career 
Donohue chronicled his entire racing career in the book, The Unfair Advantage (co-written with noted motorsports and engineering journalist Paul Van Valkenburgh)  The book documents his career from his first races to his final full season of racing the year before he was killed  This was not merely a celebrity autobiography, but a detailed, step-by-step record of the engineering approach he took to getting the absolutely highest performance from every car he drove, always looking for that elusive "unfair advantage"  Donohue (along with Penske) were pioneers in many rights, some as notable as the use of a skidpad as a tool for developing and perfecting race car suspension designs and setups  The book told how Donohue learned to exploit the antilock braking system and the powerful turbocharged engine of several prototype Porsches, as well as how he learned from various mishaps, including a near-fatal crash  The book was published shortly before Donohue's death 
The book was re-released in 2000 by Bentley Publishers (Cambridge, Massachusetts)  It includes information and additional photography that was not available before the first edition was published 
Donohue's racing tradition is carried on by his son, David Donohue, a successful road racer in his own right 

Awards
Drexel University presented Mark Donohue with its Engineering and Science Award in 1973 
Mark Donohue was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990 
He was also inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990 
He was inducted in the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame in its 2006 class 

Motorsports career results
SCCA National Championship Runoffs
Formula One World Championship
(key)

Formula One Non-Championship
(key)

Complete USAC Championship Car results
Indianapolis 500 results
NASCAR
Winston Cup Series
Daytona 500
International Race of Champions
(key) (Bold – Pole position  * – Most laps led )

Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
See also
Roger Penske
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
George Follmer
Walt Hansgen
Skidpad
Turbocharger
Brown University
Lola Cars
Vehicle Dynamics
Elva (car manufacturer)



ground_truth: no

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which racecar driver who performed in the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix was born in 1937?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: Passage 1:
Santa's Workshop (Colorado)
Santa's Workshop is an amusement park that opened on June 16, 1956 in Cascade, Colorado, located on U S  Route 24 just west of Colorado Springs at the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway, at the Northern end of Pikes Peak  Modeled after the Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, the park features a charming North Pole village complete with a variety of shops selling toys, candy, and Christmas decorations  The village is also home to Santa's Workshop itself, where children (and adults) can meet with Santa Claus and Mrs  Claus year round  Much of the staff is dressed in Christmas themed attire, especially those at work in stores and admissions 
In addition to the village, Santa's Workshop is a fully operational amusement park best suited for children ages 2 to 12  It is home to 28 rides, many of which are classified specifically as "kiddie" rides  Family highlights include a small roller coaster, the highest altitude Ferris wheel in North America, a Giant Slide (Helter skelter), as well as a North Pole made of permanent ice in the center of the park   Attractions also include a Tilt-A-Whirl, a Scrambler, a chairlift, a narrow gauge railroad, a magic show, and an arcade  In 2014, Santa's Sleigh, a 30 mph, 2-person zip line was added 
The park is generally open from mid-May through Christmas Eve, and is closed from January to May  As of 2018, admission is $24 00 per person for ages 3–59  Under 3 and 60 or older are free  Military and group rates are available  The park is still owned and operated by the Haggard family who opened it in 1956 

External links
Santa's Workshop (Colorado amusement park) at the Roller Coaster DataBase
Passage 2:
Larry Wilson (screenwriter)
Larry Wilson (born January 23, 1948) is an American film producer and screenwriter  He is best known for his screenwriting work on the films Beetlejuice (1988) and The Addams Family (1991)  He also co-wrote the films The Little Vampire (2000) and, for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus (2006)  He wrote and directed a number of episodes of the Tales from the Crypt television series from 1991 to 1996 
Passage 3:
Rankin/Bass Productions
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd  and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc ) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation  Rankin/Bass' stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic" 
Nearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to Japanese animation companies such as Toei Doga Entertainment, MOM Production, Mushi Productions and Topcraft  Rankin/Bass was one of the first western studios to outsource their low-budget animated television and film productions to animation studios in foreign countries; the others that already practiced animation outsourcing includes Total Television and King Features Syndicate TV in New York City; and Jay Ward Productions and Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California 

History
The company was founded in New York City by Arthur Rankin Jr  and Jules Bass on September 14, 1960, as Videocraft International, Ltd  The majority of Rankin/Bass' work, including all of their "Animagic" stop-motion productions (which they were well known for), were created in Tokyo, Japan  Throughout the 1960s, the Animagic productions were headed by Japanese stop-motion animator Tadahito Mochinaga at his studio, MOM Production  He was credited for his supervision as "Tad Mochinaga" 
Rankin/Bass' traditional animation output was done by several animation studios such as Toei Animation, Eiken (formerly known as TCJ, short for the Television Corporation of Japan), Mushi Production, and especially Topcraft, which was formed on February 1, 1972 by Toei animator Toru Hara (who was credited as an animation supervisor in some of Rankin/Bass' specials)  While several of Topcraft's staff, including Hara and industry legends such as Hayao Miyazaki, would go on to form Studio Ghibli in the wake of Topcraft's death, others formed another studio: Pacific Animation Corporation, which continued working on Rankin/Bass' titles until the latter company shut down 
In addition to the "name" talent that provided the narration for the specials, Rankin/Bass had its own company of voice actors  For the studio's early work, this group was based in Toronto, Ontario where recording was supervised by veteran CBC announcer Bernard Cowan  The Canadian group included actors such as Paul Soles, Larry D  Mann, and Carl Banas 
Maury Laws served as musical director for almost all of the animated films and television programs  Romeo Muller was another consistent contributor, serving as screenwriter for many of Rankin/Bass' best-known productions including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and Frosty the Snowman (1969) 

Output
One of Videocraft's first projects was an independently produced television series in 1960, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, based on the Italian author Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio and featuring "Animagic", a stop motion animation process using figurines or puppets (a process already pioneered by George Pal's "Puppetoons" and Art Clokey's Gumby and Davey and Goliath), managed by Mochinaga and his MOM Production staffers for Videocraft with Dentsu  This was followed by another independently produced series in 1961, Tales of the Wizard of Oz, Videocraft's adaptation of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L  Frank Baum, as well as their first production to use traditional cel animation  Unlike many of Rankin/Bass' works, Tales of the Wizard of Oz was animated by Crawley Films in Ottawa, headed by F  R  Crawley 

Rudolph era
One of the mainstays of the business was holiday-themed animated specials for airing on American television  In 1964, the company produced a special for NBC and sponsor General Electric, later owner of NBC  It was a stop motion animated adaptation of Robert L  May's 1939 story "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the 1949 song it inspired, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", written by May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks  Almost two decades earlier, in 1948, it had been made into a cartoon by Max Fleischer, brother and former partner of Dave Fleischer, as a traditional cel animated short for the Jam Handy Film Company   
With the American actor Burl Ives in the role of Sam the snowman, the narrator, Canadian actress Billie Mae Richards as the voice of the main title character, Rudolph, and an original orchestral score composed by Marks himself, Rudolph became one of the most popular, and longest-running Christmas specials in television history: it remained with NBC until around 1972 when it moved to CBS  In 2019, for its 55th anniversary, the special was also aired on Freeform as part of its "25 Days of Christmas" franchise, although it will continue to air on CBS under a separate license with Universal The special contained seven original songs  In 1965, a new song was filmed in "Animagic" to replace "We're a Couple of Misfits", titled "Fame and Fortune" 
The success of Rudolph led to numerous other Christmas specials  The first was The Cricket on the Hearth in 1967, with two live-action announcements by Danny Thomas, continuity and character designs by Don Duga and Paul Coker, and animation by Jiro Yanase's TCJ, followed by the 1968 Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower, told by Tennessee Ernie Ford and animated by Kenzo Masaoka, Sanae Yamamoto, and Yasuji Murata's Toei Animation  Paul Coker Jr  would go on to design characters and production for more than 40 Rankin-Bass specials and episodes 

Other holiday specials
Many of their other specials, like Rudolph, were based on popular Christmas songs  In 1968, the British-American actress Greer Garson provided dramatic narration for The Little Drummer Boy, based on the traditional song and set during the birth of the baby Jesus Christ, and starring the Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer as the voice of Ben Haramed  During that year, Videocraft International, Ltd  (whose logo dominated the Rankin/Bass logo in the closing credit sequences) changed its name to Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc , and adopted a new logo, retaining a Videocraft byline in their closing credits until 1971 when Tomorrow Entertainment, a unit of the General Electric Company, acquired the production company  The "Animagic" process for The Little Drummer Boy took place at MOM Production, which was renamed Video Tokyo Production after Tadahito Mochinaga left Japan for his return trip to China following the completion of the animation for Mad Monster Party?, thus ending his collaboration with Rankin/Bass  Takeo Nakamura, the director of Sanrio's 1979 stop motion feature Nutcracker Fantasy, was among the "Animagic" team, but he was never credited as a supervisor 
The following year, in 1969, Jimmy Durante sang and told the story of Frosty the Snowman, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty  It was based on Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins' 1950 song of the same name, and also introduced Billy De Wolfe as the voice of Professor Hinkle, a greedy magician who tries to steal away the magic hat that brought Frosty to life to become a billionaire  Mushi Production, an animation studio founded in 1961 and formerly led by the manga artist Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Ambassador Magma), handled the animation for the special with supervision by Yusaku "Steve" Nakagawa, a layout artist and character designer from Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California 
The year 1970 brought another Christmas special, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town  Rankin/Bass enlisted Fred Astaire as narrator S D  (Special Delivery) Kluger, a mailman answering children's questions about Santa Claus and telling his origin story  The story involved young Kris Kringle, voiced by Mickey Rooney, and the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger, voiced by Paul Frees  Kringle later marries the town's schoolteacher, Miss Jessica, voiced by Robie Lester  Kizo Nagashima, the associate director of Rankin/Bass' previous productions, was credited as a production supervisor 
In 1971, Rankin/Bass produced their first Easter television special, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, with the voices of Danny Kaye as the narrator Seymour S  Sassafrass, Vincent Price as the evil rabbit January Q  Irontail, and Casey Kasem from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo franchise as the title character Peter Cottontail  It was not based upon the title song by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, but on a 1957 novel by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich titled The Easter Bunny That Overslept  This was the second and final "Animagic" production to be supervised by Kizo Nagashima  Steve Nakagawa was also involved in this special as a continuity designer  In 1977, Fred Astaire returned as S  D  Kluger in The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, telling the tale of the Easter Bunny's origins  From there, Rankin/Bass used Masaki Iizuka as an associate producer, and Akikazu Kono as an "Animagic" supervisor  Back in 1973, Iizuka was the production assistant of Marco—a live-action musical film based on the biography of Italian merchant, explorer, and writer Marco Polo, filmed at Toho Company in Tokyo and on location throughout East Asia, and featuring Kono's "Animagic" sequence of the Tree People  Previously, he was met by Rankin during the animation production of the Halloween television special Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters at Mushi Production in 1972, and became an integral part of Rankin/Bass for many years 
In 1974, Rankin/Bass Productions was relaunched once again as an independent production company and produced another Christmas special for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus, featuring Shirley Booth, voicing narrator Mrs  Claus; Mickey Rooney, returning as the voice of Santa Claus; and supporting characters Snow Miser (voiced by Dick Shawn) and Heat Miser (voiced by George S  Irving)  It was the first Rankin/Bass "Animagic" production on which Akikazu Kono and puppet maker Ichiro Komuro share in the production supervision  It was remade as a poorly received live-action/special effects TV movie shown on NBC in 2006 starring Delta Burke and John Goodman as Mrs  Claus and Santa Throughout the 1970s, Rankin/Bass, with Video Tokyo and the former Toei Animation employee Toru Hara's Topcraft, continued to produce animated sequels to its classic specials, including the teaming of Rudolph and Frosty in 1979's Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the voice of Ethel Merman as Lilly Loraine, the ringmistress of a seaside circus, and Rooney again returning as Santa  The special features cameos by characters from several other Rankin/Bass holiday specials, including Big Ben the Clockwork Whale from Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Jack Frost from Frosty's Winter Wonderland  Later that year, Jack appeared in his own special, Jack Frost  Narrated by Buddy Hackett, it tells the story of the winter sprite's love for a mortal woman menaced by the evil Cossack king, Kubla Kraus (Paul Frees, in addition to Kubla, voiced Jack Frost's overlord, Father Winter)  In this special, Jack's voice was performed by Robert Morse, who previously voiced Stuffy in 1976's The First Easter Rabbit (loosely based on Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit), and young Ebenezer Scrooge in 1978's The Stingiest Man in Town (based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) 
Among Rankin/Bass' original specials was 1975's The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow, featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury (who also starred in the 1982 adaptation of The Last Unicorn) as the narrating and singing nun, Sister Theresa, and Irving Berlin's Christmas classic "White Christmas" 
Their final stop-motion style Christmas story was The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, taken from the L  Frank Baum story of the same name and released in 1985  In this story, the Great Ak (voiced by Alfred Drake) summons a council of the Immortals to bestow upon a dying Claus (voiced by Earl Hammond, with J D  Roth voicing the young Claus) the Mantle of Immortality  To make his case, the Great Ak tells Claus's life story, from his discovery as a foundling in the magical forest and his raising by Immortals, through his education by the Great Ak in the harsh realities of the human world, and his acceptance of his destiny to struggle to bring joy to children  This special has recently been released as part of Warner Bros  Home Entertainment's Warner Archive Collection, on a double-feature disc that also contains Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey which is often paired with The First Christmas on holiday broadcasts 
Many of these specials are still shown seasonally on American television, and some have been released on VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital 

Non-holiday output
Throughout the 1960s, Videocraft produced other stop motion and traditional animation specials and films, some of which were non-holiday stories  1965 saw the production of Rankin/Bass' first theatrical film, Willy McBean and His Magic Machine, another joint venture between Videocraft and Dentsu  1966 brought The Daydreamer, the first of three films to be produced in association with executive producer Joseph E  Levine's Embassy Pictures in Los Angeles, California, and the film adaptation of the stories and characters by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, which combines live-action, special effects and "Animagic"; and The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, the story of the famous forest fire-fighting bear seen in numerous public service announcements, narrated by James Cagney The theatrical feature film Mad Monster Party? saw theatrical release in the spring of 1967, featuring one of the last performances by the British actor Boris Karloff  The film features affectionate send-ups of classic movie monsters and their locales, adding "Beatle"-wigged skeletons as a send-up of the era's pop bands, and a writing staff borrowed from Mad magazine, including the cartoonist Jack Davis, who designed the characters of this film  It is also the last "Animagic" project that Tadahito Mochinaga supervised 
In 1972 and 1973, Rankin/Bass produced four animated TV movies for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series: Mad Mad Mad Monsters (with the animation by Mushi), Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid, The Red Baron, and That Girl in Wonderland (all featuring the animation by Topcraft) 
In 1977, Rankin/Bass produced an animated version of J  R  R  Tolkien's The Hobbit  It was followed in 1980 by an animated version of The Return of the King (the animation rights to the first two volumes were held by Saul Zaentz, producer of Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation The Lord of the Rings)  Other books adapted include The Last Unicorn by Peter S  Beagle, a rare theatrical release that was co-produced with ITC Entertainment in London, England, Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which was animated by the second overseas animation unit of Hanna-Barbera, James Wang's Cuckoo's Nest Studios (now Wang Film Productions) in Taipei, Taiwan 
In addition to their prime time specials, Rankin/Bass produced several regular television shows in traditional animation, including The King Kong Show in 1966, co-produced with Toei Animation, The Tomfoolery Show in 1970, The Jackson 5ive in 1971 (the latter co-produced with Motown Productions), and Kid Power and The Osmonds in 1972  The most successful of these was Ted Wolf's ThunderCats in 1985, an action-adventure series based on his related line of toys  It was followed by two similar TV shows about humanoid animals, SilverHawks in 1986, and TigerSharks, as part of the series The Comic Strip in 1987  Each of those four series was mainly animated by former Topcraft employees' Pacific Animation Corporation, with production management by Masaki Iizuka, just before the studio was bought by Disney and renamed Walt Disney Animation Japan in 1988  Neither one enjoyed the same commercial success as ThunderCats did, however 
Rankin/Bass also attempted live-action productions, such as 1967's King Kong Escapes, a co-production with Toho; 1976's The Last Dinosaur; 1978's The Bermuda Depths; 1980's The Ivory Ape (all co-produced with Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of the Ultra Series); and 1983's The Sins of Dorian Gray  With the exception of King Kong Escapes, all were made-for-television films 

Demise
After its last series output, Rankin/Bass shut down its production company on March 4, 1987 
Arthur Rankin Jr  would split his time between New York City, where the company still has its offices, and his home in Bermuda  Rankin died at Harrington Sound, Bermuda on January 30, 2014, at the age of 89  Bass became a vegetarian; a decade later, he wrote Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, the first children's book character developed specifically to explore moral issues related to vegetarianism  The original story and a follow-up cookbook became bestsellers for independent publishing house Barefoot Books  Bass died on October 25, 2022 at the age of 87 In 1999, Rankin/Bass joined forces with James G  Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions and Nest Family Entertainment (creators of The Swan Princess franchise) for the first and only animated adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I, based on a treatment by Rankin  Distributed by Warner Bros  Pictures with its Warner Bros  Family Entertainment division, the film flopped at the American box office  Stephen Hunter, among several American film critics, criticized the film's depictions of "offensive ethnic stereotyping "In 2001, Fox aired the first new original Christmas special to be produced by both Rankin and Bass in 16 years, Santa, Baby!, which like most of their production company's other specials was based on a popular, similarly-titled Christmas song  Santa, Baby! stood out from its predecessors due to its use of African-American characters and voice performers, such as Patti LaBelle (the narrator), Eartha Kitt, Gregory Hines, Vanessa L  Williams and Tom Joyner  Although Pacific Animation Corporation was responsible for the overseas animation production of the special with the background art provided by Atelier BWCA and the See Throu Studio, some of the animation services were done at Steven Hahn's Hanho Heung-Up in Seoul, South Korea  Santa, Baby! turned out to be the final Rankin/Bass-produced special; the Rankin/Bass partnership was officially dissolved shortly after, with most of its remaining assets acquired by Warner Bros  Entertainment 
Currently, the pre-September 1974 Rankin/Bass library (including works from Videocraft International) is owned by NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures via DreamWorks Animation's DreamWorks Classics subsidiary, while Warner Bros  Discovery through Warner Bros  unit owns the rights to the post-September 1974 library via Telepictures  NBCUniversal also retained the rights to King Kong Escapes and also currently holds the rights to Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, again, via DreamWorks Classics  StudioCanal holds the rights to the films from Rankin/Bass that Embassy Pictures distributed, while ITV Studios currently holds the rights to The Last Unicorn  The rights to the 1999 animated film adaptation of The King and I are currently held by Morgan Creek Entertainment 

Legacy
For over 20 years, most of Rankin/Bass' films were shown on the Family Channel and Freeform during their December "25 Days of Christmas" seasonal period  Starting in 2018, the post-1974 specials moved to AMC and air during their "Best Christmas Ever" seasonal period, with Freeform retaining the pre-1974 specials' cable rights  The original Rudolph and Frosty specials currently air on CBS under a separate contract with Rankin/Bass and its successors-in-interest, with Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town airing on ABC 
The specials of Rankin/Bass have been parodied by the likes of TV series from Saturday Night Live to South Park, while non-holiday works like The Last Unicorn maintained a cult following  The look and style of the Christmas specials heavily influences more modern holiday classics such as Elf (2003) Beginning in 2013, and for several years thereafter, the animation studio ShadowMachine was hired by the SoCal Honda Dealers group (via Secret Weapon Marketing) to create stop-motion animated commercials in the style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials RiffTrax, consisted of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J  Nelson, spoofed Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey on December 17, 2006 (this time with just Nelson himself riffing) In 2022, an agreement between Warner Bros  and NBCUniversal (which co-owned Studio Distribution Services, LLC) was made to release The Complete Rankin-Bass Christmas Collection as a nine-disc DVD box set with a 24-page booklet and special features  The box set features eighteen specials, comprising every stand-alone, Rankin-Bass produced Christmas special aside from Santa, Baby! 

Filmography
Franchises
Overseas animation studios used by Rankin/Bass
Japanese studios
MOM Production, Tokyo, Japan
Toei Animation, Tokyo, Japan
TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan) (now Eiken), Tokyo, Japan
Mushi Production, Tokyo, Japan
Topcraft, Tokyo, Japan
Pacific Animation Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
The Anime International Company, Tokyo, Japan
Anime R, Osaka, Japan
Mook Animation, Tokyo, Japan
Atelier BWCA (background studio), Tokyo, Japan
See Throu Studio (background studio), Tokyo, Japan

Other studios
Crawley Films, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Halas and Batchelor, London and Stroud, England, United Kingdom
Estudios Moro, Barcelona, Spain
Cuckoo's Nest Studios (Wang Film Productions), Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Ying Animation, Taipei, Taiwan
Hanho Heung-Up, Seoul, South Korea
Passage 4:
Santa Claus: The Movie
Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston  It depicts the origin of Santa Claus (played by Huddleston), and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow)  It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind 
Released in North America by TriStar Pictures on November 27, 1985, Santa Claus: The Movie was a box office bomb and received mostly negative reviews from critics 

Plot
In the Middle Ages, a woodcutter named Claus delivers hand-carved toys to the children of his village each Christmas, accompanied by his wife Anya and their reindeer Donner and Blitzen  Caught in a blizzard, they are saved by elves and taken to their magical workshop at the North Pole  Lead elf Dooley explains that their coming was prophesied; that it is Claus' destiny to deliver the toys made by the elves to the children of the world; and that they, like the elves, will live forever  The following Christmas Eve, the oldest elf dubs Claus "Santa Claus" and explains that the night will last as long as it takes for him to deliver toys to every child on Earth  Donner and Blitzen join six other reindeer and are fed hay sprinkled with magical powder that enables them to fly, pulling Santa's sleigh through the air  As the centuries pass, much of the mythology and traditions surrounding Santa Claus develop 
By the late 20th century Santa is exhausted by his ever-growing workload, and Anya suggests that he enlist an assistant  Two elves compete for the position: Puffy, who follows traditional toymaking methods, and Patch, who has many ideas for modernization  Patch wins by designing a machine to increase production through automation, but unbeknownst to him it begins to malfunction and produce shoddy toys  In New York City Santa befriends homeless orphan boy Joe and takes him for a ride in his sleigh  They unsuccessfully attempt the "Super Duper Looper", a vertical loop maneuver which always fails due to Donner's acrophobia  They also meet wealthy orphan girl Cornelia, who befriends Joe 
When the toys produced by Patch's machine fall apart on Christmas Day, he resigns in disgrace and leaves the North Pole, winding up in New York City  Meanwhile, the B Z  Toy Company, run by Cornelia's unscrupulous step-uncle B Z , is facing shutdown by the government for producing unsafe toys  Seeing the company's toys being pulled from a storefront, Patch mistakenly thinks they are very popular and approaches B Z  about a job  Hoping to redeem himself in Santa's eyes, he creates lollipops laced with the magic powder that allows the reindeer to fly, and a flying car which he uses to deliver them to the world's children on Christmas Eve  The lollipops allow people to fly, making them an instant sensation and leaving Santa feeling obsolete and disheartened  B Z  convinces Patch to strengthen the formula and put it in candy canes, planning to launch his own holiday called "Christmas 2" in late March 
Cornelia and Joe overhear B Z  plotting to oust Santa as the figurehead of Christmas, and Joe is captured  Cornelia further overhears B Z 's assistant, Towzer, share his discovery that the candy canes explode when exposed to heat  B Z  plans to take Towzer and their money and flee to Brazil, letting Patch take the fall for their dangerous product  Cornelia writes to Santa, who rushes to help despite two of his reindeer being sidelined by illness  Patch finds Joe tied up in the toy factory and frees him  Seeing a wood carving resembling Patch that Santa made for Joe, Patch realizes that Santa misses him  He and Joe take off for the North Pole in his flying car with the candy canes loaded in the trunk, unaware that they are becoming unstable  Santa and Cornelia pursue in Santa's sleigh; as the car explodes, they successfully perform the Super Duper Looper, saving Joe and Patch  The police, alerted by Cornelia, attempt to arrest B Z , but he eats several of the magic candy canes and jumps out a window, only to float upward uncontrollably 
Santa agrees to let Joe and Cornelia stay at his workshop until next Christmas  As they celebrate with the elves, B Z  floats off into space 

Cast
Dudley Moore as Patch
John Lithgow as B Z 
David Huddleston as Claus/Santa Claus
Burgess Meredith as the Ancient Elf
Judy Cornwell as Anya
Jeffrey Kramer as Towzer
Christian L Fitzpatrick as Joe
Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia
John Barrard as Dooley
Anthony O'Donnell as Puffy
Aimee Delamain as a storyteller in Claus' village
Dorothea Phillips as Miss Tucker, Cornelia's nanny
John Hallam as Grizzard, B Z 's chauffeur
Judith Morse as Miss Abruzzi, who works for B Z 
Jerry Harte as a Senate Chairman
Ian Wise as Salvation Army Bandsman (Central Park Scene)Additional elves were played by Melvyn Hayes, Don Estelle, Tim Stern, Peter O'Farrell, and Christopher Ryan as Goober, Groot, Boog, Honka, Vout, and Goobler, respectively  Other minor roles were played by Paul Aspland, Sally Granfield, and Michael Drew as reporters; Walter Goodman as a street corner Santa; John Cassady as a wino; and Ronald Fernee and Michael Ross as policemen 

Production
Development
Conceived by Ilya Salkind in the wake of the apparently waning critical and U S  box office success of 1983's Superman III and its immediate follow-up, 1984's Supergirl, Santa Claus: The Movie was directed by Supergirl director Jeannot Szwarc, from a story by David and Leslie Newman (though David Newman took sole screenplay credit)  Pierre Spengler, Ilya's longtime partner and a longtime collaborator of the Salkinds', joined Ilya as the project's producer 
John Carpenter was originally offered the chance to direct, but also wanted a say in the writing, musical score, and final cut of the film  Carpenter's original choice for the role of Santa was Brian Dennehy  Szwarc, however, felt that he needed an actor with more warmth than Dennehy  Lewis Gilbert was another early choice for director but, despite initial interest, he could not agree with the Salkinds over certain aspects of the script  Robert Wise was also offered the chance to direct, but had a different approach to the story  Guy Hamilton, who'd had to withdraw from directing Superman: The Movie in 1976, lobbied hard for the chance to direct the film, but only on the condition that it be shot either in Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Rome  Ultimately, the Salkinds chose Szwarc because of their excellent working relationship on Supergirl 

Casting
Dudley Moore was the Salkinds' top choice to play the lead elf in the film, Ilya Salkind having remembered a scene in Arthur in which Liza Minnelli's character asks Moore if he is Santa's Little Helper  Moore was attached to the project early on, and had a say in both scripting and choice of director  David Newman's first script draft named Moore's character Ollie, but Moore decided that the name should be changed to Patch, which was the nickname of his young son, Patrick  Moore had briefly been considered to play the role of Mister Mxyzptlk in the Salkinds' aborted original script for Superman III, and for the role of Nigel in Supergirl  He turned down that role, but suggested his longtime friend and comic partner Peter Cook for the part 
Ilya Salkind wanted an American actor to portray Santa Claus because he felt that the film focused on a primary piece of Americana in much the same way that Superman: The Movie had  Szwarc screen-tested such actors as David White (who, being in his late 60s, was considered too old for the role) and Moore's Arthur co-star Barney Martin  For a while, Ilya Salkind actively pursued Carroll O'Connor for the role before Szwarc showed him David Huddleston's screen-test, which won Salkind over 
For the role of B Z , the producers wanted a star with a similar stature to Gene Hackman when he had played Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie  To this end, they offered the role to Harrison Ford who turned them down  They made offers to Dustin Hoffman, Burt Reynolds and Johnny Carson, each of whom also turned the part down  Eventually, John Lithgow was settled on after Ilya Salkind watched Terms of Endearment and realized that he had a Grinch-type look to him 
The role of the Ancient Elf was written with James Cagney in mind  Though he liked the film's overall idea, Cagney, at 84, turned the role down due to being too weakened by age to perform it  Fred Astaire was considered, but when this eventually came to nothing Dudley Moore suggested his friend Burgess Meredith for the role, which he in the end won  At the time of the film's announcement in mid-1983, the British Press carried reports that diminutive actors such as David Jason, Patrick Troughton and Norman Wisdom would be cast alongside Moore as fellow elves, but none of them were 

Filming
Santa Claus: The Movie was filmed in Buckinghamshire, England at Pinewood Studios, between August and November 1984  The film was photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, whose credits included Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)  Santa Claus: The Movie was his final feature film  Serving as film editor was Peter Hollywood  The production was designed by Anthony Pratt, with costume design concepts by Bob Ringwood  The visual effects unit, as well as several of the production staff, were Salkind stalwarts from the Superman films: Derek Meddings, director of visual and miniature effects; Roy Field, optical visual effects supervisor; and David Lane, flying and second unit director 

Reception
Santa Claus: The Movie received negative reviews upon release, with a rating of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, from the 20 reviews counted  Box Office Mojo lists the film's total United States box office gross as $23,717,291, less than its $30–50 million production budget  It was very popular in the UK, grossing £5,073,000 Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted some positive points to the film, writing that the film "does an interesting job of visualizing Santa's workshop" and Santa's elves  He also praised the film's special effects, particularly the New York City fly-over sequence involving Santa  Ebert also had some praise for Lithgow's "nice, hateful performance", but wrote that "the villain is not drawn big enough " He ceded that young children would probably like most of the film, but that older children and adults are "likely to find a lot of it a little thin "Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less positive than Ebert, calling the production "elaborate and tacky"  He described the film as having "the manner of a listless musical without any production numbers"  Unlike Ebert, he offered little praise for the film's production design  Canby quipped that "Santa's workshop must be the world's largest purchaser of low-grade plywood" and that the flyover sequences with Santa "aren't great " The only praise he had for the film's acting was for John Lithgow, who Canby wrote "(gave) the film's only remotely stylish performance " A more recent review by William Mager for the BBC echoed Canby and Ebert's comments In his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, critic Alonso Duralde lists Santa Claus: The Movie in his chapter of worst Christmas films ever  His reasons include weak plot, garish production design, blatant product placement (particularly for McDonald's, though Coke and Pabst Blue Ribbon are also prominent), and scenery-chewing overacting on the part of Lithgow  Duralde ultimately concludes that the film is "a train-wreck of a Christmas film that's so very wrong that you won't be able to tear yourself away from it "John Lithgow, in a 2019 interview, said, "It's just one of the tackiest movies I've ever been in  It seemed cheesy and it certainly never stuck   except in England  It is huge over there  I wish I had a nickel for every Englishman who's told me [it's their favorite film]  In England, that's half of what I'm known for "

Soundtrack
The soundtrack score was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, composer of the themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, with veteran lyricist and screenwriter Leslie Bricusse contributing five original songs  The song "It's Christmas (All Over the World)" was written by Bill House and John Hobbs with Freddie Mercury in mind  While it is known that Mercury recorded a demo for the House/Hobbs song at Pinewood Studios, he was never to make a full commitment to the project, as he and his Queen bandmates had already committed themselves to the Highlander soundtrack  In the end, Mercury turned down the project, stating that he felt that Queen had become overcrowded with requests to work on film soundtracks; as a result, Sheena Easton was ultimately chosen to record the tune  As mentioned on the DVD commentary of the film by Jeannot Szwarc, Paul McCartney was asked to compose songs for the film  It is unknown why he did not do so in the end 

Track listing"Main Title: Every Christmas Eve 1 and Santa's Theme (Giving)" (Mancini/Bricusse)
"Arrival of the Elves" (Mancini)
"Making Toys" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
"Christmas Rhapsody: Deck the Halls/Joy to the World/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/12 Days of Christmas/O Tannenbaum/The First Noel/Silent Night"
"It's Christmas Again" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
"March of the Elves" (Mancini)
"Patch, Natch!" (Mancini/Bricusse) 3
"It's Christmas (All Over The World)" (Bill House, John Hobbs)5
"Shouldn't Do That" (Nick Beggs, Stuart Croxford, Neal Askew, Steve Askew) 4
"Sleigh Ride over Manhattan" (Mancini)
"Sad Patch" (Mancini)
"Patch Versus Santa" (Mancini)
"Thank You, Santa" (Mancini/Bricusse) 21Sung by Aled Jones2Performed by the Ambrosian Children's Choir  3Performed by the Ambrosian Singers4Produced by Ken Scott and performed by Kaja5Produced by Keith Olsen for Pogologo Corporation, and performed by Sheena Easton 
The soundtrack was originally released on record and cassette by EMI America Records in 1985  Soon after, it went out of print and remained unavailable until 2009 when it was released on CD as a limited run of 1000 copies which sold out immediately upon release  This production suffered from several issues, most notably a master which had been subjected to heavy noise reduction resulting in a loss of sound quality  Additionally, the left & right channels had been erroneously flipped, a superficial re-edit had been performed on "It's Christmas (All Over the World)", and the song "Shouldn't Do That" by Kaja (Kajagoogoo) had been omitted due to licensing issues  In 2012 a deluxe three-disc set, including remastered tracks, outtakes and alternate versions and a 32-page booklet, was released 

Comic book adaptation
Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Sid Jacobson and artist Frank Springer in Marvel Super Special #39 

See also
Santa Claus in film
List of Christmas films
Passage 5:
Jonathan Meath
Jonathan Meath (born September 16, 1955) is an American television producer and director  He was senior producer of the television game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? He also was a producer of The Wubbulous World of Dr  Seuss and the 1990s' remake of Zoom  In addition, he is notable for having a dual career as a professional Santa Claus  He made numerous appearances in various media as Santa, including on Good Morning America, at Radio City Music Hall with The Rockettes, on the cover of Boston Magazine, and on a Delta Air Lines' pre-flight safety demonstration  He was described by National Public Radio and Time as a "top Santa" 

Television career
Meath attended Phillips Academy and graduated in 1974 with the school's first co–educational class  He graduated from New York University in 1979  During the 1980s Meath worked at CBS, Business Times, The Creative Establishment, MTV Networks and Greenwood Productions in various capacities  During 1996–1998, he produced shows for the Jim Henson Company called The Wubbulous World of Dr  Seuss  He produced for PBS 295 half-hour episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, as well as 80 episodes of Zoom 

Career
Meath, whose beard and hair went white early in life, noticed that children sometimes called him "Santa"  He is slightly overweight – he has described himself as an "organic Santa" – and his wife bought him a red suit  He attended schools to learn the craft of being a Santa  He appeared in parades  He is a professional vocalist  In 2012, he appeared as Santa at Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular show in New York City  Meath uses his real beard but conditions it with a "shimmer-like shampoo known as Cowboy Magic, and uses hair gel for his mustache  His role as Santa was described in numerous publications  In 2009, he appeared in a thirty-second television commercial spot for the Boston Red Sox baseball team 

Personal life
Meath has one child and lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts  His mother was activist and historian Mary Stewart Hewitt  He is the great great grandson of businessman and sportsman John Malcolm Forbes and the great great great grandson of railroad industrialist John Murray Forbes  Through this, Meath is distantly related to John Kerry  Meath's daughter, Amelia Randall Meath, is a member of the bands Mountain Man and Sylvan Esso 

Awards
Passage 6:
Santa Claus Is a Black Man
"Santa Claus Is a Black Man" is a Christmas song by record producer and songwriter Teddy Vann, performed by his daughter Akim Vann (billed as Akim) and his Teddy Vann Production Company for a 1973 single  The song, described as "Vann's take on 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'", has been called a cult classic, and continues to receive Christmas airplay The elder Vann wrote the song as a Christmas gift for Akim, then five years old, who performs vocals on the recording  A soul song, the lyrics describe Akim happening upon her mother and Santa Claus dancing, noting Santa's curious resemblance to her father  The elder Vann was active in mentoring children, and intended the song to provide positive imagery and empowerment for young African-Americans; the song also makes reference to the Kwanzaa holiday, which the elder Vann was active in promoting in his native Brooklyn Vann would later become better known for co-writing "Power of Love/Love Power" with Luther Vandross in 1991, for which he won a Grammy Award Film director John Waters included the song on his 2004 Christmas music collection, A John Waters Christmas, despite the wishes of the elder Vann, who rejected Waters's request because the auteur "is not considered mainstream"  Vann filed suit against Waters for using the song without permission 
Passage 7:
Santa Claus in film
Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre  Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children  In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys  Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898  A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus (or The Visit from Santa Claus in the United Kingdom) was created  In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree  He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children  After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney  
Santa Claus' Visit in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers  The mother tucks the children snugly in bed and leaves the room  Santa Claus suddenly appears on the roof, just outside the children's bedroom window, and proceeds to enter the chimney, taking with him his bag of presents and a little hand sled for one of the children  He goes down the chimney and suddenly appears in the children's room through the fireplace  He distributes the presents and mysteriously causes the appearance of a Christmas tree laden with gifts  The scene closes with the children waking up and running to the fireplace just too late to catch him by the legs  A 1909 film by D  W  Griffith titled A Trap for Santa Claus shows children setting a trap to capture Santa Claus as he descends the chimney, but instead capture their father who abandoned them and their mother but tries to burglarize the house after he discovers that she inherited a fortune  A 29-minute 1925 silent film production titled Santa Claus, by explorer/documentarian Frank E  Kleinschmidt, filmed partly in northern Alaska, feature Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer  A year later, another movie titled Santa Claus was produced with sound on De Forest Phonofilm Over the years, various actors have donned the red suit (aside from those discussed below), including Leedham Bantock in Santa Claus (1912), Monty Woolley in Life Begins at Eight-thirty (1942), Alberto Rabagliati in The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966), Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places (1983), Jan Rubes in One Magic Christmas (1985), David Huddleston in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Jonathan Taylor Thomas in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), and Ed Asner in The Story of Santa Claus (1996), Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999), Ellen's First Christmas (2001), Elf (2003), Regular Show: The Christmas Special (2012), Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014), Santa Stole Our Dog: A Merry Doggone Christmas!, and A StoryBots Christmas (both 2017) 

Santa's origins
Some films about Santa Claus seek to explore his origins  They explain how his reindeer can fly, where the elves come from, and other questions that children have generally asked about Santa  Two Rankin/Bass stop motion animation television specials addressed this issue: the first, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), with Mickey Rooney as the voice of Kris Kringle, reveals how Santa delivered toys to children despite the fact that the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger had forbidden children to play with them; and the second, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985), based on L  Frank Baum's 1902 children's book of the same name, follows Santa being reared by a collection of mythical creatures who finally grant him immortality  Another animated version of Baum's book was made by Glen Hill in 2000, and the book also served as the basis for an anime series, Shounen Santa no Daibôken (Young Santa's Adventures) in 1994 and The Oz Kids video, Who Stole Santa? (1996)  None of these films focus on Santa Claus's saintly origins 
The 1985 feature film Santa Claus: The Movie, inspired by the 1978 Superman: The Movie, stars David Huddleston as Santa Claus and British actress Judy Cornwell as his wife Anya, shows how Santa and Anya are discovered by a clan of elves called the Vendequm  Dudley Moore portrays Patch, the central character and main focus of the story; Burgess Meredith portrays their wise leader, the Ancient One, who reveals that Claus represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, whereby he has been designated as "the Chosen One", whose mission it will be to deliver the elves' toys to children all over the world  The film's prologue features Claus and Anya performing Santa-like duties in their home village, and strongly suggests Santa's saintly origins 
The 2019 animated Netflix Christmas comedy Klaus, also features its own telling of the origin of Santa  Where Jesper Johansen, the pampered spoiled son of a postmaster general (played by Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the secluded town of Smeerensburg, as their latest postman  There Jesper learns that due to a local family feud, the town’s people hardly have time for anything else, let alone writing or exchanging letters  There he reluctantly teams up with the titular Santa Claus (played by J  K Simmons) who is portrayed as gruff hermit, with a sad past and a skilled hand for woodcarving and toy making  Together, they not only help end the feud in Smeerensburg, but also create one of the most beloved holiday traditions 

Questioning and believing
Another genre of Santa Claus films seeks to dispel doubts about his existence 

One of the first films of this nature was titled A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907) and involves a well-to-do boy trying to convince his poorer friend that Santa Claus is real  She doubts because Santa has never visited her family because of their poverty 
Miracle on 34th Street (1947), starring Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, revolves around the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother (Maureen O'Hara) employs a kind old man (Edmund Gwenn, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) to play Santa Claus at Macy's; he later convinces Susan that he really is Santa 
One Magic Christmas (1985) depicts Santa as the Dutch Sinterklaas, in charge of Christmas angels (deceased people) in lieu of elves, whom he assigns to restore individuals' Christmas spirit  He assigns Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton) to a woman (Mary Steenburgen) who worries too much about the practical side of life and shows little charity  Gideon shows her a potential Christmas in which her husband is killed by a desperate bank robber whom she has neglected to help, and takes her little girl to Santa, who gives her the last letter her mother sent him as a child and tells her to give it to her  This works to restore her spirit and gives her a do-over of Christmas with her husband and the desperate man, and she greets Santa putting presents under her tree 
The Polar Express (2004), based on the children's book of the same name, also deals with issues and questions of belief as a magical train conducted by Tom Hanks transports a doubting boy to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus 
Yes, Virginia (2009) is an animated holiday TV special based on the true story of a young girl, Virginia O'Hanlon, who writes a letter to the editor of the New York Sun in 1897 after her friends tell her that there is no Santa  The newspaper editor tells her that indeed there is a Santa: "He lives, and he lives forever " Francis Pharcellus Church was the real-life editor played by Charles Bronson in the special 

Santa as a hero
Some science fiction B movies feature Santa Claus as a superhero-type figure, such as the 1959 film titled Santa Claus produced in Mexico with José Elías Moreno as Santa Claus  In this movie, Santa allies with Merlin the magician to battle the devil, who is attempting to trap Santa  In the Cold War-era film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Santa Claus is captured by Martians and brought to Mars, and ultimately foils a plot to destroy him In the 1984 film The Night They Saved Christmas, starring Art Carney as Santa, likewise chronicles how Santa Claus and Claudia Baldwin (Jaclyn Smith), the wife of an oil explorer, have to save the North Pole from explosions while Baldwin's husband is searching for oil in the Arctic  Santa Claus: The Movie contains a subplot in which Santa Claus rescues Joe (Christian Fitzpatric) from his best friend Cornelia's (Carrie Kei Heim) evil step-uncle B  Z  (John Lithgow)  Santa is a hero in The Nightmare Before Christmas, held captive by Oogie Boogie, although he is spiteful and enraged at Jack when freed  The 2004 film Christmas With the Kranks, based on the 2001 John Grisham novel Skipping Christmas, has Austin Pendleton as Marty, a Santa-dressed umbrella salesman who turns out to be the real Santa, saving Luther Krank's (Tim Allen's) forced Christmas party by capturing a burglar unintentionally brought to the house by the police  After leaving the party, he rides through the sky in his Volkswagen Beetle, pulled by reindeer  In the 2005 film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas (James Cosmo) supplies the Pevensie children with the weapons and tools they need to battle the White Witch (Tilda Swinton)  In the 2012 DreamWorks film Rise of the Guardians, which is based on the book series The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce, Santa (Alec Baldwin) is shown as one of the main characters and leader of the Guardians, who are the heroes of the movie  The 2022 film Violent Night portrays a drunk and disillusioned Santa (played by David Harbour) caught up in a hostage situation and becoming an action hero, parodying the film Die Hard and its protagonist John McClane In the television show South Park, Santa is often depicted with firearms; in the episode "Red Sleigh Down", he battles Iraqis to try to bring Christmas to Iraq  In the episode "A Woodland Critter Christmas", he uses a combat shotgun to blast away Satanic animals who try to give birth to the AntiChrist  Santa (played by Nick Frost) made a brief appearance at the end of the Doctor Who episode, "Death in Heaven"  In the following episode, which served as the show's 2014 Christmas special, "Last Christmas", he plays a more prominent role  It is eventually revealed that the scenes with him are the characters experiencing a shared dream, and he is their subconscious trying to help them wake up before they are killed  At the episode's end, he successfully awakens the Doctor and Clara, reuniting the two 

Succession of Santas
One genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals 
In Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest P  Worrell (Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa 
In The Santa Clause (1994), Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house  After he puts on Santa's suit, he finds himself contractually obligated to become the next Santa  Reluctant at first, his appearance changes over the next year from average to the legendary image: he grows fat, his hair whitens, and his beard grows uncontrollably by magic  He ultimately falls in love with his new role 
A 2001 television special, Call Me Claus, stars Whoopi Goldberg as Lucy Cullins, an African American woman destined to reluctantly become the next Santa Claus 
In The Hebrew Hammer (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son  The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa 
The 2011 animated film Arthur Christmas portrays being Santa Claus as a dynasty  The first "Santa", Saint Nicholas, established the North Pole workshop and passed the title and responsibilities to his son after 70 Christmases, after which his son passed them on to his son, and so on  In the film, the current Santa initially refuses to retire, due to worry about what he will be if he is not Santa 

Impostor Santas
Several films have been created which explore the consequences should an impostor Santa take over 
One of the first films featuring a fake Santa Claus is the 1914 silent film, The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus, written by Frederic Arnold Kummer  In this film, a bogus Santa steals all the Christmas presents and amateur detective Octavius (played by Herbert Yost) tries to recover them  
The most notorious impostor appears in the 1966 cartoon based on Dr  Seuss's 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wherein the Grinch, a hairy and mean-tempered creature, attempts to rob the Whos in Whoville of their Christmas by stealing their presents, food and decorations, but has a change of heart when he sees that he has not stopped them from celebrating after all  This animated feature was made into a live-action movie in 2000, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch  A CGI feature film was made in 2018, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch  
Another less-than-friendly impostor appears in A Christmas Story (1983) as a disgruntled mall Santa at Higbee's Department Store (a real store in downtown Cleveland, Ohio) in the fictional town of Holman, Indiana  Played by Jeff Gillen, Santa is depicted as a larger-than-life figure who terrifies, rather than amuses, children  Gillen's performance lends credence to the theory that the mall Santa is not quite genuine 
Another recent devious mall Santa was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa (2003), a film which gained the normally family-friendly Disney "bad press" Tim Burton's stop-action animated musical film, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), depicts Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, wanting to become Santa Claus after an accidental visit to Christmas Town  After the mostly well-meaning but totally clueless Halloween Town citizens capture Santa, they then try to take over Christmas with disastrous results; children are terrified by Jack's Halloween-themed gifts, and the real Santa is almost killed by Oogie Boogie  Santa is voiced here by Ed Ivory and in the video game spinoffs by Corey Burton 
In 2002's The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs  Clause, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) must leave the North Pole to find a wife, so his number one elf turns a plastic toy Santa into a life-size robot clone of Calvin to cover for him  The robo-Santa interprets the rules of Christmas literally, convinces himself that all of the world's children are naughty, and dresses and runs the North Pole like a Latin American dictator, constructing an army of giant toy soldiers  When Calvin returns with his wife, he must defeat his clone to regain control of Christmas 
In 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Martin Short appears as Jack Frost, who is jealous of Santa Claus  He usurps the role from Scott Calvin, turns Christmas into "Frostmas" and the North Pole into a Disneyesque tourist resort, and addicts the worlds' children to toys which their parents must buy from him 
In 2007's Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn plays Santa's jealous older brother who grows up hating Santa and Christmas  He cons his brother (Paul Giamatti) into giving him a large sum of money for a business deal, in return for which he must come to the Pole and help prepare for Christmas  Fred ends up sabotaging his brother by placing all the world's naughty children on the nice list  Meanwhile, another Santa-hater (Kevin Spacey) is auditing Santa, looking for excuses to fire him and the elves  When Santa injures his back, Fred must deliver the gifts in order to save Christmas 
Other, darker impostors have appeared in slasher films such as the first three films of the five-film Silent Night, Deadly Night series, Santa Claws and Santa's Slay, and in the short "   And All Through the House", part of the horror anthology film Tales from the Crypt (1972) and later remade as episode 1 2 and directed by Robert Zemeckis for the HBO TV series of the same name  Both versions were inspired by the comic book Tales from the Crypt 

See also
Christmas elf#In films and television
Mrs  Claus#In popular media
List of Christmas films
Passage 8:
The Year Without a Santa Claus
The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions  The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book of the same name  It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final acting credit before her retirement from acting) and starring the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, and George S  Irving  It was originally broadcast on December 10, 1974, on ABC 

Plot
Santa Claus wakes up with a cold sometime before Christmas in the early 20th century  His doctor, who thinks nobody cares about Santa anymore, advises him to make some changes to his routine, so Santa decides to take a holiday instead of delivering gifts  Mrs  Claus unsuccessfully tries to convince him otherwise, so she enlists two elves named Jingle and Jangle to find proof that people still believe in Santa 
Jingle and Jangle set out with Santa's youngest reindeer Vixen, but are shot down by crossfire between the conflicting Miser Brothers: Snow Miser, who controls the world's cold weather, and Heat Miser, who controls its warm weather  Vixen saves her guardian elves from falling to their doom and they continue on their uncertain path 
Jingle, Jangle, and Vixen come upon Southtown, a small community in the southern United States  They ask a group of children, including a boy named Iggy, if they believe in Santa, but they are skeptical  To make matters worse, Vixen grows sick due to the warm weather and is sent to the local animal shelter after Jingle and Jangle disguise her as a dog  The town's police officer refers them to the town's mayor, who laughs at their story but agrees to free Vixen if they can prove they are elves by making it snow in Southtown on Christmas 
Jingle and Jangle call Mrs  Claus to pick them up  As she leaves, Santa discovers Vixen is missing and travels to Southtown himself to retrieve her while disguised as a civilian named "Klaus"  While there, he meets Iggy and his family  Klaus reveals his belief in Santa, and Iggy's father reveals that Santa personally visited him one Christmas, and he still believes as well  When Claus leaves to retrieve Vixen, Iggy realizes his true identity and resolves to help Jingle and Jangle 
Iggy joins Mrs  Claus when she arrives to pick up Jingle and Jangle, and together they visit the Miser Brothers  They ask Snow Miser to send snow to Southtown for a day; he is agreeable but says he cannot as it is part of Heat Miser's territory  They then ask Heat Miser, who says he will only comply if Snow Miser turns the North Pole over to him in exchange  When the brothers begin bickering again, Mrs  Claus goes over their heads and visits their mother, Mother Nature, who convinces her sons to compromise 
As Christmas approaches, the world's children send their own presents to Santa, setting off international headlines  Touched by the outpouring of generosity and appreciation, Santa decides to make his journey after all  On Christmas Eve, he makes a public stop in Southtown during a snowfall  The next day, the children, including Iggy, are delighted to receive their presents  As the special ends, Mrs  Claus narrates that somehow, "yearly, newly, faithfully and truly", Santa always comes  Santa is shown getting out of bed to prepare himself, his reindeer, and his gift-loaded sleigh, remarking he could never imagine "a year without a Santa Claus" 

Voice cast
Shirley Booth as Mrs  Claus
Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus
Dick Shawn as Snow Miser
George S  Irving as Heat Miser
Bob McFadden as Jingle Bells, Elf Doctor
Bradley Bolke as Jangle Bells, Police Officer
Rhoda Mann as Mother Nature, Mrs  Thistlewhite
Ron Marshall as Mr  Thistlewhite, Mayor of Southtown
Colin Duffy as Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite
Noelle Magargle as the Blue Christmas Girl
The Wee Winter Singers as the Children Choir

Songs
"Sleigh Ride" (instrumental)
"The Year Without a Santa Claus"
"I Could Be Santa Claus"
"I Believe in Santa Claus"
"It's Gonna Snow Right Here in Dixie"
"The Snow Miser Song"
"The Heat Miser Song"
"Blue Christmas"
"Sleigh Ride" (instrumental)
"Here Comes Santa Claus"
"The Year Without a Santa Claus (reprise)"

Television rights
The special premiered in 1974 on ABC and aired annually on Freeform during its 25 Days of Christmas programming block until 2017  As of 2018, AMC: American Movie Classics currently airs the special uncut as part of the Best Christmas Ever block  Warner Bros  Entertainment currently distributes the special through their ownership of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass Productions library 

Home video
The special was first released on VHS by Vestron Video on September 5, 1991 as part of their Christmas Classics Series, which is distributed by Family Home Entertainment  Warner Home Video released the special on VHS on September 2, 1992, and re-released it on VHS on September 28, 1999  The special was then released on DVD on October 31, 2000, and re-released on the Deluxe Edition DVD on October 2, 2007  Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, making it the first Rankin/Bass production to be released on that format 

DVD details
Release date: October 31, 2000 (Original DVD), January 17, 2004 (30th Anniversary Edition DVD), October 2, 2007 (Deluxe Edition DVD), October 5, 2010 (Blu-ray)
Full Screen
Region: 1
Aspect Ratios: 1 33:1
Audio tracks: English
Special Features:
Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
Stop Motion 101 (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)
We Are Santa's Elves: Profiling Arthur Rankin Jr  & Jules Bass (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)

Live-action remake
A live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC on December 11, 2006, and was released on DVD the following day  It follows largely the same plot as the original special 
Paul Mavis, for Drunk TV, wrote, "The Year Without a Santa Claus is a nauseating, angry, joyless little holiday confection sure to poison any child unlucky enough to chance upon it  This hate-filled stocking stuffer has nothing but contempt for its intended audience, promoting the worst possible beliefs about people, while cloaking itself, incredibly, in the fake guise of a meaningful lesson about the holidays: the gall that the cretinous makers of this film have is really quite audacious ”

Cast
John Goodman as Santa Claus
Delta Burke as Mrs  Claus
Michael McKean as Snow Miser
Harvey Fierstein as Heat Miser
Ethan Suplee as Jingle Bells
Eddie Griffin as Jangle Bells
Chris Kattan as Sparky
Dylan Minnette as Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite
Billy Slaughter as Nerd ElfCarol Kane as Mother Nature
Carson Kressley as the elf costumer
Laura Schlessinger, "Dr  Laura", as herself
Jack LaLanne as Hercules

Sequel
A sequel, titled A Miser Brothers' Christmas, was produced in 2008 by Warner Bros  Animation and Cuppa Coffee Studios, and it also used stop-motion animation  Mickey Rooney, age 88, reprised his role as Santa Claus, and George S  Irving, age 86, reprised his role as Heat Miser  Juan Chioran and Catherine Disher replaced Dick Shawn and Shirley Booth as Snow Miser and Mrs  Claus, respectively, Shawn and Booth having died prior to the film's production 

See also
List of Christmas films
Santa Claus in film
List of animated feature films
List of stop-motion films
List of Rankin/Bass Productions films
Passage 9:
A Miser Brothers' Christmas
A Miser Brothers’ Christmas is a stop motion spin-off special based on some of the characters from the 1974 Rankin-Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus  Distributed by Warner Bros  Animation under their Warner Premiere label (the rights holders of the post-1974 Rankin-Bass library) and Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee Studios, the one-hour special premiered on ABC Family on Saturday, December 13, 2008, during the network's annual The 25 Days of Christmas programming Mickey Rooney (at age 88) and George S  Irving (at age 86) reprised their respective roles as Santa Claus and Heat Miser  Snow Miser (originally portrayed by Dick Shawn who died in 1987) was voiced by Juan Chioran, while Mrs  Claus (voiced in the original by Shirley Booth who died in 1992) was portrayed by Catherine Disher  The movie aimed to emulate the Rankin/Bass animation style  This is the last Christmas special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, as he died in 2014, as well as the last time George Irving voiced Heat Miser, as he died in 2016 

Plot
The feuding Miser Brothers (Heat and Snow) attend their family reunion with Mother Nature and their fellow siblings including the North Wind, Earthquake, Thunder and Lightning, and the Tides  North Wind passively asks Mother Nature what might happen if Santa would be unable to complete his duties on Christmas  She responds that North Wind would take control instead  Heat then begins to call out Snow for trying to "give global warming a bad name"  Snow responds by talking about Heat's attempts to scare people with reports of a second Ice Age  Heat then reprimands Snow for claiming Iceland as his own, which barely has any ice  Snow then calls out Heat for claiming Greenland as his own because it's full of ice  The brothers then fight each other  Mother Nature ends the fight 
Despite his dashing appearance and veneer of flattery and devotion toward Mother Nature, the North Wind is far more malevolent than either of his brothers  Self-absorbed and vain, the North Wind is fixated with the idea of replacing Santa Claus as a way to achieve personal glory  Beginning his machinations, He then sends two of his minions to crash Santa's Super-Sleigh designed by his mechanic Tinsel, causing Santa to injure his back after falling in the middle of a fight between the brothers as he unintentionally crosses into their domain 
Despite what she told the North Wind before and having been informed by Mrs  Claus about what happened to Santa, Mother Nature assigns the Miser Brothers the responsibility of running the toy factory  Their fighting continues as they move through several workshop stations  The North Wind hatches a new plan to keep them fighting so it would appear as if they ruined Christmas themselves, but Mrs  Claus convinces the Miser Brothers to put aside their differences and cooperate by showing them the Naughty/Nice list station  The brothers' history is revealed, showing they've always been on Santa's naughty list for mutual bickering  Upon learning the error of their ways, they begin working together and successfully get work back up to speed  However, the North Wind hatches a plan to destroy their truce and get them fighting again, leaving Santa to deliver the toys and giving North Wind the chance to finish him off 
On Christmas Eve, the North Wind's minions surreptitiously attach heating and cooling units to the sleigh, apparently capable of heating or cooling entire regions of the planet  The discovery causes the Miser Brothers to blame each other  With them fighting again, Santa has no choice but to drive the sleigh as North Wind planned  After Santa leaves, Tinsel discovers the super-sleigh has been sabotaged, which stops the Misers' fight as they realize that neither of them was responsible for injuring Santa  Upon finding one of North Wind's Christmas cards with him dressed as Santa, the Misers realize the truth about their brother and comprehend his plan  Meanwhile, the North Wind attacks Santa's sleigh in flight, whipping up a vortex to consume Santa, but the Miser Brothers, with the aid of Tinsel and a team of young reindeer, save Santa in the nick of time 
The North Wind's cover is blown and Mother Nature sentences him to do household chores for the next several thousand years as punishment for trying to finish off Santa and making his brothers fight  With North Wind thwarted, the brothers learn they've finally made the nice list  They deliver the presents for Santa and give gifts to each other in the process, making peace between them and ending their feud 

Cast
Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus
George S  Irving as Heat Miser
Juan Chioran as Snow Miser
Catherine Disher as Mrs  Claus, Reindeer Elf
Brad Adamson as North Wind
Patricia Hamilton as Mother Nature
Peter Oldring as Bob, Elf #1
Susan Roman as Tinsel, Dr  Noel

Reception
The movie had 3 7 million viewers in its first airing, as determined by Nielsen ratings  It received a nomination for "Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children" in the 36th Annual Annie Awards 

See also
Santa Claus in film
List of Christmas films



ground_truth: Mark Neary Donohue Jr.

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: For what type of work is the production company for The Year Without a Santa Claus best known?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: 5 and a four-year graduation rate of 97 9%  The average class size is 24 7  On the mathematics portion of the SAT, 71 3% of students met or exceeded standards, while on the English/language arts portion, that figure was 68 5%  Additionally, 66 5% of students showed proficiency on the Illinois Science Assessment From April 1998 to September 2019, 75 students from Fremd earned the highest possible composite score on the ACT, a 36  In the same time frame, only six students earned the highest possible score on the SAT, a 1600 In 1987, Fremd was named among the top in the nation in the United States Department of Education's National Secondary School Recognition Program  Fremd High School has also been recognized by Newsweek as one of "America's Best High Schools" and by U S  News & World Report as one of 99 outstanding high schools in the United States  In 2006, Fremd was recognized as the 302nd best high school in the nation by Newsweek, with an average of 1 3 AP tests taken per graduating senior 

Athletics
Fremd competes in the Mid-Suburban League (west division), and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) which governs most interscholastic sports and competitive activities in the state  Its mascot is the Viking 
Fremd sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, chess, and water polo  Men may also compete in baseball, football, and wrestling, while women may compete in badminton, bowling, and softball  While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors separate teams for young men and women in lacrosse  Hockey is also a club sport for men The boys basketball team achieved success beginning in the late 1980s  The 1983 team led by BJ Jenkins and Joe Youman made the Sectional for the first time  In 1986, Fremd made it to the Super Sectional for the first time and lost to Kendall Gill led Rich Central, 77-47  The 1988 team was the best ever, led by Jason Joseph and George Poorman  It was upset in the super sectional game by East Aurora and finished with the best record ever, 28-2  The 1989 team led by Todd Leslie returned to the super sectional game and once again lost to East Aurora  The 1993 team was the most successful ever, with a 4th place state finish  They recently celebrated their successful run with a 30 year anniversary get together  Mo Tharp coached the Vikings from 1975–2002 and established Fremd as the premiere basketball program in the northwest suburbs  Tharp was elected into the Illinois Hall of Fame 
The following teams have won their respective IHSA state tournament or meet:

Badminton: 2006–2007, 2008–2009, 2018-2019
Cross Country (boys): 1969–1970
Gymnastics (girls): 1984–1985, 1985–1986, 1986–1987, 1993–1994, 1994–1995, 1995–1996, 1996–1997, 1997–1998, 1998–1999, 2004–2005, 2006–2007, 2007–2008
Hockey: 1990–1991, 1991–1992, 1992–1993  They went 73-1-1 from 1989 to 1993 
Soccer (boys): 1984–1985, 1997–1998
Swimming & Diving (boys): 1993–1994, 1994–1995
Basketball (girls) : 2019-2020The twelve state titles in girls gymnastics is a state record  The girls gymnastics team also holds state records for appearances at the state meet, top three team finishes, sectional titles, and regional titles 

Activities
Fremd sponsors 60 clubs and activities ranging from cultural and artistic to academic and technological  Among the activities which are chapters or affiliates of more nationally notable groups are: BPA, Chess, Robotics, FCCLA, Model UN, Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Honor Society, Vikettes (Colorguard), and National Science Bowl Five activities have won their respective IHSA sponsored state competition:

Debate: 2004–2005 (Lincoln-Douglas)
Drama: 1969–1970
Group Interpretation: 2014–2015
Journalism: 2007–2008, 2011–2012
Scholastic Bowl: 2005–06The Fremd Vikettes have won state titles in Team Dance Illinois, earning a First Place State Championship in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and Second Place State Titles in 2013 and 2014 for their flag/colorguard performances 
Each year, William Fremd High School hosts Writers Week, which has brought more than 200 writers to the Fremd campus since 1995 to share their work and philosophy on the writing process  Distinguished guest presenters have included Billy Collins, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman; journalists Rick Bragg, Dana Kozlov, Burt Constable, and Eric Zorn; novelists Jane Hamilton, Raymond Benson, Rosellen Brown, Harry Mark Petrakis, and Frederik Pohl; poets Nikki Giovanni, Naomi Shihab Nye, and poetry slam creator Marc Smith; screenwriters Bill Kelly and Craig J  Nevius; and sportswriters Dan Roan and Mike Imrem  Presenters also include selected Fremd students and faculty 

Notable alumni
Born of Osiris is a progressive metalcore/deathcore band whose members Cameron Losch, Austin Krause, Ronnie Canizaro, Joe Buras, David Da Rocha, Lee McKinney, and Matt Pantelis met at and attended Fremd  Their third LP, Tomorrow We Die Alive, peaked at #27 on the Billboard 200 chart 
Eric Bradley is a Los Angeles-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter 
brandUn DeShay is a rapper and record producer, has produced for former Young Money artist Curren$y, Chance the Rapper, Mac Miller and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All 
Leslie Erganian is an artist and television correspondent for the Hallmark Channel 
Jasen Fisher is a former child actor who co-starred in Parenthood, The Witches, and Hook 
Chris Fleming is an international TV host and paranormal investigator on Dead Famous: Ghostly Encounters, which aired 2004–2007 on The Biography Channel; also co-hosted episodes of A&E Network Psychic Kids 2009–2010 and appeared on such shows as Larry King, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, The Haunted, and Paranormal Challenge 
Ryan Hartman currently plays for NHL's Minnesota Wild, and previously played for the Chicago Blackhawks 
Todd Hundley, two-time All-Star Major League Baseball catcher (1990–2003), playing most of his career with the New York Mets; briefly held single-season home run record for catchers; graduated Class of 1987 
Eric Leonard is a professional soccer midfielder who currently plays for Forward Madison FC of the USL League One 
Robert Lorenz is an Academy Award-nominated movie producer and assistant director known for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima, Mystic River, Space Cowboys, Changeling, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino) 
Ted Nugent is a musician and pro-gun activist with several multi-platinum albums 
Bette Otto-Bliesner named a notable alumni in 2008, climate scientist and one of the lead authors on assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, graduated class of 1968
Kris Myers is a drummer for the rock/jam band Umphrey's McGee 
Chris Perez played professional football in the NFL and Canadian Football League 
Mark Robinson is a drummer and business owner; notable acts include the Jonas Brothers, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban; owner of Storyboard Records, an independent record label out of Atlanta 
Jim Schwantz is a former NFL linebacker (1992, 1994–98), primarily with the Dallas Cowboys, winning a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XXX; in 2009, he was elected mayor of Palatine; graduated Class of 1988 
Mallory Snyder is an actress/model who was featured on The Real World 13 
Mari-Rae Sopper was a gymnastics coach and Judge Advocate General's Corps lawyer who was a victim of the September 11 attacks as a passenger on hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 
Mike Tauchman is an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs in major league baseball  Graduated class of 2009 
Scott Tolzien is a quarterback for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts; led Wisconsin Badgers to 2010 Big Ten Conference co-championship and Rose Bowl; graduated Class of 2006 

Gallery
Passage 9:
Atlantic Community High School
Atlantic Community High School (also known as Atlantic and ATL and formerly called Seacrest High School) is a public high school located in Delray Beach, Florida, United States  It is part of the School District of Palm Beach County   Known for its academics, many students attend due to the school's International Baccalaureate program and its ranking as a top-rated school for many years  In the 2010 Newsweek ranking of America's best high schools, Atlantic High ranked 89th   In 2005, the school moved to its current location and added a freshman academy and a construction-oriented magnet program 

History
Atlantic Community High School, originally named Seacrest High School, was built in 1949 as a racially segregated school for white students in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, Florida  African-American students living in the area attended Carver High School, which later became Carver Middle School and is now the Delray Beach Full Service Center  The school began the process of desegregation in 1961 when Yvonne Lee entered the school, one of only four African-American students attending otherwise all white schools in Palm Beach County that year  Seacrest remained almost all white, and Carver remained all African-American, until 1970, when Carver High School was closed and its student body merged with that of Seacrest, which was renamed Atlantic High School  The school adopted the colors of Seacrest High School (Green and White) and the mascot of Carver High School (the eagle)  It kept Seacrest High's old location along Seacrest Boulevard  In 1989, the school became an International Baccalaureate World School  In 2005, the school moved to its current location on Atlantic Avenue  In 2011, Kathleen Weigel was promoted from principal of the school to the new district position of Assistant Superintendent of Professional Growth  Weigel, who was principal for more than 10 years was replaced by Bear Lakes Middle School principal Anthony Lockhart 

Student demographics
There were 2324 students enrolled in Atlantic Community High School in the 2015–2016 school year  Fifty-three percent of the students were female  The student body was 56% African-American, 21% white, 13% Hispanic, 6% Asian-American, 3% multiracial, and less than 1% each Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 

Academics and magnet programs
School ratings
The school is rated annually by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 

International Baccalaureate
Atlantic is home to one of the five International Baccalaureate (also known as IB) high school programs of Palm Beach County (the others being Forest Hill Community High School, Pahokee High School, Suncoast High School, and William T  Dwyer High School) and caters to students living in the southern parts of the district 

Construction Academy
Atlantic's construction academy was added to the school beginning in fall 2005  The students of the academy designed and built a house called the "Eagle's Nest" (after the school mascot) for charity in collaboration with the city of Delray Beach  The groundbreaking ceremony for the project kick-off was held in December 2005  It is a three bedroom, two bath house, 1,500 square feet (140 m2) On October 25, 2010, the Construction Academy broke ground on a new house called "Eagle's Nest 2"  The house is to be a "green" house and the design incorporates aspects of a green building, using green construction material design principles  It too is being done in collaboration with the city of Delray Beach 

Extracurricular activities
Athletics
Atlantic participates in the 8A athletic division of the FHSAA  The school fields teams in 43 sports including football, basketball, baseball, swimming, soccer, softball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, volleyball, cross country, track and field, weightlifting, and flag football among others  The Atlantic Boys' Baseball Team won the 13-7A District Championship against Dwyer on April 24, 2014  The Atlantic Boys' soccer team made it into the 4A state final four in the 2013–14 season  In 2015, Atlantic added a lacrosse team, both Boys and Girls  They ended up playing their inaugural season that year  In the 2015–16 season, the undefeated Eagles football team won the 10-8A District Championship against the undefeated Boca Raton Bobcats on October 30, 2015, in a rivalry matchup, and in 2017 they competed in the state championships 

JROTC
Atlantic is home to the Eagle Battalion of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps 

Clubs
Atlantic supports a wide variety of clubs, including Mu Alpha Theta, Academic Games, ACE, French National Honors Society, Black Student Union, Literary Club, Art Club, International Culture Club,  Science Club / Science Olympiad, Blood Drive, People for Animal Welfare (PAW), Jewish Forum, Muslim Student Association, Model UN, We the People, Robotics Club, Drama Club, Key Club, and chapters of the National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society and Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society 

Notable alumni
Bobby Butler after playing at Florida State went on to play for the Atlanta Falcons throughout the eighties and early nineties 
David Clowney, wide receiver played one year for the Carolina Panthers and four years for the New York Jets 
Brandon Flowers, defensive back played for the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League currently a free agent 
Orlando Franklin, right tackle for the San Diego Chargers started career with the Denver Broncos 
Mandy Freeman, professional soccer player for NY/NJ Gotfham FC and 10th pick overall at the 2017 NWSL College Draft
Jayron Hosley, a cornerback played four years with the New York Giants currently a free agent 
Omar Jacobs, fifth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2006 NFL Draft, and former quarterback for the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe 
Ricardo Jordan, former MLB player (Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds)
Preston Parker, wide receiver played for Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New York Giants currently a free agent 
Rick Rhoden, former MLB player (Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Houston Astros)
Mike Rumph, former cornerback for the St  Louis Rams of the NFL  Currently the cornerbacks coach for the Miami Hurricanes football team
Passage 10:
Blue Valley West High School
Blue Valley West High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Overland Park, Kansas, United States, and one of five high schools by Blue Valley USD 229 school district, and has a current enrollment of approximately 1,280 students  The principal is Katherine  Bonnema  The school mascot is the Jaguar and the school colors are red, black, and silver  In the 2013 Newsweek rankings of the top high schools in America, Blue Valley West was ranked 1st in the state of Kansas and 439th in the nation Blue Valley West High School opened in August 2001 in order to help educate the increasing population of Overland Park  It was the fourth high school in the Blue Valley Unified School District to open, preceded by Blue Valley Northwest High School in 1993  Blue Valley West is a member of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and offers a variety of sports programs  Athletic teams compete in the 6A division and are known as the "Jaguars"  Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs 

History
Blue Valley West High School opened in August 2001 in order to help educate the increasing population of Overland Park  It was the fourth high school in the Blue Valley Unified School District to open, preceded by Blue Valley Northwest High School in 1993, and followed by Blue Valley Southwest High School in 2010 

Academics
The school offers 17 Advanced Placement classes, foreign language in Spanish and French, and performing and visual arts classes, among others  The Journalism department produces The Spotlight(newspaper) and The Illumination(yearbook)  Its broadcasting class produces Jagged Edge TV  The class of 2013 achieved an average score of 1828 on the SAT and 25 on the ACT 

Extracurricular activities
The Jaguars compete in the Eastern Kansas League and are classified as a 6A-5A school according to the KSHSAA  Throughout its history, Blue Valley West has won several state championships in various sports  Many graduates have gone on to participate in collegiate athletics  In the 2006–2007 school year the school won 2 state championships, was runner up for another, and had 4 other teams qualify for the state tournament  In the 2007 calendar year, BV West won the state title in football, boys' basketball, and baseball  This three-peat was the first of its kind in the history of KSHSAA competition 

Athletics
Football
The Blue Valley West Jaguar football team has become a contender in Kansas 6A football  The team's main rivals are Blue Valley High School and Saint Thomas Aquinas High School  Blue Valley West and Blue Valley have also developed a rivalry  Blue Valley West won the 2007 Eastern Kansas League title and went on to win the Kansas 5A State Championship on November 24, 2007, with an undefeated 13–0 season 

Boys' basketball
The boys basketball team won their first state title during the 2006–2007 school year Bishop Miege and Saint Thomas Aquinas are the basketball team's two primary rivals 

Golf
The Jaguars have won three team state titles  In 2002, the team won its first 5A state championship  This was followed by 6A state championships in 2006 and 2013 

Baseball
The baseball team won the Eastern Kansas League (EKL) title every year from the school's opening in 2001 to 2006, and did not lose a single game in conference until 2006  The baseball team won state championships in 2007 and 2022 

Girls' Bowling
The girls' bowling team was established during the 2011-2012 winter sports season to add more sports available to girls in the school 

Performing arts
The school has a theater group that presents three shows a year as part of the school curriculum  Choir programs offered include concert choir, choraliers, chorale and chamber  The last three of which require an audition 

Band
Blue Valley West has a competitive marching band, a concert band, a symphonic band, and a symphonic wind ensemble  The competitive marching band won the Kansas Bandmasters Association Marching Band Championship and also placed top 25 in the Bands of America St  Louis Super Regional Championship in the 2017–18 and 2018-19 school years 

Notable alumni
Matt Besler (Class of 2005), MLS player for Sporting Kansas City
Andrew Gachkar (Class of 2007), former NFL player for several teams
Madison Lilley (Class of 2017), professional volleyball player and member of U S  national team
Shannon Vreeland (Class of 2010), gold medalist in the 200 Freestyle Relay at 2012 Summer Olympics
Andrew Wojtanik (Class of 2008), winner of the 2004 National
Geographic Bee

See also
List of high schools in Kansas
List of unified school districts in KansasOther high schools in Blue Valley USD 229 school districtBlue Valley High School in Stilwell
Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park
Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park
Blue Valley Southwest High School in Overland Park
Blue Valley Academy in Overland Park



ground_truth: seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop motion animation